The catalogue opens this month with Chess and Rubamazzo, a few apps at a time after them. See the release plan.

Scala 40 app icon

Scala 40 — aiOrion GamesItalian card game · Fifth release

Expected early November

Scala 40

Open with forty. Build the table. Empty your hand.

Italy's favourite rummy in three forms: the classic forty-point opening, the FISCA rule that lets you open straight from the discard, and the four-handed game played in pairs. Two decks, wild jokers, and three different races to close.

3 games in one2–6Apple OS 27iPhone Duo readyNo adsOn-device play
Coming soonRead the rules
Scala 40 game artwork

Learn

Learn the game before you play it.

An illustrated, animated walkthrough of the rules, plus a short read on what the game asks of your mind. Both open here in your browser — no download, no account.

How to play Scala 40What it trains in your mind

A guide for every variant

The rules

How it plays

  1. Use two 52-card decks plus four jokers, deal thirteen cards to each player, and turn one card face up to start the discard pile.
  2. Draw one card, optionally play melds or lay off, then discard one card.
  3. Meld sets of equal rank or suited runs of three or more cards.
  4. Open with at least forty meld points in one move before laying off onto table melds.
  5. Go out first; cards left in opponents' hands become penalty points.
Availability note. Expected early November is an approximate target. The catalogue opens a few apps at a time, and each release waits until the one before it has settled in.

Ways to play

3 games for the price of one.

Every variant here is a game of its own — its own rules and legal-move checking, its own tables, its own illustrated guide, its own daily challenge, its own achievements and its own taught first game that walks you in. One purchase brings all 3. Each option below changes the table while keeping the engine's legal-move checks in charge.

Scala 40

Scala 40: Italian rummy for 2–6, open with 40 points, build runs and sets, go out first.

  • Standard Scala 40 (Scala Quaranta) for two to six players with two decks plus four jokers.
  • Draw and discard to build sets and runs, but you must open with melds worth at least 40 points before you may lay off; race to empty your hand while opponents are caught with penalty cards.
  • The opening threshold and ending score are chosen on the template.

Arena

  • Scala 40 Arena2 players · solo
  • Scala 40 Arena — four players4 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Scala 40 — tournamentknockout of 8 · 4 a table · solo
  • Scala 40 — heads-up tournamentknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Opening with the discard

Take the top discard before opening — if you open with it that same turn.

  • Scala 40 with the federation's opening-with-the-discard variant.
  • In the standard game the discard pile is closed to you until you have opened.
  • Here you may take its top card while still closed, but the take binds you twice over: you must complete your opening in that same turn, and the card you took must be part of the melds you lay.
  • Fail either and the take was illegal, so only reach for the pile when the opening is already in your hand.
  • Everything else — the opening threshold, sets and runs, lay-offs, going out and penalty scoring — is unchanged.

Arena

  • Scala 40 Arena — opening with the discard2 players · solo
  • Scala 40 Arena — opening with the discard, four players4 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Scala 40 — opening with the discard tournamentknockout of 8 · 4 a table · solo
  • Scala 40 — opening with the discard, heads-up tournamentknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

In pairs

Four players, two pairs: the pair that closes takes a point, first to three wins — and one 40-point opening serves the pair.

  • Scala 40 for four players in two pairs, partners seated opposite, scored the federation's way: the pair that CLOSES a smazzata takes one victory point, and the first pair to three victory points wins the match.
  • The caught cards are still counted at the end of every smazzata — they are the tie-break — but they no longer decide it, so a pair that closes three quick hands beats one that keeps its penalties low and never goes out.
  • The opening belongs to the pair: one partner must still lay a full 40-point opening in a single play, but from then on the other is open as well, free to lay melds of any value and lay off without reaching forty.
  • Everything else — sets and runs, wild jokers, the binding pile take, going out — is standard Scala 40.

Arena

  • Scala 40 Arena — in pairs4 players · in pairs

Tournaments

  • Scala 40 — pairs tournamentknockout of 8 · 4 a table · in pairs

Every online table is a ladder. Each Arena table and each tournament above comes at four entry levels — Challenge 10 GC, Contest 50 GC, Championship 200 GC, and a Friendly 1 GC table that returns the coin to everyone who finishes. The higher the entry level, the more places share the reward; aiOrion keeps 10% of a paid table's entries to pay for running the online game, and nothing from a Friendly one.

Make it yours. Start from any of these, adjust the settings the game allows, and save it as your own template. Online tables start the same way: copy one of the Arena tables, then set the entry, the rewards and who may join.

aiOrion events

Events in Scala 40.

aiOrion's own tournaments in this game, read live from the game server: when the next ones are and how many places are taken. You enter from inside the app; the entry pays for the online game, and winning earns a reward.

Times are shown in your time zone.

Loading the events

Reading the event calendar from the game server…

All eventsAdd the aiOrion calendar

What is inside

Built around the game, not the grind.

01

Configurable opening threshold

Keep the classic 40-point opening or set your own table rule.

02

High, low or high-and-low ace rules

Decide how the ace behaves in runs, to match how you learned the game.

03

Configurable cards per player

Adjust the hand size for a faster or meatier game.

04

Short and long match templates

Race to 100 or grind out a full 200-point match.

05

On-device AI opponents

Opponents that meld and go out entirely offline.

Next move

Follow the releases.

Explore every title now; the month labels are approximate, and each release waits until the one before it has settled in. The same rules and identity run on iPhone, iPhone Duo, iPad and Mac; Apple Vision Pro follows as an update.

Coming soonSee all 21 apps
Private local playOn-device AIConfigurable templatesCalm by design