Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
1988 · Point-and-Click Adventure · Commodore 64 / Multiple
Overview
Zak McKracken (1988) is Lucasfilm Games' second SCUMM adventure, in which a tabloid writer and three allies stop aliens from dumbing down humanity with a 60 Hz hum.
Deep Dive
In 1997, tabloid writer Zak, a freelance scientist and two Yale students take on the Caponians, aliens who run a telephone company and use it to lower human intelligence. The heroes must rebuild the Skolarian Device, whose parts are scattered across Earth and Mars. Critics noted its many mazes.
Developer Story
David Fox led the project and co-designed it with Matthew Alan Kane, on the SCUMM engine first used for Maniac Mansion. It came out for the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS in October 1988, with Amiga and Atari ST versions in 1989. Fox said it was more popular in Germany and Europe than in the US.
Did You Know?
- Players had to enter copy-protection codes every time they flew out of the US.
- New Age writer David Spangler consulted on the game's materials.
Sources & further reading
- Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders — Wikipedia
