Everything about The Dig totally explained
The Dig is a graphical
adventure game developed by
LucasArts and released in
1995, and a novel based on the game written by
Alan Dean Foster. It was the 11th game to use the
SCUMM game engine, and is famous for its connection to
Steven Spielberg and notorious for its prolonged production that had the game bordering on
vaporware.
Released as
CD-ROM only,
The Dig was sold for
PC and
Macintosh computers. It contains a full voice-over soundtrack and a digital orchestral score. For the most part, the game's graphics are hand-drawn and sparsely animated, with a mixture of pre-rendered 3D and hand-drawn animation clips also presented in certain parts of the game.
It is the most serious
LucasArts adventure game, containing no
slapstick, and relatively little subtle humor, an element found abundantly in all other LucasArts adventure titles. It is also the only one to fit perfectly into the
science fiction genre.
Story
The Dig intro animation starts with a
radio telescope in
Borneo picking up an unidentified object, directly heading towards
Earth. It is a giant
asteroid that could cause catastrophic damage upon impact. A team of five is tasked with the mission of taking the
Space Shuttle Atlantis to the asteroid, named "Attila" after
Attila the Hun (to be distinguished from the real asteroid
1489 Attila), and plant nuclear explosives on its surface to cause it to divert to a stable orbit around the Earth. The five members of this crew are:
The game starts when Low, Brink and Robbins leave the shuttle to plant the explosives on the asteroid's surface. Their actual mission isn't very long or difficult, and apparently serves mainly as a tutorial for players to come to grips with the game and get to know the characters while setting the stage for the real story of the game:
After setting off the explosives and successfully causing the asteroid to enter an orbit, Low, Brink, and Robbins explore the asteroid to find out that it's hollow. After further exploration (and activation) by the crew, it turns into a starship in the shape of a shining
dodecahedron, transporting the three to a distant planet of unknown position. The crew starts to explore the deserted planet (now named
Cocytus by Brink), their main priority being to find a way back home. While the planet has a high state of technology, it's in a state of decay and appears to be devoid of particularly intelligent animals.
The title 'The Dig' refers to the whole process of investigation and exploration of the planet, in order to make the alien machines work again and discover what happened to the lost civilization. The main theme is
xenoarchaeology.
The story's emphasis is on the stranded trio's interaction (and occasional conflict) as they spread out to explore the desolate world, each in their own way: the commanding Low determined to find the way to go home, the intelligent and stubborn linguist Maggie Robbins studying the dead civilization, and the geologist Ludger Brink, who seems to be sliding into a state of
madness.
Development
An impressive list of people worked on the game: The project leader was LucasArts
Sean Clark,
Industrial Light and Magic created some of the CG imagery, it's based on a story idea by
Steven Spielberg and has writing credits for Spielberg, author
Orson Scott Card (who wrote the dialogue), and the well-known
interactive fiction author
Brian Moriarty (whose previous Lucas engagement was with
Loom).
The Dig was originally conceived by Spielberg as an episode of
Amazing Stories (and later as a
film), but was concluded to be prohibitively expensive. During the game's release, the director didn't deny the possibility of making it into a movie. However, over a decade later, no progress has been made on a film version of the story.
The Dig had by far the longest development length of all LucasArts adventure games. Work began in 1989 but the game wasn't released until 1995. During its development there were four successive project leaders, starting with Noah Falstein, followed by Brian Moriarty, then Dave Grossman, and finally Sean Clark who managed to get the game released.
The first preproduction involved a storyline that took place in the distant future. A crew of explorers in a space ship visit an abandoned planet and discover signs of very intelligent life with powerful technology and artifacts. It is first assumed that the occupants of the planet had died off, seeing as there's no sign of them left, but as the story progresses, the player discovers something very different.
When Brian Moriarty took over, he decided to start again from scratch. This version of the game was similar to the actual game that was released, but it had one extra character, a
Japanese science-hobbyist business tycoon named Toshi Olema, who funded the Attila project as long as he was a part of the crew. He was later completely removed from the story. This version was also very bloody and adult, and although Steven Spielberg thought this feel was very fitting, he'd received quite a bit of negative reviews for rating the first
Jurassic Park film
PG-13 with as much blood and violence as it had. So seeing as he believed that parents could purchase the game for their rather young children, he requested that it be toned down a bit.
Other notable design ideas which were dropped during the game's production include a
survival angle, which forced you to keep water and food supplies for life support and exploration of entire huge cities on the planet.
The third version of the game was the final version that was released. The development team admitted to a somewhat rushed, desperate construction, with the end result being an arguably fragmented game experience, in which inconsistencies abound. Even the three main graphical elements of the game — the hand-drawn art for Cocytus, the pre-rendered 3D graphics, and the hand-drawn cel animation for cut-scenes are very different-looking.
Some fans of the game had attributed the turbulent development history of the game to "The Dig curse". This term was coined because the game's design team met for the first time at the Skywalker Ranch on the day the
1989 San Francisco earthquake struck. It was said that this started a bad omen for the project that persisted throughout.
Release
In July 1995 the game was finally released exclusively on
CD-ROM.
The game was met favorably by the press and gamers alike upon release. Players typically liked the sense of wonder they felt in exploring the seemingly-abandoned planet, although some disliked the game's serious atmosphere. Some of the more distinctive puzzles, described as
Myst-like, were also met with frustration by players.
Soundtrack
The music (composed by
Michael Land) consisted of Land's original score performed on a Kurzweil K2000 synthesizer, enriched by hundreds of short chord samples from the works of
Wagner. With its ambient, dynamic flow, the music fits well with LucasArts'
iMUSE concept as well as the game's scenery. Land cited the music he personally composed for
The Dig as the type closest to his own individual style.
The Dig was also the first Lucas game to have its soundtrack also sold separately as an audio CD, adapted as a linear continuity of finite pieces. The CD was released in small numbers, however, and this rarity led a lot of gamers to desperately look for it.
The Novel
A
novel based on the game was also written by
Alan Dean Foster, who is famous for having written book versions of many famous movie titles such as
Star Wars (
ghostwriter),
Alien,
Aliens and
Alien³.
The novel isn't completely consistent with the game but it's interesting in that it presents the point of view of the indigenous civilizational race, something not seen in the game. The novel also provides some background detail (such as the reaction on Earth after the discovery of Attila), in addition to filling several plot holes and mysteries that can not be explained in the game.
An audio book version of the novel was also released.
Trademark Issues
On
February 6,
2007, LucasArts filed a notice of opposition with the
US Patent Office against
Digg to uphold their trademark for the game, claiming that Digg was "identical or nearly identical to Opposer's mark The Dig." After settling out of court, LucasArts' notice of opposition was dropped on
September 19,
2007.
Trivia
The cover of 'The Dig' audio book features a picture of four astronauts. The artwork was done for the second draft of the game which featured four game characters. Later, the artwork was retouched for the game box and the book covers to reflect the reduction to three main characters, but the cover of the audio book was left with the four character design.
At a certain point of the game (after Brink's sudden disappearance), if you talk to Maggie about Brink, Low will say "Have you seen this boy?", which is exactly the same line
Robert Patrick (his voice actor) says in and a spoof scene in
Wayne's World.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Dig'.
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