The Game Census
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders cover art

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

Lucasfilm Games · Lucasfilm · 2018-11-16

SteamGOG

Adventure

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Side view

Releases: Nov 16, 2018 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Feb 01, 1991 (FM Towns), 1988 (Atari ST/STE), Oct 1988 (Commodore C64/128/MAX), 1988 (DOS), 1988 (Amiga)

Space Aliens have built a stupidity machine that's slowly reducing everyone's IQ to single digits. Worse yet, the only person who can stop them is Zak McKracken, reporter for the disreputable National Inquisitor, who dreams up stories about carnivorous cantaloupes and vegetarian vampires.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a 2018 Adventure game priced at $5.99, with an owner estimate of 20,000 .. 50,000 and a Very Positive review sentiment (89% of 150 reviews).

0
playing now
89%
positive of 150 reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
20,000–50,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
73/100
IGDB user rating (40 ratings)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$5.99
steam price (US)

0 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 08:00 UTC (census sample)

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphic adventure game by Lucasfilm Games released in 1988 for the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, then for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1989. It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion. The project was led by David Fox, with Matthew Alan Kane as the co-designer and co-programmer.

Health check

Quiet
  • · 0 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 16 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity up 7% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 33% of 28,739 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-09-01

Estimated sales: 3.8k–9.0k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 150 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GOG$5.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $1.49 at GOG (2016-09-26)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $5.99 · on sale 22 of 66 observed days · $4.50 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
121220182026Week of 2018-11-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 1 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

302026-09-15 08:00 — 0 players2026-09-16 17:00 — 2 players2026-09-18 00:00 — 2 players2026-09-19 08:00 — 0 players2026-09-20 15:00 — 3 players2026-09-21 23:00 — 1 players2026-09-23 06:00 — 0 players2026-09-24 14:00 — 1 players2026-09-25 21:00 — 2 players2026-09-27 05:00 — 0 players2026-09-28 12:00 — 0 players2026-09-29 20:00 — 0 players2026-10-01 03:00 — 0 players2026-10-02 11:00 — 3 players2026-10-03 19:00 — 1 players2026-10-05 03:00 — 1 players2026-10-06 10:00 — 2 players2026-10-07 18:00 — 1 players2026-10-09 01:00 — 1 players2026-10-10 09:00 — 1 players2026-10-11 16:00 — 3 players2026-10-13 00:00 — 1 players2026-10-14 08:00 — 0 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$5.99$1.492015-03-202026-10-142015-03-20 — best price $5.992015-06-21 — best price $5.992016-05-02 — best price $5.992016-11-10 — best price $2.392017-06-06 — best price $1.492018-06-04 — best price $1.992018-11-21 — best price $2.092019-01-04 — best price $5.992019-06-18 — best price $5.992019-11-28 — best price $1.492020-01-24 — best price $2.092020-10-17 — best price $5.992021-01-04 — best price $5.992021-04-05 — best price $5.992021-11-26 — best price $2.092022-01-24 — best price $2.092022-04-29 — best price $2.992022-09-29 — best price $2.092022-12-22 — best price $2.092023-02-23 — best price $5.992023-06-29 — best price $2.092023-11-28 — best price $5.992024-01-25 — best price $2.092024-03-21 — best price $5.992024-09-10 — best price $5.992025-01-03 — best price $5.992025-04-03 — best price $5.992025-10-07 — best price $2.092025-12-11 — best price $2.092026-02-03 — best price $5.992026-06-25 — best price $2.092026-09-01 — best price $5.992026-09-07 — best price $5.992026-09-13 — best price $5.992026-09-19 — best price $5.992026-09-25 — best price $2.092026-10-01 — best price $2.092026-10-07 — best price $5.992026-10-13 — best price $5.992026-10-14 — best price $5.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

187372026-05-31 — 60 pageviews2026-06-04 — 55 pageviews2026-06-08 — 52 pageviews2026-06-12 — 70 pageviews2026-06-16 — 46 pageviews2026-06-20 — 43 pageviews2026-06-24 — 53 pageviews2026-06-28 — 38 pageviews2026-07-02 — 53 pageviews2026-07-06 — 61 pageviews2026-07-10 — 40 pageviews2026-07-14 — 55 pageviews2026-07-18 — 50 pageviews2026-07-22 — 57 pageviews2026-07-26 — 61 pageviews2026-07-30 — 187 pageviews2026-08-03 — 58 pageviews2026-08-07 — 49 pageviews2026-08-11 — 49 pageviews2026-08-15 — 62 pageviews2026-08-19 — 65 pageviews2026-08-23 — 66 pageviews2026-08-27 — 49 pageviews2026-08-31 — 48 pageviews2026-09-04 — 60 pageviews2026-09-08 — 51 pageviews2026-09-12 — 59 pageviews2026-09-16 — 40 pageviews2026-09-20 — 58 pageviews2026-09-24 — 52 pageviews2026-09-28 — 55 pageviews2026-10-02 — 58 pageviews2026-10-06 — 41 pageviews2026-10-09 — 46 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerSteam CloudFamily Sharing

1 supported languages: English

Player tags

2DRetro1990'sComedyClassicAdventureCult ClassicSingleplayerPoint & ClickPixel Graphics

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

The Longest JourneyThe Cat LadyThe Talos PrincipleThe Vanishing of Ethan CarterSanitariumManiac MansionThimbleweed Park™The Curse of Monkey Island

Similarity via IGDB.

Wikipedia ↗