Hearts

Hearts is a shareware implementation of the card game for four people, it is the second version of the game from this developer. As usual the player competes against three AI opponents in the standard game though, unusually, there is an option to compete against another program.

The standard game will be familiar to anyone who has played the game that comes free with Windows, all cards are dealt out, three cards are passed to an opponent and the object of the game is to avoid winning a trick containing a heart or the queen of spades. Many optional rule variations are catered for in this game some of which are listed below:* Jack of Diamonds: this card can be worth minus ten points

• Exact Points: the game ends on a specified number of points, the default is one hundred, if a player’s score is exactly the game ending number their score is reset to zero

• Shooting the Moon: this is a common variation in which the scores can be changed if a player wins all the penalty cards in one round. In some implementations the player can either reset their score to zero or double their opponent’s scores, in this game the player’s score is reduced by twenty six.

• Queen of Spades: if this rule is enabled the player must dispose of their Queen of Spades, the highest penalty card, at the earliest opportunity

• Game Limit: The default game limit is one hundred points but this game allows the end score to be changed by the player