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Ecco the Dolphin
Box art from Ecco the Dolphin; art by Boris Vallejo.
Developer(s)	Novotrade International
Publisher(s)	Sega Acclaim (PlayStation 2 release)
Designer(s)	E. Ettore Annunziata
Release date(s)	Initially released July 29, 1993
Genre(s)	Side-scrolling adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	VRC: GA - General Audiences ESRB: K-A - Kids to Adults ESRB: Everyone
Platform(s)	Ecco: Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega-CD, Windows-based PC, Wii Virtual Console, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, Game Boy Advance Ecco II:Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega-CD, Wii Virtual Console, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System Ecco Junior: Sega Mega Drive Ecco DotF: Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2
Media	Ecco: 8 Mbit cartridge, CD (1) Ecco II: 16 Mbit cartridge, CD (1) Ecco Junior: 8 MBit cartridge Ecco DotF: GigaDisc (1), DVD (1)

Ecco the Dolphin is the collective name given to a series of video games published by Sega which primarily take place underwater. They were originally developed for the Sega Mega Drive (known as the Sega Genesis in North America) and Sega Dreamcast video game consoles, but have since been ported to numerous systems. The games are named after their main character, Ecco, a young bottlenose dolphin. They are known for being unique and highly challenging titles. Ecco was created by E. Ettore "Ed" Annunziata,^[1] who also produced the Mega Drive game Chakan: The Forever Man. Image File history File links Derived from public domain images featured at: http://commons. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (912x1200, 324 KB)Artwork drawn for the video game, Ecco the Dolphin by Boris Vallejo. ... Vallejo work from the box art of the video game Ecco the Dolphin. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates computer or video games. ... Appaloosa Interactive (formerly Novotrade International) is a corporation, founded in 1983, that produced numerous console games during the 1980s and 90s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sega Corporation ) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) ) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... July 29 is the 210th day (211th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Side-scrolling game. ... This is an article about the video game genre. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... The Videogame Rating Council (VRC) was introduced by Sega of America in 1993 to rate all video games that were released for sale in the United States of America on the Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Sega CD and rarely, some computer games. ... The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software in the United States and Canada (officially adopted by individual provinces 2004-2005). ... The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software in the United States and Canada (officially adopted by individual provinces 2004-2005). ... The Sega Mega Drive ) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary operating systems by Microsoft. ... Macs like the iMac Core Duo are also personal computers. Unlike many PCs, the iMac is an all in one with all its components, including processor and speakers, in one case. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ... The Sega Master System (SMS for short) is an 8-bit cartridge-based gaming console that was manufactured by Sega. ... GBA redirects here. ... The Sega Mega Drive ) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ... The Sega Master System (SMS for short) is an 8-bit cartridge-based gaming console that was manufactured by Sega. ... The Sega Mega Drive ) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ... The Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; code-named Dural and Katana during development) was Segas fifth and final video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) ) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... The megabit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated Mbit or sometimes Mb. ... In various types of electronic equipment, a cartridge can refer one method of adding different functionality or content (e. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... GD-ROM is the proprietary optical disc format used by the Sega Dreamcast. ... DVD (commonly Digital Versatile Disc, previously Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... This article is about computer and video games. ... Sega Corporation ) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... An underwater scene just beneath the surface. ... The Sega Mega Drive ) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ... The Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; code-named Dural and Katana during development) was Segas fifth and final video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Console wars. ... In computer science, porting is the adaptation of a piece of software so that it will function in a different computing environment to that for which it was originally written. ... The title role is the role (or position) of the character after whom a literary work (e. ... Binomial name Tursiops truncatus Montagu, 1821 Bottlenose Dolphin range (in blue) The Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is the most common and well-known dolphin species. ... Chakan: The Forever Man is a Sega Genesis game published by Sega of America January 1st, 1992. ...

The Ecco the Dolphin games hinge on the idea that cetaceans are sapient beings and have their own society under the waves. In the Mega Drive/Genesis games, humans are barely acknowledged and never by name. The cetaceans also call themselves "Singers". In the Dreamcast game, dolphins and presumably other cetaceans have united with humans in a cross-species society. Suborders Mysticeti Odontoceti (see text) The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. ... Sapience is the ability of an organism or entity to act with judgment. ... This article is about the dolphin mammal. ...

Storylines and ports

The Ecco the Dolphin games can be divided into two distinct storylines: the Mega Drive/Genesis games (Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco: The Tides of Time, and Ecco Jr.) and the Sega Dreamcast game (Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future). The Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; code-named Dural and Katana during development) was Segas fifth and final video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ...

Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time were both re-released for the Sega Mega-CD, Master System and Game Gear, and Defender of the Future was re-released for the PlayStation 2. The Mega-CD version of Ecco the Dolphin was also ported to Microsoft Windows in 1995. Ecco the Dolphin was also re-released on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance as part of the fourth Sega Smash Pack, along with Sonic Spinball and Golden Axe. However, this port is often looked down upon by Ecco fans; some the most frequent complaints include the removal of most of the music, stiff controls, poorly-scaled graphics, Ecco going off the screen and message screens being hard to read. The original Mega Drive/Genesis game has recently been ported and released for Nintendo's Wii console via the Virtual Console service.^[2] This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sega Master System The Sega Master System (SMS for short) (Japanese: マスターシステム), was an 8-bit cartridge-based gaming console manufactured by Sega. ... The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) ) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary operating systems by Microsoft. ... The Game Boy Advance is a best-selling handheld. ... Sega Smash Pack is a series of Sega compilations, mostly from Sega Genesis. ... Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (also known as Sonic Spinball) is a pinball game combined somewhat with the storyline of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. ... Golden Axe is a side-scrolling arcade fighting game released in 1989 by Sega. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ... The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is Nintendos seventh-generation video game console. ... A logo from Nintendos Virtual Console website Virtual Console, sometimes abbreviated as VC, is a video game download service that is currently offered by Nintendo for its Wii gaming console. ...

Two six-part comic book series of Ecco the Dolphin stories based on the first game were featured in Sonic the Comic. Series one was written by Woodrow Phoenix and drawn by Chris Webster in 1993. Series two followed in 1995. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Sonic the Comic, known to its many readers as STC, was a UK childrens comic published fortnightly by Fleetway Editions (the merged companies Fleetway and London Editions, which progressively became integrated with its parent company Egmont until it became known as Egmont Magazines) between 1993 and 2002. ... Woodrow Phoenix is a British comics artist and writer who also works in the fields of editorial illustration, graphic design, font design and childrens books. ... Chris Webster (born 1961) is a British comics writer and artist. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Ecco the character

Ecco is a young adult male bottlenose dolphin, though his gender was ambiguous in the original game. He is very strong and intelligent, even for a cetacean. He is also able to use many unusual powers, such as shapechanging and using his sonar as a weapon. He has five distinct markings on his head; they are stars that form the constellation Delphinus. Suborders Mysticeti Odontoceti Archaeoceti (extinct) (see text for families) The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. ... Shapeshifting, transformation or transmogrification refers to a change in the form or shape of a person. ... The F70 type frigates (here, La Motte-Picquet) are fitted with VDS (Variable Depth Sonar) type DUBV43 or DUBV43C tugged sonars SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) â€” or sonar â€” (the British used Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee (ASDIC) until 1948) is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate... Delphinus, being Latin for Dolphin, is a rather small (ranked 69th) northern constellation very close to the celestial equator. ...

Mega Drive/Genesis storyline

Ecco the Dolphin

Screenshot of Ecco The Dolphin for the Mega Drive/Genesis.

Image File history File links MD_Ecco_the_Dolphin. ... Image File history File links MD_Ecco_the_Dolphin. ... The Sega Mega Drive ) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ...

Ecco the Dolphin gameplay

Ecco the Dolphin was a video game released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It was conceived and designed by Ed Annunziata and developed by Novotrade International. An enhanced Sega Mega-CD version that featured new levels, redesigned levels and an alternate Red Book audio soundtrack (composed by Spencer Nilsen) was also released, and later ported to Windows. Game Gear and Master System versions were also released; they featured drastically different levels to the other versions and a special "SEGA" intro featuring a dolphin crying out "SEGA", and dolphins laughing on the title screen. 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... The Sega Mega Drive ) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ... Appaloosa Interactive (formerly Novotrade International) is a corporation, founded in 1983, that produced numerous console games during the 1980s and 90s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The CDDA trademark Red Book is the standard for audio CDs (Compact Disc Digital Audio system, or CDDA). ... Spencer Nilsen is a video game music composer. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary operating systems by Microsoft. ...

The gameplay was essentially side-scrolling, with horizontal, diagonal and vertical movement. Attacking enemies was accomplished by making Ecco ram into them at high speeds. Swimming could be made progressively faster by tapping a certain button, and the speed could be maintained by holding it down. Players could perform a purely aesthetic spin in the air when jumping out of the water. Two features of the game played on actual dolphin habits. One was a sonar map that could be brought up by making Ecco "sing" (this was also how he talked to other Singers as well as interact with certain things such as clams and Glyphs) and then holding the button down to make the "song" return to him, a la echolocation in real dolphins. The other was the fact that Ecco, being a mammal, had to surface periodically for air, or else find an air vent. Ecco would drown if his 'air meter' ran out. His health was measured by a separate meter; it was depleted by enemies or when his air meter had run out, and it was recharged by eating fish, "singing" to clams, or, later in the game, singing to special Glyphs and statues. Ecco's song could be optionally 'upgraded' at two points in the game; one 'upgrade' allowed Ecco's song to be used in combination with a charge as a long-range weapon, and the other temporarily disoriented sharks and made minor enemies freeze temporarily. The F70 type frigates (here, La Motte-Picquet) are fitted with VDS (Variable Depth Sonar) type DUBV43 or DUBV43C tugged sonars SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) â€” or sonar â€” (the British used Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee (ASDIC) until 1948) is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate... See: Animal echolocation: animals emitting sound waves and listening to the echo in order to locate objects or navigate. ... Orders Multituberculata (extinct) Volaticotheria (extinct) Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Triconodonta (extinct) Subclass Australosphenida Ausktribosphenida Monotremata Subclass Eutheria (excludes extinct ancestors) Afrosoricida Anagaloidea (extinct) Arctostylopida (extinct) Artiodactyla Carnivora Cetacea Chiroptera Cimolesta (extinct) Cingulata Creodonta (extinct) Condylarthra (extinct) Dermoptera Desmostylia (extinct) Dinocerata (extinct) Embrithopoda (extinct) Hyracoidea Insectivora Lagomorpha Leptictida (extinct) Litopterna (extinct) Macroscelidea Mesonychia... Littleneck clams: Rocks with food inside. ...

The Glyphs were crystals that would respond somehow if Ecco sang to or touched them. Some blocked paths, and a 'Key-Glyph' had to be found in such cases to pass. Others gave information, and a few in later levels would replenish health and air and give Ecco temporary invulnerability. Crystal (disambiguation) Insulin crystals A crystal is a solid in which the constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. ...

The original Ecco had what is considered by many to have a very high level of difficulty. Among many other things, the twisting underwater passages in many levels, combined with the air limit, often led to death and frustration. Many jumps out of the water, over small islands and ruined buildings, were also difficult. Some levels featured moving obstacle courses where a mis-timed movement meant instant death. The game featured infinite tries and levels divided up with a password system. An unexpectedly high amount of its fanbase expressed having played the game with fear when younger, due to the game's surprisingly dark nature; expecting the game to be a "nice, cute game with dolphins," instead they found a darker game. Some of the points that struck fear in the younger audience were the darkening waters as Ecco swims deeper, the unsuspected enemies (mainly the large octopuses) and even the music.

Ecco the Dolphin storyline

Video game original soundtrack titled Ecco the Dolphin: Songs of Time.

The story began with young Ecco as he and his pod were enjoying life in their home bay. His podmate's in-game messages suggest that Ecco was challenged to see how high into the air he could jump; however, at the exact moment he tried to show "How high in the sky [he could] fly", a waterspout formed and sucked all marine life in the bay into it. Although Ecco wasn't in the water at the time, and thus was not drawn into the waterspout, he was caught by the strong gravity of the mysterious storm and helpless to do anything until it subsided and plunged him back into the sea. Image File history File links Ecco-the-dolphin-sounds-of-time-ost. ... Image File history File links Ecco-the-dolphin-sounds-of-time-ost. ...

Upon leaving the bay to search for his pod, Ecco came across dolphins from other pods who told him that the entire sea was in chaos, and that all marine creatures had felt the storm. A tip from an orca sent Ecco on a journey to the frozen waters of the Arctic to find a wise blue whale named Big Blue. On finding the Big Blue, Ecco was disappointed; all that the whale knew was that storms of the kind that had taken Ecco's pod had been occurring every 500 years. The Big Blue, told Ecco not to give up and pointed him in the direction of a older and wiser being who would be of much more help, called the Asterite. Binomial name Orcinus orca Linnaeus, 1758 Orca range (in blue) The Orca or Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). ... The red line indicates the 10°C isotherm in July, commonly used to define the Arctic region border Satellite image of the Arctic surface The Arctic is the area around the Earths North Pole, opposite the Antarctican area around the South Pole. ... Binomial name Balaenoptera musculus (Linnaeus, 1758) Blue Whale range The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. ... The Asterite is a fictional creature in the Ecco the Dolphin universe. ...

Ecco left the frozen north and in a deep cavern found the Asterite, the oldest creature on Earth. The Asterite probably communicated telepathically; as the Big Blue put it, "We feel great energy of thought from the Asterite, but it will not sing to us." The Asterite made Ecco a deal. Although it had the power to aid Ecco, it was incomplete; one of its globes had gone missing. If Ecco were to use the time machine built by the Atlanteans to go back in time and find the missing globe, the empowered Asterite could help Ecco. Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... Atlantis (Greek: , Island of Atlas) is the name of an island first mentioned and described by the classical Greek philosopher Plato. ...

Ecco traveled to the sunken city of Atlantis. There, along with the time machine, Ecco discovered a library. He learned the cause of the storm; it was a harvest of Earth's waters that was conducted every 500 years by the Vortex life forms. The Vortex had lost their ability to make their own food; and so, every 500 years, they would harvest from the waters of Earth. Learning this, Ecco activated the time machine and traveled 55 million years into Earth's past. The Vortex life forms (also known as Vortex-kind or simply Vortex) are a fictional alien species from the Ecco the Dolphin video game franchise. ...

(The developers originally planned for Ecco to meet ancient cetaceans, before they came into the sea, but the art for these scenes were not completed due to time constraints. However, the messages can still be found hidden in the prehistoric levels.)

Ecco located the Asterite in the past but was immediately attacked by it; the young Asterite was considerably less trusting than its older self. Forced into battle, Ecco managed to dislodge a globe from it. For whatever reason, this opened a time portal and Ecco was flung back into his present. In a paradoxical twist, the globe the Asterite had lost was the same one that Ecco had stolen from it.

The now whole Asterite granted Ecco the power to turn his sonar into a deadly weapon against the Vortex, as well as the ability to breathe underwater. The Asterite then instructed Ecco how to use the time machine to travel back in time to the hour of the harvest. This time, he managed to be sucked into the waterspout with his pod; it is probable that his past self remained behind, starting the adventure anew. Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ...

The final three levels were a constantly-scrolling obstacle course, collectively called "The Machine" ("Vortex Machine" in the PC version). The third-to-last level, "The Tube", had Ecco dodging obstacles as he travelled up the waterspout, with the level scrolling progressively faster and throwing progressively more enemies in his path. The second last level, titled "Welcome To The Machine" (a reference to the Pink Floyd song), was an ever-moving maze for processing the harvest that would kill Ecco if he could not keep up with it. Past this was the mastermind of the harvest, the Vortex Queen, in the level "The Last Fight". Keeping with the high difficulty level set by the rest of the game, losing to the Vortex Queen meant repeating the long and difficult previous level. Welcome to the Machine is the second song on Pink Floyds 1975 album Wish You Were Here. ...

Eventually, the Vortex Queen was vanquished and Ecco rescued his pod. Traveling back through The Machine and down the waterspout (although the game never explains exactly how they did this), the dolphins rejoiced and vowed to sing praise of Ecco's bravery forever.

Ecco: The Tides of Time

Box art from Ecco: The Tides of Time; art by Boris Vallejo.

Ecco: Tides of Time's title screen.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (690x1200, 247 KB)Artwork drawn for the video game, Ecco the Dolphin 2 by Boris Vallejo. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (690x1200, 247 KB)Artwork drawn for the video game, Ecco the Dolphin 2 by Boris Vallejo. ... Vallejo work from the box art of the video game Ecco the Dolphin. ... Optimized PNG conversion of User:bobdoes Ecco2_Title. ... Optimized PNG conversion of User:bobdoes Ecco2_Title. ...

Tides of Time gameplay

Tides of Time was the direct sequel to the original Ecco, released in 1994, again developed by Novotrade International. As with Ecco the Dolphin, the Mega-CD version of Tides of Time featured an alternate soundtrack composed by Spencer Nilsen. The controls for the first game were kept, and Tides of Time maintained the same high level of difficulty as its predecessor. New puzzles were added, such as following another dolphin around and a 'scavenger hunt' of sorts later in the game. One of the additions was the Metaspheres, which could transform Ecco into different animals. The transformations were level-specific, and included a seagull, a jellyfish, a shark, a school of fish, and at one point a Vortex drone. A few pseudo-3D levels were also added to the game. The health meter, the air meter, and the Glyphs returned in Tides of Time. Both the "charge song" and the "confusion song" upgrades returned from Ecco the Dolphin and were usable from the start of the game. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Appaloosa Interactive (formerly Novotrade International) is a corporation, founded in 1983, that produced numerous console games during the 1980s and 90s. ... Spencer Nilsen is a video game music composer. ... Seagull or Seagulls may refer to: Gull, a family of seabird, members of which are often called seagulls. ... Orders Stauromedusae Coronatae Semaeostomeae Rhizostomae Jellyfish are marine invertebrates belonging to the Scyphozoan class, and in turn the phylum Cnidaria. ... Orders Carcharhiniformes Heterodontiformes Hexanchiformes Lamniformes Orectolobiformes Pristiophoriformes Squaliformes Squatiniformes Sharks (superorder Selachimorpha) are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton[1] and a streamlined body. ... A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically cold-blooded; covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. ... The Vortex life forms (also known as Vortex-kind or simply Vortex) are a fictional alien species from the Ecco the Dolphin video game franchise. ...

Tides of Time storyline

Tides of Time picked up right where the original Ecco the Dolphin left off. It turned out that the Vortex Queen was far from vanquished, and had in fact followed Ecco to Earth to build a new hive for herself. Ecco lost his powers from the Asterite early on, and soon after met a dolphin with unusually long fins. She was his descendant, Trellia, and had come to take him to her present in Ecco's distant future. The Vortex life forms (also known as Vortex-kind or simply Vortex) are a fictional alien species from the Ecco the Dolphin video game franchise. ... The Asterite is a fictional creature in the Ecco the Dolphin universe. ...

Trellia's future was a dolphin paradise. The dolphins had evolved helium sacs, and could thus fly; they also displayed limited telekinetic powers. The ocean had developed its own mind, and waterways that floated through the skies (called the Skyway in Tides of Time and reproduced as the Hanging Waters in Defender of the Future) apparently connected all the more normal waters of Earth. There were also a few floating basins of water. Ecco travelled through this future for a while, and found the Asterite. Psychokinesis (literally mind-movement) or PK is the more commonly used term today for what in the past was known as telekinesis (literally distant-movement). It refers to the psi ability to influence the behavior of matter by mental intention (or possibly some other aspect of mental activity) alone. ...

The Asterite told Ecco that something was amiss. When Ecco used the time machine to save his pod, he split the stream of time in two. One possible future for Earth was this bright, happy future of flying dolphins; the other was a dead, mechanical world, sucked dry by the Vortex. The Asterite itself had been 'killed' in the past by the Vortex Queen; how it was talking to Ecco then wasn't explained until later. The Asterite sent Ecco back to his own time after their conversation.

Back in his own time, Ecco ended up having to piece the Asterite together by bringing the globes that made up the creature back together. The final pair of globes had been taken by the Vortex to their future; thus, Ecco had to get there and retrieve them before the Asterite could help him defeat the Vortex once and for all. The Atlantean time machine was not an option; it could only go into the past. The problem was solved when two Vortex drones captured Ecco and took him to their own future.

The Vortex future was full of strange machines reminiscent of the final levels of Ecco the Dolphin. None of these levels auto-scrolled, however. One of the levels was Gravitor Box, in which gravity was manipulated in unusual ways. Ecco did eventually find the Asterite's last two globes, and once the player beat the boss guarding them, another time portal opened to Ecco's present.

With the Asterite complete again, it was able to bestow Ecco with the same powers as it had last time — breathing underwater and a song that could destroy the Vortex. It also called all of Ecco's fellow Singers to help with the fight against the Vortex. Ecco himself fought the Vortex Queen; however, she again escaped, reverting to a larval state and bolting for the Atlantean time machine.The Asterite told Ecco to destroy the time machine, so that everyone could live in peace. The Vortex Queen, who arrived in the jurrassic era after using the time machine, found creatures she could not rule over, and through the eons, the Vortex kind was forced to simply integrate into the ecosystems of Earth. Ecco, instead of destroying the time machine, uses it and disappears into the Tides of Time.

There was a third game in the series planned that would have continued this storyline, but it was never released.

Tides of Time prototype

Ecco faces a mechanical dolphin in the prototype of Ecco II.

A prototype version of Ecco II: The Tides of Time was leaked on to the internet some time ago. It is believed it was dumped in the 1990s by the Paradox Console ROM release group, distributed via BBS/USENET and made its way to the internet to be unearthed later. It appears to have been burned to EPROM for testing/promotion of Ecco II in February 1994, very early in the game's development. In an interview, Ed Annunziata, Ecco's creator, called it a "pre-alpha" build.^[1] It was only partially completed, with various place-holders and test levels, but also a large quantity of never-before-seen areas, enemies and debug features that can be quite interesting to see. Image File history File links An Ecco 2 Prototype screenshot, from Level 15 (what seems to be an early version of the Vortex Future. ... Image File history File links An Ecco 2 Prototype screenshot, from Level 15 (what seems to be an early version of the Vortex Future. ... EPROM. The small quartz window admits UV light during erasure. ... Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware thus making it behave as expected. ...

An in-depth analysis of the Ecco II prototype and a downloadable version of it are available at Dark Sea.

Ecco Jr.

Ecco Jr. was something of a side game, released in 1995. It had the controls and basic gameplay of the other two Mega Drive/Genesis titles, but was very much geared towards younger players, lacking the extreme difficulty of Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time. The story was that a younger version of Ecco went to see the Big Blue, completing tasks such as herding seahorses, swimming through rings, and finding lost balls for sea lions along the way. Two other playable characters were introduced: Tara the baby dolphin and Kitenee the orca. They were interchangeable with Ecco and each other at any time; every character had a different voice but not much else was different between them. The game had a password system, though all the passwords were included in the instruction manual, and a "Parent's Menu" that had, among other things, facts about real dolphins. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Binomial name Orcinus orca Linnaeus, 1758 Orca range (in blue) The Orca or Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). ...

Sega Dreamcast storyline

Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future

Defender of the Future gameplay

Defender of the Future was an entirely new game universe with virtually no ties to the original Mega Drive/Genesis titles; the team working on Defender of the Future was not the same team that worked on the original games. It was released in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast, developed by Appaloosa Interactive (the company formerly known as Novotrade International), and its soundtrack was composed by Tim Follin. It was later published on PlayStation 2 by Acclaim Entertainment. This article is about the year 2000. ... The Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; code-named Dural and Katana during development) was Segas fifth and final video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ... Appaloosa Interactive is a Hungarian company that produced numerous console games during the 1980s and 90s. ... Tim Follin is a video game music composer who has written tracks for a variety of titles and home gaming systems, including the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, NES, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Dreamcast and PlayStation. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) ) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. ...

The gameplay was fairly similar to the old games', except in three dimensions. Ecco's sonar was kept as a means of interaction with other cetaceans (no longer called Singers in the game) and certain environmental objects, and a sonar map could be brought up but were often regarded as being inferior to the old 2-D version. The same style of movement was kept with slight alterations for the demands of a 3-D environment. The control stick now only changed the direction Ecco was facing; pressing left and right changed the direction he faced horizontally, and pressing up and down changed the vertical direction. To actually move forward, the player had to tap a button to gain speed and hold the same button down to maintain it. Out of the water, Ecco could perform the purely aesthetic flips in the air from the original games. Charging foes was kept as Ecco's standard attack, though the designers added a homing feature. The health and air meters also returned, though the health meter could be increased by collecting power-ups called Vitalits, and the meters had a slightly different look compared to the Mega Drive games. The F70 type frigates (here, La Motte-Picquet) are fitted with VDS (Variable Depth Sonar) type DUBV43 or DUBV43C tugged sonars SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) â€” or sonar â€” (the British used Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee (ASDIC) until 1948) is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate...

Some new moves were introduced in Defender of the Future. One was a quick 180º turn, useful for battles. Another was a means of stopping quickly; when Ecco had already stopped, the same buttons would make him swim backwards. A third new move was the tailwalk; Ecco would raise his upper body out of the water and was able to look at things above the surface; this had limited use in gameplay but was a good way to see small graphical details.

The graphics of the game are generally regarded as being some of the most realistic ever used in a Dreamcast game. Many reviewers have commented that Ecco looks like a real dolphin. One of the most major complaints against the graphics is the high level of fog; other reviewers have pointed out that visibility in the ocean is often much reduced from what it is above the surface. There were also some pop-up problems with distant objects. This is all caused by the engine not being terribly efficient overall, and not being able to render as much onscreen as was desirable without the generation of too much slowdown. The fog was used to obscure the distance and decrease the number of polygons that had to be drawn. The few cutscenes used the in-game graphical engine, and featured voice-over narration by Tom Baker. A cut scene or cutscene (sometimes also referred to as a cinematic) is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no control. ... A voice-over is a narration that is played on top of a video segment, usually with the audio for that segment muted or lowered. ... Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is an English actor. ...

Defender of the Future continued the legacy of high difficulty set by its predecessors. The levels were again divided up, but the idea of a password system was dropped in favor of a memory card save file. The game has few loading times in the levels; the levels were loaded all in one go just before they started, and these load times could be moderately long.

The "charge song" and "confusion song" returned in Defender of the Future, but in different forms. The "charge song" was given a name, the Power of Sonar, and was part of a set of five temporary power-ups that could be activated by collecting icons. The powers were:

• Power of Vigor (Ecco moved faster and did more damage when charging enemies)
• Power of Sonar (Sonar did damage to enemies)
• Power of Air (The air meter was temporarily doubled)
• Power of Endurance (The health meter was maxed out to double the normal maximum; it couldn't be replenished until it reached the level the player had already obtained, and would be lost if the player made it to the next level of the game)
• Power of Stealth (Ecco became temporarily invisible)

The "confusion song" was named the Song of the Shark, and it too was part of a larger set of songs. These songs were permanent and activated by singing at the right thing. They were:

• Song of the Shark (confused sharks)
• Song of the Turtle (turtles would follow Ecco around)
• Song of the Fish (schools of fish would follow Ecco around)
• Song of the Ray (made manta rays go in the direction the song pointed; made smaller sting rays panic and flee)
• Song of the Plant (made a certain kind of plant spray ink)

Orders Carcharhiniformes Heterodontiformes Hexanchiformes Lamniformes Orectolobiformes Pristiophoriformes Squaliformes Squatiniformes Sharks (superorder Selachimorpha) are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton[1] and a streamlined body. ... Suborders Cryptodira Pleurodira See text for families. ... Binomial name Manta birostris Dondorff, 1798 The manta ray, or giant manta (Manta birostris), is the largest of the rays, with the largest known specimen having been nearly 7. ... This article is about the fish. ...

Defender of the Future storyline

Defender of the Future bore a different storyline from that of the Mega Drive/Genesis games; it is generally regarded as an alternate universe. The story was written by science fiction author David Brin, who had already written a few stories about intelligent dolphins. The storyline and game were divided into four parts: An alternative universe (also known as alternate universe) is a type or form of fan fiction in which known, canonical facts about the universe being explored or written about, are deliberately changed. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... David Brin Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is a well-known American author of science fiction. ...

Isle of Tranquility

At the dawn of the 30th Century, dolphins and humans had been together in a cross-species society for 500 years. Together, they had set out to explore space, offering peace and friendship to all who would welcome it. But space had its dangers; a violent species known as the Foe decided Earth was a good planet to take over. However, the dolphins and humans drove them to the brink of defeat, and so the Foe sought vengeance on Earth. The few caretaker dolphins who had been left behind on Earth were not entirely defenseless; they were protected by a creation of theirs they called the Guardian. It was a gigantic, sentient being made of a crystalline substance; it projected a force field over the entire planet. Undeterred, the Foe began making suicide attacks on the field, searching for a weak point. Genera See article below. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal apes belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ...

The player was given this background information before being thrown into the game. Soon after the game started, the Foe found their weak point, destroying the field and breaking the Guardian. Isle of Tranquility followed Ecco around until he managed to get to the dolphin city of Atlantis (apparently different from the Atlantis of legend) and repair the Guardian. He accessed the city when no other dolphin could by temporarily becoming a fish using the Ancient Power of Metamorphosis (obviously an homage to the Metaspheres from Tides of Time). He was too late to stop the Foe invasion. Atlantis (Greek: , Island of Atlas) is the name of an island first mentioned and described by the classical Greek philosopher Plato. ...

A Foe ship caused a rip in the time continuum and headed back in time in order to stop dolphins and humans from uniting into one society. Ecco was caught in the wake of the time vortex, and ended up witnessing the Foe steal the Noble Dolphin Traits of Intelligence, Ambition, Compassion, Wisdom and Humility. Ecco used the Ancient Power of Metamorphosis to become a flying Foe unit and destroy the ship; this scattered the globes containing the Noble Traits across history. With the traits gone, however, the future was already changed. Dolphins became weak and gullible; humans enslaved and exploited them. When Ecco returned to 'his' present, 500 years after the Foe attack, dolphins were barely sentient animals, and humans had already long been extinct. Vortex created by the passage of an aircraft wing, revealed by coloured smoke A vortex (pl. ... Intelligence is the mental capacity to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... It has been suggested that Intrinsic motivation be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Idiot compassion be merged into this article or section. ... Personification of wisdom (Greek Σοφια) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey Detail from the Allegory of Wisdom and Strength by Paulo Veronese (c. ... Humility is the state of being humble. ...

Man's Nightmare

The Man's Nightmare levels were based around human technology, with heavily polluted water. The dolphins Ecco met were divided into three subtypes: the Crimson, dolphins with red paint worn on their flippers; the Circle, white dolphins who showed an eagerness to operate machinery; and the Movers, orange and white dolphins with the build of orcas that had once apparently been the muscle of the dolphins when they had been enslaved. The dolphins didn't know humans were extinct. Some of them thought they had been left to test their loyalty, and spoke of a great Engine of Salvation that the Chosen One would activate with the Labor Harness. Ecco managed to put on the Labor Harness, which allowed him to control human machines by singing at them, and headed off to activate the Engine of Salvation while looking for the globes that contained the Noble Traits.

After Ecco managed to find the Noble Trait of Intelligence and touch it, it was sent back in time and began affecting the Circle, Movers and Crimson. They figured out the truth of man's extinction and his "Engine of Salvation"; it was really a weapon that had been designed to fight the Foe, but man and the Foe had destroyed one another before the potentially planet destroying weapon had been completed. The player's new task became stopping the weapon from activating; the reward was the Noble Trait of Ambition and progress into the next section of the game.

Dolphin's Nightmare

With Intelligence and Ambition both sent back, history changed. Dolphins became aggressive creatures and forced humans from the seas, never to return. They built their own independent society under the waves, and some above them; this level set featured the Hanging Waters as an homage to the Skyway from Tides of Time. The dolphins seen in this section of the game were divided into two subtypes; the Clan dolphins were militaristic orange-and-white (lower ranking) or black-and-white (higher ranking) creatures who lorded over the green Outcasts. Both subtypes looked down their beaks at whales; the Clan, for instance, used a pair of captured humpback whales as living power generators for their Hanging Waters. This article is about the animal. ... Binomial name Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) Humpback Whale range The Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, is a mammal which belongs to the baleen whale suborder. ...

The level set started by throwing Ecco into an Outcast village that had been cut off from their food supply by the Clan. After getting fish back to them, one villager helped him reach the nearby Clan outpost. There, Ecco found and rescued the leader of a secret resistance group that had formed in the Outcast village. The Resistance, it turned out, had been keeping watch over the Noble Trait of Compassion, but were afraid to touch the globe. The Clan had their own Trait which was later discovered to be Wisdom; they wanted the Resistance's globe for themselves. Ecco sent Compassion back and infiltrated a large Clan base. He tattooed himself with the rank of general and managed to get the Hanging Waters activated so he could fight the Clan's leaders, the three Exalted Ones. The third Exalted One had the globe of Wisdom; Ecco sent it back, and history changed again.

Domain of the Enemy

With all but one of their traits restored, dolphins (evidently) united with humans. However, without the final Trait of Humility, the society was heedless of the Foe's danger, and was defeated. Earth was taken over, and the Foe Queen herself became the guardian of Humility. There was not a lot of plot development in this final stretch; all that happened plot wise was that Ecco destroyed a Foe hatchery and slew the Foe Queen to gain back Humility and restore his own future.

References

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Ecco the Dolphin

1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in Leap years). ... This article is about the year 2000. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI), a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI), a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Portal:Currentevents September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years). ...

External links

• Caverns of Hope - An small Ecco site.
• Dark Sea - An Ecco resource site.
• STC-Archive - An online archive of Sonic the Comic, featuring the Ecco the Dolphin comics.