II.3.A. The Chinese Game of Mah-Jongg: Proprietary & Confidential ©1997 Activision 1

Proprietary & Confidential ©1997 Activision 1
II.3.A. The Chinese Game of Mah-Jongg

We can think of our basic screen display as taking two different forms: Japanese and Non-
Japanese. The Chinese screen display is the same as the one used for the American game. It is designed to
allow for the largest possible MJ tile (30x40x15) and to use the screen in the most efficient way possible.
The function of the interface buttons will be discussed in detail in following pages. For now let's
only discuss the tile grid shown above. In the center we have the discard area (marked with D's), with space
for 12 tiles for each player on the bottom layer (they can get stacked as necessary). We could have gotten
away with showing only one discard tile in the center of the screen as IMS does (with an extra button to
show the discards on a separate screen), but the tiles would still need to be 30x40 because of the player's
hand at the bottom of the screen. In addition, we want our Non-Japanese game screen to look as similar as
possible to our Japanese game screen (which must be in accordance with established Japanese industry
paradigms). For the left, top, and right players, we do not need to show the hand (H), only the melds (M),
Flowers (F), and Seasons (S). When a player goes out, THEN we need to show the hand -- and it will fit
within the boxes shown above, especially if we show Kongs as stacked pyramids as mig has suggested. An
opposing player's winning hand is shown in that player's M and W boxes (W representing the winning
hand's pair for completeness).
But for the user's hand (H, at bottom of screen) we need to be able to show (worst case) 8
Flowers/Seasons plus up to 13 tiles in the hand, plus the current picked tile (P). There should be 20 pixels
at the two edges of the screen, a 20-pixel buffer zone around the current picked tile, and a 20-pixel space
between the tiles in the hand and any melds.
SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 1

During gameplay, a typical Chinese game looks something like this:
I've shown the game in progress above (several turns have already been played), so you can see
how it normally looks. A few things that should be pointed out about the above sketch:
• Each player's discards fill his discard area the same way it is done in Japanese MJ (left-to-right, top-to-
bottom), then repeating on a 2nd layer as needed. User can hit X-Ray to see what's underneath (top
tiles temporarily disappear, making a cleaner view).
• Pongs, Kongs, and Chows are placed to the user's left, and Flowers to the right. This arrangement is
maintained for all players around the table.
• Kongs could be shown laid out flat (4 tiles in a row) until space becomes tight, then they could become
stacked like a pyramid. Note that pyramid stacks at the top of the screen can obscure the Top Player's
name and seat, but I don't think it's a big deal.
• The dice (3 for Chinese game) are next to the current dealer.
• The Wall is not shown (no room), so we show the number to the right of the interface buttons.
But let's start the Chinese game from the beginning (the above sketch has no bearing on the
following), describing an example game to illustrate how it works. It should be noted that our interface
must be somewhat different from the way most competitive MJ games work because we are doing
something those games (such as HKMJ, Four Winds, and Mah Jong Parlour) are not doing: we are letting
multiple human users play (IMS being the one exception). Thus our interface is designed with that key
aspect in mind.
The 144 tiles (unless Flowers are OFF, in which case it's only 136 tiles) are built into 4 equal-
length walls, two tiles high. Wall lengths are 18 stacks each, with Flowers -- 17 stacks each, without
Flowers. The computer rolls the dice, and breaks the Wall according to Chinese rules, and deals 13 tiles to
each player except East, who gets 14 tiles. But most of this takes place internally -- no need to go through

all the hoohah that Mah-Jongg Parlour goes through in announcing the proceedings to the user. But the user
should receive his tiles 4 at a time, just as in a real game. Tiles are face down until all tiles are received.
During all these proceedings (which do not take much time), the prompt box displays the
following:
THE COMPUTER IS DEALING THE TILES. CLICK HERE ANYTIME YOU NEED HELP.
As you can see in the picture, this text seems long, but at 10 point Arial (as defined and used by
MSPaint) it fits on a single line.

Once all tiles are dealt, the computer stands the tiles on end, displaying the tiles in the order (left to
right) in which they were drawn from the wall. Then (having allowed the user to see that briefly), the
computer automatically arranges the tiles (accompanied by a sound) in the user's hand in this order: Craks,
Bams, Dots, Winds, Dragons. Craks and Bams and Dots are arranged numerically. In the Chinese and
Japanese games, the Winds are arranged E-S-W-N and the Dragons are arranged W-G-R. Here's how the
North player in our example sees it at this point:
Then it is East's turn. Assuming he does not immediately want to declare a win (which would be a
very "special" circumstance we need to handle), he must discard one tile. His onscreen text prompt says:
DISCARD A TILE.
Other users see:
[EAST PLAYER] IS THINKING…
Since the hand is brand-new, whatever tile is at the right side of East's hand (ordinarily, it is the
just-drawn tile that gets this treatment) is automatically highlighted and raised and separated from the others
by a 2-grid space as shown above. Pressing the DISCARD button (the only lit button) will make this
highlighted tile go away; clicking on the highlighted tile also makes it go away; clicking on any other tile in
the hand causes the clicked tile to now become highlighted (if instead of clicking on some non-highlighted
tile, the user double-clicks it, that causes the tile to both become highlighted and discarded).
If East takes too long studying his hand, another player may "exhort" him, prompting this onscreen
prompt:
THE OTHER PLAYERS ARE WAITING; PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.

If East has no idea what to do, he can click on the prompt box itself. The following message is
displayed:
CLICK ON THE TILE WHICH LEAST HELPS YOU BUILD A GOOD MAH-JONGG HAND.
If this still isn't enough information, and East clicks on the prompt box again, this is displayed:
NEED HELP? SEE THE MANUAL OR THE HELP MENU.
If East asks the computer to Suggest A Move1, the computer picks a tile which does not potentially
make a Chow or Pong, highlighting and raising the tile above the rest. Let's say that East simply puts his
cursor on a non-highlighted tile, and double-clicks2 it -- OR (if he wants to discard the highlighted/raised
tile) clicks the DISCARD button.3 The tile disappears from his hand (his hand closes up, if necessary) and
re-appears in the discard area, clearly highlighted for all to see.
Basically, during gameplay of a Chinese game, each player has a limited number of clickable areas
in the play area on his screen:
a) The current active discard (anyone can click this while it is highlighted)
b) The tiles in his hand (only when it is time to discard)
c) The prompt box (anytime)
d) The interface buttons at the bottom of the screen (only when not grayed out).
If a player uses option (a) and clicks on the current discard, and (not counting Pass or Draw) only
one action button is lit, clicking on the discard has the same effect as clicking on that action button. For
example, Pong and Pass are both lit up -- clicking on the discard has the effect of clicking on Pong.
Another example: Win and Pass are both lit up -- clicking on the discard claims it for a Win.
On the other hand, if a user can use a discarded tile in two different ways (for both a Pong and a
Chow, for instance), then his prompt box displays (perhaps flashing so the user will look at it):
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH THIS TILE? CLICK ON THE APPROPRIATE ACTION
BUTTON.
Lastly, if the user doesn't have anything but Pass or Draw lit up, and clicks on a discard, the
prompt box would say (accompanied by an "uh-oh" or "illegal action" sound):
YOU CANNOT TAKE THAT TILE.
More on this below. Note that users do not really need to click on the discarded tile (since there
are interface buttons to accomplish the action of taking it), but we should allow for users to use this direct
action.
Let's also confirm the functionality of the PASS button.
Without a PASS button, a fast player will move right on, draw his tile, and a slower opponent will
never get a chance to jump in and grab the discard. Thus the fast player has to wait for the slower player to
1 We won't put in a button for this, in keeping with how we do things in Shanghai -- user has a
Fastkey or Function key or something to accomplish this.
2 The first click highlights it, the second click discards it (assuming the Discard button is lit up).
3 I was not in favor of a 2-step process in discarding a tile (first click the tile, then click the Discard
button); Four Winds uses a 2-step process, and it's a pain in the butt. Japanese MJ players are
used to a 1-step process. But double-clicking is not counterintuitive, and makes it effectively a
one-step process that's simpler than Four Winds' process of using 2 different mouse buttons.

press PASS. This works well in IMS (Internet Mahjong Server), thus I favor having a PASS button in our
game. The question arises, how about if we let the fast player have his draw after n seconds rather than wait
forever for the slow player to press PASS? Let's consider…
The other MJ game besides IMS which uses a PASS feature is Mah Jong Parlour. In MJP this is a
real problem, because it slows down gameplay too much (it's only you vs. A.I. players, after all, so actually
it's only you who cares about reaction time in grabbing a discard). HKMJ uses a time limit (adjustable by
the player), bypassable by right-clicking anywhere; this works better than the MJP method. IMS is truly
playable by multiple players, so this is a truer test of whether the PASS button works or not than MJP. IMS
does not handle a player dropping out very well (IMS cannot step in and take over), thus IMS, it can be
argued, suffers from this (everybody has to wait for the slow player or the player who drops off the server).
On the other hand, a couple times I got dropped off the server, had to reconnect and rejoin my table -- and I
was able to get right back into my game (all the players were still impatiently waiting for me). So it's hard
to say whether it's good or bad that IMS uses the PASS feature.
Our game should (at least temporarily) take over for a player who drops out entirely (the Internet is
an unreliable medium). But if n seconds pass after a player discards, and one player neglects to press his
Pass button, it's good to let the next player draw from the wall without having to wait forever for the slow
player to remember he's supposed to press a button. If, however, we go with such a method, we have to
pick a reasonable value for n, and perhaps let users alter it. We could also let this timer take effect in a solo
game vs. 3 A.I. players (more on that below), as a user-selectable option. Under this method, then, the
PASS button is more of a way to speed up gameplay (as long as everybody remembers to press it before the
timer runs out) than a way to slow it down. We might even want to offer the user an option to choose how
Passing works.
Back to our example game. East has made his first move. In turn, the other players going
counterclockwise around the table either press their PASS buttons or try to take the tile. The South player
(next in line after East) doesn't get a PASS button; s/he gets a DRAW button instead (same button; different
label). Essentially, this is what happens on a "normal" turn (an uneventful one).
For now, let's assume this game is being played against real people, and that for the first time
around the table nobody needs to claim a discard. As South draws and discards a tile, the new discard is
highlighted and the following prompt message is displayed to North and East:
[PLAYER NAME] HAS DISCARDED [TILE NAME]. WATCH DISCARDS FOR PONGS OR KONGS.
For the West player, whose turn it is currently, the prompt message is different:
[PLAYER NAME] HAS DISCARDED [TILE NAME]. CHECK FOR A PONG, KONG, OR CHOW.
South (the one who just discarded) sees:
YOU DISCARDED [TILE NAME]. IT IS [WEST]'S TURN.
West draws and discards; North, East, and South all Pass on the tile.
North draws and discards; South and West both Pass on the tile.
At this point (North having just discarded), there are 4 possible courses of action open to East:
(1) He can click on the discarded tile to claim it for a meld.

(2) He can click on the prompt box to get instructions.
(3) He can click on the DRAW4 button to draw from the Wall.
(4) He can click on the menu to look for help there.
(5) He can do nothing, and get yelled at by everybody.
(6) He can quit the game.
4 Maybe we'll change this to "PICK" since that is a useful term and is also thinner letters.

Okay, so that's more than 4 courses of action. Let's assume that the tile is not useful to East (this
early in the game, it most likely isn't).
(1) If East were to click on the discard, he'd find out that this does not work. The following message
would appear in his prompt box (accompanied by an "illegal action" sound:
If East doesn't understand why he can't take that tile, he can click on the prompt, in which case he
would see:
YOU CAN ONLY TAKE A DISCARDED TILE THAT LETS YOU WIN OR PONG, KONG, OR
CHOW.
East has no choice at this point but to click on the active option in the interface buttons. He must
Draw From Wall.
(2) If East didn't know what to do and just clicked on the prompt box instead of clicking on North's
discard, the following message would appear:
CLICK ON THE DRAW BUTTON TO PICK A NEW TILE FROM THE WALL.
East would still be able to go with any of the other courses of action in the list above, but the best
choice is to go with #3…
(3) If East looks at his interface buttons, he'll see that only the Draw button is lit up. He clicks on it,
and (assuming South and West have pressed their Pass buttons) immediately the highlight on the active
discard goes away, and his hand gains a 14th tile from the Wall. The new tile would be separated from the
rest of the hand, being placed higher than the rest. (We will not examine options 4 through 6 at this time.)
At the time East tries to Draw a tile from the Wall, if South or West has not yet pressed Pass, the
prompt box displays:
WAITING FOR OTHERS…
This message remains until both South and West have pressed Pass (or until the timer runs out, if
we go with that method).
Once the 14th tile has been drawn and is added to East's hand, his prompt box shows the old
familiar prompt again:
DISCARD A TILE.
And once again East has to pick a tile in his hand and click it to discard it. If he just wants to
discard his new picked tile (the highlighted one) he can simply press Discard.
Simultaneously with his prompt box changing, the other players' prompt boxes must also change.
This prompt:
[PLAYER NAME] HAS DISCARDED [TILE NAME].
… now disappears. This prompt:
WATCH DISCARDS FOR PONGS OR KONGS.
… should remain displayed. But the next player after East (South) should see:
CHECK THIS PLAYER'S DISCARD FOR A PONG, KONG, OR CHOW.

And so on, until somebody finally actually needs to claim a discarded tile. So let's do that now in
our example game -- let's have some action!!
Let's say East discards a Three Dot. This fact is reflected in everyone's prompt boxes, and the tile
sits in the discard area, highlighted for all to see. South has a Four Dot and a Five Dot, so he wants to take
it for a Chow. The computer has already examined all players' hands so it already knows South can use the
tile for a Chow (and subsequently lights up South's Chow button). Not finding a Two Dot in South's hand,
the computer knows that he wants to take it for a Chow with the Four and Five. The computer could simply
give him the tile immediately, but it's desirable to give the other players a chance to make claims, and to
give the user a chance to cancel the claim. So we give other players the opportunity to press Pass.
South's Chow and Draw buttons light up. West and North's Pass buttons light up. East's buttons
are all gray since he's the one who discarded the tile.
In addition to lighting up the buttons, we should also raise, highlight, or otherwise mark the two
tiles which will be melded with the discard. We do not need to light up the arrows which allow the user to
choose which tiles to Chow, since the computer knows there is only one choice in this instance.
East clicks on Chow.
East's avatar voice clearly announces on everyone's computers:
"Chow."
And all the prompt boxes announce:
[PLAYER NAME] HAS CLAIMED THE TILE FOR A CHOW.
The highlighted tile disappears from the discard area. The raised tiles in East's hand disappear
from the hand. The three tiles (minus highlight) appear face up in East's meld area. The tiles in East's hand
close up and move over as needed to keep things neat. East's prompt box says:
DISCARD A TILE.
East chooses a tile to discard; no tiles are raised, so he clicks on a One Crak. The One Crak tile
moves instantly to the discard area, where it is highlighted brightly. It's South's turn next; he doesn't need a
One Crak, so he goes to click on his Draw button, but before he gets the new tile, something happens. West
has called for the One Crak to make a Pong. South sees this in his prompt box immediately after he presses
Draw (since he beat West to the punch but West has not yet pressed Pass):
West's Pong and Pass buttons are lit up. If we want to be really friendly to West, his two matching
One Crak tiles are raised in his hand. He clicks on Pong. South (and everybody) hears "Pong" in West's
avatar voice, and sees:
WEST HAS CLAIMED THE TILE FOR A PONG.
The tile disappears from the discard area, and the three tiles are melded in West's meld area.
South's turn has been skipped. West sees in his prompt box:
DISCARD A TILE.
West clicks on a Nine Bam in his hand, discarding it. The other players see the announcement in
their prompt boxes, and it's North's turn.
Let's say South has a Seven Bam and an Eight Bam, and is unclear on the Chow rule, so wants to
claim the tile. South clicks on the Nine Bam. The computer has already checked everybody's hands, so the
computer already knows South can't use this tile. It does not give South the tile. Instead, the computer
gives South a message (in the Prompt box, even if user does not have Prompts turned On):

We may need to flash this text, pop the prompt box background to a different color, or put this text
in a popup, to make sure the user sees it. If South wants to know why he can't take the tile, he can click on
the prompt box, which then displays:
YOU CAN ONLY CHOW FROM THE PLAYER TO YOUR LEFT.
Meanwhile, as the computer and South are having this little exchange, North can't do anything:
Eventually South has to press Pass, letting play proceed to North. Let's say North discards a tile
wanted by more than one person. Let's say North discards a Five Bam. On the other players' screens, in the
prompt box, it says something like:
NORTH HAS DISCARDED 5 BAMBOO. WATCH FOR PONGS OR KONGS.
East's prompt box says:
NORTH HAS DISCARDED 5 BAMBOO. CHECK FOR A PONG, KONG, OR CHOW.
Let's say East has a Six Bam and a Seven Bam, so legitimately wants the tile for a Chow. South
has two Five Bams, so wants the tile for a Pong. West wants the tile to complete his hand and go out5.
It could happen.
East clicks on the Chow button, South clicks on Pong, and West clicks on Win. So three players
have made a claim on the discarded tile.
The host computer has to react to them all, and rule on the claims, and notify all players
accordingly, and give the tile to the rightful claimant.
Since the game now requires players to press Pass if not pressing any other buttons, we may not
need to display that the computer is processing conflicting claims.
And, because it's pretty rare for a 3-way conflicting claim like this, the computer will eventually
(having sorted the claims) tell everyone:
HOLD EVERYTHING! CONFLICTING CLAIMS!

[EAST] CLAIMS THE TILE FOR CHOW.
[SOUTH] CLAIMS THE TILE FOR PONG.
[WEST] CLAIMS THE TILE FOR A WIN.
[WEST]'S CLAIM TAKES PRIORITY.
This is a very important message, too long for a prompt box. So it has to be displayed in a popup.
Everyone hears West's avatar voice proclaim:
MAH-JONGG!
Displayed in big videogame letters, "YOU WIN" appears on West's screen, emblazoned atop the
5 "Go Out" = "Mah-Jongg" = "Win."

table. On everybody else's screen is a text box that says:
YOU LOSE
… in large text.6 In the prompt box, it says:
[W. PLAYER NAME] WINS ON [N. PLAYER NAME]'S DISCARD.
Then West's tiles are turned face up on the table for all to see (on each screen, his hand occupies a
different area of the table; his tiles were not even visible until now, not even the backs or sides of them).
The area surrounding his winning hand might need to be darkened with a "screen" or mesh so as to make his
tiles stand out brighter than the rest of the tiles on the table.
For now I assume that if one player clicks on his screen, everybody sees the Results box displayed.
The Results box should ideally be positioned on screen so that everyone can see their own hand, the
winning hand, and the last discard, while also seeing the Results box.
For the Chinese game, the Results box should provide the following information:
a) Name of winning player.

b) Breakdown of how player's hand is scored.7
c) Name of player who provided winning tile, if applicable (as part of breakdown).
d) How many points or chips8 player earned.
e) How many points or chips each player paid.
f) Current total points or chips each player has.
This needs to be defined in more detail (especially the part about the breakdown). And players
should be told, either in the Results box or in the Prompt box:
CLICK TO CONTINUE.
After 16 hands have been played (or maybe after each hand), instead of "Click To Continue," there
must be an interactive popup to the effect:
A COMPLETE GAME OF 16 HANDS HAS NOT YET BEEN PLAYED. CONTINUE? YES / NO
Or:
A COMPLETE GAME OF 16 HANDS HAS BEEN PLAYED.

PLAY AGAIN? YES / NO
That pretty much describes the Chinese game as it is normally played. Not every special
circumstance has been described here. Those can be discerned from the lists of prompts and messages and
menus and stuff. But if I have overlooked some important aspect of the Chinese game, I hope someone will
call it to the team's attention so it can be addressed. Speaking of menus, let's consider the user-
6 Actually, the more I look at this, the less I like it. Better that everybody gets a text popup that
says "[PLAYER NAME] WINS".
7 It's likely that this will necessarily involve parsing, which will be hell to localize!!
8 We will have to determine whether players are playing for "money" or not, or whether this is to
be an option. Americans' scores are in cents. Chinese scores might be in HK dollars; Japanese
scores are usually in points or chips (not necessarily yen).

selectable options available in the Chinese game:
CHINESE RULES
FLOWERS/SEASONS SPECIAL HANDS

FALSE DECLARATION PENALTY
THROWER PAYS FOR ALL
PAYMENT TO:
ONLY WINNING HANDS
ONLY WINNING & FISHING HANDS
ALL
MINIMUM SCORE
CHICKEN 1 FAN 2 FAN 3 FAN
RESET TO DEFAULT
These are largely the options which were discussed with Bob Settles before he left the project.
Bob reached his conclusions based on a careful reading of numerous books (most of which are over 30
years old) rather than on an awareness of the game as it is actually played by people today, or as it is
embodied in the MJ software games which are our main competitors. If it is decided that the Mah-Jongg
playing public would not be happy with these options and defaults but rather would prefer a modified set of
options, we will have to change the options and defaults.
FLOWERS/SEASONS
In Chinese Mah-Jongg, the Flowers and Seasons are optionally used to give a player extra points. It's pretty
complicated. You have to know your Seat, and what number it's associated with. Remember that I gave a particular
order for placing Winds in the player's hand? The order corresponds with the Flower/Season numbers. The Chinese
and Japanese remember the order of the Winds by reciting, "Ton Nan Sha Pei." That translates to E-S-W-N.
(Corresponds to 1-2-3-4.) I finally realized that this is also the order of play around the table (duh).
If you draw a Flower (or Season; for simplicity's sake these are usually referred to as just Flowers), you
immediately place it in your meld area and take a tile from the back end of the Wall.
Then if you go out, you'll get four points for any Flowers. Perhaps you get extra points if you have any
Flowers which correspond to your Seat position. If, for example, you have the One Flower, and you are the East
seat, you get a double. You also get points or a double if you have NO Flowers at all (with 8 "Flowers", it's hard not
to get any). If you have all 4 Flowers, or all 4 Seasons (a "Bouquet"), that is also worth points, but those points
happen immediately when you meld the Bouquet.
This use of Flowers is per my understanding based on my study of the books; looks like Bob Settles arrived
at somewhat different use of Flowers. We need to decide which is best (balancing "what's easy" with "what's most
common" and "what's most fun") and proceed.
Veteran players don't like the Flowers because they add the element of Chance to the game (veteran players
prefer it to be just a game of Skill). Thus it's an option. Maybe we also want to give players the option of
controlling how Flowers are scored?
SPECIAL HANDS
Essentially, there are a number of special hands (approximately 14-19 different special hands are
recognized in Chinese MJ, I believe9), and it's standard to get extra score if you build one of them.
Presumably, if the option is not checked, and if you go out with a special hand, it is not scored any better
than any regular hand. We'll discuss and agree on the best way to handle this option in the Chinese game.
My assumption is that this should default to ON (as opposed to the way Bob saw it).
There are two separate Excel documents which go into the matter of which special hands, which
special situations, and what aspects of winning hands, are to be scored in a special way in the Chinese game.
One file is "OPTIONS.XLS," a file created by Bob Settles and in use by Dan Clarke. The other file is
9Looks like Bob has assigned many American special hands to the Chinese game? Perhaps I
need to check out OPTIONS.XLS beyond the Default columnsF

"SPECIAL HANDS TO USE.XLS," a file created by Tom Sloper. It looks like there are substantial
differences between the two; Tom's document should take precedence, at least insofar as to limiting
American special hands to the American game only (and in selecting which American special hands should
apply). Bob's scoring is OK so long as it does not contradict the "Fan" system normally used in Japan.
FALSE DECLARATION PENALTY

If you declare Mah-Jongg and reveal your hand, and it is seen that your hand is either not a
winning hand or below the minimum score, then you have to pay big bucks to all the other players. The
hand is over.
The challenge for us is how we even allow the false declaration of a win (and if we really want to
do that, especially if it's extra effort). At present, I am thinking that this could happen in one or two
different ways:
Method 1: If this option is ACTIVE, we would light up the Win button when the player has a
"complete" (even if under-valued) hand, thus allowing the player to declare Out when he has a below-
minimum hand. It would not be possible under any circumstances to declare a Win with an incomplete
hand, using the action buttons.
Method 2: Maybe the Win button is grayed out in the action buttons, but the user can still go to the
Help menu and hit the Declare Win option there.
Method 3: The buttons are all (including Win) always lit up. We have to handle people pressing
all kinds of buttons at the wrong time if we go with this.
We shall discuss these and other possibilities and decide what is best.
THROWER PAYS FOR ALL

If you're the idiot who discards a tile that lets somebody win, you have to pay for everybody else if
this option is checked.
Note: Bob wanted this to be "Thrower Pays Double," but in most competitive MJ products, and in
most rule books I've seen, the normal option is "Thrower Pays For All." I don't know what Bob's source for
"Pays Double" is. We should discuss whether paying double really is the right way to go.
PAYMENT TO: ALL/ ONLY WINNING & FISHING HANDS/ ONLY WINNING HANDS
Check one of these options (Only Winning Hands is default) to determine who will get points at
the end of a hand or round.
It should be mentioned that I have not observed any competitive products to offer the option of
paying "winning & fishing hands" or "all players" in a Chinese game. But I did find a reference to paying
"all players" in a book, as an advanced feature. My thinking right now is that this is a "would be nice if"
feature, more than a necessity. We would be fine just offering payment only to Winning Hands (thus
removing an option). That's the norm.
MINIMUM SCORE
Allows you to set the level of skill for the game. Our default setting is Chicken Hand (you can go
out on a Zero Fan, or zero doubles, hand). I assume that the term "chicken hand" in reference to Zero Fan
hands is a Hong Kong term, since I learned the term from my wife's family. Users can choose up to a
maximum of a 3-Fan (three doubles) minimum hand as they improve their skills. We may want to use the
term "limit" or "double" instead of "Fan," but I tend to think we should use the Chinese term since this is
the Chinese game. Furthermore, it should be noted that the Fan system is basically the same system as the
scoring system normally used in Japan (Japanese standards largely determining how the rest of our product
should work).
RESET TO DEFAULT
Clicking on this resets all the settings of the Chinese game to their "factory" settings.
Finally, before finishing up our discussion of the Chinese game, we should mention a couple more
things:

X-RAY BUTTON
I may not have yet explained the X-Ray button in the action button interface. This button allows
the user to see beneath stacked tiles in the discard area (or anywhere that tiles are stacked, such as melded
Kongs). If the discards ever have to go 3 deep, I suppose the button would have to act as a toggle rather
than as a dead man switch. My previous thinking that it would be confusing to see the entire bottom layer
(rather than just the tiles which are covered up) is withdrawn, now that I realize that rapidly pressing the X-
Ray button would make it obvious which tiles lie where. I think we should call this button X-Ray because it
ties in with the similar function in Shanghai; but this button's label (and any label) may change if a better
term comes up.
OTHER PENALTIES
Books and competitive MJ products mention a couple of important penalties in the Chinese game.
If we don't offer them as options, we should consider making them default features.
1. Nine Pieces Penalty. If a player melds 9 tiles of one suit, and you discard a tile of that
suit, and that player goes out with a pure hand, you are an idiot. You have to pay for everyone (never seen a
book say you just pay double). HKMJ warns the players when a player has melded 9 tiles of one suit.
2. Fifth Tile Penalty. When there are 5 or less tiles left in the Wall (not counting Dead
Wall, if applicable), and you throw a tile which has not yet been discarded by anyone, and someone claims
it to win, you are a dunderhead. You have to pay for everyone (not double).
PLAYING AGAINST A.I. OPPONENTS

The example game described above assumes an all-human game. Something very different needs
to happen when A.I. opponents enter the picture. There are two different scenarios involved:
Scenario 1: One human against 3 A.I. opponents. In a game like this, play should progress very
quickly. See the videotape I made of Japanese MJ games for an example of this. In the Japanese market, it
needs to move quickly because there is an industry-wide expectation that this is what will happen; besides,
it's friendlier and more fun if it moves quickly. Remember the "Method J vs. Method HK" discussion in the
previous rev of this design? What we have to do in this case is let'em fly. We no longer have the players
"Pass" -- the human player only gets a Pass button when Pongs, Kongs, or Chows are offered. Whenever
any A.I. player throws down a tile which is conceivably useful to the human user, stop the game and light up
the appropriate action button (and the Pass button). Let the user choose to take the tile if he wants (the A.I.
players can wait for hours while he thinks about it). Yes, this style of play does not prepare the human user
for "real life" MJ as well as HKMJ or Four Winds do, but (at the risk of repeating myself) the Japanese
market will demand this. And the Japanese market is very important for this product. We could add a user-
selectable option for "Method J vs. Method HK" when playing against 3 A.I. opponents, if opinions run
strongly enough to warrant it. The way I see it, the other ways of playing (involving at least one additional
human opponent) DO prepare the user for "real life" MJ.
Scenario 2: Two or three human players vs. two or one A.I. opponents. We cannot use "Method J"
in this scenario (well, I suppose we could use a version of it, but let's not). When a player discards a tile, an
A.I. player may well respond by claiming it more quickly than human players, but all we have to do is wait
for any human players to press Pass before awarding the claimed tile to the A.I. player. If this method of
handling this scenario seems wrong to anyone reading this document, let's discuss alternative methods. I'm
open to suggestions.

HANDLING A USER WHO DROPS OUT OF THE GAME

Since the game includes A.I., we give the player fair warning, then replace him with an A.I. player.
Perhaps first all the players have to "exhort" the missing player, then start a countdown. So the following
might appear on the user's screen (in the Prompt box):
DIANE: TOM, PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.
WORMHOLE: TOM, PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.
CHUCK: TOM, PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.
TOM, YOU HAVE [NUMBER OF SECONDS] TO DISCARD A TILE.
In addition to the text, we need a sound. Our avatar voices include an "exhortation," as follows:
EAST10 (Chinese male): Make your move!

SOUTH (Japanese11 female): Ano…
WEST (American female):Hello!?
NORTH (Japanese male): [Clears his throat]
After too much time has passed (TBD), the game should ideally take over the offending player's
game, and display the following on his screen:
[PLAYER NAME], YOU KEPT EVERYBODY WAITING, SO SHANGHAI MADE YOUR

MOVE FOR YOU. CLICK TO RESUME CONTROL.
A side note: this may offer us a possible way of allowing players to join a game in progress too --
if somebody dropped out, and an A.I. player is standing in for him, maybe a 5th person could come along
and take over. Naaahh…
Another note: I found that it is possible, while playing IMS, to become disconnected from the
server, reconnect, and rejoin the table. Not sure how they do that, nor exactly how we handle this (what if
the host is the player who drops out).
ROBBING KONGS
It appears that this is a rule which applies universally in the American game, the Japanese game;
and the Chinese game. If a player needs a tile to win, and another player has melded a Pong of that tile, and
that other player subsequently draws the tile from the Wall and adds it to his melded Pong to make a Kong,
the first player can "rob" that 4th melded tile for a win. Worth one double. What this means for us is that
the program has to allow a player to click on another player's meld (which we have to support for the
American game with Jokers anyway). Another possibility: when the program recognizes an opportunity for
a player to win by robbing a kong, the program alerts that player, something like:
DO YOU WANT TO CLAIM THIS TILE FOR A WIN?
It highlights the available tile in the other player's kong, and the player's Win button -- the player
can click on either the 4th tile or on the Win button.
10 Avatar voices are assigned to a player at the beginning of the first game based on the seat
position. As players' seat positions change, the voices stay with the player (the voices don't
change with the seat position changes).
11 Ethnicity of the South player avatar is likely to change, for reasons too involved to go into in this
forum.

II.3.B. The American Game of Mah-Jongg

What is the "American" game exactly? We cannot support the NMJL rules, largely because of that
organization's yearly card of new special hands and the fact that their scoring is so different from Chinese
and Japanese scoring. And then there is the Wright-Patterson game, which more closely fits what is
described in other books. We won't do the Wright-Patterson game either, since it is not widely recognized
outside of the military. Furthermore, there is what Thompson & Maloney call "the Western game" and there
are also the mysterious "Max Robertson rules" which are rules which are used in Europe. Most of the
available books on "American" MJ are at least 30 years old, which makes them suspect. So we model our
game out of a bit of a conglomeration of rules, in an effort to support as many players as possible. I
referred to "non-NMJL American Mah-Jongg" as "vanilla American" when discussing it with our NMJL
teacher. This portion of the design outlines the American game as we will implement it.
P - The current Picked tile goes here immediately after being drawn from the wall.
H - The tiles in the Hand go here (extends left into the M area as needed).
M - The Melds go here.
F/S - The Flowers and Seasons (if used) go here.
W - This is where the Winning player's final pair goes after going out.
D - Discard area (tiles get stacked after filling out the bottom layer).
Largely, our American game is very similar to the Chinese game, with certain differences:
• There is a Charleston after the deal.

• We offer Jokers (wild tiles) as a user option.
• Users can select Special Hands Only, Special Hands Allowed, or No Special Hands.

• We allow redeeming of melded Jokers.

• In the case of a Wall game, there is a Goulash to resolve the game.
• We may offer different button labeling (shown in picture above), possibly as a user option.
• Use of Chows may optionally be limited.
• Only 2 dice are used (not 3).
• Other options are offered the user too.
Let's start right off with the options. I've taken Bob's suggestions and modified them based on
what I've gleaned from my lessons and from recent books (as opposed to the outdated books normally
available). This "American" game might more rightly be called "Western" (perhaps we'll call it that when
we get closer to publishing the product).
AMERICAN OPTIONS
FLOWERS/SEASONS JOKERS
GOULASH (WALL GAME) KITTY
SPECIAL HANDS
ALLOWED
NOT ALLOWED
REQUIRED
RESTRICTIONS ON WINNING HANDS
NO RESTRICTIONS
PURE/CLEAN WITH AT MOST ONE CHOW
RESET TO DEFAULT
FLOWERS/SEASONS
As in the Chinese game, a Flower (term used to cover both Flowers and Seasons) is worth 4 points,
and a Bouquet (all 4 Flowers, or all 4 Seasons) is worth a lot of points, paid immediately upon melding it.
However, in American/Western MJ, there is no awarding of points if someone has his Own Flower. And I
assume there is no bonus for not getting any Flowers.
As a point of interest, NMJL is the only game that uses Flowers as part of a hand. Wright-
Patterson and "vanilla" American and "Western" all use Flowers the way described here. 12
JOKERS
Our game will offer the option (normally OFF) to use Jokers in the game. In a game in which
Special Hands are REQUIRED, you really need Jokers to play properly; but our default setting is Special
Hands ALLOWED (in keeping with the Chinese default setting).
Jokers can be used to fill out a Pong or Kong or Chow, but never to fill a pair or stand in for a
single tile (such as the "2" in "25" for the Christmas hand). Jokers can represent anything, so the program
has to be pretty damn smart to allow a Win intelligently -- else we have to add an interface for users to
declare what they want their Jokers to be so the program can know how to score the hand.
I recently bought a Chinese set which came with Jokers -- there were four. NMJL (Special Hands
Required) specifies eight Jokers in a set. Wright-Patterson is also a Special Hands Required game, but it
doesn't even have jokers! In the interest of keeping our Wall lengths symmetrical, I favor having eight
Jokers in our game. Open to discussion.
12 If a NMJL player wanted our game to approximate the game s/he is used to, s/he should turn
Flowers OFF, Jokers ON, Goulash OFF, Kitty OFF, and set Special Hands to REQUIRED.

GOULASH (WALL GAME)

We used to have an option for the Charleston specified here, but I have since learned that the
Charleston is part of all American rules. The "Goulash," however, is not part of all American games
(NMJL and Wright-Patterson rules do not mention it), so it should be an option instead. Note that T&M
("Western" game) does not include a Charleston but does include a Goulash -- I guess that's largely what
differentiates American from Western.
I'm tempted to just say our "vanilla" American/Western game will automatically include both
Charleston and Goulash; if nobody objects and if it's easier to make these things defaults and not user-
selectable, I think I can be persuaded to go that way. But perhaps we should have American and Western
options (American game has Charleston but not Goulash; Western game has no Charleston but does have
Goulash) on this list instead; Activision UK will perhaps get less user calls if we go this way.
When a game is played "to the wall" (all the tiles are drawn and nobody wins), a Goulash occurs.
Details are given elsewhere in this design.
KITTY
The use of the Kitty (or Pool) is described in both S&E and T&M; it probably shouldn't even be an
option (should be default). Players ante up at the beginning of a hand; player can only claim the Kitty if his
hand is all Pong or all Kong. This is in keeping with the way Bob specified it (except it looks like Bob
intended the Kitty to also apply to the Chinese game, which it should not).
Additionally, more money can go in the kitty if a Wall Game occurs. This should probably be an
option (not a default), but I don't propose splitting these two uses of the Kitty.
SPECIAL HANDS (ALLOWED / NOT ALLOWED / REQUIRED)

The main characteristic of the American game that differs it so much from the Chinese and
Japanese is that most American rules seem to actually require special hands -- or at least that's the way
NMJL and Wright-Patterson work. "Vanilla" American seems to be more flexible on this, thus we make
this an option.
Our default should be "Allowed," since that gives the user the most freedom during play.
In the American game, there are a lot more special hands than there are in Japanese or Chinese MJ.
NMJL creates a new card every year of 50 or so special hands. Wright-Patterson rules call for a list of 94
special hands. The "vanilla" American and "Western" MJ books give varying lists of special hands, some
of them shared with the Wright-Patterson list. I have gone through the multiple lists and weeded it down to
around 68 special hands which seem to be fairly widely supported by vanilla American and Western MJ. If
it turns out that the game is having a lot of trouble with that many special hands, we can break the list into a
"primary" and "secondary" list; if it turns out that the game deals pretty well with a lot of special hands, we
may add more hands back in. Especially, I did not include any NMJL hands, but I believe that some of
their hands may actually recur each year; we might want to put those in our list.
RESTRICTIONS ON WINNING HANDS (NO RESTRICTIONS / PURE WITH AT MOST ONE

CHOW)
American players who want to play for "chicken hands" will want to change this from the default
setting (we don't set it to "No Restrictions" as a default because the American game is, normally, more strict
on this point). I guess we have to keep the Win button grayed-out if this is at default setting, and player has
a complete yet not-up-to-standard hand…?
RESET TO DEFAULT
Checking this option resets all options back to their "factory" settings.
Let's start an example game to illustrate how the American game works.
The computer deals the tiles, four at a time, from the Wall to the players. East gets 14 tiles and
everybody else gets 13. When all tiles are dealt, the tiles are revealed (in the order received) to the player.
If there are Flowers or Seasons, those are immediately handled and replacement tiles are drawn. Then the
tiles are sorted.

The sort order of the tiles must be different in American MJ from Chinese and Japanese. For one
thing, the Chinese and Japanese like to see the winds arranged in the order of play (E-S-W-N). But
American MJ players like to see the winds arranged to spell "NEWS." So we have to accommodate this
American preference.
Additionally, in American MJ the Dragons are associated with the three suits as follows:
White Dragon goes with Dots

Red Dragon goes with Cracks
Green Dragon goes with Bams
…therefore, we should organize Dragons as if they were the #10 tile in those suits. So if Jokers are not
involved, the hand should be organized thusly:
Cracks 1-9
Red Dragon
Bams 1-9
Green Dragon
Dots 1-9
White Dragon
Winds N-E-W-S
And we have to figure out what to do with the Jokers. For now I assume we'll just throw those at
one end of the hand or the other. Will come back to that in a bit.
Another aspect of sorting to be mindful of is that American special hands include some really
strange concepts, such as Knitting (a knitted Pong is one that has the same number but in each of the three
suits) and special numbers (like 25 for "Christmas" and 1861 for "Civil War"). While it's not too hard to
mentally sort the tiles when organized numerically to form pongs and chows, it's much harder to mentally
sort out something like "Civil War." Civil War is a hand composed of 1-8-6-1 in one suit, 1-8-6-5 in
another suit, plus pongs of North and South winds.
If I were dealt a hand like the one shown above, and it were organized in the way I have so far
proposed (assuming Jokers go at the right end), I would have a hard time seeing that this is a fairly good
start for the "Civil War" hand. If I were playing with real tiles, I'd probably sort the tiles until I arrived at
this organization:
This way I can see better what it is I have, and what I need. I need another One Bam (will have to
draw it from the Wall or it'll have to be the last tile so I can declare it for a Win; I cannot use a Joker to fill
out "1861"), and a One Dot (same problem; have to either pick it or claim it for a Win, which is a tough
challenge since I can't use a Joker to fill out "1865"), and more North and South Winds (or Jokers), which
shouldn't be as tough to get as the two Ones. I'd want to keep my Four Bams if possible (it's the only pair in
my hand, and pairs are harder to come up with than Pongs), but since the first Charleston is mandatory, I'd
have to break that pair up -- if I wanted to try for a Civil War.
The point of this is that sort order is more important in American than it is in Chinese or Japanese,
and it also makes it harder for us to program it flexibly enough to suit the American player, unless we allow
the user to sort the tiles. These are the possibilities open to us:

1. We sort them the way I've outlined above (Cracks, Bams, Dots -- Dragons shown as the #10 tile in the
appropriate suit, N-E-W-S, Jokers). The user has to mentally sort them.
2. We offer a few other sorting methods and give the user a Sort button, which lets the tiles be displayed
in numerous ways. The user makes do within the limitations of what we offer.
3. We let the user sort his tiles somehow.
There is a MJ game that allows the user to sort his tiles. A demo is available on the Internet. The
company name is Mimosil. I recommend everyone get this demo and try the sorting feature. I assume that
it will take too much programming to allow the user to sort the tiles, but if it's easier than I assume, we
should consider it.
Back to sorting Jokers. If we wanted to try something like option 2 above, we could put the Jokers
right into the hand wherever there is a pair or potential (two-thirds complete) Chow (creating a whole Pong
or Chow automatically). We might even find that this is a good way to sort Jokers into the hand if going
with option 1.
Okay, I think we're done with discussing sorting the tiles in the hand, and can get on with our
example American game. Everybody has his tiles sorted. Flowers are melded and replaced just as in the
Chinese game (if Flowers are ON per default13). It's time for the first Charleston. Each player must pick
three tiles in his hand to pass to another player. This will be done three times. The player sees this on his
screen:
CLICK ON THREE TILES TO PASS TO THE PLAYER ON YOUR RIGHT.
The user clicks on a tile -- it's raised and highlighted. User clicks on a 2nd one -- it too is raised
and highlighted. User realizes he doesn't want to give that one away, so clicks it again -- it drops back into
place, unmarked. User clicks on two more tiles -- they're raised and highlighted. If user clicks on a 4th tile,
he hears the "uh-oh" sound; he'll have to click on a raised tile to choose this one (we don't want to go
picking one arbitrarily; we're bound to clash with somebody's expectations of how it should work). The
user is not allowed to pass a Joker during the Charleston; the "uh-oh" sound would be heard and an
appropriate explanation would be displayed, if the user tried to pass a Joker.
When all 3 tiles are highlighted, the user presses his PASS button to pass the tiles on (the button
lights up when 3 tiles are highlighted).
When a user has pressed PASS, the 3 tiles appear face-down on the table in front of the player to
the right. So he might get an "upside-down triple" on the table in front of him before he presses PASS, or
he might not. He might have to wait for his 3 tiles to come from the player to his left. In order to prepare
the user for blind passing and redeeming Jokers, my first thought on the topic is that we should require the
user to click on the face-down tiles in order for them to appear in his hand. The new tiles should first be
revealed, standing on end and separated from the old tiles briefly, then (ideally when the user clicks?) blend
in with the existing sort paradigm in the hand.
Then it's time for the 2nd pass.
CLICK ON THREE TILES TO PASS TO THE PLAYER OPPOSITE YOU.
Same procedure occurs.

On the 3rd pass:
13 It would be nice to have one game default to Flowers ON and the other default to Flowers OFF;
I tend to think we should have Flowers ON in the Chinese game since IMS and HKMJ default to
this; and that we should turn Flowers OFF in the American game since the American game is
stricter anyway. The reason I show them ON in both is because the extra element of Luck is (I
think) friendlier for beginners. But perhaps anybody who wants to play the American game (when
Chinese is the default) already knows the game and would prefer them OFF. Would appreciate
discussion on the topic.

CLICK ON THREE TILES TO PASS TO YOUR LEFT. BLIND PASSING ALLOWED.
Note that now the player is not limited to the tiles in his hand -- now he can also select a tile from
the 3 tiles that come to him from the right -- he can "blind pass" anywhere from 0 to 3 tiles. Otherwise this
procedure is similar to the other 2 passes of the Charleston. The computer announces any blind passes so
all players know about who did what.
Having completed the 3 passes, the Charleston is finished.
Note: NMJL performs a second Charleston (which any player can veto). Wright-Patterson rules
do not describe a 2nd Charleston at all. S&E describes an optional procedure (at the discretion of East)
called a Ding-Dong; it's like a 2nd Charleston but with only one tile instead of three. T&M doesn't
describe the Charleston, leading me to think that it's not part of the "Western" rules. I think we may want
to go with only one Charleston (per Wright-Patterson, and as a compromise between NMJL, S&E, and
T&M). Besides, the interface for East to decide to do a Ding-Dong, or for any player to veto a 2nd
Charleston, would have to be worked out. So I think just the one Charleston will suffice for our needs.
During the course of the Charleston, the American player has likely changed his plan of attack for
the coming round. East goes first, discarding one of his 14 tiles. The tile instantly appears in the discard
area, highlighted for all to see. Other players' buttons light up appropriate to the actions they can take.
Note that many Westerners/Americans (and several other MJ products) refer to the game actions
by different terminology from what we used in the Chinese game:
PONG becomes TRIPLE

KONG becomes QUAD
CHOW becomes SEQUENCE
It might be nice (or it might just be confusing) to re-label the buttons accordingly when playing
American rules. Note that our avatar voices will "speak in tongues," as it were, to bring an International
flavor to the game, thus people will be exposed to this terminology anyway, no matter which set of rules
they're playing. We could also just make it an option to have the buttons labeled the way you like, no
matter which set of rules you're playing.
If East discards a North Wind, and North wants it for a Pong, he would press his Triple button to
claim it (he could also click on the tile itself while his Triple button is lit up, accomplishing the same thing).
INTERFACE FOR MAKING A CHOW IN UNCLEAR SITUATION.

I neglected to discuss this in the Chinese design; it applies to all games (Chinese, American, and
Japanese). Ordinarily, making a Chow is a one-step process, but sometimes the computer cannot know how
the user wants to use a tile discarded by another player. In the example below, I show what happens to a
user (in American mode, thus the terms Triple, Quad, and Sequence are used instead of Pong, Kong, and
Chow) who wants to take a discard when he has 3 different ways to use it for a Chow.

First, the user's Chow button would light up when the Five Dot is discarded. His Draw button is also lit up
because he might not want to take the tile. The friendliest thing to do is to raise and highlight some of the
tiles he might want to use, without the user having to click on anything -- this way the user can immediately
take action. If the user wants to accept the indicated Chow/Sequence, he can just click on either of the
raised tiles, or on the Chow/Sequ button. If the user wants to choose a different Chow/Sequence, he clicks
on an arrow button (the selection wraps around if it cannot go farther left and he clicks on the left one --
otherwise we have to gray out the left arrow). If he decides not to take the discarded Five Dot after all, he
clicks on the Draw button.
In the case of a tile which could be used for either a Chow or a Pong, we have a similar but slightly
different procedure. It has to be more than one step.
In the above case, Draw, Pong/Triple, the arrow buttons, and Chow/Sequ are all lit up. The user
can press Pong/Triple to highlight the pair of Five Dots. Doing that would cause this text to appear in the
Prompt Box:
MAKE A TRIPLE WITH THE DISCARDED TILE?
If the user then clicked on the Pong/Triple button, this would cause the discard to be melded as a
Pong. If, instead, the user clicked on the Chow/Sequ button while the pair of Five Dots is highlighted and
raised, we would go back to the Chow/Sequ situation -- the Three and Four Dots are highlighted and raised,
and the Prompt Box says:
MAKE A SEQUENCE WITH THE DISCARDED TILE AND THESE TWO TILES?
Note that the wording of these messages need to be finalized (I tend to use slightly different
wording each time I type one, for which I apologize).
I believe this deals with the situations; if I have overlooked something, I am confident that the
programming team will have suggestions for discussion.
PLAYER TRIES TO MAKE A 2ND CHOW WHEN ONE IS ALREADY MELDED, AND
RESTRICTIONS ARE ON.
In a case where a player tries to meld a second Chow when one is already melded, and there are
restrictions (as can happen in both American and Japanese MJ), we should allow the user to make the meld;
but the friendly thing to do is to warn the user that this goes against restrictions. Something like:
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THAT? RESTRICTIONS APPLY IN THIS GAME.

Ideally, only the users who have Prompts turned ON will get such a prompt.
MELDING WITH JOKERS.

Jokers can only be used in Pongs, Kongs, and Chows. Thus if a player has a One Bam and a Joker,
and somebody else discards a One Bam, the player is allowed to grab the discard and meld a triple with two
One Bams and a Joker. I'm not saying it's smart (especially early in the game), but it is allowable.
Thus the computer has to check the hand of any player holding a Joker whenever a tile is
discarded, to determine if that player's Pong button should be lit up. This is a little trickier in the case of
Chows. If a player has a Three Dot and a Joker, the computer has to light up his Chow button whenever the
preceding player discards a One Dot, Two Dot, Four Dot, or Five Dot.
When a user makes a meld with a Joker, the Joker is understood by all to be the tile which it
represents. That is to say, if a user makes a Pong of One Bams with a Joker, that Joker is now understood
to be, in fact, a One Bam. Which is where we get into…
REDEEMING JOKERS.
If another player has the exact tile which is represented by a melded Joker, that player may trade
his tile for that Joker, taking the Joker into his hand, on his turn only. Normally, what happens is that a
player makes a Draw, taking a tile which is represented by a melded Joker, and makes the exchange at that
time. Then the player makes his/her discard.
Let's say that North has melded a kong of Red Dragons using three Red Dragons and one Joker.
We always make sure that the Joker is visible in the meld so that it can be clicked on. West happens to have
the fourth Red Dragon. As soon as North has made his discard (something nobody wants), it is West's turn.
I assume that West can redeem the Red Dragon first, before making his Draw from the Wall, if he wants.
Or he could make his Draw and then redeem the Red Dragon -- no matter what, he has to make the
redemption before making his discard.
As West's turn begins, we highlight both the melded Joker and the Red Dragon in West's hand.
The following Prompt appears:
CLICK ON [NORTH]'S JOKER TO REDEEM IT.
In actuality, as long as West's Discard button is not lit up, the player could just as well click on the
Red Dragon too, but let's keep his instructions simple. As soon as West clicks on either tile, the exchange is
made, and all players are notified:
[WEST] HAS REDEEMED [NORTH]'S JOKER.
The Kong now has four actual Red Dragons, and West has a Joker in his hand. West's Draw or
Discard button is still lit for normal game action. It's also conceivable that just having the Joker now lets
West's Win button light up.
Note: a user should be able to redeem his own Joker, if he later draws the represented tile.
DISCARDING JOKERS.
It seems crazy to discard Jokers, but towards the end of an American game it's common (when
obvious that one will never win) to break up the hand and throw away tiles nobody can use, so nobody else
will win. This practice is called "dogging," and when Jokers are involved, Jokers make a good thing to
throw away. Let's say North discards a Four Dot, and nobody calls for it. East can then discard a Joker --
the Joker is now understood to be a Four Dot too. The Joker always stands for the last discard. If
somebody else suddenly remembered that he wanted a Four Dot, he could take it -- but he would get the
actual Four Dot tile, not the Joker. So the way we handle this (since our avatar voices don't proclaim the
name of every discard, thank goodness) is by means of our Prompt Box:
[EAST] HAS DISCARDED A FOUR DOT (JOKER).

Worst thing that could happen now would be somebody tries to grab the Joker. But s/he wouldn't
be able to, because even though it's visibly a Joker in the Discard area, the highlight is back on the Four Dot
tile discarded by North. So if somebody wanted to claim the Four Dot by pressing their Pong or Chow
button, that's exactly what s/he'd get. There is no interface for claiming the Joker itself. If we wanted to be
friendly, we'd display a message in the Prompt Box if somebody tried to click on the discarded Joker:
YOU CANNOT CLAIM A DISCARDED JOKER. DOWN IS DEAD.
WALL GAME AND GOULASH.

If a "vanilla" American game is played "to the wall," i.e. all the tiles are gone and nobody has won,
then a Goulash is optionally played.
If the Goulash option is OFF, then we proceed as described in S&E p.46. Pretty much the same as
what happens in a Chinese game. If there's a Kitty, nobody collects.
If Goulash is ON, we proceed as described in T&M (perfect-bound, not the spiral) p.21. Basically,
it's a single hand (starting with a mandatory Charleston) with a strict No Chow rule. We'll display some text
in the Prompt Box to let everybody know this is a Goulash:
GOULASH ROUND. NO SEQUENCES (EXCEPT SPECIAL SEQUENCE HANDS) ALLOWED.
The current dealer stays dealer throughout the Goulash but the deal moves on after the Goulash is
played.
And that pretty much describes the American game.

II.3.A. The Chinese Game of Mah-Jongg: Proprietary & Confidential ©1997 Activision 1

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Proprietary & Confidential ©1997 Activision 1

II.3.A. The Chinese Game of Mah-Jongg

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 1

During gameplay, a typical Chinese game looks something like this:

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 2

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 3

Other users see:

[EAST PLAYER] IS THINKING…

THE OTHER PLAYERS ARE WAITING; PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 4

NEED HELP? SEE THE MANUAL OR THE HELP MENU.

YOU CANNOT TAKE THAT TILE.

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 5

South (the one who just discarded) sees:

YOU DISCARDED [TILE NAME]. IT IS [WEST]'S TURN.

(1) He can click on the discarded tile to claim it for a meld.

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 6

YOU CANNOT TAKE THAT TILE.

WAITING FOR OTHERS…

[PLAYER NAME] HAS DISCARDED [TILE NAME].

… now disappears. This prompt:

WATCH DISCARDS FOR PONGS OR KONGS.

CHECK THIS PLAYER'S DISCARD FOR A PONG, KONG, OR CHOW.

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 7

And all the prompt boxes announce:

[PLAYER NAME] HAS CLAIMED THE TILE FOR A CHOW.

WAITING FOR OTHERS…

WEST HAS CLAIMED THE TILE FOR A PONG.

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 8

YOU CANNOT TAKE THAT TILE.

YOU CAN ONLY CHOW FROM THE PLAYER TO YOUR LEFT.

WAITING FOR OTHERS…

NORTH HAS DISCARDED 5 BAMBOO. WATCH FOR PONGS OR KONGS.

East's prompt box says:

NORTH HAS DISCARDED 5 BAMBOO. CHECK FOR A PONG, KONG, OR CHOW.

HOLD EVERYTHING! CONFLICTING CLAIMS!

5 "Go Out" = "Mah-Jongg" = "Win."

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 9

table. On everybody else's screen is a text box that says:

… in large text.6 In the prompt box, it says:

[W. PLAYER NAME] WINS ON [N. PLAYER NAME]'S DISCARD.

a) Name of winning player.

A COMPLETE GAME OF 16 HANDS HAS BEEN PLAYED.

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 10

selectable options available in the Chinese game:

FLOWERS/SEASONS SPECIAL HANDS

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 11

FALSE DECLARATION PENALTY

THROWER PAYS FOR ALL

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PLAYING AGAINST A.I. OPPONENTS

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HANDLING A USER WHO DROPS OUT OF THE GAME

DIANE: TOM, PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.

WORMHOLE: TOM, PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.

CHUCK: TOM, PLEASE TAKE YOUR TURN.

TOM, YOU HAVE [NUMBER OF SECONDS] TO DISCARD A TILE.

EAST10 (Chinese male): Make your move!

[PLAYER NAME], YOU KEPT EVERYBODY WAITING, SO SHANGHAI MADE YOUR

DO YOU WANT TO CLAIM THIS TILE FOR A WIN?

SDYgameDescrip.doc May 30, 2010 14

II.3.B. The American Game of Mah-Jongg

• There is a Charleston after the deal.