ATMachine

Purple Tentacle channeling Al Haig there. Nice.

If I remember rightly, Aric Wilmunder posted the initial design doc for this version (under the same "Pirate Curse" title) on his old site.

It might actually be as simple as enough time passing while playing in-game. I know that I've never had all of the newspaper headlines in the present trigger, for instance.

Thanks! But it wasn't my password that was the problem - it seems like confirmation emails for anything (changing email addresses, signing up for a new account, etc) just aren't being sent. And if you try to update your email address, it locks you out of the forum until you click on the link from the nonexistent confirmation email.

Hooray!

According to this podcast interview, Brian Moriarty himself says that he managed to get his version of The DIG to a playable alpha stage before he left LucasArts. My question is: does that build still exist somewhere.... and if so, might it yet see the light of day at some point?

I can't say about the code--I don't know SCUMM syntax very well. But also, SCUMM's own language as used by the LEC coders was (as I understand it) quite different from the end product in the resource files. There were only a few comments, so my understanding of it is still imperfect. But I saw enough to lay a foundation for some inspired guesses as to the storyline. I received it via computer, by the way. I still have it, and I've started to ask around with old LucasArts veterans for some clarification as to its meaning.

While I'm reintroducing myself, here's another thought I had recently: We all know about the lost room in Crystalgard in LOOM, right? The three giant sandglasses, in the deleted room file 21.LFL? I think I've figured out what the puzzle was in which they played a part. In the final game, Bobbin needs to look in the Glassmakers' Sphere of Scrying. To do this, he has to get past two workers high in a tower, who are polishing the Great Scythe. In the game as released, he can simply cast an Invisibility draft on them, and proceed from there. But matters were likely more complex in the original game, before the cuts. The hourglass room apparently featured two capped hourglasses, which had run their course. The third one was open, and a Glassmaker stood by it full-time, pouring sand into it. (His job is essentially a magic ritual to avert the Third Shadow--the Apocalypse. Every time the glass gets near full, it is emptied again.) Anyway, this guy would probably notice Bobbin casting a draft of Invisibility on the workers in the tower. So Bobbin had to distract him first. An Emptying spell, or its reverse as a Filling spell, would probably be too easy to counter. Instead, Bobbin would have to use the reversed Opening spell, to seal the hourglass shut. This act would distract the workers--but not in the way Bobbin hoped. Even as he sealed the hourglass, the Chromax Conundrum, that magnificent and mysterious diamond goblet held in a place of high honor, would shatter in the next room. Its purpose, unknown even to the Glassmakers, was therefore not merely as a drinking vessel; it was, in fact, crafted as a figurative canary in a coal mine. (The surviving CES rolling demo of LOOM in fact still contains an image in the resource files of the shattered shards of the goblet at the base of its pedestal.) As the Glassmakers nearby ran to inspect the shattered chalice, Bobbin would be free to cast Invisibility on the workers in the tower, and thus to get on with the game. This puzzle was actually reused, it seems, in the Wits Path of Fate of Atlantis. There, Indy is disguised as a sailor on the German submarine, which docks at Crete. To escape the sub undetected, he stages a fire in one of the torpedo rooms, distracting the sailors and allowing Indy to make his escape--first through the sub's lower level and then through the sub's torpedo tubes at its other end. This sort of reuse of junked puzzles wasn't unusual at all, I gather. In the finale of Day of the Tentacle, for instance, the player has to use a bowling ball to knock over the set of Purple Tentacles who are guarding the Sludge-O-Matic machine. In fact, according to an old Computer Gaming World interview with Mark Ferrari, this puzzle was actually intended for The Secret of Monkey Island, where Guybrush would bowl away a set of ghost guards. It was cut for disk space reasons, but was resurrected for DOTT. Additionally, the lost Hourglass Room in LOOM was quite possibly where Master Goodmold explained to Bobbin the history and purpose of the Great Scythe. In the final game, Bobbin already knows of its name and its great power, without apparently being told, when he meets the dying Goodmold in the wake of Chaos' release. I do wonder, however, why that dialogue wasn't simply moved to another location. Text is a lot easier to put on disk than art, after all.

Hey guys! I am really, really sorry for disappearing for several years. I never left the Internet (you can see me on other forums under this same name), but I've had my attention elsewhere. It's weird to hear me saying it, but.... I kind of lost interest in graphic adventure games for several years. That changed recently. You see, I've come into possession of some code that appears to have been used for Brian Moriarty's The DIG. And not just any code.... it appears to have dealt wtih the variables that were used to govern the scripts used in the game's ending. This in fact suggests several things: 1) If you wanted to, it seems, you could summon extra astronauts from the shuttle to explore the asteroid's core at the beginning of the game. This probably had a bearing on the fact that the game artists drew TWO different versions of the asteroid core--it would change based on your choice of teammates. Additionally, this means the crew would have been more diverse than was suspected from pre-release press reports and screenshots. 2) When one of your crewmates died, it was possible to keep them alive. Not only via the life crystals--but also perhaps by uploading their minds into a robotic shell. (Think of C-3PO, or the Robot Maria in Metropolis.) 3) Connected with this point, there was likely a body-swap machine, which would allow the crewmembers to switch physical forms--male and female alike. 4) The game was seriously adult. Not only in violence (Toshi's death involved being melted alive in an acid bath!) but also in sexuality. Think of some of the stuff in Arthur C. Clarke's novel Rendezvous with Rama and you'll get the general idea. 5) Low could assert his authority much more than in the final game. For instance, he could try to order the crew to do things they didn't want to do. However, the crew members would resent this, and would rebel in greater or lesser ways. 6) Judging by the screenshots, the life crystals had a counterpart. Let's call them "release crystals." These were sets of three sharp, spiky red crystals--which usually came contained in egg-like shells, one apiece, for ease of transport. Their purpose was simple. Stab anyone with three of them together, and you would give them a merciful death. This could be used to ease the passing of a mortally injured crewmate. Additionally, however, if you used BOTH the life crystals and the release crystals on someone, they would be completely healed, in mind and body. (Think of the magic running boots, powered by green and red crystals, in Brian Moriarty's earlier text adventure Trinity.) 7) You actually had a LOT more control over who lived and who died than in the released version. You could let your crewmates die, or save them, or bring them back--as long as you knew how to solve the requisite puzzles properly. Some of the puzzles involved dialogue, and these were likely made more challenging by the pictorial interface used for talking to your fellow astronauts. And, just as in Fate of Atlantis, Boston Low could likely die if you screwed up too badly. Even the final puzzle, carried over to the released game--the opening of the Eye Between the Worlds--apparently involved a set of choices. In Sean Clark's version, Maggie sacrifices her own life so that Boston Low can rescue the Cocytans. But in Brian Moriarty's version, Low could, it seems, volunteer to do that himself. Of course, since in this version the Eye was actually a gateway to Heaven itself, Low ended up in the same place regardless. There, the godlike aliens whom he met would have given him an additional choice. He would be able to decide his own fate, and those of his crew. Should they be restored to life on Cocytus; returned to Earth; remain dead; or, perhaps, something else entirely? 8) I think, most likely, this was the best-case scenario for winning the game. The number of teammates chosen to explore the asteroid at the outset of the game was probably not relevant to the overall ending, so I'll ignore that variable for now. Boston Low saves as many teammates as he can--before or after their death. He and his crew try out the body-swap machine and the android bodies, and he lets his crew stay in whatever forms they like best. Boston chooses to sacrifice himself to open the Eye. And, in Heaven before the aliens, he asks them to let his crewmembers have whatever destinies they would themselves choose. But for himself, he submits to the aliens' judgment... and is therefore rewarded with the choice of his own destiny. PS: To whoever sent me this code (you know who you are): thanks!

Is it possible you could upload the tracks from the Loom Japanese soundtrack? What particularly piques my interest is the "Vocal" version of the Glassmakers' theme, something I don't think was actually in the game.

The art from the Moriarty Dig was very generously given to me by one of the project's team members (who requested to remain anonymous). As far as I know, no actual leaked build of that version of the game is available. (During production LucasArts did get as far as actually wiring up a playable version--it was being tested on the very day Moriarty resigned from the company--but apparently it had a major crash bug and was thus uncompleteable.)

I didn't have too much trouble--the gas was in the first place I looked. Also, I really liked the easter egg room which tells you the Secret of Monkey Island.

These are results of late-stage graphical tweaks to the original MI2. At first Guybrush's wanted poster lacked creases even in its normal state. When the artists added dirt and creases to the poster, they forgot to do so for when the poster is partially covered by Kate's flyer. Also, Guybrush's shirt was originally going to be a medium gray color (this can still be seen in screenshots from the very first slideshow demo). This was later changed, obviously, but for some reason the sprites of him diving down from the boat didn't get tweaked like the rest.

I DO have it, yes. Let me know if the Poster Gods desire a scan....

There are several roots growing in strategic spots on the cliff face. The trick is to throw the next boulder as soon as the boulder currently rolling down the hill hits (and visibly disturbs) one of these roots. Terrible puzzle, I know. EDIT: Oh, wait, haha, I failed at reading comprehension, and you knew that already. But you should have the next rock already in Guybrush's hand and throw it literally as soon as a root moves. That's about all I can tell you. If you're doing it right, the rocks should eventually collide with each other in such a manner that they divert onto other paths, with one ultimately going down the center hole.

Uh, what? I ripped the concept art... I haven't investigated the actual game backgrounds yet.

Yep, it's most certainly a copyright issue, as with so many other minor dialogue changes.

You CAN turn the voice on in classic mode, you know. It's one of the new features (and it's worth it at one point in the game to hear a nifty Easter Egg of sorts).

OK, I know absolutely nothing about this. Do tell me!

It's just Photoshop, guys. Calm down! The background is from the SE concept art gallery (this particular image is unlocked only at the 100% completion tier). It's some sort of voodoo altar/shrine from LeChuck's Fortress that ended up getting junked. I'd say there was definitely a cut puzzle there, but it's nowhere to be found in the final game. Quite a fun little mashup, though. What might have been... There are several other such gems in the art gallery, but I'm hesitant to spoil the surprise.

Dang, that video is blocked in the States. Any alternate links?

Hey, thanks for the tool, Benny! I've used it to extract the concept art at full size, without those annoying button overlays you see in-game. It's quite nice (and it's how I noticed the early "Crooked Island" name for Booty, which is hidden away written in the corner on one drawing, beneath the giant Back button the SE art gallery superimposes).

It's indeed possible, but frankly, it's not very likely, at least in my opinion. And I have evidence to back it up. The "Crooked Island" label, found on the early nighttime background for Elaine's kitchen. is clearly in Peter Chan's handwriting. Chan also definitely labeled two of his later Booty Island drawings, ones that did get used in the game, with the word "Booty". Unfortunately for the question at hand, these two happen to be places on the Booty Island mainland (the Ville de la Booty Main Street, and the cliffside). No other background labels in Chan's hand exist that could definitively resolve the issue (for instance, he left the island name off his revised daytime drawing of the kitchen). Also, Sean Turner did a bunch of Booty Island backgrounds (early and late), but he wasn't in the habit of putting the island name on them. More interestingly, most of the backgrounds that were used in the game have another legend, written in a different hand, indicating where they're placed in the game. The early, unused nighttime Crooked/Booty Island backgrounds are missing this legend, though. However, the identifying legend for two of the later daytime backgrounds of Elaine's mansion (the final kitchen design, and the rear exterior of the mansion) does clearly say "Booty" in both cases. Now, these labels were pretty obviously done at the same time as the game was in production. They refer to Captain Dread by his initial spelling of "Captain Dred," for instance. Also, the labels refer to the rooms by their actual in-game filenames, which today can be found only by cracking open the resource files. So these second labels must have been written during production. Which should settle the issue. So, based on that latter factoid, I'd judge that the WHOLE ISLAND was at first Crooked, before it became Booty. Personally, I don't think the designers ever conceived of Elaine's mansion inlet as a separate island from Booty. It makes much more sense if they just changed the name of the entire thing. Actually, a LOT of name changes happened during production of MI2. Scabb Island was originally spelled "Scab Island", and (as I noted above) Captain Dread was "Captain Dred." Plus, the drawing of LeChuck's office in his Fortress was originally labeled "El Carlo's office." (El Carlo? An early name for Largo, I'd guess.) It'd be logical to conclude that this was simply another such name change, in this case from Crooked to Booty.

Sorry, I meant that it plays during the SE version credits. In the original game, the credits are much shorter, so the "Whistle" theme only begins once the list of "things to do" starts up.

That track DOES play in the game--it's during the (very long) credits at the end.