Shanghai (Master System)

Mahjong solitaire stands alongside structured solitaire and hidden object games in the trio of casual computer games that I enjoy for some low pressure timewasting fun. It is a fairly easy to pick up matching game that a player doesn’t have to commit too much time to that still requires a bit of thought to do well at consistently. Shanghai seems to be the game that took digitized mahjong solitaire and helped popularize it, and because of this, it has been ported to a plethora of home computers and gaming consoles. While a PC would no doubt offer the best control with its mouse, I decided to take a look at the Master System port specifically, mainly because it adds a few extra little options to an otherwise fairly straightforward title.

 

Shanghai involves the 144 tiles of Mahjong being placed in a pyramid like configuration the player views from above. The game calls this the Dragon Formation, potentially to make it sound more exciting because it is based instead on the Turtle arrangement that game creator Brodie Lockard specifically cited as his inspiration when making Shanghai’s simply titled progenitor Mah-Jongg. The so-called Dragon Formation is the only one available in this game, although the exact way the 144 titles are placed in this configuration seems entirely random, meaning that there are unwinnable configurations that can crop up, they just aren’t at all common. The arrangements can also be saved just in case you wish to retry one you failed, because otherwise each round will conjure up a new arrangement to be played. The game does offer a few preset configurations to select from as well, as well as a secret one that blanks out all the tiles and requires you to flip them to view them. The secret one just seems to drag out play and remove the level of strategy that could be present in the game though, but it does require special inputs to unlock likely because it’s such a strange twist despite also being the only real twist on the core formula featured here.

To match tiles in Shanghai, you must first confirm the two similar ones are eligible for removal. Due to the pyramid shape, some tiles are placed on top of others, making any that aren’t visible beneath them unable to be selected with your cursor while others are locked in by being blocked by tiles placed around the outside. A tile is only considered free for matching if you could conceivably slide it out to the left or right without upsetting any tiles that might be beside or on top of it, and while the game starts out with plenty of options due to the way the Turtle formation is set up, you may be scrounging for pairing opportunities as you work your way through the pile.

 

While the matching might seem mindless at first glance, there is actually a strategy to doing well at mahjong solitaire. There are 4 versions of every tile in the game save for the special flower and season tiles. Any season can be matched with any other season and the same goes for flowers, but the tiles that feature Chinese letters, dots, bamboo, peacocks, and squares must all be matched up with identical pieces. For the most part these are easily readable on the Master System thanks to decent resolution and the hints of color, but there are a few cases where minor visual mistakes are possible. The South Wind and West Wind tiles are fairly similar save a few extra lines that can lead to players looking past them when searching for pairs, the same being true for the 6th Crak and 9th Crak that feature similar Chinese characters. Tile visibility can also be hampered a bit by the stacking style, with those similar tiles and a few others not easily readable when partially obscured. This is important, because planning how to match the 4 versions of the tiles can lead to a potentially unwinnable situation later. Holding onto a match because it might not free up as many tiles as a different one is the main tactic to employ. Focusing on freeing up as many tiles as possible and trying to anticipate which ones might be buried in the central stack means Shanghai isn’t just about clicking on any available opening. It’s still not so complex that you can’t just luck into a win with a take-what-you-can-find matching method though, but consistent victories require more thought. It can be easy to pick up casually because of its low barrier to entry while also rewarding a better understanding of how to approach play, hence why this twist on mahjong ended up being named for the card game solitaire that also features that low skill floor and accessible skill ceiling.

When it comes to what makes the Master System version of Shanghai different from other versions of it there isn’t too much, but there is just enough to push it above some even simpler iterations of this mahjong solitaire game. It does come with a small downside in that the player needs to move a somewhat pokey cursor around to select tiles and confirming a match requires a third button press rather than just picking the two tiles and seeing them clear, but to make up for this, there are a few modes and options outside of the ability to select and save specific tile arrangements. One option that seems like a no-brainer is the Back Up A Move option that will allow you to undo matches up to the very beginning of a session of Shanghai. For casual play, being able to undo a suboptimal match or move back a few moves to prevent things from being unwinnable allows for less frustrating play. Show All Moves is similar in concept save that it shows you any available matches, although it does so one at a time just in case you want to only get a small push forward rather than a hard shove. Peek is a less helpful option, mainly because it ends your game as soon as it’s used! Peeking just shows you the tiles hidden under the top layers, although the punishment for doing so is oddly harsh considering undos and move suggestions are more helpful. Lastly, Identify Tile exists to potentially help you make out a tile if it’s not showing up well on screen, this being the weak way it gets around some of the earlier mentioned issues with telling a few obscured or similar tiles apart.

 

All these options are available in the game’s regular Solitaire mode, but for the Tournament play style, you’re left with just the basics, all moves now commitments and no hints are available to help you. You can set a timer for the Tournament mode, but the only real difference outside stripping away the help options and potentially adding a ticking clock for solving the whole puzzle is you are rewarded with a brief scene of an animated dragon if you succeed. Some of the lower time options are hampered by your cursor speed, but even a five minute game is still achievable. Challenge Play is the mode that feels the time crunch more, because that is Shanghai’s multiplayer option, a mode that gains an advantage over computer play by making the turn swapping easier than it would be on a single computer. Players compete to make the most matches, with play swapping between players based on a ticking turn timer that can go from anywhere to 5 to 60 seconds, with 5 a tight squeeze even if you have your match planned in advance. Two player Shanghai can be just as enjoyable as the more relaxed Solitaire mode. While you aren’t interacting with each other too directly, trying to snag moves and caring less about clearing the board can draw out a new strategy to how you match tiles, the need to open things up still present but perhaps not as prioritized depending on if you think you can pull off a good match chain.

THE VERDICT: In the same way you can’t fault a virtual adaptation of chess for just being chess, Shanghai is a faithful if a somewhat unexciting adaptation of mahjong solitaire. It has the same level of enjoyment playing mahjong solitaire would have in real life and it handles things like timers and tile arrangement for you, but besides a few extras like undo options, saving tile setups, and move suggestions, this is just the Turtle arrangement of tiles with little present to make it more than that. Strategizing your simple matchups is an enjoyable timewaster that won’t strain your brain, but Shanghai is more like the base future mahjong solitaire games can build from rather than a video game adaptation that pushes to add any improvements or unique angles.

 

And so, I give Shanghai for the Sega Master System…

An OKAY rating. Save for small conveniences like the undo option, multiplayer, and having preset tile arrangements, the best way to sum up Shanghai is simply saying it’s just Turtle formation mahjong solitaire. There are hardly any frills, bells, or whistles to this adaptation of the physical tile matching game, but the simplicity of play does make it a better option than trying to set up a game in real life, and the little degrees of customization and adjusting make it more friendly to the kind of casual play such a straightforward pastime invites. Having the small degree of thought to play ensures it can invite repeat plays, but Shanghai is definitely the kind of game that now seems antiquated compared to future versions of the same concept. It’s completely faithful where it counts, and besides the cursor speed and needing to press a button to confirm matches it doesn’t have anything that could be seen as hurting the experience in any way, but even an equally decent mahjong solitaire game that was released after this one likely has quite a bit more to offer.

 

Shanghai helped mahjong solitaire become a popular addition to pick up and play PC amusements, and its port to Master System keeps the essentials despite the small adjustments required to get it there. It is a serviceable representation of a game type that could use a lot more to it, but future adaptations would build off what was started here to achieve that. There may be little reasons to revisit Shanghai now, but it at least has the core that makes its tile-matching fun even this early, designers would just need more time to get adventurous with the concept.