OK game. Thanks!

I check every day to see what the new GiveAway is. :)

Couple issues I had. (XP Pro system)

Initial install went Ok but when the game launched I had nothing but a black screen (full)
Had to pull up task manager and kill process the game.
Restarted the game and play was OK.
Is fair hard to see the "layers" of tiles.
Exit game other than using esc or task manager is impossible (but workable)

All in all not bad though.
Can't complain much for what I paid for it. :)
I also can't really complain cus I can't program therefore I have no right to freak out.

For those of you that could do nothing but freak & yell/flame...
For the price you (like me) paid for it... how difficult is it to uninstall the game & move on with life if it didn't work out on your system?

Tomorrow is another day & another game to check out. :)

Keep well all :)

This game installed with no trouble from the mirror. It plays well on my XP pro machine. However there are many better Mahjong games out there. This game only has 4 boards, and no way to link from one to the next.

I agree with what the majority have said... Hard to differentiate between layers, menu system not intuitive, Options can't be saved, so you have to listen to the same annoying music loop at the beginning of each game.

By the way, the ESC key will take you back to the Main Menu. I have to wonder if this is an alpha version, or if they're actually trying to sell this game?

A critical examination of Art Mahjong.

Crap. Crappy 8 bit graphics, so poorly executed that you can hardly tell what level a piece is on. Crappy user interface that substitutes unintuitive onvelty for functionality.

Not even worth downloading for free. Don't bother listening to the obvious cheerleaders pretending they know how to analyze software. Remember, dusty old pom poms, a free bag of crapis still nothing more than a stinking bag of crap.

Not the best Mahjongg/Shanghai game I've ever seen, but I've definitely played worse. I DO like the hand done backgrounds, those are a little different. And I didn't find the tile layouts to be any harder to determine which tiles were available/not available than in any of the other games. It did hiccup a little when my AVG antivirus stuff kicked in for its automatic update, and didn't want to display properly after I brought it back up, but that was the only problem I had with it. I'll hang on to this one for a while, until I have to give it the boot due to space issues, or until another better one comes along.

Don't usually leave comments, but this one seems to warrant one. Most people have stated that it is not a game they expect to be released, especially by the GGAOTD team. I agree. This game is buggy and hard to see. I did figure out the navigation (mostly) before reading what everyone else posted. This game seems like a beta and people posting are treating it as such by giving critique. I actually remember games like this on a Dos system on my first IBM. I would not buy it in this decade. 15 years ago, yes.

I love your daily downloads and this is the first I am disappointed in. I will uninstall it, and look forward to tomorrow's.

Despite the naysayers, I thought this was comparable to most Mahhjong games. I had absolutely no problems with it installing or running on Windows XP. I read the Help, so I knew what the buttons did. I do agree that the levels are hard to distinguish, but by looking at the offsets at the bottom of each layer, the offsets relative to other tiles, and the shadows at the bottom and right of each layer, it wasn't too bad. My screen resolution is very high, and the graphics were quite clear. When the music reaches the end, sometimes it takes a while for it to restart. Also, CPU utilization was apparently high, and sometimes there was some lag (Athlon XP 3500+). The sci-fi theme was amusing.

Well, I think this is a pretty decent Mahjongg game. I didn't have much trouble figuring out what tiles were playable. You can "cheat" by mixing the tiles or right clicking to see matches, but then you will not make it to the scoreboard. If you finish the game it will bring you back to the main menu. Hit esc. to end without finishing. I thought the graphics were good and I am running a widescreen of 1440 X 900. I have tried a lot of Mahjongg games and I think this is one of the better ones and I will be keeping. Navigate the options, help, and highscore by clicking on the curved bar at sides ( or ).

I got the answers I needed to decide about the game, both good and bad, but two of the comments are out of line and remind me of when I was working my way through school by working with pre-schoolers. Rude and nasty just to get attention is uncalled for. Someone needs a nap!

#51 - Fred (last name must be Flintstone). I just call 'em as I see 'em. Crap is crap. If you want to shake your dusty old pom poms at crap, then you brand yourself an idiot.

At least I have a style, which you do not.

I could care less what an old caveman with dusty pom poms has to say. Clearly you are wrong about no one reading what I say, as not only have you commented on what I write, but others have provided unsolicited support for my accurate disection and revelation of crappy programming.

You have provided nothing, except proof that you are not competent enough to make ANY critique.

Hey Fred Flintstone, clearly you have nothing to say, so clearly no one pays a whole lot of attention to ANYTHING you EVER write. I guess that's why you felt driven to make a personal attack; software sucks and you feel like an idiot (and rightly so) trying to shake your dusty old pom poms at the crapware.

At least I have a style, O' Fred with the dusty old pom poms.

Clearly, you are also a liar, since you claim no one reads my material, yet people are defending my highly informed critiques. No one says anything about you, except this one time I will point laughingly at your shriveled, dusty old pom poms once again.

I use XP, and had no issues with this game. Left click on a bird to move it to a new option. click on the bracket thing on the left to go back to the menu (whilst in options). Press "esc" on keyboard to exit the game. Right click with mouse in game to see available moves. Really it just needed a bit of playing around to figure it all out. So instead of being negative, give it a chance first and don't give up. Can't expect a freebie to be perfect from the word "go". Thankyou for this game, will definitely be keeping it!

Really awful. You cannot differenciate one tile from another at all, or determine which tier the tile is on, even. The graphics are cheesy. Impossible to play, with awful music. Don't waste your time.

i am a collector of mah-jhongs . this one is fun, but...it is hard to see the tiles individually when they are stacked. i also quit the game via cntl,alt,delete there seemed to be no other way out. i did like the art..the space being an instant fave. it downloaded and installed fine. welcome back peeps

#32 why are you even still here, every single time you comment it is to just complain, insult, gripe and criticize. I recall you saying you were going to stop coming here, unfortunately you're still "gracing" us with your presence here.

You obviously have not the slightest clue how to give a decent critique of a product, no one is ever going to listen to you, as all you do is gripe and complain and outright insult.

There is 'constructive criticism', which you have no idea how to do and there is 'insulting criticism' which you always employ and your comments/opinion will be blown off and not considered by anyone, either the maker of the game or GotD when deciding what else to offer.

Comment #42 ‘Meet Miss Naptha’ why do you have to be so rude/insulting when all I’m ‘trying’ to do is give an opinion. Thankfully (well maybe not) I have too much time on my hands and enjoy trying to possibly help give some advice through my own observations and opinions. If you don’t like what I write, fine, no problem as far as I’m concerned, but when you publicly insult me as you have done today above, I feel I need to reply, although I was tempted just to leave it. In the first instance how dare you call me servile, I assume you know what the word ‘obsequious’ means because your general English and grammar are good. But to say such a thing in public without ever having met me or seen what I’ve accomplished or done over the many years I’ve lived, says a lot about what sort of person you are, however I’m not tempted to insult you, because it’s not in my nature to do so.

I really wish the moderators of this comments section would delete such rude and unnecessary comments that make personal attacks on other people as there’s no need for it. I am sensitive to such words as are many others who probably won’t comment here in fear of getting a mouthful from some of these people

I personally found very little wrong with this game myself, it played fine and although it was difficult to distinguish some of the tiles in the traditional tile set, which I did mention in my first post; maybe not in a strong enough manner for you to understand, but I did never the less. I had no problems playing the game with the other three tile sets..... I had no issues with navigating around the game. I also found the art work excellent and well worth the effort of playing the game to see the whole thing. Indeed, I eventually took a screen capture of one of the pieces to add to my wallpaper stock. Also just a few minutes of checking the game out made it easy to move around. Further to the above I also mentioned the inability to save the game as well as other nuances of the game; what’s so damned fawning and deferring about that?

There’s one thing I certainly agree on with some comments above and that is that I would never buy this game, (especially as I’ve had lots of this style of game anyway); but hey, do I need to. Jeez, it’s free today.

End of rant……well almost…. :)

By the way, I very much doubt I’ve ever sweet talked anyone in my life. Call me old fashioned but I happen to consider courtesy, honesty and respect virtues.

Not the best mahjong game as previous comments.....uninstalled because of having to use esc to exit

As Stephen & Face covered most of the details, I just wanted to say it ran just fine on my Vista. Thanx as always GGOTD for the opportunities you provide for us!!

There are better options out there for tile-matching games. In my opinion this one would not be worth paying for, let alone worth playing.

A great mahjongg fan here, and can usually find something to like in every version... until now. LOL! Tiles are very poorly rendered and it's impossible to see the layers. There's sooo many good versions of mahjongg out there, many of them free. Can't believe someone took the time to release this. But thanks anyway, GAOTD! I've gotten many gems from you guys.

Did not like this game and uninstalled, choices too limited and hard to tell which tiles are free, but I really appreciate the chance to get games here and I do not mind the repeats at all since my puter crashed and I lost all the ones I had. Thank you for ALL the games you bring us.

Downloaded and activated with no problem (XPpro sp2) This doesn't come close to the buku mahjongg that was offered a while back. I was afraid of that after reading all the comments. Was encouraged by whiterabbit though about "looks perfectt for sight impaired" - HOWEVER - the curser is way to small to keep track of. The only board I could even partially navigate was the sci-fi which isn't my cup of tea. Also was not impressed that options or games could not be saved for future play. Would also have preferred windowed play. Uninstalled. :( Oh well, it was worth a shot and I'll be back again tomorrow. Thanks anyway GGOTD.

The space theme was kind of cute, but I also gave up with boredom at trying to figure out which pieces were on top. Bordedom is a real game killer for me. Uninstalled. Not really worth my time.

With very few exceptions (a notable one being obsequious fanboy Whiterabbit, who would be all over you like a cheap suit if you gave him a fart to play with) everyone today, with varying degrees of politeness, has said this game is sub-par, to put it mildly. The thumbs, once again, tell a different story.
I would just like to tell the Pom-Pom Brigade that it doesn't do anyone any good to heap praise upon a program or game that doesn't deserve it. Not GOTD, not the developers, and certainly not the people who depend upon the opinions expressed here to decide whether or not to download.
If you find posters like Hempman or The Belgian Dude blunt or coarse or arrogant, then don't have them over the house. Don't let your daughters marry them. But don't just blow off what they're saying because you don't care for their tone.
Sure there are are some loudmouths who trash anything or anyone they see because this is the internet and anonymity gives some folks big, pink, hairy, meaty, bouncing false courage. But some people have clearly done their homework and have probably saved a lot of people from downloading a lot of crap onto their computers.
Would you rather hear, in a rude manner, that the program being offered is garbage -- or be sweet-talked into putting that same garbage onto your machine?

I wanted to like this game as I really like Taipei(which is what this game is)but the graphics were made with love,not skill. They made viewing painful; it was just plain hard to see where the tiles were beginning and ending and what levels they were on. The shadows were something that I found ugly and with the level of computers now, I found myself asking why would an artist settle for this??? The tile graphics were imaginative but poorly executed,fuzzy and smeary. Being forced to view it full screed made it worse. I got the impression the artist did the tile work at a smaller size(where I think they may have worked better). The board backgrounds were charming, but backgrounds have little to do with the game play and the tiles have everything to do with game play, so they need to be done well. I'm not saying these things to be mean-spirited, but as an honest reaction to playing each of the boards.
The music was ok and I did like how it faded in and out, but I personally didn't care much for the sounds(the throat clearing one was cute though).
This game has some interesting features, but it needs to be better explained for the new player or made more intuitive.
If this game was made as a learning exercise and given away free, I would say "good effort" but to charge 9.99EU implies it is ready to be a prime-time player in a B/Remake market, which it is not, it needs work.

Thank you for the opportunity to test it. Please listen to the comments here on GGAOTD and make this the special game I think it could be.

This game is a trainwreck on Vista - AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Come people reported: The game is buggy. Yes, and I got a very bad bug: I coud not see all of the game messages, only a black fields instead. Hardly useful for me.

I downloaded this game in the early hours and then left a comment. I guess Y'all didn't like it. I will repeat what I added then. The game will NOT allow you to use the options that are a part of the game. I could understand removing a comment that had vulgar language...but mine wasn't.

Anyway....don't bother with this game. And I am a big fan of this type of game. So this should tell you something!

This looked like a game that I would love to download. I really like mahjongg games. I don't care if this games is not a true "mahjongg" game as the purists love to point out. I just like the tile matching aspect of this type of game. However after reading the comments I have decided to pass. My question is will Magnussoft ever give us something worth the download? So far all of their games have been duds. I hope that the games you have offered thus far is not your best efforts. Show us something that will demonstrate you can make fun games. I still appreciate GGAOTD for your great work and also Magnussoft for the contribution.

I have a really hard time telling what level each of the tiles are on as well.

On the plus side, if you right click, all of the tiles with matches become highlighted, and there's a shuffle button. On the other hand, the levels are so hard to tell apart, using the highlight is almost required, and there aren't any hints as to what any of the buttons do. There are only 4 layouts, and 4 themes, but the art is all low rez and the non-Chinese themes aren't any easier to distinguish.

Not the best Mahjongg game I've played but I enjoyed it. Took a little looking and clicking to figure things out, but once I did, I was able to get through the game (XP X64 windows) without much trouble. I did turn off the horrible music but left the sound effects. Those will probably go sometime too. I'm just looking for something to pass the time occasionally and this will be ok. The screenshots here are much better than the actual ones. The regular tile set is rather bleak looking, the knights were pretty good and the best is the aliens. Click on the bird in the options and move to the tile set you want. I had no problem pressing escape to get out of the game when done. For some reason everything originally opened in a mixture of English and German (I think), but when I closed it and reopened it, it was all English. I played in easy mode to begin with and it didn't keep any score. Pressing on the 2 tiles at the top lets you see what's underneath. Pressing the X next to the number of tiles left rearranges the tile.
I give it a thumbs up for time passing game but I have had better.
Since it's FREE I won't complain much--but I wouldn't really be happy if I'd paid $20.00 for it.
I just appreciate the offers from GGOTD and am grateful when I can find something I might light. But when I don't, I move on, I don't post ugly comments like the ones I have seen posted on this board. You can't please every one every single day. Get a life, folks!!!

Always game for a good Mahjongg game - unfortunately this isn't one. Difficult to distinguish between layers of tiles, and the primitive graphics are soooo Commodore 64

Huge file for such crappy graphics. Almost impossible to tell what level the low-res graphics tiles are placed on.

The UI is way crappy and could not be much farther away from intuitive. The only thing that could have made the UI crappier would be to require obscure two or three button entries to move around Options, etc. The HELP file is pretty useless as the only thing it seems to describe is the Playfield. The general game interface has no description that I could find. Hard to tell, since one can not tell if there is a way to move around in the help file.

Crap.

And for the cheerleaders, chumps and outright shills: get a clue. A free bag of crap is still a bag of crap.

I agree with most of the previous. It's not the best MahJongg game I've seen. That being said, I have few responses to some of the comments.

You can exit the options by hitting that parentheses like arrow on the left side. You can exit a game by hitting escape. It also works fine in Vista (as fine as anyplace else from what I read).

I agree that it is very difficult to see what tiles are free and which are available. For me, the biggest problem is it does not save the options. I set the tile and turned off the music. You can exit the options but you cannot save them! That is a big drawback. It's a pain to turn the music off every time you want to play!

Hard to tell which tiles are free. Graphics are not that great. I love
mahjongg games but uninstalled this one. Thanks anyway ggotd, looking forward to the next game giveaway.

Running XP SP2
Downloaded, installed and activated very smoothly.

No need for repeat analysis, as Stephen has done his usual fine job (once again, your excellent commentary is much appreciated!)

I would only add:

1. For those who are still having problems, the large ) mark on the far left of the options screen will get you back to the main menu and let your choices take effect.

2. To change option settings, left click on that little flamingo-bird thingy and drag it to your choice.

3. If you get stuck in the game, holding your right mouse button down will show all possible moves.

4. The Esc key will take you back to options, but the game doesn't save.

I agree, the artwork on tiles and backgrounds are very well done and the game plays smoothly on my laptop, My suggestions would be:

1. offer more tile and formation choices
2. let the option choices remain as set when exiting
3. have the option to save in mid-game, so you can contine next time you start the program
4. offer the choice to play in a window, if desired
5. make it a bit easier to see which tiles are playable and possibly show them when holding down the left button.

All in all, a nice little game - Thank you Magnussoft & GGOTD.

#20, #25 the problem is that this game doesnt have what one would call intuitive ways to move around.

On the options screen, to exit it, you must click the curved line that is on the left part of the screen.
To select a tile set, you dont click on the tile set you want (lol..that would have been obvious), you click on the space where the bird should be...

Observations:

Movement in the menus is confusing. You need to click on the arched lines on the extreme left and right of the screen to go to the former/next pages. (Sometimes the lines don't show up unless you move the cursor there first.) Also, I could find no way to go back to the main menu with the mouse from within the game--had to press the "ESC" key.

No window mode.

Pretty good "Help" instructions, including tips for playing.

Worst problem: Tile visibility! Hard to distinguish what level some tiles are on. Layout should have been angled slightly so horizontal lines of the different tiles wouldn't blend together so easily.

Mouse right-click will show all playable tiles at one time. The "Undo" button will undo the last move only. The first menu item will show all the hidden tiles a layer at a time. Could be helpful in planning strategy, but erases your score.

Four tile layouts only. Several tile-sets, but most are unappealing.

Like with the other Magnussoft titles, some glitches showed up ocassionally such as the sound going out. In fact, I lost the "music" altogether, but that's not important to me. Some menus were in German.

I'll probably keep it, but I wouldn't buy it since there are so many better variations available.

i really dislike this type of game.

Over an hour to download on a dial-up and uninstalled it after two minutes. On Win XP Pro: Only way out of OPTIONS is to hit ESC, which exits the game and doesn't save the selected options. No MENU button I can find in the game itself, only way out of that screen is to hit ESC to exit the game. Can't move beyond page one of HELP, only way out is to hit ESC yet again. Experimenting with other keys or mouse clicks to navigate changed the language to (???), blank screens, exit to desktop, etc... Thumbs down on this one, don't bother.

Cool game, thanx....

Downloaded fine.

Installed fine.

The first time I tried to open it, directly after install, the music started, sound effects were working, and the screen changed for resolution, and I briefly saw the title page flash, but the screen went black. After clicking my mouse a few times, the title screen showed up but it was in another language. Then it went back to black.

Had to ctrl+alt+del out of the game and start it over. The second time it worked fine, and was in English.

The music isn't the best, I'd probably turn it off if I were to keep on playing. A small bit of song that loops, sometimes, and other times doesn't run for a while.

I find at times that the levels of the tiles are a bit hard to differentiate. The knight tile-set was easiest for me to see, out of the 4 options - standard, sci-fi, knight, and silhouette.

On the actual tile screen, there doesn't seem to be any button that allows one to go back or exit the game. After toying around I found that pressing ESC returns you to the title screen, ending the game you are in.

Pressing the P button pauses game-play. Pressing it again un-pauses play.

All in all, not my favourite mahjohngg game. There are others I like much more.

wenige Layouts (ganze VIER), nervige Sounds,nur eine Melodie, die sich immer wiederholt - da gibt es ungleich bessere Varianten auf dem Markt.

I tried to get this game and it says the key is invalad! What's up with that?

Everything seems to have downloaded fine but there is no indication that only one of the designs (the Chinese one) is available, yet that is the only one that works. Win XP pro

This looks like a good game but on dialup it is taking ages to download - must get broadband. I am missing Brave Dwarves as I have played all the levels three times over. Any chance of more levels?

Disappointing game - the 3D tiles are not clearly distinguishable and often leave you guessing which tiles are free and which are not...

Nice one guys; I’m always on for a quirky take on Mahjong. This will be my twelfth version of matching Mahjong, which being a ‘kleptogamiac’, I’ve not got a problem with. A definite thumbs up from me today.

This is a quirky take on Mahjong, with its gorgeous ‘artsy’ backgrounds, which are only visible once you’ve removed the pieces :)

The gaming boards look perfect for those that are sight impaired, filling the monitor screen nicely and apart from the traditional tile set, which I find difficult to match the other three tiles sets which include a Sci-Fi , Heraldic (Knights) and a Silhouette theme, all are reasonably easily matched, for me anyway. Apart from the traditional tile set which I find a little bland compared to some of the other Mahjong games I have, I love all of the others, and the art that is presented is excellent, although I haven’t checked to see if you get a new image each time you complete a board.
As Mahjong games go, I think the only limitation this game has is the board sets because there are only four to choose from (perhaps I’ve been spoilt by some of my other Mahjong games as I like the ability to change the style of the boards; however the unusual and interesting tile sets make up for the lack of board sets.

You’ll find the tile and board sets in the options menu along with toggles for the music sound effects, difficulty settings as well as a timer. There’s also a simple one page help menu.

While playing you can use the back button which is to the top left of the playing area together with a double x button that I’ve not figured out yet (It makes a sort of clearing your throat sound effect when pressing it and the board tiles move), however there is another x button in the upper middle of the board that at the start of the game will allow you to shuffle your tiles as many times as you like. -------- just figured the double x button; it’s a cheat button, that can be used only a couple of times during the game, but will remove quite a few tiles in one move :), which is great if you’re into cheating, as I’ve never seen a cheat for Mahjong before; however it does seem to make it pointless playing a game (IMO) as why cheat. (Maybe I’m naive, as I’m sure there are those who hate to be beaten) lol

The main problem I find with this game is that when you leave the game and then return, all the settings have been returned to the default settings. Thankfully Magnussoft has taken away the large AVI file and replaced it with a good looking menu screen.

Sorry, no screenshots today. Apart from an options and main menu image I wasn’t able to use my screen capture tool (capturewiz pro) on this game as everything just froze each time I used it. (Same as all the Magnussoft games actually)

I give this 6 out of 10 for game play and a different slant. I give it 8 out of 10 for the art work, which I find rather cool. (well what I was able to see of it, lol). If you don’t have any mahjong games, it’s definitely worth a download IMO.

I know there’s going to be those who say this is not Mahjong, however although I also love the traditional four player game, of which Ihave a nice bamboo and pretend ivory set, the match two is basically a solitaire form of the game.

Thank you Magnussoft and the game giveaway team for another reasonable giveaway. :D

Art Mahjongg will not download the zip file is corrupted. Typical it's the first download I have wanted in ages !!!!!!