Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

aka: Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Moby ID: 305
Amiga Specs
Buy on Windows
$5.99 new on Steam

Description official descriptions

Zak McKracken is a tabloid reporter (and not a very good one at that). After having a psychedelic dream one day, Zak realizes that something is wrong -- space aliens are dumbifying the general public through the telephone system. Zak must stop this, but he can't do it alone. After finding a strange crystal, Zak manages to get the help of the anthropologist Annie and her friends, Melissa and Leslie. The four unlikely heroes must now figure out a way to destroy the dumbifying devices and save the Earth.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a third-person puzzle-solving adventure similar in gameplay to Maniac Mansion. The player chooses verb commands (Open, Pick Up, Give, etc.; there are no Look or Talk commands) to interact with the game world. The game features up to four controllable protagonists; it is possible to switch between them at any time after they have been introduced, and also exchange inventory items if the characters are in the same location. The game can be described as a "globe-trotting" adventure, since the heroes are required to travel to different exotic countries and even leave the Earth for a while in order to complete it. Some of the puzzles are optional or can be solved in different ways.

The FM Towns version has VGA graphics with 256 colors and higher-quality music and sound effects.

GOG release comes with two versions of the game that install simultaneously. One is FM Towns version with updated graphics, while the other is marked as Floppy version which is the old DOS version of a game.

Spellings

  • Zak McKracken and the Alien Mind Benders - Alternate spelling
  • ザックマックラッケン - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Amiga version)

28 People (27 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Created and Designed by
Scripted and Programmed by
"SCUMM" Story System by
Background Art by
Character Animation by
Sound Effect by
Original Music by
Amiga Version By
Creative and Technical Support by
Project Directed by
Lucasfilm Games General Manager
Production Management
Marketing Management
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 180 ratings with 9 reviews)

Hard call... Zak is solid in many aspects, and lackluster in many others.

The Good
A much closer view of what is normally regarded nowadays as the "Classic" adventure game than it's predecessor and forefather, Maniac Mansion, Zak McK. is your archetypical semi-linear adventure game with a globe-hopping, epic storyline, multiple characters, light npc interaction, "the-weird-item-that-you-get-at-the-beggining-and-use-only-at-the-end" cliche, and heavy-duty inventory and deduction puzzles. Nothing wrong with that, uh?

As far as plots go, Zak's pretty bizarre, it's far more surreal and humoristically appealing than Maniac Mansion, mostly because of the lack of Ron Gilbert as head honcho (whose sarcastic edge is always recognizable in the games he helms), so it's weird and funny but in far more "mainstream" way than Maniac Mansion. That's not to say that there isn't weirdness to be found here, mind you! As a tabloid journalist whose usual assignments include taking pictures of two-headed squirrels, you find yourself in the way of a world-threathening plot to stupidify the human race with copies of Final Fantasy 8 and Metal Gear Solid!! .... uh, wait...no... that wasn't it... though it makes sense to me!

Anyway, as Zak and his main love interest Annie, you'll enlist the help of a couple of coeds by the name of Leslie and Melissa who can Commander-Keen their way to Mars with a mini-van (!!??) and somehow try to make heads and tails of a plot so sinister and evil that it could only be crafted by the most phalic-headed aliens of the universe. Very entertaining stuff and quite interesting indeed!

Technically speaking the game takes some major leaps from MM, mainly in the graphic front, with characters far better proportioned, and much more detail and items as well as NPCs to interact with. Most of the improvements come courtesy of the grander scope of the game, but the technology itself is pushed way past the edge seen on Maniac Mansion.

There are also a small amount of non-linear elements included in the game, such as money management and multiple solutions to some puzzles to add some flavor to the game, which makes it far more open-ended than the usual adventures but falls in the pitfalls of making the game unsolvable or incredibly hard to beat at times.

The Bad
As long as we remember this was the first "super-production" of Lucasarts in which the concept of adventuring is moved closer to the accepted ideal of being an epic game, chockful of characters and locations, we can forget some issues. But the fact is that I think Lucas wasn't yet ready for something so big, and it shows in the game. Kind of like a shoe that is just one size too small for your foot, the narrative cohesiveness for a game like this just isn't "there" and you feel quite lost in a game that is pretty hard by itself, with long stretches of seemingly inconnected adventures that never seem to truly aim for the jackpot (or anything for that matter). It takes quite a bit of patience aside from the usual neuronal work associated with adventure games to survive in Zak, and the addition of money-management elements and several dead ends don't help it either.

Furthermore, the code-system sucks. Since it forces you to use it constantly as you travel from location to location, while on MM you only had to open the door to the upper floor once, in here you'll be checking the manual eeeeevery time you want to travel to another destination and believe me, that happens a LOT in this game. More than it's funny, I'm affraid.

In fact so much more than the comedy aspects seem rather dull and forced, and the whole ordeal starts to reek of the "click-on-stuff-until-some-shit-happens" with alarming ease, not just from the difficulty but from the lack of interest you'll soon be experiencing... "Oh yeah, the aliens just brainwashed my character.. ho-hum.. cute. Next!!"

Oh, and before I forget: THE ENDING SUCKS ASS!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for that, but quite frankly after wrestling with one of the hardest adventure games ever for months, wading through innane Martian mazes, and bashing the monitor in frustration for countless times (I beated this game back in the days Before handy-dandy internet and it's collection of game faqs and tips) all your reward happens to be a text-epilogue that scrolls by as the two leads gaze in idyllic joy!!! F@#K YOU ZAK!!!!! Even Maniac Mansion had a little animated cutscene!!!!! Heck, even SNK fighting games have more rewarding endings!!!

The Bottom Line
Solid adventure game, but on the face of other games (both before and after) Zak has more of an historical signification than actual value. Yeah it's got a good story and lots of killer stuff on it, but there are many pitfalls that detract from it. For hard-boiled adventurers only though... This game means bussines! But then again, I've always been screwy with difficulties. I can breeze past what most people consider challenging and get stuck in the most retarded situations for many games, so you probably shouldn't listen to me there.

DOS · by Zovni (10504) · 2003

Let's discover ancient artifacts!

The Good
First and most, this is a freaking Lucasfilm (later LucasArts) adventure game, with all its complexities. For that, it's a small wonder it could get made on the humble old Commodore 64 at all.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is Lucasfilm's second point & click adventure game released after Maniac Mansion. Story wise it's not a sequel, but there are many similarities and even references to it. The main similarity is that both use the SCUMM engine and interface, but the list of action verbs has changed. Beside that, shortcut keys were introduced, to help out the fiddly joystick cursor. The dialog output field is now two rows tall, thus conversations are easier to read (too bad talking only happens at the occasional scripted event in this game, as the interactive dialog tree was not invented yet).

The audio-visuals... I have to say, this is one of the worst looking best games ever, haha! As for me seeing the enhanced DOS version first, the C64 version was ridiculously ugly afterwards. Maniac Mansion was more stylized, with the characters having big heads, that went better with the "Lego brick" graphics of the C64. Here, the developers wanted to do more, and they just barely could make it to work. But it IS functional, so I don't mind it! All that, paired with those ridiculously awesome, more-powerful-than-necessary sound effects happening for every little mundane task, it adds up as a surreal experience. When the game starts and the intro cutscene plays, and get I hit by this brick of a graphics, then an excessive rendition of the intro theme starts to play on top of it, it gives me such a weird feeling that is unlike anything else.

Speaking of the intro, Zack McKracken has one of the most memorable game intro cutscenes ever!

Hmm, lets say something about the rest of the game quickly.

-There is the whole World to travel, famous landmarks to visit, many ancient mysteries to solve. (At least in the technological constraints of the system and era. But hey, Maniac Mansion was confined to a single house, so it's quite an expansion of scope!)

-Aside from Zak, there are three other playable characters (after reaching a certain point). Some complex puzzles require the orchestrated cooperation of multiple characters trough multiple remote locations or planets.

-Zak gains supernatural powers as you collect the artifacts.

-Travelling to Mars never has been cozier.

-It is very forgiving about the mistakes you make. Even if you get caught by aliens, the punishment in the brain washing chamber has just temporary effects. (Granted, not as failsafe as the later ones, but definitely better comapred to Sierra adventures.)

-It almost rivals Monkey Island in how many memorable gags it has.

The Bad
Technical wise:

-Lots of loading from the slowly Commodore floppy drive, and lots of disk swapping to be done too.

-For being a point & click interface, on an Atari-style joystick, it can be tiring on the long run. There is no support for mice in the Commodore version (neither the Neos nor the 1351). (There are the keyboard shortcuts though.)

Engine wise:

-As an early SCUMM engine game, the interface still has some jankyness to it. Instead of the expected features from the later games, there are many redundant verbs, while there is no "Look at", no "Talk to".

-There is manual "What is" exploration, as the cursor doesn't highlight interactable objects in the playfield to you.

-You have to construct the command sentence first, then have to do another click on the command line to confirm and make it happen.

-The inventory items have no pictures. Just the item names in a short text, that are often vague. The inventory list has been shrunk to just two visible lines (as a side effect of the increased dialog field).

Gameplay wise:

-It's probably the hardest LucasArts adventure, many difficult puzzles (it was designed to sell hintbooks after all).

-It definitely does not hold your hand. Most of the world is accessible from the get-go and it's easy to get overwhelmed at first. There are no chapters and not many clearly explained goals.

-There are still some possible dead end situation, or even the characters dying (granted, these only happen if you are excessively careless, but I mention).

-Lots of awkward sideview mazes to keep track in, some even in the dark (spells a cheap way of padding to me).

-The extra unnecessary jungle mazes. They're not even puzzles, you just have to wander aimlessly until the program decides you have arrived to your destination.

The Bottom Line
Oh LucasArts, where are you now... Back in the 80's, Lucasfilm/LucasArts was at the top of their game. It wasn't just all about riding the Star Wars success, at the time they really rocked the world! First, they did magic to the movie industry. And if that wasn't enough, they got into the fledling gaming industry and treated it just as good. It wasn't about doing the obvious movie tie-ins, instead they did a lot of innovation with original concepts: simulators with fractal generated terrain (e.g. Rescue on Fractalus), a proto first-person-shooter (Eidolon), the first graphical online MMO (Habitat), also re-shaped how graphical adventures are played and told their story (Maniac Mansion). Then LucasArts made a lot of adventure games, that were cherished for their smart writing/humor/and puzzles, the overall charm and quality of them. Until everything got to be Star Wars.

So, I have encountered the DOS version of Zack McKracken first, which is the better version. But I write this review about the Commodore 64 version, because that's more impressive one. Let me explain. Back in the mid 2000s, when I have discovered the old adventure games and got into the genre. "There is a Commodore 64 version? How could it possibly even work on that garbage?" Up until that point I only knew primitive little arcade games on this system, as the one C64 I have seen/played at my classmate's only had a datasette. So this game and Maniac Mansion were something on a new level, and it reignited my interest in the C64, wanted to see more, what else it is capable of. Since then, I did play both games on the real thing.

Commodore 64 · by 1xWertzui (1135) · 2024

Look behind you, a two-headed squirrel!

The Good
Zak is a newspaper journalist who works for the daily tabloid, The National Inquisitor. His boss asks him to write up two articles: one about campers being attacked by a two-headed squirrel, and the other about an UFO sighting that happened on Mt. Rainier 50 years ago. That night, Zak has a dream involving a girl, a map, and a machine. Back in his apartment, Zak agrees to draw the map from his dreams and finds out that some aliens known as the Caponians have beamed down to Earth to transmit 60-cycle hums through the phone lines, capable of reducing people's intelligence. Later on he finds out that he must build the same machine from his dreams, with the help from three other people, which will stop the Caponian's plans from going ahead.

Zak McKracken uses the same SCUMM interface seen in Maniac Mansion, so anyone who has already played that game is already familiar with it. The game can be played with the joystick, keyboard, or mouse; but I prefer to use the mouse since it is so much easier to control Zak. It is the second game that allows you to switch between three other characters throughout the game. Teamwork is essential, and death for one of them means that you'll get nowhere.

Maniac Mansion has the player exploring a limited environment, but this is not the case wth Zak. You may begin the game in San Francisco, but as soon as you have the opportunity to switch between three girls, you'll spend most of your time traveling to places like Seattle, London, Kathmandu, Cairo, Lima, Kinshasa, Bermuda Triangle. (You even get to explore the Caponian spaceship where you meet The King himself!), and Mars itself. It is also a nice touch to take control of other things and decide when it performs an action.

Now traveling outside the United States require you to input the code listed on a certain page in the manual. Normally, entering the wrong code in most games would cause them to exit to DOS. However, Lucasfilm has a knack of punishing people instead, more likely resulting in the ending of the current game. This already happened in Maniac Mansion when said mansion suffered a meltdown. Here, the player just gets thrown inside a Nepalese jail while you get to sit and hear a lecture about piracy, with no chance of escape.

Zak is often known for bringing humor to adventure games. You can almost do anything in this game and Zak will more often than not say something funny. There are two things in the game that made me laugh. One is when you use the broom alien twice, it will wake up and complain about the hard work. But the highlight is getting captured by the Caponians and placed inside a cage. Then you get to watch the commands disappear one by one, and you never see them again until you're released.

The game had about three releases. I still own the PC version with the enhanced graphics, which is much more colorful than a previous version released for the C64 and PC. I have yet to play the FM-Towns version, which has 256-color art as well as a digital soundtrack. It's a real shame that the 256-color version wasn't made available on PC.

Since Lucasfilm released Zak in 1988, and sound cards were not invented then, all of the game's sound comes through PC Speaker. However, the theme music is well composed and I enjoyed the background music when you arrive at the airport and explore the tribal village.



The Bad
There are too many mazes in the game. It was fairly easy to go around in circles and keep going back to the same location.

Also, when you get to a certain point in the game and you realize that you made a mistake, you just can't go back and rectify it. For instance, you have to get everyone on board a tram that takes you to a different section on Mars by feeding a coin into a machine, but if you happen to forgot someone, you can't go back and get them as the coin slot on the machine on the other end has been ripped out. For situations like these, you have no choice but to restore a previously saved game.

Speaking of saved games, the game can be saved but only in a numbered slot, meaning that you can't give meaningful descriptions.

The Bottom Line
Zak has all the aspects that were found in Maniac Mansion: multiple characters and a good amount of humor. As I mentioned earlier, three versions were released, with the enhanced version much more common. The ability to go around the world is neat, since you are not restricted to exploring one, bigger environment such as a mansion. Although the sound is through the PC speaker, most of the music in the game, as well as the sound effects, is excellent and beats the sound in other games around its time any day. So in conclusion, any adventure fan who loves a mix of exploration and comedy should get a copy of this game.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2010

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
US version VS UK Version Edwin Drost (9293) Mar 10, 2017
A new Zak McKracken Remake Project Joey DiPerla Mar 3, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Copy protection

All versions of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, except for the FM Towns release, require the player to enter copy protection codes when leaving the USA, but not when re-entering it or when at an airport in another country. After entering five incorrect entries in a row, Zak is put into Pirate Jail and the game is automatically over. The codes were printed on dark red paper in order to make it harder to copy them.

Concept and inspirations

David Fox wanted the game to have a "New Age" concepts like spirituality, Karma, alien history and he spent a few days brainstorming with a spiritual author - David Spangler. They came up with a list of every thing that might fit into the game and tried to get it all in, including the Face on Mars, Mt. Ranier, Mayan ruins. Names of the female characters came from designer's wives and girlfriends while Zak's name was taken from the Seattle's phone book. "No, there wasn't a Zak McKraken listed - we just pulled a first and last name that worked." - said David Fox in the interview for Retro Gamer 27.

The game took only nine months to complete from initial design to the final version.

Fangames

The first fan project to enter development was "Zak McKracken 2", later renamed Zak McKracken and the Alien Rockstars, which was started in 1996. Because a lot of people joined and left the team over the course of its development, the game progressed slowly, to the point where it disappeared completely in 2001. In 2005 it was re-announced as a new project, being re-developed from scratch. The project was eventually cancelled in 2008, however, as the developers felt that Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space, a fangame that had been released in the meantime, was good enough to warrant abandoning their own project. One of the game's official websites has been archived, allowing players to download the project's original German tech-demo, however their other, zak2.de, was lost due to the use of a robots.txt file, which actively prevented its archival. The New Adventures of Zak McKracken is an Adventure Game Studio remake developed by LucasFan Games.

Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space was started in 2001 by fans who thought that the Zak McKracken and the Alien Rockstars project detailed above was dead. It was ultimately released in 2008

Zak Mckracken and the Lonely Sea Monster, an Adventure Game Studio remake was first announced for a July 2007 release, however it was subsequently delayed until 2008. After several years the project was confirmed to be abandoned in 2010. As of December of 2012, however, the original developer has resumed development.

Platform differences

The game was made with three different styles of graphics: the Commodore 64 multicolor style (low resolution using 256 characters and 16 colors), the higher resolution 16 color version that uses bitmaps and finally the 256 color version (same style as Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure) which seems to have only been released in Japan on the Fujitsu FM Towns system.

References

A poster of one of LucasFilm's early games, Rescue on Fractalus!, can be seen in the machine room next to a map of Earth. Like Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, it was also designed by David Fox. In the FM Towns version the Rescue on Fractalus! poster was replaced by a poster for Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, another game David Fox was involved with alongside Ron Gilbert.

During the scene on Mars, the tune heard when playing the music cassette in the radio is by "Razor and the Scumettes". Razor is one of the original characters in Maniac Mansion, a LucasArts adventure game released the previous year.

There's a can of gasoline to be found on Mars. If the player tries to pick it up the character says it's for a different game. This is a nod to the red herring in Maniac Mansion, where there's a chainsaw in the kitchen but it's out of gas... and there is no gas in that game.

When reading the telephone inside the The Phone Company's office, it will show a four digit telephone number. This number can be called from Zak's house and a sales representative will pick up. He'll think that it is Edna again, a reference to the player calling Edna in Maniac Mansion.

Awards

  • Commodore Format
    • July 1991 (Issue 10) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
  • Power Play
    • Issue 01/1989 - Best Graphics Adventure in 1988
    • Issue 04/1989 - Game of the Year 1988 (Readers' Vote)
  • ST Format
    • January 1990 (issue #06) - Included in the list 50 Games of the Year
    • January 1991 (issue #18) – #5 Best Adventure Game in 1990 (Atari ST)

Information also contributed by Daniel Albu, Kevin Carnes, MAT, Mirrorshades2k, Scott G, and Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe.

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Related Sites +

  • HighLand Productions
    Contains MIDI versions of themes from some LucasArts games, including Zak McCracken.
  • LucasArts' Secret History
    A multi-article feature about the game by the LucasArts news site, The International House of Mojo. The feature article includes an unscored review, short responses written by members of the site's community, trivia, and a transcription of the original hint book.
  • ScummVM
    Get "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders", as well as many other adventure games, to run on modern systems by using ScummVM, a legal and free program.
  • The Adventure Games Hall of Fame
    Short review, walkthrough and screenshots.
  • The Zak McKracken Archive
    The world's largest collection of Zak McKracken materials

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 305
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Olivier Masse.

Amiga added by POMAH. Commodore 64 added by Rebound Boy. Linux, Windows, Macintosh added by click here to win an iPhone9SSSS. FM Towns added by Terok Nor. Atari ST added by Belboz.

Additional contributors: Trixter, MAT, Apogee IV, HeX-Omen, formercontrib, Chris Tolworthy, Zeppin, Cantillon, Lance Boyle, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, Jo ST, FatherJack.

Game added October 5, 1999. Last modified March 27, 2024.