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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
0 Playsin 9 hours
Ben & Jess discuss the strange New Age parody game Zak McKracken. A weird game!
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
Talk with us on Discord!
https://discord.gg/ve9fqjgPp2
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Transcript
Introduction and Lighthearted Banter
Weekend Antics and Discord Dad Jokes
00:00:30
Speaker
It is Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. I was having so much fun this this past weekend saying nonsense to my friends in to the the tone of joy joy to the world. And I don't even know.
00:00:45
Speaker
Every once in a while, and I know you identify with this, Jess. I know you know this. Your brain just puts together an idea of how you can annoy your friends. Yeah, like this. And you're just like...
00:01:02
Speaker
But I would just, I, wow, that's very impressive, Justin. What? Oh, oh.
00:01:16
Speaker
but i was just i was with my friends and i would just say stupid statements to them like so it's like like i said here it's like this is quest quest i would just for like two or three hours just wow and that sounds fun For me.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yes. That's just one of those things that happens. And I know you do. you are Are you with me? You've had this happen, right? I'm not insane. Like specifically the joy to the world? No, not with joy to the world. This has only happened to me. like you're you're yeah Your brain chemistry creates something where where you're like, this is so hilarious. I'm going to make so many people that love me furious.
00:02:01
Speaker
Yes. Yes. I mean, yes. That's what being a dad is. i think Yeah. I mean, at some level, that's what being a dad is. That is the, as the quintessential dad experience is mortifying someone that, that loves you and ultimately has to forgive you.
00:02:18
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, uh, in my case, it was my friends. I was in a voice chat on discord with, but which, you know, I'm essentially the dad in that scenario because it was my discord server.
00:02:37
Speaker
it Welcome to quest quest, the adventure game podcast. It was my discord and I was on a voice chat. Yeah. I um your discord dad.
00:02:52
Speaker
You know what?
Audience Interaction through Annoying Bits
00:02:53
Speaker
One of my annoying bits when I was in college, this was like a full year of college, maybe just a semester, a bit that I did. I think junior year is that I would tell a bad joke and then there would be no laughs. And then I would just go. Like would just start scatting after it. up boo but boot it bear like i would just start scattering after ram And that just became my signature. I would tell a bad joke, wait for silence, and then just go, skiddle-dee-dip-a-booty-dee-dee-dip.
00:03:24
Speaker
I went through a phase in college where I thought the funniest thing in the world was after saying something that was not a joke, nor included a pun, following it up with no pun intended.
00:03:39
Speaker
ha ha! To watch people then try to like parse the sentence retroactively to try to figure out what the unintended pun might've been. And just the confusion and frustration that created in everyone around me.
00:03:52
Speaker
I took immense
New Segment: Podcast Corrections
00:03:53
Speaker
joy. That's, that's, no fun and yeah that's a good one. That's a good one. Uh, and if you have an annoying bit that you torture your friends and family with, let us know at quest quest podcast at Gmail.
00:04:10
Speaker
dot com Because I want to, this is a fun conversation. This is, yeah i mean, because here's the thing, because once again, Jess, you know, you and I i would say are fairly similar in many ways, I would say. And, um hi ah you know, the the idea ah Like, I just know that we have a bunch of bits we harassed our friends with. Oh, yeah.
00:04:40
Speaker
I mean, I think it's important to note, I always prefer positive attention. But if I have to choose between no attention and negative attention, I'll take negative. I'm attention starved.
00:04:53
Speaker
So speaking of negative attention, it's time for a brand new segment here. It's time for some corrections.
00:05:05
Speaker
Uh, so, uh, I've got two corrections here. I've yet to make a mistake, but I will participate in this segment in the future. If I happen to make one, uh, correction number one, uh, two podcasts ago, i said that this would be the best year yet.
00:05:25
Speaker
I've been proven wrong. Yeah. I mean, no, aberration required. I'll just stop there. This is a podcast for laughs and fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, uh, but yeah, so, uh, wrong. Uh, number two.
00:05:43
Speaker
You better like next year, sucker. Yeah, uh, You know, what we Cubs fans say to each other. Number two, last week, uh, in the Quest for Glory 3 podcast, I misgendered, uh, uh, a leopardman.
00:06:03
Speaker
It was was a leopard lady the whole time. It was a leopard lady. And that was also like the plot. Yes. Like, because like, it's the plot and quest for glory three is that like, you have to pay the bride but price in the Simbani village together.
00:06:19
Speaker
I'm sorry. It's time for me to sit down and listen on both of those. Anyway. So that's my corrections by Jonathan Franzen.
00:06:33
Speaker
that's ah That's a reference he wrote he wrote he wrote the book The Corrections, I think. that's says He also wrote that book Read Them, which I did not read, and I think people didn't care for. You know my stance. I don't read books.
00:06:46
Speaker
I read The Corrections, and when I read it at the time, I thought it was fine. I don't know how I'd feel about it now. yeah if If you've read the corrections and have thoughts, send us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com.
Listener Emails and Nostalgia
00:07:00
Speaker
Or if you've noticed any other mistakes that Ben has made. No. yeah I mean, please. um I mean, during that whole Leopard Man fiasco, was. What were you doing, Jess?
00:07:11
Speaker
um I was honestly um sitting there thinking it's like. Well, I know that there's the leopard woman scene. Have I completely forgotten about a like an accompanying leopard man? Or is that like on one of the other paths that I've just somehow never played?
00:07:27
Speaker
Because you said, if you play as a thief, if you play as a thief, it's a leopard path. Yeah, you seem so confident. And Papaya, our guest, wasn't well is correcting you. Didn't correct. But but when i spoke when we asked her on like, i think she said that... um uh that that like you know she thought it was maybe like a a spoiler spoiler like misdirect oh yeah that's what i was that would be a that'd be quite misdirected no i mean i did get some angry dms from uh cory cole but know how he's just always flying off the head yeah he's uh yeah he's got super mad about it uh cory cole known for his fiery temper
00:08:14
Speaker
I don't know him that well personally, but when I watch him on his stream, which I know is not a reflection, like, you know, that's like, yeah, but when think I'm nice for my streams, they have no idea. Yeah, I've, I've met Jess in person and I saw smash up a beer bottle.
00:08:30
Speaker
That was her own head, though. Hold it up to my neck. Yeah, like, you better not fuck me with this podcast. um
00:08:46
Speaker
ah i was a fun mat.
00:08:57
Speaker
oh have Have you had ah any interesting meals lately? I mean, i had a light dinner tonight of risotto and steak. You know, just like, like, you know, so right now, like, honestly, yeah, I feel like I've been like, I feel like I've taken tranquilizers before, before coming to the street, they call the the dinner of like, galut yeah.
00:09:25
Speaker
ah That will really, really pep you up There used to be ah here in Chicago. Have you ever had like one of those like Dagwood Bumstead like sandwiches, like a sandwich literally yeah the size of your head? Yes.
00:09:40
Speaker
There was this place I went to. I don't think it's around anymore. That like in downtown Chicago that I went to in like 2009 that did those.
00:09:52
Speaker
This is when I i worked uh, in an office near downtown. So I'd walk downtown to get lunch sometimes. Um, and one, ah one time I went there to get like a lunch, uh, uh, sandwich and like, what a terrible mistake. Like, I'm still like, I'm still tired from that sandwich.
00:10:21
Speaker
And that was also like, that was from a period In my life. So it's like, I'm like, uh, like 23, 24 around then.
00:10:36
Speaker
Like I, I was able to eat pretty much anything without my body making a ah serious reaction. And like, like, you know, I, I can't have that much deli meat without like feeling a little bit dizzy because there's too much salt.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yes. Yes. yeah and that Like just a normal size, like not a Dagwood bumps, not a comically oversized. but Yeah. Now, I mean, i used to have this problem. I went through a real phase a few years ago.
00:11:08
Speaker
a ah little a Vietnamese pho restaurant opened up down the street from my office. And that's one my just absolute favorite foods. One of favorites? Yes. um The name of the place was Pho You and Me, which only works if you... yeah mean is I mean, all of them have like a... There's a lot of... Yeah, pho, like, you know, there are a lot of pho places that are just like, yeah, you know...
00:11:34
Speaker
we can it this is This is a ah very easy ah word to fit in the place of other words. Yes. Pun non-intended. But I used to go there for lunch every day. And what I discovered was it's like, I mean, on the one hand, like a soup is ah is a nice light meal, theoretically. But the sheer quantity of the bowl of pho is being served basically meant that I was going back to work with like half a gallon of liquid in my stomach. Slashing.
00:12:04
Speaker
And this is when my coworker and I coined the term pho belly, which is very much that feeling of just like a light, you know, beef broth, half a gallon of it sloshing around your stomach. And then, of course, when I say go back to work, I mean, go back to deliver a 75-minute lecture. Yeah. With like sloshy belly. And that is way have to try to teach. But the pho was so delicious and like the aromatics in And don't think of pho as like heavy, right? No, it shouldn't be. But that much liquid is by default heavy, especially because then I'm up there and I've got like a 64 ounce bottle of water that I'm chugging to keep myself hydrated while I'm teaching. So my mouth doesn't dry out.
00:12:53
Speaker
And now i'm just ingesting more liquid. Like by the end of it, there's like water spraying out of my ears like a cartoon character. It's, uh, it's unbelievable. It was a, pho belly is no way to live.
00:13:04
Speaker
You know, that said it is, it's, it's, it's stew season. Oh man. Soup season. Motherfuckers. How cold is it up there today? It is so fucking cold. I'm wearing long Johns. I'm wearing long underwear.
00:13:17
Speaker
Oh man. It was like 23 here with a a brutal breeze. Yeah, it's it's actually it's in the 20s here, but with a breeze, like it's but like whipping off of Lake Michigan.
00:13:30
Speaker
And that's in Fahrenheit, folks. If you guys are listening in Europe, that's about 24 kilograms.
00:13:39
Speaker
Um, uh, but, uh, you know what I had, what I supped on, um, was I made, made like a succulent lamb.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yes. I supped on succulent lamb.
Comfort Foods and Cold Weather Stories
00:14:00
Speaker
i saw it. i thought it was odd how the first 10 minutes before we were recording, you're just constantly like, yeah. Just like licking off your fingertips with all the... And and i want to i want to emphasize for the listener, because we do see each other, we have our cameras on, but you don't get to see us.
00:14:16
Speaker
Jess really puts some mustard on how he, like, you know, like, there's there's a way when you see someone, like, kind of pop their their their finger in their mouth to indicate, ooh, very good, where if they're, like, really, like, popping it,
00:14:34
Speaker
in a quick way, it's it's letting you know, like, succulent lamb. um but Like, it's it's it's like the French kissing of but yeah but No, I made, um yesterday, i made, like, kind of ah your basic boy ah curry. Ooh. Just, like, you know, coconut milk. Mm-hmm. Like, you know, just get a whole bunch of peppers, ah soften them softening them up for a while, then add a bunch of, you know, like ginger and...
00:15:10
Speaker
ah garlic and and whatnot and uh you know a ton of curry powder are we talking yellow curry and then yeah and yeah yellow curry though I was thinking, I was like, you know what? I kind of want panang. I want to add a little peanut butter next time I do this. Panang it a little bit.
00:15:30
Speaker
I love it. I think panang may be red curry and peanut butter or some sort of peanut element, but could be wrong about that. Panang is my favorite, but this was just kind of the lazy boy one.
00:15:45
Speaker
And it it did that wonderful thing, which was I made it yesterday and today it was better. curry will do that that is the magic magic that magic power where you know like they were all kind of hanging out in their their little stew zone and saying like hey let's make these flavors just a little bit better for tomorrow yeah yeah let's blend let's blend those things they're not layered anymore they're they're a melange yeah they were they were milan those spices they were milanian my eyes are blue
00:16:20
Speaker
all right um all right uh how about uh how about i read an email i'd love to hear an email you know is it from a listener yeah sometimes i think we do what what have you been playing first and then uh but this time i decided to mix it up because i have the email already pulled up this is from john
00:16:43
Speaker
Hey, Ben and Jess. I found your podcast a couple months ago and recently caught up on all the episodes. It's definitely one of my favorites. Thank you, John. Thank you, John. I'm in my late 40s and grew up playing a lot of the LucasArts and Sierra Adventure games. Somehow I never played the Quest for Glory series. currently making up for it. Oh, awesome.
00:17:00
Speaker
Yes. What a lovely gift. Yeah. i don't see Yeah. yeah I'm also revisiting Monkey Island as I did play a few, but my memory is awful. So it's great to go back. Be sure to play Tales from Monkey Island.
00:17:12
Speaker
Yeah. Would be my recommendation. Even though the first couple episodes take a little while to find their place. Anyway. Some of my favorites of all time, parenthetically, not necessarily the best games, but the ones I had the most fun with back then are Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, Freddy Farkas, Fiv Atlantis, Goblins Quest III, and many others. I also like to mess with games like Bloodnet Hell, a cyberpunk thriller, because they had a neat atmosphere, though I could barely run some of them on my POS computer.
00:17:45
Speaker
I am not. I know. I've only, I think ever seen the box for those two. I don't know anything. I think so too. I don't know much about them beyond that, but I'm glad to hear from a fellow Freddie Farkas fan.
00:17:58
Speaker
A fellow Freddie Farkas fan. Um, As I thought, I had previously commented somewhere on Spotify, but I'm having a hard time chasing it down. Maybe give Beneath a Steel Sky a chance someday. Another one of my favorites, mainly for the atmosphere.
00:18:12
Speaker
Thank you so much for all the good times and the great material. i hope you can continue this podcast for a very long time. John. Thank you, John. Thank you so much for the kind words. Now, Ben, you've never played Beneath a Still Sky, have you? No, have you? haven't either. Yeah. No, never played that. it Especially as like two retro game streamers that also like kind of talk to each other about like, you know,
00:18:36
Speaker
how it's like, I feel like I'm um umm starting to to hit. I might be past peak oil for retro games. Yes. Adventure that I haven't played beneath a steel sky does feel like a massive blind spot because I do know that's a game that that people love. And isn't it freeware?
00:18:57
Speaker
Yes, there's no excuse not to play it. Yeah, it's freeware. It runs beautifully in ScumVM. Yeah, we, one and or both of us do need to play Beneath the Still Sky and then probably talk about it on Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. Yeah, I should check that out. That's that's been, I think I've, I think I like, I poked around in it once. That's it.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah. like i don't think I've almost streamed it so many times. I've made, here's how close I've come to streaming it, Ben. If you want to know about my workflow. I got to know. You got to know more about my workflow. I'd already made a thumbnail for the VOD in advance of playing the game and then picked something else to move up in the queue ahead of it.
00:19:39
Speaker
Wow. what what What beat out? Do you know what beat out? You know, i I bet if I looked back at my folder of thumbnails and sorted by date, I could give the exact answer to that question. i have such admiration for how on top of your bullshit you are. I'm way too on top of my bullshit, man. You have no idea. Like, it is it is upsetting. i am not. am.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yeah. Like, let me see here. I'm going find out. I'm going to give you the answer to this. Uh, vamp, uh, so, uh, what else, uh, is in the the news today? So, okay. One of my favorite curry mixins is, uh, uh, cashews.
00:20:22
Speaker
I love having cashews mixed in with like the, the Thai place that I used to go to, near my old apartment here in Chicago.
00:20:33
Speaker
ah I would always get it, like get their Penang. My Friday nights, my Friday night order was their Penang curry with crispy noodles. And what I loved about their crispy noodles was that they would take their normal, like kind of, you know, large flat noodles and like kind of flash fry them in a big bunch and then pull them out. And so that there would be a center that was still kind of gooey like noodley and so you had like a nice variety of textures and then i would uh and then i would uh get it medium spicy uh because they for a Thai place they were pretty conservative uh with their heat uh which was kind of surprising um
00:21:23
Speaker
And i have an answer to any moment. If you're ready. Cashews. Well, I had to finish talking about this. That's the thing. I'd like, I've had it for a long time, but that i was just enjoying hearing about the top.
Quest for Glory Randomizer Discussion
00:21:33
Speaker
Here's it but you want to know what they ended up frying, like getting quote unquote better at frying the noodles.
00:21:42
Speaker
So like they were more uniform and all the way crispy. And i always preferred the textural a difference.
00:21:53
Speaker
Like I liked, you know, that there would be this big mass of fried noodles and then in the middle there would be ones that weren't completely fried. Anyway, so what did he play instead?
00:22:05
Speaker
It turns out I played Simon the Sorcerer and what a mistake. Oh, oh, Jess. Absolutely. Yeah, that That was a huge mistake.
00:22:20
Speaker
Jess, I got to say to you, I feel kind of dirty using the Price is Right horn this much because i feel it's like kind of a cliche. But you know, it would be a cliche if it wasn't so good.
00:22:33
Speaker
It is so good, but it's so good. It's such a c click cliche. And speaking of cliches, what have you been playing? Wah, wah, wah.
00:22:43
Speaker
You know, John, in his email earlier, mentioned that he was going to experience the Quest for Glory games for the first time. And Ben, you know this. I was very excited. I knew you were going to to do this as you're playing.
00:22:57
Speaker
I want to talk about this. Yeah, just last night, I was streaming of my all-time favorite games. I was streaming Quest for Glory 1. So you want to be here a hero. EGA Original. EGA Original with...
00:23:11
Speaker
the fan made randomizer turned on. It's the first time I've ever done this. What does that do? I've never heard of this. I say placing myself as a listener.
00:23:22
Speaker
Oh, well, the randomizer randomizes it, man. You're going to have to do better than that, Jess. Okay, okay. Specifically, it is going to take all kinds of elements the game, everything from your starting stats to the location of items within the game and completely move everything around.
00:23:47
Speaker
So, like, you when you go to the little, like, seed-spitting spore plants that are there on that one screen? Yeah. They're still there and they're still spinning around the seed. Perfect. Yeah, but in my
00:24:15
Speaker
and everything is all mixed up and changed up like that. Even like the rewards you get for turning in things to the healer will get you instead of gold like she gave me 50 rocks one time.
00:24:31
Speaker
And even the game, I started out without a weapon. So started out without a weapon, without any spells, without anything else. And luckily, when I went to the healer's hut, I picked up rocks and threw them enough times that finally knocked down the nest.
00:24:44
Speaker
And was a dagger in the bird nest instead of the gold ring that I expected to find. Otherwise, I don't know could have gotten through the game. But... Here's what's interesting about it. As a randomizer, of course, there are good and bad seeds.
00:24:58
Speaker
There are good outcomes of a randomizer and less good. And think I created for myself a very... unwinnable state or a near unwinnable. I don't think I was softlocked, but I was certainly the grind I was looking toward was terrible. I ended up with a character that didn't have a parry skill, didn't have climbing, didn't have magic, and didn't have pick locks.
00:25:24
Speaker
So I was a thief who couldn't pick locks with no magic, no fighting skills, no real way to train strength or anything like that. So I was going out the forest.
00:25:34
Speaker
Goblins were just like ripping me a new one left and right. It was hopeless. And eventually I had to give up on that. But I think going to try this again. think we'll try for a better seed and see if I can get a play through this. I loved it though, Ben. It was frustrating and maddening, but in a really great way, like for a game I love and kind of know inside and out.
00:25:55
Speaker
It was so fun. Suddenly, like, just stuff being in the wrong place was enough to make me completely forget the solutions to actual puzzles. It just threw off my entire train of thought. Here's a question for you, because you said, like, so you got the seed and you cracked it open. And there was, does it have, like, did the person who made it like, write fun little...
00:26:16
Speaker
Okay, they did. Okay. They did. Like, little custom text. That's right. And they're all written really well in the tone of the game. Like, I would go believe these were written by Lori Cole. Absolutely. Like, they they feel like real text. Like, here's a cute one. Like...
00:26:33
Speaker
you know you go see the meeps and you ask for green fur and the green fur still rolls out on the screen and everything when they throw it out of their meat pole uh throw it your meat pole um yeah i remember when we were all saying that yeah yeah but um like you go over and you get the fur and it says like picking through the wad of green fur you find an undead ungulent or whatever I loved last night because I was wondering this because I cut the end of the stream. I thought it was really funny you got the Mandrake root and it was you reach into the Mandrake like to grab the Mandrake root as you pull it's attached to chainmail armor.
00:27:16
Speaker
I mean, again, it's kind fun that they go through the hassle of writing dialogue that, I mean, it's ridiculous, but at least it's in the form of a complete sentence that sounds, you know, like it could really be part the game.
00:27:31
Speaker
The randomizer was a lot of fun. Like I said, I put myself in a very difficult to win situation, but... It was a neat exp- I think it's a fun way to go back and replay Query One. If it's a game you already know inside now. I highly recommend this. And like said, I'm gonna return to think I'm gonna at least one more stream and see if I can get a character that has a few more tools at his disposal.
00:27:55
Speaker
Uh, specifically Thief Tools. And see how I do. Yeah, that sounds great. I would love- I- maybe I should get into- Like, I feel like I should beat Query One EGA.
00:28:07
Speaker
perhaps will be a future stream and then get into because i feel like the randomizer exists for it like you've played it so many times that now you have this thing that will really and i have that for quest for glory one but only
00:28:36
Speaker
Probably. It's the same game. Yeah. I don't know where all the, the, the, how to, how to fight in it. I'm not going to learn all that. Well, it took, it turns out my place so it didn't matter because I couldn't win any fight anyway. It was pretty fun.
00:28:51
Speaker
I did do for the first time ever at the urging of my chat. I found out like, you know, the ogre that guards the kobold cave. Yeah. You can like run around him and get into the cave without the defeat him. I didn't know this. Yeah. I didn't know this. There's, there's, there's many solutions. You can run around him. You can cast calm. You fight him.
00:29:10
Speaker
Yeah. I knew calm. Yeah. And I knew fighting him. I've run right by him. Yeah. Yeah. It was really embarrassing for him.
00:29:22
Speaker
I mean, running right by him is, in fact, the easiest possible way. Yeah. I mean, that's how I've avoided a lot of fights in my life. Just like, Zoop.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:36
Speaker
Anyway, that sounds great. mean, it looks like a damn fool. Ben, what have you been playing? I've been playing the game Promise Mascot Agency, which is Kaizen Gameworks, the group that made one of my favorite recent games.
00:29:57
Speaker
I've sung praises of Paradise Killer.
Promise Mascot Agency Game Review
00:30:01
Speaker
This was the game they made after
00:30:10
Speaker
it. I would say I'm some ways in. I think I'm like two thirds kind of looking at like how long to beat and stuff like that. It's interesting.
00:30:21
Speaker
I don't...
00:30:25
Speaker
I don't like it quite as much as Paradise Killer, but Paradise, like it's like ah a five star to a four star. you yeah like It's like, oh, this is still very good.
00:30:36
Speaker
It just doesn't create as much enjoyment in it. But what it is, is...
00:30:47
Speaker
And similar to Paradise Killer, it's completely bonkers, like ridiculous premise in service of a massive open world where you're just kind of wandering around and just picking little doodicies.
00:31:02
Speaker
In Promise Mascot Agency, you are kind of a disgraced Yakuza.
00:31:12
Speaker
that is hiding in a small town on an island in Japan when everyone thinks you're dead and you've been... In order to stay faced for the family that you're a member of, you have to raise a ton of money as kind of a ransom.
00:31:36
Speaker
And the way you're going to do it is by managing a mascot agency. Because in this world, mascots are like living, breathing beings.
00:31:49
Speaker
And so you recruit mascots and then you find jobs for them and you send them on jobs. And while they're on jobs, you kind of explore around this island and find, you know, various little doohickeys and things and, you know, run into little plot, bits of plot and stuff like that.
00:32:13
Speaker
And this is, you know, you want to know what... what it is about this game that I think actually is like the four to five star difference, uh, for me, uh, is that there's a little too much actual gameplay in it. Huge mistake. A lot of games are making that. Yeah. like You know, a lot of games have a little too much gameplay in them. And, uh, uh, you know, the nice thing about paradise killer was that, uh, you could get to the end game in like three seconds if you like.
00:32:43
Speaker
Um, Uh, it's just in, in Paradise Killer, you're just wandering around an island, just picking up things. You can just start the end game trial at the very start the game, uh, with no evidence or investigation.
00:32:57
Speaker
You just say who you think did it, and then the game is it. checks this, like you're raising money. There's like this little, like there's this little mini, like there's a lot of little mini games in them and none of them are bad, none of them are also particularly interesting.
00:33:20
Speaker
Like one of them is like this little card game, which is fine. And there's like a, like a claw game thing that you do at one point.
00:33:32
Speaker
that's all nine, you know, it's a little claw game, whatever. Like, you know, there's just a bunch of little extra gamey game things in I like, because in the game, your your main thing is you're just driving a car. That's all you do. You're driving this little, like, pickup truck around.
00:33:52
Speaker
A little, uh, and, uh, and again, big open world, but in fact, a bigger open world. And you're driving a car, which is even cooler than running around.
00:34:04
Speaker
don't know. Isn't driving a car just running around with wheels instead of feet? Oh, there's a human, a car. There
00:34:14
Speaker
you go. Yeah. Gary Newman really spoke highly of them. So maybe, yeah, maybe I'm wrong. And, uh, but like similar, like it has, you know, as said, it has the same type of like really, uh, uh, strange well thought out world.
00:34:32
Speaker
a ton of very interesting characters, really spectacular and enjoyable soundtrack. Uh, but you know what?
00:34:44
Speaker
I just, all I want to and in fact, you could, I had the choice at the beginning of the game. You can turn down, like, I think it gives you an option to, like, turn it, turn down the difficulty at the start the game.
00:34:57
Speaker
It's maybe that address, that four or five star complaint, but even say, you know what? There's just little too much, little too much game on the bone. I just want that delicious bone.
00:35:10
Speaker
Mmm, bone. Mmm.
00:35:13
Speaker
oh That's what I've been playing. Well, thank you, Ben. ah So ah before we get to today's, ah today's ah you know, subject, probably related to today's subject, let's play a little bit of The Price is Right.
00:35:39
Speaker
Okay. Ben. might say to me, Ben, are you just, instead of digging through that royalty free music collection, did you just, uh, uh, frantically run through the, the folders of music you pulled for this very podcast and just land on the Kyrandia folder that you set aside?
00:36:00
Speaker
That I'd say you're that's a scurrilous lie and I'll see you in court. And also if you start accusing Ben of things like that, you know what song he's going to play. You know what he'll do. Don't give him the opportunity. He'll push that button. like hey I don't have that loaded up.
00:36:16
Speaker
Hold All right. All right. right. All right. Give me, give me that wind up, please. You know, if you, uh, if you keep accusing Ben of things like this, you know what song he's going play.
00:36:28
Speaker
You know what?
00:36:32
Speaker
Yeah, you see? You see? Did you like Kyrandia better? I mean, this is fine. I mean, that's not the... Yeah, this is a perfectly fine ad-lib, you know, Sound Blaster Pro version of this William Tell Overture.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's not great. mean, it's... Yeah, mean, it's okay. It's so good.
eBay Auctions and Vintage Game Pricing
00:37:02
Speaker
Wait, what happened? It still makes me laugh.
00:37:15
Speaker
All right. All right. Okay. I got a, Oh, I, I, I, uh, removed the Kyrandia tune. from God damn it.
00:37:27
Speaker
Falling apart here. This is the price of comedy. This is a crisis. This is the price of comedy. Yeah. The, the, the, the, the crisis is right. Is that, is that a thing?
00:37:39
Speaker
i kind of like that. The crisis is right. I mean, have you looked at the news? No, brother. All right. Okay. Are you ready? Ben, I am on eBay.com.
00:37:53
Speaker
Cool. I'm looking at a listing titled Vintage Zach McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders Amiga 512K.
00:38:05
Speaker
What I'm looking at here are two three and a half inch No box. No one's true.
00:38:16
Speaker
Loose, loose floppies. Loose floppies? Loose floppies. you Amiga. Now. So you've got two floppies.
00:38:27
Speaker
Two loose floppies. Two loose floppy disks. No, don't say loose floppy disks. Please only refer to them as loose floppies. Two loose floppies.
00:38:40
Speaker
Just loose floppies, two loose floppies. We've got two loose floppies, Ben. And I want to emphasize, I don't know if you know what the three and a half inch disc looks like in this context, but the label for it is white with a red Zack McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders logo. And then the Groucho Marx glasses and a Lucasfilm games logo, but it's a white background.
00:39:02
Speaker
And it has that discoloration that old white disc labels get. The discoloration. Yes. Disc rot, as I like to call it. Label rot. Are there any like manuals or anything?
00:39:18
Speaker
Nope. Ben, when I say loose floppies, I mean loose floppies. So so that's it. It is too... For the Amiga. For the Amiga. So this is... Because here's the thing.
00:39:32
Speaker
Like, unless you're completing a collection, like, maybe you have the box, and you don't have the discs. Um... Like... ostensibly this is only for someone that actually has like an Amiga and is like I want to play Zack McCracken and I'm not going to like you know just download Zack McCracken from yeah anywhere on the internet you can't trust those websites they're letting me download it I mean even dog yeah what's uh what's the condition listed
00:40:06
Speaker
Okay, this is a great question. The condition listed is going to be very good. would say. Very good. I would say that, okay, here, yeah, I mean, it just has like the copied and pasted like definition of very good condition. It's one of those listings. okay I would say this is a pretty rough looking disc. Like the label's fully intact, but the rot is pretty prominent. All right.
00:40:33
Speaker
I'm gonna... e one and Disc one, disc two, two loose floppies. Then what is the price of this eBay auction? And where, where, where, where is the seller?
00:40:46
Speaker
this in the United States? This is a great question. This is a Canadian seller, but I have the American price. Okay.
00:40:55
Speaker
Was the Amiga big in Canada? I know it was big in Europe and the UK. Canada is practically the Europe and the UK. I am going to say.
00:41:05
Speaker
Okay. $12.99. Ben, you have way undershot this one. Are there any bids on this?
00:41:17
Speaker
Okay, let me check this. Bids, bids, bids, bids. It is buy it now or best offer. There is no bidding. Hurry before it's gone. One person is- One person is- One person is- One person is watching this.
00:41:33
Speaker
So fast. The person selling it. Yeah, well, you don't know that, Ben. That is technically slander. Uh-huh. All right, Jess, how much?
00:41:46
Speaker
Ben, this is going to set you back $54. That is horseshit. And two cents. Plus, I need to note... Ben, you ready for this?
00:41:57
Speaker
Are you ready? That? Oh, and tariffs. Wait, yeah. But before you pay tariffs, before you pay tariffs, that's going to be $14.40 shipping. Great.
00:42:10
Speaker
For two discs. $1440 for shipping. How do you calculate the tariffs on two loose floppies, like two Amiga discs? Let me tell you, you get like a bill from the Department of Treasury and they calculate it for you. No, really, this has happened to me. Did I tell you this story? No.
00:42:33
Speaker
So I bought recently ah a boxed copy of Curse of Monkey Island. Let me... Wow! Let's see this this beautiful thing. Have you shown this on your stream yet? I haven't. This is a secret one just for me.
00:42:47
Speaker
But look at this beautiful, like, pristine copy of Curse of Monkey Island. I love it. And I overpaid for it a little bit. If you want prices are at this one. I don't. I'm not going to... Yeah.
00:43:01
Speaker
But let's just say... Let's assume it was a hundred dollars. Let's like let say how many, how many, ah loose floppies of Zach McCracken for the Amiga did that full box high quality. I looked at it. That looked like a nice box. He just yeah showed how many copies of Zach McCracken without any documentation for the Amiga, uh, did that cost?
00:43:27
Speaker
Well, let's say that each Zach McCracken disc is what I guess. twenty five yeah dollars this was about
00:43:34
Speaker
25. Yeah, $25.
00:43:37
Speaker
This was about five Zach McCracken discs. So from the US Department. That's actually more than I thought it would be. It was a crazy low deal for a Monkey Island game. They are so inflated.
00:43:47
Speaker
But I got the bill for the tariffs afterwards, Ben. Uh-huh. It was $40 and I was Joker-fied immediately on the spot. I was ready to like go and start burning down buildings and things like that.
00:44:08
Speaker
It was. This is just why didn't you buy Chris Monk Allen from an American seller? You're there. We're being protected. We're being protected from all those predatory Canadian foreigners trying to lure us with their low cost monkey island
Zach McCracken Game Exploration
00:44:27
Speaker
boxes. i was fine with all of this when it was just making my groceries cost significantly more.
00:44:33
Speaker
But You like artificially inflate the price of my Monkey Island games in the spirit of protectionism. I mean, the Tri-Island area is clearly a free trade zone.
00:44:46
Speaker
And I don't know why NAFTA can't be too. And look, I know NAFTA is not in effect anymore, but I shouldn't have to. But the point has been you should jump on those floppies because there's somebody watching them already. Those loose floppies are going fast.
00:45:01
Speaker
All right. Yeah, I'll give those loose floppies a jump. um All right. We're talking Zach McCracken and the alien mind benders today. That's right. A game I love and you don't care for. No, that's incorrect.
00:45:12
Speaker
Oh, how's it go? This is how it goes. I mean, that's good. This is so nice and chewy. I love those LucasArts drums.
00:45:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Ooh.
00:45:35
Speaker
Which platform is this? This is the PC speaker. No.
00:45:42
Speaker
No way. That's gotta be at least... Maybe it's a three voice? Maybe this is like a Tandy or something? Yeah.
00:45:53
Speaker
Now you're gonna fucking make me open up... It can be could it? This is not the C64 because I almost... This I can tell you definitively this is not because I, this is PC version.
00:46:07
Speaker
Cause I just pulled this from like a YouTube, like a long play. And it sounds amazing. And I actually went to the C64 version first because I wanted chewiest,
00:46:28
Speaker
crunchiest version of this tune available. And it was like, well, course,
00:46:36
Speaker
the c sixty four is going to be the, the chewiest, crunchiest version of this. And I listened to it and it, it, it, it didn't have as much chew.
00:46:50
Speaker
it didn't have enough chew for me. It had a couple little chewy parts that I thought really kicked ass, but I think this version, which this is how I remember, like, in keep in mind, you know, this is,
00:47:06
Speaker
Like, this is how I remember it ah sounding on my, like, all right, hold on. Yeah, hold on. let me Let me open up. Do I have this set up on my SCUM virtual machine?
00:47:18
Speaker
ah ah Because yes, this is the that is the PC version that I pulled it from. The C64 version does sound different. It does use some of the C64, you know, gnarliness.
00:47:29
Speaker
Yeah. gnarss um in any that gnarl yeah I Yeah, the gnarle is good. We all love the gnarle. All right, so now I have um i i have Scum VM running right now.
00:47:47
Speaker
The Scum virtual machine running Zach McCracken. All right, so he's marching back and forth in the national, ah ah like in in the tabloid.
00:48:00
Speaker
If I hit escape, is it going to go straight to like, because he, it starts with him having this discussion with the, uh, the, the guy that runs the the tabloid, uh, And then it goes into the intro and I'm scared to hit escape.
00:48:18
Speaker
Oh, don't you hate that feeling? It will take me all the way uh, when he's in Seattle. Yeah. the start of the game as opposed to skipping this dialogue so i could verify that what we just heard was the what a pc speaker version sounds like which i think think that's what sounded like think i don't think we could ever know this i think this could be unknowable i this could be please This is an unknown unknown to quote Donald Rumsfeld. Who is a listener? yeah He is.
00:48:55
Speaker
He sent me a very nice letter. yeah Later at night in Zach's bed alone. o We've all been there. again okay naturally snoring we see him we see him in his bed we have the the beautiful zach mccracken and the alien mind benders tm uh uh logo this is great radio yeah this is exactly what i just played is how it sounds
00:49:25
Speaker
This is the PC. What I played was the PC speaker. I was right and you were wrong. That's impossible, Bib. PC speaker sounds like this. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Like, that's how it sounds. I'm, I'm, I'm listening. I'm rocking out all over again.
00:49:40
Speaker
and it was access, it would have like a scratchy voice. like, Sonic, we're cracking at the alien bybenders. Yeah. ah Welcome to John Elway's quarterback. All right.
00:50:02
Speaker
It opens with a banger tune on the PC using the PC speaker. If you played the correct version, which is of course the EGA enhanced version.
00:50:14
Speaker
Ben, this was a childhood favorite of yours that I've only played in recent years as an adult. Tell me about. your childhood experiences with Zachary McCrackery. But before we get to that, I, I, I, let me run the, the premise of the, like the, the basics, the log line. And then, and then I'll talk about that because I'm going to say of Lucas arts or Lucas film games at that point, uh, uh, adventure games, this is probably,
00:50:46
Speaker
ah Like this and like Last Crusade are probably like the last ones that people get to if they're going to play at any of them at all. Right. Like ah like Zach McCracken is probably like unless like which it is.
00:51:02
Speaker
Much more popular in Europe, so maybe not there. But ah ah like. you know at least in the united states uh generally zach mccracken uh is is usually considered towards the bottom yeah not a lot of people are like i just played secret at monkey island for the first time and then someone says oh now you gotta try zach mccracken um that's not the natural progression so zach mccracken is a a game where he plays zach mccracken
00:51:35
Speaker
uh a Zachary McCracken a a journalist who works at a uh a tabloid like a weekly world news style yeah national inquisitor right isn't that something like um based in in San Francisco and you hate your job um and you've been sent by the the editor of this tabloid ah on a job to investigate, ah like a two headed squirrel and a UFO landing, uh, like that happened also in Seattle.
00:52:18
Speaker
And, ah The night before you go on your trip to Seattle, you have this wild dream that has like aliens and this beautiful woman and that kick-ass tune that I just played on your PC speaker.
00:52:39
Speaker
um uh plays i've just verified it with the scum virtual machine um and uh like faces from mars and marks on a world map and i like you you have this very striking dream and then i While you go on ah like, as you go on ah your your trip, you realize that something isn't quite right.
00:53:14
Speaker
There's something going on. People in the far-off future of 1997, which I think is a great gag, that it's a future that...
00:53:25
Speaker
everyone involved in making the game, I'm pretty sure knew that they were going to live to, uh, in the, the far, which makes the tragic curse of Zach McCracken, uh, even more upsetting that no one lived from this entire development team. But, uh, uh, that,
00:53:42
Speaker
Their ah people are acting stupider. There seems to be a stupidity epidemic. Yeah. Pandemic. Because it's worldwide, I believe.
00:53:54
Speaker
And it turns out to be a plandemic. Oh, well. and And so as you go to investigate, you just like you uncover this enormous...
00:54:07
Speaker
globe and planet like multi-planetary conspiracy run by these ah aliens that are trying to make all of humanity stupid and you and three other people have to work together to get all these artifacts and assemble this ah special I forget what it's called, whatever. The special fucking thing to ah like, ah just, you know, defeat the the evil aliens and make everybody less stupid.
00:54:51
Speaker
And that's the game. And then my story with it. So this was as you know, this was in that ah famous to me, you know, very seminal birthday gift.
00:55:06
Speaker
that was the the Lucas ah classic adventure collection that was Loom Seeker of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, ah ah indiana jones and the last crusade and zach mccracken and this i and of the games in that pack i beat three of the five and this was wow one of the three i beat zach mccracken loom and secret of monkey island i did not yeah i know
00:55:44
Speaker
I know. Pretty impressive. I did not beat Maniac Mansion and I did not beat Indiana Jones. um I don't think I could ever beat Maniac Mansion.
00:55:58
Speaker
Maniac Mansion is like hard. Yeah. I know my, but and my brain just has, I've played it start to finish several times now. And I still couldn't just do it without a walkthrough. i don't think I'm just, the I'm not built for maniac mansion. I wasn't built for Zach McCracken either. I, did you finish this? Just like,
00:56:18
Speaker
Straight up honest. Oh, no, no, no. With hints. Because ah as as I've mentioned, that a collection came with walkthroughs for all five games. yeah But they were light hint walkthroughs that were written as narratives. As first person.
00:56:36
Speaker
Perfect. Yeah. Because that would have hopeless in this game without a walkthrough. Yeah. But um so so the thing about... and and And I didn't quite touch on this and in my little synopsis there, but Zack McCracken is also like this like big, goofy comedy that is like a parody of like a lot of... like the The object of its comedy is a lot of like kind of new-agey stuff. Yes, absolutely. um Like...
00:57:16
Speaker
you, you meet like Harry Krishna's and like, and there are, there are onks in there. Like it's about like the faces on Mars and like you go to the Bermuda triangle and the, like the, the artifacts that you get for the thing are all like brightly colored crystals.
00:57:40
Speaker
Yes. So it's very like kind of tied up in a, especially of that moment, like a very woow woo woo of, uh, idea, right? Like, yeah. they're interesting Like that's the moment that would have to occur to like, what year did this come out? Is this 88?
00:58:02
Speaker
eight I don't know the answer to that question. Let's see. I believe. it's gonna be 88 let's see it's 88 yes um yeah i mean to me yeah that feels like there's like a two-year window there where that stuff is so prominent in popular culture and sort of the zeitgeist that you could make what's ostensibly and it a video game for kids that it would like hit
00:58:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and yeah, like new age parody stuff. Yeah. It was really all like they're, they, they paradise it in like on mystery science theater in like yeah an episode, like 91, think. Yeah.
00:58:49
Speaker
um it Yeah, like, and so, you know, revisiting it, you know, this century, you know, all these years later, ah it it's not really like woo-woo stuff and crystals and all that. Like, obviously, that shit's all still around. But like...
00:59:11
Speaker
the the the everybody was paradising it isn't quite you know like it it just isn't as big a topic as it was for comedy at that at right that particular moment right yeah um but anyway as a kid why i liked it number one I love the opening cut scene where he has like this weird dream. That's kind of like this vision that's speaking to him. Like, it's like, Oh, you have to do this. Like, and it, and it, it's all like, it doesn't, it isn't literal. Like it's just, you see a bunch of images that, that show up later in the game and it's like, Ooh, um, I, I thought that was really funny and weird. Like I loved the,
01:00:00
Speaker
um non sequitur weird humor like that's really that's always a hit with like weird 10 year old nerds yeah I mean I feel like this is a game that wears its weirdness you know like ah a badge of honor certainly it is very deeply strange game it's yeah not like any other Lucas game at all no and I assume some of that is probably David Fox as as lead designer here is bringing a very unique sensibility ah to this game and you know it definitely leans into the weird I feel like more than it does even like the comedy element I think the comedy is mostly found in the weirdness yeah the comedy is found in the weirdness but there are
01:00:49
Speaker
there There are just straight jokes in it. Yes. um Like, and, like, the the bit at the beginning of the game, there's, like, when you're in your apartment and, like, you turn on the TV and the newscasters slowly start to become stupid and then it just ends up, like, the newscasters just start going, uh...
01:01:15
Speaker
ah uh like i thought that was very like i still think that's kind of funny and then the i think my favorite puzzle in the game is when you have to like uh steal the shit in the uh airplane and you have to like make things absolutely miserable for the the poor yeah flight attendant and like clog the toilets and microwave an egg which is very funny yeah like yeah that's that's very peak adventure game protagonist psychopath yes it's like i have to steal the oxygen tanks on a so i'm going to ruin this poor woman's life like the poor woman's day anyway sometimes you have to do that but as a kid i loved there there were a couple things i loved about it i loved
01:02:10
Speaker
the weirdness and like that it was weird and, and funny because that's where my head was at. I loved um I liked how big it is. One of the signature... And not just the heads. Yeah.
01:02:29
Speaker
One of the signature things about the the the game, which makes it so kind of gangly and uneven when I revisit it now as an adult,
01:02:40
Speaker
is that i loved like in the game you go to airports and you can fly all over the world because it's like this big scavenger hunt you're getting all this shit yeah um and you're revisiting locations yeah constantly and you're hopping back and forth even on a pre-optimized run you're gonna be backtracking a fair bit Yeah, and as an adult, I find that very tedious and boring. As a child with endless free time and a love of exploring in games like that, that was really fresh and exciting. like i got It's like, oh, I wonder what's going what Kathmandu is going to be like. you know Is it also a two wonder? I mean, we've talked before about our love of travel in these games. We've talked before about like Police Quest as an adult simulator. yeah Is it fun just to go to an airport and get on a plane ticket and go somewhere? That was fun. It was fun also. And this, it again, it's funny.
01:03:32
Speaker
The things that irritate me about the game now as an adult were all pluses as a kid. um The, like, and money management, which, ugh. And and you you break that pretty, like, you yeah you you break that. like they win the lottery, right? And then you get some money that, yeah.
01:03:55
Speaker
So in the game, ah ah eventually you get access to the massive Cadillac, which the aliens, like the the head of the aliens ah is.
01:04:09
Speaker
And of course, the head of the aliens is only referred to as the king. And it turns out that he's a man dressed or an alien dressed as Elvis or is Elvis.
01:04:20
Speaker
And, um, uh, but on that, uh, space Cadillac, uh, there, there is a machine that tells you, ah the, the lotto numbers.
01:04:33
Speaker
Uh, see, again, like this, el like, and it's like this Elvis is dead thing. Like again, like it's very steeped in, it is so intensely of its time.
01:04:44
Speaker
it really is. It really is. And, like those aspects of it are fascinating as someone who only played this game last year, you know, coming into it so far removed from that cultural context. You just think it's like, okay, I understand how you make maniac mansion.
01:05:03
Speaker
And I understand where last crusade comes from. And I get secret of monkey Island. it's very hard from the perspective today to even sort of imagine it's like, I've got a great idea for an adventure game. What if it plays with all of these sorts of new age tropes and it's a strange tabloid story and there are aliens and there are, you know, multiple characters are swapping between like maniac mansion, I think to lesser effect than we had in maniac mansion.
01:05:34
Speaker
Um, again made a semi-basket like i found like one of the one of the first things that struck me is i felt like beyond zach the other characters you have a chance to play are not particularly interesting or distinct so annie and the college co-eds which is also a thing does anyone call college students co-eds anymore I don't think so. I mean, I hear the only time I hear it is when someone's doing it for like effect. I think you only say like co-eds if you're going for, you know, a sort of exaggerated portrayal that surely nobody calls, uh, women in college co-eds anymore.
01:06:15
Speaker
Um, and yeah, I work at at college and I've never heard Alyssa and Leslie. Yeah. The the the co-eds. Yeah. Um,
01:06:27
Speaker
The, yeah, you know, and, uh, so, so I loved it. I, I loved it as a kid and I, I beat it. I played it all the way to, uh, the end. And then, I watched you play it last year uh, uh, you had a very different kind of experience playing it.
01:06:50
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, again, Like part of it is i went into it planning to use a walkthrough. so I did have the odd experience of, I didn't try to solve most of the puzzles.
01:07:02
Speaker
So I don't know if I ever would have solved them on my own or not. I suspect I would have needed a walkthrough even if I hadn't started out with one in hand. There's a lot of moon logic here. i mean, sometimes you just have to like,
01:07:14
Speaker
possess a bird and go fly and do something or other you strange elements like that you use a crystal to possess a bird that's just part of the game uh but then it also has stuff like you know mazes thrown in here uh and like there's a maze on mars that i don't even think that is that complex it's like uh what was it's almost like a concentric circle just rendered in two dimensions think that have been the I think that might have been the the Mayan temple. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. The temple. ah Yeah. and ah
01:07:49
Speaker
But yeah, those those sorts of things kind of bummed me out. um I don't know. This one, I kind of felt like I was, it was fighting against me as I played it the whole time. um And I think I wanted, if I was going to be struggling so much with the puzzles and the gameplay and the backtracking and the mazes and everything, I wish that the funny bits had been a little bit funnier for me to kind of bridge me through those parts of the game that were a little frustrating. Or the characters had been a little more distinct in voice that I could have identified more with some of the supporting characters who aren't Zach.
01:08:27
Speaker
Yeah. You know, and, and one thing I'll know when you played, when you, you streamed it, you played. you i did this wrong. I did this incorrect. Yeah. I'm going to, umm yeah i'm you played the, the version um that they, they sell on GOG, um which is the, the FM towns.
01:08:49
Speaker
Yes. The VGA, the 256 music towns, full music towns. And. um where Where I played, as I said, the 16 color like enhanced EGA, so the slightly like higher res, like they're the original version, like the C64 original PC version is at low resolution where everyone's a little super chunky.
01:09:14
Speaker
yeah is This has like that that nice level of detail. Yeah. i I think the game does not gain anything out of the 256. I think a lot of the, especially from that, especially from that period, the, the the I think, like especially with the the Lucas games, the upgrade versions are are not as... Well, like it's like, you know, you look at Loom and you look at yeah Last Crusade. Yeah. And you even look at Seeker Monkey Island, which yeah I think the VGA version of Seeker Monkey Island is pretty good. I prefer the EGA version. Same. But I'm fine with the the VGA version kind of yeah have like being like the canonical. We talked about this, I think, on our LucasArts Bracket episodes, too. You get a lot of that deluxe paint gradient right look to the to the VGA versions. And I will say, i think...
01:10:27
Speaker
what you end up with maybe and stripping the game of some of its primitive graphics maybe takes away from it in a weird way. Like I think if it felt a little looser in 16 color. so be so yeah, there's, there's two points I want to make on that. One is, is that I think another issue with the, the two 56 versions is that they make the, the, the, the palette a lot darker.
01:10:57
Speaker
Like it it kind of make like, because with the 16 colors, all those colors are really bright. And that's my memory of Zach McCracken is like these bright, bold colors. Yeah. Lots of bright yellows and yeah maroons and oranges. yeah palette works with the strange uh kind of setting of the game the other shots right now and i would agree yeah it's much more striking and 16 colors the the other thing i'm gonna say ah about it is that
01:11:30
Speaker
the VGA version looks like it has like the same, uh, uh, UI as secret of monkey Island one layer of secret monkey Island. That that's the only one that's called secret. Anyway, monkey Island one secret of all monkey Island. first Secret of Island monkey. Secret of monkey town. Welcome visitors.
01:11:54
Speaker
Uh, but, i
01:11:58
Speaker
but like secret monkey island is a considerably more complicated game in terms of like it has dialogue like you you can't talk this is this is the game that immediately follows maniac mansion and it pretty much has the same i think most of the same verbs if not exactly the same one yeah there's no talk to yeah there's not a talk there's not like it has a bunch of those like extraneous extra verbs like there's just a lot of extra stuff in it And I ah take off is a bold verb to include. Yeah. Put on and take off. Yeah. Yeah.
01:12:35
Speaker
And my feeling with those, like, is that if, if when, when you play a game with that, like interface, like secret of monkey Island, um but it's of a game that's like, you know, maniac mansion and Zach McCracken, which are like kind of,
01:13:04
Speaker
have have less kind of story stuff going on in them, your brain expects more. You know what I mean? Ah, yeah. Like... And, you know, and this is kind of the problem with like the most of the Sierra remakes too. Like, it's like, you know, you play um like the the remake of Please Quest 1 and it there's not a ton of game there.
01:13:32
Speaker
And it feels like you're just getting a very short and kind of unsatisfying VGA game in that or like Space Quest 1. And it's just like, but but if you play the original, which is pretty like functionally the same thing in terms of puzzles and gameplay, ah it you know it's a satisfying and entertaining game. And it's just that when you play it with that like point and click VGA interface, you youre you expect more. You expect a game like that.
01:14:08
Speaker
You know, an EGA game is supposed to take a couple of hours to finish. And when you finish in a couple hours, you're like, yeah, that's how long these games are. But yeah, you crank it up to 256 colors and all of a sudden it's like, you know, I didn't get my money's worth. this is a This is supposed to be an interactive computer gaming experience. More interactivity.
01:14:27
Speaker
Yeah. um And... Like I, you know, my, my feeling, and I think I said this when we did the Lucas bracket. So apologies for restating myself. I think the thing about, and we will redo those Lucas brackets because we got that wrong. in Incorrect.
01:14:45
Speaker
um ah ah but the um but But the thing about Zach McCracken is it feels to me like the ultimate like sophomore slump game in terms of like Maniac Mansion is this nice, tight, clean design.
01:15:04
Speaker
You have this house that you thoroughly explore and like you know it it feels so... like Like it feels like a tightly wound clock. Like there's. And because the, even the kids, I mean, in addition to their little special abilities, they all have the fact that they're all basically like high school archetypes means that, you know, I know who Bernard is, even though Bernard doesn't have a ton of dialogue. Right. And maybe I mentioned, I know who Sandy and razor are, you know, right. And as again, they're, they're like breakfast club, cardboard cutout. Yeah. yeah you know stereotypes yeah nurse edna is like oh i know what weird ed is like like you know just that yeah i mean they're basically mean my understanding the maniac match just as someone who's played it through a few times is there's just a bunch of maniacs man that live in this big house
01:16:02
Speaker
So Zach McCracken is a game where it's like, okay, well in Maniac Mansion, you control three characters. So in Zach McCracken, you control characters.
01:16:14
Speaker
Like that's like that's 33% more in the same press. And to me, that feels like kind of like the overall thesis of the game, right? Like where it's like, well, maniac mansion had three characters. So we have to have four like Maniac Mansion was on one planet. Yeah. So now this is on to like, it's it's it it it is such a maximal game.
01:16:40
Speaker
really is So much so that it, it to me feels a little shaggy. Like, I mean this, like it is sprawling at times in a way that I don't know. i mean, again, if you're a kid who just wants to explore a big sprawling world, I bet that's amazing. Yeah.
01:16:58
Speaker
I've got job, Ben. I've got a mortgage. I've got, I've got hobbies. Oh yeah. Name three of them. Uh, playing old adventure games. Yeah. All right. well Streaming old adventure games and podcasting about old adventure games.
01:17:13
Speaker
All right. Well, you know what? i That's fine. That's that's egg on your face. yeah The kind you'd microwave on a plane. Oh, no.
01:17:24
Speaker
but It stinks like egg on this plane. ah It is. It is. Honestly, that's a really that's a that's a fun. That's a fun little puzzle. um The weird part is, is when he stops hijacking in the middle of that flat and on his way to save his girlfriend. No, no, wait, that's police quest to.
01:17:46
Speaker
um Now. Unaddressed. Mostly. is is probably like the the number one flaw that that people would bring up with it. Maybe number two, one or two, which is that this game has mazes in it.
01:18:05
Speaker
So many mazes. Not that many, but so many. Enough that it feels like too many. Yeah. it's And the thing is, is that they're all not like...
01:18:16
Speaker
Both of us have played adventure games with way worse mazes. I mean, both of us have played the Wayne's World adventure game, which is, is that the worst maze ever in a game? Maybe.
01:18:27
Speaker
Yeah. That one's yeah nasty. that one i think it's definitely the worst in a graphic adventure game. I know there's some nasty mazes and some text games and stuff like that. Oof. That's nasty. That's a horrible...
01:18:42
Speaker
That's a horrible, horrible. Yeah. Yeah. That's a horrible maze. This. So this is a doable maze. Like, in there the manable beze is um like And again, the thing, like when I was a kid, I didn't really worry about navigating them because I had endless free time because I was a child. yeah So what I would do is I would just just wander around aimlessly. i knew eventually i would end up where I'm supposed to end up.
01:19:15
Speaker
Like I would just like have Zach or... mostly Zach, but like maybe Annie, maybe like, you know, like, uh, uh, just have him like aimlessly wander around in those samey corridors until he ended up like in the right place.
01:19:35
Speaker
that's kind of how I did it as an adult, because I was like, I started out with the walkthrough and like most walkthroughs and mazes, it wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped. And then I was getting help from chat and God bless chat for their efforts to help me. But due to the chat delay, i was usually one screen removed from when they said turn left or whatever. So all of that, you know, just out the window. So I mostly just wandered around until I reached my destination. So I played it kid style.
01:20:02
Speaker
The, the, the, probably the other number one like complaint is that it is also possible to soft lock yourself in this game.
01:20:13
Speaker
Which is funny considering this the game that like they introduced the whole LucasArts design philosophy, which is like part of the advertising this it's printed, I believe in the manual that comes with Zach. Well, I wouldn't know because on the way I have two loose floppies and no Maybe that's what I've done. Sorry, that's the best you can get. And you still owe a tariff bill on that.
01:20:35
Speaker
of But yeah, know the whole LucasArts philosophy that they'd eventually, I believe they had a dual ad for Maniac Mansion and Zach McCracken that really spells this out. And a lot of it's like, you know, direct shots at Sierra.
01:20:51
Speaker
Like you don't want random deaths. You don't want soft locks. You, you know, you want to be able to play and enjoy the software entertainment products, et cetera. And Zach McCracken is the game that sort of formally introduces this new design philosophy. But it's also the rare instance of a LucasArts game with some real soft locks in it. Yeah.
01:21:12
Speaker
Yeah. It's annoying. Why are they such hypocrites? what Well, you want to know what? Lucas? george This is the worst thing that you've ever yeah been creatively associated with.
01:21:24
Speaker
Yeah. You know, people have let George Lucas go with no criticism for far too long. And quest quest is not going to stand for that. You know what, George Lucas? Yeah. When you design this game. Yeah.
01:21:35
Speaker
You drop the ball on this one, pal. Yeah. You, you drop that ball. George. Yeah. Yeah. George. George, when you were, when, when, uh, when you would go and play all the games and put the, the, the Lucas seal of approval on the, the products, which I, you know, which every Lucas film slash arts game had until the very end.
01:21:59
Speaker
And it connects star Wars had the, the Lucas seal. Well, he did the mocap for a few of those characters too. He also wrote a couple of those songs. Um,
01:22:11
Speaker
i ah You know, I thought that the Lucas seal meant something. Yeah. And it doesn't. Yeah. I'm disappointed. Yeah. Maybe, maybe roll up the sleeves on that flannel shirt and put some work into this next time, George. Yeah. Jeez, George.
01:22:30
Speaker
What were you? Busy with Temple of Doom? Maybe you should have paid a little less attention to that and let Steve take the wheel little bit more. Like, yeah. I mean, come on.
01:22:43
Speaker
Come on, George. Yeah. George. What the hell, man? George. Come on. I mean, why what a what a dream they they had there where it was um like, it was just like, yeah, do whatever you want. Just don't lose money.
01:23:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And we're going to set you up at Skywalker ranch and like the most amazing place ever to, uh, to get to work. By the way, do whatever you want. Just don't lose money. That's my life philosophy.
01:23:15
Speaker
ah If I break even the day I kill over, you know what I call that? A life well lived. Yeah. If, yeah. it they out yeah Um, but yeah, I don't know. It's,
01:23:31
Speaker
Like, it also has, like, way more characters in it, too. Like, you know, they're not characters that you spend a lot of time with.
01:23:43
Speaker
Phone company guy. But like, yeah, the phone company guy, the witch doctor, like this floating yogi, like this, like all these, the, um, uh, you can, uh, like, uh, uh, there's, uh, the, the police officer, uh, was in like Nepal.
01:24:03
Speaker
Like, they all have like, you know, like little funny bits and little, like, I think it's the witch doctor that like has the visa logo outside of his hut. And then like the inside of his hut, like has a chandelier, like it, you know, like, you know, they're what i what i kind of and enjoy about the game is that, that,
01:24:29
Speaker
that
01:24:32
Speaker
strange kind of like non sequitur humor of it i find like and and perhaps it's just because i it really tickled me as a child like it kind of hits for me in in kind of it's like i where the fuck did you come up with any of this this is just weird that's the vibe it has and i think if there's Anything that I really like about it is how relentlessly weird it is. Like, this is a game that didn't quite click for me, but I love that it is so idiosyncratic. Like, this just feels like something that probably could have only been produced by this design team at this company at this moment in time. Nowhere else would they anyone have greenlit this project. Nowhere else would it have turned out
01:25:19
Speaker
you know, with this bizarre, again, for a game that the time was intended for young children, youngest children largely
Adventure Games and Artistic Vision
01:25:26
Speaker
is the audience. I imagine they, they thought they were courting with this. They probably thought like teenagers maybe. Yeah. That's what thinking. Yeah. Ben, at my age, you're a young child up until the age 27, 28. Okay.
01:25:41
Speaker
but no i mean I'm trying to have, am I correct in saying that you and I have played all the LucasArts adventure games with the exception of Labyrinth and the Dig? That's correct.
01:25:54
Speaker
That's good. It's good that we know this about each other. First of all, that was the first, that was the first thing we said to each other when we were yeah trying to figure it out. And we actually said in unison, which was really strange. Three, two, one labyrinth in the dig. Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:10
Speaker
yeah And we really screamed it like, like, yeah, like high school. Yeah. I mean, it was, yeah, it was like a pep rally. ah But i mean, this, I think out of the Lucas arts games I play,
01:26:23
Speaker
I've played. i think I would put this as my bottom pick. Yeah, you know. Below Escape from Mikey Island. Below... is that my next to bottom pick?
01:26:36
Speaker
Escape is not great. Escape's not great. You know, Ben, ah do we think anyone's still listening to this episode? Yes. At some point, we'll have to talk about this more.
01:26:49
Speaker
I don't love Full Throttle. we We, I think anyone that that watched your your stream of Full Throttle knows that. I mean, i'm fine with it. It's fine.
01:27:01
Speaker
I don't love it, though. It's not my favorite.
01:27:06
Speaker
You know, i don't think it's bad. i think it's good. um It's bold. I think it's got, you know, think it's got some...
01:27:16
Speaker
What's your problem? You know what's interesting about full throttle? Everybody likes that you don't. But you know what's interesting about full throttle is that I kind of think that it occupies kind of a similar kind of thing in my head Zach McCracken in the sense of like you play it and you're like, where the fuck did this come from?
01:27:33
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Who is clamoring for a weird post-apocalyptic biker adventure? As it turned out, more people than many other adventure games at that moment. Yes. But I mean, in much the same way you might say, it's like, who's looking for a day of the dead riff? ah You know, it's like, well, it turns out that singular artistic vision really hit with a whole bunch of people. So it shows what we know.
01:27:59
Speaker
But, um, I mean, what's the Lucas...
01:28:04
Speaker
yeah no like I I might be with you on full throttle. rank these games. Yeah, we already did. And it was perfect. Alright, there's some regrets. there's a lot of Do we have any other thoughts on Zach McCracken specifically?
01:28:19
Speaker
You know, I think, Ben, when you said middle child is the thing that I thought most about as I was preparing for this episode. Did child i say you said middle child? sophomore slump. No, wait, you said sophomore slump. maybe I think I maybe turned that into middle child. Sophomore slump. But, yeah, I do think for me – When I think about Zach McCracken, I think of it occupying this interesting space between Maniac Mansion and Secret Monkey Island. I feel like Secret of Monkey Island is a good example of a game that learned from the successes and failures of Maniac Mansion and Zach McCracken and really locked in this formula that at some level not only became the LucasArts formula, but in a lot of ways just became...
01:29:05
Speaker
the formula for adventure games moving forward. Sierra kept doing its thing, but i mean, certainly even today, when you look at the modern adventure game landscape, Secret of Monkey Island is is just such a fixture in so many modern adventure games. Yeah. And I think maybe you had to get through Zach McCracken to make Secret of Monkey Island at some level. You don't get...
01:29:29
Speaker
a secret. You got this. you got know Let me land this plane. You got it. You don't make ah secret a of monkey omelet without a couple of No, no, no, no, no. you's So close. m No, no. Walk it back. What? mic Mick cracking a few eggs. No, no, no, no. No, no. Let me finish. Let me finish. Let me back up this fucking plane. Okay.
01:30:01
Speaker
So you don't get a secret of monkey omelet without Zach McCracken some eggs.
01:30:13
Speaker
That's what I just fucking said. Yeah, and I did it right. i Pun intended. Wow.
Podcast Closing and Future Preview
01:30:26
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening to Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. You can send us emails at quest quest podcast at gmail.com.
01:30:35
Speaker
Please rate and review and let your friends know about this podcast. You know, we don't make any money on this, at least not at this time. It only serves to to to to coddle our bruised egos.
01:30:49
Speaker
ah But you know what? Speaking of which, yeah you know, We don't plug our Twitch channels very often. I'm, of course, DecafJeda on Twitch. Ben is PS underscore Garrick. Come watch us stream. Ben streams every Tuesday night where he plays a mix of adventure games. I stream every Wednesday night where I typically play retro adventure ah games. it's ah It's a real party. You should drop by.
01:31:14
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, but thank you so much for joining us and, be sure to listen to our brand new episode of quest quest next week, where we discuss space quest for.
01:31:49
Speaker
All right. so Miss Astro chicken, how do you feel about that? Trash. Absolute trash. I love Astro chicken. You know that I know you love Astro chicken. I don't understand that, but yeah, but I get it. I it's lunar lander. Fine.
01:32:05
Speaker
Yeah. It's lunar lander, which is, it's a worse version of lunar lander. Um, but Miss Astro chicken, feel like there's very little payoff. Like you don't have to play it to win. It's just a little thing in there. It's just a little thing in there that probably someone spent a lot of time on that.
01:32:21
Speaker
Did they spend a lot of time on it? Well, I mean, they had to create some assets and you had to, I mean, probably not. mean, it's, it's, I bet it's less work than Astro Chicken. Probably. I would bet that Astro Chicken requires some sort of rudimentary physics to run. Whereas Miss Astro Chicken is just, you move her up and down on like a plane, you like a flat plane essentially. And she drops eggs. She drops eggs on like,
01:32:49
Speaker
like angry farmers and stuff. Yeah. And there's like kind of an arc if I remember correctly. play Like it's, it's, it's kind of difficult to, to drop. Right. I mean, really for me, the only thing it added that like Astro chicken didn't have was the sex appeal.