Zak McKracken - Between Time and Space

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 19:04

After seven years of waiting the game is finally out!!!

Developer's description:

"Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space" is an unofficial sequel to the adventure game "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders" released in 1988. We, the "Artificial Hair Bros." have devoted our time to create a worthy follow up to this all-time-classic. Capturing the mood and of the original game and creating something new nonetheless.

It's been a while since Zak's last adventure. People have forgotten all about our hero who saved humanity from enslavement. His five minutes of fame went by way too quick and the money he earned with his award winning book went down the drains when Zak decided to get his own newspaper off the ground.

But now Zak has to prove his worth once again. Stumbling into his next adventure, Zak gets yet another chance to show the world what real heroes are made of..."

The Story:

"July 27th 2009, 11.45pm - direct flight Memphis - Zurich :
Bleary-eyed and unshaved. Zak McKracken is on board of a Russian airplane. It's freezing cold. Zak is covered in an old dusty blanket taking one last zip of coffe from his thermos. Suddenly the airplane is shaking and the engines are dying out. The plane seems to be standing still in mid-air. While taking a look outside the window Zak can only see a shadow approaching from behind when suddenly being hit on the head...

July 28th 2009, 7.30am - 13th Avenue, San Francisco :
The hammering sound of his alarm clock wakes up Zak. He can only vaguely remember what happend last night. Nothing reminds him of yesterdays trip, but he can still feel the bump on his head. Zak can't remember what he did in that airplane, neither can he remember where he was heading...

A new exciting adventure begins! "

What I saw so far the game is made very professional. There are amazing graphics and cutscenes and a professional voice acting (just in german for now) with speakers well known from german television.
I hope that the puzzles and the gameplay match the same standard...

Developer: Artificial Hair Bros.

Official homepage: www.zak2.org

A collection of download mirrors: http://www.zak2.org/wbblite/thread.php?threadid=399&sid

Best download possibility I found so far: http://www.exp.de/download.php?id=14715

Download size: 1.9 GB

Year: 2008

Status: Freeware. Regarding the download size they might be happy about every host they can get.

Will post some screenshots very soon...

Scythe · Post by **Scythe** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 23:01

Is this the one with the Grand Moff Tarkin villain? In any case, must see for myself.

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 18:13

Bad news (for most of you): The english translation didn't make it in time and so the game is completely in german. There are not even english subtitles included. But they will be there in the next version...

Some more facts:

a) You need a quite good PC if you want to play this game as there are high system requirements:

Windows® 98 / 2000 / ME / XP / Vista
Pentium 1 GHz (2 GHz recommended)
512 MB RAM
32 MB GeForce or Radeon graphics card (128 MB recommended)
DirectX compatible sound card
2 GB free HD space
DirectX 8.1 or higher

b) Game can be freely distributed (I found permission on their forum)

Scythe · Post by **Scythe** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 18:20

Well, my download was broken twice (after about 1GB), so it was fate that I shouldn't play it yet anyway.

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 20:47

I played it for a while now and I have to say that I'm totally amazed by this game. In my eyes this is the new reference for what's possible in a freeware adventure and all games to come have to measure with this one. I can hardly believe that "Zak McKracken - Between Time and Space" is a fan made project and it is that good that I wouldn't have minded to pay money for it!

What I like in detail:

* Interesting story with lots of funny hints and homages to the original game and the classic LucasArts adventures
* Two difficulty levels (quite unusual for an adventure)
* Excellent graphics, animations and cutscenes
* Amazing and atmospheric soundtrack
* Professional voice acting
* Very nice and well made manual

The final game was definitely worth the seven years of waiting!

I only wish that my computer would be a bit faster as there are very long loading times between different rooms and certain cutscenes and sometimes the games doesn't run as fast as they should.

And as promised here are some screenshots from the beginning of the game:

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 20:48

Some more screenshots:

Post by **Chroelle** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:42

Looks utterly amazing. I never really played Zak before so I have nothing to compare it to, but I will definently be playing this at some point.