"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~"""~""" Gambler Jiko Chuushinha 2 FAQ NES 1990 Version: 1.0 Extra thanks goes to barticle for the game-specific rules. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- TABLE OF CONTENTS =============================================================================== 01.) Introduction | G0100 | 02.) Basics | G0200 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03.) Strategies | G0300 | 04.) Rules | G0400 | 05.) Scoring | G0500 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YY.) Links | GYY00 | ZZ.) Credits & Thanks | GZZ00 | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =============================================================================== 01.) INTRODUCTION G0100 =============================================================================== Welcome to 'Gambler Jiko Chuushinha 2' for the NES, developed by Game Arts and released by Asmik Ace in 1990. This guide is about the popular Japanese version of the ancient board game, called "Reach Mahjong". It has many complex rules. If you know Mahjong from other nationalities or varieties, it is not simply easy to switch over to this version but it does help to know the basic things already. Some parts of the guide use Shift-JIS to represent Japanese characters in ASCII. To display them properly you may have to switch your brower's encoding manually. Suggestions, comments or errors - tell me about it. Enjoy! =============================================================================== 02.) BASICS G0200 =============================================================================== To start the game press the START button. This takes you to the main menu. Select one of the three modes with the Dpad Up/Down and confirm with START. The top mode is a simple game of Mahjong against your chosen opponents (Free Mode). You can choose various game options before the game (see further down for details). Select your opponents (they are all the same skill in this mode as far as I know) and confirm with the "yes" option (top). The second mode is a sort of tactical strategy game in the way of chess. You must move your icons on the playing field and if you attack the other player's guy you have to play a forced round of Mahjong against a set of opponents. If you win you will take this field, otherwise you lose your icon. It is the same for the other player. There are several areas of Japan to play which vary for the player field. The basic of the game is always the same. The third mode is a tournament. Select how many opponents you want to play against (3, 2 or just 1) and try to beat them. You cannot change the game options or opponents in this mode. The bottom choice is a used for some settings, you can ignore this as far as I know. ReyVGM also notes this code: At the game mode screen, select Free Mode. Then at the character selection screen, press B to go to the second character selection screen and pick the Blue Monster (Harutan). Now, to pick him as your 2nd and 3rd option too, start yelling on the Famicom's 2nd controller microphone while you hit A on the empty slot. If done right, you'll get to pick Harutan two more times. A basic round of Mahjong consists of you getting a new tile from the dead wall (unused tiles) and each player can discard one. Since other players might want an unwanted tile there are some interesting steals and strategies involved in winning. More on that below. First let's learn the controls: Throughout the game, the A button is used to make selections but you may also use this to discard tiles, basically you are selecting a tile to discard. When a tile flashes which has been discarded by another player you will also notice some small arrows pointing at yours. This will give you the option to steal. Use the B button to bring up a small menu and make your choice (more on that later). When it is your turn you may also use the B button to bring up a small menu. The top choice lets you discard just like directly pressing A on that tile, the lowest choice displays the current score and the middle option will flash the latest drawn tile for a second. Before continuing you will need to learn the basics of how to play Mahjong - the board and tiles themselves. This can be done online, they are almost always the same descriptions. However, don't look into those Solitaire games (where you pick pairs from the board) as they include extra tiles not used be the original multiplayer game, such as the dragons and flowers. Here is a short run-down of the tiles. Note that these have an order, from either lower number or highest (and then back to 1) or the stated order of the Honor tiles. There are 4 of each tile which makes for 136 in total. Suits ````` Wan: From 1 to 9, they representes 10,000s each. Tong: From 1 to 9, they represent coins. Suo: From 1 to 9, the represent bamboo sticks. The first one is a bird instead, traditionally a sparrow but most tiles don't show that. Honor ````` Winds: East - South - West - North; White - Green - Red. The honor tiles are said to have 'value', which always includes the three colors but only affects the wind directions according to the current round's wind and your own seat's wind. There are NO dragon pictures, NO flowers or any other fancy tiles in the game, these are made up for variations and the solitaire game. If you hear the terms dragon and flower used in the game then they will point to something else but to avoid confusion let's just ignore this for now. Next you have to get used to the board. It's just a table if you will, with one players sitting at one side each. You must have four players to begin. Of course in this game you only play against three computer opponents. There are 136 tiles and everyone gets 13. The rest is set up as a 'dead wall' where you draw with each turn. By taking one extra tile you total is 14, which is the amount required to finish your game. You only have this amount temporarily as you will discard another one at the end of your turn (unless you win in that turn). Before we begin, here is the display the game has to offer. The top left is the dealer's character. It is one of the directions, as the board is set up that each player is one direction. The dealer is important for who starts the game and some extra scoring considerations. More on that in another section. The number next to that is the round you are in. There are often two small sticks next to the round number which represents dealer ante (tsumi). The four players are displayed in rows, unlike most games that will have it set up on each side. You are at the bottom. The rows above each player will be used for discared tiles as you will soon see. Each player starts with 27,000 points. Actually it is 30,000 like in many Mahjong games, but everyone has already anted 3,000 for the winner at the end. The only thing left to explain is the top left. The number next to the dead wall is how many tiles left until the round is forced to finish. If nobody has won by then, it is called a draw. You may have noticed one tile in the dead wall (below your tiles), the right- most tile. This is called a Joker, or 'dora'. It is used for different purposes in different variations of the game. In the Japanese game, and this one, it is only useful for getting an extra score. However, do note that this just an indicator as in fact the NEXT one in line is the dora. You should know from the tile explanation, if the number is 1 Wan then the dora is actually 2 Wan. If the tile displays 9 wan then the dora is 1 wan and so on. For the honor tiles it also follows this way, going from the order of wind to the last 'zhong' and back to the winds. For example, a white tile would mean the dora is green. As I've mentioned before, this is just for scoring so ignore it if you do not care too much about that right now. So now let's actually get started in playing. With a player's turn, he or she takes a new tile from the dead wall. Your aim is to win the game by building melds out of the 14 tiles you have when it is your turn. Melds include several different forms: Pon: Three of the same tile, such as three East or three 2 Wan. (also called Pong in some variations) Kan: Four of the same tile, such as four East and four 2 Wan. You can build a Kan out of the three you have made already. In that case you will get to draw an extra new tile as bonus. (also called Kong in some variations) Shang: Three suited tiles in sequence, such as 1 Wan, 2 Wan, 3 Wan. (also called Chow in some variations) Pair: Two of the same tile, such as two East or two 2 Wan. (also called Jiang or Yan or Eye) The game automatically sorts your hand for the correct order. The newly drawn tile will be on the right side. If you decide to keep the new tile it re-sorts the list afterwards. To finish your turn you must discard one tile or declare you are the winner. Select the tile you want to discard with the LEFT or RIGHT directions and press A. If you have all your tiles making up for 4 melds and one Pair you have a winning hand and potentially are the winner. But not so fast! The game's mini-menu is displayed on the left of the discard tiles. Here they are in ASCII as well. Use UP and DOWN on the controller to get the selections to change. The terminology you must get used to are the following terms: Discard: @@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ @ @@@ @@@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@ @ @ @@ @@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @@ @@ @@ @ @ @ @@ @@ @@ @ @ @ Riichi: @ @ @@@@ @ @ @@@ @ @ @@ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@ @ @ @@ @ Self-Win - Tsumo: @ @ @ @@@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @@@ Kan: @ @@@@ @@@@@@@ @ @ @ @@ @ @ @@ @ @ @@ @ @ @@ @@ @@ @@@ Ron: @@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @@ @ @ @@ @ @ @@ @ @ @@ @@@@@@@@@ @@@ Shang: @@@@ @@@ @@ @ @ @@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @ @ Decline: @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @ Pon: @ @@@@ @ @ @ @@@@@@@@ @@ @ @@ @ @ @ @@ @ @ @ @@ @ @ @ @@@ There are two mini-menus. One is after you have drawn a tile from the wall. Discard: Discard the currently select tile. Riichi: Call Riichi and discard a tile. If you don't actually have any claim on this it will remove your bet. Read more about this soon. Kan: Build a kan out of four tiles you have, or out of the three you already set aside in a Pon and want to add an additional one. Self-Win - Tsumo: For declaring you are the winner, if possible. Discard is the default action as you mainly use this. To move to another tile in your hand, first return to the Discard option and then move RIGHT and LEFT like you would normally. Sometimes you are offered to take a tile another player has discarded. This is when you can use this tile to build a meld. The other menu is when you have the opportunity to steal a tile: Kan: Build a kan with this tile. Ron: Win by stealing with this tile. Shang: Build a shang with this tile. Decline: Don't steal and draw a new tile instead. Pon: Build a Pon with this tile. If you decide to steal then it will be set aside on the right and shown to the other players. Do note that this means you miss out on a 'self-win'. You will know why in a second. For each steal the game asks which one you want to create. When you are offered to steal, there is a blue border around that tile and the game will wait until you make the appropriate choice from the mini- menu. You can also simply press B to not steal. In more details. One way to win is to wait until you need one more tile and steal it from another player. In that case you do not declare a steal for a meld, but for a win which is called 'Ron'. You still build a meld, but this is for the last meld you need and therefore complete the entire hand. Another way to win is the declare a 'riichi' with the 2nd last tile you discard. You will bet 1000 and declare that you only need 1 more tile to win the game. At this point you can no longer discard any previous tiles. You can also see opponents betting on this quite often. The tile they throw away with the bet will have a purple line underneath. The game will automatically draw and discard the new tiles until you get one that wins the game as you are in a 'tenpai' state, which means "listening to tiles". You will then only need to declare a 'self-win' aka 'tsumo' once you get this tile. You can only Riichi when you have not declared any melds so far. Many players will try to retain from declaring melds to keep their winning hand options open and obviously not wanting to show other players their tiles. Let's say you have set aside melds already. Then you cannot Riichi any longer. As you work on your tiles, eventually you will also end up at only requiring one just like when you would normally declare a Ron. At this point you may use Ron to steal the last tile to win the round if your hand allows it. See the rules for more details. The turns will continue until either one player wins, the game is declared a draw or you run out of tiles on the dead wall. Next up read the strategies to give you more on how to play better. To fully understand the hands you should read the rules and then you might want to check out how the scoring works. If a player lost all the money, it will simply go into the red and continue counting down when more losses are incurred. At the end of all rounds, the final scores are revealed. The player with the most amount of points will get the ante pot from the beginning (4 x 3,000 = 12,000). Additional Rules...: (...you may want to know but only clutter the vital info.) If everyone discards the same tile at their first turn, the game is a draw. This happens more often than you think, as many throw away winds or other Honor tiles. After someone has stolen a tile, the play begins at that player, not the last person who discard the tile. This could mean skipping one or two turns for those players but it should even out over the course of the game. The small dealer ante sticks are used for additional scoring. The stick with a single dot in the middle represents 1,000 (10 times 100) where as the one with 8 small dots is a 100 stick. Should the dealer stay the same for more than one game, he bets 100 which is then shown there. The dealer gets 3x back for winning. It comes from the tile discarder if stolen or split from everybody when self-drawn. If a non-dealer wins, the dealer simply takes the bet back. If the game is drawn and another dealer takes over, the pot stays and moves on to the next person. Game Options: ````````````` They are actually called rules but I do not want to confuse you about the game rules of how to play the game. There are five options to configure your session: しどうしゃ (指導者) Lead, Advice, Tutor, Advice on the game ウマ Uma is a points spread applied at the end of the game whereby the player in 3rd place pays the one in 2nd, and 4th pays a larger amount to 1st. The exact values can vary a lot, but an example would be 4th pays 10,000 pts and 3rd pays 5,000 pts. ドボン Bankruptcy rule - the game ends when a player's score drops below zero. イッパツしょう Ippatsu is the bonus scoring element that you get for winning immediately after declaring Riichi. To qualify you must declare either a Tsumo win on your next drawn tile or a Ron win on an opponent's discard before it. Ippatsu is worth one extra double. Any call (Chii/Pon/Kan) will cancel the potential for Ippatsu. Why this rule is called IppatsuSHOU here is unclear. ツキ Luck, you draw better tiles to help you win(?) Each one is either On or Off. =============================================================================== 03.) STRATEGIES G0300 =============================================================================== What you will see is that most players throw away the Honor tiles unless they already have two. You cannot steal to make a Pair, and these are very hard to collect. Play one round and you will notice everyone dumping Wind, White, Red and Green tiles all over the place. If somebody steals one to make a Pon or even Kan, that's pretty good, just doesn't happen often enough to hang on these. It is more feasible to collect suits. For the suits, keep tiles that are close together. Let's say you have a 2, 4 and 8, dump the 8. It is very unlikely to turn into a meld. Similarly, if you have the choice between throwing away 4 and 9, throw the 9. 9 is what is called an edge tile as you can only use it for a Pon/Kan or a very unlikely Shang with 7 and 8. Like counting cards, counting tiles is great too. If you keep track of what others discard you will be able to calculate how many of one tile are still available to be discarded or drawn from the dead wall. 14 tiles make for 7 pairs. This is a special method to win. You will most likely attempt this if you start out with many pairs. It isn't as uncommon to see and likely achieve at that point. Note that you cannot have four of a kind and call them 2 pairs each, they must be unique. If you have a sequence of 3, 5, 6, then do not bother keeping the 3 around. 5 and 6 have higher chances to complete the sequence and if you get 4, then 3 isn't necessary anyway. Even with these basic strategies you should be winning rounds. However, to really be good at the game you must learn the rules of how the hands are being won. =============================================================================== 04.) RULES G0400 =============================================================================== These are not the game rules, but what kind of hands can be made to win the round. As the game ends the scoring screen will show the score multipliers called 'fan' the winner has achieved. These are the most commonly used rule sets in Riichi-Mahjong: Name: Name of the hand, either closely or loosely translated. Fan: How many extra multiplier are added for this hand. O/C: Open (steals are allowed) or Closed (no steals allowed or possible) Description: Details about the hand, any specific rules or variations. o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o | Name: | Fan | O/C | Description: | |--------------+-----+-----+--------------------------------------------------| | Riichi | 1 | C | When you only require one more tile after | | 立直 | | | discarding the next one, you are ready to wait | | | | | for the win. Until then you cannot do anything | | | | | but discard the new tile unless a kan possible | | | | | that doesn't change your required tile. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Win 1 round | 1 | C | Once you declar Riichi, win at the next turn | | after Riichi | | | without anyone creating melds. | | 一発 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Strong | 1 | C | Win without stealing nor opening your hand. | | Self-Win | | | | | 門前自摸 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Simple Melds | 1 | O | Only using suit tiles from 2 to 8, thus no 1s, | | 断ヤオ九 | | | 9s or Honor tiles. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Peace | 1 | C | 4 Shang and one pair that does not have value. | | 平和 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Double Shang | 1 | C | 2 Shang that are identical, e.g. 2, 3, 4 Wan | | 一盃口 | | | twice. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Last Draw | 1 | O | Win on the final draw. | | 海底摸月 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Last Discard | 1 | O | Win on the final discard. | | 河底撈魚 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kan-Win | 1 | O | Win by creating a Kan by stealing the tile. | | 槍槓 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kan-Bonus-Win| 1 | O | Win with the tile you receive after creating a | | 嶺上開花 | | | Kan. | |=============================================================================| | 3-Color Shang| 1 | O | 3 Shang that are identical in three different | | 三色同順 | 2 | C | suits. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Straight | 1 | O | 3 Shang using 1 suit from 1 to 9, i.e. 1->3, | | 一気通かん | 2 | C | 4->6, 7->9. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Mixed Edge | 1 | O | Each meld has either a 1, 9 or Honor tile. | | 全帯 | 2 | C | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Terminals | 1 | O | Melds consisting of Pons, Kans and a Pair where | | 混老頭 | 2 | C | each one is either 1s, 9s or Honor tiles. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Double Riichi| 2 | C | Declare Riichi with your first turn. No-one else | | ダブルリーチ | | | must have stolen so far. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7 Pairs | 2 | C | 14 tiles make for 7 pairs. You cannot steal for | | 七対子 | | | obvious reasons. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | All Melds | 2 | O | Only melds and a pair. | | 対々和 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Three Melds | 2 | O/C | 3 melds that aren't open (stolen), the rest of | | 三暗刻 | | | the hand may be stolen, eg the 4th meld. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Three Same- | 2 | O | Three meld that each contain at least one of the | | Number Melds | | | same number. | | 三色同刻 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3 Kan | 2 | O | 3 Kans declared. | | 三槓子 | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3 Little Elem| 2 | O | 2 Pons and and 1 Pair of Honor tiles. | | ?ｬ三元 | | | | |=============================================================================| | Mixed Flush | 2 | O | Only one style suit and honor tiles are used. | | 混一色 | 3 | C | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pure Edge | 2 | O | Each meld has either a 1 or 9 tile. | | 純全帯ヤオ九 | 3 | C | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Double 2 | 3 | C | 2 times two Shang that are identical, e.g. 2, 3, | | Shang | | | 4 Wan twice and 6, 7 8 Wan twice. | | 二盃口 | | | | |=============================================================================| | Pure Flush | 5 | O | Only one style suit. | | 清一色 | 6 | C | | |=============================================================================| | Dora | +1 | O | The dora indicator is on the dead wall. For any | | ドラ | | | tile you have you get +1. There are extra dora | | カンドラ | | | tiles as you make Kans and when you win with a | | 裏ドラ・カン裏ドラ | | Riichi. | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Honor Meld | +1 | O | A set of Honor tiles such as three White, Red or | | | | | Green, the current round's wind or the player's | | | | | own wind direction. +1 for each meld. | o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o There are more special hands that may not be included in the game. Not every game will uses all of these. Think of this as super-advanced class if you really want to know these rules: 4 Triples: C Four Pons and a Pair. 四暗?? Pairless Country: C A 1 and 9 of each suit, each one of the Honor tile ?綜m無双 and then one extra tile to make a Pair. 3 Large Elements: O A meld of White, Green and Red. 大三元 Large/Small Wind: O A meld of each wind, one may be a Pair only. 大四喜?E?ｬ四喜 All Green: O Using Suo (Bamboo) 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and Green Honor 緑一?F tile. May REQUIRE using the Green Honor tile even. All Honor: O Using only Honor tiles. 字一?F Nine Treasures: C One suit with 1112345678999 and one extra tile for 九蓮宝燈 making a Pair. Pure Edge: O Only 1s and 9s. ?ｴ老頭 4 Kans: O Four Kans declared. 四槓子 Heaven Win: C The dealer instantly has a winning hand. 天和 Earth Win: C The non-dealer has an instant winning hand at the 地和 first turn without anyone stealing before it. =============================================================================== 05.) SCORING G0500 =============================================================================== There is a complex way to calculate the final score. Luckily the game does everything for you, but if you are still interested then read the next section in great detail. Base: ````` First, a tally value is calculated based on the composition of the hand and how the hand was won. This number will be an integer between 20 and 70. To get the tally, take 20 as base. Add 10 points if won by a steal, or 2 points if drawn. Additional points are awarded for pairs. 2 for each value Honor tile and 4 if the wind is both round and player's. For each Pon, 8 points if closed end, 4 if open end or closed middle and 2 if open middle. For a Kan, 32 points if closed at the end, 16 open end or closed middle and 8 for open middle. Finally, there are 2 points for the tile you were waiting if it was in the middle of a Shang, on the side of a Shang if there was only one way to complete it (Edge, like 1, 2 and waiting for 3) and third if it completed a Pon. Two exceptions to this case is '7 Pairs' which automatically results in 25 as tally. 'Pinfu' gives a tally of 30 if won on a steal, and 20 if self-drawn. Multiplier: ``````````` The multipliers can be seen in the previous section. Each one adds a certain amount of points to the sub-total. You get 2 extra as base amount which sums up to the total multiplier. Final Score: ```````````` Take the base number and round it up to the nearest multiple of 10 unless the hand was a '7 Pairs'. Multiple this number by 2^Multiplier for a sub-total. It cannot be higher than 2000 points or else it is reduced to said amount. That is the limit in the game to avoid huge scores in single games. If the win was self-drawn, each loser has to pay that sub-total. Else, multiply the sub-total by 6 if the dealer won, multiply it by 4 if a non-dealer won. As the win was won on a steal, only the person discarding the winning tile has to pay this larger amount. Draws: `````` There are several ways to draw the game: - No more tiles are left to draw. - All players discard the same wind tile in the first round. - There are four Kans declared in total. You may complete with a 4-Kan hand. - All four players have declared Riichi. - Three players are waiting for the same tile to be discarded. - A player has 9 different tiles of 1s 9s and Honor. That player may choose to declare a draw. If the game ends after all tiles have been drawn, each player's cards are opened. Players only needing one tile to win will receive money from the others. In case of just one player he gets 1,000 from all the others. If there are two ready players, the other two have to pay 1,500 to each of the two read players. If there are three ready players, the only one left must pay 1,000 to each player. =============================================================================== YY.) LINKS GYY00 =============================================================================== A few sites that helped me find information regarding the game's mechanics, rules and other things I needed to confirm. WikiPedia's Mahjong Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong Japanese Mahjong Scoring: http://ofb.net/~whuang/ugcs/gp/mahjong/mahjong.html Mah Jong - Modern Japanese Rules: http://www.delfosse.com/mahjong.html Reach-Mahjong Rules: http://reachmahjong.com/en/rules.html =============================================================================== ZZ.) CREDITS & THANKS GZZ00 =============================================================================== GameFAQs for hosting this file. Asmik Ace for the game. barticle for the rule (game option) information, awesome guy! ReyVGM for the code. All those websites listed in the previous section, I'm sure I used them all to find something or another. To either learn about the game or just to confirm a rule. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This guide may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. ,,, (o o) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=oOOo-(_)-oOOo-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=