The Classic Games of Accolade

If you were around in the gaming industry in the late 80s and early 90s, there is no way you never heard of Accolade. They weren't just the creators of the popular Test Drive series; they also launched other well-known franchises like Star Control, Hardball! and Elvira, and they even treated us to gems like Law of the West and Grand Prix Circuit.

Much like with American Laser Games, New World Computing, and Trilobyte, among others, we will now focus on ten of the most important games and series from Accolade, a company that left its mark on the industry. Despite its vast catalog, it is best remembered for its sports games and the Test Drive racing series, but in its 15 years of existence, it covered nearly every genre and most of the consoles of the era, though not always with the same success it enjoyed in its early days.

Like many companies of the era—including Acclaim and Absolute Entertainment—Accolade was founded by former Activision employees Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead in 1984. And like many emerging developers of the time, they weren't content with appearing on a single platform; they developed for all the popular ones, including Commodore 64, Atari 400 and 800, Amiga, Apple II, and DOS. Even in their later years, they created games for the original PlayStation. Nevertheless, they were well aware of their limitations, and when it came to developing games, they chose sports and racing titles, but as we will see, they also had a good eye for publishing games of all kinds of genres.

Star Control (1990)

Developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade, it had three installments across various platforms, but the first two games have become cult objects. It was inspired by one of the earliest video games, Spacewar!, and offered an excellent mix of action and strategy, as the player's ship traveled freely through space, destroying enemy ships. What made it even more interesting was the variety: there were two opposing teams, each with seven different ships, each with two completely unique types of attacks. The balance between the two teams added a layer of strategy and personality never seen before and still remembered today.

Turrican (1990)

Turrican originally arrived on the Commodore 64, but if you played it on consoles, you probably remember the Accolade logo, since they were responsible for making it happen. Here you took the role of a genetically modified mutant tasked with retaking control of a colony that had been taken hostage by an artificial intelligence known as MORGUL. The story was interesting, but the most striking aspect of Turrican was its gameplay, which perfectly blended aspects of Metroid, such as giant maps and the ability to transform into a ball, and the many different weapons of Psycho-Nics Oscar.

Law of the West (1985)

One of my personal favorites, it was developed entirely by Accolade and is an excellent example of their flexibility as developers. Besides making excellent sports and racing games, they could craft adventures set in the Wild West. In it, you played the sheriff of a small town who had to duel against visiting criminals. What was interesting is that beyond the combat consisting solely of duels, before each one you could interact with characters—civilians and criminals—and make decisions that would later have repercussions on the plot, something truly new for the industry.

Grand Prix Circuit (1987)

Another gem of the era, distributed by Accolade, was this Formula 1 simulator. It was recognized for featuring the most renowned Grand Prix circuits, such as Brazil, Monaco, Canada, and Detroit, among others, as well as cars from teams like McLaren, Ferrari F1/87/88C, and Williams Renault. The gameplay, on the other hand, was quite complex, as you needed to control steering, acceleration, and gear changes simultaneously. Not to mention that many aspects of the car could break down during a race and needed repairs.

Test Drive (1987)

Undoubtedly the most popular Accolade series, it has had quite a few iterations. The first two games were developed by Distinctive Software, and the third was taken over by Accolade, which had produced and distributed them up to that point. From the start, the idea was to drive exotic sports cars at high speeds along highways, dodging cars and arriving at your destination in one piece. As the series progressed, settings and game modes varied, but the style remained the same, with the goal of refueling at each checkpoint and the possibility of burning out the engine if you didn't shift gears correctly.

Fight Night (1985)

Developed by Sydney Development and distributed by Accolade, it saw the light on a good number of platforms. It certainly wasn't the first boxing game, but besides having excellent graphics with cartoon-inspired art, it also allowed you to customize the boxer's appearance. The main campaign had five opponents to defeat, and there was support for two players. Not all versions were successful, like the Atari 7800 one, which, besides looking terrible, was extremely slow.

Elvira (1990)

Fans of the RPG genre will surely remember this series developed by Horrorsoft and distributed by Accolade. It attempts to follow the events of the film "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark", where the character—again portrayed by Cassandra Peterson—inherits an old castle inhabited by her ancestors, demon worshipers. The player assists Elvira in defeating the demons in a mix of RPG and first-person adventure. Two years later it had a sequel.

Hardball! (1987)

One of the company's first games, developed by one of its founders, Robert Whitehead. This title began one of the most popular baseball series on the market, as it cemented many of the foundations that sports games have today. In terms of gameplay, it was very complete, offering different types of pitches, tactics, and even administrative options, something never seen up to that point.

Bubsy (1993)

Although the series never got the recognition it deserved, the first Bubsy was a success thanks to its polished controls, detailed graphics, and colorful art. It was a platformer where the character, besides being able to jump on enemies, could slide and also use various objects in the environment to his advantage. It was a more than acceptable game, though never adopted by the mainstream audience.

The Train: Escape to Normandy (1988)

Escape to Normandy shared the combat mechanics of Law of the West, but was set in the universe of the film "The Train", where the player had to steal a train to escape the Nazi army. Essentially it consisted of a few shooting sequences and then controlling the train, with a good amount of detail, such as the boiler pressure, the appropriate speed for curves, and many other details that made it almost a train simulator.

Accolade found its best days between the late 80s and early 90s, but as the decade drew to a close, they could no longer develop multiple titles simultaneously and bring new franchises to life, so they decided to continue supporting their most famous sports series, such as Test Drive, Hardball! and Jack Nicklaus Golf, among others.

However, the final blow came when the only remaining founder, Alan Miller, left the company in 1995. The new management, led by Jim Barnett, relaunched the company as a developer of action games and publisher of the Test Drive series, until in 1999 it was bought by Infogrames, as it was clear that their golden years were behind them. Even so, the legacy is very large, mainly in the sports and racing genres, though they managed to occupy every genre in the market with great successes and leave us more than a little gem.