Ecco the Dolphin's Developer Confirmed What We All Knew
Вставка
- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- Today is June 16th, 1993! New episode every single Friday!
Consider supporting the Patreon! -- / now90s
Welcome to Now in the 90s, where we rewind the clock exactly 30 years ago to see what new video games had just released!
Released this week 30 years ago was B.O.B., Chiki Chiki Boys, and Ecco the Dolphin for the Sega CD!
Writers: Jared Knabenbauer, David Rota, & Dylan Lawrence
Editor: Dylan Lawrence
►Twitter ------------------------- / dylumz
►Twitch -------------------------- / thedrunkard
►UA-cam Channel --------- / gamedrunkard
🎽🎽🎽 Like the shirt in today's video? Get one yourself from Vapor 95 and use code PROJARED for 15% off! -- vapor95.com/projared
►New here? Subscribe! -- / @nowinthe90s
►Subscribe to the Gameplay Channel! -- bit.ly/2CWhLZi
►Follow me for instant updates on new videos!
Twitter -------------------------------------- / projared
Instagram -------------------------------- / projaredgram
Twitch -------------------------------------- / projared
TikTok -------------------------------------- / projaredtok
~~MUSIC BY WILLIAM BENCKERT & AGST~~
#retro #retrogaming #nostalgia - Ігри
The outro music with the Battletoads pause menu mashup was gold!
The Sega CD version of Ecco has one of the best video game soundtracks of all time. Even if you have never played it, you could listen to that soundtrack from beginning to end and enjoy it.
Spencer Nilsen is criminally underrated. More people should be aware of his music.
@@geographypony I uploaded one of his CDs in youtube in my other account, architects of change
Fun Fact about the Mega Drive/Genesis version of Ecco the Dolphin. Like Jared said, the game was made harder on purpose to beat the rental market...but only in the US and Europe. If you play the Japanese Mega Drive version of Ecco the Dolphin, you will get a few checkpoints throughout the levels, making the game actually possible to beat.
It really is harder on porpoise.
That’s a whale of a tale.
I beat it. Not impossible
I beat the US version back in the day so it's not impossible to beat is today's gamers that are too lame and spoiled by easy games
@@lancelnce I did beat Ecco on the Mega-Drive, but im sure i will not have the same patience today to beat it again
One thing's for sure, you were never short of a side scrolling platformer in the early 90's
For real. I think at least one has come out every week since the show's inception? That means we're at ~60 at minimum?
That's just about how every game was
I'm still trying to forget awesome possum
The nineties on consoles most of them were set up specifically to handle parallax scrolling they were not really set up for crunching the numbers required for a 3D engine that's why you would seem 90s shooters and Boomer shooters on the early PCS and you would see side-scrollers and adventure games on the consoles.
Yeah, tha lamest genre in gaming...in my humble opinion.
B.O.B. was one of the first games I rented for the SNES (along with the console itself, as it took me a while to afford to buy it), and I liked it quite a bit. The design of B.O.B. himself especially stuck with me, and populated my school book doodles for years to come.
Ecco the Dolphin is one of my favorite games ever made, despite its difficulty. It's crazy that both versions have absolutely BANGING soundtracks, with the CD version going for more atmosphere, which enhances the isolated feeling of the game. Great coverage! I really wish Ecco would return!
I thought it was great. The difficulty is manageable up until The Machine makes you ragequit
I met the guy who did the soundtrack on the first one at his studio. He had one last signed copy of the sound track and he gave it to me.
@@whyhellotherestranger I agree. Game is hard up to the machine, but still doable. The machine though......that level can can burn in the deepest pits for eternity!!! Yes I beat it, but not a feat I would like to repeat ever again.
I gotta get out my sega cd and finally beat this game, as someone who was also too dumb as a kid to finish it
Ragequit…Rage Against The Machine lollol
I love how everytime Jared says Chiki Chiki Boys, the Ferris Beuller sound plays in the background.
name of the group is Yello. song name is oh yeah
@@chadfugate564 It's also Duffman's theme song. OOOH YEAH!
BOMP BOMP!
....Great, now I want a Twix bar, and I feel old! Happy? /s
I think Nickelodeon's Doug also used the sound as part of a scene transition sound effect
Chiki chika...
Holy shit, the outro music mixing in the Battletoads pause beat is genius!
I still have never played the original Ecco, but I had Ecco: The Tides of Time, and it was probably the hardest game for me as a kid. Each new level you were able to reach represented a massive amount of work and time put into figuring it out. I always got stuck on the orca level. I think my copy might have been bugged, because the map's exit is supposed to open after you return all of the mother's children to her, but it never worked for me. I seem to recall playing a port once on PS3 and actually making it past that level for the first time in my life, but I was so overwhelmed with finally slaying that dragon that I just put the game down and never got any further.
Ugh yes especially the Sky Tides levels. Ughhhhh
I wound up having the same issue when I played and was really confused. I glitched through the barrier by constantly dashing into it until I found the right angle and just popped onto the other side, loll
Did they have a problem with cartridge manufacturing or something? I swear I had nearly the same experience. I was stuck on like, the second level, and could not for the life of me figure out how to open one of those crystal glyphs. I used cheat codes to get to level select and played through the rest of the game, but the levels aren't actually in order in the debug menu so I was never sure exactly what order the levels were supposed to go in.
Then, years later, I played the game on a Genesis compilation pack for Steam (i think) and had no issues whatsoever getting past the level I was stuck on before. It couldn't have just been because I was a dumb kid, because the same mechanism is used all throughout the game and I never had any issues with it in the later levels, or even much more complex puzzles like the whole Atlantis section, or the sky box machines and shit like the Orb Collector boss.
The ACTUAL reason with Ecco is - developers were out of time. So they made it goddamn hard (as in impossible) so that the final acceptance test would 100% fail. First on the second, then maybe on the fourth lastly on the last level. Technically they delivered a well-polished beta version on time, practically whatever levels came after the "game breaking" hard part was just not finished. How do I know this? The developers told me in person.
Wow, that's pretty awesome that you heard it right from them. How did that happen?
@@keithws2779 "trust me, bro"
@@jimmyrodriguez5670
To be fair, Ecco was made by a Hungarian team and the Hungarian game developer scene isn't and wasn't big.
I honestly had extremely fond memories of B.O.B. back in the day, I loved the multiple weapons, gadgets and everything. As an adult, I went back to actually beat it, because as a kid... I always game over'd at the pyramid levels, because I was too dumb to figure out how to get past the insta kill boulder trap. (there's a small button on the floor.)
The final boss... is, borderline BS, still fun, but man is he a pain.
I liked it too. Man we had very little options in the early 90s if we got stuck on a level outside of guides in magazines or ringing tips lines that cost 5$ a minute.
Also huge fan of it. I had forgotten it's name but now I've added it to the steam deck
Such a fun game, still have the cart
Hence B.O.B stands for Bang on Button. Derrr
If I recall, Ecco is based on Timothy Leary’s work with dolphins and LSD, which explains why the story is all over the place with aliens and time travel.
John Lilly. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Lilly
Hilarious. You have a reference? And yeah it would have been J Lilly
Also if it would have been in keeping with that theory there would have been inter species sex.
@@mark6302 , drugs are bad, okay?
@@jamescampbell2692 , a.k.a., bestiality, and, right now, there is actually a trial that is fixing to go on right now about some former professor that videotaped himself copulating with a dog, and we wonder why natural disasters are on the rise worldwide.
G.U.N. = Guardian Units of the Nation
...oh wait, that's Sonic Adventure 2.
Gun is also Japanese for military, which it was named that in the first place. Just lucky it means what it does in English so the translators had an easier time with it
@crawdkenny You're non-smart ass person I've ever read that doesn't pissed me off.
Thanks for the knowledge.
The checkpoints in each level for the Sega CD version were a massive gamechanger. It actually, IMO, made the game playable. The original genesis Ecco the dolphin had very intricately designed levels, with lots of things that could kill you very quickly if you made the slightest mistake. It was massively frustrating, but the Sega CD version removes that big problem.
I love that every week when I look down in the comments section, there's always at least one person who says that whatever game is being shown is one of their favourite games of all time, even if the game is kind of bad. This is just such a wonderfully wholesome community that has a loving appreciation for the gaming days of old and I love being a part of it.
Raiders of the Lost Ark on Atari was my favorite. I couldn't stop playing it. And... I borrowed it from a friend and he never wanted it back.
One of my favorite speedruns ever is Blueglass absolutely sailing through Echo the Dolphin. And he is 100% correct in saying that is has the most "dolphin-y controls of all time".
So excited for Billy Hatcher!! Too bad I’ll have to wait until September of 2033 for the episode on it…
Welcome to Now in the 00s, where we talk about the games of thirty years ago… today. Hi I’m your host, Robot Jared v2.1, and today is September 23rd, 2003.
@@cappantwan2978 I do wonder, when we hit the new decade, if this show will just simply die off, if they'll change the name, or if they'll just keep it going as is because the title is essentially the brand. The last of those being kind of like how 20th Century Fox is still called 20th Century Fox even though it's no longer the 20th century.
Yeah! Glad my Streets of Rage 2 comment actually helped out in a way! (Not saying my comment was the one Dylan was talking about, but I did comment around that time). Definitely will make sure other games I was excited for back then will be shouted out in advance lol.
Can't wait for the Battletoads episode!!
Without exaggeration, my absolute favorite part of B.O.B. is the animation when he moves along a hand grip. That little finger dance thing he does...
Of all this week's games I think B.O.B. is the only actually got to play as a kid. It had a sort of "Metroid through the lens of The Animaniacs" vibe, and I remember it being fun enough to rent over the weekend more than once, but little else.
I had friends who sang the praises of Echo the Dolphin, but I didn't get to play it myself until decades later.
We need to have a count for every time Jared says "Game reviews used to make no sense." It's becoming the show's catchphrase at this point.
"at the time". Don't forget that part.
And then, someone make a Tshirt with the GamePro faces
Like game reviews make any sense today ... or ever. Unless I am missing some kind of joke or specific thing.
But yeah can't help and rant over game reviews in general. Were always bought at lost of places and not genuine, if you want an unbias legit review you have to surgically look for a person then organization to take it even 50% serious when they write something.
Then there is that community based review and vote, which frankly again is ran mostly by children who don't even play games nor know jack... about anything. Then bots which became a norm by now, for what 6-7 years now?!
Most people who wrote and write reviews for the games don't even play the games at all and even the ones that do at times they hate it and you can tell even on a glance.
But there are plenty of idiots today who also pick and point at some imaginary or bad review and say see this game sucked even back then like that will somehow justify the overpriced shovelware corporations release today ...
Fact remains that even tho the worst games back then actually offered gameplay value compared to some new corporate trash.
"old games look bad, new game is pretty" you always see this "new pretty graphics" gimmick everywhere, I DONT CARE!!!
Even the "pretty" is questionable due to broken animations, warping, bugs and glitches to the point no matter how many shaders and polys, smoothness etc you add into your game it's still garbage on the actual gameplay department.
Add there the fact that teams of hundreds of people can't make a game in the spans of 5 year, 2-3 year spans PAID PROS. Meanwhile some pleb in his basement makes a game alone in one year max with zero budget.
And then some idiots especially online come with the elitist ignorant dogsh1t agenda how still new "games" worth something. Go and at this point f__k yourself ... I am done.
Retro gaming blooms in the past 10 years, almost daily a retro console comes out, while new gen consoles are basically near dead yet someone still believes how there is a bright future and some relevance in new games ... right.
@@minmogrovingstrongandhealthy okay.
"Chika chikaahhh" really? lol Every time he says it the games name lol
Thank you for acknowledging skipping Ecco back in December. Not that I was frothing at my keyboard and being upset, because frankly I am not even a big fan of the game, but more so your directness. I like to follow channels that can own up to mistakes and be direct with their audiences. It's stuff like this that makes me want to stick by your channel and support you further.
There are so many games coming out and the correct information of release is so all over the place. For example I remember the Duck Tales II episode was in April 1993, but I played the Disney Afternoon Collection and that stated Duck Tales Ii came out in June 1993. My point is mistakes happen and it doesn't make your channel any less credible or fun.
Stopping here has been a highlight every Friday I am done with a grueling work week and I appreciate all of your hard work. Thank you, Jared, David and Dylan!
I think it's very clever and considerate using an audio cue to help people know when the seizure warning was over. Nicely done Dylan!
Can you hear the dolphins cry?
@@Syncrotron9001 not over the sound of my own crying because I could never get past the first level.
Live!!! 🤘
@@onstr yea its definitely one of "those games"
I thought that he was going to speak about the true story of ecco and that is based on a experiment of a high dolphin mating with a girl but ig the guy is ignorant
The editing has been really good the last few weeks. I appreciate it.
Dylan is awesome, no doubt about it!
Going back to Ecco the Dolphin nowadays would be much easier, especially on the Nintendo Switch, given the rewinds and save states you could make. But Ecco the Dolphin is still one of my beloved childhood games. And apparently had some truly messed up inspirations involving unethical treatment, dolphin crushes on humans and hallucinations about aliens.
the rewind function on modern emulators is the saving grace for most hard as nails retro games
The 3DS version of Ecco straight up gives you cheats, including unlimited health and air. They knew that nobody has time to grind their way through that BS these days.
@@DE-GEN-ART why bother at that point? If you're just going to savestate your way through why not just watch a speedrun? I'm not trying to dump on anyone here, just genuinely curious.
@@alexs7670 Because some games really are that hard, and I don't think we should judge how people have fun with things.
@@alexs7670 I don't emulate much, but I'd say it's just for the sake of completing it yourself. There are games that are fun to play, but just have some real BS parts that I don't feel like doing over and over. Like say you went through a whole level and got to the boss with full health, and you get destroyed and have to start the whole level from the beginning. This happens 3 more times. You've already proven you can get through the level well enough. It's only the boss that's causing you trouble, and going through 10 minutes of doing the same thing again just to practice at the boss just makes it tedious.
Games should be enjoyed in the way we choose to. Some people like to speedrun, some people like self-imposed challenges like no hit runs, or no equipment runs. As I get older my time gets a little more precious, so sometimes I just want to move on with a game instead of banging my head against a wall until I succeed normally.
Chiki Chiki Boys was one obscure game that I happened to own - I think I still have it in my small collection of childhood games. I have absolutely no memory of being taken to pick it up, so I can only assume it was one of the games my grandfather would occasionally get me "in secret" when my grandmother wasn't paying attention (or so I assume).
"The Pesterminator" on NES was another one of those types of games, though I do remember when he gave me that one.
EDIT: Also, seeing Mr. Perfect again on the screen is wild. One of my favorite "heel" wrestlers of the time.
I loved Ecco the Dolphin. Not the first one as much, but the second one. Great soundtrack, with a crazy story. If anyone wants there mind blown, look up how the creator was probably inspired by John C. Lily. A scientist that gave dolphins LSD to try to get them to talk, and then did a bunch of ketamine in sensory deprivation tanks where he would talk to ECCO "Earth Coincidence Control Office". There was a movie called altered states made out if his life. There's also a great PDF at the top of the google results. It's really interesting.
excellent movie
not only that, but one of the chemists that discovered PCP was famously obsessed with dolphins and believed all kinds of bizaarre things.
I think the second one was a lot better, since it was challenging but actually fun. Without constantly getting stuck you can just enjoy the crazy ride all the way.
David Brin helped write the Dreamcast Ecco, which is one of my all-time favorites. I got into his Uplift universe of books because of that. Hugo-Award winning sci-fi, not bad for space dolphins!
Not to mention he had a lady assistant give one of the dolphins a handjob, and that dolphin fell in love with her, and when they were separated, drowned himself on purpose because he missed her too much.
Other than save stating before both bosses, I beat Ecco the Dolphin legitimately almost a year ago, and that'll probably forever be one of my proudest gaming achievements! Phenomenal game with super unique gameplay, atmosphere with great music to match, an absurd plotline behind the veil of mystery and a lovable dolphin. I can't wait until enough time has passed that I'm ready to dive back into this aquatic adventure again!
Lol my greatest achievement in video games was catching em all in silver
My cousin had Ecco on the Game Gear.
Really fond memories of the chill vibe, just wandering aimless without knowing what to do.
That handheld was light years ahead of its time.
Game gear!!!!! That was such a legit handheld! My childhood is filled with memories of games like Ren and Stimpy, Power Rangers, Ecco, and a really awesome and ridiculously not child friendly Beavis and Butthead game where bear was your health 😂😂😂😂 I miss the good ol days!
I played the hell out of Royal Rumble as a kid. Hours upon hours were spent playing this game and then mimicking the moves with my friends.
Royal Rumble is one of life's great things. 👍
I tell my 3 year old daughter that Now in the 90’s is the news, and that I have to watch the news.
The LJN 16 bit wrestling games are still hella fun to play today. Spent so much time with those growing up.
WWF Royal Rumble!
Between Jared looking around like Ben Stein seeking Bueller, Vlad throwing in the Chika Chika sounds, and Dylan being a general overall ham, I'm honestly a little surprised the episode didn't end with a post-credits of Jared saying "What... you're still here? It's over! Go home!"
Also I hear that pause music in the closing credits. Thank you Vlad. Thank you so much.
I gotta say, Master of Darkness had a really cool wax museum level; MoD for the Master System and that horror flick House of Wax contributed to my general discomfort around wax museums!
Weekly reminder that a game purchased back in 1993 for 59.99 would cost $126.26 in our money today.
Edit for the budget game... 39.99 would be 84.17
6:51 for anyone who wants to skip to the part about ecco the dolphin's developer confirming what we all knew
Thank you.
The only thing I've ever known about BOB is that the Game Grumps tried to play it but it crashed immediately so they turned it into a podcast episode
Theme song to Flipper has now reinserted itself into my brain.
We always called it "B" "O" "B". And that "B O B" was literally his name which were also the letters that happened to spell out the name "Bob". It was never an acronym and was just some letters assigned to a robot.
There is love/hate relationship between me and Ecco the Dolphin games. Especially first one. Its good with beautiful graphics and good sound but, man, it's very unfair. It shows its teeth almost at very beginning with levels which require quick thinking and fast reflexes later combined with maze style levels. One level I hate is ancient library where you have to make a huge jump across wall and as a child I didn't knew how to do that damn jump. Final (and only) boss was rather creepy, I didn't exected to see an alien. Still have cartridge btw.
personally I can't wait to see how Jared and Dylan cover the Jaguar later this year, going to be a wild November.
If next week is only Battletoads, you should do some honorable mentions for the ones you missed.
Chiki Chiki Boys was one of my favourite Genesis game back in the days! Recently bought it in Capcom Arcade for the Switch and Xbox One. Still love this game!
Ever played wonder boy?
@@kekthelightbringer6055 All the time. Also own all the collections for Xbox One.
I feel like a very rare person who actually remembers B.O.B. ... mainly because the soundtrack was bumpin
But GamePro gave the sound a 2! How the heck?? Who was even doing that review, jeez.
Dude, Vampire: Master of Darkness was frigging awesome. One of the most solid games on the Master System.
Lookin forward to... Eternal Champions a 1993 fighting game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. It was one of the few fighting games of its time developed from the ground up as a home console title, rather than being released in arcades first and later ported to home systems.
Im one of those people who bought the Mega CD version of Ecco when it was cheap only to listen to the CD music. Didnt even own a Mega CD. Yes the soundtrack is THAT cozy.
Royal Rumble was one of my favorite games as a kid. I played the shit out of it, both by myself and with my cousin. It got to the point where I could consistently beat the Royal Rumble mode in about 2 minutes or slightly less.
Editor Dylan your editing has just improved for Jared's segment and you're still the reason I watch this.
Props to the audio work, mixing the battletoads intro beat to the show’s outro music
Hah, that Sega commercial for Ecco was hilarious.
The definitive version of Ecco the Dolphin...a true survival-horror classic.
My 9 year old brain couldn't get past the second or third level.
Ecco on Genesis was a big part of my childhood. Sure it was insanely difficult but I wound up playing it so much that I even made some decent progress into the game. The last few auto-scrolling show no mercy and I can safely say that kid me never would've made it psst them.
I loved how the game looked and sounded, except that ear-screeching noise Ecco makes when he took damage. I wound up playing it so much that I got the sequel for my birthday. Though easier, it still had some nasty levels that would've prevented me from beating it. I did wind up beat Ecco Jr. though. It was made for kids and took me three hours to complete but when my grandma offered to return it for something different, I was like "Heck no! Ecco is awesome!"
Personally, I'd classify the series as puzzle games as they're all about navigating underwater labyrinths and knowing where to go and when all whilst balancing your air meter.
You're pretty awesome Clyde
@@MyPalJimbo Aw, thanks. 😊
Never even heard of any of these before, except Eco, but never played that one. This is a first for me on this show
ngl i've been thinking of a channel with this premise (news from 30 years ago) for like a decade. but i'm no youtuber, so i was never going to make that. in my head it would be more like actual news coverage from 30 years ago rather than a retro lookback, but i'm just glad to see someone else doing it for me.
I had Master of Darkness for the Master System. Man i loved that game. The music, the gameplay, the atmosphere that scrared the hell out of me as a kid... One of my favorites on the system.
What is it with Jared and finding the absolute best editors out here? Dylan, Vlad, MsEditor... All really cool people
Vampire: Master of Darkness was also available on the 3DS eShop until it was shut down of course.
I can't believe I remember the Electronic Gaming Monthly article about this... wow.
I grew up with Sega Channel, and seeing these older games gives me the biggest hit of nostalgia I think I've ever had. I remember playing Ecco for HOURS, and while I never made it far I had a great time.
Next week we'll see Jared beating Battletoads as the episode like it was no effort at all and all this time he was simply hiding his power level. He'll probably say something like "People would call this game hard? Well, I had no trouble beating it!" While donning sunglasses and turning into a frog and leaping away. Would be pretty sick, not gonna lie.
Thanks for making my weekends brighter!
As a wrestling fan I'd love to comment on WWF Royal Rumble but I've never really played the SNES, Genesis, or even NES wrestling games. Ecco the Dolphin, though, I tried out years ago. I was NOT expecting the ocean life to be sucked up when I did a jump out of the water, and it scared me at the time enough that I admittedly haven't touched it since.
Granted, I've since matured enough that I can probably handle it, but I don't think I can due to its sheer difficulty.
This game is already available on Xbox 360 Xbox one Xbox series X if you want to buy it but I don’t care about old games that much
Tel gram please say you can handle my love are you for real 😧
Chiki Chiki Boys was known as Mega Twins in the West, the Japanese version featured some female hostages that the player could rescue for points. Those were removed for other versions of the game.
That ECCO TV ad was hilarious.
I only just realized that the October 27th 1993 episode is going to air on my Birthday.
That's the day I was born.
I'm legitimately going to me working plans around watching that episode. Always wondered what games are as old as me, and I'm gonna keep it a surprise, so Jared and Dylan can tell me 😊
It stands for "Bombs Over Baghdad," duh.
... okay, I'll take my leave now.
I only had "Ecco the Tides of Time" as a kid I didn't even know it was a sequel... an this game too was also hard...an scary, rather the scariest game I ever played back then cause I hated going deep into the dark abyssal ocean... I"m glad this game is still being talked about I just wish someone would revive it... it could be similar to subnautica... minus the crafting parts...
Mid June 1993 is when I graduated from elementary school so that was definitely a special week for me.
I just come here for editor Dylan
Ecco is amazing, such a shame they cancelled second part on Dreamcast and never made any other games about him.
There's a PS2 Ecco game. It's not great but not bad.
@@hectormugwump5530 Its just a port from Dreamcast.
Ecco for Smash.
Ecco was and still is one of my favorite games on Sega.
reviews used to make no sense at the time-Jared 2023
I actually remember renting bob as a kid and I remember it being a pretty meh game. I think I was the only kid growing up that even knew about B.O.B. at all.
People are commenting on when a game released I then check on FF 3 for the snes and Super Mario RPG 1994 and 1996 oof I have to wait a few years now.
B.O.B. is one of the first games I ever rented. It's surprisingly good for such a generic looking title. Also, didn't yet know Chiki Chiki Boys was Mega Twins. Thanks for that!
Played Chiki Chiki Boys with my sibling back in the 90s. Worked hard to make it all the way through without dying. We couldn't defeat the clown boss and had to ask dad to do it. A highly celebrated and heroic memory as we watched our dad beat that boss for us.
At that age, dads can do anything.
"For anyone who has ever said this or believed it...well it turns out you were right"
Naturally.
If something like Croc can get remasters, B.O.B. DESERVES ONE TOO
Ecco and E.V.O.: Search for Eden are two of those games I used to play with my sister back in the day, but we never beat either of them. Fun to play, though!
It isn’t Friday without Now in the ‘90s.
I love how the Chiki Chiki Boys are just Mega Man and Proto Man
wonder boy style.
I had Ecco as a kid and it was really difficult that I never got past the early part...there was a cheat code that let you level select among other things as alot of games of the 8 and 16 bit era had alot of cheat codes
It was the debug menu and is forever in my brain. Pause Ecco mid turn and press right, b,c,b,c,down,c,up
Tides of Time had one too
It's hard to articulate the odd feeling upon seeing a younger person look back with nostalgia at a time when I was 23 and already perceived the world as totally fucked. It really is funny to see how time makes gold out of the past through the eyes of the young.
Master of Darkness for the master system is a classic man! The game is SO good
That battletoads-now in the 90s mix at the end is subtle. Nice.
While I don't personally have epilepsy the fact that you have such a clear warning for epileptic people and also tell them when its safe is A+.
I'm surprised you guys have missed or nearly missed some big titles. What's your source for the history of releases? I know sometimes Wikipedia is a bit vague, providing only a month or even just the year.
Also, I couldn't beat Ecco either, Jared! I tried it again a couple years ago, and while it's not as hard as it was when I was a kid, the challenge is in the length and complexity of the levels. It's much more about trying your patience than being difficult to figure out, IMO.
Honestly, I can't understand the massive appeal. I had it as a kid, and I don't think I ever got too far. Nowadays I have the Genesis Mega Collection for the PS3, and I got through a few levels. I came back to it like a month or so ago, and I really just found it tedious to play through. Sure I could just savestate every two minutes when I make some progress, but at that point why push for something I'm not even enjoying in the first place?
So much love for this channel. Really enjoyed the episode and can't wait for Battletoads next week! I really appreciate getting to relive things I was too young for when they came out. Thank you all so much!
I'm excited for you guys to talk about the release of Super Mario 64 in about 3 years
Even though its library was severely lacking compared to the Nintendo, and I pretty much only wanted one because it existed, just like the Atari Lynx, the Game Gear, and systems I never got like the TG16 and Neo Geo, there are some gems on the Sega Master System that hold up very well such as Phantasy Star, or my personal favorite, Zillion, which combines Metroidvania exploration with the infiltrate and rescue mission of Metal Gear while beating Metal Gear to store shelves by two months. And my friend taught me a nice surprise where if you power it on without a cartridge and hold Up+1+2, it activates a built-in game called Snail Maze where you're just this snail guy that moves through a maze.
The snail game was the master system
Dude, I bought that cereal from your #ad the other day. It turned out pretty damn good, I'll probably be ordering another set soon.
Didn't know this channel existed, glad to have found it.
My god that bit at the end is _exactly_ why I haven't gone back to Ecco as an adult.
I've got a roommate who's really hyped about Jurassic Park SNES and has been eagerly hoping each week that it'll be covered, but she looked it up and apparently it's in October. So, I guess plenty of heads-up for you guys on that one?
Loved Ecco but mainly for chilling in the first area. I love the concept so much even if gameplay is often pain. Like Chakan!
So cool...but so freaking frustrating.
Back in 2005 Ed Annunziata was a teacher for a game design class i was in at the Art Institute. He said Ecco along with other games were ruthlessly hard because he, with his game development team, tested the games themselves. Since they made the games it seemed only moderately hard, but in reality to average gamers it was near impossible difficulty. He stated he could easily zip through the whole Ecco and Xmen games with ease to test features. He stated that his only regret with Ecco, Xmen, and Chakan the Forever Man was that he should of made them easier by letting a general audience playtest them more.
At roughly 6 minutes and 45 seconds, you're talking about games being intentionally difficult simply because of the rental market. I remember back then I never had to buy games because my friends would rent them, play them for a couple days, and then when they were a day or two away from having to bring them back, they would call me over to their house to beat the game for them. Part of the reputation I developed was that if a game had a sword anywhere in it, that game was a guaranteed win for me.
Good times.