User:DrTapeworm/Ecco 2 Prototype 0429

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

(putting this here while i work on it until it's fleshed out enough to be its own page)

Released by drx on December 22, 2009, the April 29th, 1994 prototype of Ecco: The Tides of Time represents an intermediate point between the earlier X11 prototype and the final game. Even within the short time between the two prototypes there are some notable differences, including but not limited to polishing of rough level drafts and the addition of some very strange test levels.

General Differences

• The SEGA screen and title screen can be skipped in this version.
• The title screen still uses Sea of Darkness' music, despite the intended music being in this prototype..
• Title cards appear before levels now.
• While the game is paused, pressing B will play the death sound, while pressing C will play the charge sound.
• The rest of the final game's music was added.
• The three unique songs from X11 were removed, but at this point the developers had forgotten to change the levels that used them to use valid music, so they're silent. Oops!
• Pressing A while paused still changes the music to a removed slot.
• The brown Vortex worms have distinct heads and tails, like the final game.
• The segmented alien enemies and Atlantean crabs still use the early graphics from X11.
• The graphic used for vertical sonar appears to be glitched slightly.

Unused Graphics

To do: Find where the eel/snake is in the ROM; it's compressed alongside level graphics iirc

Artwork	Description
	A segmented enemy (Novotrade loved those apparently) resembling an eel or snake, but rather different from the eels used in Moray Abyss. The GIF is an interpretation of what the pieces look like combined. (Source: Korama)
	The leech enemy from Ecco the Dolphin; still here, still unused, still left over in the final.
	The Eight Arms' tentacle from Ecco the Dolphin is also left over.
	This unused starfish from the final is still unused here...
	...as well as the tail segment for thin segmented enemies.

Level Names

Most level names remain the same as X11, though some have been changed (bolded for emphasis.)

X11	0429	Final
Corall Reefs	Boss Entrance	Sea of Green
Deep Horizont	Deep Horizont	Deep Ridge
Collect	Collect	Sea of Birds
Spiral	Spiral	Secret Cave
Shark	Shark	The Hungry Ones
Globeholder	Globeholder	Globe Holder
Between A Times	Between A Times	Two Tides
Broken Glyph	Lost Orcas	The Lost Orcas
Medusa Tube	Medusa Tube	Vents of Medusa
Four In A Row	Four In A Row	Four Islands
A Maze-Ing	A Maze-Ing	Maze of Stone
Dark Stage	Dark Stage	Sea of Darkness
N/A	The Begining	Crystal Springs
Medusa Entrance	Medusa Entrance	Trellia's Bay
Upstair	Upstair	Skyway
Asterite Cave	Asterite Cave	Asterite's Cave
Bird Walk	Bird Walk	Eagle's Bay
Flying Bird	Flying Bird	Fin to Feather
N/A	Islands	Skylands
Giant Medusa	Giant Medusa	Tube of Medusa
Autocamera	Autocamera	Aqua Tubeway
Fastcamera	Fastcamera	Sky Tides
Csigaboss	Csigaboss	Moray Abyss
Asterite Ide	Asterite Ide	Asterite's Home
Atlantis00	Atlantis00	Atlantis
Big-Bug	Big-Bug	City of Forever
Fishmorph	Fishmorph	Fish City
Future01	Future01	Black Clouds
Entrance	Entrance	Vortex Future
Vortex on Earth	Vortex on Earth	Lunar Bay
Vortex Entrance	Vortex Entrance	Dark Sea
Autovortex	Autovortex	New Machine
Second01	Second01	Inter
Second02	Second02	Innuendo
Second03	Second03	Trans
Stomach	Stomach	Inside
Sarlac	Sarlac	Vortex Queen
Big Whale	Big Whale	Big Water
Attack	Attack	The Pod

Level Differences

Between A Times (Two Tides)

• This level has no music as it uses a blanked slot.
• The alcove to the far left of the level that contains a pulsar in the final instead contains some spikes. You're welcome. The pulsar itself is instead located right next to where Ecco starts.
• The earthquake event is still present before meeting Trellia as this prototype lacks a Fault Zone equivalent.

Fishmorph (Fish City)

The level's visuals have yet to be polished up, but it is functional. As with X11; Ecco starts in fish form instead of touching a metasphere; therefore, if Ecco dies in fish form, he respawns without transforming and can explore the level as a dolphin.

Vortex on Earth (Lunar Bay)

The level has been polished significantly and is near-final.

Vortex Entrance (Dark Sea)

• Like Lunar Bay, this level got a ton of polish; most notably, it has actual objects besides dolphin-drone encounters now.
• The dolphin-drone objects no longer freak the game out.
• Unlike in X11, the moon is gone. The developers put it back for the final game.
• The tall island separating the two surface areas of Dark Sea is still present, and its collision still doesn't accurately reflect its shape. It got flattened considerably into a much easier shape to jump over in the final game, which also allowed the developers to re-implement the moon in the background without causing tile errors.
• Like in X11, the autoscroll begins the moment Ecco enters the Vortex installation.
• The Ecco the Dolphin-style Vortex Drones use their final palette now.

Second01, Second02, Second03, Stomach (Inter, Innuendo, Trans, Inside)

These mini-levels have title cards appear when the player is forced into them; the final removed these.

The Test Levels

Two very experimental test levels are present here; they are levels 47 and 48 respectively. They both use the Lunar Bay tileset with unfinished detailing, and have currents set up in interesting setups that ultimately never really saw use.

Downtown

Ecco starts on the edge of a mountain and tumbles down into the water. The level presumably gets its name because of the solid blocks arranged like buildings with current "roads" between them.

Oneway

Starts similarly to Downtown, but the mountain Ecco falls onto has no collision. This level is mostly big and empty, except for a set of clustered currents going in various directions, and a massive amount of fish onscreen that causes the framerate to noticeably chug a bit.