Mahjong (Famicom) FAQ (c) Adamant (Fredrik Jullum) fredrju@online.no INDEX: 1: Revision History 2: Game Data 3: Controls 4: The rules of Mahjong 5: Melds 6: Dora 7: Stealing 8: Reach 9: Han 10: Scoring 11: Menus 12: Tiles 13: How to play 14: Disclaimer 1: Revision History v. 1.00: October 26th, 2006. FAQ completed v. 1.10: October 27th, 2006. Faq pulled for lack of content. "The rules of Mahjong", "Melds", "Dora", "Stealing", "Reach", "Han" and "Scoring" sections added. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2: Game Data Title: 麻雀 (Maajan/Mahjong) Developer: 任天堂 (Nintendou/Nintendo) Platform: Family Computer (NES) Release date: August 27th, 1983 (Japan) Genre: Mahjong ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3: Controls: D-pad Right: Move tile cursor right D-pad Left: Move tile cursor left D-pad Down: Scroll through moves in the move window downwards D-pad Up: Scroll through moves in the move window upwards A: Draw tile, Discard tile B: Call move currently selected in move window. Start: Start game, pause game (Tea Time) Select: Move cursor between options the on title screen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4: The rules of Mahjong Mahjong is a classic chinese game available in many different variations. Being a japanese game, Mahjong for the Nintendo Famicom unsurprisingly revolves around the japanese version of the game, also known as "Reach Mahjong" While originally a game for 4 players, Nintendo for some reason turned it into a two-player game when they released it for their console. This obviously has it's effect on the rules. The object of Mahjong is to form a complete hand of tiles before your opponent does so, and before the stack of tiles is empty. The first player to complete a hand is then awarded a number of points depending on how good his hand was (these points are subtracted from your opponent's points. Originally, there were rules to determine which opponents you got these points from, and how many they each had to give up, but since this game only has two players, these rules obviously do not apply here) and the person with the most points after 8 rounds is declared the winner. The game is played with small tiles in 5 different suits: Numbers, Circles, Bamboos, Winds and Dragons. The three first suits have 9 different tiles each, the Wind suit has 4, and the Dragon suit has 3. Each individual tile is repeated 4 times, for a total of 136 total tiles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5: Melds As the game starts, both players are given 14 tiles, and each round they both discard and draw a tile. A complete hand typically consists of 4 melds, or combinations of tiles, as well as a head of two identical tiles. A meld normally consists of 3 tiles, either arranged in a sequence within the same suit (called a run), or 3 identical tiles (called a set). Wind and Dragon tiles can not be used in a run. If you have 4 identical tiles, you can form a quad by calling Kan (done through the menu), these are then set aside from your regular tiles and may not be discarded. Note that your complete hand will now consist of 15 tiles (or more, if you make multiple quads), since the quad is a meld just like any other. It is also possible to make a complete hand by having 7 pairs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6: Dora Before each round, a Dora is chosen at random (well, random in the videogame versions, at least, but let's not get into that). A Dora is a tile which, if used in your final hand, doubles the amount of points it is worth. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7: Stealing When drawing a tile, if the last tile your opponent discarded can be used to complete a meld, you may steal it by calling Chii to complete a set, Pon to complete a run, or Kan to complete a quad. Doing this will result in a lower score than if you had not stolen, however. After stealing, the stolen tiles will then be set aside, just like when calling a Kan when you have 4 identical tiles (calling Kan when all 4 tiles are in your possesion does not hurt your score).Note that if you've called Chii and completed a set, you may call Kan and turn the set into a quad if you later get the the tile needed to do this, however you may not steal this tile from your opponent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8: Reach When your hand only requires one more tile to be complete, you may call Reach This locks your hand, letting you do nothing but draw and discard the one remaining tile until you get the one needed to win. Winning while in Reach gives you a hefty amount of extra points. Only one player may be in Reach at a time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9: Han A Han is a combination of tiles determining the amount of points recieved upon winning. The more and better Hans you have, the more points you recieve. Note that in the varitation of Mahjong, a hand is not complete without at least one Han - calling a complete hand (Agari) without having any Hans results in a fault, and your opponent wins the round. A list of Hans follow: One Han awarded for: *A hand completed without stealing *A set or quad of Dragons *A set or quad of the table wind (each round is assigned a wind. The game shows the wind next to the chip in the bottom left corner of the back menu bar in the middle of the screen) *A set or quad of the seat wind (each seat is assigned a wind. The game shows the winds above the chip in the bottom left corner of the back menu bar in the middle of the screen. Your wind is the one furthest to the left) *Being in Reach when winning after not having stolen *Having all runs, never having stolen, not having dragons, table winds or seat wins in the hand, and finishing by completing a run that could be completed in more than one way (yes, all at the same time) *A hand consisting only of numbered tiles between 2 and 8 (ie no dragons or winds) *Having two identical runs and never having stolen *Winning with the first tile drawn or stolen after calling Reach while not having stolen earlier *Winning in the last round, either by drawing or stealing. *Winning with the tile drawn after calling Kan *Winning by stealing a tile discarded by your opponent after he has drawn a second tile after turning a Chii'ed set into a quad by calling Kan. Two Hans awarded for: *Having 3 runs in different suits but same numbers (only 1 Han if you've stolen during the round) *Having all 9 tiles of a suit in your hand (only 1 Han if you've stolen) *Having 4 sets *All melds and the pair must contain a 1-tile, a 9-tile, a dragon or a wind. (only 1 Han if stolen) *Having 3 sets in different suits but same number *Having 3 sets where no tile is stolen before drawing the last tile *Having a hand of 7 pairs *Winning after calling Reach directly after discarding your first tile *Having 3 quads Three Hans awarded for: *Only having numbered tiles of a single suit in your hand (winds and dragons are fine). (only 2 Hans if stolen) *All melds and the pair must contain a 1-tile or a 9-tile (only 2 Hans if stolen) *Having 2 and 2 identical runs and never having stolen Four Hans are awarded for: *Having two sets and one pair of dragons *Having nothing but 1-tiles, 9-tiles, winds and dragons in your hand *Ending a round by running out of tiles, never having been stolen from, and having discarded nothing but 1-tiles and 9-tiles *Winning by stealing the first tile your opponent discards, without your opponent stealing from you first Six Hans are awarded for: *Entire hand consisting of tiles from a single suit (only 5 Hans if stolen) 16000 points awarded for: *Having 4 sets without having stolen *Having one of each dragon tile, wind tile, 1-tile and 9-tile, plus a duplicate of one of these 13 tiles to make a pair *Having 3 sets of dragons *Having 3 sets of winds and a pair, set, or quad of the last wind *Having nothing but green tiles (Bamboo 1, Bamboo 3, Bamboo 4, Bamboo 6, Bamboo 8 and Green Dragon) *Having nothing but winds and dragons *Having nothing but 1-tiles and 9-tiles *Winning without discarding a tile *Having a set of both the 1-tiles and 9-tiles of a suit and one of each remaining tile in the suit without having stolen, then drawing a fourteenth tile of that suit. *Having 4 quads ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10: Scoring Scoring is incredibly complex, and I'm not even going to attempt to explain how it works. Luckily the Famicom will do it for you. Just remember that quads give more points than sets, runs don't give points at all, stolen tiles detract points, and the Dora doubles your hand's values. Your hand's value then gives you a bunch of points according to how many Hans you have. If you have 5 Hans or more, your hand is irrelevant: 5 Hans give 4000 points, 6-7 Hans 6000, 8-10 Hans 8000, 11-12 Hans 12000 and 13+ Hans 16000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11: Menus Title screen (from top to bottom): Easy Medium Hard Yes, I know it's a tad more wordy than that in the game, but that's essentially what it says. All three games are played against a single opponent. Note that in Hard mode, you will have a time limit of about 10 seconds when making your desicion to draw or discard. Moves: アガリ Agari (call a complete hand. Don't touch unless your hand really is complete, or else you lose the round) カン Kan (steal for or call a quad) チー Chii (steal for set) ポン Pon (steal for run) リーチ Reach ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12: Tiles For those unfamiliar with the kanji used on the tiles, here's a quick list: 一 1 二 2 三 3 四 4 五 5 六 6 七 7 八 8 九 9 南 South 東 East 西 West 北 North The 9 Bamboo tiles and the 9 Circle tiles each have pictures of the respective amount of objects on them. The 3 Dragon Tiles, White, Green and Red, have pictures in their respective color (the White tiles has no picture). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13: How to play For the rules of the game, refer to earlier sections. After starting a new game, you and your opponent will recieve your tiles, and the dora multiplier will be placed in the dora space on the black menu between the players. The game will automatically sort your tiles for you. Each round consists of two action from each player - drawing and discarding. During the drawing, you may draw a tile by pressing the A button. You can also scroll through the different moves you may call in the green window. If you wish to call a move, make sure you've selected the correct one in the move window, then press B. If a stolen tile can be used in multiple melds, you then have to choose which tiles to combine it with before they are set aside. During the discarding, you scroll through your tiles with the left and right buttons, then press A when the cursor is on top of the tile you wish to discard. You may also call a move in the same way as during discarding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14: Disclaimer This guide was written by Fredrik Jullum, aka Adamant, for GameFAQs as part of the NES FAQ completion project. It may not be posted on any other site. This guide explains how the Mahjong game for the Nintendo Famicom is played. This game does not follow the normal rules of Reach Mahjong, and this guide is not intended as an aid to that game.