Designer: Gene Smith
Producer: Sam Nelson
Graphics: Roseann Mitchell

It's October 14th, 1989, and Accolade has just released a new game intended for 'mature' audiences only. What's so controversial about this new game? Nothing by today's standards. It's a number of pub games including (cover your eyes children) a wet t-shirt competition . I suppose this goes to show how the gaming industry has changed over time. It's nine years later and you can literally blow the limbs off your opponents and watch them squirm to their death without even thinking the game was intended for 'mature' gamers. It's common place these days, nothing special. So let's take a trip down memory lane (for some of us anyway)... to Accolade's Bar Games.

Epyx had been famous for their series of 'Games' based titles. Summer Games, Winter Games and California Games are just a few in what became a long line of popular sporting titles. In 1989, Accolade decided to throw their hat into the mix and put together their own 'Games'. This title was going to have a twist though. It wouldn't require any physical attributes, all you needed was a mug of beer and a sense of humor. That's right, it's time to play some Bar Games.

Bar Games features an assortment of pub games including Liar's Dice, Wet 'n Wild, Last Call, Air Hockey, and Pick-up Artist. Liar's Dice and Air Hockey are pretty straight forward. Last Call is a game in which you play a bartender. It's time for your nightly shift and the object of the game is to serve beers to a certain amount of customers before your shift is over. Fill your quota and the stakes increase for each shift afterwards. So fill up those mugs and get ready to chuck those beers across the bar.

Wet 'n Wild and Pick-up Artist do have some sexual undertones to them, but certainly not enough to draw a 'mature audience only' rating. The object of Pick-up Artist is to hit on the women at the bar using your best pick-up lines. If you manage to make some progress, you get invited out to dinner. If you continue to smooth over the women during dinner, you get to go back to her place. I'm sure you can figure out the rest. Wet 'n Wild is a rendition of the always popular wet t-shirt competition. The object of the game is to dump buckets of water on the female contestants as they walk across the stage. Nothing goes without some deal of difficulty. There are a number of obstacles that get in your way throughout this particular game.

Bar Games was a very simplistic yet original title back in 1989. I'm sure those who played it back in the day will remember it well, and I'm sure those who never experienced it are probably laughing right now at the very concept of Bar Games. In all its EGA / PC speaker glory, Bar Games was loads of fun if anything. I wonder if Accolade still remembers this particular release. Without further ado, here's some screenshots of Accolade's Bar Games for your viewing pleasure.