This post contains all the research and information I have gathered for the game “Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza,” a Japan exclusive flip phone game released in 2005 that could earn you real coupons to Domino’s.
About the Game
Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza (Japanese: 焼きたて！ドミノ・ピザ) is a simulation game where you take on the role of a Domino’s employee, preparing orders and delivering them within a time limit. Multiple orders arrive at a time, and it is up to the player to prioritize the order in which the pizzas are made for maximum efficiency. The game has an isometric pixel art style, and the graphics are meant to directly imitate the Domino’s retail setup from the images of the menu to the style of the delivery bikes.
By clearing certain conditions in the game, players could earn real coupons to use at Domino’s Pizza.
Besides this general description, it is difficult to find any information about this game. I was only able to find three news articles, but all of them were essentially a copy of G-mode’s original press release for this game. Searching the web for this game only brings up images of real Domino’s Pizza items. Searching on Youtube for a video shows similar, unsuccessful results.
I also found an interview series on G-mode’s website, Producer Kamakawi’s ROOM, that included an article about Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza. However, this “interview” appears to be a comedy piece where the joke is that the producers explain nothing about the game but instead discuss their love for pizza.
Below is a rough translation of a portion of the interview given to me by Google Translate.
(Ito) I feel like I haven’t explained the game, but is this okay?
Just a food conversation.
(Kawakami P) It’s better not to worry about the details!
Tragically, this interview is one of the only descriptions we have of this rare and obscure game.
Why is There No Information About This Game?
Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza was developed for Feature Phones: flip phones from the 2000s released in Japan that had greater technological capabilities and a wider variety of features compared to flip phones everywhere else in the world. Each mobile service provider offered an internet service that allowed you to visit special websites were you could download appli – basically the same as apps in today’s terms.
Because this realm of gaming was regulated by mobile providers, feature phone games are very securely locked into the phones that purchased them. Most Japanese phone producers (such as Fujitsu, Sharp, and Panasonic) do not produce American phones. This means that techniques used to preserve data other phones simply do not work with them.
For most phone models, there is no readily available software that allows you to copy a flash image. Some phone models permit you to transfer appli to a phone’s SD card, but the data is encrypted during the transfer process. Some have gone through the challenging process of removing a phone’s main chip from its board and attempting to read it with a chip reader. This has worked in some cases, but not all, since some of these phones have proprietary flash chips with no publicly available schematics.
Almost all appli sites have closed, so the only way to acquire this game would be to purchase a used phone from Japan that already has the game pre-installed. Considering that this game is nearly 20 years old, the chances of successfully finding a phone that has it installed are slim to none.
Is There Hope?
Possibly!
Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza was a game produced by the publisher G-mode. Not only is G-mode still in business, but also they have been republishing feature phone games from their catalog for the past 3 years. The G-mode Archives series has republished more than 40 G-mode games, as well as games from other publishers such as Atlus, Jaleco, CAVE, and Genki. Most games are only available in the Japanese Nintendo Switch e-Shop, though a few of them have also been added to Steam.
Does G-mode still have a copy of Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza? Would they be willing to republish this game? G-mode occasionally takes requests for games on their official Twitter. Perhaps they would republish this game if there were sufficient requests. Or maybe they wouldn’t. Who knows?
References
- Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza original webpage on g-mode.jp (archive)
- Producer Kawakami’s ROOM: Freshly Baked! Domino’s Pizza on g-mode.jp (archive)
- Two BREW® compatible contents are now available on au “Tetris & 100 Yen Game”! on g-mode.jp (archive)
- Domino’s Pizza BREW game where you can get coupons on K-Tai Watch
- BREW version “Yuyu Mahjong 2DX” and “Freshly Baked!! Domino’s Pizza” on ITMedia