Mogul Maniac

All the fun and excitement of downhill slalom skiing, without any of the broken bones or wet pants. We know you wouldn't want to ski with a joystick, that's why your friends here at Amiga corp. have included the special "Joyboard" controller, which is even better than real live ski's. You will have no end of fun when you go skiing with Mogul Maniac for the Atari 2600.

This was Amiga's only official release for the Atari 2600. It is a fun, but fairly unoriginal skiing game. Like a hundred games before and after, you control a skier from a first person perspective. Ski downhill in pseudo-3d, while weaving in and out of flags. This isn't the best implementation of this idea, but it is entertaining enough to be worth playing.

This game was really expensive because it came packed with a special stand-on controller called the "Joyboard". It is similar in design to the Skateboard that Sega uses on the much more modern game Top Skater. Buying this game ended up being a bad investment, as Amiga didn't officially release any more games that could use it. Well that is almost true. There was a prototype that was never released that used it, and it was also usable with Off Your Rocker (which was only available at one store in California).

Watch your speed! As in real skiing, it is possible to get into a "runaway" where you have little control over your skis. If you miss a gate, don't sweat it. Concentrate on making the next one. If you get off the course and find yourselves in the trees, slow down and lean over until you are back on the course. Then you better hustle.

If you get disqualified, finish the run. You can probably use the practice. Experiment with your gate approaches and speed. Then concentrate on your next run.

Study the ski run charts provided in this manual. They will help you in mapping out each course. Watch for patterns in the various runs as you ski them. They'll also help you improve your times. Good luck. And break a leg (it had to be said...)

The "Joyboard" controller that came with this game is a lot harder to find than the cartridge is (a lot of them ended up getting broken and tossed out). Having the Joyboard can easily triple the value of this game (even though the Joyboard is fairly unusable for other games). Mogul Maniac is valued at around $8 USD. As always, games with boxes and manuals are worth more.