Up and Down the River

In February 2008, Solecismic Software branched out into the card game market with a new product based on the popular card game Up and Down the River.

Front Office Cards Games: Up and Down the River is only available through electronic download. You can download the product through this link.

The installation gives you the opportunity to play, on a trial basis, for up to 60 minutes before purchasing. To begin the trial, just run the program and select the Trial button from the electronic licensing screen. We encourage you to try out the game before purchasing.

To purchase the game, please visit our web store. You can then enter that license on the electronic licensing screen and play the game without any limits.

Overview

Up and Down the River is the first card game from Solecismic Software, known for its award-winning sports simulations.

Up and Down the River is a popular trick-taking card game. It is also known as "Oh, Heck" or "Oh, Hell" in many areas.

Hand size varies, which is the meaning behind the game's name. A game often begins with a hand of only one card. The next hand is made of up two cards, and so on, until a limit is reached. Players then "go back down the river," starting with the maximum-sized hand and moving down.

With a minimum of one card per hand and a maximum of 10, a full game consists of 20 hands. You can change the game settings to suit your own game length.

Features

Solecismic Software brings its own strengths to Up and Down the River. The game includes the following features:

• When playing a card game, just like any other game, you want to measure your successes and failures. So the game includes a thorough record book. Do you want to know your own record for most tricks taken in a game? It's in there.

• Play against two, three or four computer opponents. Each computer opponent has a slightly different playing style. Over time, they adjust their play to your bidding and playing characteristics.

• The game includes a scoreboard, giving you access to a record of each hand played, trick by trick.

• Maintain up to eight different rules and scoring options sets, with statistics individually tracked for each set.

• Overall game statistics tracked for you and all of the computer opponents. Is Desdemona dominating the five-player contests by converting 62% of her bids and scoring nearly 90 points per game? You'll know at the touch of a button.

• If you want to know how you're doing in seven-card hands in five-player games, you can find that information at the touch of a button as well. What's your average bid? How many tricks do you take, on average?

• Customize the interface by selecting a felt color and card backs.

• The computer players who not involved in a particular game are always ready with advice if you have questions.

Technical Information

Front Office Card Games: Up and Down the River is a Windows-based PC game designed for Windows '98, Me, NT, 2000, XP and Vista.

The game requires a color display with at least a 1024x768 resolution. A Pentium Processor with at least 256 MB of RAM is recommended. A connection to the internet is required to license the product. The game uses about 62 MB of hard disk space.

Screen Shots

	The playing field where all the action takes place in Up and Down the River.
	The scoreboard shows how all the players have fared on every hand.
	Click on any line in the scoreboard for a detailed summary of each hand.
	You compete against twelve different characters from Shakespeare's vast universe.
	Play the game with your rules for bidding and scoring.
	Track your performance, in more detail than you can imagine, against Shakespeare's characters.
	Worried about how you're doing in four-player games in those pesky five-card hands? It's all here.
	No Solecismic game would be complete without an expansive record book.
	Need advice on an important trick? It's yours for the asking.

Rules of the Game

Each hand begins with the dealer, chosen randomly, dealing an equal number of cards to each player. The dealer then turns over a card that sets the trump suit for that hand.

Each player, starting with the player to the left of the dealer, bids the number of tricks she thinks she can take, based on her hand and the trump suit. In most variations of the game, the total number of tricks bid can not add up to the same number as cards dealt to each player, so the dealer is sometimes limited in what she can bid.

The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick. Any card may be lead. Play continues clockwise around the table. Players must follow suit if they can.

Aces are high, followed by Kings, Queens, Jacks, 10s, 9s, 8s, 7s, 6s, 5s, 4s, 3s, and finally 2s. Any trump card beats any non-trump card, otherwise the highest card in the suit led wins the trick.

The player who won the trick leads the next trick.

Scoring varies by rule set, but the most points are scored when a player takes exactly the number of tricks bid.

The winner is the player with the most points after going up and down the river.