Zeusthecat

The Big LucasArts Playthrough

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So moving this right along, I am now starting

 

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

 

So far I have watched the intro scene and am right at the beginning (looking pretty cool so far). As with Maniac Mansion I would love to know how to avoid getting into an un-winnable state so feel free to post a few tips in that regard. And once again I plan to push through as much as I can without using hints (except of course for any hints related to getting into an un-winnable state).

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Argh, I haven't played this one as much, but it has a lot more un-winnable states, I think you can mess up even in the first room! Not to mention this game has money and you can get stuck if you run out of it.

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I've only ever beaten the game once and I was about 10 years old and used a walkthrough nearly the whole time.

 

I remember some bullshit with a timed sequence where you can posess a bird and do something away from your body and if you don't get back in time you die. I remember making the mistake of saving while I was the bird having wasted too much time. So I ruined that save and my last save was hours before then. Fucking Zak McCracken.

 

I wish you luck Zeusthecat, because it's not really a coincidence that Zak McCracken is the least loved LucasArts adventure. It's downright infuriating in my opinion, worse than a King's Quest in some cases.

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Yeah, I think you should keep the Universal Hint System close to you, since it only gives hints, it's not the same as using a walkthrough.

 

Although, like Syntheticgerbil said, this almost worst than a Siera game, I would definitely understand if you used a walkthough from the start.

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Thanks for the heads up, I'll be quick to use hints for this one. I haven't made any progress just yet either; I got sidetracked finishing Resident Evil 5. I'll get some time in today and see how it goes.

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I finally played a little bit and am currently on the airplane to Seattle. Before taking the bus to the airport I scoured the starting area to try to get every possible item. I used the butter knife to get the cashcard in my apartment, plugged the tv in and turned it on to see that I could mail an application using the dropbox on 14th Ave, got the stale bread from the baker, bought everything in the shop, put the application in the dropbox, paid my phone bill, and got on the bus after waking the driver up with the stale bread. Once at the airport I bought a book from that salesman guy and hopped on the plane to Washington.

 

So far I'm liking the game. It has been pretty straightforward to this point but I'm also a little concerned after what was mentioned in Tanukitsune's post. I have no idea if I'll be able to come back to the starting area so I hope I didn't miss any items or spend too much money at the store buying random crap. I also like that there is a 'walking' sound. These games have been very quiet with the minimal sound effects and no music so it's nice to have a little bit of extra sound.

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All I remember for now is that money will be a problem, unless you do a certain thing that will gain you a lot of money.

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I just killed a squirrel with a monkey wrench in the dark and Zak said he felt bad. Oops.

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I'm doing my own little LEC adventure flashback, with the original Monkey Island games in all their pixely glory. Few months ago I did Secret, now I just started LeChuck's Revenge. Still in Woodtick, enjoying the atmosphere!

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I'm doing my own little LEC adventure flashback, with the original Monkey Island games in all their pixely glory. Few months ago I did Secret, now I just started LeChuck's Revenge. Still in Woodtick, enjoying the atmosphere!

 

Nice! Glad to hear someone else is playing through some of these games too. Let me know if you end up playing any of the other games I'll be going through and I'd be happy to slow down so you can catch up.

 

So last night I got stuck in the cave in Seattle because I didn't have anything to light the fire. With limited money and no idea whether I would be able to go back to previous areas, I resorted to using the Universal Hint system. I am so glad I did because I missed a number of things and realized this game truly would be next to impossible to beat on your own without spending a shitload of time trial and error-ing your way through.

 

After looking at the hints for San Fransisco and Seattle I found that I had missed the bobby pin sign, I had never filled out the application and I put it in the dropbox instead of my mailbox, I never bent and sold the butter knife. and I missed the lighter on the plane. So I reloaded a save from before I left San Fransisco and got all that shit. Then I hopped on the plane and distracted the flight attendant to get the lighter under the seat. From there I stopped using hints again and figured out that I could use the crayon on the wall (pretty obvious with the random dots) and the remote control on the sensor below the crystal. After doing that I hopped on the plane to Miami and found out I could get whiskey from the bum by giving him that book from the preacher guy. There didn't seem to be any way to get out of the airport from there so I took a plane to Cairo, which is about where I stopped playing.

 

Seeing how easy it is to fuck up and lose in this game, I am going to play this a little differently than Maniac Mansion. I am basically going to keep 5 saves going at all times and once I finish doing everything in an area I will refer to the Universal Hint System for that area to make sure I didn't miss anything. I figure this will let me solve some of the puzzles on my own but will also guarantee that I can keep moving forward without having to restart the game. You guys weren't kidding when you talked about how difficult this game is to figure out on your own. 

 

One last thing, is there any fucking way to speed up the airplane segments? I sat in my seat forever when I flew to Cairo and ended up just tabbing out to do other shit because it took so long.

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The idea behind those early puzzles is that you can solve them in multiple ways—that squirrel doesn't need to die!  Unfortunately, solutions don't come as freely later in the game.

 

I actually wish these features of Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken—multiple plotlines and multiple solutions—didn't disappear from adventure games completely after The Secret of Monkey Island.  The Cave brought back multiple characters and plots, but according to a recent Gameological article the character remained mostly separate both in puzzle and story.

 

It's definitely a hard thing to get right, but it made the early game of Zak McKracken a lot of fun, and made Maniac Mansion worth playing over and over.

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The idea behind those early puzzles is that you can solve them in multiple ways—that squirrel doesn't need to die!  Unfortunately, solutions don't come as freely later in the game.

 

Does it have a big impact later in the game if you have to go back to previous areas again to get items you missed? I was a little worried about how much money I would be spending on airfare and was perhaps overly cautious.

 

I definitely agree about this game being a lot of fun so far. I think it is a cool little story and I really like it, I'm just paranoid about missing stuff early on that would cause me to restart later. And so far the puzzles have been pretty reasonable assuming you didn't miss any of those items.

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Nice! Glad to hear someone else is playing through some of these games too. Let me know if you end up playing any of the other games I'll be going through and I'd be happy to slow down so you can catch up.

 

Don't slow down, go faster!  You're still a couple games away from any I can contribute anything meaningful to.

 

But seriously, it's good that you're having fun.  I might also do a replay of MI2 (I'm less familiar with it than MI1).  Hopefully we can meet up at Fate of Atlantis.

 

But actually, do hurry up.

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But actually, do hurry up.

 

Oh I plan to as long as it is just me playing through. I've put most of my other games on hold so I can focus on these. I am also really excited for Fate of Atlantis especially with all the good stuff that was said about it on the podcast.

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Does it have a big impact later in the game if you have to go back to previous areas again to get items you missed? I was a little worried about how much money I would be spending on airfare and was perhaps overly cautious.

 

I know I did a moderate amount of backtracking, returning to San Francisco at least three times, without hitting any point of no return.

 

By the time you get your full complement of characters, though, there might not be any going back.  But by that time I was basically chained to the walkthrough in the back of the LucasArts Classic Adventures booklet.

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So, I'm gloriously stuck in MI2 and it's the best feeling. When I replayed MI1, I unfortunately resorted to the in-game hint system. It robbed me of all the thrills of solving puzzles, so I'm determined not to use it in this game. I'm going to relish the feeling of not knowing how to proceed, until I hit upon the solution.

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Can you not skip the plane segments in Zak McCracken with escape if you are done in there?

 

I honestly didn't try. I'll have to give it a shot on my next flight.

 

So, I'm gloriously stuck in MI2 and it's the best feeling.

 

Where are you stuck right now? (This is really cool being on the other side of the fence now)

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I'm actually hesitant to say for fear of people dropping well-meaning hints. Suffice it to say I haven't broken the embargo yet. I know, I love it, it's still so early in the game, so few variables, and yet here I am.

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I can totally respect that. I bet I know where you're stuck as I was very recently stuck for a little while at that point in the game. Best of luck to you on your journey. I hope to hear more.

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OHHH this is the best, I totally worked it out. I was ready to go to bed and literally sitting on the toilet mulling it over, when a possibility hit me.

 

I was stuck with getting the 'something of the thread' from Largo, and I knew I'd need his clothing and that I had to get it from the laundry guy somehow. I thought Largo's laundry might already be in his possession, but when I realized I should just arrange for it to get dirty myself, it was a quick idea to boobytrap his room in the inn, and from there to imagine the classic bucket-on-the-door prank. Where to get something to fill the bucket with? Rat vichyssoise didn't work, so the swamp was an easy leap. IT FELT SO GOOD to get there myself!

 

Also, I love how especially in MI2, all the puzzles are based around goofy mischief Guybrush has to pull in order to progress. It just feels so piratey and became his hallmark after that.

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I'd be happy to join up for Fate of Atlantis. It's the only LucasArts game I've never finished. I may replay MI 1 and 2 just because as well.

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So I was born during the height of the point and click adventure games and was too young to play and understand them. Last year I tried to play special edition monkey island and was really bad at it, I had to use guides to get off the first island!

And when I got to the spitting contest I gave up. I kinda decided then that point and click adventure games wern't for me.

But the girlfriend loves them, especially all of the old Lucas stuff. So next Monday on my day off work I am going to watch the girlfriend play through the two special editions on the xbox 360. I will post back with my thoughts and It will be interesting to see if I want to try out any others afterwards.

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I started playing Fate of Atlantis again last night.  It's amazing how quickly this stuff comes back even after not playing it for years.  The voice acting isn't nearly as good as I remember, but then again it was the first adventure game I ever played that even had voices, so that probably influenced my memories a lot.  I still dislike the combat system.  I played up to the part where you choose your path (fist, wits, team).  I usually go with team because I feel like Indy should have a sidekick like the movies.  I did save just before choosing though so I may do a quick wits playthough later.  I hate the fists path.

 

I probably won't be playing it too much until Zeus catches up, but I wanted to at least play a little because all this adventure game talk has created an itch that needed to be scratched.

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