''Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders'' is a 1988
graphic adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
by
Lucasfilm Games. It was the second game to use the
SCUMM engine, after ''
Maniac Mansion
''Maniac Mansion'' is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been ensla ...
''. The project was led by
David Fox, with Matthew Alan Kane as the co-designer and co-programmer.
Like ''Maniac Mansion'', it was developed for the
Commodore 64 and later released in 1988 for that system and
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
.
Plot
The story is set in 1997, nine years after the game's production. The plot follows Zak, a writer for the ''National Inquisitor'', a
tabloid newspaper
A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.
Etymology
The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs We ...
; Annie Larris, a
freelance scientist; and Melissa China and Leslie Bennett, two
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
coed students, in their attempt to prevent the nefarious alien Caponians (who have taken over "The Phone Company", an amalgamation of various
telecommunication companies around the world) from slowly reducing the intelligence of everybody on Earth by emitting a 60 Hz "
hum
Hum may refer to:
Science
* Hum (sound), a sound produced with closed lips, or by insects, or other periodic motion
* Mains hum, an electric or electromagnetic phenomenon
* The Hum, an acoustic phenomenon
* Venous hum, a physiological sensation
...
" from their "Mind Bending Machine". The Skolarians, another ancient alien race, have left a defense mechanism hanging around to repulse the Caponians (the "Skolarian Device"), which needs reassembly and start-up, but the parts are spread all over Earth and Mars.
Development
''Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders'' was developed and published by
Lucasfilm Games. It was the second game to use the
SCUMM engine, after ''
Maniac Mansion
''Maniac Mansion'' is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been ensla ...
''. Like ''Maniac Mansion'', Zak McKracken was initially developed for the
Commodore 64 and ported later to other systems. The project was led by
David Fox, with Matthew Alan Kane as the co-designer and co-programmer. Fox consulted with
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
writer
David Spangler
David Spangler (born January 7, 1945) is an American spiritual philosopher and self-described "practical mystic." He helped transform the Findhorn Foundation in northern Scotland into a center of residential spiritual education and was a frie ...
for the game materials. The game was originally meant to be more serious, resembling the
Indiana Jones series, but
Ron Gilbert persuaded David Fox to increase the humorous aspects of the game. The game was consequently heavily inspired by many popular theories about aliens,
ancient astronauts, and mysterious civilizations. The many places visited in the game are common hotspots for these ideas, such as the
pyramids of Egypt
The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. O ...
and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
,
Stonehenge, the
Bermuda Triangle, and the
Face on Mars
Cydonia (, ) is a region on the planet Mars that has attracted both scientific and popular interest. The name originally referred to the albedo feature (distinctively coloured area) that was visible from earthbound telescopes. The area borders ...
. The Skolarians are based on the
Greys alien, while the Caponians (a name derived from "
Al Capone") are primarily based on the
Men in Black
In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi- government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesse ...
, with their Cadillac-shaped spaceship and
Elvis
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...
-themed leader (nicknamed "The King"). The Caponians also have heads shaped like
Easter Island's Moai statues.
Release
Zak McKracken was originally released in October 1988,
for the C64, self-published by Lucasfilm Games. A port to
IBM PC (
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
) followed in the same year.
In 1989, the game was ported to the
Amiga and
Atari ST. A DOS version with
enhanced graphics was also released.
The Japanese version of the game was released in 1990 under the title ''Zak McKracken'' ( ja, ザックマックラッケン ''Zakkumakkurakken''); for the Japanese
Fujitsu FM Towns
The is a Japanese personal computer, built by Fujitsu from February 1989 to the summer of 1997. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and Personal computer game, PC games, but later became more compatible w ...
computer. Produced by
Douglas Crockford
Douglas Crockford is an American computer programmer who is involved in the development of the JavaScript language. He specified the data format JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), and has developed various JavaScript related tools such as the st ...
, it came on CD-ROM with 256-color graphics and a remastered
sampled audio soundtrack. It is playable in both English and Japanese. When this version is played in Japanese, the sprites' eyes are replaced with
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
eyes. The box art was redrawn for the Japanese market by artist Yuzuki Hikaru (弓月光), otherwise known as Nishimura Tsukasa (西村司).
Re-release
In March 2015, Zak McKracken was re-released on the
digital distribution
Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other s ...
platform
gog.com
GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through it ...
after years of
non-availability.
The GOG.com release marked the first time the 256-color version of the game had been made officially available outside Japan.
Reception
Discussing ''Zak McKracken''s commercial performance, David Fox later wrote, "I think Zak was far more popular in Germany and Europe than in the States. I'm not sure why... maybe my humor was more European in nature?"
Many reviews, both online
and in print,
rate Zak McKracken as among the best adventure games ever made, but others disagree. A review in ''
Computer Gaming World'' described ''Zak McKracken'' as a good game, but that it could have been better. The magazine described the game's central flaw in the game's environments, limited to a relatively small number of screens per location, giving each town a movie-set feel compared to the size and detail of ''Maniac Mansion''.
''
Compute!
''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET ...
'' favorably reviewed ''Zak McKracken'', but wished that Lucasfilm would next produce a game that did not depend on jokes and puzzles to tell its story.
The large number of mazes in the game was also a source of criticism, but David Fox felt it was the best way to maximize the game's size and still have it fit on a single
Commodore 64 floppy disk. Other critics complained about the need to enter copy protection codes not once, but multiple times whenever the player flew out of the US.
The game was reviewed in 1989 in ''
Dragon'' No. 142 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game out of 5 stars.
The game received high scores in general press. It received 90 out of 100 in several reviews, such as of
Zzap!
''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact.
The magazine ...
, Power Play, Happy Computer, HonestGamers, Pixel-Heroes.de,
Jeuxvideo.com, ST Action, and Quandary magazines.
Legacy
The title of the ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...
'' episode "Zach and the Alien Invaders" pays homage to this game's title.
Fan sequels
Some ''Zak McKracken'' fans have created and released their own sequels, so called
fangame
A fangame is a video game that is created by fans. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fangames attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, gameplay, and characters, but ...
s, among which:
* ''The New Adventures of Zak McKracken'', released in March 2002 by "LucasFan Games" and containing graphics from the Japanese FM Towns 256 color version and country-specific backgrounds from various Neo-Geo games. The original release was notorious for containing an adult ending. However, the ending was soon changed when the developers were told that the female characters were based on actual persons. This sequel is very short and fairly limited compared to the two other fan sequels.
* ''
Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space'', released in German in April 2008 and re-released as a director's cut in German, English and French (subtitles) in May 2015 by "Artificial Hair Bros.". The game consists of hand-drawn 2D scenes and sprites and pre-rendered 3D videos. It uses the Visionaire Studio engine that professional developers like
Daedalic use.
Other notable but unreleased fan sequels include:
* ''Zak McKracken and the Alien Rockstars'', which was planned for a final release in 2007 following the release of a demo. After several project restarts and lead changes the project was stopped. However, the
game engine's
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...
was released on
SourceForge
SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirroring ...
.
* ''Zak McKracken and the Lonely Sea Monster'' was scheduled for July 1, 2007, but has come to a halt. It was supposed to maintain the look of the original.
Zak McKracken and the Lonely Sea Monster
on zaksite.com
References
External links
*
''Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders''
at Lemon64
The ''Zak McKracken'' Archive
''Zak McKracken'' C-64 version theme
at the High Voltage SID Collection
Zak's Theme
original 1987 recording predating the in-game versions
''Zak McKracken Between Time and Space''
*
''Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders''
- re-released by Disney/Lucasfilm on GOG.com for Windows, Mac, Linux (March 19, 2015)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zak Mckracken And The Alien Mindbenders
1988 video games
Adventure games
Amiga games
Apple II games
Atari ST games
Commodore 64 games
DOS games
Fangames
FM Towns games
LucasArts games
Point-and-click adventure games
Science fiction video games
SCUMM games
ScummVM-supported games
U.S. Gold games
Video games about ancient astronauts
Video games about extraterrestrial life
Video games developed in the United States
Video games developed in Japan
Video games set in 1997
Video games set in Africa
Video games set in Atlantis
Video games set in Bermuda
Video games set in Egypt
Video games set in London
Video games set on Mars
Video games set in Mexico
Video games set in Miami
Video games set in Nepal
Video games set in Peru
Video games set in San Francisco
Video games set in Seattle
Video games featuring female protagonists