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  poten-
       tial 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)
            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 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. Exper-
       iment 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 apperance,  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  lay-
            outs.  The normal layout is called default; to see the other ones'
            names, run `xmahjongg --list'.  You can also use an arbitrary lay-

       --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  communi-
            cation 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  eddi-
       etwo@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 <eddi-
       etwo@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  pub-
       page 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.



Version 3.6.1                     5 Jan 2000                      XMAHJONGG(6)