Mahjong Solitaire: A Journey from Tiles to Screens

If you want to dive into the Chinese game culture, you should definitely play mahjong as the first stepping stone. Mahjong solitaire is a traditional game that has been majorly known as the game of 4. It involves a set of several skills like strategies and calculations. 

That said, if you are a fan of games and looking for some new kind of play that is different from any of the traditional board competitions, we recommend you to read this write-up till the end. 

Brief History of Mahjong Solitaire

The craze for Mahjong has been rising in recent years. However, that is not the case. Although, the real story of its development has been a mystery. According to some historians, Mahjong evolved from ancient card games such as Madiao, Pai, and other tile games. 

Whereas, others believe that Mahjong is connected to the Chinese game of dominoes from the 13th century. One more version of Mahjong has evolved from the Pènghú which had 120 to 150 cards. The latest version of this game was found in Fuzhou, Shanghai, and Ningbo, dating back to 1870.

DID YOU KNOW?
Over 100 million people worldwide play Mahjong Solitaire. The game is particularly popular in China, Japan, and the United States. Moreover, there are over 10,000 Mahjong Solitaire apps available on the Google Play Store.

How Mahjong Became Mahjong Solitaire?

With the recent digitization, a lot of traditional games have shifted online. Games like Ludo, and Snakes n Ladders, etc. have already made their way to the screens. Speaking of Mahjong Solitaire, in the 1980s, the game finally got its online version. 

In this game, the player was expected to remove the matching pair of free tiles from the patterns till the moment when all tiles vanished. The computer version of this game is generally played by a single player. There is no need for more than one person to get their hands on its rounds. 

The year 1981 was recorded as the first time when the computer version of this game was released. Just a few years after its launch, in 1986, the game gained wide popularity among interested gamers. In the same year, the game was relaunched with a new name, called “Shanghai”.

After that, more than 10 million copies of this game were sold worldwide, but the relaunching did not stop. After that too, a lot of new versions were introduced. All those versions are mentioned below:

• Mahjongg
• Mah-jongg
• Taipei
• Kyodai
• Shanghai Solitaire
• Mahjong Solitaire

As the internet became more common in people’s lives, more people got the opportunity to connect and compete against one another, regardless of their location. Remarkably, some versions of this game also include additional features like hints, shuffle options, and time limits, to make the player experience even better. These better and enhanced versions are listed below:

• Mahjong Dimensions
• Mahjong Connect
• Mahjong Classic
• Deluxe Mahjong

Evolution of Modern Mahjong

As of now, you must have understood that Mahjong has developed and evolved in several variations. When speaking of China alone, there are more than thirty different variations of the game. Some of the most well-known ones include:

• Changsha mahjong
• Chinese classical mahjong
• Competition mahjong
• Fujian mahjong
• Harbin mahjong
• Hong Kong mahjong or Cantonese mahjong
• Shenyang mahjong
• Sichuan mahjong
• Taiyuan Lisi mahjong
• Tianjin mahjong
• Wuhan mahjong
• Xiangyang mahjong

With these existing variations, gamers like you can try these varieties in order to explore creativity.

How to Play Mahjong Solitaire?

As mentioned earlier, Mahjong Solitaire is a single-player game that allows gamers like you to scratch your brain and find possible pairs or patterns. The game includes 144 tiles in total that resemble bamboo, dots, and characters. These tiles hold their different suits and categories. Tiles with similar patterns and designs are expected to be removed from the table till the end when no tiles are to be left. 

DID YOU KNOW?
The average Mahjong Solitaire game takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. The win rate for Mahjong Solitaire is around 50%. Interestingly, there are over 17 quintillion (17,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) possible Mahjong Solitaire layouts.

Speaking of characters, each suit consists of numbers one to nine written in Chinese. Few sets of this game are often noticed with dice to determine seating positions and the dealer of the set pattern. And in terms of chips and counters, they are offered to those who want to play the traditional version of this game.

Conclusion

Mahjong solitaire is a famous and reputed Chinese game that was developed way before in history. However, with technological advancements, the first digital version of this game was developed in 1981, which went through a series of variations and further developments.