The Dig
Developer(s)	LucasArts
Publisher(s)	LucasArts
Designer(s)	Sean Clark, Brian Moriarty
Engine	SCUMM v7
Release date(s)	1995
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Kids to Adults (6+) PEGI: 7+ (2002 re-release)
Platform(s)	DOS, Mac
Media	CD (1)
System requirements	486DX2/66MHz CPU, 8MB RAM, 1MB Hard disk space, 256 color VGA, DOS 6.0

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. Cover art for The Dig adventure game. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates computer or video games. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... Sean P. Clark is a game designer, director and programmer who worked on a number of notable LucasArts adventure games from early 1990 through to 2002. ... Brian Moriarty (born 1956) is an American game developer who authored three of the original Infocom interactive fiction titles, Wishbringer (1985), Trinity (1986) and Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor (1987). ... A game engine is the core software component of a computer or video game or other interactive application with real-time graphics. ... SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion and is a scripting language developed at LucasArts (known at the time as Lucasfilm Games) to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... This is an article about the video game genre. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software in the United States and Canada (officially adopted by individual provinces 2004-2005). ... PEGIs logo Pan European Game Information, or more commonly PEGI, is a European system for rating the content of computer and video games, and other entertainment software. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... CPU redirects here. ... Random access memory (usually known by its acronym, RAM) is a type of data store used in computers that allows the stored data to be accessed in any order — that is, at random, not just in sequence. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... VGA redirects here. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... This is an article about the video game genre. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Alan Dean Foster (November 18, 1946, New York City) is a prolific American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations. ... SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion and is a scripting language developed at LucasArts (known at the time as Lucasfilm Games) to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion. ... Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. ... Vaporware is software or hardware which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. ...

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 perfectly fit into the science fiction genre. Before concentrating almost exclusively on Star Wars titles, LucasArts was known for their point-and-click adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. ... Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...

Story

The Dig 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 64 metre radio telescope at Parkes Observatory The Very Large Array, an interferometric array formed from many smaller telescopes, like many larger radio telescopes. ... Borneo (left) and Sulawesi. ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-104) is one of the space shuttle fleet belonging to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ... Attila the Hun (405–453), also sometimes known with the nickname as Attila the Scourge of God (Flagellum Dei) or simply Attila was the most powerful king of the Huns. ...

• Boston Low (voiced by Robert Patrick), the main protagonist— a retired astronaut and survival expert
• Dr. Ludger Brink (voiced by Steven Blum), an archaeologist and geologist
• Maggie Robbins (voiced by Mari Weiss), a reporter and fluent linguistics expert
• Ken Borden (voiced by David Lodge), expert shuttle pilot
• Cora Miles (voiced by Leilani Jones), NASA technician and political candidate

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 is 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 is in a state of decay and appears to be devoid of particularly intelligent animals. Robert Patrick as the T-1000, in Terminator 2: Judgment Day Robert Patrick (born November 5, 1958 in Marietta, Georgia, USA) is an American actor. ... The protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. ... Steven Jay Blum (born April 28, 1965) is a voice actor known primarily for his work in anime dubs and video games. ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system (see planetary geology). ... David Lodge is a voice actor who is not to be confused with the British actor of the same name. ... Leilani Jones is a beauty queen from Washington who will compete in the Miss USA pageant in 2007. ... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an agency of the United States Government, responsible for that nations public space program. ... A dodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve faces, but usually a regular dodecahedron is meant: a Platonic solid composed of twelve regular pentagonal faces, with three meeting at each vertex. ... In Greek mythology, Cocytus, meaning river of wailing (Greek kokutos, lamentation) was the river in the underworld on the banks of which the dead who could not pay Charon wandered, according to most accounts, for one hundred years. ...

The title '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. Xenoarchaeology is a fictional science that exists only in science fiction worlds, mainly in works that have to do with space exploration like Star Trek. ...

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 hostile obsession. Look up Obsession in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Overview

A screenshot of The Dig running in ScummVM.

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 did not 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 screenshot from scummVM This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... The Dig screenshot from scummVM This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... ScummVM is a multi-platform stack-based virtual machine which was originally made to allow one to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system on platforms other than those for which they were originally released. ... Amazing Stories was the name of an American television show put together by director Stephen Spielberg from 1985 to 1987. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ...

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 is 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). Sean P. Clark is a game designer, director and programmer who worked on a number of notable LucasArts adventure games from early 1990 through to 2002. ... Industrial Light & Magic original logo, designed by Drew Struzan Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is a motion picture special visual effects company, founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and owned by Lucasfilm Ltd. ... Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. ... Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951)[1] is a prolific and best-selling author, working in numerous genres. ... Zork, an early work of interactive fiction, running on a modern interpreter Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. ... Brian Moriarty (born 1956) is an American game developer who authored three of the original Infocom interactive fiction titles, Wishbringer (1985), Trinity (1986) and Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor (1987). ... A Turkish woman in Konya works at a traditional loom. ...

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. The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... The Columbia MPC was one of the many IBM PC compatibles that flooded the US market. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ...

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 fit 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 lead a lot of gamers to desperately look for it. Michael Land (b. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 – February 13, 1883) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as he later came to call them). ... iMUSE (stands for Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine) is a game engine specifically designed to synchronize music with visual action in a videogame. ...

Alan Dean Foster also wrote a novel based on the game. This novel is not completely consistent with the game but it is 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. Alan Dean Foster (November 18, 1946, New York City) is a prolific American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. ...

Reception

The Dig had by far the longest development length of all LucasArts adventure games. Originally started in 1989, the game was designed by three distinct teams in succession, after the previous team gave up.[1] Each design cycle abandoned some aspects and embraced others from the earlier designs, and the team that finally put the game together and delivered the release 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. The game was, however, met favorably by the press and gamers alike upon release. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Notable omissions of previous design ideas through the game's production include a survival angle, which forced you to keep water and food supplies for life support, exploration of entire huge cities on the planet, and an 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. Survival skills are skills that may help one to survive dangerous situations (such as storms or earthquakes), or in dangerous places (such as the desert, the mountains, and the jungle). ...

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 unique puzzles, described as Myst-like, also met with frustration by players. It must be noted that the game was released closely to Riven, and some observed some similarities, like the significance of number 5 in the puzzles. Myst (or MYST) is a graphic adventure computer game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. ... Riven is the sequel to the highly successful computer game Myst. ...

The Book

As stated earlier, the book is written by Alan Dean Foster, who is famous for having written book versions of many famous movie titles such as Alien, Aliens, and Aliens 3.

There is a little controversy on this topic, but according to Tal Cohen, a computer science PhD student [2] this information is correct.

Further evidence at The Dig Museum indicates that the first preproduction attempts for the game was dramatically different than the book. The first preproduction involved a storyline that took place in the distant future.

This first draft idea had a story that went something like this: A crew of explorers in a space ship visit an abandoned planet and discover signs of very intelligent life with powerful technology and artefacts. It's first assumed that the occupants of the planet had died off, seeing as there is no sign of them left, but as the story progresses, the player discovers something very different.

The second draft of the game was very similar to the actual game that was released, but it had one extra character[3] that 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 had received quite a bit of negative reviews for rating the first Jurassic Park film PG with as much blood and violence as it had. So seeing as he believed that parents would purchase the game for their rather young children, he issued that it be toned down a bit.

And the third crew that took on the assignment of The Dig produced the final and fully released version that's able to be purchased today.

So with the two dramatically different first drafts of the game being so dramatically different from the book, it's safe to say the book is based off of the game.

Although the book and game both have the same story, they do have differences from time to time. It changes some of the characters a small bit. Evidence is seen how, in the game, Boston Low complains that he wants a beer, and in the book that same character refuses to drink anything intoxicating. Furthermore, the book has scenes that were never intended to be in the book and is a fine compliment to the collection.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Dig

• The Dig Museum
• The Dig at MobyGames
• LucasArts Museum
• Bill Tiller's Gallery of The Dig Background Art (broken link)
• ATMachine's House of LucasArts Oddities
• The Dig development history at LucasArts Oddities (broken link)
• The Dig Forums