EcoQuest I: The Search for Cetus

The first installment, titled The Search for Cetus, was released first on floppy disk, then on CD-ROM with full speech. Adam's attempts to help a dolphin his father has rescued take a turn for the weirder when it starts speaking. In no time flat, he's trying to seek out Cetus, the whale king of Eluria, an underwater kingdom populated by marine animals. He has assistance in the form of several creatures found in the various ecosystems of the world; for instance, a dolphin named Delphineus is an important contributor to the quest. Aside from the considerable liberty of sentient talking animals, the game is more realistic than cartoony - it needs to be, to tell about the real world's environment and pollution. The Search for Cetus introduced the recycling symbol to Sierra's standard palette of command icons, giving the player bonus points for picking up litter. The game features a primitive form of copy protection in the first scene: the player must input a code into a security door to exit the room. The code is 9731, and could be found in the game's manual.