Gatherers Garden

* See also Vending Machines
* See also Little Sisters
* See also ADAM and Plasmids
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Gatherers Gardens : "Smarter than Einstein, Stronger than Hercules ..." :
Gatherers Gardens did not contain stockpiles of ADAM, they processed it into Plasmids and Tonics ( They supplied  the genetic modification pattern components ) for their product and customers.  People wanting an ADAM product made would have to supply the ADAM used ( that's the way it worked in the game ).  Therefore, there was no real reason for them to be 'broken into' ( You KNOW that Splicers WOULD chew through metal, for as long as it would take, to get at that tasty ADAM they craved ).  The 'GG' machines also apparently had no Coin Slot for payment either ( Which could be rectified for the MMORPG ).  Perhaps, when Ryan was deploying his 'Pheromone' enhances Plasmid/Tonics, he did not want to discourage Splicers by charging them money ( After that, we're not sure who then maintained the machines - Why would Sofia Lamb want to give any of her serfs/slaves/minions the ability to Plasmid-Up and then come FRY her, if they had two braincells still left working ?? ). 
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Just pour the Raw ADAM goop into the Slot
Probably the Gatherers Garden machines had something inside that looked like this. Collecting Raw ADAM (as Payment) and dispensing (elsewhere) refined ADAM with the selected Plasmidic Genetic additives/components included. 
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Gatherers Garden Machines - ADAM goes in, Plasmids/Tonics Come Out :
'Raw ADAM' is not directly usable. 'Refined ADAM' would be dispensed in exchange for twice (or more of) the Raw ADAM ( for 'payment' - That's why there is no coin slot for 'profit' ). The ADAM refinement unit in the Vending Machine is fairly sophisticated in its miniaturize form, and thus is worthy of a Bounty in New Rapture.
The Gatherers Gardens were a clever method of inducing people to recycle ADAM ( Though you would think that with Little Sisters being a target to acquire that ADAM when a Splicer had no ADAM from 'reward payments' or wages, it really wasn't so clever in that it encouraged killing Little Sisters ... )
Imprinting the pattern for genetic modification - an added ADAM genetic mutagen drives the rapid formation of T-Cells and then modification at the cellular level. Some modifications take a larger amounts of T-Cells and thus more ADAM. Some Plasmids require multiple combination patterns to be applied to make the necessary changes, and are thus more complex and cost more
The BS1/BS2 games required that the Gatherers Garden Machines were not Hackable - Not Hackable in-game by Jack or Delta. The high value contents of these machines would have meant they would have much more sophisticated anti-hacking counter-measures and defenses. Short of breaking the machines open ( they seem indestructible enough to have been constructed out of Ryanium, an attempt at hacking may result intentionally in a poisonous Plasmid/Tonic/ADAM instead of anything useful. As time went on ( when the Chaos started ), and more than a few machines failed, the Splicer Factions may have started protecting the remaining machines they were dependent on.
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Gatherer's Garden Machines Added by Ryan ... Like Methadone :
"Gatherers" were the Little Sisters (with or without Big Daddy 'Protector' accompaniment) in the period a bit before the Kashmir Incident ( very end 1959 ).
After he gained control of Fontaine Futuristics, Ryan used the GG machines to distribute ADAM products.  They would also be a convenient way to distribute modified products containing 'Pheromones' and/or stabilization versions of Plasmid/Tonics, AND eventually be used to distribute "The Cure" -- Once his Labs found it for the 'ADAM disease' effecting so many citizens.  Until that time, they would be employed in the equivalent of Methadone Therapy used on Heroin addicts.
Some Gatherer's Garden machines continued to function up through the Sofia Lamb period in Rapture ( as we saw in BS2 ).  Whether this was due to simply being well made or any active maintenance is not explained.  Such machine must've had formidable defenses against Hacking or being broken into, as the ADAM they contained was so desperately sought by Splicers.
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It seems illogical for the Gatherer's Garden machines to require ADAM as payment ( or to process - if they ever also required Money ) as the only sources we are told are : Sea Slugs, Little Sisters, and later Big Sisters.   The Sea Slugs were largely unreachable out in the Ocean, and the Big Sisters rather formidable to take.  Little Sisters thus were the easiest source for the ADAM the machine required.  Yet they are also supposed to be the primary means of recovering/generating ADAM.   Setting them up to be killed by crazed Splicers just seems stupid ( No matter how many Big Daddies went with them ).
New Rapture is a bit smarter and keeps its few Little Sisters safe at home, and has any bodies brought to them for the 'recycling'. You (The MMORPG Player) may wish to purchase/construct a Wheel Barrow for this purpose ...
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Sign : ADAM BOUGHT AND SOLD :
It wasn't Gatherers Gardens ONLY ( or Fontaine stores ) that sold ADAM products in Rapture --  Other sources  : Stores/Shops (we saw signs), Medical Suppliers selling to doctors, bootleggers on street corners ( cheaper/sub-standard, instead of illegal, unless there was Patent Enforcement ). 
Doctors using ADAM manually on patients for esoteric/complex/non-standard Therapies/'Procedures'.
Likewise, Fontaine wasn't the only generator of ADAM.   Other companies produce the stuff and anyone having  a 'pet' Sea Slug might produce some.  Of course, raw ADAM isn't particularly useful, and its being refined and combined into ADAM-based products is a further difficulty factor.   Later, 'Independents' ( and Bootleggers ) may have run their own stables of kidnapped children to supply the ADAM they sold.
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When were the Gatherers Gardens machines added ?   Fontaine may have had them built while he was still around to 'Cut Out the Middleman'.  Ryan talks of the Little Sister image in the Audio Diary "Marketing Gold", but that may have only been about adding it to existing machines, to correspond to a big new advertisement campaign.   But then WHEN ?   It would be somewhat discordant ( Ryan sounds so mercantile about selling the LS motif in that Audio Diary ) to have such a businesslike attitude during a 'civil war'/panic post-Kashmir situation  -- Unless the Atlas/Rebel emergence and increasing mayhem took some longer time to develop post-Kashmir events ( which runs contrary to McDonagh talking about panicking people started 'lining up around the block' to get Plasmids to defend themselves from the anarchists ).
Paying for ADAM with ADAM ( in the GG machines ) ?   Where, that early, do citizens get it ?   ADAM becoming the 'currency' that early ( again - WHEN ? )   They must've taken CASH initially.  They must've had a sufficient advantage over Pharmacy sold ADAM ( and possibly part of long-term plans by Ryan to use the limited access to wean his citizens off the poison ).
Something about Atlas causing riots by declaring there was an 'ADAM shortage' is mentioned... ( that is post-Kashmir ).   No doubt with Fontaine Futuristics disorganized, production would have declined massively.
Timeline: Sept 12 (Neptunes Bounty Shootout) - Dec 31 (Kashmir Terrorist Attacks) --- Just 3.5 months to seize/reorganize/rebuild/resume the Fontaine Futuristics component of the ADAM market ( including continuing to run those "Orphanages", which were probably a large part of the City's Raw ADAM source ).   That is actually alot to accomplish in such a short time. Real World, they probably would hardly be started on just drawing up plans for it all in that 3 months ( or 3 years - if typical bureaucrats were involved ).
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Gatherers Garden Machines Were Not Hackable :
Damn. To Bad (I would Imagine Extreme Difficulty for THIS ).
The game designers decided not to allow it ( no reason they couldn't have existed with some minor ( ie- 10 % ) discount allowed - but with making the HACKING very hard -- With even the Auto-Hacks blowing up, and with no 'Buyout' ).
These Vending Machines were created at a later time (in Rapture's Timeline - seen most likely after Ryan got control of Fontaine Futuristics), and with a very high value commodity inside. So it was possible to have been made with better/more-advanced 'Hack Proof' mechanisms/features.
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Columbia Gets Machines TOO 
Infinite BS had a similar kind of 'Vigor' selling machines. A Lame ANACHRONISM. They simply copied the game element -- no matter how inappropriate it was to the era. BUT Where else could you obtain the 'magic potions' ??? -- As a logical (era) 'shop'/Drugstore solution would require the Player interfacing with a Human, who in the game story were all ready to shoot Booker. So without resorting to some better imaginative solution ( which WOULD have taken a bit of real work and skill ), the game writers simply regurgitated/lazily-copied/duplicated the same Infinite BS game mechanism.
Actually, IF they had had some actual imagination, the game makers could have ALSO had an alternative to the Vigors ( the copied magic potion game element ). Using Quantumz BS ( the explanation for everything else impossible in that game ), it would not have to be contained in a magic fluid. Instead, they could have some fantastic Steampunky machine, with a 'nice little light show' as it ENTANGLED SUPER DIMENSIONAL POWERS. THAT would have served better. The game makers apparently lacked such imagination. They could have avoided having to leave largely unexplained why the ADAM Vigors/Plasmid-copies even were in Columbia. Later, they also could have avoided having all the strange plot complications in BaSx -- All that BS where the gamemakers ludicrously explained how the super-genetic-scientist ( NOT !! ) Jeremiah Fink came to make his own Rapture-like Plasmids.
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