Proprietary & Confidential ©1997 Activision 1

SHANGHAI: DYNASTY
Preliminary Design Document - GAME DESCRIPTION

I. An Overview
I.1. THE PRELIMINARIES -- Before Playing

First, the user gets the box home and opens it up and takes out the CD
and puts it in his Windows or Mac computer.
Automatically a beautiful and intricate and authentic (but not so much so
that male "videogamers" are turned off) splash screen appears. For the sake of
simplicity, there are only 3 buttons on this screen: PLAY, MORE, and EXIT. The
MORE button lets you uninstall, register, get Customer Support info, see credits,
etc. But nobody will press the MORE button yet. Everybody will press PLAY.
Since the game has not yet been installed, pressing PLAY simply initiates
the installer. The game is placed on the user's hard drive in the most friendly
manner possible. The user is not told "Installation failed -- go reset your monitor
to 256 colors first, then come back and try again," as was done in Shanghai:
Great Moments. The user is not asked things like "find the make and model of
your sound card and video card in the following list" (but then in Windows 95
nobody does this anymore anyway, thank Gates for that).

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The worst things the user has to deal with are things like (for example):

Shanghai: Dynasty needs to install some files to your hard drive.

Path: C:\Dynasty

Choose the installation option that you prefer:

Compact install (one tile set) 15 MB
Typical install (all tile sets) 50 MB
Custom install

No matter which install the user chooses, the CD will be needed. Now's
the time to let this be known9

Because the CD contains the music and other assets for the game,
please keep the CD handy to insert into the computer each time you
play the game.

So the user can re-type the pathname if he wants, and he can click a
different box if he wants.
But once the user has made these simple choices, the game is installed,
and the game starts immediately. See "Start" section, below.
If the game had been installed previously, pressing PLAY on that splash
screen would of course bypass the installation process described above, and the
game starts immediately.

I.2. START - The title screen buttons

The game's title screen appears. This screen shows a dragon who is
guarding four buttons: SOLITAIRE, KIDS, DYNASTY, and MAH-JONGG. The
title theme is playing. If the user hits Enter on this screen (as opposed to
pointing and clicking), or if the user clicks on the screen anywhere except on
KIDS, MULTI-PLAY, or MAH-JONGG, the default action is SOLITAIRE. If the
user does nothing, the title screen remains displayed forever and the title theme
loops. There is no intro movie, no demo mode, none of that noise. Then again,
if it's just going to sit there forever anyway, why not cycle through the Wall Of
Fame screens and the credits? Anyway... There are probably spot animations
on the title screen (it's not entirely static). The SOLITAIRE button is probably
highlighted and/or flashing.

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SOLITAIRE BUTTON IS CLICKED

Clicking this button causes the "classic Shanghai" game to begin
immediately. The default tile set is Mah-Jongg, of course. If the user had played
before, then the last-selected tile set is displayed. See section I.2.A. for an
overview on this.

KIDS BUTTON IS CLICKED

Clicking this button (it's easily recognized by kids because of its primary-
color look) causes the game to go to a Solitaire game, but with a layout of 28
tiles, using either the Alphabet or Household tile set as a default (TBD). See
section I.2.B. for an overview.

DYNASTY BUTTON IS CLICKED

Assuming that the user would have to have the Chat Client activated to go
play on the Net, clicking this button normally takes the user to a "solo" version of
Dynasty, with Power Tiles, with one A.I. opponent (split screen). See section
I.2.C. for an overview.
At present, all interface aspects of setting up, hosting, joining, and quitting
any Multi-Play game (when played over a Net) are still being designed.

MAH-JONGG BUTTON IS CLICKED

Assuming that the user would have to have the Chat Client activated to go
play on the Net, clicking this button normally takes the user to a "solo" version of
Mah-Jongg (with 3 A.I. opponents). Default game (non-Japanese versions) is
straight Chinese rules. Default game for Japanese version is straight Japanese
rules with 3 A.I. opponents. See section I.2.D. for an overview.
At present, all interface aspects of setting up, hosting, joining, and quitting
the Mah-Jongg game (when played over a Net) are still being designed.

Okay. Let's quickly take a look at what happens when the user goes to
play these various play modes.

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I.2.A. CLASSIC SOLITAIRE SHANGHAI - quick overview

This works exactly as it has before. The tiles are stacked into a pyramid
(the traditional "Shanghai" pyramid is the default layout) according to an
algorithm that ensures that the tile arrangement is winnable (unless the user has
turned "Guaranteed Winnable" OFF) and random. I do not subscribe to the
notion that the tiles should be laid down in a pre-planned pattern.

Pictures are a good thing. By having created this picture and put it in this
document, a number of new facts present themselves. We'll get into these new
facts later in this document. For now we need to proceed with the overview of
the product.
The tiles are big, clear, readable, gorgeous, and individually identifiable.
The size of the tiles in Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye is to be regarded as the
minimum acceptable size of the tiles. At 640x480, these tiles fill the screen
when arranged in the standard Shanghai layout.
Also on the screen are a few little boxes or areas where game status
information is given.

• Name of current game mode

• Number of tiles on screen
• Help prompt

When you put the cursor at the top of the screen the Windows-style menu
appears. This menu is very much like the one used in Shanghai: Great Moments
(hey, if it's not broken, don't fix it):

File Preferences Games Tiles Layouts Help

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Shanghai works exactly as one would expect. Clicking on tiles and the
way tile highlights are removed works as it does in Shanghai: Great Moments
with the single exception of the De-highlight method. When the user has
highlighted a tile and subsequently clicks on a non-matching tile, the highlight
does not move to the new tile (as was done in ShGM). The user can de-highlight
the first tile in either of two ways: by (a) clicking again on the already-highlighted
tile or (b) double-clicking on a non-matching tile (causing that tile to now be
highlighted).
Game options, cheats, and other game modes are all available from the
pull-down menu. Details on the contents of the menus are given later in this
document (this is just a quick overview of each of the main modes of play).
As tiles are removed, more and more of the background picture is
revealed. The goal, of course, is to remove all the tiles. It's never quite that
simple, though, thanks to the existence of four of each tile, which can lead to
"traps" and blockages if the tiles are not removed in the best possible order.
When the user has reached a situation in which there are no more moves
available, the program offers the user four choices.

When the user has cleared all the tiles from the screen, the reward
sequence is displayed. All Solitaire games reward you with a small animation
and a randomly-chosen fortune (essentially a "fortune cookie," only without the
cookie). For this overview, we are assuming that the user is playing the default
tile set, the Mah-Jongg tiles.
The Mah-Jongg tile set's background picture, during gameplay, shows an
embossed scene of a tiger, a dragon, and a phoenix, all on a rust-colored
background. The colors are muted so that the eye can easily focus on the tiles.
After all the tiles are removed, the background fades to black (so that the
computer can change palettes without any ugliness), then when it fades back up
it's in full gorgeous color. One of the three animals -- in this case, the tiger --
animates. The tiger roars and scratches towards the dragon. Then a fortune
scroll zooms towards us, the scroll unrolls, and a fortune is printed on it. The
fortune might say something like, "FROM THE FLOORS OF THE OCEAN, THE
WAVES OF THE TIDE, A VACATION AWAITS YOU FAR & WIDE." The
fortunes are all pleasant or philosophical or clever or funny. No sardonic,
unpleasant, insulting, or in-your-face messages will pop out of fortunes, no
matter how funny they may be.
The fortune remains displayed until the user clicks to clear the screen.
Then another game begins (with the tiles re-arranged in a new arrangement
within the same layout), with the same background picture. Next time the tiles
are cleared, maybe the dragon or the phoenix will animate. The fortune will

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always be different (and there are many to choose from, and the user can write
his own fortunes too).
That's all there is to Shanghai.
If the user wants to change to a different layout, or tile set, or decides to
play a multi-player Shanghai game, or a game of Mah-Jongg, the user can select
anything s/he wants from the pull-down menu. Details on all the options
available are found in other parts of this document.

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I.2.B. KIDS' SHANGHAI - quick overview

If the KIDS button is pressed (or selected from the menu), we go to a

game that is exactly the same as Solitaire Shanghai, with a few notable
differences:

• The default tile set is no longer Mah-Jongg, but either Alphabet or Household
(TBD).
• The default layout consists of 28 tiles instead of 144 (all kids' layouts are
fewer than 72 tiles by definition; but always divisible by four; 28 is the easiest
size layout supported).
• There are 2 new onscreen buttons: one lets the kid see the Guide to Tiles
screen, and the other lets the kid see a special Guide to Kids' Layouts
screen.
• The helpful prompts are spoken in addition to being displayed as text.

I'd love to draw a picture, but we're kinda in a hurry to get this revision
written. Uh, I guess that isn't exactly true anymore (now that I'm on yet another
revision and nobody's screaming for it). But 9 all right, I admit it. I'm lazy.

I.2.C. DYNASTY - quick overview

Let's continue the overview by considering what happens when the user
chooses to play Dynasty, either by pressing the Dynasty button on the title
screen or by selecting this mode from a menu.
For this example, let's assume our user dials up the Activision server to
find some strangers or friends to play against. The user has hooked up with 4
other users who want to play Power Tiles Dynasty. Each player will have his
own layout (that's the difference between Dynasty and any "classic" mode such
as Pandamonium).
Power Tiles are ON, which means the players are going to screw up each
others' layouts, with a lot of chortling and swearing involved (too bad these
computers don't all have microphones and instantaneous chat).
The game begins.
Our user's name is TOM, oddly enough. He's playing against CHUCK,
DIANE (who may or may not be a female), ALFRED, and WORMHOLE (there's
always one in every crowd, isn't there?1).
The picture that follows (next page) shows a Dynasty game with 5 players.
The user always sees his layout occupy 1/2 of the screen; the other players'
layouts are smaller by 50% when there is more than one opponent.

1There's always a Deep Space Nine Trekkie -- what did you THINK I meant?

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At the beginning of the game everybody's layout is the same -- it contains

72 tiles, and they are all arranged exactly the same (at the outset, anyway).
Since this is a 4-player game, the opponents' layouts are reduced in size and
there are no tile faces visible. In a 2-player game, it can be desirable to be able
to see the opponents' tiles, because this adds a strategic ability, as we have
discovered in the "Golden Tile" mode in the coin-op game SHANGHAI III which
gets much gameplay in Activision's 10th floor lunchroom. It's sometimes useful
to be able to look at the opponent's layout, see what is beneath certain tiles, and
use that information to one's advantage. But, since Power-tile Dynasty quickly
"degenerates" to the point where there is little or no similitude between different
players' arrangements, this (the ability to see an opponent's tile faces) is a moot
point. Each player can play the game in whatever tile set he chooses -- if I'm
using the Mah-Jongg tiles and you're using the Alphabet tiles, it makes no
difference in gameplay.
At the same instant, all players' mice are enabled, and they can all begin
to remove tiles.
The goal being to clear the layout (including the Power Tiles) before the
other players, everyone attacks his layout instantly. It's very much like a game of
Golden Tile on the SHANGHAI III coin-op machine, but with major differences,
the most notable of which is the addition of the Power Tiles.
At the time of this writing, the number and function of various Power Tiles
is undecided. For the moment let's assume that there is only one kind of "Power"
tile, that there is a pair of them buried in all players' layouts (in the identical
location in each), and that it acts as follows:

• The first player to match his Power Tiles causes a chain reaction of events to
occur.
• All opponents' layouts are scrambled or shuffled.

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• The Power Tiles in the opponents' layouts are replaced by Lock tiles, which
block the players' ability to complete their layouts. Matching Lock tiles has no
effect, you see.
• There are now Key tiles which are buried in the newly arranged layouts of the
opponents of the player who got the Power tiles first.
• As soon as a player matches his Key tiles, his Lock tiles turn to harmless
matching tiles for which there are no other matches anywhere in the layout
(dragons or winds, for instance, if user has MJ tiles active).
• The Power Tiles are designed to give the user who matches them first an
advantage by slowing down the opponents. Thus the placement of the Lock
and Key tiles needs to be programmed to have this effect.

Additional details on the other possible types of Power Tiles appear later
in this document. This is just to give you the idea. Nothing is set in concrete at
the moment. Our intention is to create a Power Tile (or various fun Powers)
which will be both fun and easy to program. Brainstorming on this aspect will
involve the programming team as well as the design team (Tom and Chris will
both be involved).
If a player gets stuck, his game is over and he must wait for the others to
finish. If all players get stuck, the game is a draw and everybody starts over
again with a new arrangement.
When one player clears his layout, several things happen.
1. The game action stops -- all users' mice are disabled.
2. The winner is declared.
3. Opponents' unused bombs explode, taking out adjacent tiles.
4. Opponents' remaining tiles are added up, and their count is added to the
winner's score.
5. The winner's score is declared, tallied, and added to the ongoing score.
6. Players are asked if they want to play another, change game, or quit.

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I.2.D. MAH-JONGG - quick overview

Let's continue the overview by considering what happens when the user
chooses to play Mah-Jongg. For this example, let's assume our user is already
connected to the Activision server and the same foursome that just played
Dynasty all decide to play Japanese rules Mah-Jongg.

MAH-JONGG

CHINESE RULES . . . CTRL+C

AMERICAN RULES . . . CTRL+U
JAPANESE RULES . . . CTRL+J

Clicking on Japanese Rules (or hitting Ctrl-J) takes you to a screen with
the optional settings for that set of rules.

JAPANESE RULES

DORA NANYUU
NAN BA NOTEN NOTEN OYANAGARE
SELF-PICK "PIN HUU" KUITAN
IPPATSU 2-POINT MINIMUM
DABURON THROWER PAYS FOR ALL
FURITEN REACH RESET TO DEFAULT

The options having been chosen (straight default except Dora is OFF), the
players are seated at the table and play begins.
Because of the magic of computers, the seating arrangements, wall-
building, dice-rolling, counting out, and distribution of tiles to hands are all
handled automatically by the computer (much of it invisibly to the player). It
would be nice if the various motions happen visibly (the dice outcome - but not
the dice-rolling animation - should be seen, the tiles should accumulate in front
of the players). For simplicity's sake, we will forego showing the actual wall itself
(in the Japanese game, they normally don't show the whole wall anyway). More
on that later.
So turn the page already!

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Each player sees his hand at the bottom of his screen. For simplicity's
sake, the other players' hands aren't even visible.

Wormhole Chuck Diane

Tom

In the middle of the screen is the "dead wall." In the default Japanese
rules, ordinarily one tile on the dead wall (the third from the left) would be shown
face up, but our example players have turned "Dora" off.
Tom's hand is shown at the bottom of the screen. Chuck, Diane, and
Wormhole's hands are not seen on screen (what's the benefit of seeing the
backs of their tiles, since we won't see their hands manipulating them as they
draw tiles anyway). Chuck is the East player, and is sitting opposite you, thus his
East symbol is upside down, facing him. We probably want to put players'
names on this screen. In this example, Chuck and Wormhole have already
made their first discards (Chuck discarded a One Dot, and Wormhole discarded

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a West Wind), and it is now Tom's turn. His draw from the Wall was a Nine
Bam; he must decide what to discard.
Tom makes a discard (White Dragon), and Diane makes her discard. It's
an Eight Dot tile.
Tom can use the Eight Dot to make a Pong (he will be able to meld a
triple).
When a player wants make a Pong or a Chow, he does this by using the
mouse button. This is an important move, requiring quick reaction. It would be
extremely unfriendly to require the user to find the right key on his 101-key
keyboard to make such a snap move. The computer can't necessarily know
what the user has in mind (maybe a tile can be used for both a Chow and a
Pong, or both a Pong and a Kong, and maybe the player wants to tell the
computer which), so perhaps what the computer does is the following:
a. Flashes on user's screen a menu of choices:
CHOW
PONG
KONG
RON
NEVER MIND (Pass)
(In the Chinese or American game, we would show "Win"
instead of "Ron," which is the Japanese term for "Win by
discard." We may decide to say "Win by discard" instead of
"Ron" here -- but we're trying to teach MJ terms here9)
b. While that menu is up on Tom's screen the other players get
a message (with both text and voice if possible in our short
project timeframe, else with just text):
HOLD ON... [player name] IS THINKING9
The voice would only say "Hold on" (voice cannot deal with
player names), of course.
c. When the user claims the discarded tile, the voice and text
announces this move to the other players. If the user
decides to pass, it's just the next player's turn.
So Tom hits his mouse button, announcing "Hold on..." audibly to the
other players (onscreen text also says, "Tom is thinking..."). Tom selects "Pong"
from his onscreen menu. Nobody else has claimed the tile with a higher priority
claim, so Tom will get the tile. On everybody's screens, it says "Tom claims tile
for a Pong." Hopefully we also hear a voice (one of 4 "avatar" voices, specifically
the one that had been assigned to Tom at the beginning of the game) say
"Pong!" Tom automatically melds his Eight Dots (turning one sideways because
"Marked Melds" is ON), discards his West Wind tile, and play continues to the
player to Tom's right. See diagram below for what the table looks like now.

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Each player draws a tile, discards a tile, and play goes around the table
until one player goes out. At that time, the computer tallies up the points
according to the currently active rules and announces the winner, subtracting
chips from losers as needed.
Details on how all user actions are made, which ones require graphics
and sounds, are forthcoming below.

The above gives you a basic idea of how the product works -- how the
player gets into a play mode and what that play mode is like. In other words, "so
much for the overview." Now comes the hard part: the details.

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II. The Details

II.1. SHANGHAI GAME - Details

II.1.A.i. Solitaire - grownups

The default mode is the old standby. 144 tiles, no timer, no score, no
pressure. Click on matching (and free) tiles to try and clear the screen. User
can freely select different tile sets, layouts, options (including a timer), and
cheats. Since everybody knows how Shanghai works, I ain't gonna go into detail
here. If anyone is reading this who doesn't know how Shanghai works, you're
fired! Oh all right then, you're not fired -- but you have to look elsewhere for that
information (it exists in many other places).
So much for the gameplay. There will, of course, be new tile graphics
(see another section of this document for details) and new rewards.
The preponderance of Shanghai fans seem to enjoy the fortune cookie
rewards from Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye more than the movies from Shanghai:
Great Moments. So we're bringing them back. Not the cookies -- just the
fortunes.
Upon completion of a game (when all the tiles are removed), the user
sees a reward animation themed to go with the current tile set. For example, in
the Mah-Jongg tile set's background picture, there is a tiger, a dragon, and a
phoenix. These three elements allow for three different reward animations. So
when the screen is cleared, one of these animals animates. Then a scroll
appears, and the fortune is written out on the scroll.
Not all of the tile sets have three different reward animations -- we didn't
have the budget for it. Most grownups will play the Mah-Jongg and Fantasy tile
sets anyway. The kids' tile sets have multiple rewards, however. The variety
comes in the fortunes themselves, not in the visual animation.
The tiles are always arranged in the layout in a winnable manner. The
user's actions can, of course, totally ruin that winnability. The game does not
attempt to monitor the current "winnable" status (as was suggested at one time
previously). The game only alerts you if you do not have any moves at all.
The game does not penalize the user for using cheats. Depending on the
modes which are active, cheats may be unavailable. But the user will always get
a fortune if the tiles are all removed.

WALL OF FAME
The WOF only applies, in Shanghai, to Pandamonium and Timer games.
The normal solitaire game is neither timed nor scored, so there's nothing to put
on the WOF other than "I did it." The WOF will be modeled after, but not exactly
like, the one(s) in ShGM. It's desirable to allow the user to access the WOF from
within any game mode. And it's desirable to give the user more opportunities to
enter his name in the WOF. And it's desirable to allow the user to upload his
WOF to a central repository on the Activision server for all to see.
One of the most frequently asked questions about ShGM is "how do I
clear the WOF?" I am not sure why people want to do this, but Mark

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Robertshaw of Customer Support theorizes: " Wo/man buys game, plays it for a
bit. Friend/child/parent/relative comes over, stays for a bit racks up a whole
bunch of high scores beyond what the owner of the game can manage (or
maybe just one, big and bold, right up at the top, mocking, mocking ), and they just
want to get rid of it to see their own best scores. Just a guess."
Because this seems to be important for ShGM users, we should assume it
will be important for Shanghai: Dynasty users, and we should therefore make it
easy to clear the WOF. At the very least, we can put instructions for clearing the
WOF onscreen and in the manual.

FORTUNES
There's plenty of time to write the fortunes, and I'll gladly accept
submissions (in a text-only file) from anyone who wants to try his hand at writing
fortunes.

II.1.A.ii. Solitaire - Kids

The Kids' game is exactly like the grownups' game (which we all know and
understand fully) except (as noted before):

• The default tile set is no longer Mah-Jongg, but either Alphabet or Household
(TBD). The Math set (the third "kids" set) is clearly not a candidate for
default tile set.
• The default layout consists of 28 tiles instead of 144 (all kids' layouts are
fewer than 72 tiles by definition; but always divisible by four; 28 is the easiest
size layout supported). By definition, choosing a layout (from the text Layout
menu at the top of the screen) with more than 72 tiles exits Kids mode and
re-enters the normal "grownup" Shanghai game.
• There are 2 new onscreen buttons: one lets the kid see the Guide to Tiles
screen (where tile sets which we provide, including the grownup sets, can be
selected), and the other lets the kid see a special Guide to Kids' Layouts
screen (where the kids layouts which we provide can be selected).
• The helpful prompts are spoken in addition to being displayed as text. The
voice is a pleasant young female voice or possibly a "kid"-sounding voice.

The Kids tile sets (Alphabet, Math, Household Objects) are being
designed to offer the greatest variety of tile animations and end-of-game reward
animations. For example, in the Math set, when the young user has cleared the
screen, the robot in the background picture displays a "GOOD JOB" message in
its "mouth" area. Of course, the fact that this reward includes English text makes
for a localization challenge, which is addressed elsewhere in this document.
At this time, it is not determined whether it is necessary to turn off
"fortunes" in Kids mode. I tend to think that we may as well display fortunes after
Kids mode reward animations. My thinking at present is that, if a parent is
monitoring the child's play at the computer, or is nearby, the child can simply ask
the parent to read the fortune which appears after "GOOD JOB" (for example) is
displayed.

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I can't think of anything else that needs to be said about Kids mode9

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II.1.B. Timer Modes

II.1.B.i. Solitaire

II.1.B.ii. Single-Machine 2P

II.1.C. Pandamonium

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II.2. DYNASTY GAME - Details

It is expected that Dynasty will normally be played by two players (one
being either human or A.I.), either at one machine (A.I. game only) or over
Internet, network, or modem (all together aka "the Net"). So, when played by two
players, there is a split screen display, as shown below (all tile faces are visible
on both layouts). Both layouts have an identical arrangement of tiles for a fair
race.

We do not have the time to support playing this game by two players at
one computer, unfortunately (and it makes for a control nightmare anyway, since
you cannot connect two mice to a computer).
When played over "the Net," both players can have their own tile set.
Regardless of what tile set Player 2 (Chuck) is using, Player 1 sees only his tile
set on his screen.

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It is further expected that we will never allow more than five players to play at a
time. The user's layout occupies most of the screen, and the opponents' layouts
are displayed in an inset window (maximum of 4 inset windows).

Details (tile faces) are not seen in opponents' layouts when playing
against more than one opponent as shown above. The opponents' tiles are
shown exactly as they are here (all "blank" -- but not necessarily all "viewed"
from the same isometric angle that the user has set for his layout).
As a player removes tiles from his layout, all players see his tile count
reduce, and all players see those tiles get removed from the mini-layouts on their
screen.

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OVERVIEW. It's a race to clear your layout before the other guy(s) clear
his (theirs). Because of the inset window(s), you can monitor the opponent's
progress as you go along.
THE PLAYERS. For 2 to 5 players. Computer provides as many A.I.
opponents as players desire (up to a maximum of 5 layouts being played
simultaneously).
THE TILES. Each player is on an identical layout. Because this game is
about speed, layouts consist of 72 tiles, not the traditional 144. It's imperative
that all 4 of each tile be present in the layout, because this gives rise to the
possibility of traps. It would be too easy if the layout consisted of 2 of each tile.
THE PLAY. At game start, all players' cursors are activated. Users play
straight Shanghai. Each layout contains an identical arrangement of tiles for
fairness. First player to clear his layout wins. Player is awarded one point (or
maybe 100 points) for each tile remaining on all opponent layouts. Normal game
is 3 rounds (one layout per round). It is recognized that this "structure" needs
further design work.

II.2.A. Single-Machine Dynasty

II.2.B. Multi-Machine, Multi-Player Dynasty

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II.2.C. Power Tiles

OVERVIEW. It's still a race to clear your layout before the opponent(s),
but with this option selected, there are special Power Tiles built into the layouts
along with the normal tiles.

THE POWER TILES. The Power Tiles do nasty things to the opponent(s)
or nice things for the user who gets them..
We will have to determine the way this actually works in play balancing,
but for now i assume that the player should get no more than four Power Tiles in
his layout.
When the player matches a pair of Power Tiles (they look like Jokers) the
player gets one of the following Power-Ups:

1. Shuffle -
Shuffles remaining tiles in the layout (preserving the
structure of the layout). I assume that a player who
manages to get a pair of Jokers is not stuck. So this power
affects the opponents' layouts (not the player's own layout).
The implication is that if a player IS stuck, his/her game
should not immediately be declared dead -- if another player
gets this power-up, the stuck player's game is revitalized.
Implication: a "you're stuck" graphic is needed for players
who are stuck.
2. Scramble - Scrambles the layout. Doesn't just shuffle the tiles into a
new arrangement; also rearranges the layout itself. Where
before there had been a tall stack, maybe now there's a long
row instead. As with the Shuffle power, this happens to
opponents' layouts (not to the player who gets the Jokers).
3. Add X Tiles - Adds tiles to opponents' layouts. I assume that X should be
a number between 6 and 10 (TBD in play-balancing).
4. Back 3 Moves - Puts back the last 3 pairs the opponent(s) removed. It may
be that we determine that this is too similar to Add X Tiles,
and we may decide to only keep one of the two.
5. Help - Highlights all available moves (akin to "Show All Moves"
feature). Ideal solution would be to not only show these
once and then the highlights all go away, but rather to do it
either three times or for the time period that is associated
with the other "limited time" power-ups listed below.
6. Reverse - Reverses an opponent's mouse controls. Left is right, up is
down. For a limited period of time.
7. Take X Pairs - This power-up removes X pairs (probably 3-5) from the
layout of the player who gets it.
8. Face Down - Turns all opponents' tiles face down for a limited period of
time. Opponents must play "concentration" style until the
timer runs out.

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INTERFACE FOR WHEN USER GETS A POWER-UP

When a player gets a Power-Up, the fact needs to be broadcast to all

players. Rather than have a voice say the name of the Power-Up (we did that in
"Blast Chamber" and it didn't work all that well) we display several things.
First we display and flash a Joker icon (smaller than an actual tile, and
without any tile edges anyway, so nobody thinks it's a tile) by any and all affected
players' name(s). Secondly we display and flash the name of the power-up
(using the names shown above). If the power-up is a time-based power, we also
display a gauge and start decrementing it. If the power-up is not a time-based
power, the icon and power name cease flashing after enough time has passed to
allow players to read them (either 2 or 3 seconds).

The above illustration shows how this information can fit on screen. The
opponents' names, powers, and tile counts have to be pretty small (I used 10-
point Arial, non-bold) and a custom small Joker has to be made, but it fits (in
order to make it fit I had to make the user's screen area smaller than ½ the width
of the screen). If it is determined that this opponent info is too tight, we have two
choices: (a) make the opponent tiles smaller or (b) make the Dynasty layouts
smaller. Currently the Dynasty layouts are a maximum of 7 tiles horizontal by 8
tiles vertical.

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II.3. MAH-JONGG GAME - Details

It must be understood that Mah-Jongg, although widely played around the
world for most of this century, is not played in one standard way in any of the
three major Mah-Jongg-playing countries. In Hong Kong, they play Mah-Jongg
differently from the way it is played in Taiwan. In Northern Japan, they play Mah-
Jongg differently from the way it is played in Southern Japan. In America,
Jewish ladies play Mah-Jongg differently from military wives. I suspect that
many Americans play Chinese rules instead of "Jewish" (NMJL), Wright-
Patterson, or "American" rules as set forth in books.
Adding to the difficulty of knowing how Mah-Jongg should be played is the
fact that every book currently available is outdated (except some I found from
Australia, but those describe the "Western" game, which is slightly different from
the "American" game!). Most definitive books were written in the 1960's, and the
rules in Japan and America have changed since then. The best way to learn
Mah-Jongg is by playing with other people, or by downloading and playing a
Mah-Jongg game from the Internet. To add to the confusion, many clones of
Shanghai are called "Mah-Jongg." Download or purchase a Mah-Jongg game
and it might not even be Mah-Jongg at all!
There is even a "simplified" set of Mah-Jongg rules for players who can't
deal with Chinese characters, Winds, Dragons, and Flowers.
Because Mah-Jongg is played in many different ways in many different
places, Shanghai: Dynasty cannot satisfy everyone. But we will make sure that
we satisfy the majority of American and Japanese players (the former is less of a
concern than the latter). Of the currently available MJ products, Four Winds
gives the widest choice of Mah-Jongg "flavors," supporting European and
custom rules in addition to American, HK, and Japanese rules. In that regard,
Four Winds has the drop on us. But that game does not have the exquisite
Shanghai look, the best MJ interface, nor Activision's distribution muscle.
Shanghai: Dynasty will offer three "flavors" of Mah-Jongg: the Chinese
original (MJ as it is played in Hong Kong), the American game (as we decide it
should be to suit our purposes, based on the variety of "American" rule sets),
and the Japanese game. All three have the same basic structure (4 players
each trying to build a final hand of 14 tiles) but some differences exist between
the three.
The Chinese game is the simplest and friendliest game, although it is not
without its complications. The American game (as played by the National Mah
Jongg League, or NMJL) is stricter in that the player must build only specific
hands (from a list of about 50 hands, which changes every year) -- but there are
Jokers to balance the strictness. The Japanese game is similar to the Chinese
game but with extra rules which make the game more complicated and exciting.
Interestingly, these 3 regional games are played by a different gender mix
as well. In America, it's mostly women who play Mah-Jongg. In Japan, it's
mostly men. In Hong Kong, both genders play and enjoy Mah-Jongg equally.
It's interesting to speculate on why this is, and what relationship this gender
breakdown has on the rules in the 3 regions, and on which came first (the rules
or the gender-specific appeal).
Enough background. Let's take a look at our Mah-Jongg game.

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