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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

Original title: Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders - October 1, 1988

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Adventure Point-and-click

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Director:-

Studio:Lucasfilm Games

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Soundtrack:-

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Cover Art

Game Details

DeveloperIGDB

Lucasfilm Games

PublisherIGDB

Lucasfilm Games

Studio

Lucasfilm Games

GenresIGDB

Adventure, Point-and-click

Platforms

PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, Linux, DOS, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Atari ST/STE, Amiga, FM Towns

Release DateIGDB

October 1, 1988

Metacritic Score

Game Engine

SCUMM

StoryIGDB

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 Lucasfilm's breakthrough title 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.

About the Game

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It's 1997, and the world is a dumber place than ever... Space Aliens have built a stupidity machine that's slowly reducing everyone's IQ to single digits. Worse yet, the only person who can stop them is Zak McKracken, reporter for the disreputable National Inquisitor, who dreams up stories about carnivorous cantaloupes and vegetarian vampires.

They've taken over the phone company... Sure, it sounds like another one of Zak's tabloid fantasies. But while most people wouldn't believe him, he finds three who don't need convincing--Annie, Head of the Society of Ancient Wisdom, and her friends, Leslie and Melissa, two Yale coeds who traveled to Mars in their modified van. The four of them must piece together fragments of an ancient puzzle, unmask the aliens, and destroy the stupidity machine.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a classic point-and-click adventure with four controllable characters. Solve puzzles and interact with the crazy world using the old school verb command interface. Go on adventures all across the globe and even into space. If you're looking for an actual globe-trotting adventure from days gone by, you cannot miss with Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders!