eCrew Development Program
eCrew Development Program | |
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Developer(s) | unknown[1] |
Publisher(s) | McDonald's |
Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
Release | 2010 |
Genre(s) | Education, simulation, quiz |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
eCrew Development Program (eCDP, Japanese: ク��トレ eCDP), also known unofficially as the McDonald's Training Game, is a rare educational video game created by McDonald's. Released for the Nintendo DS sometime in 2010 internally within the Japanese division of McDonald's, it was only ever distributed to the company's own restaurants domestically and never released to the public.
The game teaches the player how to cook and serve various McDonald's menu items and perform other restaurant tasks, and was used to train new restaurant employees. It features several game modes and features, including simulations of food preparation and customer interaction, quizzes, player profiles for employees and managers, and performance statistics. It was distributed in tandem with a separate game titled eSMART which aimed to train preexisting employees rather than new ones. eSMART remains unseen to the public eye, along with the even more mysterious eSMART 2.0, which, unlike its predecessor, comes in a blank box with no information whatsoever. Although the official "long name" for eSMART is unknown, many think it goes along the lines of "eStaff Management and Retraining Team"[citation needed]
The game had a budget of ¥200 million and was planned for use in all 3,700 McDonald's locations across Japan by the end of 2010,[2][3][4][5] to which it was distributed together with two McDonald's-skinned Nintendo DSi's.[6] It is unknown to which extent it was used and for how long.
A single copy of the game surfaced in September 2020 on an online auction,[7] which was sold to American YouTuber Nick Robinson. Robinson then uploaded the game cartridge's ROM to the Internet Archive on November 17, alongside a self-created documentary detailing how he acquired it.[8][9][10] This was the first time the game was made publicly available. Currently, there are five people known that own this game: American YouTuber Nick Robinson, Reddit User Scgoodguy,[11] French YouTuber Coddy Trentuit, Twitter user XX_750000 and as of September 2012, McDonald's collector Scott Loxley posted pictures on the Nintendo High End Game Room Facebook page of all 3 games ( eCDP, E Smart & E Smart 2.0) in his collection including 4 McDonald's DSI consoles. Scott Loxley, Nick Robinson, Coddy Trentuit and user xx_750000 have the password to enter the game.
On August 11th, 2021, three days after they obtained their copy, XX_750000 released the manual, as well as the box art, on their Twitter.[12]
References[]
- ^ "日本マクドナルドホールディングス(2702)2010年株主総会レポート~その2". Seesaa (in Japanese). 2010-04-04. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ^ Loftus, Jack (21 March 2010). "McDonald's Japan To Begin Training Employees with Nintendo DS, Software". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ Brown, Damon (20 April 2010). "Bad Recipe: Why McDonald's Shouldn't Use Nintendo To Train Staff". CBS News. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ Gantayat, Anoop (21 March 2010). "McDonalds Uses DS To Train Part Time Workers". Andriasang. Archived from the original on 24 March 2010.
- ^ Firn, Mike (12 April 2010). "McDonald's Japan Teaches Burger Making With Nintendo DS". YouTube. Bloomberg Quicktake. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ Reilly, Jim (14 June 2012). "McDonald's Japan Using Nintendo DS To Train Employees". IGN. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ Lehecka, Eddie (2020-06-30). "Rare McDonald's Nintendo DSi with Training Software Surfaces on Auction Site". Otaquest. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ Lo Giudice, Federico (2020-11-18). "Nintendo DS: te contamos la historia del misterioso juego perdido de McDonald's y cómo reapareció". Cultura Geek (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-11-27.
- ^ Mosena, Michele (2020-11-19). "La ROM del gioco perduto di McDonald's per Nintendo DS è stata pubblicata online". Nintendoomed (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-11-27.
- ^ Houlihan, Ryan (23 November 2020). "Do yourself a favor and watch this video about a lost McDonald's DS game". Input Magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
- ^ Scgoodguy (2021-06-26). "Got it for $15". r/gamecollecting. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
- ^ "eCrew Development Program (eCDP) - Case and Instructions". Twitter. 8 August 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
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- 2010 video games
- Business simulation games
- Educational video games
- Japan-exclusive video games
- Video games developed in Japan
- McDonald's video games
- Nintendo DS-only games