FAQ - Guide for Tokyo Bus Guide

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                               B U S   G U I D E !

                               FAQ  BY LEE JOHNSON
                             [email protected]
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 0. CONTENTS
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(I didn't want to make it No. 1)

This is version 1 of the faq

 1. INTRO            A short intro about why I did this faq
 2. CONTROLS         Learn to drive a bus before you pick up your first peeps
 3. THE MENU         How to start your games, and change the options
 4. TRAINING         Finally we get behind the wheel and cause some carnage!
 5. FINES            A list of what you can do and what it'll cost you
 6. OUTRO            The ending rubbish
_______________________________________________________________________________

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 1. INTRO
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I always thought that people that wrote these faqs had way too much time on
their hands BUT nobody seems to care about this game and it hasn't had a single
faq written for it! Well I guess it is up to me then! This Japanese game has a
lot of people baffled, it is written completely (or almost) in the squiggly
Japanese writing and not in the English font which would have helped a bit. I
don't know Japanese at all but I am starting to figure out this game!

I first borrowed this game off a friend (not having many) (thats games NOT
friends) (well okay but I am trying to cure that BO problem and i've stopped
spitting when I talk) anyway, his name is Shaun and he's an A-Hole but he comes
in handy when i'm bored with my own Dreamcast games! Well I played it once and
then decided "I Gotta Have This"! I went and got a copy of my own and now I
have fun driving a bus!

P.S. This is designed to run fullscreen in notepad with the default font
(fixedsys) size 9!
_______________________________________________________________________________

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 2. CONTROLS
-------------

Okay here we go, I was going to draw out a dreamcast control using the stupid
symbols but then I thought, nobody is going to read this (maybe one or two
people like you!) so I'll just list them instead!

Analog LEFT  = Steer left (well duh!)
Analog RIGHT = Steer right (If you can't work that out on your own, get a PS 2)

A Button     = Close doors and tell the peeps where they are going next!
Y Button     = Change view
X Button     = Left Indicator
B Button     = Right Indicator

L Trigger    = Brake
R Trigger    = Accelerate

Digital DOWN = Flip to reverse
Digital UP   = Flip to forward

START Button = Pauses the game and lets you Retire (Crashing the bus is a more
fun way though!)
_______________________________________________________________________________

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 3. THE MENU
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This is an English bit so I will be brief (or try to be)! Here are the menus
from when you press START!

You will first be asked about your VMU saved game, this is pretty simple,
either select the VMU you want to save or load your game to/from or select NO
SAVE if you don't have enough space (or you don't want to save)! You will get
Japanese text and a YES/NO thingy, it is asking you if you are sure! The white
circle is the selected one!

You are now on the main menu, from here you select what type of game you want
and mess around with the options, have a play about, most of it is in English!

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STORY
-----
This is the main game, here you practice and learn how to play the game, unlock
stuff in Japanese and open up the other levels. If you select this there will
be a screen with nine cards on the right and four buttons on the left. The
cards are routes in the three cities, when you first start you can only play
the first routes of the village and city levels, the other routes and all
routes for the town level are locked. Select one of these if and when you are
ready to play. The four buttons on the left are for different things:

PRACTICE
This is where you access the training levels, which would be as easy as cake to
do if you knew Japanese, which i'm assuming you don't since you're reading
this. Basically it goes step-by-step through the different functions of the
game. I'll go over the Training later.

SYSTEM
This is where you save, load and quit the game, SAVE saves the game, LOAD loads
the game and QUIT quits the game! You can also return to the game by pressing
RETURN! (Writing a faq is much easier than they make it out to be!)

EVENT
Sometimes when you pick people up they will have little conversations (in
Japanese), these people will then appear with all of their Japanese stats on
it, oh well!

ALBUM
I don't have a clue about this, all I know is every now and again when you play
a piece of paper with Japanese writing appears on it!

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FREE RUN
--------
This is a free bit of the game, it is the same as STORY except for the
following differences!

* You cannot unlock anything.
* You cannot access the EVENT or ALBUM buttons.
* Time does not go by (i.e. the date) when you are driving in free run.
* It doesn't matter whether you do good or not in any way.
* You do not gain exp for driving.

Basically you get the idea, if your friend wants a go or you want to play "hit
and run" then select FREE RUN.

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OPTION
------
Time to mess about with the game a bit. You are given a bunch of options
seperated by little sections, like AUDIO or KEY CONFIG!

GAME
  GAME DIFFICULTY  This alters your 'health' bar giving you more with easy and
                   less with hard. Crashes or fatalities still always end the
                   game though so don't bother practicing "What pedestrian?"
  DRIVING          Simple or normal driving, with simple driving you can't
                   crash into the walls, it controls the steering while you
                   control the speed and corners, to corner simply indicate and
                   the bus will magically turn at the next corner. Normal
                   driving gives you full control of the bus. When you are on
                   SIMPLE driving and you want to change lanes you must press
                   the indicator once to indicate, and when you are clear
                   (check your mirrors) press it again to change lanes.
  DEFAULT CAMERA   You can have: 
                        Outside bus
                            (default)
                        Long View
                        Inside bus view
                            (for added bus realism)
                        Infront of bus view
                            (same as above but w/o the bus ambience)
  VIBRATE          Got a vibrating pack? set this to yes and your driving
                   experience will become much more realistic.
  ROLL             When OFF the camera won't fix behind the bus, causing a
                   delay between the bus turning and the camera turning, looks
                   nice to some but does show you less of the road after
                   turning.

KEY CONFIGURE
  CONTROLLER       I recommend leaving this set to A but all the others do is
                   shift around A B X and Y so it won't take too long to figure
                   out the changed controls.
  ACCELERATOR      Change how sensetive the accelerator is, push the acelerator
                   to the desired position then press A (can be difficult to
  BRAKE            press A without affecting the accelerator) Brake is the
                   same, just change the word ACCELERATOR to BRAKE

AUDIO              All there is in here is volume and sound test, I guess you
                   are familiar with both of these!

-------
VM GAME
-------
There is a VM game with this, however it is a road sign puzzle game which is
useless to and English person, Japanese writing scrolls down the side and then
you have to match it with the corrosponding sign as quickly as possible. Just
don't bother at all!
_______________________________________________________________________________

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 4. TRAINING
-------------

Well that was boring wasn't it, you learned that the Japanese should learn
English but that is just about it! Now we go on to the more interesting stuff!
Playing the game! You have to learn to crawl before you can walk so first lets
do the Training levels!

Incase you didn't read the MENU section click on PRACTICE while on STORY mode
to start a training level. Level 1 is very simple, Level 11 is a bitch (if
you'll pardon my french) but I'll go through them all anyway.

-------
LEVEL 1
-------
Level 1 is pretty simple, you will learn how to control your bus and get from
point A to point B, hopefully without getting to point C, the dole office!

Okay, i'll now pretend to translate the objectives for this level, on the
snapshot (picture) of the bus the green box with the arrow first points to the
local speed limit. This will flash when it changes or when you are breaking it.
The second arrow (when you press A) points to your speedometer, which shows how
fast YOU are going. Keep a watchful eye on this at all times.

Right, now it will ask you if you want to continue, move to yes and then we're
off! You will get the worlds coolest loading screen ever in the world ever (and
thats pretty damn good)! Then we get started, you do lose health for
accelerating or braking too quickly, this may happen to you on the school bus
quite often if you still go and this normally results in people who are in
different seats than they were a minute ago and very angry peeps which we don't
want! So GENTLY push the accelerator down, the speedometer will move but it
will take a second before the bus starts moving so just keep it held gently!
The bus should now be in motion, start too fast and red writing with a 5 will
be displayed, this also happens when you brake too quickly so start slowing
when you get near the traffic lights (none in this level so don't panic)!

Get used to the power of left and right control and stay on the left side of
the road (easy for us Brits but the Yanks might find this difficult) Make sure
you stay near 40mph but I normally play about at 25mph for some reason! Things
so far you can get in trouble for are:
* Speeding                                                         10-30 points
* Accelerating or decelerating too quickly                             5 points
* Going on the right (as opposed to left) side of the road            30 points
* hitting a car or peep! (Usually game over!)                     60-999 points
* Going the wrong way (Green arrows point you the right way)         999 points
* Going off the road                                                 999 points
Thats about all for Level 1, it is pretty easy, just try to get 100%

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LEVEL 2
-------
Level 2 is advanced Level 1, just it now includes steep hills and more vicious
corners so read up on your Level 1 instructions and you should be fine, you may
not get 100% this time as it is easy to accidentally go onto the right side of
the road!

No new rules I think, just watch what you're doing!

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LEVEL 3
-------
Okay now you have to worry about traffic lights, when you are approaching a
traffic light a traffic light will appear at the top of your HUD (Heads-Up
Display) and the lights show corrospondingly. I assume you know green is go,
red is stop and amber means about to go red (amber does not appear when
shifting from red to green however)! If you didn't know, well, you do now!
Just before you reach the second traffic light (the one after the one when you
first start) a roadsign will appear to the left of your HUD with some lanes on
it, any lane you can use to cross the road will be flashing, make sure you are
on that lane.
Remember don't brake too suddenly!
* Crossing at a red light                                             70 points
* Failing to indicate                                                 10 points

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LEVEL 4
-------
Stupidly, they teach you something that you needed to know to complete Level 3
(100% anyway) so anyway, lanes! Lanes have arrows on them, and the arrows
point to the direction you can turn at a traffic light, for example:

     /|\                                  /|\
    / | \            /___                / | \ ___\
      |              \   |                 |   |  /
      |                  |                 |   |

Go straight ahead  Turn left only  Go straight or right

You get the idea! A sign on the left of your HUD will show you which lanes you
can go in! Good lanes flash! Don't use any other lanes unless you want a big,
hefty fine!
* Using the wrong lane                                                15 points

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LEVEL 5
-------
Okay, changing lanes! If you want to change lanes on a straight road, past the
white lines, then you will need to do the following; Indicate the way you wish
to move and a mirror will appear, showing you behind the bus. When the way is
clear, slowly and gradually move accross lanes, don't do it too quickly or,
yep! You guessed it, you are fined!
* Changing lanes without indicating                                 8-10 points
* Changing lanes too quickly                                         5-8 points

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LEVEL 6
-------
This level shows how to cross busy crossroads. When a traffic light has a green
arrow under the red light, you can still cross if you are going in that
direction! In the example there is a green arrow pointing to the right under
the red light, so you can still turn right when the green right light is lit.
At the second traffic lights you may find turning a trifle (mmmm, trifle)
difficult if you look there is a guidline on the road to follow and if you stop
where it shows (half-way in to the crossroad) until the opposite traffic stops
coming! I hope you can understand that, I find it very difficult to describe!
Hopefully you will see what I mean when you play it.

-------
LEVEL 7
-------
This level explains changing lanes which I have already discussed in Level 5,
the reason I mentioned it back then was it was handy, though not nescessary,
sometimes you will need to change lanes in levels 5 and 6 depending on how you
do the level.

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LEVEL 8
-------
Now you are no longer a guy driving a bus! You are now a bus driver, there are
two types of bus stop, a green bus stop and a red bus stop! Green ones, nobody
wants to get on or off, just pass them for an extension of time to your next
stop and a little health back. Red ones require you to pull up and stop to.
This will then load up more of the level for you. Both types of bus stop are
shown over the speed limit when you are near a bus stop! As a weird little
extra (weird is spelt weird, y'know I goes before E) if you skip the bus stop
and keep on driving the floor will eventually disappear!

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LEVEL 9
-------
Personally I think this lesson is stupid, they could have just mixed this in
as part of another lesson and saved me a bit typing (plus there would be a
nice round number for the training levels)! Anyway, when you get your very
first customer(s) close the door after them by pressing A. Then drive to the
end red bus stop and drop him/her/them off. A good a time to mention it than
any, inbetween all bus stops (green AND red) press A to tell them what the next
stop is, I don't know about the US but in England they don't do this, ah well!
* Driving away with the door open                                     15 points
* Not telling the peeps where they are headed                          5 points

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LEVEL 10
--------
This is effectively a mini-level, it contains every aspect of the game you are
probably going to experience, although a lot shorter. Just remember to indicate
in at bus stops, always tell the peeps what the next stop is and close the door
when you set off and you'll be fine.

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LEVEL 11
--------
Another mini-level, remember as this confused me at first, when you pull up to
a red bus stop, more people will get on the bus and then you continue your
journey. When I first played it I thought a red bus-stop was the end of a level
and I was pissed off to find out(or so I thought) that it had put me back at
the beginning of the level! I am simple though, I doubt you'll be as numb as I
was!
_______________________________________________________________________________

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 5. FINES
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I know that there is a list of fines in the above section but I will now tidy
it up and make it look nice, all together as they should be! They are all in
fining order so you can find out what you've done wrong quicker! Wherever it
says 999 points, just take that as Game Over!

* Accelerating or decelerating too quickly                             5 points
* Not telling the peeps where they are headed                          5 points
* Changing lanes too quickly                                           8 points
* Changing lanes without indicating                                   10 points
* Failing to indicate                                                 10 points
* Speeding                                                         10-30 points
* Using the wrong lane                                                15 points
* Driving away with the door open                                     15 points
* Going on the right (as opposed to left) side of the road            30 points
* hitting a car or peep! (Usually game over!)                     60-999 points
* Crossing at a red light                                             70 points
* Going the wrong way (Green arrows point you the right way)         999 points
* Going off the road                                                 999 points
_______________________________________________________________________________

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 6. OUTRO
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I'd like to thank God and Jesus for making this possible......and my
mother and father for always supporting me, and buying me the Dreamcast, and I
suppose that royal kick-in-the-arse (thats right, not ass) Shaun, for lending
me the game in the first place!

I reserve all rights to this piece of work, you may display it wherever you
want as long as the whole document is there and nothing has been added or
removed. So remember kiddies (c)2001 Lee Johnson

My e-mail, incase you weren't paying attention earlier is:
[email protected]

Visit my web-site, I am buying www.karatekatkoral.co.uk soon but if you use
the link below, that will always work!

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