Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to play games in these days, but I should be able to continue the game during the next weekend.
I think that I’m still at the beginning: I talked with the Guru and I know what the blue crystal is for (I tested it a few times) but I still have to visit a few cities.
Oh, the Guru…
Memories come back… when I used to play with my Amiga 500…
I did the Nickel News in the boxed edition 
With all the love to Zak in this thread, this may be of interest. I have these on my wall (framed, the photos here predate the framing). The first one looks like the original drawing of the floppy artwork. The second one is printed of course, but has minor shadings that were done by hand over it, so it might have been used for the original artwork.
They are identical to the original one!
The first one is hand drawn, so it’s very likely it is the original one.
Of course, she is!
Just like the monkey, the tentacles, the rat, the hamster, … are in other games
Oh boy, Gary Winnick surely can duplicate that fine art drawn by anonymous.
(Seriously, I always thought it was Purcell’s).
(Oh, and so jealous of your frames)
The real key? I don’t think I caught on to it. 
Edit: unless you mean something like going back = more lost. At least I think that’s a thing.
Eheh, from Daniele Spadoni’s movie, celebrating the 30th Anniversary:
Holy shit. I stumbled upon this old thread and found this gem (Suhi disposal). That’s why I love Zak. It’s full of quirky, interactive stuff. I think the only other game that had this kind of freedom was Maniac Mansion.
You mean “this kind of freedom to maim animals”?
Zak has lots of those. All courtesy of the same guy. Thanks, David! 
I was just told that every version I’ve played of Zak McKracken And The Alien Mindbenders had a timing, between music and graphics, that was not as intendend as it was by David Fox.
In particular, the original one (on Commodore 64) was developed on a NTSC system (60 fps) while I, and the Europeans in general, played on a PAL system (50 fps).
This way the intro music of Zak was played faster than the images, resulting in a slightly out-of-sync.
Even on YouTube, all the intros of Zak I’ve seen were in PAL version.
Thanks to the ViCE emulator, which can emulate evey version of a C64 machine, I could now watch the original timing, as David Fox computed over 34 years ago.
Here’s for you: The original Zak McKracken And The Alien Mindbenders™ intro on a Commodore 64 NTSC system at 60 fps
I’m not sure if that is entirely correct. There was an English version that ran on PAL systems in the correct speed. 
But maybe that was a modified pirated copy …
ScummVM uses also the correct timing:
PAL Is 25 FPS , NTSC is 30 FPS, and 50Hz and 60Hz respectively (these are power frequencies). Also there’s scan lines difference. If adventures games in 80’s were 60 FPS…
50 FPS interlaced. (The C64 is using 50,125 Hz to be precise.)
Those are not power frequencies. Those are chosen to be identical to the power frequencies, but not derived from. This was done, since early TV sets didn’t have that stable power supplies, and other frequencies would tend to flicker much more.
And while the 50/60 Hz difference is relevant for the music on C64 SCUMM, those games aren’t exactly 25 FPS nor 30 FPS. SCUMM games are scripted to be animated at 10 FPS most of the time. An unaccelerated C64 can’t even keep up with that when the room is scrolling or when more than one actor is moving.
A PAL C64 is not 50 FPS interlaced either. In fact, it produces 50 Hz progressive frames. There are no top and bottom fields.
Even those demo effects with alternating fields calling themselves interlace modes are still progressive frames on the PAL hardware level.
