Ski

Ski was one of the games included in the Odyssey box and demonstrates how creative the overlay concept was. A transparent plastic sheet with trees, gates and a ski slope was applied to the TV screen, transforming the player's white square into a skier navigating obstacles. Time was tracked with a real clock — no digital timer existed. Primitive, but the idea of a speed game with obstacles to avoid is the root of a genealogy reaching Temple Run and Subway Surfers. The manual included tables for recording best times: gaming history's first 'leaderboard.'