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The classic graphic adventure game, The spacebar, was released 25 years ago this week. And now the title gets a second life ZOOM platform.
The game from Phoenix, Arizona-based ZOOM comes from the Jordan Freeman Group (JFG), a digital game distribution company.
Directed by Steve Meretzky and the team at Boffo Games, the game originally debuted on Windows in 1997. It was reminiscent of the cantina scene in Star Wars: A New Hope. Segasoft and Rocket Science Games released the title, and the new game is dedicated in part to the late Bernie Stolar, former head of Sega of America, among other roles in a long career in video games.
It takes place in the galaxy Alpha Piscis Austrini, 24.8 light-years from Earth. That’s where Ni’Dopal, a shape-shifting criminal mastermind from The Space Bar, started out as a murderous industrial spy, infiltrating
the headquarters of ZOOM, an interstellar mining conglomerate.
Boffo Intergalactic Games, the owners of The Space Bar, have struck a deal with Jordan Freeman, founder of the Jordan Freeman Group, to update their title for modern PCs. JFG previously published titles such as: Funbox Media’s Hardwar, Aliens Vs. Predator: Gold Edition, Killing Time, Incoming Trilogy, Kao the Kangaroo: The Complete Kaollection, Off-Road/Off-Road: Redneck Racing, Plane Crazy and Zone Raiders.
The Space Bar features the voice acting talents of Alan Rickman, John DiMaggio, Ivy Austin,
Guy Paul and more. The game was created by Steve Meretzky, of Infocom fame, best known for:
collaborating with Douglas Adams on the video game version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to
the galaxy.
Many characters in The Space Bar were co-designed by the late Ron Cobb, famous for the original Star Wars aliens from the much-loved Mos Eisley cantina scene. This 2022 digital reissue is dedicated to the memories of Bernard “Bernie” Stolar, Linda Rich and Ron Cobb.
As a player, you are Alias Node, a human detective working on the aptly named planet Armpit IV.
Your assignment? Catch the shape-shifting criminal wanted for grand theft and murder before he can escape justice by boarding the next shuttle from Armpit IV.
Clues to the killer’s whereabouts point to a seedy bar in the spaceport, The Thirsty Tentacle. It’s not an easy task to pick a killer from the bar’s motley assortment of aliens. Since the target is a shapeshifter, everyone in the bar is a suspect. But interviewing these suspects and using your “empathy-telepathy” to literally jump into their memory is the only way to get to the killer.
“It’s so great that The Space Bar will be available to players again,” Meretzky, the game’s lead designer and co-founder of Boffo Intergalactic Games, said in a statement. “Between the team we gathered at Boffo in the 90s, Ron Cobb and the others at Rocket Science Games, and our partners at Dub Media, Ledge Multimedia and Kinetic Arts, this is hands down the most talented team I’ve ever worked with . a game on the market.”
Freeman said in a statement: “It is with pure joy that we present the previously unreleased DVD edition of The Space Bar from Boffo Intergalactic Games digitally, featuring higher resolution film footage and enhanced audio. Working with Mike Dornbrook, Leo DaCosta and Steve Mertetzky was both an honor and a pleasure.”
As graphic adventure titles, The Space Bar combined maximum interactivity and open-ended storytelling with top vocal talent and artistic direction. The Space Bar set the stage for future classics, including 1998’s Grim Fandango. Tracking down this title was paramount. In many ways, it’s a throwback to the text-adventure classics of the 80s, while at the same time being one of the last games in the golden age of graphical adventures.
As ZOOM Platform begins to expand its online presence with its own Steam Publisher storefront, the company remains focused on preserving the history of PC and video games “as it was intended…DRM-free,” Freeman said.
The Space Bar: Super Digital Deluxe Edition comes with concept artwork, lossless theme music, magazine ads, autographed poster scan, and more, for $15.
Boffo Intergalactic Games (BIG) is the successor to Boffo Games, the multimedia game company founded on Groundhog Day in 1994 by Steve Meretzky, Mike Dornbrook and Leo DaCosta.
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