Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (C64 Longplay)

[@Myrryspeikko]

Note: I cut couple minutes off when Zak is floating in the sea, waiting alien to come and capture him, about 30 seconds off when Zak is outside the phone company waiting his sanity return to normal and about minute off when Zak is standing at door to the store to claim his lotto prize. I also cut all loading waiting times between screens for smoother longplay.

[@leenak.5646]

Thanks for the video. This was one of my favorite games back then.

[@VelAntuManthureie]

Wonderful videogame. For me, the best adventure ever.

[@slobodanmitic1354]

The first adventure game I ever saw and played. Special memories.

[@sharkbaitoohhahha]

As a kid I never thought of giving the squirrel the peanuts....I whacked it with a golf club, the guru scolded me!

[@pjcnet]

Amazing for a C64 in 1988.

[@scottythegreat1]

@54:06 Ludo is making a tremendous racket. Its enough noise to cause the rocks to roll!

[@AlfYngve]

Great video of a very funny game. :-)

[@mollyrazormillions]

What an absolute fn masterpiece!

[@MystikWizard]

No doubt was the platform also used for Maniac Mansion. Looks completely the same with setup and style.

[@MILVO17]

Lucasfilm made this? They should do a remake with today's graphics. Played as a kid, never finished it. Here to see how it ends... finally, haha.

[@scottythegreat1]

George Lucas wanted to branch off into other types of entertainment, not just movies. At first, Lucasfilm was making 3D style games, with other companies publishing the games. It was initially a co-operation between Lucasfilm and Atari, Atari would publish the games for their systems. However, when Jack Tramiel took over Atari, he wasnt too interested in publishing games (he only cared about hardware) and honoured the contract only for Atari systems and didnt care if Lucasfilm ported their games to other systems (he would have rather cancelled the contract if he could have). Epyx and Activision published their games for Commodore and Apple computers. Maniac Mansion was the first game Lucasfilm published on their own. It wasnt until Labyrinth that they started making adventure style games like this (I like the Labyrinth reference @54:06). Zak McKracken was part of a line of successful adventure games using the SCUMM engine. Edit: Eventually, the money got to Lucasarts gaming company, and they started to just make (mediocre) Star Wars games, because everybody was buying them.

[@slobodanmitic1354]

I-m just thinking...one of programmers who made this game is Matthew Kane. It rang some bells, so I googled it. That is the same name of space marine in Quake 4 which you play with and kick Strogg ass. Coincidence?

[@Ifixstuf]

This game version was the best music. All other versions are just lack luster

[@scottythegreat1]

This was the original version of the game. Back in those days, the best games were the ones originally written for that computer/console. Games that were ported didnt have the same touch. Not only that, but the Commodore SID was designed by a music enthusiast that was also a hardware engineer (Bob Yannes), but he quit Commodore a year later. It wasnt until Japanese computers started using Yamaha sound chips that there was anything close to the ability of the Commodore SID (aside from more voices on the NES), and even then, most of those computers didnt make it out of Japan, so it wasnt until the Sega Genesis came to North America that anything could outdo the C64 sound chip.

[@Scapetti]

Hey, this was fine but it wasn't really a longplay. Longplays try to show everything and it seemed too much like you knew exactly what you were doing. I know this game would probably have a lot of annoying backtracking otherwise but I'd call this a walkthrough.

[@liveinthenow6426]

Wahhh

[@maxfecteau]

A video that shows everything would be incredibly difficult and boring. The combinations of action commands and interactable objects and used items are practically infinite

[@freeculture]

@@maxfecteau But its important to show the fuel for chainsaws otherwise Maniac Mansion fans would cry.

[@scottythegreat1]

Its very hard to show everything in this game. There were MANY different ways where you could get stuck in this game to the point where you would have to start over (ie. running out of money, forgetting to remove the pipe before shredding the stale bread, characters dying, etc;). It actually led to Lucasfilm having a 'no get stuck/death' rule in their games.

[@molntuss7113]

The sounds are surprisingly awful. Wonder why, since the C64 is much more capable soundwise than this.

[@scottythegreat1]

Matthew Kane was more of a game designer, but he did the sound effects and music as well. He had the use of Chris Grigg's sound program to design the sound effects, but Chris Grigg quit after Epyx hired him away shortly after completing Maniac Mansion. There were several sound effects from this game that were originally from Maniac Mansion and one sound effect from Labyrinth. For some reason, Chris Grigg made all these sound drivers for computers, the Atari Lynx and the Sega Genesis, but people never understood how to use his programs unless he was there. Lucasfilm didnt hire a full time composer until Michael Land came along.