Have You Been Bejeweled?
Posted on 23 October 2006, at 2:23 pm, by Judie Lipsett
I would like to conduct a bit of an experiment and gather some information, which will most likely eventually end up in a future Gear Diary article. It involves the game Bejeweled - specifically the mobile version available from Astraware.
I have heard stories from a variety of people that this is the one game that they have always and will always enjoy playing on their mobile devices. Are you one of them?
Perhaps because it is so easy to indulge in at any time and anywhere, Bejeweled has become and remained a favorite with a lot of people. I know that I keep rediscovering it and get re-hooked; I guess I didn’t realize how common that was.
For instance: Out of all the fabulous games offered at Astraware, did you know that Bejeweled 2 is their number one selling game? But the original Bejeweled - first released in 2001 - is currently the number three best selling game?
In the last week alone I have heard several stories from different people telling me about how much they, or others close to them, enjoy the game.
Today Larry told me that when he bought his wife a CLÍE, he thought she might enjoy using it as an organizer. But the only reason her battery runs down is because she is playing Bejeweled!
I was also surprised when Jenneth told me that Bejeweled is the first game she loads on any device…and a quick search of her site proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. 
This jogged my memory about an iPAQ I had purchased “slightly used” years ago; at the time the seller told me that he had bought it specifically for his wife to use while she was in the hospital for an extended stay…so she could play Bejeweled. Once she recuperated, she no longer needed the iPAQ!
I would love to know if you or a loved one enjoys playing Bejeweled. Do you have any stories about it? What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played the game? Spill the details! 
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4 Comments For This Post
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:30 pm
My wife uses her PDA (she alternates between her Tungsten E-2 and her Treo 650) mostly for games. Yeah, she uses the Treo as a cell phone, but she loves Palm games. She likes Bookworm, Bubblesnooker, and a few others, but like your friend, Judie, her favorite is Bejewelled.
She has played it pretty much everywhere. The edge of the pool here in Rollingwood. The edge of the pond at the base of a waterfall where the kids where swimming. On a cross-country trip in our van. In countless doctor’s waiting rooms. Laying in bed trying to get sleepy. It’s definitely her game of choice.
Me, I prefer Backgammon, bubblesnooker, and (sorry) Ultimate Bowling Fighter. I have also gone through phases where I really liked Meteor, or AnotherBall, or MicroQuad. I also like Championship Cribbage.
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Forgot to tell you something Judie, my mother has been “stuck” with Bejeweled for years….
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:48 pm
On my old Sony Clie PEG-SJ30 and Tungsten E, I use to run through screen protectors when after countless hours of playing Bejeweled, the familiar grid of endless play would “drag” the stylus as the surface became rough.
I was so hooked on Bejeweled, that I would play the game with my PDA’s sideways, with two styluses in each hand, upside down and to make things more challenging, by selecting shapes or colors only.
Being somewhat nocturnal, playing a game like Bejeweled or Handmark’s Monopoly against three players actually mellowed me out for a good night’s sleep. One fateful night at 11:00 pm, I decided to play a game of Bejeweled before bedtime. I ended up playing all night until it was time to go to work 8 hours later. At that time, I happened to work at PalmGear. My Palm OS cohorts gathered around as I proudly showed the high score of 1 million plus points; later that morning, I picked up an additional 300,000 points. After emailing Astraware, they in their loving British humor, told me to back away from the Sony and seek much needed therapy!
I got hooked on Bejeweled 2 as well, playing for stretches of two hours at a time on my Zodiac, outlasting the battery life at times. I actually ruined the digitizer on the Tungsten E on the lower right corner with Bejeweled 2.
But I’m proud to say I have been Bejeweled-free for two years now. However, I must say that Bejeweled is the perfect game to play while going shopping with the wife. There is no better way to pass the time in a mall. While Bejeweled has driven me insane at times, it has also kept me from going insane with boredom at the mall. Such is the delicate balance of insanity (gaming or shopping) !
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Wow…just…wow!!!
Impressive! 