Download from https://retro.theiguru.au/riveroath/, the Heisenbergs Files area on the BBS, or the riveroath folder on the anonymous FTP at home.

1. Download River-Oath-0.1.0-windows-x64.zip and unzip it anywhere, for example in your Documents folder.
2. Run river_oath.exe from the unzipped folder. Keep the assets folder beside it: it holds the world, the rules and the music.
3. The program is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you the first time: choose More info, then Run anyway.

The Windows version is built on Linux and tested under Wine; it has not yet been tried on a real Windows PC.

On Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint and other Debian-based systems (64-bit; Ubuntu 24.04 or Debian 13 or newer):

sudo apt install ./river-oath_0.1.0_amd64.deb

Then start River Oath from the applications menu, or run river-oath.

On other Linux systems, use river-oath-0.1.0-linux-x64.tar.gz: unpack it and run ./river_oath, or ./install.sh to install it for your user with a menu entry. It needs GTK 2.

Music plays through pw-play, paplay or aplay (PipeWire, PulseAudio or ALSA); without one of them the game is silent. Music can be turned off in Esc > Options.