''EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus'' is an educational

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based ...

developed by

Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...

. The original concept was developed by Sierra VP of Creative Development,

Bill Davis William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the member of provincial Parliament for Peel in the 1959 provincia ...

. The game designers are

Jane Jensen Jane Jensen (born Jane Elizabeth Smith; January 28, 1963 in Palmerton, Pennsylvania) is an American video game designer and author. She is mostly known as the creator of the ''Gabriel Knight'' series of adventure games, and also co-founded Obe ...

and Gano Haine. The game was going to be ported to

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...

and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

, but those releases never came out. A sequel, '' Lost Secret of the Rainforest'', was released in 1993. The last of Sierra's various ''Quest'' series, ''EcoQuest'' is designed to teach about the importance of

environmental ethics In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resour ...

. The games are considerably easier than most Sierra adventures and cannot be lost or rendered

unwinnable A no-win situation, also called a lose-lose situation, is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to a net gain. For example, if an executioner offers the condemned the choice of death by being hanged, shot, or poisoned, all choices lea ...

. Both use a fully mouse-driven version of SCI1, in the manner of ''

Space Quest IV ''Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers'' is a 1991 graphic adventure game by Sierra On-Line. It was released on floppy disks on March 4, 1991, and released on CD-ROM in December 1992 with full speech support and featuring ''Laugh-In'' ...

'' and ''

King's Quest VI ''King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow'' is a point-and-click adventure game, first released in 1992 as the sixth installment in the '' King's Quest'' series produced by Sierra On-Line. Written by Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen, ''King's ...

''. ''The Search for Cetus'' was released first on

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined ...

, then on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...

with full speech in 1992.

Plot

The

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

is a 10-year-old boy named Adam Greene, the son of an ecologist and an expert

scuba diver Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...

. Adam's attempts to help a

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the b ...

named Delphineus that his father has rescued, takes a turn for the weirder when the dolphin starts talking. In no time flat, he's trying to seek out Cetus, the

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

king of Eluria, an underwater kingdom populated by marine animals. He has assistance in the form of several creatures found in the various

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s of the world. Aside from the considerable liberty of sentient talking and semi-

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

animals, the game is more realistic than cartoony.

Gameplay

The game presents the player with practical, narrative problems to solve (typical of Sierra adventure games of the period) combined with occasional puzzle elements similar to those found in the '' Castle of Dr. Brain''. ''The Search for Cetus'' introduced the

recycling symbol The universal recycling symbol ( or in Unicode) is internationally recognized for symbol for recycling activity. The symbol's creation originates on the first Earth Day in 1970, where the logo depicted is a Möbius strip. The public domain sta ...

to Sierra's standard palette of command

icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

, giving the player bonus points for removing litter from the marine environment. The game introduces children ages 12 and up to

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

and

marine conservation Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management in order to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources. Marine conservation is in ...

by confronting them with the consequences of various human activities including: dumping of litter, releasing of helium-filled

balloons A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the per ...

, abandonment of

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

gear, collisions between vessels and marine mammals, spilling of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

into the sea and the fertilization of

algal bloom An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompas ...

Sequel

In '' Lost Secret of the Rainforest'' (aka ''EcoQuest II'', though this does not appear in the game's title), the second installment in the series, Adam, now slightly older and able to speak with animals as a matter of course, explores the

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...

in search of a cure of a disease afflicting the local

Indigenous peoples of South America The Indigenous peoples of South America or South American Indigenous peoples, are the pre-Colombian peoples of South America and their descendants. These peoples contrast with South Americans of European ancestry and those of African descent. ...

, and a way to save the rainforest from destruction. One of the game's innovations was the "Ecorder" display: a

tricorder A tricorder is a fictional handheld sensor that exists in the ''Star Trek'' universe. The tricorder is a multifunctional hand-held device that can perform environmental scans, data recording, and data analysis; hence the word "tricorder" to refer ...

-like device Adam uses to learn about things he finds during his journey. According to ''

Pelit ''Pelit'' ("Games") is a Finnish video games magazine published in Helsinki, Finland. History ''Pelit'' dates back to 1987, as an annual extra games-only issue of '' MikroBitti'' and '' C-lehti''. Another annual issue was published in 1988, and in ...

'', the game is somewhat harder than its predecessor and places more emphasis on the dangers of selfishness and greed, as opposed to the blight of man.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:EcoQuest 1991 video games Adventure games Cancelled Amiga games Cancelled classic Mac OS games Children's educational video games DOS games DOS-only games Environmental education video games Point-and-click adventure games ScummVM-supported games Sierra Entertainment games Single-player video games Video games with underwater settings Video games developed in the United States

Plot

Gameplay

Sequel

See also

References

External links