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Proto:Ecco: The Tides of Time (Genesis)/Ecco II Beta X11/Levels

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This is a sub-page of Proto:Ecco: The Tides of Time (Genesis)/Ecco II Beta X11.

This cactus is UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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.
Hmmm...
To do:
This will be a pretty significant undertaking and will definitely need level maps for comparison to final

3D Stages

Proto Final
Kinda cute That looks unhealthy
Proto Final
Aah! Spheres! Aah! Sharks!
Proto Final
They sure are lines Kelp is a kind of line right

All obstacles except for jellyfish use glitched placeholder graphics, and the nautilus bubbles are an innocuous blue rather than the sickly brown of the final. The health and air bars are positioned in the upper left, as they were in the first game and the previous prototype. The final moved them to the upper right for consistency and added a ring counter in their place.

Stage 0 - Corall Reefs (Sea of Green)

Corresponds to Sea of Green in the final game, but Ecco starts directly in the water in the first section. The final adds a wall to the left of where Ecco starts in the prototype and moved him into the resulting pool of water. Because this level is the very first in the list, levels with undefined warps will take the player here by default.

The music used in the prototype is the Moray Abyss theme; the final switched to the Sea of Darkness theme instead.

Stage 1 - Deep Horizont (Deep Ridge)

Deep Ridge uses the Track 07 music in this prototype. The globes are positioned differently from the final; they seem to be more evenly spread apart instead of arranged in nearby pairs.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-deepridge-orthocone.png Ecco2final-deepridge-orthocone.png
Proto Final
Ecco2x11-deepridge-shell.png Ecco2final-deepridge-shell.png

The easiest difference to spot is that the rocks are purple, and the seabed a dusky orange-blue. The final changed it to brown rocks and a gray-blue seabed. This change also applied to the enemies which are more vibrantly colored in X11.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-deepridge-palettebug.png Ecco2final-deepridge-palettebug.png

A row of decorated flat ground was lowered because of palette conflicts with the sky.

Stage 2 - The Eye

Like Deep Ridge, The Eye uses a purple palette in this prototype that was replaced with a brown palette. Evidently most of the "globe-collecting" levels were purple at this point in development before receiving more distinguishing palettes in the final.

Stage 3 - Collect (Sea of Birds)

This collection level stayed purple, but the falling shells were changed from yellow to lavender.

Stage 4 - Spiral

This is an interesting and fairly large level that was further fleshed out in the 0429 prototype, but ultimately seems to have been greatly trimmed down into the final's Secret Cave. At this point in development, it is mostly empty. A light-spawning glyph near the beginning of the level has this to say:

0xB96D2:

FOLLOW THE
UNDER WATER
LIGHTS...

Ecco2x11-spirallight.png

In the 0429 prototype and the final, this glyph has no message associated with it. As in the final, the glyph spawns lights all around the level which fly off in a certain direction when hit with sonar, presumably to guide the player through the level's vast corridors.

There is a teleport ring here like the final Secret Cave, but it takes Ecco to Asterite Ide (Asterite's Home) instead of a 3D stage. A nearby glyph demands you come back after finding this teleport ring, but doesn't seem to let Ecco pass regardless. The glyph can be bypassed using debug mode to shift Ecco's current position, allowing further exploration. A screen warp not far from the glyph takes Ecco to Vortex on Earth (Lunar Bay); in the final, a 3D stage bridges Secret Cave and Lunar Bay instead.

Stage 5 - Shark (The Hungry Ones)

Yet another purple level that changed color in the final; in this case, green. Extra background detail was added as well.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-hungryones-glyph.png Ecco2final-hungryones-glyph.png

The glyph that tells you to turn into a shark in the final is present but has nothing to say.

Stage 6 - Globeholder (Globe Holder)

E2A X11
What a mess All cleaned up

The Globe Holder and its arena are finished in this prototype, unlike E2A where it couldn't be killed. The only difference from the final is that the music doesn't change during the time travel sequence; the final properly uses the time travel theme.

Stage 7 - Selection Scr

The selection screen uses the Track 07 music in this prototype instead of the title theme.

Proto Final
Nowhere to go but forward This way is very hard, but not insoluble

The final game added a corridor blocked by shells that enables Hard Mode, which wasn't really present at this point in development. The fish were also changed.

Stage 8 - Between A Times (Two Tides)

Corresponds to Two Tides in the final game; this is where Ecco meets the future dolphin Trellia and goes to the Good Future. Interestingly, there is a segment where rocks fall from the ceiling followed by Ecco losing the powers he gained from the Asterite in the first game. In the final game, this sequence was moved to its own level, Fault Zone, which is not present in the prototype.

The level uses Track 01 instead of the Two Tides theme, which is not present in this prototype.

Stage 9 - Broken Glyph (The Lost Orcas)

The starfish use generic hazard icons on the sonar map rather than the unique starfish icons in the final.

Stage 13 - Home Bay

The music in Home Bay in the prototype is the Skyway theme, while in the final it uses the title theme.

Proto Final
Cowabunga Your turtle friends made a good soup

Home Bay is positively filled with turtles in the prototype; they were all removed in the final game, although Home Bay in the Game Gear port remains turtle-plenty.

Stage 14 - Dark Stage (Sea of Darkness)

Sea of Darkness isn't very dark in the prototype, as the brightness effect hasn't yet been implemented by this point. The Ecco the Dolphin-style Vortex Drones are absent here.

Proto Final
Fluorescent sand for all your aquarium needs Spooky

The seabed in the background uses the wrong palette.

Proto Final
Fresh air Only musty cave air here

Most notably, the prototype Sea of Darkness is open to the air. In the final game, the water's surface was replaced with a cavernous ceiling.

Proto Final
Free as can be Sorry, aliens and shells only

As a result, the level progression was changed from jumping over islands to traveling through tunnels with some falling shells to dodge.

Asterite's Death

The orca who relays the death of the Asterite has no dialogue and just brings up the cutscene right away, even though associated text exists in the prototype already.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-queenscene.png Ecco2final-queenscene.png

The Vortex Queen's head was redrawn to be less obviously a resized version of the Ecco the Dolphin sprite.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-queenscenelaser.png Ecco2final-queenscenelaser.png

The Queen seems to spawn more lasers at once than in the final. They also have buggy animations where they periodically split in half due to the tiles being mirrored incorrectly.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-queenscenedebris.png Ecco2final-queenscenedebris.png

When the Queen retreats through the ceiling, the rocky debris that falls to the floor uses placeholder bubble graphics.

Stage 26 - Atlantis00 (Atlantis)

Atlantis at this point in development uses Track 01 as its music; the final uses the Inside theme.

Proto Final
Thrilling level design This is only slightly more interesting

Where the patented Atlantean puzzle box would be in the final is instead a single pushable block that falls from the ceiling.

Proto Final
Hahaha you can't get me Haha OH JESUS

There are no aggressive, free-swimming segmented enemies in the prototype Atlantis, only the tethered variety, which is strange because both were already fully coded as early as the Playable Preview.

Proto Final
A rock in a hard place Architect's nightmare

This glyph appears in an alcove that is completely empty in the final game, but doesn't appear to do anything.

Proto Final
Hello friend! Nothing but me and the cold air above

A dolphin (who doesn't say anything) near the surface was removed.

Proto Final
Hi other friend! Who needs friends when you have this

Yet another dolphin with nothing to say was replaced with a pulsar.

Proto Final
I am a shadow, the true self Feed my addiction Ecco

The third dolphin mirrors Ecco's movements to block your path, and was given dialogue for the final game. This dialogue is actually present as early as the Playable Preview, where it was among the only text strings not reused from Ecco the Dolphin, but is completely absent from this prototype.

Proto Final
This fish could be poisonous Expert camouflage

The fish he demands was made less conspicuous in the final game.

Proto Final
Now what do I do?? Simple solutions for simple problems

A pushable block was added right by the second breakable barrier, for good reason, as getting the first pushable block all the way down there without it getting stuck is very annoying.

Stage 30 - Fishmorph (Fish City)

Fish City is functionally complete, but exists in a sort of "rough draft" state; the underlying level structure is there, but has yet to be polished.

Proto Final
Patented Atlantean right angles Patented Atlantean Aesthetic

Ecco starts the level already in fish form in the prototype, while in the final, there is a quick animation of him dashing into the metasphere.

Stage 31 - Future01 (Black Clouds)

Of the three "Future0X" levels, this is the only one that got finished for the final game.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-future01door.png Ecco2final-future01door.png

The shutter doors got a makeover for the final version.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-future01barrier.png Ecco2final-future01barrier.png

However, the old door graphics did end up being used for the horizontal barriers that the glyphs eat! In the prototype, the barriers use the same graphics as the mushroom cloud particles as placeholders. The final game also moved this particular barrier up from the middle of the tube to the very top.

Stage 32 - Future02

Ecco the flying dolphin Ecco2x11-future02-sonar.png

A very large Dark Future level that never made it to the final game. There are no objects, the collision is completely broken and the entire level acts as if it is underwater; Ecco even starts out swimming in the sky.

Stage 33 - Future03

Another huge Dark Future level that was removed from the final. The overall design of this level is very maze-like with passages that like to dump Ecco into the abyss below. Progress-wise, this one is in a better state than Future02 and has objects and functional collision present.

Stage 36 - Vortex on Earth (Lunar Bay)

There are no Vortex Drones in this level besides the pair who take Ecco to the Dark Future. The final Lunar Bay is comparatively full of Drones. Extra background decoration was also added to liven up the place.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-lunarbay1.png Ecco2final-lunarbay1.png

A brown Vortex worm further to the right in the level was moved to the first screen, and a Vortex Drone was added near its original position.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-lunarbay2.png Ecco2final-lunarbay2.png

The level is lacking in objects outside of the first area; most notably, there are no spike barriers nor the glyphs which eat them up.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-lunarbay3.png Ecco2final-lunarbay3.png

The time travel event is already present, but the Drones appear in a different part of the level. They take Ecco to stage 34: Entrance (Vortex Future) and then explode, as they do in the final.

Stage 37 - Vortex Entrance (Dark Sea)

Dark Sea uses Track 07 as its music instead of Fault Zone's theme. There are no brown Vortex worms, standalone Vortex Drones, spike barriers, barrier-eating glyphs, continue glyphs or projectile shooters yet. The only objects in the level are several dolphin-drone interactions and a lone Ecco the Dolphin-style Drone.

Oh this ain't good.

The objects which spawn a dolphin fighting a Vortex Drone are very buggy at this point in development; if the dolphin goes offscreen, it spawns another drone on top of the one it is currently fighting (and vice versa). Stacking too many drones or dolphins results in sprite memory errors very quickly. This can also happen in the final game, but is much less likely.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-darksea1.png Ecco2final-darksea1.png

This tall island was shortened in the final game, probably because of the tile errors that occur when the moon scrolls behind it. The collision in the prototype doesn't actually reflect the island's shape, so Ecco can jump right through it.

Ecco2x11-darkseaentrance.png

The autoscroll section begins as soon as Ecco swims into the Vortex installation, while in the final there is a brief section with a barrier-eating glyph. As a result, the guiding lights (also used in Spiral) are also not present yet.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-darkseadrone.png Ecco2final-darkseadrone.png

The Ecco the Dolphin-style Vortex Drones are dark grey instead of light blue. They also burst into spike barrier pieces instead of Vortex wall projectiles.

Stage 44 - Sarlac (Vortex Queen)

This is a near-final version of the final boss fight against the Vortex Queen. The early name "Sarlac" refers to the huge, pit-dwelling creature from the Star Wars franchise, which the Queen resembles.

Proto Final
Ecco2x11-queenbackground.png Ecco2final-queenbackground.png

Unlike the previous prototype, there is a background now, which even scrolls down while the Queen is eating, but it is completely different from the final's background and appears to be a placeholder. She also doesn't make any sound when swallowing Ecco.

Proto Final
What does this do? Yeah that's probably not good.

The laser above the queen works as intended, but there is no visual effect on Ecco's sprite when he is slowed by it.

0xBA8C2:

PLEASE DO NOT
KILL ME ECCO.

After defeating the Vortex Queen, she emerges as a larva and pleads for her life. In the final game, the larva only appears after the player loses control of Ecco. Regardless, this message remains present and unused in the final game.