MacSki

MacSki
Developer: Storm Impact Publishers: XOR Corporation, Storm Impact Platform: Mac OS Classic Released internationally: 1990 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused sounds. This game has debugging material. This game has revisional differences.

To do: Find and document more revision differences - currently only v1.0 and v1.7 are significantly represented here.

Key Options

Version 1.0's control setup dialog is arranged unintuitively:

Tester Dave Friedman must have emphatically protested, because holding Option while choosing the menu item brings up an undocumented alternative arranged just for him.

The developer eventually came around to Friedman's opinion; later versions of the game use his layout as standard.

Debug Menu

The unused MENU 208 only survives in Version 1.0.

Virus Fuse

This feature would detect additions to the game's code and warn the user. In Version 1.0, you'd have the option of continuing anyway:

In later versions, you wouldn't.

Placeholder Text

The DITL resource for this copy protection dialog uses filler lines for the question and answer.

Resource Fork Text

Version 1.0 is packed full of custom resource types with hidden messages, starting with the very first type, "AYOU".

AYOU

AYOU 1	Hey You!
What are you doing looking at this with ResEdit or a disk editor? Tsk. Tsk. I'm going to tell your parents!! Since I can't stop you, I might as well point out the highlights. (See next AYOU)
AYOU 2	ResEdit Peeper!
The most exciting things to look at are the DITLs, PICTs, snd s, and STR s. The DATAs, ICN#s, and cicns (if you have the color icon editor) are slightly interesting.
AYOU 3	Read us.
The rest is either boring or number data. Be very careful not to alter anything or the virus detector may go off (or worse). Have fun!

BEER

BEER 6	How many 2 a pack?
THisIs4WheRe6Beerééwoyuld66go!.

Bugs

Bugs 5757	Bunny
All bugs should go in this rescource. 12345640027347483833eaera

COPY

COPY 1	Try and break me!
Even though you won't believe me, do not try to tamper with MacSki's copy protection. It would be bad.

The other resource here, titled "Copy Protection", is 144 bytes of human-illegible data. It's apparently a decoy; deleting it had no effect on the copy protection.

DATA

Left over from an incomplete version:

Sorry, this feature is not implemented yet.

Doesn’t Matterhorn

HAHA

HAHA 88	ON YOU
HAHAHA99HA12HA23HA56565656FFFFFF1212366780122384762839276398736378293673292982793798297

HALT

HALT 128	Passwords
SECRET PASS DIAMOND TELLER XOR DATA DAVID TOM DAN DAVE JEF

It's not clear whether these ever did anything.

The names are the first five people credited on Version 1.0 (including Jef Raskin, originator of the Macintosh project itself).

IDOT

You're probably meant to think that the resource fork is calling you an idiot, only to look inside and see that IDOT 12345 (29 bytes of illegible data) is called "Code to dot i's".

STR

Some amusing error messages:

STR 50	This program doesn’t work with your Macintosh’s 64k ROMs. Make Apple happy and purchase a new Macintosh.
STR 200	Couldn’t get a specific resource.
STR 210	Couldn’t access any resources. So how is it possible you are reading this message?
STR 600	Oh wow, what a surprise! That fantastic Apple sound manager crapped out again. Maybe the Beatles had something to do with it.

This refers to the decades-long trademark battle between Apple Computer and the Beatles' record label, Apple Corps. At the time, a lawsuit alleged that Apple computers' audio features violated the companies' agreement to stay out of each other's industries. To avoid giving their opponents ammunition in court, Apple Computer's lawyers cracked down on any use of musical terminology, inconveniencing users of the Sound Manager API by having "noteCmd" and "noteSynth" changed to "freqDurationCmd" and "squareWaveSynth".

STR 6849	None of these strings are the copy protection. So don’t fool with them.

STR#

If you max out the timer while skiing, you'll see this:

STR# 0 index 7	Based on your time of 59:59.99, Dr. Friedman suggests you try taking up a less hectic sport like fishing.

This confidentiality warning still exists in v1.7, despite the game being far past its initial release date at that point.

STR# 0 index 2	This confidential, pre-release copy of MacSki is no longer valid. Please destroy it and obtain a more recent copy from Storm Impact, Inc. by calling 1-800-786-7696.

Presumably this message would appear when the user holds the option key while doing a certain action, but it's not clear what that action is.

STR# 640 index 22	Oh, option key! Some say it's paranoid obsession, holding you down. But how can a user, as powerful as I, resist the rumors and temptations of secrets and rare treasures? To me, the command key is but second best.

Miscellaneous

The four-character creator code for MacSki is "iSki", somehow anticipating Apple's iBranding by eight years.

Other eye-catching resource types in v1.0 are JAIL, NUNS, Poop, WOW!, and YOYO. None of these contain readable text, and none of them exist in subsequent releases.

zzzZ

Having taken the time to open every last resource type, against the first one's advice to the contrary, at last we come to zzzZ 13471. It asks: "Have you checked the data fork?"

Fighting off yawns, we investigate, and find the data fork... absolutely empty. Well played, MacSki.

Art Gallery

Hold down Option when selecting "Editor Usage" from the Lessons menu to peek at some artwork that was cut from the game. (Shred was a working title.)

Messages in Sprite Sheets

This "TOM SUCKS" micrograffito is nestled in the corner of one of Version 1.0's color sprite sheets.

It isn't even the only place where artist Tom Zehner is mocked by tiny print: the last page of the about box subliminally replaces the name TOM on his silhouette with TOAD (v1.0) or MOT (v1.5+).

In v1.7, two sprite sheets contain secret messages. The first sheet contains the messages "A chair to a programmer is like a horse to a cowboy. Treat it right. Bring it sugar cubes." and "T & J 6/94 ZEHNER <3".

The second contains "DC <3 RW" and "U FOUND A SECRET MESSAGE!".

Unused Sound

Up until Version 1.6, there was an advertisement for TaskMaker available from the Support menu. The advertisement itself was removed, but the voice clip for it remained.

(Source: TenPoundHammer)