Just noticed I posted this in the older console forums so re-posting it here, which I think where Dreamcast stuff goes.
To anybody interested. Here are some speedrun notes for Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (Dreamcast PAL version). It is more than just a glitch guide, as it covers how to use glitches in many of the levels to quickly beat a level, and in some cases skip several. This guide is beta, and needs lots of work (mostly it needs to be more specific, optimal paths need to be found, more tips, and hopefully more exploits to use to bypass some of the more annoying levels *cough*cough*Hanging Waters*cough. After all the work I put into figuring out this stuff, I wanted it to give it to the community in hopes that it helps someone. I don't plan on speed running the game, or putting much more work into it, so anybody who wants, feel free to take it, use it, modify it, and distribute it however you see fit. I just ask you give me credit if you do.
- Dude McBro
Also, the guide is attached as a txt file.
List of many of the glitches, along with photos and vidoes, can be found here: http://web8.orcaserver.de/ecco/glitches/
If you have any questions, contact me through the speeddemosarchive.com forums.
This guide is mostly based off of aileronnoir's walk-through. However, this one utilizes glitches and other tricks not in that guide.
Level 1: Aquamarine Bay
----------------------
Go talk to both whales at least twice.
Collect vitalits to kill some time.
Position self by where the rocks will fall for cutscene.
Talk to baby whale.
Talk to dolphin dudes.
Save baby whale.
Talk to mommy whale.
Level 2: Perils of the Coral Reef
---------------------------------
Activiate glitch to clip thru level.
Go collect sonar power up.
Go to level exit.
Level 3: Trial Without Error
----------------------------
Ativate clip b/w hammerheads and mommy dolphin.
Exit level near there.
Skip to Level 7: Up and Down
----------------------------
Push rock and grab sonar powerup.
Blow up rock..
Grab vitality powerup.
Go thru tunnel.
Drop from top of volcano
Make turtle fall on sting ray.
Grab stealth power up.
Swim to exit.
Level 8: Roaring Forces
-------------------------
Grab stealth and swim past eel.
Hit two buttons marked by dolphins.
Get morph ball
Touch fish.
Swim out of level.
Level 9: Atlantis Lost
----------------------
Collect Crystal @ 8 clock to guardian (behind building, in seaweed)
collect crystal @ 10 to guardian (in grass, shallows)
collect cystal @ 11 to guardian (collect vigour, then break wall to temply place.)
collect cyrstal @ almost 12ish (push rock into current, go get cyrstal)
jump thru 4 hoops floating above buildings.
visit 4 outer buildings and sonar the things inside.
visit main temple, sonar all the circles.
go to 12ish to guardian, line up on left side of rings, heading towards rightish, turbo then swim fast, grab 5th crystal, give to guardian.
Level 12: Shrine of Controversy
-------------------------------
Exploit clip glitch. Swim under level, then thru center column to temple and grab harness.
Die.
Go to drill looking thing with light.
Level 13: Master of Forgotten Skills
------------------------------------
Do it legit Sad
Activate fan 1, 2, 3
Move light orange, move green, move yellow, move dark orange.
Level 14: Process That Never Ends
-----------------------------------
Do it legit Sad
go talk to dolphin outside glass.
go back talk to 2 swimming dolphins.
go move rock cart.
go hit switches as needed to get to end of conveyor belt.
move crystals to smasher.
Level 15: Blades in Motion
----------------------------
Exploit Glitch under column on right.
Swim to bottom of big fan area.
Follow da yellow area
Swim to exit.
Level 16: Perpetual Fluidity
----------------------------
Do it legit...... for now.
You start at (1), get thesonar powerup at (2)and use it to clear thepassage ahead of youof the sharp red things.
Swim along the passage to (3). Here you encounter a room full of mines, they will explode if you pass through one of the red beams of light, swim past them to (4).
Hit the switch to open the door and swim to (5), then to (6).
Hit the switch and swim to (7).
Don't hit the switch in this room yet, swim into the passage below the one you entered from to reach (8),
hit the switch at (8) and swim back to (7).
Hit the switch at (7) now and swim through the passage to (9).
Hit the switch to open the door, swim to (10) hit the switch, swim back to (9) and hit the switch again.
Swim to (7), due to all the switches you have been hitting raising the water level there is now a white tunnel near the surface that is now accesable, swim through it to (6),
use the low down tunnel to swim to (5),
swim to (8),
swim through to (11).
At (11) hit the switch and use the power of sonar to clear the
half blocked pipe, swim through the passage towards (12) to exit the level.
Level 17: Obscure Ways to Terminus
----------------------------------
Take farthest left tunnel.
After U pipe, stop, don't let current take you to next pipe.
Jump over divider. Continue to do this till you get to last bay.
Take farthest right pipe.
Take pipe to end.
Level 18: Sleeping Forces of Doom
---------------------------------
Beat legit Sad
Best way so far is to focus on knocking crystals out of tentacles.
Level 19: Twisted Realities
---------------------------
Cutscene
Level 20: Anguish of Dearth
---------------------------
Exploit glitch by big boulder
go back to big boulder and follow to skip Level 21: Entrapment
Level 22: Caverns of Hope
-------------------------
Do it legit Sad ...... for now.
--------------------
Level 23: Lair of Evil:
-----------------------
Make right at first fork.
At room with 2 dolphins, go thru door left of green icon door. (i think)
Go to room with the dolphin that spots you. Have him open door for you.
Get to printing room
Get clam to tatoo you.
return to rude dolphin room. go left and follow tunnel.
in room with 2 dolphins, go to green icon door.
In room with big tower thing, Clip thru gap in one of crystal blocked tubes. Follow to end.
Level 24: Powers of Levitation
------------------------------
Me thinks you have to beat it legit Sad
1. Turn on all 3 fans.
2. In outer circular hallway with the organ, go thru tunnel between organ and air dispenser. Down the tunnel is another tunnel leading to shark.
3. Talk to mean dolphin and follow. Don't get to close or too far away.
4. Talk to nice dolphin.
5. Go to main facility and talk to mean(nice) dolphin again.
6. Go activiate all switches
7. Talk to whales.
8. Find engineer swimming outside.
9. Go to organ, put face in it and barf out sound.
10. Profit
level 25: Hanging Waters
----------------------------
1. Begin by jumping over barriers. After 2nd barrier, current will take you along, just jump the barriers as needed.
2. In first area, jump in a bubble and stay in it as it flows toward tunnel.
3. Follow tunnel to next area. Here, get to the tunnel by jumping into new bubbles and bouncing off others. You can skip most of the bubble jumps by aiming correctly at the gate to hit one of the bubbles in the air. Aim for about 10 oclock in gate, a little more than half way out.
PRO TIP: you can adjust hight of bounce by tilting back slightly on joystick.
4. Once in tunnel, take right fork. Just before gate, jump out of tunnel to right. If done correctly, you will fall to your death, but pass a checkpoint on way to death. Will respawn at that checkpoint.
5. Activate switch, then take rightmost of the 3 tunnels.
6. Once you reach pool area, go to fallen rock in the tunnel. At top, to the left of one of the smaller rocks is a crack you can glitch through.
7. Go to where you can jump into a water tunnel.
8. Follow it to where 3 tunnels are.
9. get to middle tunnel. Take it past barrier and jump to right tunnel. Go past barrier and take middle tunnel. Go past barrier and take left, then right, then right, then left twice quickly. End up at squid.
10. Supposed glitch to swim thru air here. Haven' figured it out yet. Activate all 3 squid switches to make squid disappear. At beginning of this area, hit switch to make water come back.
11. Take bottom left tunnel to next main area. Take bottom path.
12. At next pool area, use the clipped water right of the waterfall coming from above. Swim to top and enter next level via mutaclone.
Level 26: Ice and Fire
---------------------------
Skipped
Level 27: Abyss of Inferno
---------------------------
Skipped
Level 28: Mutaclone
---------------------------
1. Break all yellow stones.
2. Lure enemy dolphin into yellow gas.
3. Attack. Profit.
Level 29: Invasion
----------------------------
Cuscene
Level 30:
Chance of Reckoning
----------------------------
1. Grab the sonar power up. Attack the 2 eyes, and the third eye on the back of the head.
2. Go to where the rock fell.
Level 31: Hatchery
----------------------------
1. At the end of the hatchery, there are 2 switches on the wall. As one lights up, echo it and quickly go to center machine and attack it.
2. Do this 3 times then go to place where eggs where being delievered.
Level 32: Seeds of Poison
----------------------------
1. Grab sonar power up.
2. Swim up and blast open door.
3. Swim down (try not to let bad guy attack you)
5. Top up on health and air. Repeat till you get to top and exit level.
Level 33: Transfiguration
----------------------------
1. Go to cave with sonar power up. Kill all the bats.
2. Get sonar power up again and swim out of cave and down and break open rock. There is another sonar here.
3. Get sonar power up again and go to other place with bat and kill it and blast open rocks.
4. Grab morph item.
5. Swim down, grab sonar, and sonar the bad guy there. Swim up a bit and to the right and sonar the other bad guy. (they shoot homing beacons that will messs the next part up.)
6. Go touch fish.
7. Swim towards top where red part of main Foe column is. Exit level.
Level 34: Heart of the Foe
----------------------------
1. Get under device that shoots out jellies. Sonar jellies into heart. Dash into heart.
2. Repeat till boss be dead.
3. Profit.
To anybody interested. Here are some speedrun notes for Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (Dreamcast PAL version). It is more than just a glitch guide, as it covers how to use glitches in many of the levels to quickly beat a level, and in some cases skip several. This guide is beta, and needs lots of work (mostly it needs to be more specific, optimal paths need to be found, more tips, and hopefully more exploits to use to bypass some of the more annoying levels *cough*cough*Hanging Waters*cough. After all the work I put into figuring out this stuff, I wanted it to give it to the community in hopes that it helps someone. I don't plan on speed running the game, or putting much more work into it, so anybody who wants, feel free to take it, use it, modify it, and distribute it however you see fit. I just ask you give me credit if you do.
- Dude McBro
Also, the guide is attached as a txt file.
List of many of the glitches, along with photos and vidoes, can be found here: http://web8.orcaserver.de/ecco/glitches/
If you have any questions, contact me through the speeddemosarchive.com forums.
This guide is mostly based off of aileronnoir's walk-through. However, this one utilizes glitches and other tricks not in that guide.
Level 1: Aquamarine Bay
----------------------
Go talk to both whales at least twice.
Collect vitalits to kill some time.
Position self by where the rocks will fall for cutscene.
Talk to baby whale.
Talk to dolphin dudes.
Save baby whale.
Talk to mommy whale.
Level 2: Perils of the Coral Reef
---------------------------------
Activiate glitch to clip thru level.
Go collect sonar power up.
Go to level exit.
Level 3: Trial Without Error
----------------------------
Ativate clip b/w hammerheads and mommy dolphin.
Exit level near there.
Skip to Level 7: Up and Down
----------------------------
Push rock and grab sonar powerup.
Blow up rock..
Grab vitality powerup.
Go thru tunnel.
Drop from top of volcano
Make turtle fall on sting ray.
Grab stealth power up.
Swim to exit.
Level 8: Roaring Forces
-------------------------
Grab stealth and swim past eel.
Hit two buttons marked by dolphins.
Get morph ball
Touch fish.
Swim out of level.
Level 9: Atlantis Lost
----------------------
Collect Crystal @ 8 clock to guardian (behind building, in seaweed)
collect crystal @ 10 to guardian (in grass, shallows)
collect cystal @ 11 to guardian (collect vigour, then break wall to temply place.)
collect cyrstal @ almost 12ish (push rock into current, go get cyrstal)
jump thru 4 hoops floating above buildings.
visit 4 outer buildings and sonar the things inside.
visit main temple, sonar all the circles.
go to 12ish to guardian, line up on left side of rings, heading towards rightish, turbo then swim fast, grab 5th crystal, give to guardian.
Level 12: Shrine of Controversy
-------------------------------
Exploit clip glitch. Swim under level, then thru center column to temple and grab harness.
Die.
Go to drill looking thing with light.
Level 13: Master of Forgotten Skills
------------------------------------
Do it legit Sad
Activate fan 1, 2, 3
Move light orange, move green, move yellow, move dark orange.
Level 14: Process That Never Ends
-----------------------------------
Do it legit Sad
go talk to dolphin outside glass.
go back talk to 2 swimming dolphins.
go move rock cart.
go hit switches as needed to get to end of conveyor belt.
move crystals to smasher.
Level 15: Blades in Motion
----------------------------
Exploit Glitch under column on right.
Swim to bottom of big fan area.
Follow da yellow area
Swim to exit.
Level 16: Perpetual Fluidity
----------------------------
Do it legit...... for now.
You start at (1), get thesonar powerup at (2)and use it to clear thepassage ahead of youof the sharp red things.
Swim along the passage to (3). Here you encounter a room full of mines, they will explode if you pass through one of the red beams of light, swim past them to (4).
Hit the switch to open the door and swim to (5), then to (6).
Hit the switch and swim to (7).
Don't hit the switch in this room yet, swim into the passage below the one you entered from to reach (8),
hit the switch at (8) and swim back to (7).
Hit the switch at (7) now and swim through the passage to (9).
Hit the switch to open the door, swim to (10) hit the switch, swim back to (9) and hit the switch again.
Swim to (7), due to all the switches you have been hitting raising the water level there is now a white tunnel near the surface that is now accesable, swim through it to (6),
use the low down tunnel to swim to (5),
swim to (8),
swim through to (11).
At (11) hit the switch and use the power of sonar to clear the
half blocked pipe, swim through the passage towards (12) to exit the level.
Level 17: Obscure Ways to Terminus
----------------------------------
Take farthest left tunnel.
After U pipe, stop, don't let current take you to next pipe.
Jump over divider. Continue to do this till you get to last bay.
Take farthest right pipe.
Take pipe to end.
Level 18: Sleeping Forces of Doom
---------------------------------
Beat legit Sad
Best way so far is to focus on knocking crystals out of tentacles.
Level 19: Twisted Realities
---------------------------
Cutscene
Level 20: Anguish of Dearth
---------------------------
Exploit glitch by big boulder
go back to big boulder and follow to skip Level 21: Entrapment
Level 22: Caverns of Hope
-------------------------
Do it legit Sad ...... for now.
--------------------
Level 23: Lair of Evil:
-----------------------
Make right at first fork.
At room with 2 dolphins, go thru door left of green icon door. (i think)
Go to room with the dolphin that spots you. Have him open door for you.
Get to printing room
Get clam to tatoo you.
return to rude dolphin room. go left and follow tunnel.
in room with 2 dolphins, go to green icon door.
In room with big tower thing, Clip thru gap in one of crystal blocked tubes. Follow to end.
Level 24: Powers of Levitation
------------------------------
Me thinks you have to beat it legit Sad
1. Turn on all 3 fans.
2. In outer circular hallway with the organ, go thru tunnel between organ and air dispenser. Down the tunnel is another tunnel leading to shark.
3. Talk to mean dolphin and follow. Don't get to close or too far away.
4. Talk to nice dolphin.
5. Go to main facility and talk to mean(nice) dolphin again.
6. Go activiate all switches
7. Talk to whales.
8. Find engineer swimming outside.
9. Go to organ, put face in it and barf out sound.
10. Profit
level 25: Hanging Waters
----------------------------
1. Begin by jumping over barriers. After 2nd barrier, current will take you along, just jump the barriers as needed.
2. In first area, jump in a bubble and stay in it as it flows toward tunnel.
3. Follow tunnel to next area. Here, get to the tunnel by jumping into new bubbles and bouncing off others. You can skip most of the bubble jumps by aiming correctly at the gate to hit one of the bubbles in the air. Aim for about 10 oclock in gate, a little more than half way out.
PRO TIP: you can adjust hight of bounce by tilting back slightly on joystick.
4. Once in tunnel, take right fork. Just before gate, jump out of tunnel to right. If done correctly, you will fall to your death, but pass a checkpoint on way to death. Will respawn at that checkpoint.
5. Activate switch, then take rightmost of the 3 tunnels.
6. Once you reach pool area, go to fallen rock in the tunnel. At top, to the left of one of the smaller rocks is a crack you can glitch through.
7. Go to where you can jump into a water tunnel.
8. Follow it to where 3 tunnels are.
9. get to middle tunnel. Take it past barrier and jump to right tunnel. Go past barrier and take middle tunnel. Go past barrier and take left, then right, then right, then left twice quickly. End up at squid.
10. Supposed glitch to swim thru air here. Haven' figured it out yet. Activate all 3 squid switches to make squid disappear. At beginning of this area, hit switch to make water come back.
11. Take bottom left tunnel to next main area. Take bottom path.
12. At next pool area, use the clipped water right of the waterfall coming from above. Swim to top and enter next level via mutaclone.
Level 26: Ice and Fire
---------------------------
Skipped
Level 27: Abyss of Inferno
---------------------------
Skipped
Level 28: Mutaclone
---------------------------
1. Break all yellow stones.
2. Lure enemy dolphin into yellow gas.
3. Attack. Profit.
Level 29: Invasion
----------------------------
Cuscene
Level 30:
Chance of Reckoning
----------------------------
1. Grab the sonar power up. Attack the 2 eyes, and the third eye on the back of the head.
2. Go to where the rock fell.
Level 31: Hatchery
----------------------------
1. At the end of the hatchery, there are 2 switches on the wall. As one lights up, echo it and quickly go to center machine and attack it.
2. Do this 3 times then go to place where eggs where being delievered.
Level 32: Seeds of Poison
----------------------------
1. Grab sonar power up.
2. Swim up and blast open door.
3. Swim down (try not to let bad guy attack you)
5. Top up on health and air. Repeat till you get to top and exit level.
Level 33: Transfiguration
----------------------------
1. Go to cave with sonar power up. Kill all the bats.
2. Get sonar power up again and swim out of cave and down and break open rock. There is another sonar here.
3. Get sonar power up again and go to other place with bat and kill it and blast open rocks.
4. Grab morph item.
5. Swim down, grab sonar, and sonar the bad guy there. Swim up a bit and to the right and sonar the other bad guy. (they shoot homing beacons that will messs the next part up.)
6. Go touch fish.
7. Swim towards top where red part of main Foe column is. Exit level.
Level 34: Heart of the Foe
----------------------------
1. Get under device that shoots out jellies. Sonar jellies into heart. Dash into heart.
2. Repeat till boss be dead.
3. Profit.
Thread title:
