Overview

MahJong Online provides a virtual meeting place for people all around the world to gather for the popular Chinese tile game MahJong.

There is no real money involved, just some virtual points. However, do watch out for your Internet bills and electrical bills, as this game can be addictive and may hook you on for many many hours.

MahJong Online requires minimal computer knowledge to connect and play. All you need is a Web browser that understands Java, and a reasonably fast Internet connection.

Our recommended browser is Mozilla Firebox with Java installed.

Registering an Account on our server is FREE. Simply Click on Start Game link on the right of the window. Choose a username and password, and click the "New Player" Button to start the game.

Currently, the Web Registration and the Game Registration are two seperate process. There's no need to fill up the Web registration form if you just want to jump straight into the game.

The web login will just allow you to post in the forum as well as add your comment to some of the articles on this website

** At a later stage, we will likely to integrate both of this login into one, so that you will only need to remember one set of userid and password **

If your browser is JAVA enabled, then you will see a "Load Client and Connect to Server" button on the popup window when you click on the "Start Game" link.

Clicking on the button will allow you to load the client and connect to our server.

If you can't see the button, then your browser is either not capable of running Java application, or you may have turn off JAVA as a security measure.

If you are connecting from school or office network, you may also be blocked by the Firewall to prevent you from logging on to the server.

[ Main Window ]

[ MahJong Game Table ]

Main Window

On the very top of the window, you will find a menu bar containing the following items:

• File. This menu has a single choice: Quit. This is how you leave the server. As a courtesy to your fellow players, please do not quit while in the middle of a game.
• Players. Here you can choose to change your password, or obtain personal information of other players currently on the server.
• Table. This is where you serve a new table, or join an existing one. You can also set some options for your table.
• Preferences. This is where your can customise the game client to suit your own preference.

MahJong Game Table

You may send messages to everyone on the server and everyone on your table. You can choose the destination of your message in the multiple choice button right next to the message text field (To All or To Table). You cannot send messages to individual players. This makes cheating harder.

To start your conversation, simply type your message in the message text field, and press the enter key, or the Send button. If you mess up and want to start over, simply click on the Clear button.

Messages sent to you will be accumulated in the big message panel. If it gets too full, you can click on the Purge button to clear the entire message panel (purging often will speed up your client alot).

Important: In order for everyone to have a pleasant experience on MahJong Online, please refrain from sending profain or hostile messages, or sending repeated messages (flooding).

If you find someone's messages offensive, there is now a feature so that you can ignore his or her messages. See below for an explanation.

In the Players menu, choose Finger to bring up a finger information window.

The quickiest way is to double click the entry in the player list. This also brings up the finger information window automatically.

Alternatively, you can click on the entry and choose Finger from the Players menu. You can also type his ID in the ID# text field of the finger information window, and click on or click on the Finger button.

You will now see his E-mail address, home page URL, and a "plan". Of course, you won't see anything but empty space if that player hadn't put these information there!

To update your own information so that other players can see it, click on Finger self. Now you will see your own information, and you will be able to edit it. When you are done, click on Update self to store the updated information on the server.

Important: The finger information takes up space on the server side, and network bandwidth every time a finger request is processed. Please keep your finger information brief, and don't flood the server with finger requests!

Ignore feature

You can ignore someone by clicking the Ignore button when you have his or her finger information page. This effect is visually reflected by an "I" note next to the player's name on the player list.

Alternatively, you can CTRL-click on that player's line in the player list to achieve the same effect.

Doing it a second time un-ignores that player.

Change Password

You can also change your password. In the Players menu, choose Change Password. This will bring up a dialog window. Type in your old password, and your new password twice, and click on OK. The change takes effect immediately.

There is a table list in the upper right corner of the console window. Each row in the list corresponds to a table. The columns from left to right show the following information:

Table options affect (to some minor extent) how games are played and how scores are calculated. Basic rules and the scoring system are the same across tables, these options only provide minor variations. See MahJong Rules: MahJong Online Table Options for a description of these options.

In the Table menu, select Info to bring up a table information window. Type an ID in its ID# field to get the information of that table. Double click with your mouse button on a table entry in the table list has the same effect.

The table information window shows in detail that table's options, the IDs and names of players on that table, tells you which table you are on, and also gives you the ability to join, serve, or leave tables, or to change your table's options.

To serve a new table, either select Serve from the Table menu, or click on the Serve button in the table information window. You will be seated in the special seat for the creator of the table. Only you (or the one that replaces you when you leave your table) have the privilege to set or change that table's options.

You may make changes to your table's options in the table information window. Clicking on the "Apply" button applies your changes to the table. Note that only the creator can change options, and then only when no game is in progress.

You may also serve a private table. Simply set the Table Options as "Invitation Only". To invite players, put all ID numbers into the Invite field and click on the Invite Button. The server will send a message to invited players asking them to join your table. Whether they do so is entirely up to them. Only invited players can join your private table to play. The table is open to all spectators, however.

To join an existing table, select Join from the Table menu, or click on the Join button in the table information window. This brings up a dialog window. Type in the ID number of the table you want to join. The client may have put a default ID number there (the table you currently have info on). To join the table as a spector (for watching others play), choose Spectator instead of the default Player. Now click on the Join button. Your join table request may be denied if the table is full, or is a private one and you aren't invited. If your join request is successful, you will be assigned a random seat. However, if the original creator of the table has left, then you will always take his seat even if there are other open seats.

To leave a table, select Leave in the Table menu, or click on the Leave button in the table information window. As a courtesy to the other players, please finish your current game before leaving your table. There is a 16 point penalty for being the first to leave a table with a game in progress. Also, please don't "hog" a table. If there is a game in progress and you are idle for 2 minutes, the server will automatically kick you off the table and give you a 16 point penalty.

There are 5 large gray areas that are used to show tiles. If you are playing the game, your private, concealed tiles will always be shown in the long gray area at the bottom. You can arrange these tiles by clicking and dragging. The tiles that you reveal in the process of the game will be displayed in the gray area just above your private tiles. The other 3 gray areas display tiles (concealed and revealed) of the other 3 players. Their private, concealed tiles will only show up with a gray shade, so you can only see their revealed tiles. You cannot arrange any revealed tiles of your own nor any tiles of the other players.

In the center of the desktop you'll find a small gray area. This place is for tiles that players discard during the game. It only has space for the most recently discarded tile (the tile in auction). Previously discarded tiles go into the tile pool window. You can bring this window up by selecting Show Pool in the Table menu.

Around the central gray area you will find labels that show you the name, score, and seat wind of all the players on your table. Note that the seat wind is a MahJong jargon, it actually rotates in the reverse order of the compass directions.

If you are a spectator, then the positions of the 4 players' tiles will change from game to game. The dealer (with seat wind east) for any particular game will always be displayed at the bottom.

In the middle of the desktop window you will also find text labels that display the options of the table, the round wind of the game, the number of tiles left in the game, and explanations of what is going on. These should make sense once you know the rules of MahJong.

At the very bottom of the desktop window, you will find a row of buttons. Among those, Show Pool brings up the tile pool window, Sort sorts your private tiles. The other buttons all correspond to particular actions you can make during the course of a MahJong game. They are described in MahJong Rules: A MahJong Game.

There is a Duke figure and an Urge button to the left and right of the long gray area near the bottom of the desktop window. When there is a game in progress, you may click on the Urge button to ask them to hurry up. If your urge request is accepted, everyone on the table will be alerted. The alert takes in the form of the Duke waving at you, and (depending on the system configuration) a "cuckoo" sound. Preferences menu.

You can set the number of rows and columns used by the player list, table list, and message panels. To do so, simply select Set Geometry in the Preferences menu to bring up the dialog window, enter your desired values, and click on Apply.

MahJong Online keeps track of 3 fonts, the label font, the message font, and the button font. They are used in many (but not all) text labels, the player and table lists, the message windows, and the game action buttons. You can change the font family, size, and style of these 3 fonts by selecting the appropriate item in the Preferences menu. This will bring up a dialog window with the family, size, and style of the font. You may make your choice and click on Apply to see the effects.

There are two sets of tile images available in MahJong Online. The default set have large images in 30x40 pixels. For PC users with a small screen size, the small set may be preferable. Its images are in 18x24 pixels. To select the small tile set, select the Tiles item in the Preferences menu. To really make things fit on small screens, you will also need to select smaller fonts, see above.

Finally, select Save Preferences in the Preferences menu to save your configuration on the server. If you don't save your preferences, you will have to configure everything again the next time you login!

Happy MahJonging!