I've released "Mahjongg Variations" - If you're interested to check it out see...

http://www.twilightgames.com/mahjonggv/mahjonggv_info.htm

Now I realize that in this particular crowd there would be much more interest in "Space Taxi 2" or "Horror Highrise" than the Mahjongg title, so if you all want to see those new really cool betas, then you'll help me out by carefully installing the new mahjongg game on your mom's computer and your grandparent's computer. Should neither your mom or your grandparents have a computer please visit dell.com and pick one up for them and install Mahjongg Variations on it. Thanks!

Some minor points of criticism:
* I want to be able to deselect pieces by clicking them again
* Why is the OK button in the select layout screen labeled "Enter"? confusing..
* I always have my taskbar at the top of the screen. While the game cursor is constrained from entering the area at the bottom of the screen normallly containing the taskbar, this crude method didn't work when the taskbar is at the top of the screen. When moving the cursor to the top, it changed into my normal Windows cursor, and tooltips for the various applications I was running (Crazy Browser, a couple of folder windows) popped up and got stuck onto the game display.

Computer: Athlon XP 1800+, 512MB, Radeon 9500Pro (not your typical grandmother's computer though, but it probably will be soon :/ )

* I want to be able to deselect pieces by clicking them again

Right click will deselect - adding left click on the selected tile might be a good addition

* Why is the OK button in the select layout screen
labeled "Enter"? confusing..

Hmmm.. yeah maybe I should relable that

* I always have my taskbar at the top of the screen. While the game cursor is constrained from entering ... (snip)

This is confusing. Is this in full screen or windowed mode?

Sorry, that got a bit mangled up, my english isn't perfect :)

Anyway, i'm in fullscreen mode.. and the taskbar, at the top of my screen, still "functions".. it's hard to describe, but its little yellow hover tips show up "through" the game and gets stuck on one of your two screen buffers (so that they flicker rapidly) when I move around the mouse there.

Why not try it yourself? Drag your taskbar up to the top of the screen and see what happens, assuming it's not just my graphics drivers or something like that.. Of course, not many casual users have their taskbar at the top of the screen.. but my grandfather accidentaly dragged his to the side of the screen and couldn't get it back once though, so you never know :)

BTW, I have to say that your rendered graphics look really good!

>Anyway, i'm in fullscreen mode.. and the taskbar, at the top of
>my screen, still "functions"..

Strange. Works perfectly for me. The other odd thing you mentioned is that the mouse wont go to the bottom of the screen for you.. which it should in full screen. I have seen some apps that "popup" in a bad way and leave marks like you're saying, but generally speaking nothing should be working behind the window. I haven't seen this bug before. What OS are you using? 95/98/xp/2000? Do you have the very latest drivers for your radeon.

All I can suggest as a fix is to try playing in windowed mode. You can also try using Direct3d on the options dialog before the game starts. That will use direc3d hardware in the background instead of directdraw calls, but it may be a little buggy as it hasn't been tested on many different cards at this point. On some configurations though the game will run much faster usind 3d accell.

- Steve

XP, very latest of everything. Themes off.
The game is still fully playable of course, the popup garbage is just a bit ugly, not ruining the game.

I found the pulsating light on the selected piece didn't fit with the classic style of the game: too technical and with too fast a pace.

I never really got into Mahjong games (although I fell for Solitaire at one time - mainly due to the superb medieval graphics and sounds of the Silvercreek version). I find what I tend to do is struggle to match pairs of pieces and remove them as soon as I find them, without any kind of thinking. I suspect Mahjong is a better game than that, requiring planning ahead. What I propose (I don't really know how well would this work) is that the computer automatically highlights all the possible pairing options when the player selects a piece. This would probably remove the memory and pairing gameplay, but hopefully it would allow easier access to the better gameplay of Mahjong.

>I find what I tend to do is struggle to match pairs of pieces and
> remove them as soon as I find them, without any kind of
>thinking. I suspect Mahjong is a better game than that,

Yeah... the game is not so much about finding pairs, but rather about which pairs to remove first to win. After you play a while the pairs start literally jumping out at you. I remeber playing a lot of mahjongg and going into a movie store and before I knew what was happening I'd matched all the double movies on the shelf and re-arranged them.

>requiring planning ahead. What I propose (I don't really know
>how well would this work) is that the computer automatically
>highlights all the possible pairing options

I think some players would probably like this and that it could make a good game mode. Some experienced players would obviously not like it. That's basically what this game is about though... giving players a number of different ways to play.

- S

Well, I've barely played Mahjongg before but I thought I'd give it a try since I liked your aargon (although not enough to buy, I don't buy puzzle games for some odd reason).

I got that mouse cursor problem at the top of the screen. My taskbar is always at the bottom of the screen though. It might have possibly been a winamp problem though (always on top mode locked on the top of the screen). But the winamp issue happens in many games.

Why can I only select windowed mode before starting the program?

Left clicking to deselect tiles would be very helpful.

A link to the help screen from each game would be helpful. I started the flipper game and soon realized I hadn't a clue how to remove any tiles, although I figured out how to flip them easily enough. I didn't understand how free tiles worked at that point.

I figured out I don't know how to play simple Mahjongg though. Took me quite awhile to figure out I could match tiles that weren't exactly the same but similar.

The first tile set is rather difficult to use but it's probably some default set and that's why you used it. It was quite a bit more fun after switching the sets.

All in all it seems to be very well polished except for a few minor things. The graphics are especially well done.

>Why can I only select windowed mode before starting the >program?

Alt+enter at any point to switch from full screen to windowed or vice versa. I think thats a standard windows thing no?

> Left clicking to deselect tiles would be very helpful.

Right click will deselect, but I'll look at adding this too.

>A link to the help screen from each game would be helpful. I
> started the flipper game and soon realized I hadn't a clue how \
>to remove any tiles, although I figured out how to flip them
>easily enough. I didn't understand how free tiles worked at that
>point.

It's true... the game probably doesnt quite have enough help/documentation...

>The first tile set is rather difficult to use but it's probably some
>default set and that's why you used it. It was quite a bit more
>fun after switching the sets.

Yeah that's the classic set. I think most players familiar with mahjngg are comfortable with it.

>All in all it seems to be very well polished except for a few minor
>things. The graphics are especially well done.

Thxs.

- Steve