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The things you didn't know about Ecco the Dolphin (And others)
TheSonicRetard
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I got a few more days of relax-time left, so I figured I'd live up to my promise and post some more beta, prerelease, unused, and hacked stuff that has been compiled that's been found regarding the biggest and best games of yesteryear.
A quick preface:
*As with the last thread, This thread comes with a lot of mod scrutiny. The stuff I'm about to talk about has been obtained by hundreds of individuals in a variety of ways. That's not what this thread is about. We're going to discuss the content found in these games, some general programming topics, and nothing else. In other words - Don't be stupid. Read the rules, and don't post stuff or questions that'll get this thread locked.
*This thread will be formatted the same way the sonic thread was. I'm going to be posting as soon as I'm done typing, and in chunks, rather than posting all the information at once. I'm doing things this way because I liked the way the last thread went, and it gives time to get a good dialog going.
*Unfortunately, I don't know as much of the inner details of the Ecco engine like I know the sonic engine. To augment this, and to make up for the long wait, I'll instead post random tidbits about how the Sega Genesis works, as well as information on other games.
With that said, let's get this start...
Ecco The Dolphin
Ecco the dolphin was supposed to be a different kind of game. In 1993, the war on video games was begining to heat up, as congress was begining to have national hearings regarding video game violence. At the time, one of the most important video game in history was reigning supreme - Mortal Kombat, and it's presence sent ripples throughout the gaming industry. Nintendo chose a cleaner image, censoring most of the extreme violence from Mortal Kombat, but Sega allowed MK to release with full gore.
This, coupled with another sega release, Night Trap, put Sega in the hot seat. Their badboy image was hurting their relationship with millions of parents in the US. Enter Ecco the Dolphin.
Ecco was developed from a non-violent standpoint. Rather than emphasize killing badguys, the game relied heavily on puzzle and abstract thought. Developed by the great Ed Annanuziata and Novotrade (who would later become Appaloosa, who still developes Ecco today), Ecco the Dolphin swam into the public eye in november of 1993, joining Sonic the Hedgehog as a classic sega icon.
Unfortunately, development of Ecco was extremely straightforward. Most of the interesting stuff from development comes from vast rewrites. Games with longer development periods (the usual is around one year) often yield much more interesting hidden stuff. The reason being that, as a game is in development for longer, more stuff gets deleted or changed. Case in point, Sonic 1 enjoyed vast changes during it's development. Sonic 2 enjoyed even more because it was built off of sonic 1, thus less time was spent towards engine creation. Duke Nukem Forever, there fore, will be a haven for those who compile lost information.
But, despite the lack of interesting changed information, there is still probably a large chunk of Ecco the Dolphin that most people don't know about. Mainly, the story. If you've played through Ecco 1 before, then this post won't yield much information, and you can wait until I start talking about Ecco the Tides of Time. For those who haven't played ecco and believe it to be nothing more than an ocean puzzle game, you are in for a shock...
A quick preface:
*As with the last thread, This thread comes with a lot of mod scrutiny. The stuff I'm about to talk about has been obtained by hundreds of individuals in a variety of ways. That's not what this thread is about. We're going to discuss the content found in these games, some general programming topics, and nothing else. In other words - Don't be stupid. Read the rules, and don't post stuff or questions that'll get this thread locked.
*This thread will be formatted the same way the sonic thread was. I'm going to be posting as soon as I'm done typing, and in chunks, rather than posting all the information at once. I'm doing things this way because I liked the way the last thread went, and it gives time to get a good dialog going.
*Unfortunately, I don't know as much of the inner details of the Ecco engine like I know the sonic engine. To augment this, and to make up for the long wait, I'll instead post random tidbits about how the Sega Genesis works, as well as information on other games.
With that said, let's get this start...
Ecco The Dolphin
Ecco the dolphin was supposed to be a different kind of game. In 1993, the war on video games was begining to heat up, as congress was begining to have national hearings regarding video game violence. At the time, one of the most important video game in history was reigning supreme - Mortal Kombat, and it's presence sent ripples throughout the gaming industry. Nintendo chose a cleaner image, censoring most of the extreme violence from Mortal Kombat, but Sega allowed MK to release with full gore.
This, coupled with another sega release, Night Trap, put Sega in the hot seat. Their badboy image was hurting their relationship with millions of parents in the US. Enter Ecco the Dolphin.
Ecco was developed from a non-violent standpoint. Rather than emphasize killing badguys, the game relied heavily on puzzle and abstract thought. Developed by the great Ed Annanuziata and Novotrade (who would later become Appaloosa, who still developes Ecco today), Ecco the Dolphin swam into the public eye in november of 1993, joining Sonic the Hedgehog as a classic sega icon.
Unfortunately, development of Ecco was extremely straightforward. Most of the interesting stuff from development comes from vast rewrites. Games with longer development periods (the usual is around one year) often yield much more interesting hidden stuff. The reason being that, as a game is in development for longer, more stuff gets deleted or changed. Case in point, Sonic 1 enjoyed vast changes during it's development. Sonic 2 enjoyed even more because it was built off of sonic 1, thus less time was spent towards engine creation. Duke Nukem Forever, there fore, will be a haven for those who compile lost information.
But, despite the lack of interesting changed information, there is still probably a large chunk of Ecco the Dolphin that most people don't know about. Mainly, the story. If you've played through Ecco 1 before, then this post won't yield much information, and you can wait until I start talking about Ecco the Tides of Time. For those who haven't played ecco and believe it to be nothing more than an ocean puzzle game, you are in for a shock...
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Thanks ahead of time! :^:
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
Spoiler contains Friend Codes. Won't you be my friend?
More Friend Codes!
Mario Kart Wii: 3136-6982-0286 Tetris Party: 2364 1569 4310
Guitar Hero: Metallica: 1032 7229 7191
TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: 1935-2070-9123
Nintendo DS:
Worms: Open Warfare 2: 1418-7870-1606 Space Bust-a-Move: 017398 403043
Scribblenauts: 1290-7509-5558
Ecco the Dolphin enjoyed a unique advertising scheme that kept many people in the dark about what the game was about. TV Adverts played the game off as some sort of ocean sim, and magazines of the time talked about everything except what the game is about. Indeed, speaking to many people, the general perception is that cco is nothing more than a dolphin platformer. This is a shame, becuase it'd be wiser to group Ecco in with games like The Legend of Zelda, or Earthbound. Ecco is less about exploring the sea, and features a rich story about alien invasion.
For those of you who don't like to read (why are you in this thread?) Here is a video that explains the entire story that I'm sure most have not seen. It's pretty long, too.
The game begins when Ecco, swimming around with his friends, manages to avoid being abducted when he jumps out of a pool of water. When he returns to the body of water, he finds his pool devoid of life and his pod missing. After searching for them in nearby waters, Ecco is told that Big Blue (a blue whale) knows the secrets of the ocean and can be of help.
All life is abducted from the oceans
After travelling the ocean and meeting with Big Blue, ecco learns of an ancient life form who has been with the Earth since it's creation. This creature, known as the Asterite, is essentially the earth God, and he lives deep under the artic ocean. Big Blue instructs ecco to travel to the Asterite for more information.
The Asterite
Ecco, however, finds that the Asterite recognizes Ecco, and informs Ecco that the Asterite sent Ecco to save the world from thousands of years ago. He goes on to explain that the storm which robbed the sea of all life was the work of an ancient race of creatures that live far away on another planet, known as the Vortex. Earth, in fact, is nothing more than a farm for the Vortex. Every so many hundreds of thousands of years, the Vortex return to earth to harvest, removing all life on the planet save a few to feed their queen. Ecco, the Asterite declares, was chosen to defeat the Vortex and save the Earth, and that he will grant him the power to do so.
Unfortunately, millions of years ago, the Asterite was attacked, and lost one of his globes, which contains the power for Ecco to defeat the Vortex. The only way for Ecco to save earth is for him to solve the mystery of Atlantis - a machine which was built for time travel. After finding and solving said riddle (the riddle is simply to echo the machine from the left, not the right), Ecco is transported to earth's past, and seeks out the Asterite again.
Atlantis
In a classic example of a time parodox, Ecco finds the primative Asterite (hence why he remembers Ecco) and attacks, and subsiquently removes, the missing globe (the reason the globe is missing in the present is because ecco removed it past).
200 million BC
With the globe retrieved, and with the power granted by the Asterite, Ecco uses Atlantis again to return to just before the Vortex fed on the earth, so that, instead of jumping out of the water, he'd go with his pod to the Vortex home. Using his power, Ecco manages to free himself and finds himself... in the machine.
The Machine
The Vortex world is a dying planet. Vast machines fill the world, and all the water is polluted. After navigating through the world, Ecco finds himself face to face with the queen herself. In an epic showdown, Ecco defeats the queen, saves his pod, and returns to earth. All in a days well done.
The Vortex Queen
The story continues in Ecco 2 which begins just where Ecco 1 leaves off. Upon returning home to Earth, Ecco is immediately stripped of his powers by an unknown force as the earth begins to tremble. Ecco winds up trapped deep underwater in a cavern, as rocks block his escape.
Ecco loses his power
There, trapped underwater without his special abilities (which included the ability to breath underwater), Ecco is greeted by a strange Dolphin. The Dolphin, named Trellia, explains that she comes from far into the future, and needs to show Ecco what happens. She grabs him and teleports him to a strange future where Dolphins have evolved and become Earth's dominant species. They have gained the ability to fly using telepathy, and have constructed vast aqua tubes that connect the entire planet. Whats more, all of Earth lives in harmony.
The Future
Once in the future, Ecco is instructed to seek out the Asterite, and listen to what he says. After finding him, the Asterite explains why he has brought Ecco to the future. It seems that Ecco's defeat of the Vortex Queen wasn't as final as thought. She, in fact, survived the destruction of her home world, and followed Ecco to earth. There on earth, she found the Asterite, gained his knowledge, then killed him. This single act split the future of earth. 2 futures exist for earth now - the first is the peaceful utopian world that Ecco sees before him. The other is a world ruled by the Vortex, where they have abandoned their dying world and taken refuge on earth. Which future survives is up to Ecco and whether he kills the queen and rebuilds the Asterite.
The Asterite in the Future
With this knowledge, Ecco returns to the past, and begins looking for the Asterite's pieces, which have been spread across the globe. After returning a few of his globes, however, a pair of Vortex drones appear and take Ecco to the other future - the dark machine.
The dark future
In the future, Ecco searches around for the Vortex, only to find that the Queen has mutated the Asterite and rebuilt him as a terrible moster. In this dark future, Ecco fights the new Asterite, and destroys the Globe holder, freeing the remaining pieces of the Asterite. With the new globes in hand, Ecco returns to the present and rebuilds the Asterite, who again grants him the power to fight the Vortex, and instructs him to fight the Queen at her hive - the new machine.
The globe holder
Deep in the depths of the ocean, Ecco finds the hive, which has already begining to assimilate the world with her dark machinery. The queen has already begun laying her eggs on earth, and several Drones attack Ecco and bring him to the queen.
The new Machine
Once there, Ecco and the Queen again face off in an epic battle, with Ecco once again emerging victorious. However, at the last moment, the Queen transforms herself back into a larva and escapes into the ocean. Ecco destroys the machine and returns to the Asterite, who tells him that he must destroy Atlantis to save earth's future, because it's grown too dangerous.
Ecco vs The Queen
When Ecco arrives in Atlantis, however, he finds the Queen Larva waiting. The Queen escapes to the past using Atlantis, and Ecco once again activates the time machine to follow her.
Travelling to the past again
However, something goes wrong, and the machine malfunctions, dooming Ecco. He is forever lost in the Tides of Time, never to be seen again. As for the Vortex Queen, she arrives in the past and finds that the creatures who live in the past are too big and strong for her to feed on. Her only choice is to assymilate, and evolve with the earth, as she's now a prisoner of Earth's ecosystem. As time goes on, her kind continue to evolve, and ultimately become crestasions (hence why all the crabs in the game attack you).
And thus ends the Ecco the Dolphin story. A third Ecco was planned (which I'll talk about later) but it never came. The Dreamcast Ecco game had nothing to do with the old storyline, hence the ultimate end to the game was never revealed.
And that's all there is about the original Ecco. Luckily for the sake of this thread, however, Ecco 2: The Tides of Time enjoyed a much longer development cycle, and many many changes. And thus, we move on to Ecco 2...
EDIT: Shit, the video I uploaded to youtube is too long... I'll fix it tomorrow.
dolphins in space-time. who would have thought!
Wow. Makes me wish I could remember half the games I played as a child.
I thought it was Ecco: The Peaceful Swimmer, not Ecco: The Time-Space Paradox Dolphin
Between this and Flashback, they are still my all-time favourite storylines.
Thanks for the refresh TSR
Is that true?
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=10903
I am a freaking nerd.
My Backloggery
like someone said above, I never got to the really crazy time travel parts, but I did somehow randomly find the password to get to the machine and the Vortex queen. Which was...confusing. But even so, I never did beat her.
NNNNNNNN
"Welcome to the Machine"
My connection still sucks. I'm currently trying to upload the video, then I've got to do some yard work and I want to wash my car. I'll come back probably later this evening and then I'll post some more.
Which isn't very good.
When I was little I remember playing ecco and thinking "wow this is something special."
Drowning dolphins was emotional.
Are the Ecco titles avaible for the ps2?
It's insanely difficult, but beautiful. Gives Shenmue a run for its money as far as being picturesque goes.
indeed it was ported to PS2.
Whatever
whats the hidden sonic stuff exactly?
Some of the levels are INSANELY FRUSTRATING. Like... Theres no way i would put some kid through that shit. And the Machine levels are so damn heartless they are nearly impossible. It dont think i ever could have finished it without the quick saves.
But the story is straight up badass. I mean, i thought it was an ocean sim too untill i got to the Asterite... That was a mind bender.
This is one of those games where you can tell the designers had ideas to spare, there are even a few hidden crystals you can sing to offscreen that yield cryptic messages. I expect this thread to deliver!