RATING / ESRB / A Created with Sketch. RATING / ESRB / E Created with Sketch. RATING / ESRB / E10 Created with Sketch. RATING / ESRB / M Created with Sketch. RATING / ESRB / T Created with Sketch.
RATING / PEGI / 12 Created with Sketch. RATING / PEGI / 16 Created with Sketch. RATING / PEGI / 18 Created with Sketch. RATING / PEGI / 3 Created with Sketch. RATING / PEGI / 7 Created with Sketch. icon_pin Created with Sketch.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

in library

4.5/5

( 46 Reviews )

4.5

46 Reviews

English
5.995.99
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Description
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 car...
User reviews

4.5/5

( 46 Reviews )

4.5

46 Reviews

{{ review.content.title }}
Product details
1988, Lucasfilm, ...
System requirements
Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10, 1 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible w...
Time to beat
5 hMain
8.5 h Main + Sides
13 h Completionist
6 h All Styles
Description
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!
  • Crazy off-the-wall humor.
  • Beautiful late 80s pixel graphics, perfect for any retro gamer!
  • Challenging, mind-bending mystery!
  • No typing required! Just point-and-click to solve puzzles and talk to the crazy characters that live in Zak's world!
Goodies
manual hintbook newspaper (German) newspaper (English)
System requirements
Minimum system requirements:

ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF USE REQUIRED TO PLAY

This game is powered by ScummVM

ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF USE REQUIRED TO PLAY

This game is powered by ScummVM

Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.
Time to beat
5 hMain
8.5 h Main + Sides
13 h Completionist
6 h All Styles
Game details
Works on:
Windows (7, 8, 10, 11), Linux (Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04), Mac OS X (10.7.0+)
Release date:
{{'1988-01-01T00:00:00+02:00' | date: 'longDate' : ' +0200 ' }}
Company:
Size:
117 MB

Game features

Languages
English
audio
text
You may like these products
Users also bought
User reviews

Posted on: September 22, 2020

Goldi6

Verified owner

Games: 71 Reviews: 27

mindblowing game

ZMK: A very challenging game very mind disturbing when u consider it from today especially concerning the clunky-chunky user interface the plot is legendary every pupil teen tween should ve played it once in a life time especially suitable for explorers and those who try to be.the game engine was especially invented for those last mentioned.so notice a play through at once is nearly impossible.the player should develop a long time attitude including several start ups with the game the price an mind flodding story mind blowing dialogues and stunning graphics in a style of a gorgeous pixelrama landscapes and ear blowing sounds and music according to the long success story of lucas arts.dont expect the usual..


Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: March 27, 2024

GSIMICHI

Games: 42 Reviews: 1

German

Pls add German Text


Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: March 20, 2015

Gilgalas

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 3

Iconic

I will wait for a discount to purchase it but I can tell you right now that this game is one of the gems of p&c adventure games. My brother and myself completed this game in the early 90's and we are still fond of it. The storyline is great and the game has this delightful goofy feeling so specific to Lucas Art adventure games. Great move GoG for adding all these games to your catalogue. Can't wait to put my hands on Loom too.


Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: April 7, 2017

mgmillani

Verified owner

Games: 469 Reviews: 2

Raw Brainstorming

I suppose this is the kind of thing that comes out of the first few brainstorming sessions when developing an adventure. There are plenty of crazy stuff, which is okay, some silly jokes and lots of puzzles. There are even multiple ways of solving a puzzle. Unfortunately, nothing makes sense. You are not give any idea of what you are supposed to do. There are tons of areas to explore, yet the game punishes you for exploring by giving you (very) limited cash. If you run out of cash, you lose. There are also many unexpected ways of getting stuck, often without any warning. The only way of "playing" this is to use the guide that comes with it and following along. None of the puzzles make any sense, and you often have to guess where to go next. Guess wrong, and you may have to restart the game. There are very few dialogues, so it is not worth playing even for the jokes (and, quite frankly, if you were to sit down with other people and do some brainstorming, you would probably come up with most of the jokes here. They aren't clever, just silly.). To make it worse, there is barely any music.


Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: May 20, 2021

A terrible adventure game

This has to be the worst adventure game I've played in my life. And I've played them all, even the infamous titles from Sierra with their frustrating dead ends. My positives: - The FM-Towns-version has lovely graphics and nice sound effects and music My negatives: - Absurd puzzle "logic" - Hundreds and hundreds of potential dead ends (you forgot to get a tiny item at the beginning of the game? This can lead you to a dead end near the end of the game. You gave away a seemingly unimportant item during the game? It's very possible you'll need it somewhen later to finish the game. You traveled too much on the globe? Then you'll have not enough money to finsih the game...) - Mazes, many mazes which are a real pain to solve - Annoying traveling mechanism which takes too much time - Some unskippable and repeating sequences - humor not at all on par with other LA-titles - narration extremely shallow, no development of the main character - most of the time the game gives you not the slightest idea of what you are supposed to do, where you are supposed to travel to, resulting in you travelling around the world far too much - and consequently expending too much money to be able to complete the game (see "dead ends") - everything you do and experience feels bland, traveling around the world is just there to get an answer to a puzzle, you never actually feel "there", there is no feeling of adventure at all. Zak is really a godawful, absolutely terrible train wreck of a game. If you want to play it I recommend to get a walkthrough and follow it closely. I have not the slightst idea of how anybody could ever be able to finish this mess without a walkthrough at all. Why the hell did I play this game? I wanted to play it because it was the last Lucas Arts-adventure on my list. Simple as that. I can see why nostalgia may cloud judgement in the case of these old games but this simply isn't a "good old game" in my book, it's one of the very few missteps Lucas Arts made.


Is this helpful to you?

1
...
...
6
8

Something went wrong. Try refresh page.

This game is waiting for a review. Take the first shot!
{{ item.rating }}
{{ item.percentage }}%
Awaiting more reviews
An error occurred. Please try again later.

Other ratings

Awaiting more reviews

Add a review

Edit a review

Your rating:
Stars and all fields are required
Not sure what to say? Start with this:
  • What kept you playing?
  • What kind of gamer would enjoy this?
  • Was the game fair, tough, or just right?
  • What’s one feature that really stood out?
  • Did the game run well on your setup?
Inappropriate content. Your reviews contain bad language. Inappropriate content. Links are not allowed. Review title is too short. Review title is too long. Review description is too short. Review description is too long.
Not sure what to write?
Filters:

No reviews matching your criteria

Written in
English Deutsch polski français русский 中文(简体) Others
Written by
Verified ownersOthers
Added
Last 30 daysLast 90 daysLast 6 monthsWheneverAfter releaseDuring Early Access

Delete this review?

Are you sure you want to permanently delete your review for Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders? This action cannot be undone.

Report this review

If you believe this review contains inappropriate content or violates our community guidelines, please let us know why.

Additional Details (required):

Please provide at least characters.
Please limit your details to characters.
Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Report this review

Report has been submitted successfully.
Thank you for helping us maintain a respectful and safe community.