Today I’m pleased to announce the first public release of JoeDog’s Pinochle. It’s a computerized version of the classic card game. It plays a four-player variation in which you are paired with a computer player against two computer players. Exciting!

This project is notable for several reasons: 1.) It’s the first time I’ve released software with a graphical interface and 2.) it’s the first major project I’ve completed in java.

JoeDog’s Pinochle is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work over the past several years. The groundwork was laid on planes and trains. It offered an enjoyable way to pass the time as I sat in traveling tubes. Last September I finally achieved a functioning version of the game. Since then, I’ve honed its ability to play a descent game.

Because pinochle maintains a strict set of rules for governing play, most of the “intelligence” in this game was implemented programmatically. Unfortunately, its original ability to assess and bid a hand was very weak. In order to improve that, I’ve built experience into the game. It played itself for hundreds of hours and stored those outcomes. Now when it bids a hand, it consults past experience to shape future results. A skilled human can still beat it but give me time. It will get better with each ensuing release.

Future

I’m currently honing the game’s ability to beat the pants off you people. That may take some time. Once I’ve built adequate intelligence into the game I’d like to add more variation. A double-deck version will be added at some later date. I’d also like to add three and five player variations.

Licence

This game is currently licensed under the terms of shareware. It contains some code that was published without licensing terms and the author has not answered my inquiries about its license. It’s probably in the public domain but until I get verification I can’t release it under an open source license. If you’d like a copy of the code, send me an email. Until then, enjoy the binaries.