MEDIA VISION PUTS A GARDEN IN YOUR COMPUTER WITH INTERACTIVE CD-ROM
Forever Growing Garden Features 300 Screens of Animation, Music, Games and Real-Time or Accelerated Plant Growth On-Screen
FREMONT, CA -- OCTOBER 11, 1993 -- Media Vision, a leader in multimedia for personal computers, has announced that it will publish its first CD-ROM title aimed at the rapidly growing children's CD-ROM market. Forever Growing Garden is an animated, interactive CD-ROM title for IBM-MPC and Macintosh computers.
"Geared primarily for children aged 4-8, Forever Growing Garden is fun for all ages," said Stan Cornyn, executive vice president Multimedia Publishing. Players shop for seeds at an old-fashioned hardware store, then plant them at one of three garden sites (including an ornate castle garden). One must then check the calendar, prepare the soil, trap a gopher--everything a real gardener would have to do in order to grow a successful garden.
"Best of all," said Cornyn, "the garden grows even when the computer is turned off. Come back to your garden a week later, your garden is a week older." At the end of the harvest season, players can pick and arrange their flowers, as well as weigh their vegetables to see if they're prize winners. The game even includes a variety of "fantasy plants," such as the Monster Squash, the pyrotechnic FireWorks Flowers, and TomaToes--with real toes.
"Forever Growing Garden includes games, animations, music, art and learning experiences on one disc," said Cornyn. "All at once, you have animated, real-time life simulation of popular plants; an accelerated version of the same simulation; three gorgeous, fully rendered garden sites; and a multi-level learning experience that is botanically correct. There's also a world of fantasy plants and virtual weeds; and an entertaining game involving a gopher and a skunk."
Bountiful Botanic Beauty Abounds with 300 Screens of Animation
Players start out at the hardware store, where they can select tools, an Almanac and seeds for the farm garden (tomatoes, pumpkins, corn, beans, carrots, cucumbers, plus fantasy vegetables Godzilla Squash, TomaToes, Pickled Peppers and SunFlowers) and a separate flower garden (yellow tulips, pink tulips, morning glories, daffodils, daisies, crocuses, forget-me-nots and fantasy flowers Snap Dragons, FireWorks Flowers, Helicopter Flowers and Peepers). There are also sufficient seeds to landscape and decorate a magnificent castle garden, including various hedges and other topiary, along with yellow, pink and blue ground cover.
Players learn about each seed from the comprehensive Almanac, which provides hints on how, when and where to plant. Tools which the player must use to keep their plants alive and flourishing include a watering can, trowel, gloves and clipping shears. One can also purchase helpful insects and animals (lady bugs, praying mantises and toads) to rid your garden of infesting garden pests, such as aphids, caterpillars and snails.
The gopher's antics in any of the three gardens represents a game unto itself. The gopher will occasionally pop up and take off with one of the player's prized vegetables. At that point, one can divert to chasing after the gopher in his lair -- fantasy gopher hole complete with multiple furnished rooms. Catching the gopher is a fast-paced game of hand-eye coordination, also featuring a skunk who can slime the gopher hunters if they aren't careful.
Other diversions included in the title are a realistic Farmers Market, where players try to sell their harvest. The Farmers Market is complete with voices and sounds in the background, responding in real time to the pricing of one's crop, right down to haggling over price.
Likewise, there is a complete animated screen dedicated to the Flower Shop, where players can arrange flowers from their garden in a vase. One can even take a picture of the arrangement and put it on a greeting card--complete with the user's own message. Throughout the game, players can jump around from screen to screen at will.
Because Forever Growing Garden is fun for all ages, the game should find its way onto many an adult's computer. "It's much more than a pet rock kind of attraction," said Cornyn. "Forever Growing Garden brings out the artist and the farmer in each of us. It transports the true adventure of gardening to the computer screen." In addition, users can save their favorite completed gardens to tend and work on later.
Minimum System Requirements:
* PC Windows
* 386/33
* 4MB RAM
* 640x480 Super VGA with 256 colors
* CD-ROM drive with minimum of 150KB/per second transfer rate
* 8-bit Windows compatible sound card
* 1MB hard disk space
* Windows 3.1
* MS-DOS 5.0 or higher
* Macintosh II series, LC series, Centris series, Performa series, Quadra series
* CD-ROM drive with minimum of 150KB/per second transfer rate
Suggested Retail Price: $59.95
Media Vision formed its multimedia publishing arm earlier this year to take advantage of Media Vision's strengths in distribution and technology as one of the leading suppliers of multimedia hardware products for personal computers. Media Vision's mission is to popularize multimedia by offering solutions at affordable prices.
Headquartered in Fremont, Calif., the company is a leader in multimedia audio products for personal computers and offers audio, video, and graphics hardware products ranging from systems and add-in cards to chips based on emerging multimedia standards for the PC. The company also offers software titles developed specifically to take advantage of the power of multimedia computers. Media Vision sells its products through computer retail and mass merchandising channels and to original equipment manufacturers, such as IBM, Apple, Logitech, and others. The company recently opened its European subsidiary in Munich, Germany.
