Ecco the Dolphin

This page is for quotations from the Ecco the Dolphin video game series by Novatrade/Appaloosa Interactive.

Ecco the Dolphin

• Ecco, if we breathe air, why do we live beneath the waves? -one of Ecco's podmates
• How high in the sky can you fly? -another of Ecco's podmates
• Charge small fish to feed and gain strength" -another podmate
• Sing to the shelled ones and they will heal your wounds" -another podmate
• ...Suddenly great winds of water... -a dolphin you meet after your pod is taken from the sea
• Something terrible has happened ... Something very powerful" -another dolphin you meet
• I know not what has happened to your pod; Perhaps the Big Blue will help you; You must travel past the Undercaves to find him" -an Orca Whale you meet before the first level
• I remember you! Of course... it was you... and it was I who sent you... Now it is clear. -the Asterite
• We feel great energy of thought from the Asterite, but it will not sing to us. -Big Blue
• The marks on your head look like stars in the sky. -various dolphins

Ecco the Dolphin 2: Tides of Time

• I know where is the cave. -Dolphin in Alpha version
• Hello my little singer, it is good to see you and feel your thoughts after so long. -the Asterite
• You are the stone that split the stream of time in two. -the Asterite
• When I sent you into the past originally that caused the stream to be split into two that is why you are the stone. -Arkonviox.com version.

About Ecco the Dolphin

• SEGA has been awesome to me. They’ve sort of maintained a mild interest in Ecco for the last 20 years. Just not enough to actually fully get behind it. Do you remember that judge who said, “I don’t know how to define pornography, but I know it when I see it.” If they see something and it looks awesome. Like, you know in five seconds, that’s it, or people will love that when they see it whether it’s quirky or not. They’ll go for it.

It’s so hard to explain something to get someone to see. The first Ecco took me over a year to get them to agree to give me a tiny budget just to do a prototype. It took them year. In fact this is a true story.

I resigned (from SEGA) because I accepted a position at EA. Then (SEGA) asked what it would take to make me stay. So they were going to renegotiate. I said I needed a bonus, I need $10,000 because I don’t even have a car. I was getting paid really low. I moved out from New York. Then I said, “Give me $10,000, and let me build this prototype for this Ecco game that I’ve been trying to pitch to you.” and they said fine. So I built it, and once you could see it, then it was obvious.

For a year, I’m explaining it to them and I’m showing beautiful images. It looks like this, and it looks like this, and this is the way it’ll feel, and no one could get it. It has to kind of exist, and then you get it really quickly. I’m not really sure if I could convey it, but I’m sure any publisher, SEGA included, if they could jump into my mind for five seconds, run through and jump back out that they’d say, “Let’s sign a contract,” or “Let’s get this funded.”

• Ed Annunziata [1]