Ecco the Dolphin for Sega Genesis

Odd things

Origin Beach

In the level Origin Beach, set in the prehistoric levels, there are two hidden glyphs in the rocks at left and and right side of the level above the water. You have to jump out of the water to sing at them, and it's not too easy, but you will get to sing at them within 5 minutes. Here are some some screenshots, I've made the rock a little transparent so you can see where the glyphs are:

The left one says:
"We hear your song in the ocean!"
"We hear our kind in the sea!"
"Never have we heard songs in the sea!"

The right one says:
"You sing our song under the waves - who are you?"
"Could we sing in the sea? Could we live in the sea?"
"Perhaps we will try!"

Claire Turner asked Ed Annunziata, the main man of Ecco the Dolphin in those days, what this could mean. He answered her that Ecco was asked in Home Bay, why dolphins live in the sea although the breathe air. This question was supposed to be answered in this stage, where he would meet an ancient race on land, which are impressed of Ecco living in the sea and who would finally decide to go underwater themselves. But being under time pressure, the programmers weren't able to finish the animations, but they left those messages at least.

I asked some Japanese knowing friends of mine to translate the messages in the Japanese version of Ecco in those glyphs for me, look what they say there (Thanks to EspioKaos and Tifa Lockheart!):

"Each time a tornado occurs, they become bigger and bigger."
"This time, every living creature on the planet perished."
"But, it seems that the song of life for this planet has not disappeared..."

The messages are for sure supposed to be about the Vortex tornados, which have been described in Atlantis that they come every 500 years to feed the Vortex creatures.
I'll ask those two translators if they can do another job for me and translate the messages in The Library. Maybe the glyphs say there something about 500 million years, which would make sense. This would mean that the Vortex are (in the game of course) the reason why the dinosaurs extincted. And after 500 million years they do the same to Earths present...
Yes, I know, the dinosaurs actually extincted already 650 million years ago, but didn't the Asterite actually talk about Ecco travelling 600 million years back in time, too?
What's also interesting is why the Vortex also suck up the land living creatures in the Japanese version, cause in the English version they "only" suck up the sea creatures...

I will tell you as soon as I got more information about this!