Vintage Video Games #17 – Ecco The Dolphin

Ecco the Dolphin is an action-adventure game from 1992 that many of us will know and love. Originally developed by Ed Annunziata and Novotrade International for the Mega Drive in 1992, the main character, Ecco, is a bottlenose dolphin who travels through time to combat hostile extraterrestrials in Earth’s oceans and on an alien spacecraft. Starting off in peaceful shores things suddenly take a darker turn with it’s Geigeresque graphics!

Storyline – The game kicks off with Ecco as he and his pod are swimming in their home bay. One podmate challenges him to see how high into the air he can jump. When he is in the air, a storm forms and sucks up all marine life in the bay except Ecco, leaving him alone. Upon leaving the bay to search for his pod, he contacts several dolphins from other pods, who tell him the entire sea is in chaos, and that all marine creatures had felt the storm.

An orca tells Ecco to travel to the Arctic to find a blue whale named the “Big Blue”, revered for its age and wisdom. Upon finding him he tells him such storms had been occurring every 500 years and directs him to the Asterite, the oldest creature on Earth. He leaves the Arctic and travels to a deep cavern where he finds the Asterite. Although it has the power to aid him, one of its globes is missing, and needs it returned. However, this can only be achieved by traveling back in time using a machine built by the ancient Atlanteans and so the quest begins ….

Hightlights – The Geigeresque graphics in the later levels of the game plus the fluid motion of the dolphins

How to play:
Get your Megadrive emulator HERE
Get you ROM HERE

About the Author

Fifties Born in an irish field - dj, designer, radio show host and blogger Louise 'Fifties' O'Donnell went out into the world with one mission in mind. To hunt down big phat bass lines and share them with the masses. Dedicated to finding new music she is always on the trail of new talent as well as the big playas.