About a month ago, I was feeling bored, and I was trying to decide what I should play around with next after poking around in the Loom CD files. Eventually, I decided to see if I could create some "facsimile pictures" of Brian Moriarty's version of The Dig.

I'd tried to do that before, but on a much smaller scale, and I wasn't entirely pleased with the results. This time, however, after about a month of tinkering, I feel I've created some shots that are at least acceptable.

Here are ten pictures in this manner. I've put a few comments after each one.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digrecon.gif)
This one uses a background taken from the end cutscene in the final version of The Dig.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digrecona.gif)
This one also uses a background taken from the end cutscene. Notice the cursor.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digreconb.gif)
This one features Brink. His sprite is reconstructed from a magazine shot.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digreconc.gif)
This shot features all four astronauts with the Pig on Attila. Again, Dr. Toshi Olema (the fourth's name) is reconstructed from a magazine pic.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digrecond.gif)
This shot features Judith Robbins, later to become Maggie. I had to guess on what part of her sprite looked like. The one I finally used was the last of several I toyed around with in an effort to get it to "feel right."

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digrecone.gif)
A third background taken from the end cutscene.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digreconf.gif)
This shot features all four astronauts. I don't know when the party split up in Brian's Dig, so this shot may or may not have been possible in-game.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digreconh.gif)
Notice that the screen hasn't yet been modified to have the blue rod there.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digrecong.gif)
I know that the sketch of this background on the LEC 20th Anniversary page has it with extra steps, but again, I don't know when those were taken out. Besides, the shot is pretty enough that I decided to keep it. Here Low is trying something silly, as most adventure game players do when stuck.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digrecon/digreconi.gif)
The last background. Not too much to note here.

Comments and critiques are welcome.

For the record, here are the pictures of the early version of Sean Clark's Dig, which has a somewhat different interface. This makes sense, because Brian Moriarty's version used the "StoryDroid" engine, while Sean Clark's used SCUMM.

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digsite/digearly.gif)
http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digsite/digearlya.gif)
http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digsite/digearlyb.gif)
http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digsite/digearlyc.gif)
http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digsite/digearlyd.gif)
http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digsite/digearlye.gif)
http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/digsite/digearlyf.gif)

Very, very, nice work ATMachine. I will try and get the main site going, and then annouce that the site is back up on mixnmojo, then hopefully we'll actually get some people coming back to these forums :)

WOW! Great stuff! I didn't realise there was so much information on the earlier versions.

Does anybody know how much of the game was initially done with the voices from the demo?

Alien246, I now believe the entire game (or a good portion of it) was indeed initially done with the demo voices! Not only have I found lines with them from the shuttle mission part of the game, I've also found lines that pertain to the use of the Examine, Use, Pick up, Move, and Talk to icons, so the voices date back that far at least.

I don't think, however, that they come from Brian Moriarty's version, because they refer to Maggie and not Judith, and there's no mention of Toshi Olema. (It is conceivable, however, that the same actors did do the voices for Brian Moriarty's version, but I'm not sure.)