Is Willie inspired by this Zak's character?

I wonder if this character of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders has been used as an inspiration to create Willie.

Is it just a resemblance around the eyes?

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Was my first thought, as soon as I learned about the Willie character.

Good catch, it could be!

Yes, definitely!

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To those who have played Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders: what does this character do? In which way the player can interact with him?

I’m curious to know if there are other similarities with Willie, beside the physical appearance.

@ZakPhoenixMcKracken finally someone spelled Zak correctly!

His character is just called “bum” and “lives” on the airport in Miami.
You swap a book about enlightenment written by a guru (cost: $42) with his bottle of whiskey.
He then starts dancing.

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Absolutly not. He´s part of a puzzle chain that starts when you first enter the San Francisco Airport.

There you give money to the devotee, you then receive the book “How to receive enlightenment and lower your golf score” by the Swami Hollanwanda who lives in Katmandu and you will meet later. You meet the bum at the Miami Airport (Miami can´t be entered and is closed for repairs, presumambly because Don Johnson once again left a mess down there) he will ask you for money. You can give him money but he will refuse almost everything else. If you give him the book he will be curious and go “the guru has some interesting things to say” he will then become another devotee to the nepalese guru give up drinking (he gives you his bottle of whiskey because he doesn´t need it anymore) dance around to the same tambourine music the devotee in San Francisco danced and problably from then on try to convince more people at the airport of his new religion. However if you return to either airports both devotees will be gone, because they were only important for the puzzle that gets you the whiskey. You then need the whiskey to get a guard who watches over the electric fence in Stonehenge drunk, but I think I´ll stop here because maybe you want to play the game one day?

For everyone who doesn´t know: Hare Krishna devotees used to be (are still?) abundant at airports, selling books and other stuff. There is a reference to that in a Simpsons Episode where they travel to india and this is inverted by the Krishnas being bothered by Christians at the New Dehli Airport.

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Clearly alcohol abuse and crazy dancing is a recurring theme in their games! :slight_smile:

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OK, thanks. I hoped for non-visual similarities as well. The theremin music was quite transcendental to me.

Maybe it was really just a resemblance around the eyes.

I hadn’t thought of that, but maybe there’s a connection between the Krishna music of the bum in Zak and Willie’s preference for ambient theremin music.

Mmmmh, I don´t know those types of music are maybe a bit too different. While the theremin can definitly sound new agey I think it was more of a reference to 1950s sci-fi b movies where it was practically used all the time.