1997, the world is as stupid as never before. Aliens have built a machine which, slowly but truly, dumbs down inteligence of mankind to the level of freshly baked bread. To make things worse, the only one who can stop the aliens evil plan is Zak McKracken, reporter of a sleazy tabloid, the National Inquisitor, who has to make up stories about flesh eating potatoes and vegetarian vampires.
Aliens have taken over the phone company... A headline straight out of the National Inquisitor, you might think. While most people would write this off as a crazy editors fantasy, there are three people willing to help Zak on his journey: Annie Larris, head of the Historical society of San Francisco, and her friends Leslie Bennett and Melissa China, two Yale students who are on their way to Mars in their space-proofed van. They all must join forces to solve mysteries left by an ancient civilisation to expose the evil aliens and destroy their stupidity-machine.
This is where you come in... You take control of Zak, Annie, Melissa and Leslie traveling all over the world and Mars to save mankind from being enslaved by the Caponians!