Strange Art by Jeremiah Palecek

Skate or Die! is a skateboarding game released by Electronic Arts in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Apple IIgs. It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) by Konami, and published by Ultra Games.

Skate or Die! (whose title is likely inspired by a catch phrase from Atari Games’ popular arcade game 720� or possibly the 1986 film Roller Blade which has the tagline “Skate or die!”) is a multi-event game, in the style of the popular Epyx “Games” series of the time, where players could compete in five different skateboarding events, either individually or sequentially. When the events are challenged sequentially, up to eight players could sign up to participate.

The game featured two ramp events, the freestyle ramp and the high jump, two downhill events, the downhill race (in a park setting) and the downhill jam (in a street setting), and the pool joust. The pool joust, downhill jam, and the downhill race (in two player mode only) were all head to head, while the ramp events were single player. Except for the joust, which was a hand-to-hand knockout competition (literally and figuratively), all of the event winners were decided by a point system.

Two popular characters were featured in Skate or Die!: Rodney Recloose (pictured above), a wild man with a purple mohawk and a USMC tattoo (and a great facial resemblance to comedian Rodney Dangerfield) who runs a skate shop in the game, and his son Bionic Lester, an even wilder kid with a green flattop, who you were able to take on in the joust and the downhill jam. In the joust, Lester and his two cronies await the skater. Poseur Pete challenges beginners and Aggro Eddie takes on intermediate players, leaving Lester with the advanced pros.