This game is really awesome! Difficult? .. yes, but also very, very, very, well very something! We just played it to the bones here this whole afternoon, and evening, and I'd still play it if my neck and shoulders didn't hurt to death from my upright SEGA driving cab and that horrible anti-ergonomic body position it forced me to sit in.
(Hm,... maybe I'd better get a ride with ambulance to the emergency)
The thing is that I, and my friend Magnus (also a total ECA-freak), wonder *how* to accomplish the 'Secret' medal on stage 1. On any stage infact! What is it for? What does it do? What do we do to get it?
Look! I've got four out of five medals, and the 'Secret' one I've never managed this far. It is *so* frustrating. Please help! HELP!
Last edited by uncletom on February 24th, 2011, 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I just want to mention, as a side note, that I'm still quite young and I do have most of my life still ahead of me. Please don't let me live, die, and rot not knowing how to accomplish the 'Secret'. It seems to me as the most intensive hell I could ever imagine, and I am seriously considering offering my soul to 'the powerfull and very naughty one' just to learn the damned secret.
Ok! Just to show you how impatient a person can be, .. look, this is me being impatient.
It doesn't matter. I don't want to become a jedi so I don't need patience, I just want to learn the godforsaken 'Secret' thing in ECA. Do I have to call SEGA for support? Will they help me? Will they at all know what game I'm talking about? Shoot, it's horrible. I've heard that SEGA has done some major re-structuring in the company and that they fired all their good programmers in favour of the cheaper, polish guys who will work for a fraction of the cost that previous japanese programmers did. Is this true?
Nevermind. Is Yu still with SEGA? Or the guy who made Dirt Devils? Was it Yu, or who? I doubt he will even find the time to speak with me about it. But then who will?
I have some japanese papers here from back then (Gamest.. something), info and tips on Sega Rally 2 and some more stuff, all in japanese so I am only able to examine the pictures. I can't see *any* pictures of the Emergency Call Ambulance!
ECA was released in October of 1999, just after Gamest became Arcadia, so it's in there you'll have to look. It's featured in Arcadia No. 1: http://www.arcadiamagazine.com/cgi-bin/ ... cgi?id=141"
but doesn't seem to be in any other issue, at least not within the following year. The Japanese title is 救急車 by the way. (Kyuukyuusha = ambulance)
I will see if I can get the Arcadia No.1 issue somehow. Then all I need is to learn to read japanese.. or a japanese who speaks english or swedish. Perhaps you, Magic Knight (you really are magic), would be kind enough to help me with any translations regarding the game?
By the way, would any of you know some japanese forum where there might be some old fashioned action? I mean, considering what little info is available about the ECA today, on any forum, including youtube, I am afraid that those few people who actually know something about the game will be dead soon. People die all the time! All I will be stuck with then will be those joystick bashing CAVE fans who don't even like driving games! .. Tragic!
Well, I've been playing some more ECA here, and still no 'Secret' accomplished. I bet it just sists there, invisibly laughing at me right infront of my face!
Damn this secret! It's the most .. secret secret I have ever ... never encountered! It's making me crazy.
And if there is any forum in the world where that information would be, it is here on AO, yes? Becasue this is an international forum with people from, as far I can see, New Zealand? Wow! You have winter when we have summer, and when we have spring, you've got fall. Totally warped, from both perspectives actually.
By the way, do we have any programmers here too? Or perhaps a hacker or cracker (what's the difference?) who could tell me if, by looking at the ROM images of ECA, the secret may be found? Because that would be really nice.
Secret in Japanese is 秘密. I've read a few Japanese websites about the game, but none mention any medals at all, and I doubt that Arcadia is going to have any mention of them either.
I understand you, Magic Knight, and thank you. Perhaps I was a little short when expressing myself in english. 'Medal' is a word I used due to the lack of a proper term for the picture in my first post. In swedish those five marks would be called 'utmärkelser', which if properly translated should mean 'distinction', using the dictionary here :
That was awesome Do you know how you get the other 4 medals?
My only thought watching the gameplay was there might be a secret collectible in each level. You may have to go off the beaten track to collect it. Just an idea.
Well Dave, that is exactly what I was thinking too. So I've been off course really, really many times yet still that secret has remained a secret. Except I've never recorded my desperate search on film.
Perhaps I should...
I'll give you some history on my ECA-life. I've had the game now for at least 6 or 7 years, although I've not played it the last 5 years. However, as I got ECA, in the beginning I played a lot. As I often do when I receive a new game. Back then I also wondered about the 'secret', as I was able to obtain the rest of the four 'medals' (or bonuses) but never the 'secret'.
To be rewarded with medals Special, Brave, Stable and No Damage is actually quite easy if you just pay enough attention while driving. I don't think I've ever completed a 'case' without being awarded the Brave medal because Brave is awarded for your quite illegal driving style.
'Special' - you always get when you do that somewhat dengerous trick, like driving a) through, or simply close enough by the large sign in the small park at 'case' #1. b) Driving through the fire at the gas station in case #3, and c) driving through the falling beam under the burning sky skraper on #4. Perhaps you noticed that I've left out the Special medal in case #2. That's because I've not found it. Also, a secret to me at this time.
One imortant thing to know about the 'Special' reward is that it is *always* located as a shortcut relative to your driving path. Meaning that it will save you a few Health (from the 'time count down' at your top left).
'Stable' - is awarded when you arrive at the hospital *with* your patient's condition stabilized, contra having ''dyspnea'', ''Massive Blood Loss'', or any of the many blessings a person may have after some horrible accident.
'No damage' - (editing some...) I first thought it was related to the vehicle, but it's actually just an indicator that you have cleared the complete track without any damage whatsoever to your patient. You see, if you so much as brush against a lamp post, or land the slightiest too hard after a jump, like across the bridge, you will notice the 'Health' blink, even a fraction of a second blink will leave you without the 'No damage' award in that particular 'Case'.
Alright.. things have happened here. The Special at Case2 has been discovered. It just happened about 20 minutes ago, and it's located just infront of that strange piece of art above the sub-station, before the last U-turn with the blue pavements around it.
Contrary to the other three Specials in ECA, the Special on Case2 does not serve as a riscy shortcut, infact you need to deviate from your course to find it. So, driving past the blue paved ground, you head towards the weird artwork infront of you, and as you there turn left you will hear "Good job!".
Do you know how you get the other 4 medals?