Mickey Palooka

You don't have to win every fight. You do have to pay.

New York, 1920. You owe bookmaker Abe Saltz $3,600. Ten weeks of fights stand between you and the man he sends to collect.

Mickey Palooka is a boxing solitaire game played with a standard deck. Your punches and your opponent's come from the same hand. Pick your opponent, place a bet if you dare, and make every card count. A victory pays. So can a carefully timed dive.

His punches are in your hand.

Six cards face up. Play four. The two you leave behind come back next round, when you must play them.

Use diamonds to hit him or guard yourself. Bank hearts in your corner so you can get up when he puts you down. Decide which punches to block, which to take, and which to leave for later. You have up to twelve rounds to settle it.

Bet on your fists. Or your fall.

Bet on a knockout in a chosen round, a fight without going down, or a comeback off the canvas. Some nights, an envelope offers another way out: take a dive in the promised round and get paid.

Now the winning move might be to lose. Take the money, and expect a harder fight next week.

Ten weeks to make good.

Follow the road from New York to Los Angeles, choosing your fights from a roster of 50 boxers. Read your name in the paper, open Saltz's increasingly impatient letters, and watch your debt shrink as the deadline closes in.

Clear your debt to face a bigger one on your next run. Your ledger keeps the record. Pixel-art fight posters, betting slips and newspaper headlines tell the story along the way.

Wishlist Mickey Palooka. You've got a debt to settle.