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. Ecco is sent flying through outer space to a giant tube-like machine. Making his way through the construct Ecco arrives on the planet Vortex engaging the aliens in combat. He makes his way to the Vortex Queen and engages her in a fight. When the Queen is defeated, she spits out Ecco's pod, and the dolphins make their collective escape back to Earth. Development The existence of Ecco the Dolphin had been heavily rumored throughout the industry before it was finally revealed by Sega in 1992 as a Mega Drive/Genesis exclusive, then simply known as Dolphin. After deciding to create a game based around dolphins, developer Ed Annunziata carried out research on the subject and was particularly inspired by the book Sounding by Hank Searls which explained how the creatures use echolocation. Annunziata worked with the music team on the soundtrack, playing them songs by Pink Floyd to illustrate the feeling he was aiming for. Annunziata later said: "I was paranoid about game rentals and kids beating the game over the weekend. So... I... uh... made it hard". His favourite level was "Welcome to the Machine", which was "way over the top challenging". Annunziata had considered naming the character after the constellation Delphinus, which is depicted on the character's forehead. But Sega's director of marketing Al Nilsen suggested the name Botticelli the Dolphin, citing the popularity of characters named after Italian artists, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Panicked, Annunziata turned to his boss Clyde Grossman who suggested Echo, which alluded to the dolphin's echolocation ability. Annunziata loved the idea. Being of Italian descent, he chose the spelling Ecco, because it can loosely mean "I see" in that language, and "seeing with sound" is what echolocation enables dolphins to do. The penultimate level of the game is titled "Welcome to the Machine", named after "Welcome to the Machine", a song on Pink Floyd's 1975 studio album Wish You Were Here. Ecco: The Tides of Time (1994) features