═══ 1. Extended help for Mah Jongg ═══ Mah Jongg for OS/2 (C) Bernd Wetzel 1989-93 Edelstetter Str. 19f 8907 Thannhausen Germany Phone/Fax: +49 - 8281 - 5501 MAH JONGG is an more than 3000 years old chinese game, that was especially played by sailors.The tiles (made from bamboo) were arranged in form of a "dragon", and then removed using specific rules. Mah Jongg is a game, where logic and luck are needed to win, The sense of this game is to remove all tiles (pair by pair) from the dragon (or any other typ of board). Because all tiles are initally placed by chance on a board, some boards will not allow to remove all tiles. This program was orignially designed to show the possiblities of the OS/2 Presentation Manager. Mah Jongg is shareware. This concept gives you the possiblity to test the software (for a specific duration) and only register if you like the program and want to use it. Please look at the the initial dialog for further information or select help->shareware from the menu (only in shareware version). Help topics Rules of Mah Jongg Here you will see the rules of this game. Game options This section descibes the options while playing Mah Jongg. Service functions Here you can see what the so called "service" functions are for. Statistic functions Like statistics ? So look it this point to get more information about it. Arguments of Mah Jongg See this section for command line arguments of Mah Jongg. Thanks to Nels Anderson He's the one who inspired me ... ═══ 2. Exit Mah Jongg ═══ Select Exit from the "options" menu, or press ALT-F4 (Close) to exit Mah Jongg. If you have already removed tiles from the actually board, statistic will be updated. ═══ 3. Keys ═══ Keys for help F1 Invoke help F2 Invoke general help Alt+F4 Close help F9 Help for keys F11 Help index Esc Step backward to the last panel (exits help if first panel) Alt+F6 Switch to program Shift+F10 Help for using help System keys Alt+F6 Switch to next window Alt+Esc Switch to next task (includes fullscreen applications) Ctrl+Esc Invoke tasklist Mah Jongg specific keys Cursor keys, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn Move the mouse pointer Space key Select/deselect tile Ctrl+A Show game statistics Ctrl+L Load game Ctrl+N New game Ctrl+S Save game Ctrl+T Show playable tiles (tip) Ctrl+U Undo last move Shift+U Undo last undo Ctrl+R Show removed tiles F2 Show general help F9 Show help for keys F10 oder Alt Jump to/from menu F11 Show help index Alt+F4 oder F3 Exit Mah Jongg Alt+F5 Restore window Alt+F7 Move window Alt+F8 Change window size Alt+F9 Minimize/Hide window Alt+F10 Maximize window Shift+F10 Show help for using help Shift+Esc or Alt+Space Jump to/from system menu Mouse buttons Left and right mouse button Select tile/release (DRAG and DROP) Select an unblocked tile with the right or left mouse button, drag the tile over an matching tile (must also be unblocked) and now release the mouse button. Select settings from the "options" menu if you don't like this mechanism, to change the behaviour of the mouse. ═══ 4. Game rules ═══ The object of the game is to remove as many of the tiles from the playing board as possible within the rules of the game. Tiles are always removed in pairs and can only be removed from the left or the right edges. Any tile that is not on a left or right edge is considered blocked and cannot be removed. Note: The tiles may be arranged in 1 or more levels and each level has a left and right edge so there are many more unblocked tiles than it would first appear. When you are playing a dragon, the tile on the top of the pile blocks all four tiles below it, and tiles on row 5 block both rows 4 and 6. In the following example (which shows a part of a board) all blocked tiles are lilac. Example: There a 7 different groups of tiles (original symbols !): Character tiles Bamboo tiles Dot tiles Dragon tiles Wind tiles (E,S,W,N) Flower tiles (Plum,Mum,Bam,Orc) Seasons (Win,Spr,Sum,Aut) There is only one each of SUM, AUT, WIN, SPR, MUM, PLUM, BAM, and ORC. There are four of each of the other tiles for a total of 144 tiles on the board. Normally you can remove a pair of tiles when both are identically (and both are unblocked), but any of the four seasons (SUM, AUT, WIN, SPR) match each other and any of the four flowers (MUM, PLUM, BAM, ORC) match each other. Examples: Ok Ok Doesn't work Doesn't work When you start a new board (especially the dragon) watch out for tiles in the highest level and tiles on the right and left of the board. Try to remove them first, that makes live easier. Keep in mind that there are 2 pairs of every tile (flowers and seasons excluded), so try to choose the right pair combination (and not block the whole board by choosing the bad pair). ═══ 5. Game options ═══ 1. Option Load game Use this option to restore a saved game (from MAHJONGG.SAV). 2. Option Save game Use this option to save the actual state of the game (in MAHJONGG.SAV) for later use. 3. Option New game Select o Next to start the board with the actual number + 1. o Repeat to repeat the actual board. o Chance to start a new board by chance. o Board #. to start the board with the number from the entryfield. o Cancel to exit without changing the actual state. 4. Option Tournament Select this option to start or resume a tournament. 5. Option Setting Use this option to change the background image, the colors, the mouse behaviour and the active symbol set of Mah Jongg. 6. Option Exit Select this option to exit Mah Jongg. ═══ 6. Command line arguments ═══ There is only one possible argument when invoking Mah Jongg, which corresponds to the number of the board. Example: mahjongg 3 => start Mah Jongg with board # 3 ═══ 7. Thanks to Nels Anderson ═══ Hello Nels, here's the place to say thank you for that great EGA MAH JONGG !!! Me and my friends played thousands of dragons (thats true !). Now I had the chance to adapt this game to the OS/2-Presentation-Manager and so I did it. ═══ 8. Produkt information ═══ This option will show you the actual version of Mah Jongg, a copyright message and my contact address. ═══ 9. Save game ═══ Select this option to save the actual state of a board. The state will be saved in MAHJONGG.SAV in the directory, where MAHJONGG.EXE was installed. ═══ 10. Load game ═══ Use this option to restore from an already saved board to resume that game. The actual state will be restored from MAHJONGG.SAV in the directory, where MAHJONGG.EXE was installed. If there isn't a saved game you will only get an information and the actual state of the game will be preserved. ═══ 11. Game statistics ═══ Selecting this option will show some informations about your success in playing Mah Jongg. Game statistics will be saved in MAHJONGG.STA (in the directory, where MAHJONGG.EXE was installed), every time you start a new board or exit Mah Jongg (only if tiles were removed from the actual board !). ═══ 12. Show removed tiles ═══ By selecting this option you will see the removed tiles so far. Every removed pair of tiles will be represented by one of these tiles. The tiles will be shown in the sequence (from left to right, from top to bottom) they were removed. This option is only available if at least one pair of tiles were removed from the actual board. ═══ 13. Shareware ═══ This option will show an short explanation about the concept of shareware, the way you are allowed to use this shareware version and how you can register Mah Jongg. This option does not exist in the registered version. ═══ 14. Continue ═══ When selecting "Show playable tiles" in normal mode (not tournament mode) you will see all playable tiles in reverse color, as long as your not leaving this little dialog window. Press or select the "Continue" pushbutton to resume playing. ═══ 15. New game ═══ o Option Next will start the next board, which means that the board with the actual number + 1 will be started. o Option Repeat restarts the actual board, so you can try to beat that board again. o Option Chance will start a board by chance (the number of the board may be from 0 to 65535). o Option Board # will start the board with the number which is entered in the entryfield (may be from 0 to 65535). o Option Cancel will exit this dialog an preserve the state of the actual board. When plaing in tournament mode you can only select Repeat or Cancel. ═══ 16. Show playable tiles ═══ This option will help you to find playable tiles. When you choose this option all playable tiles (= unblocked pair of tiles) will be shown in reverse color. If one tile was already selected, only playable matches of this tile will be display. If there is no playable tile you will here a short beep. Note: In tournament mode you will only get a message whether there are playable tiles (or a playable match if one tile is selected) or not. ═══ 17. Played time ═══ The clock in the Mah Jongg window shows the played time for the actual board. When you start a new board, the clock will be reset to zero. ═══ 18. Remaining tiles ═══ You can see the remaining tiles in the Mah Jongg window. An new board always has 144 tiles. ═══ 19. Board number ═══ You can see the actual board number in the Mah Jongg window. The number can be 0 to 65535. ═══ 20. Tournament ═══ This option allows you to play a board multiple (to watch your progress) or to compete with other players. If tournament mode was already active, you can reset to normal mode by selecting "Tournament" (if tournament mode is active this option has check mark in the menu). When you activate tournament mode, you can select whether you want to continue an old tournament (if existing) or start a new one. The first player always sets up the new tournament. When you select a new tournament you have to enter the board number and whether you want a timed game or not. If you select a timed game you must enter how long (in minutes) a tournament game can be. After this you have to enter your name (or an alias if you like). When you select the existing tournament, you only have to enter your name (or select one of the existing names in the tournament). In tournament mode you will see the name of the player and the remaining time (only if timed tournament game) in the Mah Jongg window (in addition to the board number, tiles and time). In this mode your aren't allowed to undo a move, to show the played tiles, to save or load a game. All tournament data will be save in MAHJONGG.TRN, which is in the directory where MAHJONGG.EXE was installed. ═══ 21. Tournament statistics ═══ This option will show you a ranking list for the actual tournament. The best 10 players of the tournament are listed (name, tiles left, time left). ═══ 22. Program settings ═══ This dialog is for customizing the settings of Mah Jongg. You can change the behaviour of the mouse, select a different background image, select another symbol set or change the colors. The following settings will change the behaviour of the mouse: o Different mouse pointer over unblocked tiles When this option is checked, every time the mouse pointer moves over an unblocked tile, the mouse pointer changes and shows a little 'Ok' (only of no tile is selected). o 'Drag and Drop' of tiles When this option is checked, you can remove tiles by 'Drag and Drop' (Press mouse button - drag mouse (with pressed button) - release mouse button), if not you have to select the unblocked tile by pressing the mouse button, drag the mouse and press the mouse button again when over the matching tile. Use this setting to select your favorite background image (or no image if you don't want any). All bitmap files (*.BMP) from the MAH JONGG directory (this is were you installed MAH JONGG) and the \OS2\BITMAP directory on the bootdrive are listed. Mah Jongg supports OS/2 and Windows bitmaps. Mah Jongg comes with an (internal) standard symbol set and some additional symbol sets (Comic stars, flags, ...), which are installed in the directory where MAHJONGG.EXE is. The files are named *.TIL (OS/2 DLLs) and you can make your own one. In the so called value set you can select your favorit symbol set (only the first symbol of overy set is displayed). If you do not have 10 symbol file (*.TIL), some fields of the value set will be empty. If you want to change the color of the tiles or of the background, select the item you want to change and then press one of the colored buttons to set the color for the item. If you press Save the actual settings will be saved (to OS2.INI) and restored the next time you start Mah Jongg. You can reset the setting to the internal defaults by pressing the Default pushbutton. If you leave the dialog by pressing Ok the actual settings will only be applyed to this Mah Jongg session, but not saved. So if you want to change the settings for this sessions and for later session, please press Save and then press Ok to leave this dialog. If you do not want to apply the changes you made, leave the dialog by pressing Cancel ═══ 23. Board type ═══ This option gives you the possibility to change the typ of board you are playing. Every board has a different degree of difficulty. You may find out, that some type of boards are really hard. ═══ 24. Dragon ═══ Select this one to play the "dragon" ! ═══ 25. Square ═══ Select this one to play the "squares" ! ═══ 26. Rings ═══ Select this one to play the "rings" ! ═══ 27. Spiral ═══ Select this one to play the "spiral" ! ═══ 28. The X ═══ Select this one to play the "X" ! ═══ 29. Pyramids ═══ Select this one to play the "pyramids" ! ═══ 30. Cross ═══ Select this one to play the "crosses" ! ═══ 31. Dice ═══ Select this one to play the "dice" ! ═══ 32. B & B ═══ Select this one to play the "B & B" ! I love you Babsi ! ═══ 33. Flat ═══ Select this one to play the "flat" ! This is a real hard one, only for professionals ! ═══ 34. Triangle ═══ Select this one to play the "triangle" ! ═══ 35. Babylon ═══ Select this one to play the "Babylon" board ! ═══ 36. Hardcore ═══ Select this one to play the "Hardcore" board ! Can you beat this one ?! ═══ 37. Service functions ═══ 1. Function UNDO Select UNDO to tack back the last move (= remove of a pair). 2. Function UNDO-UNDO Select UNDO-UNDO to tack back the last Undo. 3. Function SHOW PLAYABLE TILES Select SHOW PLAYABLE TILES to: o show all playable tiles if no tile is selected. o show matching tiles if one tile is seleceted. ═══ 38. Undo ═══ When you invoke the function througn the menu, pushbutton or via keyboard (Ctrl+U), the last move will be taken back. This is not possible if a tile is selected. If you did not remove any tiles or if your in tournament mode, you will here a short beep. Because Mah Jongg notes all your moves, you can take back as much moves as you want. ═══ 39. Undo-Undo ═══ When you invoke the function througn the menu or via keyboard (Shift+U), the last Undo will be taken back. This is not possible if a tile is selected or ff you did not do any Undo. ═══ 40. Statistics ═══ 1. Function GAME STATISTICS Function GAME STATISTICS will show an overview about all played Mah Jongg games. 2. Function SHOW REMOVED TILES This function will show the tiles that were removed so far. 3. Function TOURNAMENT STATISTICS Function TOURNAMENT STATISTICS will give you an overview about the tournament state.