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.