Solitaire Poker

n/a

US/EU JP System 16
Solitaire Poker
System(s): Sega System 16, Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (US/EU) Face (JP)
Developer: ASCII Login Soft Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Success Face
Peripherals supported: Gear-to-Gear Cable
Genre: Puzzle
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1990-10 ¥? ? JP 1991-05-31 ¥3,8003,800 T-54017 US 1991-09 $29.9529.95 2316 EU 1991-12 2316 PT 199x UK 1991-12 £24.9924.99 2316
Non-Sega versions Arcade MSX PC Engine PC-8801 mkII SR PC-9801 X68000

Solitaire Poker, known as Ryukyu (琉球) in Japan, is a puzzle game developed by ASCII and Login Soft for various Japanese home computers. It was ported to Sega System 16 arcade hardware by Success and Sega Enterprises, Ltd. in 1990. Face ported it to the Sega Game Gear the following year, with Sega releasing it overseas as Solitaire Poker.

Gameplay

Game Gear version

Gameplay

The game is a card game with the objective of building the best poker hands by picking one card at a time. The left side of the screen contains a group of 24 cards, arranged in six rows of four cards each, with most of the cards turned down but at least one row on the bottom turned up. Cards are drawn from a standard deck of 52 cards plus a Joker (which acts as a wildcard). The right side of the screen shows a group of 25 blank spaces, arranged in five rows of five spaces each, where cards can be placed.

The player chooses a card from the lowermost row on the left side of the screen, then places it in one of the blank spaces on the right side of the screen. Cards and spaces are chosen using or and picked up and dropped with . When a card is taken from the left side, the card above it takes its place. Cards are placed in the lowermost blank space of the selected column. While the column can be chosen freely, a card can only be placed in a row if the spaces below it are filled. Sets can be made horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. As the player completes rows and columns on the right side of the screen, the type of set that was made (if any) is shown as an icon next to the row, above the column, or in the top-left or bottom-left corner (for diagonal sets).

Success is a combination of luck (since the cards are presented to the player in random order) and the player's ability to anticipate possible combinations before they appear.

Modes

1P

A single-player mode containing 15 rounds. The player must obtain a minimum number of points in the round (depending on the mode selected) in order to progress to the next round. Each round requires progressively more points in order to clear. If the player exceeds the number of points needed to advance, the excess points are stored in the "Bank" and can be used to make up for a deficit of points in a subsequent round. There are three variations of this mode:

• In View 1, only the lowest row of cards are turned up.
• In View 2, the three lowermost rows are turned up, and the point requirement for each round has been raised. This allows the player to plan ahead when forming sets, though still only the lowest row of cards can be selected.
• In View 3, rounds rotate between three patterns: the lowest row of cards are turned up, the three lowermost rows are turned up, and all 24 cards are turned up. The point requirements are likewise raised for this variation.

There is no time limit; the game continues until the player fills the grid. The current score and the points needed to progress to the next round are shown in the top-right corner of the screen.

Try-1

A single-player mode containing a single round but with a much higher point requirement to clear. There are four variations of this mode:

• On Easy, the lowest row of cards are turned up, and 11,000 points are needed to clear.
• On Normal, the three lowermost rows are turned up (though still only the lowest row can be selected), and 13,000 points are needed to clear.
• On Hard, all 24 cards are turned up, and 15,000 points are needed to clear.
• On Casino, none of the cards are turned up (so the card can only be seen when placing it), and 9,000 points are needed to clear.

There is no time limit; the game continues until the player fills the grid. The current score and the points needed to clear the round are shown in the top-right corner of the screen.

Vs

A two-player mode for two Game Gears linked together using a Gear-to-Gear Cable. Both players compete to try to achieve the highest score in the best of five rounds. Players can separately select whether to play under a time limit (30, 60, or 90 seconds, or Free for no time limit). There are two variations of this mode:

• In Type A, the three lowermost rows of cards are turned up (though still only the lowest row can be selected). Each time a player makes a set, the player gains time back on the timer.
• In Type B, the three lowermost rows are turned up. Each time the player completes a set, the player gains time back on the timer and the number of cards that the opponent can see are reduced, depending on the set. The number of cards the opponent can see is reduced by 1 for Three of a Kind, by 2 for a Straight, by 3 for a Flush, by 4 for a Full House, by 5 for Four of a Kind, by 6 for a Straight Flush, by 7 for a Royal Straight Flush, and by 8 for Five of a Kind.

Sets

The rank of a card is the number or name on it: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, or Ace.

The suit of a card is its grouping: clubs, spades, hearts, or diamonds.

The Joker card is a wildcard with no suit that can substitute for any other card in completing a set. There is only one Joker card in the deck.

In order of increasing value:

Set	Point value	Description
One Pair (1P)	200	Two cards of one rank.
Two Pairs (2P)	400	Two cards of one rank and two cards of another rank.
Three of a Kind (3K)	800	Three cards of one rank.
Straight (ST)	1,000	Five cards of sequential rank, but not in the same suit.
Flush (FL)	1,400	Five cards in the same suit, but not of sequential rank.
Full House (FH)	1,800	Three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank.
Four of a Kind (4K)	2,000	Four cards of one rank.
Straight Flush (SF)	2,400	Five cards in the same suit of sequential rank.
Royal Straight Flush (RSF)	2,800	An Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10 in the same suit.
Five of a Kind (5K)	3,000	Five cards of one rank. This set is only possible to achieve with a Joker since there are only four of each rank of card in a deck.

Pressing during a game toggles an overlay showing all of the possible sets and their point values.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Solitaire Poker	Solitaire Poker
English (US)	Solitaire Poker	Solitaire Poker
Japanese	琉球	Ryuu Kyuu

Production credits

System 16 version

• -KAC-HATSU
• KOYAMA-KEI
• AMP-SATOOH
• KE•DENCYU★
• 3BAN•JIZOH
• --HIRANO--
• HB-TAMURA!
• T-KUNABARA
• KAZUO★★★★★
• A.NAKAMORI

Source:

In-game high score table

---

• Music: Kazumi Nasu

Source:

Uncredited

Magazine articles

Main article: Solitaire Poker/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

System 16 version

System 16, JP
Instuction card(s)

Game Gear version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

{{{{{icon}}}|L}}
Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score ACE (UK) 100 Ação Games (BR) 81 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 63 Console Mania (IT) 57 Console XS (UK) PAL 70 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 63 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 72 Gamers (DE) 73 Game Zone (UK) PAL 72 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 90 Hobby Consolas (ES) 76 Joystick (FR) NTSC-J 84 Joystick (FR) 81 Mega Force (FR) PAL 40 Micromanía (segunda época) (ES) 45 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 70 Play Time (DE) 55 Power Play (DE) 65 Sega Power (UK) PAL 72 Sega Pro (UK) 71 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 70 Sega Force (UK) PAL 91 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 71 User (GR) PAL 91

	72
Based on 24 reviews

Solitaire Poker

Game Gear, JP
Cover

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, PT
Cart Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 95efd52b MD5 5a43e20c816435a080a601b0ddacaa44 SHA-1 ffaa1c97c64aec30176254f1ef655c06c63e1b53	128kB		Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 06f2fc46 MD5 d76a2cf1ba1565c4ec6494ea4ee4075b SHA-1 7478a2f641fa371999f2c9f0a1efd9917615be5f	128kB		Cartridge (US/EU)

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Ryuu Kyuu