Zak McKracken - NNRG Week 67

[@root42]

12:10 Zak takes place in 1997 or so, IIRC. Hence the fancy TV without controls. Not sure about the year, but it was definitely set in the near future.

[@philscomputerlab]

HUGE game 🎉 Awesome seeing you cover this title.

[@Pixelmusement]

There is indeed a DOS version too so perhaps one day it'll get the proper ADG treatment! :B

[@marcsm2008]

The DOS version is the first game I ever played on my Tandy 1000 and it BLEW me away hearing music of that... uh... quality. And yes, it sounds like a Master System game. But even nowdays I have HUGE nostalgia for the tandy music in that game. And yes, I'd LOVE if you made an AGD episode on Zak. ^^

[@Pixelmusement]

@@marcsm2008 Reminder: The Tandy 1000 series computers and the Sega Master System have the EXACT same sound chip. ;)

[@philscomputerlab]

Fun fact, the Tandy has superior 3 voice sound compared to the PC speaker.​@@marcsm2008

[@philscomputerlab]

@@Pixelmusement There are 2 PC versions. One with C64 style graphics and then an enhanced version with EGA graphics. With machine=tandy setting in DOSBox you can get the nicer 3 voice audio. Off topic, have you considered trying, maybe in one random video, DOSBox Staging with the built-in CRT shader effects? Especially EGA games will give you lovely fat scanlines :)

[@jasonblalock4429]

7:17 Yeah, that's why LucasArts' early adventure games aren't as well-remembered. It wouldn't be until Loom and Monkey Island 1 that they cemented their no deaths / no softlocks design philosophy that made them popular. Also, I do love how needlessly overcomplicated the cursor is in these early games. As you say, it just creates new confusions. Sierra's eventual solution of just putting a single bright red dot on the cursor's tip was a lot more elegant.

[@solsticeprojekt1937]

Almost no deaths! I don't recall about Loom, but in Monkey Island 1 you *could* die, under specific circumstances, but I'm not going to spoil anything ... just in case.

[@jasonblalock4429]

@@solsticeprojekt1937 Yeah, that was a gag. Not a true death. I doubt anyone saw that game over without being told about it.

[@panutalus]

were the softlocks such that you would know it when it happens or were you being left wandering forever not knowing you missed something?

[@zeedee1623]

4:53 The face is Groucho Marx (old school comedian)

[@lethal_guitar]

There's also a 256-color version of this game which was exclusive to the FM-Towns system, but it's supported in ScummVM.

[@TheMoogleMaster]

The DOS version of this was a big part of my childhood, along with Maniac Mansion.

[@root42]

21:50 you already had a ticket for Seattle, dude! Your boss gave it to you! :)

[@Pixelmusement]

Yes, but if you access the terminal with a ticket in your inventory you automatically cash it back in for a refund and I cut out a lot of the terminal stuff I did because it was meandering with mistakes so that part got cut too. :P

[@root42]

@ that’s what confused me! I knew about the cashback, but it wasn’t shown…

[@Eshaktaar]

Something that has gotten a little lost over time, I think, is the sheer scope of this game. As a kid, I was blown away that Zak McKracken allowed me to visit numerous locations around the world and even Mars. No other adventure on the C64 came close to that sense of exploration.

[@lupinzar]

The guy at the airport is a Hare Krishna follower. They used to hang around airports in the 70s.

[@snuf23]

The $1138 phone bill is a reference to THX 1138, George Lucas first movie. If you were spending time on pay by the minute network services back in the 1980s you could easily ring up a huge bill!

[@mikesol1162]

There is no time limit in Maniac Mansion. At least not in the C-64 or DOS versions.

[@Pixelmusement]

My experience with Maniac Mansion is with the NES version and as a kid there was a moment after I was playing for more than a couple hours straight where suddenly NONE of my commands worked anymore, not even walking or the command to change characters, and every attempt to do anything was followed by a message saying something about the meteor not allowing it. I've now been told a couple times there's no time limit despite having experienced something of a time limit myself, meaning I'm gonna have to investigate this more appropriately when I get around to Maniac Mansion on ADG in the future! :P

[@mikesol1162]

@@Pixelmusement If you believe google, there is no time limit on the NES version. Maybe you experienced a bug that messed up your game.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@mikesol1162 So I just spent an hour testing the NES game with a debugger and memory viewer at the ready. The best I can tell is that while the game as a whole is not on a timer, different events ARE, and the way the timers for events start is when certain things occur. For instance, the timers which kick off the events which lead to the first cutscene after the start of the game don't actually begin until you leave the first screen and approach the mansion. My guess is something you do late in the game starts a timer which WILL ultimately end your run by taking all control away from you. (Again, I was getting messages saying I wasn't allowed to do anything back when this happened to me as a kid.) So yeah, the game is SORT OF on a timer, but those timers can't begin unless certain other qualifiers have been met. :P

[@mikesol1162]

@@Pixelmusement Ok, fair enough. I am not familiar with the NES version. I am looking forward to hopefully seeing Maniac Mansion on ADG at some point.

[@fuzzynine]

nice phone bill. I guess if you didn't phone phreak your dial-in connection a quite intimidating phone bill could quickly sum up back then. ^^

[@benchandler4298]

Zak McCracktro! :D

[@root42]

09:00 In Maniac Mansion things aren't highlighted either. In this regard the Scumm engine is quite the same between both games. I am not sure which version you played, but neither the original C64 and DOS version highlight while moving the mouse, nor the enhanced Amiga and DOS versions. You also have to use the What Is command, just like in Zak. They did away with this in Indy 3.

[@et_andersson]

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade still has the "What Is" command. It did introduce "Look at" (where earlier games only had "Read") and "Talk" though.

[@Pixelmusement]

I've actually only ever really played the NES version of Maniac Mansion to any degree and I remember it auto-highlighting what everything was as you moved the cursor over various spots. :o

[@et_andersson]

@@Pixelmusement The user interfaces for the early Lucasfilm adventures was a bit rough. I guess it's surprisingly hard to make a good one without the benefit of hindsight. It's fun to see how things changed in later games, often for the better. For a real horror show, you should try Curse of Enchantia. 😁

[@root42]

I don't think Maniac Mansion is on a timer. If it is, I never ran into it when playing. There are many script triggered events, that give you the feeling of time progressing in the game, plus there are some timing sensitive situations, yes. But those are all pretty clear. Like if you shut of the cooling to the reactor you have something like 30-60 seconds to do whatever you wanted to do and then restart the cooling, but other than that: It is pretty decent, albeit not the greatest game in terms of design, as it was Ron Gilbert's first adventure game. Zak has different issues, but is already a bit more advanced. The two are not related at all, but there are some in game jokes that reference Maniac, such as the poster in the enhanced version or the gasoline for the chainsaw. What is so great about Zak is that it is less linear than other adventures. You can travel around the world and explore, figuring out everything as you go. That was back in the day, as a kid, part of why Zak is so highly regarded. The terrible labyrinths and sometimes weird puzzles are less important in this way...

[@Pixelmusement]

I remember having a long run on the NES version of Maniac Mansion as a kid when suddenly every single command refused to work, not even the one to switch characters, and every attempt to use any command or to even move brought up a message saying the meteor wouldn't allow it. It's very possible that there is a hidden limit of some kind in the game which has been long forgotten in this day and age of walkthroughs and speedruns. Possibly a time limit, possibly a limit on how many actions you can take, either way, I have personally hit it so I know it exists in the NES version and I would be surprised if it's not in any of the other versions.

[@root42]

@ okay, I see. The NES version is VERY different, and doesn't even use the Scumm engine. The overall story and puzzles are I think very similar, but it's rewritten from scratch.

[@Daniel-jk7pe]

Cydonia face on mars

[@TheNewFlesh]

Maniac Mansion is a bit of a handful, coming from the perspective of later LucasArts games. Fangame "Maniac Mansion Deluxe" does a lot to pave over SOME unpleasantries, but you should expect to play a few rounds either way. Even if you get pretty far and find yourself in an unwinnable state, you can use what you've learned to plow forward to that same spot in mere minutes on a new save file. MM has a few BS dead-ends, and as a busy adult in [current year], I'd say there's no shame in checking a walkthrough

[@RoboticMagus]

Day of the Tentacle is the sequel to Maniac Mansion.

[@Pixelmusement]

True, but I've seen this game sometimes referred to as a sequel as well and I don't know enough about it to know how accurate of a statement that is, beyond simply using the same game engine. :P

[@RoboticMagus]

@@Pixelmusement I'm pretty sure this is completely seperate, but not completely sure.

[@lethal_guitar]

Later on in the game there's a reference to something in Maniac Mansion, but that's about it

[@simovihinen875]

Waiting for Maniac and this one in ADG :o

[@GreyHulk2156]

I think you could call this a "follow up" to Maniac Mansion.

[@aaronmarko]

I mean, it's the second game to use SCUMM

[@roonie12video]

you can use keyboard shortcuts in all pointnclick games. like Q - Push, W- Open, etc.. it was a gamechanger for me when i learnd it :)

[@DisasterSquad]

Maniac mansion is on a timer? I don't think it is. Certain events exist on a timer. But as far as I remember there's no overarching time limit

[@Pixelmusement]

I looked into this and it's complicated. The game as a whole is not on a timer, but when you do certain things timers get put in place, some of which are actually pretty long-running, and there's definitely something you can do in the late game which starts a timer which will ultimately kill your run, but I have no idea what triggers it or how long that timer runs for.

[@karvarousk]

That mailbox sounds pretty good authentic.