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 What is this? Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is an adventure game initially released by Lucasfilm Games in 1988. We start of playing as Zak, a journalist for the National Inquirer, who has just woken up from a bizarre dream and is on his way to Seattle to research a new story for a news article. On our way out of the door, Zak turns on the news and discovers that there is a global epidemic involving the telephone company that is slowly reducing the intelligence of everybody on Earth. This is the game that pretty much kickstarted my love of adventure games. I spent hours upon hours playing this on my Atari ST when I was a kid, it is definitely one of the top ten games that I spent the most time with as a child. I did attempt an SSLP of this about eight years ago but I abandoned it very early on. I'm very excited to be replaying this again and I hope that I can do it some service. LP Details This game was originally released on the Commodore 64 but was eventually ported to the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS. I will be playing the DOS version of the game, more specifically the "FM-Towns" version. The FM-Towns version was released in Japan with enhanced 256-colour graphics and remastered audio. When you enable the Japanese language the game changes the eyes of the characters to anime eyes (I'll be playing with the English language for obvious reasons). This is going to be a VLP and I record commentary as I record. I don't have a schedule, it all depends on when I have free time around work and child care but I will aim to have at least one video up a week. I was planning to turn this into a hybrid VLP\SSLP thread but I don't currently have the technical know-how to make the screenshots as good as they should be. If all goes well I will also do a VLP of the fan-made sequel Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space as well. Let's Play: Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders       Bonus Video: Additional Content Let's Play: Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space                
Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 12:57 on May 18, 2023 |
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Mar 17, 2023 20:15
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I remember playing this a lot game as a kid without getting far. It seeded my hatred of adventure games. I also remember trying it again a decade later, to find out that I had lost the copy protection sheet that the game used. e: man I really don't remember that annoying wind sound effect. I assume it didn't get played by the pc-beeper version I remember. VictualSquid fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Mar 17, 2023 |
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Mar 17, 2023 20:56
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VictualSquid posted:I remember playing this a lot game as a kid without getting far. It seeded my hatred of adventure games. I also remember trying it again a decade later, to find out that I had lost the copy protection sheet that the game used. The first copy that I had on the Atari ST was pirated with no copy protection sheet in sight so I wasn't even able to leave the US. We eventually got a boxed copy but I still made little to no progress in the game as walkthroughs weren't easy to come by in the early '90s. Computer magazines used to print cheat codes but it was an absolute rarity if any of them printed a walkthrough of an adventure game. The first time that I completed this was probably a little under ten years ago when I decided to revisit the game again as an adult. The earlier versions didn't have all of the background noise. If you buy the game digitally it comes with the original DOS version, the DOS version with enhanced graphics and the FM-Towns version. The FM-Towns version was built for the Japanese market and it was released with a remastered soundtrack and enhanced graphics. I'm much more used to playing the game with zero background noise, it's going to take a while to get used to. Edit: The game is 65% off on Steam right now - https://store.steampowered.com/app/559070/Zak_McKracken_and_the_Alien_Mindbenders/
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Mar 17, 2023 22:45
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This brings back memories. I had this game on my C64, but never got very far, considering my English was non-existent back then. I still had some fun just wandering around, but I think I never got further than the first three screens or something.
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Mar 17, 2023 23:47
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I remember the name of this one from reading computer game magazines back in the day, but I know essentially nothing about it. Up until last year, I had no idea it was even a LucasArts game, I thought it was Sierra - probably conflating it with Willie Beamish based on the cartoony name. Super curious to see how it plays out.
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Mar 18, 2023 02:03
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Atari ST! Too bad that system never seemed to catch on very well in the states, while the Apple II and IBM PC took off like wildfire. Also, it's refreshing that they didn't give the baker an overwrought french accent
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Mar 18, 2023 02:58
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Libluini posted:This brings back memories. I had this game on my C64, but never got very far, considering my English was non-existent back then. I still had some fun just wandering around, but I think I never got further than the first three screens or something. I remember playing Maniac Mansion around the same time but I never managed to get past the front door. Even without the copy protection I could still wander around the area and visit a couple of different places. I was around 6 or 7 when I started to play them though. Captain Hygiene posted:I remember the name of this one from reading computer game magazines back in the day, but I know essentially nothing about it. Up until last year, I had no idea it was even a LucasArts game, I thought it was Sierra - probably conflating it with Willie Beamish based on the cartoony name. Super curious to see how it plays out. This isn't too dissimilar to Sierra games as it's one of the very few LucasArts adventure games where it's possible to die. There are also a variety of ways to lock yourself out of completing the game. sb hermit posted:Atari ST! Too bad that system never seemed to catch on very well in the states, while the Apple II and IBM PC took off like wildfire. The one good thing about not having voice actors is that you can make up everyone's voices up in your own head. But considering that the place is called "Le Bakery" with a big French flag attached it is quite surprising that they didn't go down that route. I've completed a test run for the next update, I'm not sure that I'll have time to record it this weekend but I will definitely be aiming to have something up on Monday.
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Mar 18, 2023 23:52
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:The one good thing about not having voice actors is that you can make up everyone's voices up in your own head. Personally, I can't help hearing Zak with the voice of the protagonist from Orion Burger. This game in particular is one where the LP format kind of robs it. Getting a lot of stuff before you have any clue what you need it for saves a lot of time and no few restarts, but there's a lot of puzzles here that are incredibly clever when you work them out. Would highly recommend playing along for that reason.
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Mar 19, 2023 00:14
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Gnoman posted:Personally, I can't help hearing Zak with the voice of the protagonist from Orion Burger. This game is definitely worth a playthrough even in this day and age as it's a classic. With It's almost Edit: It was longer ago. Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Mar 19, 2023 |
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Mar 19, 2023 00:27
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Oh I remember my uncle having this on his absolutely VAST shelves of old cardboard box games. I deeply regret not having the space to pick up his entire collection when he was moving and offered to hand off most of it.
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Mar 20, 2023 00:27
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In this video, Zak heads to Seattle to find the mythical two-headed squirrel and finds out that it's hiding much more than nuts in its lair. We meet some new people in this video, make some new friends and see a variety of new locations. This section was a pain in the arse to record as I had trouble explaining one of the segments effectively, I'm still not sure that I did in the end but after an hour I just rolled with what happened in this recording.
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Mar 20, 2023 15:47
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PurpleXVI posted:Oh I remember my uncle having this on his absolutely VAST shelves of old cardboard box games. I deeply regret not having the space to pick up his entire collection when he was moving and offered to hand off most of it. Sometimes I have visions of raiding my parent's attic as it's a treasure trove of Atari ST and ZX Spectrum history. Edit: I didn't mean to double post but here we are.
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Mar 20, 2023 15:49
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I'm under the impression that the pyramids themselves are tombs, and the coffin is the sarcophagus.
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Mar 20, 2023 17:02
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One of my favourite things is how many things adventure game protags do, when they're done "optimally" and thus slightly out of logic order, that seem like some sort of advanced mental illness.
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Mar 21, 2023 02:51
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PurpleXVI posted:One of my favourite things is how many things adventure game protags do, when they're done "optimally" and thus slightly out of logic order, that seem like some sort of advanced mental illness. kinda feels like the "well, this is the only way all these pieces fit together" kind of gameplay where the only clues come from countless mistakes and experiments although it's really really cool that there are multiple ways to perform a task, which is pretty refreshing this really reminds me that I still haven't beaten Maniac Mansion. My characters always get kidnapped and I never quite know which initial characters to pick.
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Mar 21, 2023 04:52
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This game is definitely all about trial and error. A number of these can result in fail states in certain conditions or even death. I've played through the next part of the game already and I can show off a couple of big errors which won't result in failure, one of which may even be beneficial. I need to do some more testing with this part of the game as things got very messy several times over. There hasn't been a whole of errors to show off just yet, so far they mostly all involve wasting inventory items but I'll start making things more interesting in the next video. I'll also work on a death reel at some point too.
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Mar 21, 2023 08:12
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I'm toying with the idea of showing off fail states and alternative solutions to some of the puzzles during the main playthrough. I normally reserve these kinds of things for separate videos but the next part of the game is going to contain a puzzle where the optimal route doesn't make much sense unless you know what to expect beforehand. I'm not sure whether this is going to spoil the immersion of the actual playthrough but the optimal route will do so somewhat anyway.
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Mar 21, 2023 12:26
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I feel like I'd rather have the interesting failures alongside the main playthrough rather than segregated off into their own video.
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Mar 21, 2023 12:31
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I was hoping to have an update ready before work but I had to scrap about 45 minutes of work because of the volume. The volume controls for this game do not work at all and I think that it's down to the soundtrack being in mp3 as I had the same issue with another game. There's one area of this game where the music just blared out and I've had to raise my voice in the new recordings to compensate. I'm hoping to have an update ready for tonight as I've recorded about 80% of what I've needed but I ran out of time before I could complete everything.
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Mar 23, 2023 12:55
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You are forgiven for depriving us of LP content for today. (accidents happen!)
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Mar 23, 2023 22:56
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Zak visits several new locations in this video. We first visit Kinshasa to help and help someone important person lower their golf score, who helps us in turn by performing a sacred dance. We then travel to Katmandu to meet the Guru and end up committing a crime that could land us a lengthy prison sentence. We finish off this video with a trip to Lima where we put what we learnt from the guru to the test. I've included some alternative scenarios of obtaining an item in Katmandu as well as an end-game scenario. I've also shown off what happens when you get caught and locked up by the aliens too. PurpleXVI posted:You are forgiven for depriving us of LP content for today. People are usually thankful for that!
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Mar 24, 2023 00:11
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The one wired trick to saving air fares and avoiding airport security. Just get abducted by aliens and teleported home.
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Mar 24, 2023 00:27
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I could swear putting on the disguise while in the alien jail will get you out sooner.
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Mar 24, 2023 09:52
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Annie: "Stealing would be wrong, but arson feels juuuuuuuuuust right!" I was also genuinely worrying that the Africa parts were about to get REALLY racist when I saw those grass huts, but at least they just stayed modestly stereotypical.
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Mar 24, 2023 10:44
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VictualSquid posted:The one wired trick to saving air fares and avoiding airport security. Wether flying homeor getting abducted by aliens there's still a chance of getting a good probing. Deathwind posted:I could swear putting on the disguise while in the alien jail will get you out sooner. I will try to show off different combinations in the future, such as using the blue crystal and getting caught while disguised. PurpleXVI posted:Annie: "Stealing would be wrong, but arson feels juuuuuuuuuust right!" It wasn't too bad, the witch doctor and shamanism is part of many cultures in various regions of Africa. Plus there is still some indigenous tribes that live in huts of various materials even now. The marble walled interiors and chandelier was definitely a nice touch that was very left field to the expecting though. The only thing that I did roll my eyes over was the reference to head shrinking. But looking back now that could have also been a pun for the Shaman also being a "shrink".
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Mar 24, 2023 12:09
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Wether flying homeor getting abducted by aliens there's still a chance of getting a good probing. The odds of getting probed on a normal flight would be quite low as this game is set before the TSA was a thing.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:58
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Have I ever told you how much I hate mazes? If I haven't already then let me just say that I really hate mazes!
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Mar 25, 2023 11:44
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Have I ever told you how much I hate mazes? If I haven't already then let me just say that I really hate mazes! Invisible Teleporter Mazes that can't be mapped!
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Mar 25, 2023 14:19
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berryjon posted:Invisible Teleporter Mazes that can't be mapped! There's no teleportation thankfully. There are some rather confusing maps though. Edit: They're probably only confusing to me.
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Mar 25, 2023 16:43
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Have I ever told you how much I hate mazes? If I haven't already then let me just say that I really hate mazes! Would you like maps?
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Mar 26, 2023 05:03
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Deathwind posted:Would you like maps? Thank you for the offer but I managed to find some maps. One of them was overcomplicated and sent me down the wrong path. The layout for this particular one does make sense but with these kind of things I have no sense of direction. My brain just can't seem to grasp mazes at all and I easily lose where I am. I managed to find the solution in the end and it was by watching a video of someone run through the maze in total darkness.
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Mar 26, 2023 11:32
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Thank you for the offer but I managed to find some maps. One of them was overcomplicated and sent me down the wrong path. I think my first lucasarts adventure game was Monkey Island (although arguably it could have been Maniac Mansion) and Monkey Island's gameplay was so much more player friendly than their kings quest contemporaries. I guess now it's clear that they didn't get the philosophy right on day one, and Zak was one of their first games
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Mar 26, 2023 17:28
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sb hermit posted:I think my first lucasarts adventure game was Monkey Island (although arguably it could have been Maniac Mansion) and Monkey Island's gameplay was so much more player friendly than their kings quest contemporaries. I believe that Labyrinth was their first adventure game and it's certainly something. I finished reading through the LP of it only last week: https://lparchive.org/Labyrinth/ Zak McKracken was the second game to be released that used the Scumm engine, Maniac Mansion was the first. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade & Loom came out directly before the first Monkey Island game.
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Mar 26, 2023 18:07
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:I believe that Labyrinth was their first adventure game and it's certainly something. I finished reading through the LP of it only last week: https://lparchive.org/Labyrinth/ Whoa! I didn't know they had a text adventure game...
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Mar 26, 2023 19:40
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The "no dead ends" design didn't start until Monkey Island. Maniac Mansion had many ways to screw up. Zak was a tiny bit better but has some of the nastier ones in adventure games. Indy has combat and puzzles that can kill you. (Indy seems to be an exception to their design policy as even the later Indy games can screw you) Loom has a couple sections where you need to repeat patterns from earlier in the game past one-way points.
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Mar 26, 2023 21:08
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We get to meet Melissa and Leslie in this video and we get to see more of Mars. We haven't uncovered every mystery on Mars just yet but we've found enough to help Zak and to keep themselves safe for the moment. Zak continues his adventures by swinging by Mexico so he can loot an ancient pyramid before heading off to visit the Bermuda Triangle.
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Mar 27, 2023 14:19
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So, I didn't exactly catch the first episode, so I don't know if you already know this, but your lighter can work as a makeshift flashlight, though it only works for a short time as it burns Zak's fingers. As far as I know, there's nothing stopping you from turning it back on, and using it repeatedly.
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Mar 28, 2023 02:46
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:
the whole puzzle with Leslie and Melissa gives me Maniac Mansion vibes, where certain people are good at one thing and other people are good at other things. Although I wonder what Melissa is good at. Her fear of heights and dead aliens are not good but she works well as a second pair of hands
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Mar 28, 2023 02:55
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sb hermit posted:the whole puzzle with Leslie and Melissa gives me Maniac Mansion vibes, where certain people are good at one thing and other people are good at other things. This is the game they made immediately after Maniac Mansion, it only makes sense that it feels similar.
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Mar 28, 2023 05:12
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I'm assuming that if you pop someone's helmet off outside on Mars, it's an instant character death.  Is the game actually cruel enough to allow you to do that?
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Mar 28, 2023 11:39
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