Once again, it's up to you to save the world from a terrible fate -- rampant stupidity! You, in this case, are Zak McKracken, ace reporter for the National Inquisitor, the kind of tabloid you see around 7-11 check-out counters. Eventually, you will gain allies in your quest, but for now I'm afraid that you are on your own!
First, a few basic hints. Whenever you enter a new room, click on the command "WHAT IS" and sweep over the objects in the room with your cursor. Anything that does not register cannot be manipulated by you. Now, just because it registers doesn't mean it's important, but nine times out of ten it's there for a reason. Second, I cannot over emphasize the importance of reading the articles in the newspaper that comes with the game. It is chock full of clues, and should be consulted regularly. Remember that there is a twisted logic at work here, and there is often more than one way of solving a problem. And save often, of course!
When the game starts, you have just awakened from a strange dream in which you saw a map. It occurs to you that you should make a copy of that map, so that's one of your first priorities.
You awake in your bedroom, so check that out first. There's a dresser, a desk, a lamp, a telephone, and an answering machine. OPEN the dresser, then PICK UP the phone bill. READ the phone bill. Then cross to the desk, and open it. PICK UP the kazoo. Next to the desk there's a piece of the wall that looks different from the rest. PICK UP the loose piece of wallpaper. Now, if you look under the desk, you will notice an object resting there. When you try to PICK UP your CashCard, however, you push it further under the desk. No problem. USE the phone bill with the CashCard and it's yours. READ the CashCard. Seems like a lot of money? It won't last. The only other thing in your bedroom of importance is the fishbowl, but you don't need that yet, so let's move into the living room. (If you want to, you can TURN ON your answering machine. It is not necessary to the solution, but otherwise you won't get messages from your mother. The phone works, by the way, but I never found any numbers to call. WALK to the door and you'll be in the living room.
When you try to TURN ON the TV, you can't. There are two reasons why: First, PICK UP the loose cushion. Aha! USE the plug with the power outlet on the wall. But you still can't TURN ON the TV. If you do a "WHAT IS" on the TV, you will notice an infrared sensor, so obviously you have to find the remote control. I don't know about you, but whenever I can't find my remote control, I always know where to look first. WALK to the couch and PICK UP the other cushion. Then PICK UP the remote control you find underneath, WALK TO the TV, and USE the remote control. Watch the TV to get more of an idea as to what's going on in the world.
You might as well TURN OFF the TV and WALK TO the kitchen. Under the sink you'll find a cabinet. OPEN the cabinet and PICK UP the box of crayons. USE the yellow crayon with the piece of wallpaper, and you'll have a map! Then OPEN the refrigerator and PICK UP the egg. PICK UP the small key by the side of your door, OPEN the door, and go out.
When you get to the street level, go left to the French bakery. PUSH the doorbell. When the man leaves, PUSH it again. Then, once again. PICK UP the stale bread and WALK TO the door to the right of your stairs. OPEN the door and go inside to TPC -- The Phone Company. Check out the representative and your surroundings. They will become important later. For now, GIVE the phone bill to the representative. Then PICK UP the application next to the counter (on the far left), and USE the yellow crayon with the application. You can then go back to your entryway, USE the small key with the mailbox, then USE the application with the mailbox. CLOSE the mailbox. It's time to take a trip to Seattle to cover a story about a two-headed squirrel!
Continue to your right to the corner, where you'll find a bus and a sleeping driver. USE the kazoo, which will wake him. WALK to the CashCard reader, and USE the CashCard in the reader. And it's off to the airport!
Oh no, one of those obnoxious shaven-headed devotees of some far-out Eastern religion is trying to sell you a book! For once, give in. GIVE your CashCard to the devotee. He will give you a book on enlightenment. Since you already have your ticket, you can just WALK to the gate and the planes.
Now there are three things you need on the plane, and the stewardess will stop you from getting them, so you have to distract her for a sufficiently long period of time to allow you to do what you need to do. This section should delight the practical joker in all of us!
WALK to the back of the plane, OPEN the door, and go into the toilet. CLOSE the door. PICK UP the toilet paper, then USE the toilet paper with the sink. TURN ON the faucet and PUSH the call button. OPEN the door and walk forward to the front of the plane. (Ain't I a stinker?) On your way to the galley, PICK UP the seat cushion from the seat in front of yours. You will notice something fall out onto the floor when you do so. PICK UP the lighter. Then WALK to the microwave oven in the galley. OPEN the microwave, USE the egg with the microwave, CLOSE the microwave, and, finally, TURN ON the microwave. (This all must be accomplished before the stewardess finishes cleaning up the head, so you might want to save before you try it.) The resultant mess will gain the stewardess's undivided attention for a while. As she is cleaning up after you, OPEN all the overhead bins. In one, you will find an oxygen tank, which you can PICK UP. While you're waiting to land, you can READ the book and the oxygen tank for future reference.
When you land in Seattle, WALK to the outside door and into the woods. PICK UP the tree branch overhead. GIVE the peanuts you received as a "meal" on the plane to the two-headed squirrel, then USE the tree branch on the loose dirt. (Alternately, you can USE the butter knife from your apartment on the squirrel but this will haunt you later in the game.) WALK to the cave entrance.
Who turned out the lights? Well, TURN ON the lighter and use its glow to check out the cave. Up and to your right is an abandoned bird's nest, and on the floor is a fire pit. You can't reach the bird's nest yourself, so USE the tree branch with the nest, USE the nest with the fire pit, then USE the branch with the nest in the firepit, and USE the lighter on everything. And Lucasfilm said "Let there be light!"
On the far right wall of the cave is a door with some strange markings (and they won't be the last!) READ the strange markings, then USE your yellow crayon on the markings. This one time, the game will complete the picture for you, and the door will open. Go inside.
There is a machine holding a blue crystal, which you saw in your dream at the beginning of the game. You need it, but it's locked in place. Fortunately, you notice an infrared sensor on the machine that looks just like the one you've got on your TV back home. Could it...nah! Well, might as well give it a shot. USE the remote control. Presto!
Now, take the blue crystal. The lights will go out, but you should be able to find your way back to the cave with no problems. From there, return to the airport, and USE the reservation machine to buy a ticket back to San Francisco. It's time to get some help in your quest!
You now have an artifact, and you need some advice. Remember the woman from the Society for Ancient Wisdom you saw on TV? Why not go see her?
When you get back to the San Francisco airport, WALK to the door on your right and you will find yourself back on the street corner by the bus. WALK up to the top of the screen and 14th Avenue. For the time being, walk by the pawnshop and continue to the second door. USE the blue crystal on the drop slot. Annie will open the door, invite you inside, and show you a picture of the machine you need to build in order to defeat the Aliens. Make a copy of this diagram for future reference. About this time, you will also notice that you can use the command SWITCH. Try it out by switching to Annie and have her pick up the blotter on her desk, and pick up the CashCard underneath. You won't need Annie's direct help for a while, so switch back to Zak. You've got to get the other yellow crystal shard that complements the one that Annie gave you, and it won't be easy, believe me.
WALK out of Annie's office and go back left to the pawnshop. There you will BUY the following: the nose glasses, the hat, the tool box, the golf club, the guitar, and the wet suit. Go outside and to the right to the large bobby pin sign. OPEN the tool box, and USE the wire cutters on the sign. You have now gone from malicious mischief on the plane to vandalism and petty theft! About this time, you should have received a letter. Make your way back to your apartment entrance and USE the small key on the mailbox. PICK up the letter inside and read it. You are now a proud member of the King Fan Club. If the letter hasn't arrived yet, wander around a bit until it does.
Go upstairs to your kitchen. USE the monkey wrench on the pipe below the sink, then TURN ON the switch behind the faucet. This will activate your garbage disposal. USE the stale French bread in the sink, and PICK UP the bread crumbs you've made. Be sure to TURN OFF the disposal and USE the wrench on the pipe again to fix things back to the way they were. (It might be fun at this point to PICK UP the butter knife and go into your bedroom. PICK UP the loose corner of carpet [lower right] and try to USE the butter knife in the loose floor boards. No go, huh? Well, try the monkey wrench. Now, USE the rope on the hole and you can climb down and check out the aliens' secret room!) Now go back to the airport, and buy a ticket for Miami.
Miami is closed but there's a panhandler there whom you should take pity on. GIVE him your cashcard, then GIVE him the book. He will read it, return it to you, and also give you a bottle of whiskey. From Miami, fly to either London or Cairo, and from there to Katmandu. (Whenever you leave the U.S.A., you will have to use the right exit code as found in the sheet that accompanies the game.) In Katmandu, go right to the fancy door and try to OPEN the door. GIVE the book to the guard, and he will allow you inside to meet the Swami. (First read the things on the bulletin board.) The Swami will tell you how to use the blue crystal to trade minds with any animal, a talent that will come in useful sooner or later! In fact, I'll bet you're dying to try it out right now, aren't you? Go ahead! BUT SAVE FIRST!
USE the blue crystal on the Yak. Well, no one said it had to be exciting. About now, your use of the blue crystal will have triggered something in that secret room. Watch what the aliens do and pay particular attention to their method of disguise. Return to your own body, and wait around until the alien shows up. He will take you captive, bring you back to his headquarters, and brainwash you, taking your crystals. For now, however, merely restore the game to where you saved. Go to the left and check out the police station. There is a flagpole out in front which you need, but stealing a flag is probably considered treason in Nepal; so, you have to be fast or sneaky. Either way, you have already saved the game at this point, so give it a shot. PICK UP the flag pole, and WALK to the yak as fast as you can, then USE the CashCard in the yak. If your timing is right, you'll get away scot free.
The alternative route is to USE the lighter on the hay bale to the right of the temple. While everyone is busy putting out the fire, you can nonchalantly saunter over to the police station and pillage it. If your conscience starts to bother you, remember, it's for a very worthwhile cause.
From the airport, buy a ticket, and fly to Kinshasa, Zaire. After going through several random jungle scenes, you will find yourself in a clearing. At the far left in the clearing is a hut with a sign out front. Go inside, and you will meet the Shaman who's in the picture with the Swami back in Nepal. GIVE him the golf club. Out of gratitude, he and two of his countrymen will show you a dance. TAKE NOTES! When the three men stop dancing and line up in a row, write down the order in which they bob their heads. (This differs from game to game.) The Shaman will tell you to return when you have the yellow crystal, so it's time to head out again. Wend your way back through the jungle to the airport, fly to Cairo, and from there back to Miami.
About now you should have severely depleted your CashCard. So before we head home, let's try to get you some more money. In Miami, buy a ticket to the Bermuda Triangle. Your plane will be caught by a mysterious beam, and you will end up on a spaceship. The pilot will enter a four-note combination on the coloured panels (this too varies from game to game), but when he invites you back aboard the plane, stay over on the far right by the doorway. Once the bright white glare disappears, push the button by the side of the door. You will be captured and taken before the King of the Aliens. Before he can decide what horrible fate worse than death should befall you, give the Fan Club Card (or the guitar) to the King. This will make you the King's good friend, and one of his minions will show you a different colour combination that will send you home. Don't use it yet. Instead, return to the King's chamber, and WALK to the right and READ the Lott-O-Dictor, which will give you tomorrow's winning number. Then go back to the colour panel, press the right combination of buttons, and stand on the platform to the left of the panel. You will be teleported straight home. Go back to the pawnshop and BUY a Lottery ticket. (At this point, you can also SELL your bent butter knife.) You can pick up your earnings after your trip to Latin America.
At SFO, buy a ticket for Lima, Peru. When you reach Lima, you will have to wander through a few jungle screens until you reach a scenic overlook. If you continue right past the ancient bird feeder, you'll see a huge carving. Now, if only you had wings....
Go back to the bird feeder, and USE the bread crumbs on the feeder. This will attract a sparrow. Save the game! USE the blue crystal on the sparrow. Use of the blue crystal will alert the aliens to your location, and you want to avoid capture. Now, depending on your game system, you will have to press a certain key or button (on the Amiga, for example, you click the right mouse button) to avoid watching the "cut" scene of the Alien putting on his disguise. Activate this feature as soon as the scene begins. This will give you enough time to do what you need to do.
In the bird's body, FLY to the giant carving and to its right eye. You will see a candelabra and a platform. You can't do anything here right now, so fly out and go to the left eye. PICK UP the scroll on the floor, and FLY back out of the eye, across the valley, and back to Zak. GIVE the scroll to Zak, then return to Zak's body. As quickly as possible, get back into the jungle. You must accomplish this before the Alien arrives.
Return to the airport and fly to Mexico City. You'll have to go through yet another jungle until you reach the Aztec pyramid. Pick any of the three entrances and go inside. Now you're in a real maze, which you can map if you want to, but it can be solved fairly easily by trial and error. In each room there is at least one torch, which you will have to locate (with a "WHAT IS") and then USE with the lighter. There are three types of corridors in the pyramid: long ones with green faces on the walls, medium ones with blue faces, and short ones with no faces. You will enter a long corridor; try each exit from it until you locate a medium corridor; from there, try to find which of the several doors leads to a short corridor. One of the short corridor rooms has a door which leads into a room with a statue holding a shard of yellow crystal, and on the base of the statue are some strange yellow markings. Unfortunately, here you must draw the correct figure yourself, and you don't know what it is. I would recommend that you save the game at this point, and prepare to meet the rest of our intrepid crew.
SWITCH to either Melissa or Leslie, who are standing by their converted VW Microbus in the Martian desert, just waiting for something to do. Have the co-ed you switched to OPEN the van door and go inside. OPEN the glove compartment. PICK UP the boom box, the CashCards, the fuse, and the digital audio tape from the radio. USE the oxygen valve if you like. Leave the van, and make sure each girl has the correct CashCard. WALK to the left, past the alien hostel, and to the black monolith. USE the CashCard in the slot, and then do it again so you get two tokens. Now switch to the other girl, and have her do the same, so that each co-ed has two tokens.
Bring them both inside the hostel. USE the token on the metal plate to the right of the airlock door, and PICK UP the burnt-out fuse. Then, USE the fuse from your van in the air lock fuse box, and PUSH the button, closing the door. Next, PUSH the button by the door on the right wall, and send Leslie into the dormitory. (Melissa is a little too squeamish.) Check out the locker by the door and PICK UP the little strip of yellow vinyl tape. OPEN the right side of the cabinet, and PICK UP the flashlight. Move to the right and PICK UP the covers, revealing a dead alien shaped like a broom. Finally, PICK UP the ladder in the far right corner, and leave.
WALK both the girls to the right (past the van) to the Giant Face and a door that has three buttons on it. Set up the ladder under the highest button, and send one co-ed up the ladder, while parking the other by the lowest. Now press the buttons in the order indicated by the dancing natives in Zaire. This will open the door. Take both girls inside.
Inside you will find two huge statues and three massive doors. On one of the statues will be strange yellow markings. READ the markings and copy the symbol down (they change from game to game). This is the symbol Zak needs to draw on the Mexican statue's base to get the yellow crystal shard. But first there are some other matters to take care of in the Great Chamber. Your oxygen will not last forever, and it might be nice to see the girls' faces. Let's find the air conditioning unit.
WALK to the massive door on the left. USE the ladder by the pedestal, and WALK to the crystal globe. Have the other girl USE the vinyl tape with the digital audio tape (DAT), allowing you to record over it. USE the DAT in the boom box, TURN ON the boom box, and set it to Record. SWITCH to the girl on the ladder and PICK UP the globe. There will be an annoying whine and the door will open. Send LESLIE with the flashlight into the chamber.
You find yourself in a maze of coloured doors. You can map this maze if you like, but the quick and dirty way is to go through the purple door, then the blue door, then the purple. You should find yourself in a room with a machine. READ the gauges on the machine, then PUSH both switches. Once both gauges move into the green, you will be able to remove your helmets inside the whole Great Chamber.
Exit the machine room and go through the blue door. From there, take the purple door, another purple door, and finally the door with the red edges on your far right. There you will find a room with a familiar map, a representation of the Sphinx, and more strange markings which you should copy down. To find your way to the exit, go out and take the yellow door, then the blue door, the red door on the far left, the red door on the far right, the red door on the far right, and the red doorway on the far left.
Next move to the middle of the three massive doors. The crystal globe here is broken, so you have to USE the boom box in Play mode, which will produce the sound you need to open the door. This is not a maze, thankfully. All you need to do is go through the doorway over on the right Inside you will see a close relative of the statue in Mexico, holding an ankh. PICK UP the ankh.
Finally, you can open the massive door on the far right by either method, and once you enter and go through the door in that chamber, you will find a force field, which you turn off when you USE the ankh in the panel. PUSH the button on the strange machine and you will see what I assume is a hologram of the ancient aliens who prepared all this for you. PICK UP the smaller key on the wall (the larger one will crumble into dust). At this point, it's time to leave Mars, and go back to Zak.
Save the game here, just in case you make a mistake. USE the yellow crayon on the strange markings. By placing the cursor on the screen where you want to draw a line, you can recreate the drawing the co-eds found on the huge statue. When it's done, click on FINISHED DRAWING. The statue will release the crystal shard and you can take it. Find your way out of the pyramid, return to the airport, and from there to San Francisco. It's time to pick up Annie and finish this game!
Once back in San Francisco, go home and get your fish, Sushi, and his transparent domicile. USE the fishbowl with the sink to give Sushi a temporary home, and then leave. On your way to Annie's office, be sure to visit the pawn shop and pick up your lottery winnings. Would that real life were as full of such sure things!
GIVE the scroll to Annie (who is the only one who can read it). Then both of you should walk down to catch the bus (remember only Zak can wake the driver), and you both should go to the airport and buy tickets for London. Zak should GIVE the bottle of whiskey to Annie, who should, in turn, GIVE it to the sentry by the electric gate outside of Stonehenge. He will get drunk and pass out, enabling Annie to TURN OFF the switch that controls the electrified fence. Zak can USE the wire cutters on the fence, and both can WALK to Stonehenge. Zak should USE the yellow crystal shards on the altar, then USE the flag pole on the little notch on the left. SWITCH to Annie, who can READ the scroll again and produce the desired effect. Have ZAK pick up the yellow crystal (now fused whole), and send both back to the airport.
Both Zak and Annie should fly to Cairo, but send Zak on from there to Zaire, and have him visit the Shaman once again. The Shaman will explain to Zak how to use the yellow crystal for teleportation purposes. Zak should then rejoin Annie in Cairo.
On one of the two legs of the Sphinx will be some more of those ubiquitous yellow markings. Zak must recreate the drawing seen in the chamber on Mars below the depiction of the Sphinx, which will open a secret door. Both Annie and Zak must go inside. Yep, it's another maze, but (a) it's lighted, and (b) there's an easy solution. Always go through the doorway with a picture of the sun over it (or in one case, the doorway is at the end of a corridor, and the sun is above and to the right). Eventually you will find a door with what looks like a pair of horns above it. Inside you will find some hieroglyphics which only Annie can read. They will instruct her to push the left button, then the right button, and the centre button. (One of the hieroglyphics looks suspiciously like an Imperial fighter from Star Wars, by the way.) Once the panel opens, Zak should USE his yellow crayon on his wallpaper map, and you should write down the last set of strange markings (whew) by the depiction of the Great Face.
Retrace your steps out of the Sphinx. At this point, Zak should go to the big pyramid across the street, and enter the tiny little door on the left side. With lighter in hand, he will be able to find the doorway to the right, find the torch on the way inside that room, and light it. Bring Annie to join him in the room with the sarcophagus, then send Zak only back to the airport, and fly him to Miami.
In Miami, buy another ticket to the Bermuda Triangle, and before the beam can get you, USE the parachute. The cushion you stole from the first airplane will keep you afloat. USE the kazoo, which will summon a dolphin. Save the game here, and USE the blue crystal on the dolphin. As the dolphin, SWIM underwater and to the lower right to a clump of seaweed. PICK UP the seaweed, then PICK UP the glowing object behind it. Return to the surface, GIVE the glowing object to Zak, and return Zak to his own body. Immediately, USE the yellow crystal. The maps you have drawn will appear, and you can use the cursor to pick where on the map you want to go. Click on the yellow dot in South America, and you will be teleported to the room in the huge carving's right eye where the candelabra was. PICK UP the candelabra and get ready to teleport to the secret chamber inside the Martian pyramid. USE the yellow crystal and click on the pyramid.
Oops. Nothing happened.
Well, you have to get to Mars anyway, so USE the yellow crystal again and click on the Great Face. You will be teleported into a chamber with three doors and, yes: more strange yellow markings! USE your yellow crayon to recreate the figure you saw in the map room inside the Sphinx, and all three doors will open. Go through the centre door, and you find yourself in the maze of coloured doors. TURN ON your lighter, go through the green door on the far left, and the yellow door on the far left of the second room; go all the way to the left, and you'll be in the Great Chamber. Zak can meet up with Melissa and Leslie at long last.
No time for chitchat, though. Have Leslie put her helmet back on and WALK to the big pile of sand in front on the hostel. USE the broom alien on the sand, to reveal solar panels, then send her over to stand by the tram. Next, PUT ON Melissa's helmet, and send her over to the the tram. Finally, you have to send Zak outside, but he needs a spacesuit. PUT ON the wet suit, the oxygen tank and the fishbowl, then USE the duct tape on the fishbowl. Perfect! Send Zak to the shuttlebug where he can use the oxygen valve to freshen his tank and bring it up the full 15 minutes; then, send him to the monolith, and have him USE his CashCard in the slot. He needs only one token. Zak should then join the others by the tram. Save the game here!
Have each of the three USE the token in the tram. All three must get on board before it leaves, or you can't finish the game. The tram will go to the Martian pyramid, and let everyone off. Send Leslie to the pyramid, and USE the broom alien on the sand pile. Send Zak there, and USE the bobby pin sign. Then give Zak the flashlight, and have him enter the pyramid. It is a duplicate of the Egyptian pyramid, except for the sarcophagus.
This one can be manipulated. Bring both co-eds into the chamber, and have one PUSH the sarcophagus's feet. This will open a secret door to the left of the sarcophagus. Send the second girl up the stairs, have her stand by the button, and send Zak up there. (You may have to move the girl away from the sarcophagus's feet to close the hole in the door.) PUSH the button, quickly SWITCH to Zak, and PICK UP the white crystal. Zak should USE the yellow crystal to teleport to the dot on the map near Cairo.
(While not necessary, it is fun to send Melissa and Leslie back on the tram, have them pick up their fuse in the hostel fuse box, replace it in the van, and then USE the controls to head home.)
Zak is now in a secret room with a big base, two switches and a lever. First, PULL the lever, which opens a secret set of stairs. SWITCH to Annie, who has been waiting patiently below, and have her come up the stairs. PULL the lever again to close the panel in the floor. Have Zak USE the glowing object on the base, USE the candelabra on the glowing object, and USE each of the three crystals in their proper position as shown in your dream and the diagram in Annie's office. (Oh no, you forgot what order to put them in? You dunderhead, now you'll have to start from the beginning! Just kidding.... Actually, the program automatically puts each in the right position.) When the machine is finished, have Zak and Annie each pull a switch in turn. Then sit back and enjoy your victory and the amusing epilogue. It's Miller time!