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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders - Manual

Game quick-info.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders/Bermuda Triangle

Table of Contents

• San Francisco
• Bermuda Triangle

Once you buy a ticket, you are in a biplane, having just been given a Parachute. Only Zak having the Blue Crystal can travel there: without the Crystal the biplane won't be available. Annie can travel too, but nothing will happen and will refuse to jump. Also notice that each time you travel with the biplane the pilot says a different joke.

Soon you will be abducted by a space Cadillac and the plane is taken into its hangar. Notice that the hangar has a line on the floor. The pilot knows what he has to do and punches a color combination to a panel, which is random, so it is a good idea to note it down (Color Code 1). So you have the choice to hurry back to the plane, in which case the pilot returns you to Miami; but if you visit the spaceship for the first time, it is a good idea to walk to the right side of the line and wait until the airplane is teleported out.

Now, you can PUSH the doorbell and be welcomed by a Caponian alien who takes you to the King (who is obviously a sighting of Elvis Presley). While the King mumbles, GIVE to him either the Guitar or the Letter. He then releases you and tells his attendant to take you back home. The alien shows you a second combination (Color Code 2). If you want to be teleported back to SF, wait where you are, but if you have more stuff to do, walk to the left side of the line.

If you stay, just walk freely to the far right part of the screen, past the King and the alien who look outside the window, and READ the board. Note down the numbers, which are the next winning Lotto numbers. Now walk back to the hangar, and you have 2 options.

• The code shown by the pilot affects the left side of the line, and teleports you outside the ship. You must do this the first time you visit this location.
• The code shown by the alien affects the right side of the line and teleports you directly to your home, where you can play Lotto.

Punch the first code, and walk to the left side of the line. Since you don't have an airplane, you are simply falling down through the atmosphere to the sea. Quickly USE the parachute and you survive the landing on the water. Zak (and several walkthroughs) mention that he floats thanks to the seat cusion stolen from the Airplane , but actually he survives even without having it. Notice however that he will last bobbing only for a limited amount of time.

USE the Kazoo from your home and you summon the dolphin which swims nearby. USE the Blue Crystal on him and you control his movements. As always, be as quick as possible before the Caponian comes for you. Dive under the water and you see the ruins of Atlantis. Scroll across the screen and PICK UP all the weeds you see; the rightmost will reveal a Glowing Object. Quickly PICK it UP and return to your body, GIVE it to Zak and wake up.

The alien will teleport and take you back to the SF and the Mindbender. Simply wait or escape with the ways described, and then reclaim the objects he took from you. Now don't forget to play Lotto with the numbers you noted from the space Cadillac.

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About This Game

System requirements.

• OS *: Windows XP or newer
• Processor: 1 GHz
• Memory: 256 MB RAM
• Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7
• DirectX: Version 7.0
• Storage: 133 MB available space
• Sound Card: 16-bit sound card
• Additional Notes: Mouse, Keyboard
• Processor: 1.4 GHz
• Memory: 512 MB RAM
• Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
• DirectX: Version 9.0c
• OS: OS X 10.7.0 or newer
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: 64 MB VRAM
• Additional Notes: Two button Mouse

LucasArts, the LucasArts logo and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2000-2018 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders – Guide and Walkthrough

Pc amiga apple ii commodore 64 fm towns macintosh atari st.

Guide and Walkthrough (PC) by dcruze

Version: 1.1 | Updated: 08/12/2015

View in: Text Mode

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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

General information

Availability

Version differences, low-res version.

The initial version uses the original chunky C64 graphics, ported to the PC.

High-res Enhanced version

The later Enhanced version supports EGA 16-colour in 320x200.

Essential improvements

Higher quality music (dosbox and scummvm), higher quality graphics in "enhanced" ega version (scummvm), configuration file(s) location.

When starting the game in DOS or DOSBox, it will normally try to autodetect the video capabilities. However, it is possible to create a PREFS configuration file with your preferred settings.

Creating a PREFS file can be done by running the game, and pressing ⇧ Shift W .

Loading a PREFS file can be done in one of 2 ways:

• While running the game, press ⇧ Shift R
• Launch the game with the P command line parameter (without a / or - ).

While the game is running, you can use the following keys to change your settings, after which you can save them with ⇧ Shift W .

• ⇧ Shift J Toggle joystick on/off
• ⇧ Shift M Toggle mouse on/off
• ⇧ Shift V MCGA mode
• ⇧ Shift E EGA mode
• ⇧ Shift C CGA mode
• ⇧ Shift H Hercules mode
• ⇧ Shift T Tandy 16-color mode
• ⇧ Shift B CGA black-and-white mode

The PREFS file can also be edited with a text editor. Example of a PREFS file:

Save game data location

Save game cloud syncing.

Localizations

Issues unresolved, intro music cuts off abruptly (256-color fm towns version), other information, system requirements.

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 Only the English version of the FM Towns version is available; the Kanji version is not included.
• ↑ As this game is running on the same version of SCUMM with a very similar artstyle, this still applies.
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 When running this game without elevated privileges ( Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES% , %PROGRAMDATA% , or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA% \VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later ( more details ).
• ↑ 4.0 4.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/ <user-id> / 559070 / in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (559070) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Release: Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders ● GOG.com
• ↑ Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders ● GOG.com
• ↑ What are the best versions of each game? - ScummVM :: Forums - last accessed on 2019-10-10 " I thought (and still think) that the Amiga version of MM was best. It had better music and the skin color was more natural, not that "sunburn" look as in the PC enhanced version. "
• ↑ List of 16-bit computer color palettes - Wikipedia - last accessed on May 2023
• ↑ #9591 (Zak McKracken FM Towns Intro runs too fast) – ScummVM :: Bugs - last accessed on 9 June 2023
• ↑ GOG Store Page
• Singleplayer
• Point and select

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

• Screenshots

• 1988 ( Amiga )
• 1988 ( Atari ST )
• 1988 ( Commodore 64 )
• 1988 ( DOS )
• 1991 ( FM Towns )
• 2015 ( Linux )
• 2015 ( Windows )
• 2015 ( Macintosh )
• U.S. Gold Ltd.
• Lucasfilm Games LLC
• Fujitsu Limited
• Disney Interactive Studios, Inc.
• #29 on Commodore 64
• #202 on DOS
• #222 on Amiga
• #310 on Atari ST
• Aventures Extraordinaires (1991)

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.

• Zak McKracken and the Alien Mind Benders - Alternate spelling
• ザックマックラッケン - Japanese spelling
• Game Engine: SCUMM
• Games with game-altering copy protection
• Protagonist: Female (option)
• Protagonist: Journalist / Reporter
• Setting: 1990s
• Setting: City - San Francisco
• Setting: Future now past
• Setting: Mars
• Setting: Passenger plane
• Setting: Space station / Spaceship
• Top Shots / Topshots releases

Screenshots +

Credits (Amiga version)

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

Average score: 82% (based on 37 ratings)

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

The first (and best) game I ever played. LOVE IT.

The Good 1. Funny 2. Educational (sort of! - see below) 3. Non-violent 4. Great female characters 5. Suitable for slower players as well. My young kids have trouble with games like Monkey Island (because the sword fighting routines require a lot of reading) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (because it requires skill in boxing) but this game can be taken as slow as you like. Only the egg on the plane and the blue crystal have any time limit, and these are not too difficult to master. 6. Incredibly efficient coding. The whole thing fits uncompressed on one low density floppy. 7. Versions for all major platforms (at the time) and almost any speed of machine. Good use of the inbuilt sound card. The Bad 1. A couple of the puzzles are hard for non-Americans (e.g. the waste disposal unit and mailbox are not familiar items in Britain), but this is probably true for any game. 2. The codes and all the travelling can be a little tedious (but not much) - like any adventure game, much of your time is spent travelling back and forth to try different ideas. 3. If you have an old game and have lost the printed codes, you cannot travel to most of the destinations. The Bottom Line Fun, hard to get killed, and easy to like.

DOS · by Chris Tolworthy (18) · 2000

One of the forgotten SCUMM games, but its still one of the best

The Good Ive always been a big fan of the SCUMM games. It is definitely a great adventure. It takes you all over the world, and to Mars to solve the worlds stupidity problem. There are a few obstacles in the game, you really have to use your head in some instances. There are secrets in the game that are optional The Bad If you are playing the Commodore Version of this game, you often have to turn the disk over. And in the Alien Spacecraft, you switch it to the other side and back again. You can get stuck the first few times with problems like insufficient funds, once you kill someone, you cant beat the game. The Bottom Line I love this game, any SCUMM worshiper like myself should not forget to play and beat this game.

Commodore 64 · by Scott G (765) · 2004

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 (43091) · 2010

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

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.

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.

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 .

• July 1991 (Issue 10) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
• Issue 01/1989 - Best Graphics Adventure in 1988
• Issue 04/1989 - Game of the Year 1988 (Readers' Vote)
• 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 Games

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

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• 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, Macintosh, Windows 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 29, 2024.

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Video Game / Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

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Can one hack writer, two Yale coeds, and a stale loaf of french bread save the world from a galactic conspiracy? Not without your help. — Cover blurb

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is an Adventure Game by LucasArts , released in 1988. It is the second SCUMM adventure game, preceded by Maniac Mansion . Originally released for the Commodore 64 , it was ported to the IBM Personal Computer , Amiga , Atari ST and FM Towns .

The game tells the story of a tabloid journalist named Zak, who has a dream about space aliens on Mars, who wear ten-gallon hats and Groucho Marx nose glasses. When he awakens, he finds himself uncovering a conspiracy by the alien Caponians, who are using the Phone Company in a not very hidden plot to try and Take Over the World .

Yeah, it's that kind of story . It is also very inspired by New Age themes such as Atlantis, Aliens, Crystals, Telepathy, and the Giant Face on Mars , as well as the outrageous tabloid the Weekly World News .

The game featured many technical improvements on its predecessor , including a storyline that takes Zak all the way around the world, and an interesting system whereby the various characters have adventures independent of each other (two of the playable characters are introduced as space adventurers on Mars, literally a world away from the bits with Zak).

Tropes Used In This Game Include:

• All Myths Are True : Or rather, all whacked-out theories about aliens are true.
• Artistic License – Geography : Stonehenge is not located in London note  It's in Wiltshire, which is about 70 miles west-southwest of the extreme outskirts of London, more like 90 if you're coming from the center of the city . Nor is there a 13th Avenue in San Francisco (because 13 Is Unlucky , the street in between 12th and 14th Avenues is called Funston).
• Baguette Beatdown : You could use the stale baguette from the Bakery next door to kill the two-headed squirrel .
• The Bermuda Triangle : You simply fly here whenever you want to get abducted by the aliens. This is actually very convenient.
• Bilingual Bonus : The flight tour to Bermuda Triangle is provided to you by Divine Wind Tours. "Divine wind" translates to Japanese as "kamikaze". (The official hint book for the game includes a walkthrough narrated by Zak in which he remembers the Japanese translation of "divine wind"... but only after they're already in flight and it's too late to go back.)
• But Thou Must! : the mind-bending machine has a big switch with two positions that are both labeled "on"...
• Call It Karma : The Guru will not help you if you killed Sushi or the Squirrel. Unless you bribe him. Or hang around in his chambers doing nothing for a while. After a certain time, he'll announce you've burned off the bad karma and proceed to teach you how to use the Blue Crystal. This only works if you don't pause the game and don't leave the room (it's best not to move Zak from that spot).
• Cerebus Syndrome : Once you unlock Annie, Melissa, and Leslie, the game basically turns off its Silliness Switch . For the most part.
• Catchphrase : See Ya.
• Chainsaw Good : You find a can of gas ("For chainsaw use only!") in a locker on Mars as an in-joke, with the player character refusing to pick it up because "It's for another game ."
• Competitive Balance : Certain characters have certain abilities only they have access to (Zak starts off with an obscene amount of money, allowing him more freedom to travel around, and only he's allowed to use the powers of the alien crystals, while Annie is a Cunning Linguist who can read any language) or certain actions they'll refuse to perform that others will (Annie refuses to vandalize the hair salon display to get the giant bobby pin, while Melissa refuses to handle the dead broom alien as it grosses her out too much.)
• Copy Protection : A symbol dialing screen, accessed every time Zak or Annie book a flight arriving outside of the United States. If you fail this, the character is transported to jail, with the Jailor turning towards the camera lecturing you not to pirate the game. This was removed for the 1991 FM Towns port of the game.
• Cruelty Is the Only Option : You have to make the stewardess's life a living hell to continue. During a regular flight, Zak floods the toilet, uses the distraction to explode an egg in the microwave, then uses that as a distraction to steal a seat cushion, an oxygen tank, and a lighter. The stewardess has to clean up both messes.
• Darkest Africa : Shaman Slicinmon in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Congo).
• Developer's Foresight : You can avoid being apprehended for using the Blue Crystal by being disguised, but the Caponian will still take your crystal. In that case, you'll have to get it back from the locker in the mindbender room back in San Francisco.
• Elvis Has Left the Planet : Parodied, the Caponians are led by an Elvis impersonator named "The King".
• Evil Lawyer Joke : "The King" considers gluing Money to Zak and tossing him into a pit full of lawyers.
• Fan Sequel : At least three sets of fans have set about creating a sequel: 1) Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space , 2) Zak McKracken and the Alien Rockstars , and 3) The New Adventures of Zak McKracken
• Guide Dang It! : The Lucas adventure with the most illogical and inescrutable puzzles, by far. A lot of actions have little to no in-story indication as to why they should be done in that particular way. The tabloid included with the game has clues to a number of puzzles, such as a story about a man whose broken eyeglasses were miraculously fixed perfectly by a lightning strike hinting you towards how to fuse a broken crystal back together.
• Homemade Inventions : Zak makes a space suit out of a wetsuit, a fish bowl (leaving his fish in the kitchen) and copious amounts of duct tape . However, he'll also need an air tank or he will suffocate.
• Improvised Lockpick : At one point, the heroes need to access a particular chamber to acquire the crystal that powers their device. The alien who gives them this assignment provides them with the key to open the door, but it disintegrates upon being picked up. The heroes make do by going to a hair salon and cutting down the giant bobby pin hanging outside, then using it to pick the lock.
• Informing the Fourth Wall : "That doesn't seem to work."
• Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life : If Zak is caught twice picking up the flag, he gets a life sentence for crimes against the Nepalese flag.

• Leg Cling : Subverted. Despite the Boris Vallejo pastiche on the cover, that woman shows no signs of interest in grabbing a leg.
• Mars Needs Women : Parodied with Melissa and Leslie who star in a film entitled Mars Needs Men .
• The Maze : The game has several mazes, most of which are easily mappable, and certain others that are random, but that you automatically get out of after three rooms.
• Money to Throw Away : If you make use of The King's lottery number prediction machine, that is! But even then, Zak is doing awfully well for himself despite being a tabloid reporter, if his CashCard balance is to be believed.
• No Knees : The humans have knees. The Caponians do not, making rapid steps as they move.
• No Off Button : The titular Mindbender only has a big ON/ON switch; throwing it seemingly does something (reverses the polarity?), but turning it off is impossible. Given that it's designed to induce stupidity, this is a perfectly sensible design choice. Fortunately, it can be destroyed by the Skolarian Device.
• Nothing Is Scarier : In the maze in Egypt, there's a room that's completely dark but you can hear the snoring of the monster that guards the maze. If you go back in, it wakes up, and your character panics until it cuts away to a message saying they were killed by...whatever that was.
• Not the Intended Use : The blue crystal will either knock you unconscious or allow you to communicate with animals. It will also alarm the Caponians, who will warp in to capture you. That last part, while bad (but otherwise easy to escape), can help give you a free trip back to San Francisco, saving you the cost of a flight.
• Oddball in the Series : Apart from the humour, this game is pretty much this to the rest of LucasArts games. It's a lot more unforgiving, since there are only a handful of ways to beat the game, and a lot more ways to die or screw up. It's much much longer and less straight-forward than its predecessor ( Maniac Mansion ). No Dialogue Tree there too, but while you can die in Maniac Mansion (Since this was before they brought up their "No die" and "Can't screw up" policies), there are multiple ways to beat that other game. Gameplay wise, definitely. Writing-wise? Far from it .
• Painting the Medium : The game represents the eponymous character's eponymous treatment by emptying his set of commands and having them gradually return as he recovers.
• Paper-Thin Disguise : The Caponians in their hats and Groucho glasses, who also get fooled by the same disguise that Zak later wears. They only see through it in two cases.
• Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity : The plot revolves around aliens who took over the phone company and are sending out a signal that makes people stupid.
• A Pig Named "Porkchop" : Zak's pet goldfish is named Sushi.
• Public Domain Soundtrack : In the DOS release, Zak plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" on his kazoo (otherwise it's the first few bars of the Indiana Jones theme song).
• Punny Name : There is a hair salon named Bob E. Pinz ("bobby pins").
• Road Apples : If Zak mind-links with the yak in Katmandu, he will only have the option to "chew" at first. After clicking "chew" 20 times, the yak will now also have the option to "poop," producing a "yak pie."
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale : Leslie and Melissa somehow managed to convert a VW minibus into a single stage to Mars and return to Earth spacecraft. Somewhat justified because it's a comedy game which involves aliens wearing Groucho glasses and new age science fiction tropes.
• A Hare Krishna sells Zak a book on how to find enlightenment in life. The book costs a whopping $ 42 .
• The entire city of Miami, Florida is closed for repairs. This might be a reference to National Lampoon's Vacation , in which Clark Griswold explains a hypothetical situation in which the entire state of Florida is closed for repairs.
• Melissa has $1138 on her bank account and Zak owes the exact same amount to the Phone Company.
• On Mars there is a black monolith ... which is actually a vending machine.
• Zak can play the Indiana Jones riff in his kazoo. Posters of Maniac Mansion , Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , the Adventure Game and Rescue on Fractalus! can also be seen.
• Shown Their Work : At the beginning of the game Zak's boss sends him to Seattle to write a fluff piece about the 50th anniversary of the first UFO sighting. The first widely publicized UFO sighting did indeed happen near Mount Rainier in Washington state in 1947.
• Space Suits Are Scuba Gear : Zak literally builds a space suit of a set of SCUBA gear (and a fishbowl). The apparent lack of hand protection is hand-waved by the suit having transparent gloves; due to technical limitations, Zak's hands had to use his skin color.
• Teleporter's Visualization Clause : Zig-Zagged . When Zak learns how to use the Yellow Crystal and draws the map from his dream, he can teleport to the Mars Face even though he hadn't been there yet. Atlantis and the Mars Pyramid also appear on the map, but Zak can't teleport to either location because the pads are broken there.
• That Came Out Wrong : When meeting Annie in person for the first time, Zak describes her as "the girl I saw in my dream." Annie momentarily takes this to be a particularly corny chat-up line, but quickly realises that Zak's speaking literally, and that she also saw him in her own dream.
• 20 Minutes into the Future : Downplayed. The game takes place in 1997, with two visible technological "advances": People exclusively use "Cash Cards" instead of actual cash, and TVs no longer seem to have buttons on them.
• Truth in Television : Eggs actually do explode in the microwave.
• Washed the bread crumbs down the drain? Spent your money and got stuck at a place where you can't win the lottery to gain more money? Then you can't beat the game.
• If Melissa or Leslie die before Zak gets the white crystal (by lingering too long in an area with no oxygen while not wearing their helmets), the game will be unwinnable. The same happens if Zak or Annie die at any point, as the final action requires both of them. However, you are directly warned of this:
• The game designers do try and make it easier to get money aside from the lottery. You can pawn various things, or you can have one character buy a ticket and give it to the other character, who can cash it in for a refund. And before you learn that the Blue Crystal only works on animals, Zak can use it on anything, wait for the aliens to show up and get a free ride home to San Francisco.
• If you forget to put the tree branch in the fire pit (ensuring the fire will burn indefinitely), the nests can burn away. If this happens before you draw the ankh and open the alien door to the Blue Crystal, the cave will forever remain in darkness and Zak won't be able to draw the symbol, even by using the lighter.
• You can also have Leslie and Melissa get back in their VW minibus-turned-spacecraft, turn the key and launch into space. Once you do this, they will effectively be out of the game for good (and will make a comment about it taking months to get back to Earth).
• Melissa and/or Leslie can buy each one a token and travel to the Martian pyramid. The token dispenser of that side is out of order and they can't get back to the Face. The game will be brought to a dead end if they haven't finished all necessary tasks there.
• Near the beginning, you pick up a scrap of wallpaper, which you eventually need in order to draw a map. Some time before this, you have to light a bonfire, and can, if you choose, use the wallpaper as kindling. The game doesn't try to dissuade you, and you can continue unhampered until you realise what you were supposed to hang on to the paper for... (You could also have used the crayon on the phone bill, but you could lose that too later on in the game.)
• It's possible to slide things you need into the slot at Annie's office before you have the item that motivates her to contact you; since the door doesn't open, you can't get them back, so you're screwed.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential : Leaving aside what Zak has to do to the stewardess, he can also kill animals in inventive ways ( e.g. , bludgeoning the two-headed squirrel, running his goldfish Sushi through the garbage disposal, putting Sushi in the lamp and turning it on).
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue : According to the game, the Caponians left Earth in search of other stupid life forms, the phone company went bankrupt after the public stopped trusting it and started communicating by telepathy and dream-sharing instead, Melissa and Leslie became film stars, Zak finally won his coveted Pulitzer after writing a book about his experience saving the world (which also netted him a Nobel Peace Prize), and Zak and Annie fell in love .
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Retrospective: Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

Getting stupid.

I wonder if I'm getting stupider. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders came out in 1988, when I was 11 years old. It seems impossible to believe that at the age of 32 I can have become worse at games. And yet while my memories of playing Zak Mak when it first came out are extremely hazy, I certainly don't remember getting stuck quite as often. What I do remember is that I really enjoyed it. I've since been told by those who should know that this cannot possibly have been true. So I've gone back to find out.

LucasArts is much heralded as the company that refined the point-and-click adventure into something more coherent and fair than those of its rivals at Sierra Online, Westwood, and so on. However, while this may have eventually become true, it certainly wasn't in 1988. It's hard to believe that much of Zak McKracken came from the same studio that went on to create Monkey Island, and of course the greatest of them all, Day of the Tentacle.

And yet so much else feels like a prototype for those games to come. Alongside random deaths, the ability to play yourself into a dead end, and some extremely primitive storytelling, are also multiple-character puzzles, an elaborate plot, and a great deal of familiar daftness.

Worrying about stupidity is particularly apposite here. Aliens have invaded Earth, taking over telephone companies, and are broadcasting a signal that is making humanity increasingly stupid. Zak is a reporter for an American newspaper, based in San Francisco, who is asked to file a report on reputed sightings of a two-headed squirrel in Seattle. He is not pleased by this.

And so it begins in extremely familiar adventuring style. This is from the era of LucasArts games with the verb system at the bottom of the screen (see the screenshots), so you built instructions by clicking on words and objects in the world. "USE" "butter knife" "squirrel", for instance. Although it lacks the option to "LOOK AT" something, which makes for a strange time in an adventure world. (Maniac Mansion made the same decision.)

Despite not being able to look at anything, Zak can pick up anything that isn't glued down and add it to a really quite enormous inventory. The first stages are about getting to Seattle, which involves discovering aliens running the phone company. And waking a bus driver up with a kazoo. And psychically knowing to use a yellow crayon on a scrap of wallpaper to write down the contents of a dream. Indeed, even the reasonably good opening section is riddled with problems. And disappointingly this just gets worse.

It's packed with some really splendid ideas, but Zak McKracken turns out to be a blot - nay, a blight - on LucasArts' fantastic adventure CV. So why on Earth did I remember it being so brilliant?

I would never have gotten through this globe-trotting, multi-route, multi-character cacophony without using the mighty GameFAQs, and every other minute at that, because Zak McKracken is structured in a fascinating way. It could have been something extraordinary in a better game - you can travel to about eight different countries, in any order you choose, playing as four different characters (two of whom are on Mars), solving some puzzles in a variety of different ways - but it's such a pain to play that these wonderful elements only create further obfuscation.

The game is huge. Twice as long as most adventures of the era. It even has a complex money system. Zak (and indeed Annie) must pay their way, purchasing items from the pawn shop, and more frequently buying tickets for flights. While you start with a generous $12,000, head to the wrong country (which you've not been told about, nor told why you might need to go there, nor warned that you'll need to go there in order to fly somewhere else that can only be reached from there...) and you'll have wasted a thousand bucks.

So how do you make more? Well, you could always find your way to an alien base (proving your friendship with the alien leader by showing him the fan club membership card you have, because you filled out a membership form in the phone company offices and then posted it by, er, putting it in your own letterbox), and then use their lottery-predicting machine. Go back to San Fran, buy a ticket, pick the right numbers, and you'll soon get a bonus $10,000 in your account. Novel, but beyond insane.

By the time you're worrying about maintaining the oxygen levels for two characters on Mars, whether Annie's got enough money to travel to Cairo, or whether Zak picked up the lighter from the aeroplane that's going to be extremely necessary for playing any further, there's far too much going on to let you struggle with clicking everything on everything to get past the latest berserk situation.

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Release date

01 Jan 1988

Primary platform

Playable on, developer / publisher.

Lucasfilm Games / Lucasfilm , Disney

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System Requirements

• OS *: Windows XP or newer
• Processor: 1 GHz
• Memory: 256 MB RAM
• Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7
• DirectX: Version 7.0
• Storage: 133 MB available space
• Sound Card: 16-bit sound card
• Additional Notes: Mouse, Keyboard
• Processor: 1.4 GHz
• Memory: 512 MB RAM
• Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
• DirectX: Version 9.0c
• OS: OS X 10.7.0 or newer
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: 64 MB VRAM
• Additional Notes: Two button Mouse

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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

Game length provided by HowLongToBeat

• Crazy off-the-wall humor.
• Beautiful late 80s pixel graphics, perfect for any retro gamer!
• Challenging, mind-bending mystery!
• No typing required! Just point-and-click to solve puzzles and talk to the crazy characters that live in Zak's world!

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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

Originally posted by willi : Yes they are random each play

Originally posted by josie.wizz : Is there a clue as to what these are?

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Key To The City (Moscow) – World War Z Walkthrough

Last updated on December 21, 2019 by A L

Key to the City is the 2nd chapter in the Moscow episode of World War Z.

Your task is to locate the lost strike team within the state mall.

Here’s a walkthrough of Key To The City (Moscow) in World War Z.

Search for the strike team

You will spawn at the parking garage. Search the area for the strike team.

You will encounter some zombies down here.

Near one of the pillars, you will find a breaching charge.

You can use it on the door nearby.

Inside the room, you will find weapons and a defence kit.

You can deploy the voltage grid defence kit on the ground.

More zombies will appear, so the defence kit comes in handy.

Once the zombies are dead, follow the marker. You will reach a vehicle but no one is here.

Wait for the strike team to show up.

Hold position

While waiting, you need to clear the incoming zombies.

The strike team will then do their work.

Protect the team

While they’re doing their work, you have to protect them. More zombies will come.

Protect Bumazhkov

Next, one of the team members Bumazhkov will breach a door.

He will take some time, so you need to protect him while he breaches the door.

After breaching the door, you will find more equipment.

Prepare defenses and defend position

You need to prepare defenses. Use the defence kit you find in the room.

Your job is to protect the team.

A swarm of zombies will appear. You can use the turret to clear most of them.

Get to the mall and search for the radio

Your next task is to look for a radio.

Go upstairs.

From the top floor, jump down and you’ll reach the outdoors. Go towards the mall.

At the mall, there’ll be more zombies. Head towards the grill.

You can open the grill and go upstairs.

Get to this room where the radio is. No one will be here.

You need to wait for the strike team to come. In the meantime, hold position by killing the incoming horde of zombies.

The team will come in and do their work. You have to protect them.

Search bodies for radio key

Next, they require a radio key.

You have to search the bodies for the key. Just follow the marker to the bodies.

The radio key was finally found in this corpse inside a room. This room is accessible from the outdoor area.

Bring radio key to Svetlana

After getting the key, bring it back to Svetlana, one of the team members.

Prepare defenses

While they’re trying to set up the radio, prepare your defenses as a swarm of zombies are coming.

Kill all of the zombies until the team finishes broadcasting their message.

Get to the exit

Now, head outside to the exit.

Get within this blue boundary and the mission is complete. The whole team has to assemble here.

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Red Square & Moscow City Tour

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Description

Highlights:.

• Experience medieval Kitay Gorod (China town).
• Wander picturesque Red Square and Alexander Garden.
• Explore grand Christ the Savior Cathedral on our Red Square tour.
• Breathtaking panoramic views from Patriarch bridge.
• Enjoy a hearty lunch on the large open verandah and marvel at the stunning views of the Kremlin.
• Learn about Russian culture from the local through relaxed cultural discussions.

Tour Itinerary:

Red square:.

Russia and Moscow are synonymous with Red Square and the Kremlin and that's hardly surprising as you'll find these places absolutely stunning!

• - Walk-through the Resurrection Gate and don’t forget to flip a coin so you’ll be sure to come back one day!
• - Visit the world's famous Kazan Cathedral .
• - See the State Department Store (GUM), once the Upper Trading Stalls, which were built over a century ago and still operating!
• - Admire the lovely St. Basil's Cathedral! The French diplomat Marquis de Custine commented that it combined "the scales of a golden fish, the enamelled skin of a serpent, the changeful hues of the lizard, the glossy rose and azure of the pigeon's neck" and wondered at "the men who go to worship God in this box of confectionery work".
• - Walk by Lobnoye Mesto (literally meaning "Execution Place", or "Place of Skulls"), once Ivan the Terrible's stage for religious ceremonies, speeches, and important events.
• - Entering the Alexander Garden , you’ll take in spectacular views of Russian architecture from ancient to Soviet times, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame. Watch Changing of the Guard Ceremony every hour in summer and every half an hour in winter.

Kitai-gorod:

Stroll along medieval Kitai-gorod with its strong ancient Russia feel, known for its bohemian lifestyle, markets and arts.

• - Nikolskaya Street. Here you will find the Russia's first publishing house, the second oldest monastery, and Ferryn Pharmacy, known as the number one pharmacy back in Soviet times and famous for its Empire-style architecture.
• - Ilinka Street. The financial street of the Kitaigorod (China Town) district, where you’ll find the Gostiny Dvor (Merchant’s Yard), which is now a showroom for Ferraris and Maseratis. The street was designed in the 1790s by Catherine the Great.
• - Varvarka street. The oldest street in Moscow, which dates back to the 14th century, and still has remnants of early Muscovite architecture, such as the Old English Court and the Palace of the Romanov’s.
• - Kamergersky Lane. Only a small road of about 250 meters, it is home to some of the oldest artifacts of the city, as each building holds a fascinating story. Some of Russia's most famous writers, poets, and composers from as far back as the Golden Age of Russian culture, have lived or worked on this lane.

Historic City Center

Walk the historical old center of Moscow with its cool local vibe, including the main Tverskaya street , and indulge in desserts in the first grocery “Eliseev's store” , housed in an 18th century neoclassical building, famous for its baroque interior and decoration.

From our tour. Impressions of our American tourist:

At 3:30, as energy flagged, lunch was on the agenda at a Ukrainian restaurant.  Just in time!  We asked our guide to order for us.  We all had the same thing....borscht (the Ukrainian version has beans and more tomatoes than the Russian version, which has more beets and includes beef). 

The special high bread served is called galushki.  Our main course was golubtsy...a dish of minced meat rolled in braised cabbage leaves.  Both dishes called for optional sour cream as a topping....of course, yes, please....I recommend it. 

Full, satisfied, and completely refreshed, it was off to Red Square and St. Basil's and GUM department store.  Red Square is not so named because of the color of the brick walls of the Kremlin.  Rather the word for 'red' and the word for 'beautiful' are similar in pronunciation....and, there you have it. 

As we made the turn by the National Museum in front of which is the mounted sculpture of the "Marshall of Victory," Giorgy Zhukov from WWII and caught our first view of St. Basil's, my friend and I simultaneously emitted "Oooohhhhh!"  There it was....the iconic onion domes of St. Basil's!  Hooray....it was open until 7....we had about 30 minutes and were allowed in, AND we could take photos with no flash. 

Now, I can give you a taste of what we saw in the other cathedrals in Cathedral Square.  What we learned is that St. Vasily and St. Basil are one in the same....Russian/English.  He was a common man who wandered Moscow unclothed and barefoot.  But, all, even Ivan the Terrible, heeded his opinions derived from his visions.  Ivan had this cathedral built over his tomb. 

As we exited and took photos up close of the onion domes, Inna presented us with chocolate (how did she know we were ready for another energy boost, and we each got a big piece of chocolate.  The baby's name pictured on the wrapper of this famous Russian chocolate is Alyonka....the Russian Gerber baby, don't you think? 

One could wear out the credit card in GUM's (capitalized because it is actually a government abbreviation), but the 'kitty' and my credit card stayed in my pocket as we strolled through the glass-topped arcade. 

We then strolled through some of Moscow's lovely pedestrian streets; paused to listen as a wonderful quartet performed Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" in an underground passage to cross the busy street (hooray!....we DID have our 'classical concert' experience after all; a request Alina tried in vain to fill because none was scheduled those days), saw the Bolshoi, which means 'big' (my friend has yet to recover that their performance schedule did not coincide with our cruise), saw the Central Telegraph Building, dating from the 1930's, and made our way to the Ritz-Carlton to see the night view of Moscow from the rooftop bar, called O2. 

There were fleece blankets to wrap yourself in....yes, it got that cold when the sun set.  We each ordered something hot to drink...the ginger, mint, lemon tea served to me in a parfait glass (for 600 rubles...about $9....you pay for the view here!) was delightful and hit the spot perfectly.  It was time to call it a night....

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting city tour, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time.

*This Moscow city tour can be modified to meet your requirements.

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A History of Moscow in 13 Dishes

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