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The reason I got into the Ecco the Dolphin scene in the first place was I had always hoped to find information related to the Unreleased Ecco for the 32X. After years of searching I found a great lead on Eidolons Inn. A member had told me a while back someone posted a website with information and a copy of the ROM.
I found the post but the website was not functioning and there was no contact information for the original poster. A couple of days later the website was back up and I was able to contact Alan D. who allowed me to host his ROM on my website. Alan's original copy only played part of the introduction video but after properly assembling the ROM which initially came as a bag of EPROMs we were ready for a full launch.
Years later the ROM that was originally released on Arkonviox.com spread on the internet like a virus. So what is the story of this ROM and why was Ecco never released on the 32X?
In the summer of 1994 at the Consumers Electronics Show a demonstration of Ecco for 32X was on presentation. It was a demonstration of how the 32X could playback full motion CinePack video using pre-rendered graphics. Magazines soon reported this along with a 32X version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Not too long afterwords a Saturn version of Ecco was released with more screen shots of the pre-rendered Dolphin from the 32X demonstration.
Two problems arise related to a 32X version of Ecco the Dolphin using CinePack video. The video for the introduction scene takes up a majority of the ROM where that same amount of space could store all of Ecco 2 for Genesis. The 32X was not capable of producing the pre-rendered graphic without making the Dolphin in it look like a folded gray paper. The 32X could not map textures to models like how most modern systems did, that's why a majority of the games look like crappy Virtual Reality demonstrations from the early 90's.
What about the Dolphin from the video? The Dolphin were more likely taken from the Ecco the Dolphin videos from the Sega CD version of Ecco 2. It was probably a prototype model, the same one used in the alleged Sega Saturn videos that were scenes cut from the Sega CD version.
Download: Ecco 32X CinePack Demo
Related: Unreleased Ecco the Dolphin for Sega Saturn
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