NAME

       xmahjongg - colorful solitaire Mah Jongg game

SYNOPSIS

       xmahjongg [--display display] [options]

DESCRIPTION

       Real  Mah  Jongg  is  a  social game that originated in China thousands of years ago. Four players, named
       after the four winds, take tiles from a wall in turn. The best tiles are made of  ivory  and  wood;  they
       click  pleasantly  when you knock them together. Computer Solitaire Mah Jongg (xmahjongg being one of the
       sillier examples) is nothing like that but it's fun, or it must be, since there are  like  300  shareware
       versions available for Windows.  This is for X11 and it's free.

HOW TO PLAY

       The object is to remove all Mah Jongg tiles from the playing field by taking one matching pair at a time.
       Generally, two tiles match if they have identical pictures on top. There are some exceptions: any  season
       tile  (spring,  summer, autumn, or winter) matches any other season, and any flower tile (bamboo, orchid,
       plum, or chrysathemum) matches any other flower. There are 144 tiles in all -- one  of  each  season  and
       flower,  and four copies of each of the following: 1 to 9 dots; 1 to 9 bamboo sticks; characters for 1 to
       9; the four winds (north, south, east, and west); and three dragons (red, green, and white).

       Only free tiles can be removed. A tile is free if its entire top face is unobstructed and either its left
       or  its  right  edge  is  open.  (When  looking at the left and right edges, only tiles on the same level
       count.)

       The rules are simple, but winning, it turns out, can be pretty hard. It's easy to make a move that causes
       a  stalemate  thirty  or  more  moves later.  What's worse, the --any-boards option lets xmahjongg create
       boards that cannot be solved at all!

CONTROLS AND APPEARANCE

       To select a free tile, simply click it with the left mouse button and it will light up. Click it again to
       deselect  it. If you try to select a non-free tile, xmahjongg will beep at you. To remove a matched pair,
       just select one of the pair and click on the other one. The number in the upper left corner tells you how
       many tiles you have left. This is all you really need to know to play the game.

       Xmahjongg  comes  with several features that may dismay purists, but make the game more pleasant to play.
       First is the match count, an array of small gold coins in the upper  middle.  Each  coin  represents  one
       potential match on the board. (If three mutually matching tiles are free, it counts as three matches, and
       if four are free, that's six matches.) This will let you know when the game is over (no gold coins  means
       no matches -- a dead end) and when you're getting close.

       The five buttons along the top right have the following functions:

       New (keystroke: n)
            Start a new game.

       Quit (keystroke: q)
            Quit xmahjongg.

       Undo (keystroke: u)
            Undoes  your  last  move. You can undo multiple moves by clicking multiple times. If you change your
            mind about undoing a move, hold down Shift while you click the Undo button (or press r) to redo it.

       Hint (keystroke: h)
            Gives you a hint by flashing a set of free matching  tiles.  You  can  cycle  through  all  existing
            matches  by  clicking multiple times. If you select a tile and then click Hint, xmahjongg will flash
            any free tiles that match that tile, or beep if there aren't any.

       Clean (keystroke: c)
            Cleans the board by automatically removing obvious matches. A match is obvious if  it  involves  all
            the  remaining  tiles  of a given type. (For example, if there are 2 green dragons left and they are
            both free, they form an obvious match; but if there are 4 left and only 3  are  free,  they  don't.)
            Cleaning the board is guaranteed not to cause a stalemate later.

       Solve (no button; keystroke: s)
            If you get stuck, press the s key. After the board is restored to its original state, xmahjongg will
            show you one way to solve it by removing tiles two at  a  time.  Press  s  again  to  speed  up  the
            solution, or press Esc to stop. This won't work if you gave the --any-boards option (see below).

       Additionally, the Escape key deselects any selected tile.

KEYBOARD TRAVERSAL

       You can use the arrow keys and the spacebar to play xmahjongg without using the mouse. These keys control
       the cursor, which is shown as a flashing tile. The arrow keys move the cursor around on the board in  the
       obvious  directions. The spacebar is like clicking the mouse button on the cursor tile: it either selects
       the tile or removes a matching pair.

       The hint key, `h', is also useful for playing without the mouse. Experiment with `h', the  spacebar,  and
       the  Return key to see how this works. When a hint is active, the spacebar is like clicking on one of the
       flashing hint tiles, while the Return key is like clicking on two of them (so it removes the tiles in one
       stroke). This method gives the fastest playing speed.

OPTIONS

       If  you  get  bored  with  xmahjongg's  original layout and appearance, never fear: it comes with several
       tilesets (tile images) and layouts (tile arrangements). In addition to these, xmahjongg can  read  layout
       files from the original xmahjongg, KDE Mahjongg, and Kyodai Mahjongg, and tilesets in KDE Mahjongg, Gnome
       Mahjongg, and Kyodai Mahjongg format. (However, tilesets must be converted to GIF format before xmahjongg
       can read them.) See the [-l] and [-t] options.

       Long option names can be abbreviated to their unique prefixes.

       --number N
       -n N Start with board number N.
       -l layout
       --layout layout
            Use  the  specified  game layout.  xmahjongg comes with several layouts. The normal layout is called
            default; to see the other ones' names, run `xmahjongg --list'.  You can also use an arbitrary layout
            by  giving  its  filename.   Xmahjongg  can  read layouts in its own simple format, in KDE kmahjongg
            format, or in Kyodai Mahjongg format. (Kyodai Mahjongg is one of the more popular Windows Mah  Jongg
            solitaire  games.  It's  got  3D  tiles  and  all sorts of stuff. See http://www.kyodai.com for more
            information. You can download a zip archive with more than 100 different layouts, mostly usable with
            xmahjongg, from http://www.kyodai.com/.)

       --tileset tileset
            Use the specified tileset to draw the Mah Jongg tiles.  Xmahjongg comes with several extra tilesets,
            particularly small (perfect for smaller screens). There are others too; run `xmahjongg --list' for a
            complete listing.

       --background image
       --bg image
            The  background image is set to image.  Run `xmahjongg --list' to see the backgrounds that come with
            xmahjongg, or use an arbitrary GIF as a background image by giving its filename.

       [--list]
            Lists all the layouts, tilesets, and backgrounds that came with xmahjongg, then exits.

       --solvable-boards
            Always create solvable boards. This is the default.

       --any-boards
            Allow any legal board, some of which will be solvable and some of which won't.

       --display display
            Sets the X display to display.

       --name name
            Specifies  the  application  name  under  which  resources  are  found,  rather  than  the   default
            ``xmahjongg''.  Since xmahjongg itself does not use the resource database, this is mostly useful for
            communication with your window manager.

       --geometry geometry
            This standard X option specifies the preferred size and position for the xmahjongg window.

       [--help]
            Prints usage information and exits.

       [--version]
            Prints the version number and some quickie warranty information and exits.

BUGS

       Please email suggestions, additions, patches and bugs to  eddietwo@lcs.mit.edu.  The  following  features
       have not made it into 3.0 as of yet:

       * Tournament mode.

       * Board setup mode.

HISTORY

       xmahjongg  version 3 is a complete rewrite by Eddie Kohler <eddietwo@lcs.mit.edu> of xmahjongg versions 1
       and 2 by Jeff S. Young <jsy@cray.com>.

       The default tileset was originally created in color by Dorothy Robinson <mokuren@teleport.com> with  Mark
       A.  Holm <markh@aracnet.com>. The publicly available version was in black-and-white. Holm copyrighted the
       tiles in 1988, giving permission to copy  and  distribute  for  non-profit  purposes.  The  significantly
       altered  color version that comes with xmahjongg was created by Eddie Kohler in 1993. The `small' tileset
       was found at http://www.mahjongg.com/, and is presumably  by  Berrie  Bloem.  The  `gnome'  and  `gnome2'
       tilesets  were  created  by  Jonathan Buzzard and Max Watson. The `dorothys' and `dorwhite' tilesets were
       made by Dorothy Robinson <mokuren@teleport.com>.  The  `real'  tileset  was  scanned  by  Mark  Sanctuary
       <sanctuary@jps.net>.

       Many  of  the layouts are based on layouts designed for Kyodai Mahjongg, a fun Windows Mah Jongg game. In
       particular, `arena', `ceremonial',  `deepwell',  `farandole',  and  `theater'  are  by  Naoki  Haga,  and
       `hourglass'    and   `papillon'   are   by   Vincent   Krebs.   Kyodai   Mahjongg's   Web   homepage   is
       http://www.kyodai.com/.

AUTHOR

       Eddie Kohler, eddietwo@lcs.mit.edu
       http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/~eddietwo/

       http://www.lcdf.org/~eddietwo/xmahjongg/
       The xmahjongg home page.