Sky Jinks

 

Another lesser-known title, Sky Jinks was designed by Bob Whitehead. His previous game, Skiing, was popular among gamers and his peers. Bob designed Sky Jinks as a pseudo-sequel to Skiing. The games are similar in some aspects, but the player travels in reverse direction. Sky Jinks is also similar to Barnstorming, from a birds-eye view, minus the barns and geese.

"I was never a sequel kind of guy, I always wanted to do something new," stated Whitehead. You must fly your plane through a course of a set number of pylons in the shortest amount of time. It’s not that easy though - you must dodge hot air balloons and trees all while passing to the left of the blue pylons and to the right of the red pylons.

As in both previous games Boxing and Skiing, a player can sit down and play a game very quickly. "I was also accused of having a short attention span. Some of my games certainly show that. That was my style - games that could take only a minute or so. But the game had to keep up my interest, if only for a short period of time. That’s why they were filled with action," noted Bob. After finishing a game and achieving a score, the player will want to play again to see if he or she can top that score. So even though a game may be over in a minute, gameplay can last for hours if you keep trying to beat your personal best score.

"We [the programmers] felt like we were pushing technology forward and at the same time, making games. It was very satisfying. But even though I enjoyed the challenge of programming, ultimately the motivation was the fans - the gamers themselves. In those early days we got fan mail all the time," commented Bob. Reading any of the Activision game instruction manuals gives the impression that the company - as well as the game programmer / designer was concerned and wanted to tune in to feedback from the gamers. In the tips section, the programmers always encouraged players to write to them and "drop them a line."

Back in the 1980s, Activision used to give out embroidered game club patches if you got a high score, took a picture of your TV screen, and mailed it to them. Here is the high score to shoot for:

Sky Stars: 37 seconds on Game 1

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