EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus

Developed and published by Sierra On-Line, Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus is an adventure game aimed primarily at the educational market. The user plays as Adam, the son of Noah Green, an ecologist and scuba diver. As with most adventure games at the time, the interface encourages the player to look at items and interact with the environment. An interesting addition is the recycle icon, where Adam will pick up litter and place it in his garbage bag for later disposal.

The underwater kingdom of Eluria is in desperate trouble. The corals are dying and the creatures are sick and injured. This is all because their leader, the mighty sperm whale Cetus, has gone missing, and can no longer protect them from the depredations of humanity and of Flesh Eater, the evil manta ray. Adam meets a dolphin at his father’s rehabilitation clinic. Once he has won the dolphin’s trust, he hears the dolphin talking and learns his name is Delphineous. He invites Adam to help him to find Cetus and save Eluria.

Along the way the player picks up litter and helps restore the corals of Eluria. Adam must meet the Oracle and fulfil the prophecy in order to complete his quest. This is a very typical point and click adventure game, except the puzzles are considerably simplified as compared to the more adult titles like King’s Quest and Space Quest. The game came out in 1991 on floppy disk and was released on CD Rom with full speech acting the next year.

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Gameplay – copyright The Retro Spirit