War Of Flowers

War of Flowers is a 1993 Macintosh adaptation of Hanafuda, the traditional Japanese flower-card game, written by Minho Choi. Players match cards from the hand against the table layout to capture sets, win money from AI opponents, and chase the high-value combinations that give the game its name.

Hanafuda on the Mac

The deck is the classic 48-card Hanafuda set arranged into twelve suits of four, each suit illustrated with a flower or plant for a month of the year. Match the rank from your hand to a card on the table to claim both, then build scoring sets such as the bright cards, the ribbons, and the animals.

Money play

Rounds are played for stakes against computer opponents, with simple to pick up rules and considerable depth in deciding when to call for a payout versus pressing on for a bigger combination.

System

It is a 68k binary needing a 640x400 display, runs from System 6.x through Mac OS 9, and plays under Classic on early Mac OS X.

Author

Released as shareware by Minho Choi, the game went through several 2.0.x updates that refined the AI and presentation, with screenshots showing both the 2.0.3 and 2.0.9 releases.