Magnavox releases the video game Alpine Skiing! for the Odyssey² home video game system in North America, designed and programmed by Ed and Linda Averett. The game is released later in Europe for the equivalent Videopac console, and in France for the Jopac. 
The Game: Take to the slopes, in a digital sort of way. Choose between the slalom, giant slalom and downhill events, get a partner on the other joystick, and plow through that white stuff like it’s gonna melt tomorrow. And try not to hit any of the obstacles – before you can even say “I want my two dollars!”*, a collision can send you into a tumble that’ll just carry you right into the next one…and the one after that…and the one after that… (Magnavox, 1979)
Memories: Athough rather simple video skiing fare, Alpine Skiing! can be good for some laughs with a good second player. The lack of a one-player option limits it a bit, but it’s on par with Activision’s Atari VCS skiing game.
* A reference to the bizarre cult comedy Better Off Dead, starring an exceedingly young John Cusack, whose character is terrorized throughout the movie by a persistent and somewhat creepy paperboy who 
continually demands the “two dollars!” Cusack’s dad (played by David Odgen Stiers) owes him. The paperboy even chases Cusack down a ski slope at the end of the movie, only to wipe out magnificently with a pitiful cry of “two dollars…” from somewhere beneath the snow.
A Phosphor Dot Fossil examined by Earl Green