The Dig (1995)

The Dig is a graphical adventure game developed by LucasArts, and released in 1995. 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.

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

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, 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:

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

Template:Spoiler 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.

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 xenoarcheology.

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.

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.

An impressive list of people worked on the game: The project leader was LucasArts grand 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).

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 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.

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.