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I must say that a remake of Zak would be fantastic! It is really too bad that no one seems interested.
The way I see it, Zak certainly is not a perfect game, but it has potential. It has several flaws that make it less enjoyable, but a remake could really work out all of it's problems.
*Adding in the much needed dialogue and commentaries would vastly enhance the interaction and depth of the game, and expand Zak's world and the personalities of the characters.
*Preventing Zak from picking up every random object without having a use for it yet would make the puzzle solving process much more fun and logical.
*Making the story linear and systematic so you know what you are supposed to do and why, would keep the story flowing and on track.
*An improved interface would remove unnecessary actions that only take up more space on the screen.
*Preventing Zak from losing the game without even knowing it would also increase the enjoyability and make the game less frustrating.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm no Zak hater. It is a fun game, but often very disappointing because it could be so much better!
If I had the skills, I would do the remake! But I don't, so I guess I will just have to accept it as it is and stop complaining about it. (and eagerly wait for the novelization)

Okay that makes a lot of sense. thank you. I will try it out.

Okay, man I am so confused. I think I got a little ahead of myself at first so let me start from the beginning here and go very slowly.
So let's say I want the following:

1. I start the game.
2. The screen is completely black for a few seconds.
3. There is a fade in from the blackness to the first room.
4. Nothing happens for a few seconds.
5. An object moves into the room from off screen somewhere (from outside the room boundaries)
6. The object comes to a halt.

Okay so say I want to do what I just described above, and I want all that to happen as soon as you start the game and without having to click on anything. I'm not asking anyone to write the code for me (although you could if you really wanted to, hehe). I know how to use the manual to find the code I need and everything, but I am just having a little trouble getting started and I can't seem to figure out where exactly to put all this code.

I guess the first thing I'd need to know is how to start the game with a black screen. Would I have to have another room that is just a black room, or is there a better way?

Secondly, in my current room1 script, I want it to fade in right? So I put in the FadeIn script in, but it gives me the "unexpected FadeIn" error when I try to test it.  So then I got rid of the FadeIn, and tried starting out with the Object.SetPosition so I could try my hand at moving the object into the room at least, but then if gave me the "unexpected Object" error. I assume there must be some code I have to put in before doing anything at all.

I know this is all very noobish, but if I could just get a simple explanation on how to start out, I think I could figure it out from there. Thanks.

I am trying to make an opening cutscene so I had a few questions about it:

1. How can I make an object move into a room from somewhere off screen?
2. How do you trigger things such as that to happen in sequence without having to click on anything?

I have tried looking in the manual and on this forum and I did find a few very brief things on starting a cutscene, but I couldn't find anything about moving objects into a room from off screen.
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

ok, i tried that suggestion and it works now. i feel stupid for not figuring that out on my own. anyway, thank you. consider this one solved.

ok thank you, i will try that out and see how it works.

no, it does not work when i play midi files in media player. i have no idea what is wrong.
which midi device is the "correct" one? and how would i set it to default?

i couldnt fix it with the monitor. i just decided to run it in a letterbox. it looks just fine now. thanks.

nope, nothing is muted whatsoever

ok ok, i adjusted the screen at it looks okay now. sorry for wasting forum space about it.

however... the very top of the screen is still a little warped for some reason. It looks sort of like this:

(((((()))))))
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The top portion bulges out slightly, but I can't seem to fix it with any setting on my monitor. would there be a magical way to fix that somehow, or do you think my monitor is just messed up?

I've tried messing with different audio settings in the game setup, but nothing seems to work.
I know I do have MIDI drivers so I don't get why I'm not getting sound.

In my device manager, under sound devices I have two things listed with MIDI functions:
MPU-401 and Realtek AC'97 Audio

In their properties, both of them are set to "use MIDI features on this device"

Does that have anything to do with it? Are they maybe conflicting with each other or something?
Will changing some sort of setting or property on my MIDI devices fix anything?

Whenever I run my game, everything looks squished and pushed over to the left side of the screen. I tried to take a screenshot, but when I copy the screen and paste it somewhere, it looks perfectly fine.

It is similar to the problem this guy was having long ago:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=24892.0

The solution to adjust the monitor settings doesnt seem to make sense because other 320x200 AGS games adjust to my monitor just fine. Why is it that only my game is having trouble adjusting?

I was going to start a new thread about this but I somehow managed to find this one. It looks a few weeks old, but it seems like no one's posted a possible solution yet.

I am having the exact same problem as the others here. There is no music on any AGS games I've played, only sound effects. There must be a simple solution. Anyone have any ideas? I've tried messing around with the sound settings in setup, but I havn't had any luck.

Great! It works just fine now! Thank you everybody!!

Okay I'm trying it your way KhrisMUC.
My code looks like this now:
(MAINGUI is the name of my GUI by the way)

Code: ags

#sectionstart on_key_press  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function on_key_press(int keycode) {
  // called when a key is pressed. keycode holds the key's ASCII code  if (keycode==364) {  // F4
  if (keycode==364) {  // F4
    if (MAINGUI.Visible) MAINGUI.Visible=false;  //THIS IS LINE 141 (see my problem below)
    else MAINGUI.Visible=true;
  }
  if (IsGamePaused() == 1) keycode=0;  // game paused, so don't react to keypresses
  if (keycode==17)  QuitGame(1);   // Ctrl-Q
  if (keycode==363) SaveGameDialog();   // F5
  if (keycode==365) RestoreGameDialog();  // F7
  if (keycode==367) RestartGame();  // F9
  if (keycode==434) SaveScreenShot("scrnshot.bmp");  // F12
  if (keycode==19)  Debug(0,0);  // Ctrl-S, give all inventory
  if (keycode==22)  Debug(1,0);  // Ctrl-V, version
  if (keycode==1)   Debug(2,0);  // Ctrl-A, show walkable areas
  if (keycode==24)  Debug(3,0);  // Ctrl-X, teleport to room
  // ADD HERE
}

Okay, so I put that little bit of code before the IsGamePaused line like you said, because my GUI is set to popup modal. But now I get this little error message when I try to test the game:

Error (line 141): expected semicolon after ')'

What is wrong with line 141? How do I fix it?

I have been looking around in the forum and in help files and FAQs and all that, but I still can't find a good solid answer to my very simple question. Maybe I'm bad at searching, but I tried. If there is a thread that explains this, please by all means direct me to it. Anyways:

How do I make a key on the keyboard (such as F5) bring up a GUI?

I have a GUI ready, I just can't figure out how to bring it up (and close it) using a key on the keyboard.

I'm sure this must sound very noobish, but some help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks