Officially revealed at Space World 2000, Echo Delta was going to be one of the few real time strategy games available per the Nintendo 64, even through with some action-game features. The objective of the game was to recover a sunken ship with a little submarine, trying at the same time to obtain energy from the ocean’s bed. With this energy it was possible to upgrade our submarine, using some sort of factory called “Core”. However the Core was vulnerable to enemy attack, so we needed to protect it with some placeable weapons , like the defensive turrets. Even if essentially completed, Echo delta was quietly cancelled at the end of the year. On July 2006 a prototype copy of the game was sold on ebay, but the game was not leaked to the internet.
Update from NickNack: From the forums of FrankC’s Lost Levels, there has been some hubbub over the unreleased Echo Delta prototype, that was on sale on eBay”. The discussion points out that there was an IGN Preview Article about it back in 2000. Developed by the Marigul-funded design team, Clever Trick, the game was hard to categorize because of its RTS (Real Time Strategy) like game play and overall feel but it had lots of RPG (Role Playing Game) elements with a splash of Action. In the short 18 minutes you have in the Beta-demo you goal is to raise a sunken battle ship from the ocean abysses. To accomplish your goal you must scour the sea floor for resources to up grade your submarine vessel, scout.
There seems to be other copies of this unreleased beta floating around, no pun intended. There have also been reports of another copy on the ASSEMbler Forums back in 2004, which also arises the question “were there any other copies of the Space World 2000 Prototypes”? Apparently so because there have been reports of a seller who want an out standing sum of $1,520.00 for this 18 minute demo.
Thanks to olivieryuyu for the videos!
[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Presentato ufficialmente allo Space World 2000, Echo Delta doveva essere uno dei pochi strategici disponibili per nintendo 64 (insieme al celebre Starcraft 64) pur contenendo caratteristiche più simili ad un action. Utilizzando un sottomarino, dovevamo infatti cercare di recuperare una nave affondata, tentando nel contempo di recuperare più energia possibile dal fondo oceanico, servendoci del nostro radar.
Con questa energia era possibile potenziare il nostro sottomarino, in una sorta di fabbrica centrale detta “core”, in modo da rendere più facile l’impresa di recupero. Sarebbe stato necessario anche stare attenti a difendere il nostro centro di potenziamento, utilizzando elementi tipici degli strategici, come le torrette difensive, che potevano essere settate a luogo o breve raggio.
Benchè sicuramente interessante dal punto di vista del gameplay, evidentemente Nintendo non deve averlo giudicato un prodotto degno della grande software house, complice forse anche un comparto tecnico tutt’altro che esaltante. Il prodotto venne rapidamente cancellato, nonostante fosse ormai completo.
Recentemente la beta ormai definitiva di Echo Delta è stata venduta su ebay, e probabilmente prima o poi ne vedremo una release pubblica su ROM, come tanti altri unseen per Nintendo 64.[/spoiler]
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its a really interesting game, i would love to play it but unfortunatly that will never happen, anyway thanks for sharing this rare piece of gaming
The N64 .ROM of Doubutsu Banchou (Animal Leader – Cubivore) is out now! This is not a drill! https://www.nesworld.com/article.php?system=n64&data=n64-doubutsubanchou_2021
I hope we manage to find a .ROM of Echo Delta someday. Looks fun!
Right you are. I also wish for the same thing too. As a matter of fact, we should still be on the lookout for Earthbound 64, Twelve Tales Conker 64 amongst others like Jungle Emperor Leo a.k.a Kimba the White Lion, and also have the unreleased Panel De Pon 64 have its rom dumped. these games should be next in line to have their roms dumped. I’m guessing Conker’s Quest or Twelve Tales should be next because it’s highly rumored that a collector might have a copy of the prototype and i bet that Echo Delta and Twelve Tales will come soon then Panel De Pon 64 to have the rom dumped and then EarthBound 64.
Some rando apparently translated the game? If that’s fake it’s a very good fake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80kv9a5q1Q4
The patch is at http://www.bwass.org/bucket/Echo Delta (USA).7z
twili, Zoinkity isn’t actually some rando, they’re a highly respected hacker in the N64 scene, responsible for a lot of work in the sort of N64-adjacent area (64DD, Seta Aleck64 and iQue Player) as well as a bunch of “regular” N64 stuff like hacks and translations. I was definitely skeptical before I saw who was responsible, but knowing that it’s Zoinkity, this is absolutely legit. They must have some form of contact with somebody who has the ROM but is not willing to share it any more than enough snippets to guide the translation hack. What a weird situation to be in, a translation hack for a game nobody has.