WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?
Warning: This game is not political correct and contains some swearing and criminal behavior. The game is not rated. If you don't like it, don't play it. Don't take the game too serious, and you might enjoy it. This is the only warning. Promised!
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This is a free fan adventure, a sequel to Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders from LucasFilm Games released in 1988. You can read more about that in the manual.
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Originally, this fan adventure was developed by the Artificial Hair Brothers in 2008. Back then, German was the only supported language.
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In 2015, the announced English version was released as the Director's Cut. The game has additional cut-scene videos, a new user interface and it was reframed (not chopped off) to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Sadly, most of the known bugs from the 2008 release also made it into this version.
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When they announced this Director's Cut, I did offer my help in remastering the game. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Until now that is.
I present you:
THE REMASTERED DELUXE EDITION
The initial motivation to do the remastering was the extreme variations in the audio quality. Furthermore, the Linux version was severely broken. After 4 month of extensive work in my spare time, many more improvements crept in. I think, it was worth the effort, though, thus here it is:
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About 17 hours audio worked on. No more annoying variations in loudness and tone, flawlessly looped background music. Those 17 hours consist of video sequences, music, sfx and German and English voice acting.
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Linux version actually working.
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Furthermore, I fixed many script bugs and graphic errors, some of them existed all the way back to 2008, some were introduced in 2015. There is a detailed, but spoilery list. See Extras/deluxe_edition_edits_en.txt
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Video sequences got subtitles.
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Screen language and voice acting language can be selected independently.
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Subtitles can be disabled.
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No clueless crawling around: Many more exits can be cut short with a double click now. This includes all automatic doors.
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It is now possible to play the cut from 2008 again. For the first time, this is even possible with English voice acting. This cut contains fewer video sequences, but on the other hand includes some scripted cut-scenes not included in the Director's Cut. The video sequences still included remain in the enhanced quality from 2015.
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Those and some more settings can be adjusted in the new deLuxe menu.
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I also considered the Spanish fans and included their independent fan translation as well.
AI tools were used for these tasks:
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Completing the chopped of turbine in the plane's establishing shot.
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Some parts of the airport in Scotland were generated to replace some ugly copy-paste parts.
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Fixing some really tiny seams at Zak's TV table and in front of the laboratory in Switzerland.
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One spoken sentence was generated to fix an error in German.
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The aliens voices from the scripted 2008 cutscenes were generated in English. Zak's lines on the other hand were already in the game, despite inaccessible in the 2015 version.
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A few lines were fixed for the Arab in English.
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A screen reader was used to convert the burnt-in Spanish subtitles to optional text subtitles.
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Whisper was used to generate video subtitles. Those were proof-read and corrected manually.
AI was especially
not used for:
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Coding all the script fixes
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Remastering any of the audio.
DOWNLOAD
16-mar-2026:
Seth Paul, the English voice actor for Zak kindly recorded a few lines. One of which were missing entirely from the 2015 version, and two which were previously synthesized due to corrected errors in the text.
Savegames are likely to break with this update.
V2.2: zak2btasdeluxe2.2.zip (2.4 GB). Manual and Walkthrough included.
V2.2: zak2btasdeluxe_update_2.2.exe (2.8 MB). Update from v2.1a to v2.2.
old versions:
14-jul-2025:
This update fixes a typo in a video in German and brings some corrections in the accompanying documents.
Current savegames remain compatible with this update. You can get your currently installed version from the file FILE_ID.DIZ.
V2.1a: zak2btasdeluxe_update_2.1a.exe (192 kB). Update from v2.1 to v2.1a. Use this, if you got the game after the MacOS support was introduced.
V2.1a: zak2btasdeluxe_update_2.1a_no_mac.exe (11 MB). Update from v2.1 to v2.1a. Use this, if you got the game before MacOS support was introduced, or if you applied the update from v2.0 to v2.1.
04-jul-2025:
In addition to Windows and Linux, MacOS is now supported as well. The version is still 2.1 since the game itself has not changed.
04-jun-2025:
V2.1: zak2btasdeluxe_update_2.1.exe (2.7 MB). Update from v2.0 to v2.1. As asked by Matthew Alan Kane in a recent interview, this fixes his name's typo on the TV show's chyron.
Savegames are likely to break with this update.
LINKS AND FEEDBACK
www.mckracken.net: The official homepage of the Artificial Hair Brothers.
www.maniac-mansion-mania.com: A place with many fan games, mostly set in the Maniac Mansion universe. The beta testers for the deLuxe Edition are active in their forums, too. Thank you very much!
You may use that forum for your feedback, as that is likely the place I read it first. If you don't speak German, the forum also has an international section where you can write in English.
YouTube: Tech Talk with Daniel Albu: "Matthew Alan Kane on Lucasfilm Games, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Meyer Sound and More!" That interview which led to the v2.1 patch. (at 1:48:34)
