.oooooo. o8o oooo _ d8P' `Y8b `"' `888 8/ 888 oooo oooo d8b 888 ' .oooo.o 888 `888 `888""8P 888 d88( "8 888 oooooo 888 888 888 `"Y88b. `88. .88' 888 888 888 o. )88b `Y8bood8P' o888o d888b o888o 8""888P' .oooooo. .o8 d8P' `Y8b "888 888 .oooo. oooo d8b .oooo888 .ooooo. ooo. .oo. 888 `P )88b `888""8P d88' `888 d88' `88b `888P"Y88b 888 oooooo .oP"888 888 888 888 888ooo888 888 888 `88. .88' d8( 888 888 888 888 888 .o 888 888 `Y8bood8P' `Y888""8o d888b `Y8bod88P" `Y8bod8P' o888o o888o Girl's Garden FAQ v1.0 ----------- by TIDQ (Email at the bottom) +=============================================================================+ & Table of Contents & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ For ease, every part of the FAQ can be accessed by hitting Ctrl+F and searching for the section number or section title. 1.0 Introduction 2.0 FAQS 3.0 Characters 4.0 Controls 5.0 The Game Screen 6.0 Things in the Garden 7.0 "Challenging Stage" 8.0 Points 9.0 Miscellany 9.1 Legal Stuff 9.2 Emailing Me 9.3 Version History 9.4 Special Thanks +=============================================================================+ & 1.0 Introduction & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Girl's Garden is an arcade-style game for the SG-1000 video game console. In it, the goal is for the player to collect ten flowers in each level before the time runs out and while surviving a series of obstacles and bears. All of this to win the heart of a strapping young lad by presenting him with the finished bouquet. Girl's Garden was also the very first game by Yuji Naka, the founder and head of Sonic Team, and the brainchild behind such franchises as Sonic and NiGHTS. +=============================================================================+ & 2.0 FAQ & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ______________________________________________________ Q: What exactly is an SG-1000? I've never heard of it. A: The SG-1000 stands for Sega Game-1000. It was Sega's first foray into the console video game business. Released in Japan in 1983, it saw minor success and had graphical capabilities superior to most of its competitors at the time. It never saw much international success, although it was also sold in other parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand. With the emergence of the NES, the SG-1000 was forced off the shelves by 1985. Sega remodeled the SG-1000 a couple of times, before redesigning it into what we now call the Sega Master System. The SG-1000 had a smallish but respectable library, and interestingly enough, the more powerful SMS is completely backwards compatible with all SG-1000 games. For more information, check out these webpages: http://darkwatcher.psxfanatics.com/console/sg100.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SG-1000 __________________________________________________________________________ Q: I don't want to track down a discontinued Japanese console. Is there an emulator I can use to play Girl's Garden? A: Yes, yes there is. There's more than one emulator for SG-1000 games, but the one I use is Lazarus, a universal emulator for Genesis, Master System, SegaCD, Game Gear, and SG-1000 games. There's also MEKAW, another universal Sega emulator. Check Zophar's Domain for up-to-date emulators that support SG-1000 software. http://www.zophar.net/genesis.html http://www.zophar.net/sms-gg.html If you have a copy of Girl's Garden, you could also play it on a Master System, which is obviously much more common. __________________ Q: How about ROMs? Don't ask me about finding ROMs. I'll ignore emails like these. _________________________________________________________ Q: What if I want to buy an SG-1000 and/or Girl's Garden? Check eBay often, and hope to get lucky. Otherwise, find a forum or newsgroup where people who collect old and rare video games gather, and try to work out a deal that way. The chances are about zero that you'll find either in an actual store, especially if you live in America or Britain. ______________________________________________________ Q: Girl's Garden sounds kinda "girly." Are you a girl? No, and I must say I am insulted, good sir or ma'am. Just because Girl's Garden is about a girl picking flowers does not mean it won't test the dexterity of the most grizzled joystick veterans. It takes a real man (or woman) to master Girl's Garden, I assure you. ________________________________ Q: Does the game have an ending? A: Not that I'm aware, although it's possible that I just haven't reached that final level yet. I've gotten pretty far, and as of this writing, I am under the strong assumption that the game never ends. If I'm wrong, please email me and tell me about it. +=============================================================================+ & 3.0 Characters & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - Papri Papri is the heroine Of Girl's Garden, and presumably the owner of the garden around which the game is based. She wears an all-pink dress and has pink hair that's tied into a ponytail. She's a hard-working sort who will do anything for true love, even endanger her own life. - Minto Minto is Papri's beau. He has dark hair, and like Papri, has clothes that match his hair. He's quite a handsome fellow, and I have a feeling Papri fell for Minto based on his looks more than anything else. After all, while Papri is trying to outrun bears, he's just lounging around the house waiting for flowers. - Kokko Kokko is a whore. She's the cause of all this mess in the first place, because she's trying to steal Minto away from Papri. Her fiery red hair is apparently very tantalizing to the weak-willed Minto, and that's why we need to get flowers just to keep his interest away from Kokko. Kokko wouldn't treat Minto the way Papri would. She'd just use him like an object and make him grovel. Doesn't he realize he already has a girl that brings him flowers everyday? You can't match that kind of devotion. +=============================================================================+ & 4.0 Controls & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - Pause Pauses the game. - Button 1 Drop honey jar, jump in bonus round, start the game. - Button 2 Drop honey jar, jump in bonus round. - Directional pad Move Papri. +=============================================================================+ & 5.0 The Game Screen & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ You will control Papri around the garden in each round. Although the obstacles in each round will change, the general look will remain the same. As you look for flowers, you can scroll the screen to the left or to the right. After a few screens walking in either direction, the player will end up back at the starting point (the house). ____________________________________ | | | 1 2 3 | |____________________________________| | | | | | _ | | ||_ | <- | /___\ | -> | |8 | | | |___| | | | |____________________________________| | 4 5 6 7 | |____________________________________| _______ Legend: 1. HI-SCORE Here is where the current high score is displayed. This score cannot be saved, so it will reset to the default value of 10000 everytime the player turns off the game. 2. Time Limit The time limit is cleverly represented by a graphic of Minto standing in between Papri and Kokko. As time ticks down, Minto will slowly walk away from Papri towards Kokko, who has arms outstretched ready to embrace him. If time runs out, it's immediately Game Over, even if you have spare lives. On the other hand, the more time left on the clock, the bigger the bonus you will get at the end of the level. The time will reset if the bee drops a clock and you pick it up. 3. SCORE This is your current score. Since there is no real "end" to the game, feel free to rack up the score as one of your primary goals. For more on score, see the Points section of the FAQ. 4. LOVE Your "love" is actually how many lives you have left. There are basically three ways to lose a life. Get eaten by a bear, fall in the water, or touch a skull. Once you're out of lives, it's Game Over. Extra lives can only be obtained by getting one from a lucky drop by the bee, that I know. If there's a certain point ammount that gains an extra life, I haven't reached that score yet, and I've gotten over 150,000 points. If I'm wrong, email me. 5. HONEY Honey is your only safeguard from bears besides running and hiding. You start the game with five jars, and you will be given one additional jar in every level. As such, you should aim to not have to use more than an average of one jar per level if you can help it. Simply drop the jar of honey on the ground, and any bear in the vicinity will immediately gravitate towards it. While the bear is eating honey, you can even feel free to walk right over him. He won't hurt you. The honey will last a long time, but it will wear off eventually. 6. FLOWER This meter will keep track of how many flowers you have in your possession. You need ten in each level, and only fully blooming flowers will count. All flowers go through a very quick life cycle, and they'll only be fully blooming for several seconds. Running into a bear or dead flower will also decrease your flower count, so don't do it. Once you have ten flowers, you can return to the house to end the round. 7. ROUND Simply, what level you're currently on. Again, there is no "end" to the game, so just getting as far as you can should be one of your goals. 8. The House Home sweet home. This is the starting point of every stage, as well as where you need to trek back to, in order to finish each round. Minto is waiting here, and he's hungry for flowers! +=============================================================================+ & 6.0 Things in the Garden & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The Garden is a wild place. If it were just a normal garden, there wouldn't be much of a game. As you progress through the rounds, the garden becomes increasingly dangerous. Bears becoming faster and obstacles becoming more numerous are the most obvious things I've noticed. It gets incredibly difficult the more the game wears on. - Flowers Flowers sprout up randomly around the garden. Very quickly, they will grow up and go through their life cycle. The goal is to nab the flowers while they're in bloom, and picking one up any other time will only net a measly ten points. Watch out though. Eventually, flowers will die. Completely dead flowers should be avoided, as picking one up will cost the player half of his flowers. If you have an odd number of flowers, it will round up the number of flowers you lose. So if you have 7, you'll lose 4. Also keep in mind that bears cannot walk over flowers at any time, which is usually to the player's advantage. - Stumps and Rocks Stumps and rocks are simply obstacles. You can't walk over them, and neither can bears. Try not to get trapped in a corner. - Bears Bears litter the garden. Why? I have no idea, nor do I understand why anyone would want to live in a garden full of bears. These bears also love to eat young girls apparently. Quite simply, stay out of their way. When they're black, they'll walk in random directions. When you get close to one, it'll turn light blue in color, at which time it will zero in on you like a homing missle. The only way to not get eaten is either to run or drop a jar of honey. Honey is limited though, so don't use it unless it's a matter of life or death. In addition to costing you a life, the bear will also take half of your flowers, much like a dead flower will. Also like a dead flower, it will round up the number of flowers you lose if you have an odd total. - Water Water will also kill you, so don't walk into it. It also takes half of your flowers. - The Bee The bee is a creature of questionable allegiance. Is he trying to help or hurt Papri? The bee will drop the following items: -Fruit: Purely for points, but good points -Clock: Resets the time limit -Heart: Gives you an extra life -Skull: It KILLS you... and takes half of your flowers. +=============================================================================+ & 7.0 "Challenging Stage" & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ After completing every two flower-picking rounds, Papri gets to compete in a bonus round of sorts for extra points. The goal here is to jump over the bears, who advance towards Papri in a straight line. Actually, I'm not positive that they're the bears, as they look a bit like dogs in the bonus round. Well, at any rate, these dog-bears come at Papri in staggered separation. Some of them are bunched up next to each other, and some aren't. There are 20 dog-bears in total. Example of a possible formation: _____OO__O__O__OOO_O___O__O__ etc. The challenge here is timing and choosing your jumps. In fact there are three ways to jump over the dog-bears, and you'll probably have to use all three to get a perfect score in a given bonus round. - Forward Jump This is the most intuitive jump. Press forward and then press jump. This will let you jump over the dog-bears. For large groups of dog-bears bunched together, this is the only way you'll clear them. If you get close before jumping, you can leap four bears' worth of space, or if you get *really* close, you can just barely leap five bears' worth of space. - Straight-Up Jump Instead of pressing forward, just stand still and then press jump to jump straight up. If you have only one dog-bear coming at you, a straight-up jump will allow that bear to walk right under you at virtually zero risk of dieing. It's important to know this, because if you always use a forward jump, you're bound to overshoot some of the time and crash into a bear. - Back-wall Jump The back-wall jump is the jump you'll probably use the least, but if you recognize when to use it, it will save you from dieing. When close to the left side of the screen, press backwards and jump. You should jump into the wall and bounce forward. The result is that you will jump farther than a straight up jump, but not as far as a forward jump. If you want to score a perfect on the bonus stage, you have to practice the back-wall jump. _____________________ When to use each jump First, think of each bear-dog as a unit of space. The bear-dogs themselvs are separated by space that can be measured in bear-dogs. So two bears, followed by a one-unit space, followed by another bear is equivalent to four bears in a row. In graphical terms, "__OO_O__" is equal to "__OOOO__" in length. Make sense so far? So when you see either four bears in a row, or two bears, a space, and then one bear, you should be able to instantly recognize that a forward jump should clear both with no problem. This is especially important, because you must not EVER try to land in a small gap. It won't work. So when you have four bears' worth of area, you can jump safely over it. On some of the tougher levels, you may have to jump over five bears' worth of space, which is not easy, but it is possible. However, let's take this situation. Let's say you have the following order approaching you: Two bears, then two spaces, then two bears. __OO__OO__ If you try to forward jump, you will clear the first two bears, but crash into the next two bears. If you jump straight up, you'll land on the second bear. This is when you back-wall jump. Back-wall jumps are perfect for clearing groups of just two bears. You should land right in the middle. Then you can either do another back-wall jump, or a forward jump to clear the second pair of bears, depending on what's coming up next. I apologize if that explanation of jumps made no sense, but it should become more apparent once you play the bonus stage a couple of times. __________ The Reward Evertime you play the bonus stage, you will get 250 points for every bear you jump over successfully. Since there are 20 bears, that's a total of 5000 possible points. In addition, if you get all 20, you'll get a 5000 point bonus, for a total of 10000 potential points on every bonus level. Also, at the end of the level, you'll get to hook up with Minto. Apparently, in addition to flowers, he's also impressed by bear-jumping. I don't blame him. I love a woman who can jump bears myself. +=============================================================================+ & 8.0 Points & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Everyone loves delicious, beautiful points. Compete against your friends to see who can get the high score. These are the values for all the things in the game that give you points. Perfect Bonus on Bonus Stage - 5000 points Cherries - 2500 points Green Apple - 1500 points Grapes - 500 points Blooming flower - 100 points Young/Old Flower - 10 points Time Bonus - Between 0 and 10000 points per round +=============================================================================+ & 9.0 Miscellany & +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ _______________ 9.1 Legal Stuff This FAQ is Copyright 2005 by me. Any publishing of this guide without my explicit permission isn't allowed. Plagiarizers will be hunted down. Girl's Garden is the Copyright property of Sega. I am in no way affiliated with the company or its employees. _______________ 9.2 Emailing Me My email is tasteless@gmail.com I would love to hear any feedback. If you have a question, please make sure it isn't already answered in the guide. If you report something missing from the guide and I decide to add it, I'll give full credit. ___________________ 9.3 Version History 11/5/05 - v1.0 The first and complete version of the FAQ is submitted to GameFAQs. __________________ 9.4 Special Thanks Special thanks to Sega for both making and distributing this game. Thanks to GameFAQs for hosting the guide and being an overall great resource on the internet. ________________________________________________ Girl's Garden FAQ (c) 2005 John "TIDQ" Robertson