Any% Guide

This route is rough and there may be mistakes I may of missed.



Tips:
You lose 1 frame of movement from jumping, attacking or throwing something, so only attack/swing when necessary.

A running jump has less height than a standing jump, which won't make certain ledges.

You can cancel the damage animation completely by swinging on the peak of Garfield's jump. This is used in Orangebeard 1. You can also cancel it by getting hit by an enemy while in midair.

Avoid mallets like the plague as they put you through a bonus level.

Route:
-Mash the Start button until you get past all the cutscenes.
-Either go through the top of the area to get to the remote, or do damage canceling through the bottom.

Count Slobula:
-Kill the enemies that will cause you damage if going optimally.
-Swinging in front of the poles in the underground will make you grab them faster.
-Avoid the Mallet at the end.
-For the boss, throw the skulls at him if far away, otherwise swing. A standing jump will only work for pulling down the drapes.

OrangeBeard 1:
Safe Strat: 
-Stay on the boat the until you get off, swinging at any enemies that approach.
Harder Strat:
- Skip the 2nd boat and damage cancel in the water when possible.

Really Hard Strat:
Skip all the boats using damage canceling and grab all invincibility and health drops where possible. You're very likely to die using this strat due to Bat rng.
OrangeBeard 2:
-Kill all enemies in the way
-Do both vine skips
-1st vine skip is basically jumping at the edge of the branch, jumping up to grab the very edge of the vine, jump and immediately hold left.
-2nd vine skip is much more precise, you need to stand on the right platform, attempt to jump to the very edge of the vine and jump+hold right.
-pushing the boulder in the underground is slow, so take a hit if you can.
-For the Boss, just stand on the far right platform, spam jump and throw your projectiles.

Cave Cat 1:
-Generally, kill all enemies in your way and go fast.
-The crabs have very large hitboxes, so throw your projectiles early.

Cave Cat 2: 
-Skip the boulder as it isn't needed to climb up the first ledge
-for the falling platforms, try to jump to the ledge from the 2nd platform that appears, otherwise wait until the others platforms appear and jump off those.
-Go throught the secret Passageway(Avoid the Mallet)
-Make your way to the end of the level
-For the Boss, you have a small chance to softlock here , there's no known way out of it, so it requires a reset.
-Push the boulders as quickly as you can to hit Odie(Odie's hitbox is very large here)
-The falling rubble causes you 1 point of damage, the pushable boulder causes 2.

Catsablanca:

-Make your way through the level by going through the proper passageway.
-The bouncy rooftops are kind of precise in position, so be careful
-For the high rooftops, do standing jumps as they skip the climbing animation
-For the Boss, he has a chance to drop 2-4 bombs per cycle. Collect 8 and throw them into the pipes.

Cleofatra:

-Nothing too remarkable for this level
-for the spinning platform, stand at the edge and go through the sliding door on the 2nd cycle.
-The Odie statue at the end requires a standing jump.
-For the boss, light the left torch, then right. Light all the torches and quickly deal 5 hits of damage to the odie statue.
-When the statue starts flashing, quickly jump to the other platform before it falls, otherwise you lose a lot of time.
-Do the same with the odie statue, then jump to the moving platform and throw as many projectiles as you can at the Sphinx before the platforms disappear.
-Just swing at both the head and the snake head until they die.

Before the Final Boss:

Doing Chip clips is slightly faster if you can perform them, otherwise just go normally.

Glitch:
-Optimal Mirror Order(from bottom to top):
L      R
R     L
R     L
R     L
R     L
L     R
L     R

-Do a standing jump to get to the cords to grab the remote(Moving jump won't work).
-Done

PC Installation Guide

So! You've managed to find yourself a disc copy of Garfield: Caught in the Act! That's quite a feat, so congratulations on that.

But when you go to install it on your Windows 10 PC, you find that it doesn't want to install on newer versions of Windows! Luckily, there's a workaround.

1. Insert your game disc into your disc drive.
2. Create a folder somewhere on your hard drive. Mine 'Garfield' on the D drive. We're going to be installing the game to this folder.
3. Access the CD drive in File Explorer. Here, you'll find all the files for Garfield.
4. Copy the following files:

wavemix.ini
bsb.dir
csb.dir
dsb.dir
msb.dir
osb.dir
ssb.dir
wsb.dir

5. Paste those files in the Garfield folder you created in Step 2.
6. Open the Command Prompt program (Type 'cmd' in the Start Menu)

With Command Prompt open, we're going to force windows to install the game from the disc to our folder. We need to know a few things:
a. The CD drive letter
b. The hard drive letter that contains our Garfield folder

My CD drive letter is the G drive, and my Garfield folder is on my D drive.  We're going to tell the Command Prompt to Expand the file 'garfield.ex_' into the Garfield folder in our D drive.

7. So I would type the following into Command Prompt:

expand G:\garfield.ex_ D:\Garfield\garfield.exe

Replace the G and D drives with whichever letters your drives have assigned to them. You should get a notification saying that the file has been expanded in size. You can now close Command Prompt.

8. Right Click garfield.exe and set it to run as in Windows XP Compatibility Mode.

Note that the CD music is INCREDIBLY LOUD!!! I have to set my system volume to 8 for it to be at an acceptable level. Also note that the music does not loop. Not sure how to fix this, but that's how it is.

Good luck!

PC vs Genesis Changes

Garfield: Caught in the Act (PC)

The PC port of Garfield is largely the same as the Genesis port, but with a few minor differences.

This isn't a full guide on the game (As it's basically the same thing as the Genesis version), just a list of differences between the two so you aren't caught unaware. Follow the Any% Guide by Glitchymon for more information on the contents of the actual levels.

CONTROLS

Arrow Keys - Movement
A - Jump
S - Throw
D - Melee attack
ESC - Pause (Doesn't actually pause the game??)

Below is a comprehensive guide on the differences between the Genesis and PC ports.


LEVEL 0 - BACKSIDE OF THE TV

The TV segments all remain wholly unchanged. However, the levels that you are taken to are in a completely different order than the Genesis version.

Also important to note is that if the CD music is turned off, you can jump forward when Garfield spawns in and completely skip the cutscene that shows Garfield which door to go. This can save about 6-7 seconds. However, runs need CD music turned on to be allowed. If this skip can be made with music on, please send proof/repro.

Also, the cutscenes between levels cannot be skipped. Sucks.

LEVEL 1 - CAVE CAT 3,000,000 BC

This level is basically the same as its Genesis counterpart.

Important to note: The first falling white bone bridge in this level can have tricky collision. If you land on it weird, sometimes it may fall faster than you can move, so I recommend jumping near the end of it just in case.


LEVEL 2 - THE CURSE OF CLEOFATRA

This level is basically the same as its Genesis counterpart.

A few things to note:

1. You cannot jump up from the Odie tongue to his nose in the boss room. You must bounce off the tongue to reach his eyes.
2. Be careful when lighting the torch to make the Odie statues stick out their tongues in the boss room. If you mash the attack, the tongue can stop short and make your jump pixel perfect. 
3. I have never managed to make the jump from the first Odie statue to the opposite rising paw in the boss room, so I'm not sure if that's due to different speeds between the ports, or if I just can't get it. If you can get it, let me know and I'll edit this doc.


LEVEL 2.5 - BACKSIDE OF THE TV 2

Nothing different between the ports, but you do use this path a second time after the 6th level. More below.


LEVEL 3 - COUNT SLOBULA'S CASTLE

This level is basically the same as its Genesis counterpart.

The double jump glitch in the 2nd underground chamber appears to be present, but I can only seem to get locked above the screen with no way to jump out of the ground. I don't recommend doing this on PC unless we find a way to make it beneficial.


LEVEL 4 - REVENGE OF ORANGEBEARD

This level is basically the same as its Genesis counterpart.


LEVEL 4.5 - BACKSIDE OF THE TV 3

This path utilizes the same exploit between levels 4 and 5 as the Genesis version. Do a tall jump over the ouch bars to the right of the door and you can damage boost right over them. 


LEVEL 5 - CATSABLANCA

Only two major things to note here.

1. When running across the rooftops, you can simply hold left to bounce off the awnings. It looks like you'll fall, I know, but you can do it. Just watch out for birds.
2. The glitch where bombs deal extra damage to the dog boss seems to be absent from this game. If you can make this glitch happen, please send proof/repro.


LEVEL 6 - ALIEN LANDSCAPE

The PC port of Garfield: Caught in the Act contains a 6th level, Alien Landscape. This level, alongside two others, was available to Genesis users through online download via Sega Channel in February 1996.

And now we get to enjoy it in all its glory. Fun.

One important thing off the bat, jumping in this level slows Garfield down (to emulate low gravity in space). Avoid jumping at all costs, and stay grounded as much as you can.

The level is dead easy. You'll encounter two major obstacles:

- Pits with lava
- Pits without lava

Pits with lava hurt Garfield and send him backwards. Don't fall into these.

Pits without lava send Garfield to another area underground. Jumping out of these pits propels Garfield out in whatever direction you're holding, so these pits are actually good. Just be aware that falling into the pits will send a few UFO enemies your way. These can be annoying if you aren't expecting them, especially since you can't attack them when you fall into them.

So the level goes pretty simple.

1. Jump over the first lava pit.
2. Drop into the first empty pit. Hold Right while jumping out, and it will drop you right above the second pit. Hooray.
3. Drop into the second empty pit. Hold Right while jumping out, and it will drop you close to a lava pit. Keep holding right and you'll be okay.
4. You'll come to a giant lava pit with bubbling trees above it. Jump onto the first bubble (collision can be kind of tricky, so be careful). Jump to the bubbles to the right, making sure to jump across all 5 bubbling trees before coming down to land (The lava pit is really big).
5. Keep running right up the nose meteors.
6. The third and final empty pit spits you out directly on top of a giant lava pit. Do a NEUTRAL JUMP out of the pit if you want to be safe from the lava. Holding Right will drop you into the lava.
7. Ride the bubbles to the nose meteor, run across it, and jump to avoid the lava pit and grab the Pooky.
8. Keep running right. You can't kill this dog. No clue why. Keep swatting at it while moving right and doing mini hops to avoid getting stunned.
9. Ride the bubbles to the top and keep moving right
10. Stand on the nose meteor and time rocket throws right to smack the boss 5 times


LEVEL 6.5 - BACKSIDE OF THE TV 4

Identical to Backside of the TV 2 (The same TV segment as the one between Cleofatra and Slobula). Not challenging or anything, just an additional TV segment because the Genesis port doesn't have the 6th level.


LEVEL 7 - SEASON FINALE

This level is basically the same as its Genesis counterpart.

As always, run ends on the fadeout after grabbing the last remote. Good luck!

Name	Author
Any% Guide	glitchymon 6 years ago
PC Installation Guide	LeoMyFriend 3 years ago
PC vs Genesis Changes	LeoMyFriend 4 years ago