Zeusthecat

The Big LucasArts Playthrough

Recommended Posts

Hey Zeus, for added effect you should read all the one-shot Sam & Max comics based on old Lucasarts adventure games.

 

YHrW7FM.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No idea. I have the Telltale reprint of Surfin' the Highway, which includes all of them.

 

My favourite is the Full Throttle one where Max gets a tattoo.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I knew they had to be online somewhere still because I remember the scans of most if not all issues floating around.

 

And without further ado, all of the Adventurer magazines (with the Sam and Max comics inside):

http://lucasartsadventurer.blogspot.com/2011/09/adventurer-issue-no-1-fall-1990.html

 

It appears issue 13 is missing though.

 

I think a lot of what is wrong with The Dig is heavily apparent with all of the production problems that went with it. Learning the history of that game is almost more fascinating than the game itself.

 

What's most immediately jarring is how awkward and compressed the cutscenes look and how lo-fi the actual game plays. It feels less advanced than Day of the Tentacle, but has a lot of window dressing to try and not make you feel that way, I guess? The Dig is great though when you aren't stuck. It definitely has way less comedy than Full Throttle, so it might be the most serious LucasArts adventure game out there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, thanks for that link! That looks like some excellent reading material in addition to the comics.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I started

 

The Dig

 

So far I am finding this game really amazing, although I'm not much more than an hour in so I don't have much to go off of. The setting and music are outstanding and I really like the premise of the story. And, as I've come to expect, the voice acting is once again stellar. Considering I came into this game with lower expectations, it is really IGN.com'ing me so far. And it's also worth mentioning that I really like the UI, although I kind of miss all the verb commands.

 

What I've played so far has been pretty straightforward stuff. I spent a lot of time talking to each character and getting familiar with the UI and my inventory before getting started on my mission. After a little bit, I sent The Pig to the Asteroid, picked up all the tools from said Pig, and placed the nuclear charges on the asteroid (after using my zero-g digger in one spot and my shovel in the other spot). Then we went back to the shuttle and exploded the nukes which altered the course of the asteroid as planned. After the explosions, we went back to the asteroid and discovered a metal plate and some projections in a tunnel just under the surface. I pushed the metal plate down, revealing a shaft, and then proceeded to dig out the remaining plates using the zero-g digger before pushing them in as well. After the plates had been pushed, we then went down one of the tunnels and found ourselves in a large room with a pedestal in the middle. The plates I had pushed down were scattered around the pedestal so I picked them up and placed them on the pedestal in the proper configuration which resulted in us getting blasted off at warp speed. It turns out that asteroid was a motherfucking spaceship!

 

After a short trip, we found ourselves on the surface of an alien planet. Luckily, the air was breathable so we were able to take our spacesuits off. After a brief power struggle between captain Low and Brink we headed off to see what we could find. The first place we went to was an area with an old, derelict spaceship. We went inside and I was able to pick up some weird alien disc thing from a chest as Brink looked around. Then I attempted to pull down a loose wire and in the process set off some alien projection. The projection vanished after a few seconds and left behind a strange alien rod. So I picked up the rod and the wire I had pulled down and then stopped playing.

 

This game has definitely started on a high note for me. Can't wait to play some more and find out what happens next.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

And now you can understand why Jake freaked out on the podcast when they received an email from Boston Lowe!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Man, The Dig is the only Lucasarts game I've only played once, I should really replay it... I can't help at all with this one, I one remember one annoying crystal light puzzle and something spoiler-y. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Dig is the only post-Loom LucasArts adventure I've never played, so I might play along too.

 

(I might get around to playing Zak McCracken and The Last Crusade one day, but it seems unlikely)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Dig starts well, for sure.  As I recall the intro is pretty guided but the game opens up fairly dramatically not long after the arrival.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

More progress made on The Dig.

 

When I resumed play, I was still at the derelict ship and had just picked up the wire, rod, and arrow disk artifact thing. After poking around a bit longer, and after using the disk and seeing it point to Low's left, I decided to move on to the next spot which was just a sandy area with some bones sticking out of the ground. It seemed like a good area to try digging so I used my shovel on the area with the bones and was able to retrieve a jaw bone and some kind of tusk. After picking those up there didn't seem to be anything else in the area (plus the alien artifact was still telling me to go to Low's left) so I moved on to the final spot. The final spot didn't seem to have anything useful at first glance so I used the alien artifact again and it revealed an area of dirt. I once again used my shovel on that spot and uncovered what looked like some kind of alien bracelet. After picking up the bracelet I figured I had done everything I needed to in the three areas and returned to the central spot where we started.

 

Upon re-entering the center of the clearing, that weird alien projection showed up again and revealed some kind of a soft spot on the ground. So I pulled out my trusty shovel and started digging again. After a little bit of digging, Brink took over so he could show off his mad archaeology skills. Unfortunately his archaeological training didn't prepare him for falling from high places and he fell to his death after the ground caved beneath him. All joking aside, I found myself kind of sad to see Brink go like that and I think the game did an excellent job depicting the impact this incident had on Low's psyche. Although, this could just be a result of me talking to Maggie about Brink's death repeatedly afterwards and building my own scenario where Low was just dwelling on it and was desperately trying to seek solace from the only other person he had left.

 

After making our way down to the cave beneath the sand where Brink had died, Maggie decided it was best for us to split up and so we went our separate ways. As I explored I found a series of locked doors with panels next to them, a triangle alcove, and two additional paths. I also managed to pick up a purple rod and a metal plate. I quickly found that the metal plate could be placed into one of the slots on the triangle alcove leaving a few empty slots remaining. Then, after examining the purple rod I realized that the series of colored shapes that it was composed of seemed to match the colored shapes that were available on the door panels. Unfortunately, even though I entered that configuration into every panel, not a single door opened. And upon inspecting the first rod I had obtained, Low merely mentions that there are 5 shapes (which I figure might be significant considering the purple rod only had 4) but does not actually allow me to look at it like with the purple one to determine which shapes make up the rod.

 

Once I had toyed around with the doors for a bit, I went down each of the paths that were available to me and ended up finding a room under an ocean that had some kind of crystal puzzle and a room with some kind of a generator and control panel. I couldn't figure out what to do in the ocean room and there didn't seem to be anything I could do yet with the crystal puzzle so I moved on to the generator room and poked around in there for awhile. After some investigating, I found some kind of powered crystal behind a panel that seemed to serve as the power source for that room (or at least for the lights in that room). As long as that crystal was in place, I could press a triangle button on one of the panels and see some glowing light ball go down to the area below to charge itself (?) and then go up through some kind of chute. Upon inspecting the edge of the room, I found that one of the beams was missing a lens and that the lens was laying on the ground at the bottom. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to get it back into it's spot and figured that I would need to do that before having any success with the light ball thing. I decided at this point that it would be best if that crystal were in my inventory and picked it up before moving on. And this is about where I am currently stuck.

 

I probably spent a good hour or so after this going back through every area and trying to figure out what to do next. Things that are notable in my mind are the panels next to each door, the fact that each door is a different shape and color (possibly represented by the first rod I picked up if I could see what shapes were on there), the second panel in the generator room that has some weird controls and a whole array of lights that I can turn different colors, the electrical crystal puzzle in the ocean room, the lens on the floor of the generator room, the glowing plants in the cave that I can touch but don't seem to do anything, and a column with some grooves. Then, back outside there is a plant I can interact with, the main platform in the central area and some bones that are left where I got the jaw bone and tusk. I've tried examining everything in my inventory, tried using all items I have with each other, and I've been keeping a close eye out for any patterns in the background but so far I've gotten nowhere. With so many of these weird alien device puzzles (door panels, crystal panel, generator room panel) happening at the same time I think I'm in for some bullshit.

 

As I've been thinking about it more, I'm thinking one of the first things I need to do is to get that lens back in it's spot. Then maybe that glowing light ball will get the energy it needs and do something useful like bring power to another part of the complex. As for the crystal panel puzzle, I would think I need to move the non-powered crystal into one of the empty slots but I don't see a way to have any meaningful interaction with the crystals or the crystal cluster aside from just examining them. And obviously, the powered crystal I have isn't helping here either. Those electric plants are also awfully suspicious. Since I can touch all of them, that tells me that I will be able to do something with them. Maybe I need to get power to them to make them useful. And I'm hoping the other metal plates I need are behind the various locked doors because I've still only found that one. With so many variables at play right now I'm finding this exceptionally tough. For now I will just have to continue meticulously going back through each area using everything I have on anything in the environment, and keeping an eye out for patterns.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Everyone else correct me if I'm wrong here, but I feel like most of The Dig's puzzles tend to be closed off to one room, much like a Myst game. There sometimes is one item that you have to use to activate or finish the puzzle but often it's just figuring it out on the spot. Not such an inventory intensive game. Though the crystal rods are much more complicated if I remember correctly. I don't remember much with the puzzles in The Dig since they were so separated and the story and music definitely made a much more lasting impression in my mind.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There is one very important item that's used in several puzzles (and becomes symbolic of one of the game's themes) but I can't really remember well enough if there are others like that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Holy fucking shit, major discovery! After some more meticulous combing through the areas I had open to me, I found myself back in the generator room with the control panel and thanks to my thoroughness and a bit of luck I discovered what the purpose of the glowing ball thingy was. Once back in the room, I put the crystal I had back into the slot, pressed the triangle button again to observe the ball going down into the lower area and was surprised to see that nothing happened this time. That was the major breakthrough I needed to make me realize that the button presses I entered into the panel controlled the movement of the glowing ball (and I had just happened to clear all the entries before this latest attempt which explained why it didn't do anything). After some trial and error I figured out what each button did and eventually got the right sequence in to get the glowing ball to go down and pick up the lens. Then a few more adjustments and I was able to get it to put the lens in the empty slot. This caused one of the doors to open, which I imagine only happened because I had already put the code into the door panel from the purple rod. So we'll see what awaits me behind this new area.

 

My first instinct is to call bullshit on this puzzle but after figuring it out I think it was kind of all right. I mean, it kind of makes sense in the context of being on an alien world that you would need some trial and error to discover 1) some weird control panel controls the movement of a glowing ball and 2) that the glowing ball is really a crane of sorts. It was clear that I would need some method to put the lens back in its spot and the game very subtly nudged me toward the right conclusion, even though I spent over an hour clicking around pointlessly on other stuff. So maybe it's bullshit, but it's "dude is trying to figure out alien shit" bullshit so that makes it less bullshitty in my opinion.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Since I made that recent discovery I have had a pretty steady flow of progress.

 

After going through the newly opened door, I was able to take a spherical tram thing under the water to a whole new area. Upon arriving, I found myself in a hallway with a couple doors, one that was weakened and looked like it could be opened, and one that was ruined and inoperable. I wasn't able to pry the weakened door open with anything I had so I moved on to the next area. This brought me to an outdoor path adjacent to an ocean of some kind. There was a nearby fossil that I was able to look at but didn't seem to serve any immediate purpose so after observing that I went down to the edge of the water. As soon as I got down to the water's edge, I saw some weird turtle creature come out of the water to eat a plant and then the fucking Loch Ness monster came out of the water and ate him. Then he looked at me and said, "I need about tree fitty". After Nessy retreated I was able to examine the water which revealed an underwater cave. Unfortunately Boston was too scared of Nessy and refused to swim down and check it out. So I went back to the path and continued on until I found a panel with a nearby lens. I was able to adjust the lens but it never had any effect when I pressed the button on the panel. So I just adjusted the lens until I got a differently pitched "ding" when pressing the button and moved on to the next area, leaving it in this state.

 

The next area was some kind of a weird museum. I picked up some green crystals, another rod with geometric shapes (I think this one was red), and some kind of tablet with inscriptions. After picking up these items, I went around and examined some displays that were around the area, each of which showed a brief animated segment of historical events. After viewing them all I went into the next room and found Maggie studying some kind of alien library database. She wanted to be left alone so she could continue trying to learn their language, so after some investigating I made my way back to the main hallway area with all the locked doors and Brink's dead body. Also, I'm not entirely sure but I think the library was where I picked up some kind of canister.

 

Based on something that Boston had said during the latest conversation with Maggie, I figured I should try to use the green crystals on Brink to see if they could revive him. So I made my way back to his body, dropped some crystal goo on him, and witnessed him come back to life. I was displeased to see that the crystals had given him magical asshole powers in addition to reviving him and I wanted to make him fall down another hole to put an end to his condescending tone for good but instead we resumed exploring and unlocked another door using the rod I had recently picked up. Unfortunately the tram in this room wasn't working and Boston indicated that it might be controlled elsewhere. So, with nowhere else to go, I decided to head back to where the first tram took me to see if Brink could help me open that door since he kept going on about how strong and smart he was now.

 

Sure enough, Brink was able to help me open that door and inside we found a shitload of green crystals. We each took a handful of crystals and shortly after making our way out and back to the ocean path, Brink ditched me so he could go do a bunch of drugs (read "green crystals") by himself or something. With Brink gone, I went back down to the water again and saw Nessy eat another turtle, but this time it spit out the bones before retreating underwater again. I went over to the bones and found that I could examine them and move them around like some kind of puzzle. I immediately tried using a crystal on the bones but ended up just creating an abomination of goo that couldn't hold itself together. This gave me a strong indication that I would need to arrange the bones into the proper configuration before resurrecting the turtle, and luckily I remembered that fossil from the previous area so I went and took a screenshot of it so I could easily piece together all of the bones without having to repeatedly trek back to the fossil. Before long I had the bones placed and the turtle revived but Nessy just came back up and ate it again which brought me right back to square one. After repeating the sequence again with the same results, I went back down to the water to see if I could use any of my more recent items I had obtained on the water. When I tried using the canister with the water, Boston hinted that it was some kind of explosive device which gave me the solution to the revived turtle puzzle. So I went back to the turtle again, pieced together the bones, and used the canister on them before reviving the turtle to make a suicide turtle bomber. This time Nessy came up and ate the turtle and exploded, leaving the water safe for me to enter.

 

Upon reaching the underwater cave, I didn't find much besides a small room with another rod in it (this one was orange I think? (and I may have also gotten another metal plate in this room but that may have been somewhere else, I can't remember exactly)). After retrieving the rod, I went back to the original main hallway and opened the third door.

 

This third door had a tram that brought me to an area with a little asshole rat. Had he not removed some component that was needed to open the door in this area I would have been fine with him but as it stands, that rat can suck it. Once he ran into his little hole, I went around the room and picked up a few mechanical pieces, a metal panel with a button, and a blue rod. After a little experimentation with the mechanical pieces, I found that I could lift up a big pole that was lying on the ground and hook it up to a nearby gear. Then I was able to attach a rib cage that I picked up from that same area to a hook at the end of the pole and prop the whole thing up with a rod to make a trap. After doing this I tried several times to lure the rat into the trap but he just scampered around like a little asshole, completely avoiding the trap. Boston made a comment about how he wished he had bait and that he would have to shepherd the rat instead but I was never able to get that to work. So I gave up in the hope that I would come across some bait in the near future.

 

I was pretty sure at this point that I needed the blue rod for that crystal puzzle from earlier and was happy to see that I was able to insert it into one of the holes which made two more rods pop out. At this point I was able to shut all of the crystals off by clicking on them but I wasn't sure how to turn them back on. After some more fooling around I realized that there was a slight highlight on whatever crystal I had selected and that as I moved the rods up and down the intensity of the highlight changed. Before long I figured out how to adjust each rod to a position that gave enough juice for the crystal I had selected to reactivate. After doing this for all of the crystals and exiting the puzzle, I saw that the previously broken tram from earlier was up and running again. So I went back to that room and took the tram to the next area.

 

I made my way a little ways in to this next area until I caught back up with Brink who was being a cranky dick and asked me to leave. And this is about where I stopped playing. I should also mention that at some point throughout all of this I found two more of those panel things with crystals and adjusted each of those as I did the first. Based on the diagram on each panel, it looks like there are 5 total that will need to be adjusted so I hope I'm not missing anything by just adjusting these and moving on. Oh, and I also tried using the green crystals on the bones back in the clearing but Boston indicated that too many bones were missing so perhaps I will find more bones to go with my jaw bone and tusk.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry to keep blasting away at this thread but I've got a little more progress to report on.

 

I spent most of the night last night spinning my wheels. After finding Brink I didn't have anywhere else new to explore so I was forced to go back through and re-examine each area. I did find that I could shine my flashlight onto some bats in a cave adjacent to where Brink was and make them fly around but I never figured out what that was supposed to do. I also found that I could put my powered crystal into a hole in a nearby tomb to turn a bunch of lights on and then stand on a floor panel to open some roof shutters but that didn't seem to do anything either. 

 

After a good hour of running around I finally settled back on that rat trap puzzle since it seemed like the only likely way to progress at that point. I tried many times to herd the rat into the trap but it didn't seem to work as I expected it to and the rat would usually just run right past me and back into one of the holes regardless of where I stood. At some point during this process I got desperate and started using my shovel on all the holes and found that I was able to dig the entrance of the cave to make it wide enough for me to get through. Unfortunately, there was nothing more than three useless holes in the cave so I went back out and continued attempting to trap the rat. After several more attempts I got lucky and was able to get the rat to run into the trap. I have no idea what it was that I did exactly but I must have gone to the right spot at each location it ran to which caused it to run away from me instead of through me. Once it was trapped I found that I was able to put the bracelet on the rat and use my alien compass thing to track it's location after setting it free. This led me back into the cave where I was able to dig up the part I needed to open the door.

 

With the door finally open, I found myself in a planetarium type room with another rod (I think this one was green?), two scepters, another metal plate, and a button on a nearby wall. Upon using one of the scepters, the ceiling lit up and another puzzle presented itself where I was able to adjust the locations of two moons around a planet (presumably the planet we were on) using the two scepters. I messed around with that for a bit and then decided to move on to open the next locked door and hoped that some kind of diagram in one of the areas might show the right configuration.

 

Once I was back in the hallway, I tried to open the final door using the combination on the latest rod but had no luck. It looks like I will need to somehow use the wire I have with the sparks coming out of the ground nearby to get power back to the door panel but as of right now there is nothing I can connect it to. So after failing here I continued going back through some of the previous areas to see if there were any diagrams or other things I had missed (I distinctly remembered seeing some kind of sketch on a wall in one of the areas somewhere).

 

I eventually made my way back to the area with the tomb and I immediately noticed that the two moons were now visible in the sky just to the right of a large rock ring formation. Boston wondered aloud how the moons got there but it was obvious that the position of the moons in the planetarium controlled the actual positions of the real moons above the planet. It seemed obvious at this point that I would need to adjust the moons to line them up with the rock ring formation and that hopefully that would provide whatever light was needed when I opened the ceiling shutters back in the nearby tomb. So I went back, adjusted the moons until they were lined up (with the little moon between the planet and the big moon (and that little rat asshole stole the door thing again after I did this but luckily the button inside the room was able to open the door again)) with the rock formation, and went back to the tomb to find that opening the shutters still didn't do a goddamn thing. I had to stop playing at this point because it was fucking late.

 

After thinking about it some more I think the first thing I am going to try to do is to adjust the location of the small moon so that the big moon is between the planet and the small moon. Based on my recollection of the marking on the tomb floor tile, I think that might be the required configuration. Fingers crossed that it works.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Good thinking taking a screenshot of the bones.  That puzzle drove me nuts as a kid because every time I would swear I had gotten the bones placed correctly and I could resurrect my turtle friend, only to find that I was wrong and had to go back to the fossil.  Being able to take a screenshot easily would have probably saved me a lot of time and frustration.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Another big ass update incoming.

 

Upon resuming play, I immediately tried re-adjusting the moons as I mentioned in my last post but still didn't see anything happen in the tomb. After messing around for a little while though, I discovered a mound of dirt to the left of the tomb entrance and was able to dig the dirt away to reveal a lens. I figured this had to be what I was missing to complete the tomb puzzle and, after seeing that nothing had happened within the tomb upon uncovering the lens, I went back and re-adjusted the moons so that the small moon was eclipsing the big moon again. That did the trick and some kind of crypt with a statue on it appeared in the tomb. The statue disintegrated when I touched it leaving just the crypt so I spent some time trying to use various items on the crypt before realizing that I could interact with the floor plate when standing on it. Since there wasn't anything I could do with the crypt I decided to try using all of my items on the floor plate and found that I could use the rod I had from my rat trap to keep the floor plate depressed without me standing on it. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else I could do beyond that and after spending a good chunk of time banging my head against a wall (figuratively), I decided to go back into the main hallway to see if there was anything else I could do to get power to that door that wouldn't open.

 

Since I was at a dead end at this point I was fairly certain that there had to be some way for me to get power to that door with what I currently had. So I once again attempted to use the wire I had on various items in the vicinity including the column, one of those plant thingies, the door, and the door panel. The only clue I got from any of this was when I tried to use the wire on the panel and Boston commented that there was nothing to connect it to. The fact that he made that comment indicated to me that there had to be something I could do to the panel or some way to open it so that I could connect the wire to it. Sure enough, after trying a few items, I was able to pry the panel cover off using the tusk I had in my inventory. I was then able to route power to the panel using the wire I had with the broken conduit in the floor and finally got the door open.

 

The next place I found myself in had quite a few different areas. There was a beach area with some kind of weird green energy field, some kind of monster nest area with a grate, a waterfall area where I could divert a stream down into another grate, a suspicious looking beach area with absolutely nothing to interact with, a map room, and a room with the fourth panel/crystal device. I started out by adjusting the crystal and found that this panel was busted. Luckily I was able to open a hatch on the bottom of the panel which allowed me to get it running again by completing a fairly simple wiring puzzle. I then moved to the map room and was able to enter the various geometric sequences I had from the rods into a panel causing various images to be displayed. One of the images was of the tomb and upon seeing it, Boston indicated that he knew what he needed to do to get past that part. So with this information in hand I headed back to the tomb.

 

When I arrived back at the tomb this time, I was able to climb onto the crypt and ride it down to an area below the tomb. As soon as I started walking towards a door at the end of this area, a green crystal fell out of a slot and revived an old guard dog creature. I wasn't able to get past him but I was able to use one of my crystals on another dead guard dog and after doing so, they started fighting each other and were crushed to death by a boulder when they bumped into the wall. I attempted to open the door at this point but it was locked so I started trying to use items on the door and on the slot to the right of the door. After going through a few of my items, I was able to successfully open the door by using the golden rod (the first one I had picked up) on the slot. This brought me to a walkway with a pyramid that housed a dead alien. I was able to use the golden rod again on a panel to make the pyramid disappear and then I was able to revive the alien with one of my life crystals. Unfortunately I couldn't understand the alien and the alien didn't understand pig latin so our conversation was pretty lame. After finishing with him, I called up Maggie and as I was about to tell her about what I had found, she was abducted by a shitty spider.

 

I wasn't sure what to do at this point or how to find her so I decided to head back to where Brink was first since it was just around the corner from the tomb. When I entered the area, I saw that he had hoarded a bunch of extra crystals into a pile on the ground. He refused to help me find Maggie so I started to head to another area when I realized that I could now see Brink from the bat cave that was adjacent to the area he was in. I figured this was a good time to try scaring the bats with my flashlight again and when I did, they swarmed around Brink and he ran off, leaving the crystals unguarded. I took this opportunity to steal Brink's crystals and was able to force him to help me find Maggie by holding his precious crystals hostage.

 

We eventually made our way back to the monster nest area with the grate and found Maggie strung up by some spider web. I was able to convince Brink to distract the spider and as soon as he did so, I ran off to the waterfall area from earlier to try diverting the stream through the grate since it was obvious that that was what needed to happen. After I diverted the stream, I was able to push a boulder onto the platform thingy to keep the stream permanently re-routed. Then I went back to Maggie and informed her that she would need to pull a stick loose from the nearby grate when the spider was near her to wash the spider down. Finally, I lured the spider back towards me and Maggie pulled the stick just as the spider walked over the grate which washed the spider away and saved the day. 

 

As soon as Maggie was freed, Brink lost his shit and took off with the crystals. We still needed some to re-revive the alien so Maggie could translate what it was saying, so we headed back to the museum area to grab more. After we got the crystals we needed we headed back to the alien and used Maggie's newfound alien language comprehension to get a whole bunch of information out of it. The alien wasn't willing to help us but it did hint that if I could find a way to bring the aliens back from space time 6, they would rebuild the spaceport and send me home in a crystal. Unfortunately this is proving incredibly difficult to do and I haven't made any progress beyond this point.

 

I've put in over 3 hours past this point and am still completely stuck. I've revisited every single area in the game multiple times and tried every item I can think of in every spot and have gotten nowhere. There are three hints I am working off of right now that I am hoping will lead me to the solution. The first hint is when observing the green energy field at the beach. The energy field is apparently "just on the edge of existence" (which tells me that it is similar to the ghost, maybe one of the aliens trying to break into this reality from space time 6 or something) and then Maggie says it reminds her of something she saw or read earlier. The second hint is one of the map displays showing the area near the planetarium with the big crevice in the wall. Upon inspection, there is apparently some light coming from the other side but I can't use any items on the crevice and Boston refuses to fish around with his hand. The third hint is Maggie's interpretation of the tablet I've had along with whatever the alien dude said about it when Maggie last talked to it. It says something about an important thing being on the other side of a hole so that none may enter or something like that. Then it says something about pulling part of something back.

 

Most of my focus has been on trying to tie these clues together and I've attempted quite a few things. I've tried adjusting the planetarium moon configurations to see if anything else happened in any of the areas and had no success there. I've tried clicking everywhere along the crevice to see if there was a "Full Throttle kick the wall" type situation going on and had no luck with that. I re-examined all the museum displays to see if they showed the thing Maggie had seen or read about earlier and also got nowhere with that. In addition to these things I've tried numerous other random things to no avail. I'm not sure what to try next but two areas that I keep thinking about in addition to those I've already mentioned are the "down" area by Brink where I can look down a cliff, and that empty beach near the map area that has nothing I can interact with. I've already been to each of those areas a dozen times but maybe there's something else I haven't thought of.

 

I'm fucking frustrated  :frusty:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Zeusthecat has inspired me to replay The Dig. Thank goodness it happened during Steam Sales, as $2 is less than the worth of the time it would take to find the box that is currently holding all my games (due to me moving house recently and planning to again very soon), and then the disk within it.

Zeus's posts have been an excellent walkthrough for when I get stuck. Mainly due to non-obvious puzzle designs. For instance, it really annoyed me that the colours of the crystal rods don't relate to the colours of the doors that they open. And the fact that you need to use the stick to hold down the pressure plate in the tomb, otherwise you won't realise that the pile of dirt outside is important, is just irrational. I figured a pressure plate is a pressure plate; it's made to be stood on.

I got as far as I could and checked this thread again to see if Zeus has any hints, but it turns out he's stuck at the same place as me. From previous plays, I know some of the plot points that still have to occur with Brink:

Him fixing the machine that makes more crystals and getting his arm stuck in the crack

, but I can't recall what I do to spark them off. I suspect there is some pixel-hunty object that I've missed somewhere.

Oh well. I don't possess Zeus's level of honour. I don't mind checking a walkthrough. :P

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Zeus, I've worked out what to do, but it's not especially logical. I'll give you three hints. The first one is very vague and references your last post, the second tells you where to go and the third tells you what to do there.

 

Two out of three of the hints you listed in your last post are relevant.

Go to the beach with the strange light.

And show Maggie the tablet when you're there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks thorn, glad my posts are proving helpful for you! Those spoilers are tempting as hell but I think I've got a little bit more in me before I throw in the towel. I did play another 2 hours last night and still haven't gotten anywhere so I might just be clicking on those in the near future.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, I got to the end of the game yesterday. I found I enjoyed it much more this time around than previously, possibly because I knew most of the puzzles and didn't get stuck wandering around aimlessly. The art is beautiful and the music remains one of my favourite game scores even now. I also liked the arc of the relationship between Boston and Maggie, where they start off antagonistically snarking at each other, proceed through Maggie frustratedly telling Boston to go away and do his own thing, and end up depending on each other and working together. Brink I wasn't such a fan of, but that's kinda the point.

 

My only real criticism this time around is that there's too much pixelhunting. It's not always obvious how many exits a screen has, and some of the exit hotspots are tiny. Two examples that stand out for me are the path outside from the base of the museum spire (next to the ruined door that doesn't open, which I assume was an area that was removed late in development) and the lower reaches of the map spire, which I managed to walk through without finding the monster nest and the beach because it's not obvious that they're there. Similarly, the background art is so detailed that sometimes the objects don't stand out, such that the only way it's possible to know there's anything there is to pass the cursor over it.

 

Aside from that one quibble, it's a really good game. Not on the level of LucasArt's best, but still worth playing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now