Freeware

Checkers
Developer: Virtual Overload
The classic board game brought to the Palm. Unfortunately, it's rather a disappointment: there is no Palm AI player - you either have to find a friend to play with, or play each side yourself.

Shareware

Galactic Realms
Developer: Kpoole Software, $15.00 A real-time strategy game in space. Your first mission involves setting up and managing a colony while defending it against enemies. A level editor is planned for the game, and it's available in color. The developer clearly indicates in the Read Me file that the game is still being improved and undergoing bug fixes, but even in spite of that, it's already fairly impressive. Unfortunately, the controls and symbols are somewhat non-intuitive, and the accompanying documentation really doesn't explain enough to get you started. If you're a fan of Starcraft, you might want to download this and see if you like it well enough to pay to see it developed further.

Pipeline Perils
Developer: Neil Pollard $10.00
A Palm Pilot adaptation of Pipe Dream. Full version has unlimited levels, high score board, more pipes and a wrap-around game area. Demo version has three levels. On this one, I don't feel like I got enough to evaluate - usual criticism on crippleware, points off for that. I got the idea, but not enough to tell if this is a good adaptation of the original game, which I'm well qualified to comment on as it used to be a real favorite of mine. J The object is to connect pipes before the water comes gushing through. Matters are complicated by the fact that you have to do a bit of non-linear thinking because you don't always get the segment of pipe you need at the time you need it. Fun. There are free versions available for play on the web if you'd like a taste of the game, but you won't be able to take it with you on your Palm. This version is entertaining, but I don't feel like I had enough to evaluate to determine if the full version is worth the price. From what I did have to work with, I kind of doubt it.

PocketChess
Developer: Tinyware, $15.00
A full-featured version of the classic strategy game. You can play against the Pilot, against another human player, or have the Pilot compete with itself (good for educational purposes). Scott Ludwig, the author, is currently taking suggestions via e-mail for PocketChess 2.0. Chosen as the 1999 PalmPilot Game of the Year by Ziff Davis. If you like chess, this program is definitely worth a look. You may also want to consider ChessGenius, which has a running list of moves, among other nice features, but that program is $10 more.

Oxo
Developer: AK Analytics Ltd., $7.00 Shareware version is limited to 30 uses. This game is rather like a three dimensional version of Tic Tac Toe. If you like Tic Tac Toe well enough to spend $7.00 on it, by all means, be my guest, but there are fresher games for the Palm for you to spend that money on.

RB's Tic-Tac-Toe
Developer: Richard Burmeister, $5.00
It's Tic-Tac-Toe for the Palm, this time in the basic 2D variety, unlike Oxo. This demo raises a big beef I have with shareware - this is crippleware, and suffers from the same problem as Go to Jail! from a different developer. Supposedly in the full version, you can play against an AI student that learns, a dumb AI opponent, a smart AI opponent, and a genius AI opponent. I have no way of verifying the truth of this advertising or how good an emulation it is because the author doesn't allow you to play against any of the computer opponents in the demo - only against another human. Unfounded or not, I suppose I'm suspicious enough that if I I'm not allowed to test something, I believe it might not work too well and they're trying to hide that. I take off big points for crippleware. Expireware or use-ware is much better. I understand that shareware authors need to get paid for quality work, but developers need to give us enough to test so that we can determine what the quality of the work is in the first place.