Introduction
Mahjong
Solitaire is a tile matching game based around mahjong tiles. Although said to
based on an ancient Chinese game called 'The Turtle', Mahjong Solitaire games
really started to gain popularity around 1986 with the Macintosh game "Shanghai"
by Activision designed by Brodie Lockard. Since then the game has become one of
the most popular games around with world with tens of millions of players.
How to play
The goal
of the game in classic mode is to remove all the tiles from the screen. In order
to do this you must remove the tiles from the screen in pairs. In order to be
eligible to be removed a tile must by "free". This means that it has no tile on
top of it, and has a space to the immediate left or right of it, in other words
it could slide horizontally if need be. In order to be removed from the screen
the tiles must also be identical.
Different Tile sets
Traditionally,
mahjong solitaire is played using a Mahjong tile set. Also traditionally tiles
that depict flowers always match other tiles that depict flowers, and tiles
which depict seasons always match other tiles that depict seasons, although
many people don't like this, and by default the game runs in "Classic" Mode
where only simple matching is carried out. The game also features other tile
sets, such as the Mayan tile set, playing cards, and symbol sets. Click on the
Tile set menu to choose different tile sets.
Different Layouts
The
traditional layout is set as default. This is called "The Dragon", or "The
Turtle". It consists of 144 tiles, and when played in hard mode is "balanced".
That is, it has exactly four of each tile in each layout. Expert Mahjong
Solitaire players use this information to help complete the game. In addition
to The Dragon, Mahjong Solitaire contains many different layouts, some
balanced, some unbalanced. The layout browser accessible through the Layout
Menu is the best way to choose a layout, as the menu only displays the last 25
layouts you've played. The layout browser also shows a preview of the layout,
and on which difficulty levels it's balanced.
Help is at Hand
Mahjong
Solitaire contains many different options to help players who are stuck in the
game. The first option is "Show Free Tiles" from the Game menu. This will make
it much clearer which tiles are free and can be selected. This option is "free"
and is not considered a cheat in the high scores, so feel free to use it as
many times as you like. If you are really stuck there are two options to
straight out cheat. The first is "Show all Moves" from the Game menu, which
shows you every single possible move on the layout, and "Suggest Move" from the
same menu, which shows you the possible moves one at a time. Keep selecting
"Suggest Move" to cycle from hint to hint.
If you get
to a point where no more moves are possible, you can either undo a move back to
a point where you think you might have gone wrong, or reshuffle the tiles. When
a new game is started, Mahjongg Solitaire tries very hard to make each game
solvable, and you should be able to win each game.
Strategies to win
Try to
reduce tall stacks of tiles as soon as possible; the worst thing that can
happen is that there are two tiles of the same type in a stack.
Try to
plan ahead to when choosing your next move, the first pair you spot will probably
not be the best pair to remove.
Remember
the game has different difficulty levels.
Always go
for tiles that free up a group of other tiles, i.e. one tile on top of four
others.
Other game modes
If you get
tired of classic mode Mah Jong Solitaire has other game modes for you to try.
Tile Pickup
This mode
is easy; just click on the tiles as fast as you can until they are all gone! We
don't be responsible for any sprained wrists... :D
Simple Match
All the
free tile rules are turned off, making for a much easier game. Just pick any
two visible tiles that match to remove them.
Flowers and Seasons Match
This game
is just like classic mode except any tile that depicts a season of the year now
matches with any other tile that depicts a season of the year, and all flower
tiles match too.
Memory
Classic
mode a little too easy for you? In this mode you only get a quick look at the
tiles before they are all hidden again! Now you can only see the last three
tiles you clicked on. It's extremely challenging so try the easier difficulty
levels and smaller layouts until you get used to it.
Two Turns
Now, two
tiles only match if they have the same face and you can draw a line from any
point on one tile to the other tile by making two turns or less. The game
operates in 3D, so if you can draw a line from any tile to any point directly
above another tile they will also match.
Classic Stacker
This is a
variant of the classic mahjong solitaire game that uses a stack of tiles at the
side of the screen. Clicking on any free tile places that tile on the stack.
When two tiles that are identical touch on the stack, they will disappear, but
you are only allowed 7 tiles in the stack. This has the effect of making the
game easier overall, as you can use the stack to get out of tricky situations.
Two Corner Stacker
A variant
of Classic stacker. Instead of standard Shanghai free tile rules, a tile is
free if it has two corners that are unblocked.
Two Corner Classic
A variant
of classic mode where a tile is free if two corners are unblocked.
Other features
Mahjong
Solitaire is full of features to make your game play experience better. If you
quit in the middle of a game it will pick up exactly where you left off, it has
a high score table which grades your performance according to how fast you
cleared the layout and how much cheating went on, and the Layout, Background
and Tile set menus have options to choose a new item every new game, so you can
cycle through all the tile sets, layouts and backgrounds. It also features a full
music player, and Statistics Dialog.
Mahjong
Solitaire 2 also features iTunes control. If iTunes is playing a song MJS2 will
display the current track information on screen and let you use the next and
previous onscreen controls to control iTunes.
Also in 3D
Mode if you hold down the ctrl key you can adjust the angle on the layout.
Special Directories
Mahjong
Solitaire creates two special directories in your home "Library" directory.
MJS
Backgrounds
Any
picture placed in this directory will show up in your background browser, and
can so be used in the game.
MJS
Layouts
Any layout created with the MJS Layout Editor saved here will appear at the bottom of the Layout Browser.