It is important to note that despite borrowing its tiles from the traditional game, in the Mahjong Solitaire the meaning of the tiles is irrelevant, which is why some games give players the chance to change the symbols they are playing with. Seasons: also a set of 4 special tiles, each with a flower representing the 4 seasons of the year. Two of them bear the symbol for “Center” and “Get Rich”, while the third can be displayed as a white tile or with a simple frame.įlowers: a set of 4 special tiles bearing the drawing of flowers, traditionally the Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, and Bamboo. Winds: 4 tiles, each with the character representing a cardinal point.ĭragons (Western designation): a set of 3 Honor tiles. In the West, these tiles are usually referred to as circles or dots. These tiles are known in the West as bamboos.Ĭoins: 9 tiles with the symbol of individual ancient Chinese coins. Roped coins: 9 tiles with the symbol of ancient coins roped together. Numbers: 9 tiles with the character for myriad and the Chinese character for the numbers from 1 to 9. The traditional tiles are divided as follows: In this, the symbols are divided according to their meaning and, in many variations, each set may have different rules associated with them. Yes, they do, at least in the traditional Chinese game. Do the symbols in the tiles have a meaning? As the name Shanghai was patented, these clones were released under different names such as Taipei, Kyodai, and Shanghai Solitaire, among many others.Įventually, because of the drawings of the tiles, the name Mahjong Solitaire (to emphasize its one-player quality) began to be used as a generic name for this type of game.

In 1986, the same Lockard helped Activision create a paid game version called Shanghai for Macintosh, which was a success worldwide.Īs the game grew in popularity, it did not take long for clones to appear. Since it used the same tiles and symbols of the original Mahjong, it was named Mah-Jongg. The pairing game we know today was created by Brodie Lockard in 1981, inspired by a traditional Chinese game called “The Turtle”. The goal is to build a “winning hand” made of melds (sets of identical tiles).Īs you can see, the two games are drastically different both in their gameplay and final goal. There are many variations within the traditional game itself, but in most of them, each player receives 13 tiles and must then discard, draw and even rob tiles from other players. For starters, it is normally played by four players. The rules of the traditional Mahjong are much more complex. The players win when there are no more tiles left on the board. Each game starts with a board in which the tiles are positioned in a certain disposition and the players have simply to pair the tiles by matching their symbols to remove them from the board.

The Mahjong Solitaire is a simple one-player pairing game. In fact, the only point in common between them is the use of the same symbols for the tiles. There are plenty of differences between the two because they are completely different games. What are the differences between Mahjong Solitaire and the traditional game? Each variant has its own set of special rules, scoring system, and the number of tiles employed may also differ.Īs for the Mahjong Solitaire, the game can also present slight variations, but these are usually related to special features such as the possibility or not of undoing moves, using hints, or changing the symbols of the tiles.

The most commonly played variation is the Hong Kong one, with the remaining ones taking up the name of the city they come from.Īs the game spread in popularity in Asia and worldwide, other variants started to appear, such as the Japanese, the Korean and the Thai Mahjong, and so on. Even within China, there are many local variations to the game. It is commonly played by 4 players and the goal is to draw and discard the tiles to build a winning hand made of sets of specific symbols. The name Mahjong alone is normally used to refer to a Chinese game, created during the Qing dynasty. There are two main types of Mahjong, the traditional version, and the Solitaire version, but within the former, there are several variations. But for those who wish to learn more about it, we compiled a list of the 7 most frequently asked questions about Mahjong Solitaire that will give you a fresh and new insight into this great pastime. Its simple gameplay that allows anyone to quickly understand its dynamics and begin to play right away is probably to blame for this lack of knowledge. Despite being one of the most popular digital pairing games in the world, there are still many Mahjong Solitaire players who do not know much about the game itself.

Shanghai mahjong solitaire