Introduction

Overview

When launched, Solitaire Mahjong pops up a single window with a green game board similar to the one shown below. If you launch it for the very first time the tiles on the board will be of medium size. You can adjust their size later if you chose to do so. There are four menu items in the main menu bar: Game, View, Tools and Help. Items in the Game menu are used to control, load and save games. The status bar on the bottom displays information on the status of the game. To exit the game press Ctrl+Q at any time.


Solitaire Mahjong main window at start up on Mac OS X.

Note: The screenshot here are made on a Mac. There are slight differences between Mac, Linux/Unix and Windows. For example the 'Exit/Quit' and 'Preferences' items are listed under the Application Menu ('SolitaireMahjong') on MacOS. On all other platforms they are in the 'Games' and 'View' 'menu, respectively.

Game Controls

All game controlling commands are accessible through the Game menu in the main menu bar shown below. The most commonly used items have accelerator keys as well. It's worth getting to know them since they allow for easier and quicker control of the game.


The Game menu.

  1. New Game: Starts a new game. The layout of the new game depends on the preferences you have set in the Setting dialog window. The command can be activated anytime.
  2. Open: Loads and starts a game stored on file. The extension for these files is .ssm. Other extensions are not recognized.
  3. Replay: Starts the same game again, that is a new game but with the identical layout as the previous one. Gets activated after you removed at least one tile.
  4. Hint: Hints the next move. Note that Solitaire Mahjong will provide the next available move without taking any strategy into account. The number of hints used in the ongoing game is displayed on the right in the status bar on the bottom of the main window. The Hint command will highlight the two tiles that can be removed next. There are a few options that relate to this command (see Setting Preferences for more).
  5. Find Match: Finds the matching tile (if playable) to the on one highlighted when the command is invoked. Counts as hint for scoring purposes.
  6. Undo: Take back the previous move. The number of undos used in the current game is displayed in the right most field in the status bar, right of the '/'. The number of undos is not limited. In principle you can undo every move you made in the current game back to the start position (although replay would be much faster for that).
  7. Save: Save the current game on file. The file extension of the stored file is .ssm. See Storing and Opening Games on File for more.
  8. Exit (Windows and Linux): Exit the game.

Playing the Game

You select a tile by clicking on it with the mouse. If the tile is selectable according to the rules the tile is highlighted as shown below.


Left: normal tile, right selected highlighted tile.

If two matching ones are selected you can remove the pair by either right-clicking your mouse (if your mouse has at least 2 buttons) or double-clicking one of the selected tiles. To de-select a selected (highlighted) tile simply click on it again. There can never more than two tiles selected.

If one item is selected and you select another non-matching tile, the former gets automatically de-selected.

The Status Bar

The status bar located on the bottom of the main window is always present.

The status bar on the bottom of the main window. Left: number of remaining tiles.
Middle: message window. Right: number of hints/number of undos used so far.

The small left-most field displays the number of tiles currently in the game, that is those that you still have to remove. The long field in the middle is the message window. Depending on your settings (see below) more or less information is displayed. The little field on the right displays two numbers separated by a slash '/': on the left the number of times the Hint or Find Match command was used and on the right the number of times the Undo command was used.

Setting Preferences

The preference window allows you to customize the appearance and behavior of Solitaire Mahjong. To popup the dialog window use the Preferences command from the View menu in the main menu bar on Linux and Windows and from the Application menu on MacOS. The new settings are kept when you exit the dialog by pressing the OK button. Cancel will quit the dialog without applying any changes, that is the previous state is restored. When you exit Solitaire Mahjong the current settings are stored and loaded again when you restart the game. Where they are stored depends on the system. On Unix systems they are stored in a hidden text file in your home directory, on Windows they are stored in the registry, and on the Mac they are handled by the Carbon preferences API.


Preference window used to set various features.

The upper two combo boxes are not enabled at the moment. In future releases the will allow to select various tile layouts and tile sets. For now you have to live with the classic Turtle layout and the Classic tile set.

Tile Size: The combo box lets you select 4 different tile sizes: small (45x55 pixel), medium (57x70), large (69x85), and very large (82x100). On Macs with retina display it is twice that since version 1.3.4. Pick the one that is most suitable for your screen and resolution. Note that the newly selected tile size is not applied immediately but only when a new game is started. The preview window in the upper left depicts the selected tile size.

Background Color: The combo box allows you to either select a new background color for the game board or to restore the default color (medium green). When you select New a modal color dialog pops up, that lets you choose a color. The newly selected color is shown in the preview window in the upper left. Note that the newly selected background color is not applied immediately but only when a new game is started.

Check Boxes:

Show name of selected tile in status bar
When checked the name of the tile (e.g. 'Wheel 3') is displayed in the status bar. For Season and Flower tiles you are also reminded that the selected tile matches any other Flower (Season) tile. This option is useful for beginners. If it annoys you uncheck the box.
Sound bell when tile is not selectable
When checked the system bell sounds anytime you click a tile that cannot be selected. Only useful for beginners.
Hint is selected randomly from a list of all possible matches
If unchecked the Hint command will return the first available match. Repeated use in the same situation will always yield the same hint. If checked, however, the next possible move is selected randomly from the list of all possible moves (matches). Repeated use in the same situation will yield different hints, unless of course there is only one match possible, or the random generator happens to pick the same hint again. This is a way to scan through several alternatives and decide which is the optimal move. See also next preference.
Hint command also reports number of possible matches
If checked the Hint command will also print a message in the status bar telling you how many matching tile pairs are left, that is how many alternative moves you can perform.
Show board during solution search
If checked, the playing board is visible when running a solution search. This makes the search very slow and is not recommended. However, at times it is quite interesting to see the search happening in front of your eyes, so if you have the time check this option for the fun of it.

Getting Help

The Contents item in the Help menu pops up a help browser with the complete Solitaire Mahjong documentation (the one you are viewing right now). About Solitaire Mahjong shows you the usual version, copyright, and license information.


Help menu.

Note: Mac OS X arranges the menues differently. The 'About Solitaire Mahjong' item is listed as first item in the Application Menu ('SolitaireMahjong'). On all other platforms it is in the 'Help' menu.

End of the Game

A game is finished when either all tiles were removed from the game board or no more matching tile pairs are left.

You can either start a new game or replay the game you just played. In both cases all tile, hint, and undo counters are reset to zero.

The View Menu


View menu.

The View menu gives you access to the following:

High Scores
Shows the current highscore list.
Played Tiles
Shows the list of played tiles.
Tile coordinates
Adds horizontal and vertical axis labels/coordinates to the game board. This is especially useful when following the solution contained in the text file generated by the Find Solution command.
Preferences: (Windows and Linux)
Pops up a dialog window that allows you to customize Solitaire Mahjong and set various features. See Setting Preferences for more.

The High Score List

Every time a game is finished the result is analyzed in terms of:

  1. tiles left on the board
  2. number of hints used
  3. number of undos used
  4. the total time played

Less is better. The score is judged according to the order of the criteria shown above. The high score list stores the best 10 results.


The high score list (here the current one of the author).

When a new high score is generated the high score list shown above will pop up at the end of the game. The current score is listed in red. The second column shows the rank, the third column the date and time the game was played. What follows are the tiles left on the board, the number of hints and undos used. The last column shows the total time (mm:ss) needed for the game.

The Clear List button will delete the high score list. This cannot be undone.

The high score list can be inspected any time using the High Scores command in the Game menu. The list is stored together with your preferences. Note that a check sum is generated to check the validity of the high score list.

Viewing Tiles Already Played

At times it is useful to recall what tiles where played already. By default the "Played Tiles" viewer shows the already played tiles in pairs (as removed) and in chronological order, last one always on top. Alternatively (select checkbox "Sorted") it displays the tiles sorted according to matching type. Use this to find out if you already played all 4 tiles of a subset.


The Played Tiles list, here in sorted view mode.

Opening and Storing Games on File

A game can be saved to file at any time using the Save command in the Game menu. The file has to have the extension .ssm. If not provided, Solitaire Mahjong will append it.

Note that the original setup gets saved independently of how far you are in the game. You can even save the game when it is finished. The status of the game (tiles removed, history, etc.) is not stored. All what is currently stored is layout, tileset, date created and original setup. The files are simple text files and can be easily ported between platforms.

Games can be loaded at any time using the Open command under the Game menu. The current game will be discarded.