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 The Real Mah Jong
About Mah Jong
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Since Version One of the Real Mah Jong
was published in 1993, I have received much varied
information about the game - one thing that is for
certain however, is that the pile of bricks game that is
often seen is no version of the real game of Mah Jong.
Here are a few items of interest. . .
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The Ancient Game of Mah Jong is
not that ancient - it originated in the 19th
century; |
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It seems to have originally been a card
game played onboard ship - the decision to transfere the
game to bamboo and ivory tiles was a result of the wind
blowing the cards around; |
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The curious spelling (with two gs
Mah Jongg ) appears to be a result of Joseph
Babcock's introduction of the game into the US in 1919,
the name being the trade name that he coined; |
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I am reliably told that the game was introduced into
San Francisco in 1922 (thanks to "Papa Razzi" for this piece of information); |
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There
seems to be as many ways of scoring the game as there are
people who play it; |
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The
Japanese version doesn't use the Seasons or Flowers. This
is the version that The Real Mah Jong uses, it is
slightly easier to play - adding these cards back into
the real game is quite simple as all you need to do is
put the card to one side, as you would with a four of a
kind, and at the end of the game, add points and double
according to the set of scoring rules that you are
playing to; and, |
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The
American version of the game is nothing like anyone
else's. There are many special hands and it is the
opinion of many that the elegance of the game, in terms
of its simplicity and accessibility, has been given up
for over complicated and esoteric rules. |
| If anyone else has any
interesting facts, myths or legends about the game (not
pages of quirky American hands), I would be interested to
hear of them - just e-mail me with them and I will
include any suitable ones on this page. Once you have
downloaded the Mah Jong program, have a look at some of
the other sites on the Internet that deal with the real
game of Mah Jong using the links below.
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| WARNING The Real Mah Jong is VERY
ADICTIVE simulation of the real game of Mah Jong. The
author can accept no responsibility for anything that
happens as a result of using or misusing the files
provided.
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