Prerelease:Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (DOS)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (DOS).

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders was released for Commodore 64 in October 1988. The DOS V1 port came out in November that same year. A subsequent version with upgraded EGA graphics was released later for Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS. Lastly, a 256-color version with CD music tracks came out in Japan for the FM Towns computer, featuring both English and Japanese versions of the game.

Two early screenshots of the DOS V1 version of Zak McKracken. In both of them, the GUI is shifted further down towards the bottom of the screen than in the final game, with a blank area between the Sentence Line and the background art.

In the first image, Zak's shirt is a light blue, instead of the green color it has in the final game. The Caponian's dialogue text is green, whereas in the final game this Caponian has yellow text to match his tie.

In the second image, Zak's shirt is a darker blue. The design of the edge of the window below waist level in the counter in Lou's shop is also different.

Another early screenshot of the DOS V1 version, this time of Stonehenge. Zak's shirt is light blue, and the grass behind him is green. In the final game, the grass is teal, to avoid clashing with Zak's green shirt.

A scan from the DOS V2 version manual, showing an unused cursor design without arrowheads. (This might also be from an early build of the Atari ST or Amiga versions, which each had slightly different cursors, but none matching this exact design.)