Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Case Study No. 0857: Staff of the Atlantean Library

Ecco The Dolphin Playthrough - Part 14 - The Library
3:09
This is a short level, but there is an area of glyphs that give the backstory to Atlantis, the Vortex, and what took Ecco's pod.
Tags: Ecco The Dolphin Playthrough Sega Genesis MegaDrive RubixPlays
Added: 2 years ago
From: RubixPlays
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From wikipedia.org:

Ecco the Dolphin (referred to on the title screen as simply "Ecco") is an action-adventure video game released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive.

Storyline
The game begins with Ecco as he and his pod are swimming in their home bay. One podmate challenges him to see how high into the air he can jump. When he is in the air, a waterspout storm forms and sucks up all marine life in the bay except Ecco, leaving him alone in the bay. Upon leaving the bay to search for his pod, he contacts several dolphins from other pods, who tell him the entire sea is in chaos, and that all marine creatures had felt the storm.

An orca tells Ecco to travel to the Arctic to find a blue whale named the "Big Blue", who is revered among marine mammals for its age and wisdom. Once Ecco finds him, the Big Blue tells him such storms had been occurring every 500 years and directs him to the Asterite, the oldest creature on Earth.

He leaves the Arctic and travels to a deep cavern where he finds the Asterite. Although it has the power to aid him, one of its globes is missing, and needs it returned. However, this can only be achieved by traveling back in time using a machine built by the ancient Atlanteans.

Ecco travels to the sunken city of Atlantis, where he discovers the time machine and an ancient library. The library contains purple crystals (or glyphs) containing the last vestiges of Atlantean knowledge. "Reading" these glyphs by using his sonar, Ecco learns the cause of the storm that destroyed the ancient city: it was a harvest of Earth's waters that was conducted every 500 years by an alien species known as the Vortex. The Vortex had lost their ability to make their own food, and so every 500 years, they would harvest from the waters of Earth.

Learning this, he activates the time machine and travels 55 million years into Earth's past. Ecco locates the Asterite in the past but is immediately attacked by it. Forced into battle, he manages to dislodge a globe from it. This opens a time portal and he is sent back into the present. After receiving the globe, the Asterite grants him the power to turn his sonar into a deadly weapon against the Vortex, as well as the abilities to breathe underwater and to slowly regenerate lost health.

The Asterite instructs him to use the time machine to travel back in time to the hour of the harvest. This time he manages to be sucked into the waterspout with his pod. Once inside the waterspout, Ecco makes his way towards the Vortex Queen, the leader of the Vortex race. Eventually, the Vortex Queen is destroyed and Ecco rescues his pod.

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From wikia.com:

Atlantis is the civilization of the Atlanteans. The inhabitants used the Time Machine to retreat far into the past to save the human race. Eventually after many attacks from the Vortex, Atlantis sunk into the ocean in an area west of the Asterite's Cave. The entire city has since become infested with sharks, jellyfish and other creatures. Atlantis is not just one city, but a civilization which incorporates several cities, such as the City of Forever.

Atlantis itself is very large and filled with many relics of highly advanced technology. However what Ecco does not encounter are any remains of weapons, meaning that they were all destroyed or exhausted in the war with the Vortex.

As Ecco makes his way through the city he encounters numerous traps and puzzles.Perhaps the Atlanteans put them there in anticipation of a ground war with the Vortex or to prevent undesirables from gaining access to the Library and Time Machine. There are stone carvings of human statues and temple-like structures spread throughout. This shows that the Atlanteans had a cultural life as well.

The two most important parts of the city are the Atlantean Library and the Time Machine, which is located in the City of Forever. The Atlanteans recorded the history of their civilization and race in Glyphs (crystal shaped devices which use sonar interaction to store and disseminate information) so that when the Singers - i.e. dolphins and whales - eventually find the city, they would know what happened. The Time Machine is stored in the deepest part of Atlantis. It survived the Vortex attack and is still functional.

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From orcaserver.de:

GLYPH 1
We are losing a war with the planet Vortex
Atlantis is in ruins after a beam struck from space
We have escaped into the past with our technology

GLYPH 2
Glyph: Crystals containing encoded messages. Certain sounds reflect the message back.
Created to help a dolphin of the future travel to Vortex.

GLYPH 3
Planet Vortex: Third planet in the star system Cassandra.
Located in the head of the constellation Pegasus.
Note: The nearest constellation to Pegasus is Delphineus.

GLYPH 4
Vortex Lifeforms: We suspect that Vortex is dying and can no longer produce food
Every 500 years, when the Earth and Vortex have a clear path, the Vortex feed upon the Earth
Each feeding increases in size - the Vortex are getting hungrier!

GLYPH 5
We, the people of Atlantis, have made these glyphs for you

GLYPH 6
Vortex is feeding on the seas of our Earth - eventually all life will be harvested
All life will end! The Vortex must be stopped

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