What is Mah Jong Parlour?

If it seems exotic, think of mah jong as counterclockwise gin rummy. Hearts, clubs, and so on are replaced by bamboo, circles, characters, dragons, seasons, and flowers. Sets are replaced by poong (three of a kind) or kong (four of a kind), and runs are chow. There are restrictions on when players can pick up a discarded tile and make a call, but that only adds to the complexity of gameplay.

Mah Jong Parlour provides three levels of play: novice, intermediate, and expert. Novice-level players aren’t penalized for making incorrect calls, and the game gives a long pause between discards. The Apple Guide aids are helpful in learning what’s what, but gameplay is better described in the electronic manual on the installer CD.

Mah Jong Parlour has the potential to thrive as a cult Net game. It doesn’t rely on intense graphics and has a built-in messaging system, so play over a local-area network or the Internet is ideal. It runs on just about anything faster than a Mac 512K, so even your friend who bought your old system can join in without a handicap. Because it requires only 1.5MB of RAM, you can easily leave Mah Jong Parlour running in the background.

Play moves smoothly and quickly, the tiles look great at several screen resolutions, and the game gives an addictive twist to classic card games. The folks at Aspyr Media, the publisher, are interested in delivering more high-quality Mac-only games, so if you like this one, let them know in your own choice of words.

Mecca, Melissa. (May 1997). Mah Jong Parlour. MacAddict. (pg. 72).

Voice acting is available in the following languages: Cantonese, English, French, Spanish.

Download Mah Jong Parlour for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.0 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II