Cadaver747: On CD cover for 1992 DOS CD-ROM release there is an inscription: "EcoQuest/The Search for Cetus contains technologies described in U.S. Patent Applcations No: 598,174 and 658_297". (not sure about the digits though, check the source for yourself)
Nothing about it on 1995 Windows re-release though.
Maybe those patents are sole reason for Activision Blizzard to leave it for good.
You can try and search them out if you like (my IP is not worthy anyway):
https://www.uspto.gov/patents/search Those patents have likely expired. Neither of them return anything extant and appending 0s to their records suggests these patents are pointing to items of antiquity; the 1800s.