Doki Doki Penguin Land(SG-1000 and MSX) walkthrough version 1.0.1 copyright 2007 by Andrew Schultz schultz.andrew@sbcglobal.net Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and I just wanted to save a memory of an old game and the odd solutions any way I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if you'd like to post it on your site. ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS AND SCORING 3. STRATEGIES 4. LEVEL MAPS AND WALKTHROUGH 5. VERSIONS 6. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION Doki Doki Penguin Land is a game where you, a penguin, push an egg down the board to the living room at the bottom. But you can't drop the egg too far at once, and you can't drop it into somewhere it can't get out of. If it is immobile and you drop on it, it breaks. There are enemies too who get in your way. You need to shift blocks and dig other blocks to make the right way to drop your bricks down. With 25 levels and fairly quick play, this is a neat game to go through but nothing special. The sequel, found on the SMS, has twice as many levels and even more weird physical rules. And it takes MUCH longer. And unlike Doki Doki Penguin Land, you usually won't run into an unexpected dead end 10 rows down. You also have 50 rows to navigate instead of 35. You also can only push an egg onto one of the 16-wide squares, because it really is oblong, while on the SG-1000 version you can nudge it slightly one direction. One problem with the game is that the more involved puzzles leave nothing for the rest of the level, but on the other hand longer and longer levels would be very excruciating. Still it's an interesting experience although the egg is a bit too wobbly some times, and having the mother penguin lose only when the egg bursts is a nice pretense for a cool game. Note that currently the SG-1000 ROM floating on the 'net is corrupt. Levels 12, 13, 22, 23 and 24 do not work. You can edit this ROM to parallel the MSX ROM, or you can just use the MSX version. I am assuming that since 20 of 25 levels have the same maps between ports, so are the other 5. The controls are very similar. If you should wish to make a proper SG-1000 ROM with the missing levels, copy the 7200(x1c20) bytes after offset 0x3e1a on the MSX to the SG1000, starting at 0x3d63, but keep everything else identical. I use some terminology here which I hope is intuitive, but we might as well check it out. When I say 2-1 dig, that means dig 2 squares on 1 level, drop down and dig 1 below that. A 3-pit means a pit 3 squares wide, and a 4-3-2 cavern means a cavern with 4 squares on the bottom, then 3 above then 2 on top. 2. CONTROLS AND SCORING Moving down and up gives no effect. Moving left and right works as planned, though you start slow at first and achieve terminal velocity quickly. Going left-right you can also push boulders. You can tap an egg slowly to one side as well. Basically, you run past an egg you just dug to kick it back towards yourself and you tiptoe towards it to continue pushing it a certain way. Also, if you push an egg for several squares, it gains momentum and can flop over a gap. You can reverse an egg you are rolling by jumping on it. Button 1 jumps, button 2 digs in the direction you face. You can only dig whole units so you may move left/right. Jumping over an egg and returning it to the other side is necessary to win. You can twist in the air, and you can jump up three units and land on a platform above. If there is a ceiling, you can push a boulder just below it over to one side. Jumping also follows horizontal momentum rules, and you can even bounce off walls. Jumping can loosen boulders above, which can be good or bad. 10 points for each hole dug 100 points for each heart 200 points for white bear you drop something on 100 points for mashing from the side x000+random(?) bonus points for completing a level(x=1+(level/5)) 500=cherry 1000=beer 2000=ring 3000=cake 5000=cross 10000=star I think the bonus has to do with where you drop the egg finally and how close the wife is, or maybe how many hearts you get and enemies you kill. There are so many factors. I didn't check them all. 3. STRATEGIES There are a lot of general do's and don'ts that govern what sort of general risks you want to take in Penguin Land. First let's catalog the ways an egg can get killed. --it drops on a white bear, or a white bear forces it into a corner --it drops more than 3 squares down. If it drops and rolls and drops again, that is a separate instance. --you or a bear lands on it in a 1-wide pit --a block you pushed/tapped lands on it --a ferret appears and slowly makes its way to the egg. Sometimes it appears in the egg, and you'll see a grey blob around. --You drop an egg from above the bottom row into the living room Next let's look at the enemies. They usually stand under your egg unless you are in the vicinity. Then they run after you. Greys are more aggressive for the egg than whites. If a bear lands on an egg or pushes it into a corner he will crush it. Ferrets appear if you dawdle and try to fall to get to the egg, but it's possible there's no way there. Enemies remain harmless for slightly longer than they stun you, giving you a window, and you can often get them to whiff or even push an egg so that you can run past them as they celebrate. --remember the egg can only drop down 3 squares. You don't get a break if one of them is an egg chute. --If you drop an egg down a chute and wish to push it one way afterwards, tap and fall off the edge to continue as you were, or fall on the other side to move the egg the other way. --don't push an egg into a corner with no roof. It can get trapped. --if you must, you can stun an enemy with an egg --if you drop an egg down quickly you can outrun enemies --you can go back up top once the egg drops down a bit to get old hearts. --if you drop an egg into a well, make sure there is a way out. You can drop it into a 1-wide pit if there is a boulder to either side. --to drop a boulder, stand on it and dig if necessary then dig to one side of it. --if you can't jump back over a hole, dig down the screen and reappear at the top. The only exception is at level's end, when you see half of the bottom boundary. Then you can't dig that. I don't know why. --Take the time to slam a boulder into a pesky enemy, or to bait an enemy and kick a boulder from below. --don't wait around too long or a ferret may appear right next to your egg, or even inside. Fortunately they are slow so they will catch up to you. --jump up then steer later to avoid boulders falling on you and stunning you. --you can "suicide" by letting a boulder lie on you if it wipes out an enemy you can't get past. --push a boulder up against the edge and drop it when the monster is under you. You and boulders are much faster than monsters. --drop an egg while it is on a boulder if digging through a floor is 1 unit too low. If you need another unit, push a boulder under IT. --you can peek ahead a bit with a relatively harmless dig. Sometimes a weird looking dig can save you.