Zak McKracken news: 2006 archive

	latest news .......... 2005 archive
Dec 28th 2006	Just some site news. My personal circumstances will change in the next month and I will no longer have Internet access from my main machine. This site will still be updated in 2007, using friends' machines, but not as often as before. However, if there is big news I will find a way to post it here! Looking back, it looked like 2006 would be the year when we had three sequels, but unless something happens in the next two days it won't happen. However, the important thing is that the main sequels are still progressing - witness the recent zak2 site update for example. After 18 years we don't mind waiting alittle longer. We Zak fans have learned to be very patient.
Dec 8th 2006	This news is worth waiting for! Go to http://www.zak2.org/ for the best Zak web site you will ever see. The new site went live today, and the English language version is coming soon. Watch the videos! This is awesome.
Nov 22nd 2006	This is actually a non-update. Apologies for the slow progress on the site recently. I do have some revisions waiting to be done, and when I get a spare moment I will do the work and upload the new pages. But I am incredibly busy with another project right now ( www.LesMisGame.com ) and I needed to tidy up another of my sites that really needed work. I haven't forgotten Zak, honest! If only there were more hours in the day.
October 30th 2006	The technical page has been updated with more about palettes. Thanks to ATMachine (Swami)!
Sep 30th 2006	Apologies to those who could not reach the site today (Saturday). The ISP was having server problems that are now fixed. A new image of the face on Mars, from the European Space Agency: If you assume that the chin is at the bottom right of the picture, it looks less like a face. But if the chin is at the top left, it looks like a face with a small chin, small pointed nose and large bulbous forehead. That's right. it's a Skolarian!
Sep 16th 2006	More David Fox photos This next item is nothing to do with Zak, but I just had to tell someone. I have a couple of comic book related sites on zaksite.co.uk and one of them is about the science of superheroes. After making that site I was asked to contribute to The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe, and it's now about to be published. Fame at last!
August 19th 2006	By popular request. (OK, well actually one request, but it was a popular one with me) I've added the entire cover of this month's Edge magazine to the "Zak in the news" page. Enjoy!
July 27th 2006	Some random stuff... first of all, check out Ogni-XR21's avatar on the neogaf.com forums. Look familiar? I love it! What happened on the 24th? Was this site blogged? We normally average about 170 hits a day (it's been climbing steadily every month), and the record number was 280 hits. But on Sunday we got 380 hits in one day, a new record! It might not seem much, but remember that this site gets zero advertising, it' only gets a minor update every two weeks, and most videogame players were not born when Zak was released. Other games from the 1980s are forgotten. Yet new Zak fans are appearing every day. I'm very happy with those numbers. Most of the new visitors seem to be homing in on Zak McKracken - Between Time and Space. So I've made a few improvements to that page.
July 20th 2006	I just heard on the grapevine that BTAS is entering beta testing. yes, beta testing! It should be ready for downloading later this summer or fall. After all these years! It's really happening at last. Watch this space for more news.
July 19th 2006	Check out Roland Koch's great new Zak music remix at http://www.hawkei.de/blog/ - why not leave him a message? Go on, leave a message. New fan art - and more to come
July 3rd 2006	Box art for the Nintendo DS. It's not an official release, but it works, as the photo on the home page shows. Thanks to 'The Guy that Writes'
June 19th 2006	Check out the new Zak theme, using original C64 technology: http://www.alchemystudio.it/mp3/ZakmcKrackenSID.mp3
June 9th 2006	New Interactive Fiction: Zak McKracken - 50 Berkeley Square - download and play!
June 1st 2006	Chapters 4 and 5 of 'Life Begins' are now available, and well worth the wait! Wow, it's now over a year since I started the newsstand. Who would have thought there would be so much to say?
May 26th 2006	First ever screenshots for Zak McKracken and the Mushroom Kingdom, courtesy of Skolarian Bosses. Thanks, S.K.! http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0015jz.png http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0028ns.png http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/2786/0028ns.th.png
May 9th 2006	It finally happened. After five months of not paying for my old web space, the old NTLworld web address disappeared. Now it's Zaksite or nothing. I hope Google notices! If you Google Zak McKracken you get the NTLworld site as number 1, and Zaksite does not appear. But if you use advanced search and tell Google NOT to look at NTLworld, Zaksite comes up as number 3. Hopefully now that the NTLworld site is officially dead, Google and other links will notice. Hopefully.:)
May 7th 2006	Check out the new 3D Zak at Zak McKracken, Between Time and Space. Seeing is believing! You probably noticed from the homepage, we now have a picture of Zak working on the Nintendo DS. Amazing! A better quality picture is here on the technical page. A thousand thank yous to Neil Millstone AKA agentQ of ScummVM DS. You can now play Zak on the Amiga, the C64, DOS, Linux, Windows, the Mac, Pal, DS, FMTowns, just about anything. Zak is now available for 99.999999999% of all electronic devices everywhere. All that remains is to get it running on my fridge, and life will be complete.
April 23rd 2006	Added more pictures (and minor updates) to the ZMAR and BTAS pages
April 22nd 2006	Zak McKracken and the alien rockstars (ZMAR) - the original fan project - has moved! New address: www.zak2project.net - with ".net" at the end. The old address ended in ".de" and is no longer active. Please update any links you may have! I've updated their page on this site. I didn't realise before, but the ZMAR game had to start again, from nothing, in January 2005. This is important, because some people (including me) thought that work was progressing very slowly. But in fact, they have done a huge amount of work in just one year. Already the first chapter is 33% playable. I am creating my own game, so I know how much time it takes. So this means that the ZMAR team is working fast. And they are being realistic, releasing one chapter at a time. So it looks like we will have real chapter to play, sooner than we think! Remember: www.zak2project.net
April 6th 2006	Yet more fan fiction! I've had to rearrange some old pages to fit in a new page: NEW: more fan fiction and fan art; REVISED: fan fiction ; REVISED: the real world ; REVISED: fun stuff The forum seems to be down this morning. Hopefully it should be back up soon. If you can't wait, feel free to email me direct.
Mar 28th 2006	More fan fiction! Keep it coming!

Mar 26th 2006	Added some fan fiction - if you have anything to add, send it in, or better still, post it on the forum! (To make space I moved the German article onto the introduction page, where I think it fits better.)
Mar 20th 2006	Fixed a broken link - Lucasfan games is down, so if you want to download their game, just Google "New Adventures of Zak McKracken" you should find a download site. For example: This site ZMAR is still looking for colorists and anyone who wants to help the project. If you have a few spare hours, why not volunteer?
Feb 28th 2006	Following an email exchange with David Fox, I've done something I should have done a very long time ago: really explained why Zak is unique. It's in the introduction page.
Feb 26th 2006	Expanded the history section, based on the new book Droidmaker. Droidmaker gives the history of Lucasfilm games, the origin of Pixar, behind the scenes at Star Wars, and much more. Highly recommended!
Feb 20th 2006	Fixed some broken links. Thanks for reporting them! Also, 'Dan' on the forum says he's working on a Zak cartoon movie. I can't wait!
Feb 2nd 2006	Changed the home page again, making it easier to find the four fan sequels. Also combined the copyright page with the FAQ.
Jan 31st 2006	How embarassing! I just realised that when I moved this site to its new location, I accidentally missed a whole folder of pictures. Several pages on this site were missing vital pictures and I didn't notice! Whoops! Well that's fixed now. One of these days I'll give the site a major revision and fix a lot more stuff. One day...
Jan 28th 2006	Download the demo video for Zak 2: Between Time and Space - NOW! (If you have broadband. If not, you'll have to take my word for it: Zak is animated in 3D (and 2D) for the first time ever! The BTAS project is progressing well: All locations are drawn, all music is ready, and the German voices are being added. It looks like 2006 will be the year of the Zak sequels! The old Zak address will disappear any day now. (I stopped paying for it a couple of weeks ago.) But Google and other search engines all point to the old address - it's number one when you search for "Zak McKracken". But when the old address disappears, nobody will find this site! To get this site listed higher on the search engines, I need links from other sites. Can anyone help? So... ... would you consider adding a link to zaksite.co.uk on your own web site? That way it goes up the Google rankings and people can find it. In return, I'll add a return link to your site here on zaksite.co.uk - sounds fair? Many people have been confused by how I numbered the games Zak1, Zak3, Zak4, etc. So I've renamed those pages. Hopefully they'll be easier to find!
Jan 7th 2006	Happy new year - will 2006 be the year of THREE Zak sequels? Zak McKracken and the Alien Rockstars - the original fan project - the one we've been waiting for since 1996 - made the following announcement: New release scheme: Yes you're reading right ... a new release scheme !!! Maybe the biggest change for this project in all this years. So what the heck does that mean ... ?!? Ok, let it put me this way, after watching our general progress and the amount of stuff we want to put into this adventure, we decided to change our general strategy of releasing the game for you - the waiting fans. So the idea is, instead of working for years until the whole thing is finished (which easily will take us to 2008, measured at the current output) we gonna release the game chapterwise - preferable each chapter a year. This will have certain advantages, since you (the gamers) can start playing earlier and we (the maker) have less time pressure. Furthermore we hopefully attact more people to join in the team in helping for the upcomming parts, so that these will be finished much faster. Other advantages are that we can react more on fan feedback in gaming as well as technical issues. With this new strategy, the first chapter will hopefully be released by the end of this year ... That's great news! So 2006 could be a big year for Zak. The Mushroom Kingdom game sounds like it may be released first. But 'Between Time and Space' said they were working very hard to release their game at the end of 2005, which is fangame code for 2006. And 'Alien Rockstars' has promised the first chapter this year. 2006 could be the year of Zak!