Officers' Skat choose trumps once both players have four cards, face up, before them. If both players pass, the game is played as "Ramsch", i.e. the is to get the lowest score. The feature of Harlequin Skat is the fact that a player only sees half his own cards, but also half of his opponent's. His opponent cannot see any of those cards, but can see all the others. The advantages of harlequin skat are that you need less space to play it, and a greater tactical depth because you know your opponent's cards before they are seen. The same rules apply
MC Skat Kat video, directed by Patterson and Candace Reckinger, was completed in January 1992 and appears on Patterson + Reckinger's Vimeo channel. The original animation was done by Chris Bailey, Tom Sito and Eric Goldberg, who at the time was the lead animator of the Genie character in Disney's "Aladdin" feature film. According to producer John Kafka, nobody was sure what to do with Skat after the videos were finished. Virgin Music and Universal Pictures talked of a live-action/animation hybrid feature film, but nothing ever materialized. MC Skat Kat also appeared in "Yakety Yak, Take It Back", an all-star public service music