Mahjongg Solitaire for the Newton, Version 1.61 Instructions ------------ The goal of the game is to remove all of the tiles. You can only remove tiles that match each other - both number and design. In addition the plant/flower tiles and the season tiles all match each other. To remove a pair of tiles, tap on them. If they match, they will disappear, else the newton will ping at you. Here's the trick: you can only tap on tiles that you can slide out to the left or right, and that are not underneath another. Think about the real game, (played with physical tiles) you have to be able to remove the piece without disturbing any others. That's it. In some ways, it's more of a soothing (?) exercise in meditation than a game. Buttons and Stuff ----------------- Under the info box [i] are a heap of options: UNDO: undoes the last move. You can tap on this repeatedly to undo moves right up to a new board. Note that it has to redraw the whole screen, so it can be sluggish. TILE HELP: highlights all available matching tiles. This is a big ol' cheat key, but I'm not good at the game, so I put it in. Note that you will have to tap on it AGAIN to continue playing. If you already have a tile selected, hitting the help button will blink matching tiles. SAME: replay the same board. NEW: play a new board. If you haven't registered Mahjongg, you can only play five different board setups. You'll quickly notice that the same boards appear over and over. There is a tile counter to tell you how close you are to being done on the top right of the screen. If you've got it set to display, an elapsed time counter will appear on the bottom right side of the screen. The info button has an overview of the instructions (under help), and will allow you to view stats (if they have been enabled in Prefs). Preferences ----------- There are a couple of different preferences for this game, which can be modified by looking under [i]->prefs Winnable Boards: You can have the Newton only create games which can be won. Note that this doesn't guarantee that you will win, only that you can't blame the Newton when you don't (: Show Timer: This will cause there to be a tmier on the bottom right side of the screen, showing you just how long you've been fighting this particular board. Keep Statistics: Checking this box will cause the Newton to keep gorey details on how long you've played Mahjongg and how often you've won. When the information on this screen becomes too embarrasing, you can reset it to zero. Payment ------- Mahjongg is crippled shareware. The original version was not crippled, and the response we got was poor enough to cause use to rethink our decision. The game is crippled by only allowing nonregistered users to play five different boards. If you tap on New and get the same board, it is likely that the Newton created the identical board again. Figuring the odds, this should happen about 20% of the time. If you're happy playing the same five boards over and over, don't bother to pay. If you want access to the gazillions of games that can be played, read on: There are several different ways to obtain a registered version of Mahjongg: 1. Purchase a registered copy from our publisher, Power Media, Inc. You can find their stuff at most computer stores that sell Newtons, or you can contact them for information on the nearest retailer to you: 1 503 684 8232 http://www.powermedia.com 2. Register over the Web by visiting our website at http://www.scrawlsoft.com 3. Make a cheque out to "Scrawl, LLC" and send it to the following address: Scrawl, LLC 86 Norfolk St., #4 Cambridge, MA 02139 How much should you send us? It depends how much you use it and enjoy it. We suggest about $10. If you're a real diehard Mahjongg junkie, then send more (say $20)! 4. If you already registered and earlier version of Mahjongg, you are entitled to the registration string for this version. Just contact us at help@scrawlsoft.com with the details mentioned in the next section. Registration Information ------------------------ Be sure to include the spelling of your name as it appears on your Newton in Owner Info. If you use multiple Owner Cards, send the Serial Number in Mahjongg's About Box. The registration string you receive will be keyed to the name or number that you send us, so please transcribe it accurately and legibly. Personal Tiles -------------- I know that there will be people out there who want their own tile designs. I can't spend time converting stuff back and forth until it work, so I will only considering creating a custom tile set for you if you send me the information in EXACTLY the right form. The easiest way to do this is to contact us at help@scrawlsoft.com so we can send you the format of the tiles. Then you can art them up to your hearts content. If you make a cool set of tiles, we may also bother you to let us distribute them. You'd then have fame, though no additional fortune. Legal Stuff ----------- This Mahjongg for the Newton (v1.6) is Copyright 1997 by Scrawl, LLC, and was written by Sanjay Vakil and Brenda Carpenter. You are allowed to make copies at will, and upload it to wherever you like, but you must include this file, unmodified with it. If you wish to distribute it via a medium that requires payment (eg. CDROM Newton archive), you must contact us at the address above and send a copy of the distribution. We're not to be held responsible for Mahjongg mucking up the data on your newton, or for hours lost to Mahjongg when you could have been doing something more productive. Fortunes are from real fortune cookie fortunes donated by members of the Newton Programmers' Collective. Mahjongg Revision History ------------------------- 1.61 Changed an incorrect Bamboo tile to a Spring 1.6 Initial Release of non-Greyscale, feature-rich version 1.5d Fixed bug that prevented minimization 1.5c Public Release 1.5b Public Beta Release -added minimization capability -added confirmation dialogs to the NEW and SAME buttons -added additional HELP mode -if a tile is tapped, hitting HELP flashes all matches -added close button to the info screens -fixed [i] button sibling bug -fixed bug with playing a new game not clearing UNDO queue 1.0 Initial release