Introduction:
Today’s game activates easily and creates a desktop icon and a start menu program group where you’ll find the uninstall link if you decide not to keep this game. I was unable to choose the path I wanted to install the game to. When I tried using the browse button, whatever path I wrote apart from the original, the proceed button remained greyed out. I have loads of Mah-jong games, but not this one so will be happy to add it to my collection of Mah-jong games. I’ve been a lover of Mah-jong since I discovered it back in the early 70’s, when I bought a set that resembled a real Ivory set, though mine is resin and bamboo as opposed to Ivory and Bamboo, still it’s a beautiful set that’s been discarded for the computer versions. Though all the Mah-jong games I have (I’ve listed them in the similar games section below) are solitaire versions as opposed to the four player variety. I’ve not found one of those yet, so if anyone has a four player version I’d love to hear about it. :lol:
The installed game is only 7.08Mb in size and when
The Game:
The game opens up in windowed mode, so if you prefer full screen just go to the options menu where you’ll find a toggle to switch to full screen. You’ll also find toggles to switch on or off a timer, grid, hints and a facility for darkening locked tiles which will help those that are sight impaired, as well as the usual music and sound sliders. The help page is very basic, but adequately explains the ‘rules’ of Mah-jong, which are very simple.
There’s not much else to say about the game apart from it’s got a gorgeous music track to accompany you through the game, though there’s only the one song, so even that gets a little tired after 20 minutes of play. It should be possible to splice together several tracks then rename them to the file that’s found in the games folder (see below for details). There’s also loads of gorgeous background images that change every so often, or if you decide to shuffle the board.
There are 100 boards to choose from as well as the potential to make as many more as you like via the editor that comes packaged with the game. Of the standard boards, you can see how many tiles there are by clicking on the board once. These vary from around 50 tiles to 300
There is the facility to shuffle the tiles which is great if you get stuck. You can also save your progress at any time. There are buttons to undo or redo any changes or moves you’ve made, and when you re-shuffle there’s a forwards and backwards button to undo or redo changes. You can load all saved games from the main selection board. You can toggle on the timer, but this has no effect on the game. There’s a high score table, but this is based on the number of tiles you match and not the speed at which you play the game, therefore it seems meaningless when you are comparing games with such a wide variety of tile numbers.
The Editor:
The editor is very simple to use. To access the editor you have to click on the Play button. This brings up the board selection panel where you’ll find a button for the editor at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on this brings you to the editor. You just have to left click on the board with your mouse to create any pattern you care to think of. To remove a tile you right click on it. All tiles appear blank. Each new layer added to the pattern appears as a different colour. Once you’ve finished your masterpiece you just have to click on save name the custom board then click okay. To play your custom board, exit the editor and then select custom. This will bring up all the custom boards you’ve created though they are shown in alphabetical order though the name is replaced by a number. You can return to any custom made board at any time and edit it.
Images:
As a slideshow:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Mahjong%20Epic/?albumview=slideshow
All on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Mahjong%20Epic/
Googled Images:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Mahjong+Epic&start=20&sa=N&ndsp=20
Music
The music reminds me of that Irish female singer that was big in the 80’s, can’t remember her name offhand, but the vocals are gorgeous. There s a single 3.28minute track which is in the .ogg format, so if you use windows media player you’ll need to convert the file using one of the many audio converters that are available. There’s a couple in the audio section of the freeware library that’ll do the job nicely.
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/2008/04/28/daniusoft-mp3-wav-converter/
or
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/2007/07/30/free-mp3-wma-wav-converter/
This track is definitely one for my music folder. You can find the music file in the games folder by following the path below where …. Is the path you’ve installed the game to. I had to install the game to its default path because it wouldn’t let me choose my own, so I had to move it to my games folder once it had been installed:
C:\......... Mahjong Epic\data\music
Conclusion:
What makes this game stand out from most other Mah-jong games is its editor. Most don’t include one, so with this you’ve got an unlimited supply of boards to play with; you just have to let your imagination roam. :lol: I like the background changes and the music is very mellow; which is ideal for such a game, though as mentioned above it can get a little tedious if you play the game for long spells at a time.
Oh yeah, the game is free standing, which means you can play it from any media including discs and pen drives. And you can transfer the game to any other computer once it’s been installed from the giveaway installer. Nice one.
Despite having loads of mah-jongg games that are visually more stunning and ones that have different modes and the ability to change the style of the tiles, I think this is a worthy companion to those games and I’d give it a decent 7 out of 10. I don’t think it’s the best mah-jong game I’ve got, but with the editor it’s definitely worth keeping (IMO).
The following link will take you to the comments section of the game giveaway project where you can see other comments made by the community:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/mahjong-epic/#comment-67663
Other games of this genre:
Shareware:
Mahjong
Mahjomino
Mahjong Adventure
Mahjong Escape: Ancient Japan
Mahjong Escape
Mahjong Fortuna 2 Deluxe
Mahjong Garden to go
Mahjong Artifacts Chapter 2
Mahjong Artifacts
Mahjong Investigations
Mahjong Holidays 2005
Mahjong Mania Deluxe
Mahjong Match
Mahjong Medley
Mahjong Quest
Mahjong Quest II
Mahjong Roadshow
Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom
Mahjong: The Endless Journey
Mahjong Towers
Mahjong Towers Eternity
Mahjong World
There are loads more if you search the internet (see below for some free versions and a couple more shareware sites). All the above can be found over at the Reflexive site:
Mahjong Masters:
http://uk.games.yahoo.com/d/zmmasters.html
Mahjong Solitaire:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/mahjong/
online versions:
http://www.by-art.com/mjong/mjong.php
http://www.mahjong-solitaire.ws/mahjong/free_mahjong/free_mahjong_game.htm
Mahjong Classic:
http://free-mahjong-games.org/
You’ll find a brief history of the game. The download link is on the second page. I’ve scanned the file for viruses because site advisor gave the site a ?. I’m not as confident f Site advisors ratings any more since seeing the giveaway site marked red for the past several months despite the offending files were removed (which were posted in the freeware section I believe). Watch out when you’re installing the game though because at the end of the wizard there’s a check box that’s checked that will take you to free access codes for free VIPGames. I didn’t want to risk allowing access, just in case, but it is probably a valid offer. It’s a downloadable miniclip game, so you will need to allow active X controls to be installed onto your computer.
There’s also nearly 30 shareware Mah-jong games available from the link below. You’ll find some of the ones I’ve listed above at tis site, and there’s loads more if you Google Free Mah-jong games, though if you don’t have a WOT rating and/or Site Advisor, I’d tread carefully because some of the sites I saw were rated red. I ended up getting my browser hijacked by one of those smiley sies when I went to a '?' one. At the moment I trust the WOT rating more than site advisor, so will often open red sites in a sandbox and so far haven’t come across any problems when I do that.