Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, that phenomenon is a result of the way that Palm OS works (and most people are not aware of). Even though you can install applications on an expansion card, they can't actually be run from there, and must be in main memory to be executed. In normal operation, when you run an application that has been installed on an expansion card, Palm OS copies that application to main memory to actually run it. When you exit the game normally, the application is deleted from memory to free up the space (but the savegame file remains in main memory).

I spent some time testing after Village Sim was released, and I verified some interesting things about how applications that are installed to an expansion card are handled in various circumstances. If, while running the application, the device is reset (either intentionally or unintentionally), the application is left in main memory and behaves just like you had installed it there, rather than on the card. It stays in main memory and is not deleted when you exit the game. If you then use Palm's "Delete" function to remove the application from main memory, it will also delete that application's data (which, in the case of Village Sim, is the savegame file).

The only safe way to delete the "extra" copy of an application in that kind of situation is to use a file manager application, like FileZ. The good news, however, is that there is a way to get your savegame file back, depending upon when you last HotSynced your Palm. Let me know if you want the details.

well, for future reference, yes I would love the details. I did start another game though and since I knew some of tasks already it was a little easier to get started. So now I am back to square one with only 2nd on harvesting after 2 days. Hardly any tech points and that damng monkey keeps popping up. Oh and let us not forget the typhoon....

HAHA the drama

Backing up your Village Sim game requires a degree of active management on your part to be truly effective, since I don't consider the occasional HotSync a good backup strategy.

Village Sim creates a separate savegame file (VillageSavegame.pdb) on your Palm and updates it every time the game is exited (v1.1 displays a message informing the user of this fact when you exit the game). Each time you perform a HotSync, that file is copied to your PC, and is placed in the 'backup' folder for Palm desktop (usually \program files\palm (or palmone)\user_name\backup). Depending upon when you last performed a HotSync, that file may or may not be useful to you (you can note the date/time of the file when you are looking at the contents of the backup folder). Double-clicking on the file VillageSavegame.pdb will put it in QuickInstall, ready to be HotSynced back onto your Palm. Since the game probably wasn't paused when you last HotSynced, you'll have to change your Palm's system clock to match the date/time of the savegame file before you launch Village Sim to keep your game from experiencing a period of neglect (but you can bring up the game, pause it, exit, and set the Palm's clock back to the correct time).

Even if recovering an earlier savegame file isn't a good option for you, here is a method of "backing up" multiple iterations of your savegame file that requires no additional investment in backup software:

The first thing you want to do is set your game speed to "paused" so that, no matter how long it is between when you save it and when you restore it, you won't have any disasters resulting from the passage of time. Then exit your game and perform a HotSync. That will put the most recent savegame on your PC. The savegame file (VillageSavegame.pdb) will be stored in the 'backup' folder described above. To be extra safe, you can copy the savegame file to another folder somewhere else on your PC, so that subsequent HotSync operations won't overwrite it. You can either rename the savegame file(s) to something meaningful (until you need to restore it, at which point you'll need to restore the original filename), or you can store each savegame file in its own subfolder. I use that method myself to keep many savegames from various stages of the game to use for testing purposes.

If disaster ever strikes and you need to restore your backup, go to the folder where your savegame file is stored and double-click it. That will put it into QuickInstall, ready to be HotSynced back onto your Palm. Perform another HotSync and VOILA! You're ready to start right up from where you left off. The only oddity that you will notice is that your "Realtime hours played" statistic will reflect the total time that the game has been "running" - including the time it was paused. That's just how that particular statistic works.

Ah so desu ka!
I also have the game on the card, and your explanation was worth a lot to me. I HAD noticed that the Palm loads the game from the card each time(please wait...), and keeps the savegame in native storage, but I never followed the dots to realize why I was occasionally losing savegames. Fortunately, I have been using a variation of your backup folder trick, so no great loss, just a frustrating mystery, now solved.