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[Salsa]

hear me out

cause I know a lot of you would post indie shenanigans released as an executable on some weird website and I dont want that

im talking about

SEGA

publishing a game in 1992, in the midst of the success of their prime console

a game about a dolphin, a game based around John C. Lilly, around Ketamine and LSD studies

a game that takes a sudden turn where you suddenly travel through time and dimensions and start fighting huge aliens

a game based around the studies of Margaret Howe Lovatt, who allegedly had sex with dolphins, or jerked off a dolphin, or some shit

a game based around the same stuff that insipired the movie Altered States

A GAME with a name based around the fact that Lily, while on Ketamine and in an isolation chamber, was (according to him) contacted by an extra-terrestial entity called the Earth Coincidence Control Office

oh, what's an acronym for that?

all of this made and published by one of the biggest gaming companies at the time


I always loved this shit. I want a movie about the making of this game.

what were they thinking. what made them want to do a game about these studies, about this subject

I love these people

 

[The Flash]

I don't know man, Seaman is pretty high up there too.

 

[Gaz_RB]

Man that game was dope. I had no idea about all of the factors behind its creation, only that I loved being a dolphin when I was a kid.

 

[Salsa]

btw here's a tweet from the creator confirming all these things

shit's bonkers

 

[Crayon]

Wow, salsa.

You just spoiled the shit out ot Ecco for me with them

Spoiler

aliens.

 

[Stevey]

You're overthinking it, it's just a game about a dolphin rescuing his pod

 

[Unmoses]

I used to study in College to the music of Ecco CD.. Such a great soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upJ_1Q1WJy0

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

Whoa, I knew some of this stuff, but now I really want to give the 3D Classics version a playthrough.

 

[wanderingprostheyltite]

Whoa that acronym, never knew. Familiar with Lilly and also the earth coincidence control office thing, didn't know makers of Ecco were trying to tie his "research" into the game. Then again I last played it when I was like 10. Does the prologue or text in the game go over any of that in more detail or is it mostly just visual metaphors throughout?

 

[Marow]

I still don't dare to play the games. They freak me out.

 

[RexNovis]

Yes.

 

[ManeKast]

Some of my fave games and a youngster.i knew I was attracted to it for a reason, replay on 3ds due.

 

[Salsa]

John C. Lilly was basically a guy who was contacted by fuckin NASA to find out if it was possible to communicate with dolphins. It was made as a study to potentially find out if we could communicate with aliens when the time comes

his studies included Margaret Howe Lovatt constantly jerking off a dolphin

he then started experimenting with ketamine and sensory deprivation tanks

while in one of these, he claims he made contact with the Earth Coincidence Control Office, a race of Aliens who STOLE HIS PENIS

this is all in a fucking book


then in 1992 Novotrade made a game about this and SEGA published it



what the shit man think about this

You're overthinking it, it's just a game about a dolphin rescuing his pod

it's not. the creator confirmed more than once that it's all based around this

 

[Deckard Chapel]

Google the Sega Genesis/32X game "Kolibri" by the same people that created "Ecco The Dolphin".

 

[Salsa]

here's a link

http://www.intuition.org/txt/lilly.htm

LILLY: Right. For instance, there's an Iranian psychiatrist, an American psychiatrist, that put a hundred patients in a mental hospital in Iran through what they feared most, on Ketamine, and they all left the hospital. Now, I tried the same thing, after I read that. That evening I took 150 milligrams of Ketamine, and suddenly the Earth Coincidence Control Office removed my penis and handed it to me. I screamed in terror. My wife Toni came running in from the bedroom, and she said, "It's still attached." So I shouted at the ceiling, "Who's in charge up there? A bunch of crazy kids?" The answer came back, "Well, you had an unconscious fear, so we put you through it, just the way the Iranian psychiatrist did."

That evening I took 150 milligrams of Ketamine, and suddenly the Earth Coincidence Control Office removed my penis and handed it to me.

what

what

this is videogame inspiration in 1992

 

[Stevey]

it's not. the creator confirmed more than once that it's all based around this

So he took drugs and made a game?

What's the big deal?

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Ecco is some real weird shit, but Seaman and Killer 7 take the cake for me.

Then again the final level of Ecco is called Welcome to the Machine and you fight a massive Xenomorph...so maybe not

 

[Crayon]

here's a link

http://www.intuition.org/txt/lilly.htm





what

what

this is videogame inspiration in 1992

And now it's my inpiration for finding 150 milligrams of ketamine.

 

[Salsa]

So he took drugs and made this game?
What's the big deal?

you really can't find the big deal in SEGA publishing a game aimed at kids with a Genesis

in which every single thing about the marketing of it makes you think it's a cute platformer about a Dolphin

and suddenly you're fucking travelling through time and fighting giger-looking aliens that were inspired by a ketamine-fueled trip by a NASA communications specialist who contacted aliens that removed his penis? in a level called WELCOME TO THE MACHINE?

in 1992

for kids

SEGA kids

and you don't find this weird or interesting

ok man

 

[∀ Narayan]

Defender of the Future is one of my favorite games on the Dreamcast. I would love to see an HD update for it. Sadly, there's probably not much interest in producing a new Ecco game.

I used to study in College to the music of Ecco CD.. Such a great soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upJ_1Q1WJy0

Spencer Nilsen composed an amazing soundtrack for the Sega CD releases. My favorite track is from Tides of Time: Maze of Stone.

 

[MadClacker]

Those Ecco games make me feel very uneasy. It's an unsettling experience. The deep water, the often disturbing soundtrack, the difficulty, and the screams Ecco gives off when he gets hurt.

I love the game, I really do - but it's more of an experience.

I love the soundtrack to Tides of Time. The opening theme just SCREAMS oceanic exploration.

And THIS theme. 18 seconds on... just incredible bass!

I also LOVE the absolutely SMUG look on Ecco's face on this cover art. It's as if he's saying "Yeah, I've been through time and fought aliens. I'm quite a big deal."


Annunziata also helped produce Chakan: The Forever Man. One of the most infamously difficult games ever made. It was pitched to SEGA as practically impossible to beat (like Ecco) without the use of divine intervention of course. Still, Chakan...man, that's an INCREDIBLE game!

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[Stevey]

you really can't find the big deal in SEGA publishing a game aimed at kids with Mega Drives

in which every single thing about the marketing of it makes you think it's a cute platformer about a Dolphin

and suddenly you're fucking travelling through time and fighting giger-looking aliens that were inspired by a ketamine-fueled trip by a NASA communications specialist who contacted aliens that removed his penis? in a level called WELCOME TO THE MACHINE?

in 1992

for kids

SEGA kids

and you don't find this weird

It's a video game.

The guy took horse tranquilizer and imagined a load of shit like anyone else would have done.

It's nothing.

 

[Salsa]

It's a video game.

The guy took horse tranquilizer and imagined a load of shit like anyone else would have done.

It's nothing.

move along then I guess

I find this interesting as fuck and clearly others here do as well

sorry to disappoint sir

 

[eso76]

And now it's my inpiration for finding 150 milligrams of ketamine.

You want your penis removed ?

 

[Mub!]

this game scares me

 

[OnPoint]

I'm with you Salsa. One of my favorite games and I'm not surprised it's rooted in some crazy shit.

#teamgenesissoundtrack

 

[NinjamicWZ]

I grew up on crystals, fairies and dream catchers so dolphins on LSD is normal to me, but those are some way cool details.

I would kill for a new 3D Ecco game by thatgamecompany.

 

[Yado]

Didn't get very far in this game. I never would have guessed aliens were involved.

 

[E-phonk]

you really can't find the big deal in SEGA publishing a game aimed at kids with a Genesis

in which every single thing about the marketing of it makes you think it's a cute platformer about a Dolphin

and suddenly you're fucking travelling through time and fighting giger-looking aliens that were inspired by a ketamine-fueled trip by a NASA communications specialist who contacted aliens that removed his penis? in a level called WELCOME TO THE MACHINE?

in 1992

for kids

SEGA kids

and you don't find this weird or interesting

ok man

I played that game as a 12 year old.
I'm with you. Mindfuck.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Here's an old post I made about Ecco the Dolphin:

Ok I didn't know how deep the rabbit hole went on this series, that's some Watership Down stuff

 

[Salsa]

shit's like the 1992 frog fractions except seeded in reality

 

[Finale Fireworker]

You're overthinking it, it's just a game about a dolphin rescuing his pod

I hate comments like these.

9 times out of 10 they are completely reductive to everything the other person presents. It's basically just shushing another person and smugly saying "no" without making any effort to actually understand what they're saying.

Before you tell somebody they're "overthinking it" or "reaching", consider that you might not know everything there is to know about a subject and somebody else's perspective might yield more information or different ideas than you previously had.

Unless you were joking, since Ecco is obviously not just about a dolphin reuniting with his pod, in which case I am a huge fool who took your bait and will die alone. My only son doesn't speak to me. I miss you, Clovis. Your mother and I are sorry. Please come home.

 

[Hot Coldman]

You build a compelling case and present it well.

I still think Noby Noby Boy is weirder.

 

[Crayon]

You want your penis removed ?

No I want to trip balls.

 

[Het_Nkik]

I just played through and beat Ecco for the first time thanks to save states on the 3DS. Could never make it past the first 5 levels or so as a kid. For those who don't know what happens in the game, SPOILER BELOW

Spoiler

-Your pod is mysteriously whisked away into the sky by a vortex
-You try to find them and an orca tells you to find the great blue whale
-Some other orca tells you the great blue has traveled north to die
-You swim to the arctic and find the blue whale
-He tells you there in one in the ocean even older than he and to seek him out
-You find this being and it's giant double helix in the ocean
-The giant double helix says he's too weak to help you in his current state so you have to travel 55 million years into the past to retrieve his balls of power or whatever
-He tells you the time machine is in Atlantis
-In Atlantis, through some crystals, you discover there's an alien race called the Vortex who feed on the Earth's oceans every 500 years
-You travel 55 million years into the past
-You find the (same?) double helix from the present but in the past
-You kill him and steal some of his balls that make up his helix strands
-Return to the present and give the balls back to double helix
-He gives you the power to breathe underwater and sonar strong enough to kill enemies
-Tells you to use the time machine again and travel to just before your pod was taken
-Travel back to the beginning of the game
-Get sucked up in the vortex
-You are now on the Vortex space ship
-Kill Vortex queen
-Return home with pod

Now, the shit doesn't start turning weird till about 10 levels in so I was in a state of disbelief all past that point. Never knew this game I liked to swim and jump around in as a kid was so fucking bananas.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

Sad Satan?

 

[FStop7]

Mister Mosquito

 

[Hugstable]

EVO on SNES was pretty neat when I was a kid.

 

[Piston Hyundai]

Ed Annunziata is out of his God damn mind.

My personal favorite of his is the level in Mr. Bones where you're just jumping across glass shards in space as some dude is talking about how "Jesus Christ had the blues, big time" as Ronnie Montrose fucking shreds inbetween each sentence.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Seaman will forever be the weirdest non-indie game. I would've loved to hear the pitch from Leonard Nemoy's agent when he signed him up for this.

 

[Salsa]

Ed Annunziata is out of his God damn mind.

My personal favorite of his is the level in Mr. Bones where you're just jumping across glass shards in space as some dude is talking about how "Jesus Christ had the blues, big time" as Ronnie Montrose fucking shreds inbetween each sentence.

I want an indie game resurgence

dude clearly had a lot of wacky shit to say, he'd be a lot more in tune with today's stuff

 

[Hot Coldman]

Seaman will forever be the weirdest non-indie game. I would've loved to hear the pitch from Leonard Nemoy's agent when he signed him up for this.

Leonard Nimoy is in Kingdom Hearts so that's not even the weirdest game he's been in.

 

[The Dutch Slayer]

That jaws game obox where you needed to get keycards to open doors as a shark is pretty strange

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[Crayon]

That jaws game obox where you needed to get keycards to open doors as a shark is pretty strange

I was going to post jaws after seeing the title, but it can't compare with Ecco's apparent backstory. But Jaws is crazy. One of the PS2 games I still play here and there.

 

[Megadragon15]

Toilet Kids on PC Engine is strange.

 

[Salsa]

I bet the Earth Coincidence Control Office is real and they contacted Ed Annunziata to make the game with this unexpected twist as a way to recruit young kids early

and take their penises

 

[Lionel Richie]

a game based around the studies of Margaret Howe Lovatt, who allegedly had sex with dolphins, or jerked off a dolphin, or some shit

This thread has been very educational, I had no idea about a lot of this stuff. Need to replay this.

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

I always thought it was a friendly Metroid-style game starring the world's most realistically adorable dolphin. Granted, I only played Ecco Jr., the other ones were too har--no, scratch that. I wasn't good/skilled enough to play through the others at the time (MegaDrive Collection for PS2).

Been quite intrigued with the games tho and may fancy playing them again at some point when the free time is there.

Seaman will forever be the weirdest non-indie game. I would've loved to hear the pitch from Leonard Nemoy's agent when he signed him up for this.

They really should've made the sequel: Seamen