Not even to play Zak McKracken? 
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Beside āThe Digā, LucasArts hadnāt made a science fiction adventure game, right? 
DOTT has time travel to the future. Zak McKracken has Aliens and UFOs.
One could argue that the machines in Atlantis in Indy4 are some kind of science fiction.
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Iāve never played Zak, mainly because Iāve seen people talk of dead-ends, being able to run out of money, etc.
Then play it with a solution. The story is fun (as long as you like the āoldā Lucasfilm games and their graphics style).
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A solution for the travel that is, but I used modern savegames instead. (I.e., fly somewhere and if it doesnāt work out reload to before you did.)
The original also had savegames but I understand they were more laborious than instantaneous.
I liked it better than Maniac Mansion as far as it being pre-Monkey Island goes. That oneās more of an action game, which is kind of cool (since it makes the house feel more alive) but also quite annoying because you have to remember to pause the game and whatnot.
Also for controls I highly recommend using the left side of your keyboard for action select instead of mousing over, which is tedious. Also I bound my mouse scroll to U/J.
And finally, the C64 version has much better music and sound effects (and perhaps graphics) than the DOS/Japanese PC version over on GOG.
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Iāve tried playing Maniac Mansion a couple of times before, but wasnāt enjoying it enough to finish it, though it was cool to just get the idea of what it was like.
I also havenāt played Last Crusade, maybe thatās better to try before going further back to Zak.
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Yes, play Indy 3 first. It hasnāt dead ends AFIAK. (Well, you can die, but only in obvious situations.)
And regarding Maniac Mansion: I would recommend to play it with a solution too. Once you have played it once and know what can happen in the house, you can re-play it with two other kids. Oh, and even if you know what to do, you can try to see all different endings - thatās fun too.
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That was my first ever P&C adventure, and while it may seem a bit old-school nowadays, I think itās well worth playing. Especially as it has (in theory) multiple ways to solve certain puzzles, although to me it always felt like there was only one obvious solution.
I believe the first place you can die are the catacombs. Iād recommend taking a look inside the grail diary thatās included in the box to avoid that one .
From then on, every area with Nazis is potentially dangerous, but at least itās possible to talk your way out or otherwise avoid them, once you know what you are doing. Saving often is helpful until you do. Or just master the fighting mini game.
Finally, there are the 3 deadly trials. But you watched the movie, right?
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But that hasnāt to be the obvious solution for other players. 
When we played the game back then a friend of mine had made other decisions than I.
There are two important things, player should do: Consulting the diary during the game and do some exercises in the gymā¦
It should be possible to solve the game without āfightingā - but I never managed that. 
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Yeah, I donāt think I ever managed either. Iām pretty sure I could eventually avoid all fights in the castle (through dialogue, evasion, disguise, and a puzzle) and on board the Zeppelin, but the checkpoints were a different matter. I never accomplished some of the feats necessary to bypass them completely (if thatās even possible) or to acquire the means to solve them all peacefully.
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Gosh, I forgot I hadnāt played Last Crusade yet. The problem is I always get stuck at the beginning where you need a numpad for the boxing ring, which I always forget about so I end up trying to play it on a laptop without one. (Always meaning this has actually happened two or three times over the past decade.)
Edit: also in the meantime I learned of Munt, for Roland MT-32 emulation: Munt download | SourceForge.net
It should probably enhance the experience, unless ScummVM already has something similar built in?
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Technically, you can die shortly before entering the catacombs: if you get the numbers wrong three times when breaking the floor plates, you get arrested by Italian authorities.
Regarding dead ends, I consider the escape from Germany to be a dead end, if you donāt have the right items to pass all the border checks. Itās not possible to fight every border guard, as the health does not recover between checks. Some guards can only be passed without fight if you have the right item on hand. So you might be stuck / soft-locked here.
The Zeplin as alternative route might also be soft-locked if you donāt have tickets / means to get them (i.e. not enough cash, and wasted all conversation options with the guy that needs to be distracted to steal some tickets). The fight against Mr. Olympics 1936 in the Zeplin entrance room is too hard to win, at least for me.
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Canāt you re-assign the needed keys? You should be able to create your own keymap in ScummVM.
Beside that, you donāt need to fight in the game.
It has, but you need the MT-32 ROMs. ScummVM is also able to send the MIDI data to a (software) synthesizer/MT-32 emulator.
AFAIR itās not very likely that you have to fight every guard. In most cases you are able to fly far enough.
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Yes. And it has no flaws.
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I mightāve tried that and found it awkward without a real numpad. Or I didnāt even try because Iāve experienced a laptop that had a built-in Fn+jkluio789 situation in the past. Same difference.
But I want to (probably). Just not without a proper numpad.
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Drat, their āThis Wikipedia article provides a comprehensive list of MT-32 compatible games, including which games work best with which device.ā links to an article that doesnāt exist.
I already have a much better one than that, although perhaps not the first or second time it happened. Not to mention I also have a proper keyboard; itās just that I normally assume I can play these old undemanding games anytime anywhere.
I see, someone accidentally made a link to Wikipedia which should be to Vogons.
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Really. Do yourself a favour and play Zak! Without a walkthrough, as that kills the fun of discovering alternate solutions, which this game has the most out of all Lucasfilm/arts games.
(Feel free to send me a PM if you get stuck, Iāll gladly be a non-spoiling hint provider. But make sure you do read the newspaper first and often. Next to Steve Purcellās funny/weird art, thereās a clue to a puzzle in almost every piece. The red herrings just add to the world building.).
The puzzles in Zak are easier and more logical than Maniac Mansion.
The dead ends arenāt as obscure as in Maniac Mansion (where half of them are puzzle chains you can start but not finish if you donāt have the right character selected and one is some postal carnage related thing which requires a lot of foresight). In Zak on the other hand, yes you can die in a few ways too but that is because it is more realistic and you can kind of see that coming. So if you save before you try anything that would give you a sense of danger in reality, youāll be fine. Same goes for not continuously globe-trotting without checking your cash balance.
Flights cost money, but you have more than enough to complete the game without needing to overly optimize your itinerary!
And even if you do run out of money and have advanced enough you can use a friend to help you out.
Zak beats Indy3 (Crusade) every day!
Iāve installed the Gold Box Companion, which helps a lot in this respect and doesnāt really feel like cheating. More like ālook, I donāt have as much time for this as I used to as a kidā. Since then I have progressed through about half of the first area without dying in a fight. Sleep spell is my main strategy to make the pickings easier.
And then onto what I have been playing recently:
I activated a free trial on Apple Arcade and played (and finished):
monument valley 1 & 2
Samorost 3
Love you to bits:this one I really recommend for its scene setting, animation and imagination. I paced finishing levels to one a day after the first 6 or so, because I didnāt want the game to be over too quickly. Even though I got all the hidden secrets and achievements there are, Iāll still buy that game once my free trial is over, to support the developers. (it is equally available on the Play store)
And then Iām also playing Hidden Folks, which is a kind of animated āwhereās Wally?ā with sounds. But not as masochistic. Unlike āgetting over itā, which I uninstalled after watching a couple of rage videos.
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