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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


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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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

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.
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.

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/

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

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.

Also, it's refreshing that they didn't give the baker an overwrought french accent

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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Gnoman posted:

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.

This game is definitely worth a playthrough even in this day and age as it's a classic. With any most of the games that I LP I'd always encourage people to play the game for themselves if they are able to. I'm surprised that this hasn't received any form of remastering or a remake but in some ways, I'm glad that it's remained mostly untouched.

It's almost two three years to the day since I started the Orion Burger LP, somehow it feels like it was a lot longer ago.

Edit: It was longer ago.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Mar 19, 2023

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


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.

(accidents happen!)

People are usually thankful for that!

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

VictualSquid posted:

The one wired trick to saving air fares and avoiding airport security.
Just get abducted by aliens and teleported home.

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!"

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.

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".

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
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!

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

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 guess now it's clear that they didn't get the philosophy right on day one, and Zak was one of their first games

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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


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.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

PurpleXVI posted:

I'm assuming that if you pop someone's helmet off outside on Mars, it's an instant character death. :v: Is the game actually cruel enough to allow you to do that?

It is indeed. I could have shown it off in the last video but I was more concerned with getting through the mazes smoothly. I will be showing off another death in the next video but it won't be set in space, I'll be heading back there in the following update and I'll kill off someone then.

It's highly likely that this LP will be over with the sixth update. I'll definitely be following this up with the fan-made sequel.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

PurpleXVI posted:

Huh, that's a shorter game than expected. I was feeling like it was finally starting to gather some steam.

This is a common issue with adventure games, unfortunately. Especially when it comes to the final act(s) as they expect you to spend the majority of your time in the first half of the game.

There really isn't a lot of dialogue in this game and once you know how to solve the puzzles you can breeze through them fairly quickly.

I'm contemplating on doing a video with some extra content as there are a few more things that I could potentially show off.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

VictualSquid posted:

Adventure game puzzles are boring compared to similar puzzles in actual puzzle games. Adventure game stories are at best above average for games, which makes them terrible by all other standards.
Where adventures are best is with the short situational jokes. And as half of them are told when you do something wrong, it means that the "correct" way to play an adventure game is: Figure out what you are supposed to do and then do everything else first.
So, yeah you absolutely should show us all the funny deaths and failures that this game has to offer.

There isn't a whole lot to show off away from the beaten path but I will try to include what I can, if I can't then I will compile a short video with a few things that I'm aware of.

The main issue that I have is that if you do something wrong you've either locked yourself out of completing the game or it's only a minor inconvenience. There's nothing to really show off if you have locked yourself out of completing the game, you can still play but you just can't make any progress. If you lose the crayon too early, waste the nests and\or lose the breadcrumbs you don't receive any kind of message to say that you've messed up. If you run out of currency you just can't go anywhere any more. If a character dies the game still progresses as normal but you're unable to complete the game, even if Zak dies you're able to carry on.

As far as I'm aware, there are six ways to die in the game. I've already shown one way by trying to steal the flag in Katmandu, which technically isn't a death but it may as well be. I will be showing off another in the next update which may also include a second one but that may involve waiting around for an hour to see if it actually happens. I'm also going to show off something a little different when it comes to using the blue crystal too.

The sixth update, which may potentially be the last, will include the final three deaths.

There are a few things that I can think of a few extra things to include in a bonus video:

Showing off more situations involving the blue crystal.
Killing the squirrel and the consequences of it.
Killing Sushi
I should probably get play an older version of the game with the copy protection still enabled to show it off and to show off what happens when you fail it.

If there are any other suggestions then please let me know.

Deathwind posted:

I could swear putting on the disguise while in the alien jail will get you out sooner.

I've just tried this out and it does work. I will add this to the list as I have other plans for the next update.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
I recorded the game for an hour (while I was busy doing other things) so I could capture a death and I have to say it was rather anti-climactic.

Edit: I'm not sure whether it's worth putting in as you don't see anything at all, the game just cuts to another character.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


Zak definitely got his money's worth when he paid for a tour of the Bermuda Triangle. Annie also springs into action in this video with a trip to an ancient place of worship. They both then reunite in Cairo as they work together to uncover the mystery of the sphynx.

This recording felt fairly messy as there were several misclicks and I started to babble throughout. I decided to show off one death in this video and decided to explain the other as there wasn't anything new in the game to show it off. I was going to show off another death but I ran out of time so I'll be leaving it for the next video where I'll most likely pair it with another death. It also became messy when forgot to do one important thing with Sushi in my practice run and only remembered during the recording so things got a little all over the place.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Deathwind posted:

Here's an interesting question, how does the game handle the death of ALL characters? Is there a special cut scene?

I've never thought to try that out but I will soon.

I'm starting to think that I should have repaired the yellow crystal sooner but it would ruin the surprise of a couple of locations.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Deathwind posted:

Here's an interesting question, how does the game handle the death of ALL characters? Is there a special cut scene?

The game just cuts to the end credits like it does when you're on your own and imprisoned for life for attempting to steal the flag.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Rectus posted:

So guessing the dot on the map on the island is supposed to be Atlantis and not Britain.

It must be, I definitely did not see any platforms at Stonehenge.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Carpator Diei posted:

It's such an amazingly pure example of Adventure Game Logic that the only metal rod you're able to acquire on the entire planet is the strictly-guarded flagpole holding the national flag of Nepal.
In general, it's an interesting idea to let the player freely travel all around the world, but it's also very weird that each destination consists of exactly one important spot in the middle of nowhere that Zak and Annie just somehow intuitively know to head to.

I understand what you are saying but this game was originally released in 1988 on the C64. I believe that the game came on two discs which could hold a total of 170kb each. I would love a modern remake of this game which wouldn't be as constrained as this game had to be at the time.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
I'm travelling to Scotland tomorrow to visit my daughter for the weekend, she is officially turning into a teenager tomorrow. I've just completed a practice run of the next update and it will be the final one of this game, I just won't be able to record it until early next week. I did however record some additional footage earlier and I will try to find some more when I return home after the weekend, I'll try to compile and upload something after the finale has been uploaded.

I am having some difficulty sourcing a version of the game with the copy protection still enabled though, I'll try again after the weekend.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


This is the finale of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll talk a bit more in the next day or two. This was horrendous to record as I put too much pressure on myself as I have no idea when I'll be able to record this week and how long I will have to do so when I do. This ended up taking twice as long to record than usual and it's a patchwork of constant stops and starts. I probably should have waited until I was a bit more composed but I really don't know when my next recording window will be. I do need to record some more footage for the bonus video that will follow and I'm hoping to have it up before the end of the week. It helps that I can work on it in bits and pieces instead of devoting a whole chunk of time to it.

I'll write some more tomorrow as it's getting late and this has taken an hour longer than I thought it was going to. I hope that you enjoy the finale!

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Scrublord Prime posted:

Oooh, Zak McKraken! The original DOS release is what I had as a kid, with EGA colors and the C64 art style rather than the VGA stuff. Mind that early Lucasarts VGA was kinda rough in spots, like Zak's apartment here. As a kid I never got too far, I'd hit the copy protection and not having the manual ended up in pirate jail once I unlocked the other characters and tried to leave the US. I don't think it would've helped though. I think all the locations would make a map and notes for the obstacles in each area, what you could find in them, and plotting a route without running out of money was gonna be beyond kid me, nevermind half the puzzles. Plus the ol' 286 and this game didn't gel well together, the cursor wasn't exactly speedy and controlled by the keyboard, and if there were keyboard shortcuts my kid brain never remembered to use them.

I did like the modern setting in an adventure game, even if San Fransico, the airplane, the stupid dark cave, and Mars were kinda limited to explore. But again it was a game made for few floppies instead of QfG2's 9 or so floppies and the like, and years between 'em too. Modern settings felt more cohesive or familiar, same with Indy3, LSL2, and PQ2 that I grew up with.


Thanks for the LP! I never knew there was a fan sequel so I'm curious how that goes.

From what I remember of the Atari ST release the graphics weren't too far off of this version of the game. It's a game that definitely relies on trial and error and unfortunately by the time that you've realised that you've made some of those errors it's far too late to circumvent them. Now that I've replayed the game again some of the puzzles are a lot more straightforward than I remembered from my younger years. Although some of them do seem a little out there, such as a random altar being in stonehenge and a flagpole from Nepal being the only available lightning rod in the game.

Deathwind posted:

One note about the van, the news report said the trip took months. If you launch the van of course you basically lose the characters in it, they are on their long trip home.

I really should have included this in the main playthrough. I just started to panic last night and wanted to get a recording done after the numerous stopping, starting and re-recordings.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Bonus Video: Additional Content

This is a collection of additional content that was missed during the main playthrough. These clips are all optional choices that we can make in the game as well as some alternate ones. I did a little exploring with Annie but apart from a few extra lines, there wasn't anything really of note to add to this compilation. I probably should have taken out the clip of Zak emerging from the back room as it only contains one line of minor dialogue.

I've put timestamps in the video and these include: Taking Care Of Sushi, Emerging From The Back Room, Needing More Light, Playing With The Squirrel, Fun With Yaks, Annie's Travels, Meeting The King & The Long Drive Home.

Next up: Zak McKracken: Between Time And Space. I'm still figuring out what is going to follow afterwards as Zak McKracken was the last on the list of my last planned batch of games. I have three games in mind right now that are worlds apart from each other.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

PurpleXVI posted:

Wow, they did ANOTHER Zak game? Interesting.

I honestly feel like the most interesting read of this one is as Zak's idle daydreaming about why the rest of the world is so stupid and doesn't appreciate his journalistic skills: Clearly, they're so dumb because of an ALIEN CONSPIRACY. Now imagine, Zak daydreams, if he, Zak, was just the man to save the world, and he got to hang out with a bunch of cute girls while doing it and then also got to date one of them?

sb hermit posted:

it's an unofficial sequel without the involvement of lucasarts et al

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_McKracken:_Between_Time_and_Space

Aye, it's a fan-made sequel. I've had some unexpected free time this morning so I decided to do a test run for a potential first video. I haven't played this game before but I'm pretty impressed with it so far and it seems pretty solid.

The game was released for free and is available to download here: http://www.mckracken.net/cms/directorscut.html

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Let's Play: Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space



Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space is an unofficial fan-made sequel to the original Zak McKracken that was initially released in 2008. The game was made by the Artificial Hair Bros, it took over seven years to make and was originally released in their native language of Germany. They released a director's cut of the game in 2015 that fixed numerous bugs, expanded upon the story and they translated the game into English and French. I believe that as of this point in time, only the German and English versions of the game contain voice acting. This is pretty impressive considering that this game was released for free and still is to this day.

I was very aware of this game when it was being developed and kept my eye on it over the years. I'm very glad that it saw the light of day and was even gladder when it received an English translation. Even though I've been aware of it for all of this time, this is my first time playing through the game. I said in this video that I've played only as far as the end of the update but that isn't true, I thought that I'd progress more quickly so I've played a little further on than what you've seen in the video. I thought that I'd cut it where I did so I wouldn't have to rush around the next section.

My commentary in this game isn't the best as my speech falters at times. Normally I'd stop and restart the recording if my ability to speak starts to go out the window too much, but due to the uncertainty of the windows to record this week I thought that a few fluffs in my speech wouldn't be the end of the world. The UI isn't the best in this game and there are many options that illicit the same response to others, so there may be some repeated lines of dialogue as I'm trying to remember all of the unique ones.

If you want to play the game for yourself you can download it for free here: http://www.mckracken.net/

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Gilgamesh255 posted:

I believe I had some second hand experience with this, seeing someone do a very speeded up playthrough in the original German language. To this day, I still can't quite recall much of what happened.

I also recall another fan sequel, though more in line with the DOS graphics (or was it FM Towns?), and with the action and inventory system of Monkey Isle for some reason.

gschmidl posted:

I seem to recall there was another Zak fan game, closer to the original style, that had a graphic sex scene out of nowhere near the end.

"The New Adventures of Zak McKracken" was made using graphics from the FM-Towns version as well as taking graphics from various Neo-Geo games. There was indeed a graphic sex scene at the end but the developers changed it after they learnt that the female characters in the first game were based on real people.

I did think about playing this as well but I may save it for another time. I've been tentatively thinking about starting an LP megathread for freeware games for some time now but I'm not sure if I'd actively have time to update semi-frequently to it, it would be more of a side-hobby that I'd engage in once a month. I did play one freeware game which I ended up posting in the casual LP thread. There are a lot of short, fan-made, adventure games that I've found that are based on many different LucasArts titles that I can potentially show off at some point. There are also a lot of other freeware games that I'd like to show off at some point which is a mix of excellent, mediocre, horrifying and interesting.

If you want to give New Adventures a try you can find it here: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/40-the-new-adventures-of-zak-mckracken/

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


Zak explores 13th Avenue Street in this video and it's looking a little different. Things don't seem to be adding up and when he visits the local businesses things just seem to get even weirder.

I was hoping to have something up before now but I've come down with a horrible stomach bug. I was sent home from work today because of it but I was feeling well enough to record something, I'm just sitting around on my rear end anyway so I thought that I'd try to be productive.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

sb hermit posted:

there is a lot of heart in the voice acting in this game

I love it.

The person playing Murray in this game really went to town and I thought Denny Delk already made the character as hammy as possible.

PurpleXVI posted:

Interestingly, Zak's voice acting is almost exactly like I imagined his voice in the first game.

It's not far off what I imagined either, although I was having some concerns as he does look a little bit like Seinfeld.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


Zak visits his office in this video and he's found out that it's been redecorated in his absence. We meet a couple of new people, one of which Zak traumatises and the other one Zak insults repeatedly. I'll leave it up to you to work out how he effects either one of them.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Apr 19, 2023

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


I was expecting an aeroplane segment but I wasn't expecting this...

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
I hope that this is just a blip. I've played and recorded the next segment, it seems to be somewhat back on track but I'm still having some concerns.

Broken Sword 2.5 had potential but they went completely off the rails with the characters. It was also marred with some absolutely horrendous puzzles and adventure game logic.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


Zak arrives in Mexico to find out what happened to the archaeologists. As he explores the excavation site he uncovers even more weird things happening, some of this things we may never get an explanation for. Such as: Why is an American boy scout group camping in the jungle next to an ancient monument in the heart of Mexico? This segment is a lot more straightforward compared to the previous one, thankfully.

This isn't the same pyramid from the first game but it seems just as important in this game. Is this game really set twenty years after the first one?

PurpleXVI posted:

To be fair, half of what he did in the first game was to annoy people and gently caress with their things. :v: Remember the air plane sequence in the first one?

He was a dick to the flight attendant in the first game as well in an effort to steal some objects, but he didn't slip anyone a roofie. As far as I'm aware we do need one of the objects from the aeroplane for a later puzzle, but it's not one that was required to scare the poo poo out of the cabin crew.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
I've just come out of testing out the next couple of areas to get an idea of pacing for another recording. The next video may be shorter than usual as the next area has a lot of dialogue. I'm going to attempt a recording tomorrow and I'll see how it goes.

gschmidl posted:

Man, this game is embarrassing. The incredibly extended Murray scene, and then the plane bit (and especially the voice acting on the plane). And the "Italian", good lord.

Ignatius M. Meen posted:

Murray was funny at least, but the plane section was terrible and the game would've been better without it if they couldn't actually revise it into something decent.

Zaroff posted:

I suspect this is more a problem with fan games - when there’s no real QA involved things like this get through.

It’s a real shame, as the game has been really well made so far and has only been let down by the disappointing writing!

The bar was set very low with the aeroplane segment. I have no idea what the hell they were thinking of when they wrote it, let alone put the time and effort into developing it into the game. The second part of Mexico is fairly standard adventure gaming but it still suffers from some weird logic to a couple of the puzzles.

The one thing that I am concerned with is the female characters. The only women in the game so far have been an escort call handler and a secretary in a skimpy outfit. The dialogue for both of these characters has been fairly questionable so far. I decided to visit Hawaii earlier and spoke to Annie, I can't say that things fared much better with her considering that she's meant to be a respected scientist.

Zaroff posted:

Although I can’t tell whether The King is doing an Elvis impression or a Hank Hill impression…

I had this exact same thought, I did think about doing an impression of Hank Hill but with my accent it wouldn't have been pretty.

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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


This video is the second part of our time in Mexico but not our final time here. If we were playing on easy mode we could have completed this area but we will need to return here later on once we have collected another object.

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