• Mahjongg Manual

You start with five levels of tiles which are stacked so some are covered up by the tiles on top. The harder the level you set in the Preferences dialog, the more tiles are covered when the game starts. The object of GNOME Mahjongg is to remove all the tiles from the game. To remove tiles you have to find matching pairs which look alike. A matching tile will usually have the same number of buttons or markings on it or will look similar to each other.

As an example, the highlighted tile, in the figure below, has six buttons. The matching tile is the one which also has six buttons. The tile is on the right-hand end of the third row from the bottom and there is another near the top of the fourth row from the bottom. If you want to match the tile on the top level, you need to look for the tile with the same green bamboo symbols. Do you see a matching tile yet? There are three tiles, which are visible, that match the tile on the top level. Two are to the left and the lower right. The thrid one is on the top row, but you can't remove that tile yet because the tile isn't on the outside of the stack of tiles. Later I'll explain more fully which tiles can be removed and which tiles can't be removed even though they match. I'll let you find the other two matching tiles, which are visible, on your own.

Figure 1 Mahjongg's Main Window

Mahongg is played by clicking on two matching tiles that are then removed. Play continues until all the tiles are removed or there are no available pairs.

Only tiles at the far left and right edges on each level can be selected. This is because you can't remove any tiles which aren't at the far left and far right sides. If the tiles are on a different level and at the left or right sides, those can be removed when you find another matching tile.

If you can't match any more tiles, a dialog will appear telling you no more tiles can be matched and giving you the option of shuffling the tiles or undoing your last move (although you may have to undo many more moves to find your mistake).

Figure 2 Information Dialog

2.1. Toolbar

The toolbar can be moved around the desktop. If you click on the far left side of it, you will be able to drag it any place on the desktop you wish. The toolbar also snaps into place at the top and left side of the Main Window in GNOME Mahjongg, but the default place the toolbar is located, and the best in my opinion, is under the menubar.

The toolbar contains the following buttons:

New

This button starts a new game with the current settings.

Restart

This button restarts the current game to the beginning without shuffling the tiles.

Pause

This button pauses the game. When the game is paused, the clock, at the bottom right corner of the Main Window, stops and you cannot see any of the tile's faces.

Undo

This button replaces two tiles you removed until you reach the beginning of the game.

Redo

This button replays your previous move, the Undo button took back.

Hint

This button gives you a pair of matching tiles to remove.

The status bar at the bottom of the window gives you information on the current state of the game:

Tiles Left:

This shows the number of tiles remaining to be matched.

Moves Left:

This number of possible matches you can make.

Figure 3 Mahjongg's Toolbar