''eCrew Development Program'' (''eCDP'', ja, クルトレ eCDP), known unofficially as the ''McDonald's Training Game'', is an educational video game created by McDonald's. Released for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

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 meant to be released to the public.

Gameplay

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.

History

It was distributed in tandem with a separate game titled ''eSMART'' which aimed to train existing employees rather than new ones. As of January 12, 2022, the Twitter account 'Forest of Illusion' preserved the game ROM of eSMART 2.0 after a fundraiser.

Development

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, to which it was distributed together with a DSi (or DS lite) with an embossed McDonald's logo on the front. It is unknown to what extent it was used and for how long.

Rediscovery

McDonalds Japan Nintendo DS eCDP cartridge

A single copy of the game surfaced in September 2020 on an online auction, which was sold to American YouTuber Nick Robinson for around ¥300,000 (3,000 USD) on Yahoo Japan through Buyee. Robinson uploaded the game cartridge's

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

to the Internet Archive on 17 November 2020, alongside a documentary he produced detailing how he acquired it. The required password to enter the game was printed on the McDonald's themed DS Robinson received, however, another person working to find it (Scgoodguy), Coddy Trentuit, obtained it via inspection of the game's data in a hex editor. On January 12, 2022, the Twitter account Forest of Illusion, an account dedicated to video game preservation, announced the archival of eSMART 2.0, obtained via a private fundraiser.

References

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External links