"As someone whose childhood holidays consisted of narrowboating along the Grand Union canal or wandering the harbour-side at Whitby looking for vampires, I have never been on a skiing break. The idea of plummeting down a hill on anything but a plastic sledge is totally alien to me. And yet, my wife and I have been gripped by the Winter Olympics, especially the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events."
"This was the era in which snowboarding was exploding in popularity, especially among twentysomethings with disposable incomes and no responsibilities which coincidentally was the games industry's target market at the time. Perhaps the first title to take advantage of this trend was Namco's 1996 arcade game Alpine Surfer, which challenged players to stand on a snowboard-shaped controller and swoop as quickly as possible down a mountainside it was one of the most physically exhausting coin-ops I ever played."
Childhood holidays included narrowboating on the Grand Union canal and harbour-side wandering at Whitby, without skiing experience. The Winter Olympics snowboarding and freestyle events deliver an immersive, gameplay-like spectacle. 1990s snowboarding simulations captured a cultural moment as the sport grew among young adults with disposable incomes. Classic titles included Namco's 1996 Alpine Surfer, PlayStation's Cool Boarders, and 1080 Snowboarding on the N64, notable for analog controls and authentic sound. Milano Cortina's use of first-person drone chase cameras recreates the behind-and-above Race-mode perspective, making snowboard cross and similar events resemble interactive, in-game racing experiences.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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