The game was accessed by placing the Chao in the VMU transfer machine found in each garden, and you would be able to play the game on the portable VMU away from the Dreamcast. There was also an exclusive mini-game called Chao Adventure that was played with the Visual Memory Unit (VMU).
There were very few breeds of Chao, and the garden contained many inhospitable landscaping features. The Chao Garden had only a few- now standard, features: giving Chao fruits and animals, showing affection with each character, branching evolution based on skills, and racing. This was the first game to ever feature Chao, and thus had the most basic system compared to later games. This is a summary and overview of the differences between the various Chao systems.