PalmOne PalmPak Games Card (m125, m130, i705 & m500 series)

The PalmPak Games Card features an exciting mix of games from the classic to the cutting edge (like SimCity). You'll enjoy favorites like solitaire, chess, checkers, and backgammon; games of chance like nine-ball, blackjack, and Vegas slots; and hot new games like Bubblet and Zap!2016.

Product Description
Want to make waiting around a lot more fun? Next time you're stuck at the airport or in an endless line, plug in the PalmPak Games Card to play 10 entertaining games. Just plug the PalmPak Games Card into the expansion slot on your handheld. This postage stamp-sized multimedia card expands the capabilities of your handheld to give you the power to play games without sacrificing memory space. From SimCity to solitaire, the PalmPak Games Card features an exciting mix of games from the classic to the cutting-edge. You'll enjoy favorites like chess, checkers, and backgammon, games of chance like 9-ball, blackjack, and Vegas slots, and hot new games like Bubblet and Zap!

But potential buyers should be aware that there are problems with the software on the card that need to be resolved if the games are to work properly. Zap!2016 can eat up your main memory, and Vegas Slots and Klondike can stop functioning altogether. See the Palm web site for details and solutions. Fortunately these problems are fixable, but I wish that these games had been tested more thoroughly before this card was released. The patch for Zap!2016 takes up 124 KB of your handheld's main memory, which undermines one of the chief advantages of this product, namely, that it frees up handheld RAM.

I would also have liked more games on the card. The card itself is a 16 MB MultiMediaCard, of which the games take up only 1.6 MB. The selection of games seems a little light and could be a problem if, for example, a buyer doesn't much care for a couple of games, such as the Vegas-style gambling games or the card games, and ends up using only a few games on the card. I personally would have liked a strategy game in the mix; others may find other reasons to quibble about the selection. Still, why so few games? Would more have pushed the price higher?

In sum, this game card is satisfying - I do use it quite often - but I'm not entirely sure it's worth what it costs.


Perfectly adequate - I'm now a gambling fool   December 28, 2001
Doug (Rochester, NY USA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

I was surprised at the number of negative reviews here for this Game Pak - I just received it as a gift and have been playing the games frequently over the last few days, and I'm pretty satisfied. The card installed and ran the games flawlessly, and the games themselves are simple but highly addictive and entertaining. (Apparently there is a memory leak in Zap!2016, but I'll admit I haven't played that one enough to notice. Hey, I have a slot machine to beat here.)

Let's face it - the Palm is not a high-end gaming platform, and even m505 owners should not expect a stupendous experience. The best games for this size screen are the simplest ones. Klondike is the same as always, with slightly nicer graphics but no scoring. Chroma is a nice three-in-one package of chess, checkers, and backgammon (great for 2-person games on long trips), Vegas Slots and Blackjack are faithful reproductions of their real-life counterparts and SimCity is very basic but contains the essence of the original (I imagine this one is much better in color).

I had none of the technical difficulties of the other reviewers, and I have no problem with the fact that this card is a) only 10% full, and b) thirty bucks. A collection of games like this probably pays the developers a small fraction of the retail price, and we should be supporting people like them if we want better games in the future. I wish they could find a way to selectively unlock the SD card though, so the saved games would also live in there and the memory footprint of the whole pak (er, minus the patches) would be zero.

Bottom line: It's a fine price to pay for a collection of fun, good-looking games. Not perfect, but still very much worth it.


Just alright, no words of praise.   July 4, 2001
Druce MacFarlane (Half Moon Bay, CA United States)
15 out of 19 found this review helpful

First, I would like to knock at least one star off of this review from Palm for making it so difficult to really see what games were actually on this card.

Second, when I finally found out, I was a little disappointed, not by the quality of the games, but the quantity. Of all of the games, I play a couple regularly: Zap 2016 and Solitare.

Come on Palm, I am sure that you could have rounded up a few more titles from the vast assortment of free and cheap Palm software to at least make the purchasers feel like they got something. After all, there was more room on the card.


It does what it says.   June 15, 2001
Brett Anderson (Atlanta, GA United States)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I found this card to be easy to use. Other then the fact that it is tiny and I am always afraid of losing it, it makes things easy. The games are easy to access, takes no time to load it, and I dont have to worry about things like registering, download errors, or that it might make my palm crash. I had no technical problems. Of course, not all of the games were great and Sim City can get a little overwhelming with only the small palm window to look through, but overall I am impressed.


Don't waste your money   October 19, 2001
Steve N Swaringen (Rockwall, TX United States)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

1. Most of the programs don't work. They either hose the PDA (m505) forcing a reset, or, in the case of SimCity, just tell you that "This version of SimCity is unregistered. . The whole reason I bought this card was to get SimCity--the advertising never disclosed that all I got was an icon and a banner advertising a product that I had to purchase separately.
2. The card only uses 1.6M of the 16M card, but is write protected so you can't make use of the rest of it--or recycle the card when you realize what's on it is not worth the 1.6M it consumes. Your money is better spent buying a blank 16M card and downloading the same games for free.
3. I have been unable to find any support for the card. The Palm web site sends you to the web sites of the individual program suppliers.