Ecco: The Tides of Time

n/a

NTSC-U NTSC-J PAL Mega-CD Game Gear Master System
Ecco: The Tides of Time
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear, Sega Mega-CD, Sega Master System, Virtual Console, Steam
Publisher: Sega Tec Toy
Developer: Novotrade M2
Sound driver: GEMS (Novotrade)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Official in-game languages: English Deutsch Français Español 日本語 Magyar English Deutsch Français Español 日本語 English 日本語 Português
Release Date RRP Code JP 1994-08-26 ¥6,8006,800 G-4123 US 1994-11 1553 US (Mega Hit) 1997-09 $19.9919.99 EU 1994-11 1553-50 EU (Limited Edition) 1994 FR 1994 1553-09 PT 199x UK 1994-11 £49.9949.99 1553-50 AU 1994 FECC01SMC AU (Platinum) 199x FECC01SMC BR 199x 046470 AS 199x US 1994-11 4441 EU 1995-06 4441-50 UK 1995-06 £44.9944.99 4441-50 AU 1995-04 $69.9569.95 FECC01SMR BR 199x 063460 JP 1995-02-03 ¥3,8003,800 G-3362 US 1994-11 2541 EU 1994-11 2541-50 PT 1995 GGJ2541 BR 199x 077190 AS 1994 2541 BR 1996 028630 JP ▼ 2007-06-26 600pts600 US ▼ 2007-07-02 800pts800 EU ▼ 2007-07-11 800pts800 DE ▼ 2007-07-06 800pts800 UK ▼ 2007-07-06 800pts800 AU ▼ 2007-07 800pts800 US ▼ 2010-10-26 $2.992.99 34319 EU ▼ 2010-10-26 €2.492.49 34319 DE ▼ 2010-10-26 €2.492.49 34319 UK ▼ 2010-10-26 £1.991.99 34319 AU ▼ 2010-10-26 $3.493.49 34319 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 34319 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34319 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34319 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 34319 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 34319 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 34319 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34319 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34319 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 34319 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 34319

Ecco: The Tides of Time, called Ecco the Dolphin 2 (エコー・ザ・ドルフィン２) in Japan, is the sequel to Ecco the Dolphin. Initially released in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive, it was later ported to the Sega Game Gear and Sega Mega-CD. Tec Toy also brought the Game Gear version of the game to the Sega Master System in 1996.

Gameplay

New gameplay elements include pseudo-3d stages and the ability to transform into animals in certain stages. The graphics have been improved as well.

The game ends on a cliffhanger that has never been resolved.

History

Release

In France, as in the launch of Ecco the Dolphin, a part of the profit of the sales of Ecco: the Tides of Time was donated to Europe Conservation (European Organization For The Conservation of Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage), this time to help them in the acquisition of high-performance scientific equipment for their marine research boat, most precisely, a "Dual-Beam Echo Integration Sonar".

Legacy

The Mega Drive version of the game has recently been re-released as part of the Wii's Virtual Console service.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Ecco: The Tides of Time	Ecco: The Tides of Time
English (US)	Ecco: The Tides of Time	Ecco: The Tides of Time
Japanese	エコー・ザ・ドルフィン２	Ecco the Dolphin II
French	Ecco: Les Marées du Temps	Ecco: The Tides of Time

Production credits

Mega Drive version

• Ryoichi Hasegawa

• Producer: E. Ettore Annunziata
• Design: E. Ettore Annunziata, Laszlo Szenttornyai
• Director: Laszlo Szenttornyai
• Programming: József Molnár, Mihaly Brudnyak, Imre Iqnacz, András Bakai
• Fantastic Art: Zsolt Balogh
• Music: Attila Dobos, András Magyari, Andy Armer (DMP), David Javelosa
• Game Lead: Darin Johnston
• Assistant Game Lead: Atom Ellis
• Testers: Siegie Stangenberg, Greg Becksted, Joe Cain, Dermot Lyons, Steve Bourdet, Mike Williams, Greg Fleming, Lance Nelson, Alex Villagran, Richie Hideshima, David Forster, Kim Rogers, Rachael Bristol, Crisi Albertson, Rick Greer, Matt Underwood, Mark Subotnick, David Wood, Christine Watson, Matt McKnight, Rey Alferez, Manuel Souza, Gregg Watkins, Mark Griffin, Michael Baldwin, Marc Dawson, Blair Bullock, Derek Carmichael, Bruno Sarret, Stan Weaver, Chris Sinclair, Dave Martin
• Product Manager: Pamela Kelly
• Marketing Assistant: Lisa Best Wilson
• Manual: Carol Ann Hanshaw, E. Ettore Annunziata
• Special Thanks: Clint Dyer, Atom Ellis, Darin Johnston, Nemer Velasquez

Source:

US manual

Mega-CD version

• Producer: E. Ettore Annunziata
• Design: E. Ettore Annunziata, Laszlo Szenttornyai
• Director: Laszlo Szenttornyai
• Programming: József Molnár, Mihaly Brudnyak, Imre Iqnacz, András Bakai
• Fantastic Art: Zsolt Balogh
• Production Coordinator: Marianne Arotzarena
• Lead Tester: Janine Cook
• Assistant Lead Tester: Jason Friedman, Christine Watson
• Digital Video Compression: Katy Weathers, Patricia Torrello
• Product Manager: Peter Loeb
• Associate Product Manager: John Garner
• Manual: Carol Ann Hanshaw

Audio Production

• Music Composed and Produced by: Spencer Nilsen
• Co-Produced and Engineered by: David Young
• Sound Effects and Foley: Jennifer Hruska, Brian Coburn, David Young
• Percussion: Brad Kaiser
• Guitar: Erik Frykman
• Wind Synthesizer / Pocket Trumpet: Mitch Manker
• Whale Voices Courtesy of: Madacy Music Group, Quebec, Canada

Animation Production

• Animation Producer: Michael Limber
• Assistant Producer: Lisa Mulvaney
• Production Designer / Art Director: Allen Battino
• Lead Animator: Jasmes Polk
• Technical Director: Jim Mcleod
• Chracter Animator: Rod Stafford
• Lighting Director: Alan Anders
• Image Effects: Scott Vye
• Effects Programmer: Brad Hunt
• Modelers / Artists: Stacy Curry, Chad Spaulding
• Assistant Animators: Peter Magrow, Robert Russ

Source:

Manual credits (US)

Error creating thumbnail: /bin/bash: line 1: 211757 Done '/usr/bin/gs' '-sDEVICE=jpeg' '-sOutputFile=-' '-dFirstPage=1' '-dLastPage=1' '-dSAFER' '-r150' '-dBATCH' '-dNOPAUSE' '-q' '/home/sonicret/domains/segaretro.org/public_html/images/3/3c/Ecco2_mcd_us_manual.pdf' 211758 Segmentation fault | '/usr/bin/convert' '-depth' '8' '-quality' '95' '-resize' '2197' '-' '/home/sonicret/domains/segaretro.org/public_html/images/temp/transform_46cabdaad106.jpg'

Master System and Game Gear versions

• Producer: Jerry Markota
• Ecco's Creator: Ed Annunziata
• Developer: Novotrade
• Director: László Mérõ
• Software Director: Attila Bús
• Art Director: Eszter Páris
• Main Programmer: László Megyeri
• Artist: Bori Páris
• Music: Gábor Foltán, Csaba Gigor, László Fazekas
• Programmer: Balázs Pápai
• Hardware Support: Lajos Szabó
• Special Thanks: Andrea Eszterhai, L. Szenttornyai, József Molnár, Mihály Brudnyák, Tamás Csendes, Ádám Jedovszky
• Lead Tester: Blair Bullock
• Assistant Lead: Chris Colon
• Testers: Michael Baldwin, Rachel Bristol, Don Carmichael, Mike Chao, Daniel Cohen, Arnold Feener, Craig Gansheimer, Jeff Kessler, Randy Kreidt, Matt McKnight, Jeff Ng, Randy Norfleet, Ilya Reeves, Kim Rogers, Sam Saliba, Gregg Vogt, Christine Watson, Michael Wu

Digital manuals

• 

  Steam manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Ecco: The Tides of Time/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

UK print advert

FI advert (1994)

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #21: "October/November 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
also published in:

• GamePro (US) #64: "November 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #65: "December 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
• Sega Visions (US) #22: "December/January 1994/1995" (1994-xx-xx)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1994-09: "September 1994" (1994-08-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1994-10: "October 1994" (1994-09-08)

Print advert in Score (CZ) #10: "Říjen 1994" (1994-10-01)
also published in:

• Score (CZ) #11: "Listopad 1994" (1994-11-01)
• Score (CZ) #12: "Prosinec 1994" (1994-12-01)
• Score (CZ) #13: "Leden 1995" (1995-01-01)
• Score (CZ) #14: "Únor 1995" (1995-02-01)
• Score (CZ) #15: "Březen 1995" (1995-03-01)

Print advert in Freak (IL) #26 (1994-xx-xx)

Television advertisements

File:Ecco The Tides Of Time MD US TVAdvert(Alt).mp4

US

File:Ecco The Tides Of Time MD US TVAdvert(Alt).mp4

File:ETD2 QC TVAdvert.mp4

CA

File:ETD2 QC TVAdvert.mp4

Artwork

• 

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Consoles + (FR) 90 GameFan (US) 88 MAN!AC (DE) 77

	85
Based on 3 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 50 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 65 CD Consoles (FR) 48 Cool Gamer (RU) 70 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 73 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 70 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 4 (RU) 50 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 70 Freak (IL) 89 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 88 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 60 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 85 Gamer (GR) 95 Games World: The Magazine (UK) PAL 86 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 83 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 78 Igry Sega Luchshiye iz luchshikh. Vypusk 2 (RU) 56 Joypad (FR) PAL 86 LeveL (CZ) 75 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 74 Mega (UK) PAL 92 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 84 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 91 Next Generation (US) 50 Player One (FR) 92 Play Time (DE) PAL 83 Power Up! (UK) 90 Score (CZ) 85 Sega Magazin (DE) 83 Sega News (CZ) 87 Sega Power (UK) PAL 82 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 72 Todo Sega (ES) 89 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 80 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 80

	77
Based on 35 reviews

Ecco: The Tides of Time

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US (Mega Hit Series)
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU (Limited Edition)
Cover

Mega Drive, FR
Cover
Manual Leaflet

Mega Drive, PT
Cover

Mega Drive, AU
Cover

Mega Drive, AU (alt)
Cover

Mega Drive, AU (Sega Platinum Collection)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Manual

Mega Drive, AS†
Cover
Cart

Mega-CD version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Games World: The Magazine (UK) 84 №11, p80

	84
Based on 1 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Consoles + (FR) 92 Digitiser (UK) 85 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 76 Freak (IL) 89 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 78 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 88 Joypad (FR) 87 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 77 Mega (UK) PAL 92 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 85 Next Generation (US) NTSC-U 50 Player One (FR) 95 Play Time (DE) 85 Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 92 Sega Power (UK) PAL 80 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 81 Video Games (DE) PAL 76 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 80

	83
Based on 18 reviews

Ecco: The Tides of Time

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual Reg Card

Mega-CD, EU
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Mega-CD, AU

Mega-CD, BR
Cover

Game Gear version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Alaab Alcomputtar (SA) 74 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 65 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 55 Freak (IL) 89 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 85 Gamers (DE) PAL 67 Games World: The Magazine (UK) PAL 82 Mega Fun (DE) 66 Player One (FR) 85 Play Time (DE) PAL 64 Sega News (CZ) 100 Sega Power (UK) PAL 78 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 74 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 55

	74
Based on 14 reviews

Ecco: The Tides of Time

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, FR
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, PT
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, BR
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, Asia
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

{{{{{icon}}}|L}}
Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Freak (IL) 89

	89
Based on 1 review

Ecco: The Tides of Time

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 ccb21f98 MD5 3b28a4ddddb6ff6ea3bfb3c8b117522a SHA-1 82ec466a81b95942ad849c5e2f88781bef28acc8	2MB	1994-06	Cartridge (US)
✔	CRC32 7b1bf89c MD5 e138c4df98a14625b64aff0f0f435801 SHA-1 cb7d44a40992cff6c31d685866814d6cb85add59	2MB	1994-08	Cartridge (EU)
✔	CRC32 062d439c MD5 0a18051c31d44d61cbf7a27dfc2a8d32 SHA-1 0ca535d0e0d430c67e413ab904ef867516ce9fad	2MB	1994-06	Cartridge (JP)
✔	CRC32 5af83ecb MD5 f65406eb4961c0e4d7fad24ef7fb90b2 SHA-1 3c653329c897e369198425e99e76ff53688d245b	2MB	1994-04-29	CD-R disc				Page
✔	CRC32 b5d64817 MD5 207aac421f6e9fda4a28b41a452d6e71 SHA-1 6cc1ea0b6c4be29ed7a02cd5e01f9504d272323e	2MB	1994-04-13	CD-R disc				Page
?	CRC32 8db60749 MD5 267e4ca8fa4303e6ae49f6251ec949f2 SHA-1 3120625e8ff6b289ae6c398b8afe1ab5ff6396e3	2MB	1994-02					Page
?	CRC32 1d1470ea MD5 c5f2888a66490430ff71ff960c9e6aee SHA-1 364523cd30615ce4a94793ebbc189c0db6adc38f	2MB	1994-02		Only difference between this and above ROM is the header. One may be a hack of the other.			Page
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	668,071,488		CD (EU)	4441-50
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	662,353,776		CD (US)	4441(Alt)
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	659,841,840		CD (US)	4441
?	CRC32 7c28703a MD5 fe58b4b23d58386cad7111fd522cbf75 SHA-1 61cef405e5bc71f1a603881c025bc245a8d14be4	512kB		Cartridge (BR)
?	CRC32 ba9cef4f MD5 e4e654aa1730565220120844dad6b444 SHA-1 36095f4c92f6f66ed6bc20d9b96227d6fb0dae5b	512kB		Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 e2f3b203 MD5 8f8cbaef1a8e1becfcc7f07b134a3d83 SHA-1 61913f6803977bb54fda7c3d969dc2c0f7c6da62	512kB		Cartridge (US/EU)

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
• Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
• Ecco: The Tides of Time on Steam