I recently discovered the existence of a shareware puzzle game called PokerHand, developed by a company called PhoneCast (who I understand to be a short-lived iteration of ADK) and marketed by Sammy exclusively in Japan for Palm OS devices. It’s a classic falling-object puzzle game, with the gimmick that to clear pieces from the screen, you need to form a valid poker hand.
It was released in March of 2001, to a highly positive reception from Japanese reviewers. Muchy, one of the most prolific and frequently cited reviewers in the Japanese Palm OS scene of the time, gave it a 5-star review. Vector, a marketplace and online magazine (who still exists to this day), also gave it their highest possible score. However, according to one of the game’s developers, these reviews didn’t translate into sales, and the decision was made to abandon the Palm platform after one release.
However, while the shareware version of the game was available through vector at one point, it seems that the “myVector” service that hosted the files has since been rebranded as part of the regular Vector library. No listings for the game exist in the currently online versions, and I’ve been unable to find a download. The last known link for it was this:
I’m still actively seeking this out, but I’d appreciate a heads up if anyone has any leads. I’ve spoke to Takashi over emails and he doesn’t seem to have a copy, although he told me to contact Sega so there may just be copyright concerns. I’ve also got some active bids on a shareware collection CD over on Yahoo Auctions, but that’s kind of grasping at straws. I figured this intersects with enough people’s interests here that it’s worth posting.
Thanks for your research on this and for bringing it to our attention!
It might not help find the actual game, but I've submitted a very light MobyGames entry, which will hopefully increase the visibility/awareness of the game.
I'm digging through Sammy's old websites to see if there's any more info.
@hellomrkearns
I’m really hoping I can track down a copy, but man information is scarce on this thing. I’m tempted to write a clone of it from scratch if I don’t ever end up finding it, because I feel like the premise is just super compelling. It could end up being awkward to play, but I gotta know.
@exodus
Another comparison someone’s given me is Raku Jongg for the Wonderswan, which seems pretty similar (except maybe a little more strict as it adheres pretty closely to riichi mahjong rules).
I’ve been digging through the stuff in Redump, but to no avail so far. Most of the shareware compilations are focused more on western games, with a handful of exceptions. I did however pick up a mook (with an included CD) that was written by Yoshihisa Muta, who was the titular Muchy of Muchy’s Palmware Review, one of the sites that gave PokerHand a 5/5. I’m hoping that’ll get me somewhere. There’s a guy in the PalmDB discord that has some old ASCII Palm Magazine stuff he’s offered to rip, too.
Casting a pretty wide net with this as it’s something I’d like to get more eyes on. Mostly because I really want to play it, but also because I find it really frustrating to have images, video, pitch slides, reviews, concept art, and so on, but no actually playable game.
@donrumata ah damn, I just ripped it off ony of my old compilation ISOs and uploaded it without checking.
Yeah, it’s one of those sites I’ve hesitated to share too much from because I worry that they might feel pressured to start pulling stuff if it were to get picked up in the wrong places. It did get me to track down the Nanja Monja LCD game, if nothing else.
