Help Tacoma’s booziest bear get to a holiday party in 8-bit style video game for charity
Tacoma’s most famous bear, an 800-pound brown bruin named Jack with a taste for a good gin and seltzer, was a legendary guest of the historic Tacoma Hotel in the 1880s.
Now, the bear has returned in adorable 8-bit fashion as the protagonist of a holiday desktop video game created by local marketing consulting agency JayRay. The game, released Monday, is titled “Jack the Bear’s Dry Winter Night,” and it doubles as a charity competition.
The players with the three highest scores by midnight Jan. 16 will each win $500 to donate to the charity of their choice.
Getting on the scoreboard means leading Jack through Tacoma while dodging martini glasses and bartenders flinging beer steins as he passes landmarks like the Old City Hall, the Tacoma Dome, the Narrows Bridge and iconic bars of the city.
The goal: get the famously boozy bear to his holiday party as quickly — and as sober — as possible.
Jack gained his drunken reputation as a star attraction of the Tacoma Hotel, which was built in 1884. According to archived reporting from The News Tribune, guests could occasionally find the bear standing at the bar of the hotel drinking a beer.
The game was created as a holiday greeting card for the agency’s clients and contacts. Bridget Baeth, an owner at JayRay who also worked on the game said the agency wanted to do something fun this year to feature some of Tacoma’s landmarks and legends.
“Most of us are weary from another year of online meetings,” Baeth said in a news release. “Playing a video game could be the mental break we all need!”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the three best times were all under two minutes. Someone going by “DCA” led the way with a time of 1:57:973, with a “BFH” trailing closely at 1:58:109. Baeth said she hasn’t beaten the game herself, but two staffers at the ad agency had.
“We wanted to create a game that was entertaining for kids and adults alike,” Baeth said in an email. “It was important that it wasn’t too easy, but also not too hard, so that people feel encouraged to keep playing and trying to win for their charity of choice.”
News Tribune journalists worked diligently Wednesday to confirm the high scores. They report that after making it through the city, players will have to take a ferry over Puget Sound and brave a tentacled final boss if they want to add their name to the leaderboard.
This story was originally published December 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
