Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

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File:Zak McKracken Screenshot.png
A screenshot of Zak McKracken, PC version.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1988, published by LucasArts (known at the time as Lucasfilm Games). It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion.

Originally released on the Commodore 64, it was later ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, and PC with EGA graphics. A version was later ported to the oddball Japanese FM Towns system, this one with VGA graphics and CD music. The project was led by David Fox and co-designed and co-programmed by Matthew Kane.

Storyline

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The plot follows Zak, a writer for the National Inquisitor, a tabloid newspaper, Annie Larris, a freelance scientist and Melissa China and Leslie Bennett, two Yale coed students, in their attempt to prevent nefarious aliens, the Caponians (that have infiltrated the society in the guise of a phone company) from slowly reducing the intelligence of everybody on Earth with dial tones.

Luckily, the Skolarians, another ancient alien race, have left a defense mechanism hanging around to repulse the Caponians, which just needs a quick reassembly and start-up. Unfortunately, the parts are spread all over the Earth... and Mars.

The game was heavily inspired by the many popular theories about aliens, ancient astronauts and mysterious civilizations. The many places visited in the game are common hot-spots of relevant literature, like the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, Lima, Stonehenge, Atlantis, a space cadillac with Elvis (really an alien) and eventually the Face on Mars. The general New Age feeling is very obvious since players will meet also gurus and a shaman who hold secret knowledge of everything. All this is no accident. David Fox, the lead designer and programmer, intended to make a more serious game. While designing the game, he spent some days with David Spangler, noted New Age writer. But during the design stage, Ron Gilbert persuaded Fox to increase the comedy angle.

Trivia

In Maniac Mansion you could find a chainsaw but no fuel; in this game you can find chainsaw fuel but no chainsaw.

The three girls in the game are named after the programmers' wives or girlfriends. For example, Annie Larris was (and is) David Fox's wife, and the appearance of the game character is also inspired by her looks.

Fan sequels

A number of fans, calling themselves LucasFan Games, grouped together to create a free sequel: The New Adventures of Zak McKracken. It used graphics from the Japanese 256 color version, country-specific backgrounds from 'King of Fighters', and some original art. However, it was very limited compared with two other fan sequels that were already in production. Zak McKracken Between Time And Space is due for release at the end of 2005, and Zak McKracken and the Alien Rockstars will hopefully be released in 2007. At least one other fan sequel is said to be in production, but those are the two big ones.

See also

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