GShisen  *** 
Freeware by Kelvin Sherlock 
requires System 6.0.1 running on 1.25MB or larger Apple IIgs 
   an accelerator board is recommended 
  

Like the West's playing cards, the beautiful tiles of China's Mahjongg
just naturally inspire many uses. Thanks to Activision, one such
application, Shanghai, has entertained us for countless hours since its
release back in 1986. Battling the game's Dragon formations is a fine
challenge; but, many dedicated players have, long ago, put away their
cyber tiles. It is time for a new kind of formation and a new twist for
the old challenge. So ... how about a nice game of Shisen?!

Shisen, or, more correctly, "Shisen-Sho", uses all or most of the
144-piece tile set. This can be the traditional Mahjongg design or, in
GShisen, something new. As in Shanghai, you begin with a randomly
generated arrangement and your goal is to clear the board of all tiles
by matching and removing pairs. In Shisen, though, the tiles are formed
into a single large rectangle.






Sherlock's application includes the "Standard" set shown above and an
"Alphabet" set. So far there is at least one new user-created design,
"Nuggets" which appears below in the move examples pics. The player can
switch tile sets at any time during a game.

Dimensions of the game rectangle vary from implementation to
implementation. The Shisen done for the K Desktop Environment presents
a 14 x 10 pattern. As shown above, GShisen places all 144 tiles-- four
each of 36 figures-- in an 18 x 8 rectangle. Along the bottom of the
screen you have elapsed playing time, Game Number, games won/games
attempted, and number of tiles left on the board. When the first tile
of a pair is selected its place darkens and a copy appears on the
bottom of the screen to remind you which tile needs to be matched.

Most likely, you've already guessed that Shisen's rules for matching
and removing tiles are different from Shanghai's. In Shisen, creating
matches depends upon making connections.





You can remove any two identical tiles which can be connected by an
imaginary line which does not pass through any other tile. The catch is
that the line must have no more than three horizontal or vertical
segments. So, any two identical tiles on a side-- like the
Six-Blue-Spot tiles in the full screen pic-- are an 'obvious' match. As
shown in the Game C pic, distance does not matter.

Since all of this is happening on your GS, you just need to click
tiles. The computer checks to see that a connection is possible. If it
is, your GS draws the line, there's a THOOP sound, and the tiles
disappear.

Of course,  you can connect tiles using fewer than three segments. The
side by side Five-Brown-Spot tiles in Game A could be clicked and
removed. In Game C, a two-segment connect would get rid of the Knight
tiles once that pesky Apple tile is gone; but, alas, the Apple tiles
can not yet be connected. Happily, you discover that once the
Two-Diamond tiles are gone, the Beetle tiles will go, and, then, a
three-segment connect will take care of the Knights!

Such are your concerns when taking on Shisen. As in Shanghai, Operation
Lambda, Soko Ban, and other addictive logic games, the 'hook' is
getting to stretch your mind in mastering a new skill. Exactly what the
skill might be is unclear, though, evidently, it involves enhancing
certain visualization and planning capabilities. Beyond this, about all
one can say is that becoming expert feels good. Cracking a Shisen
pattern, clearing the board, and winning is, definitely, fun!

As might be expected in a program offering 34,463 randomly generated
patterns, not every game is winnable. (In some 60-70 games, I've found
three-- 4096, 4162, 3458-- which seem to be for-sure no-win patterns.) 
At first, my reaction was something like "No fair!" On the other hand,
not being sure of winnability adds a touch of suspense; and, each claim
of a no-win is sure to attract players looking for a way to crack the
uncrackable pattern.

GShisen starts with a 'randomly' selected game; but, you are free to
end play and load any game you like by just entering its number. For
tough, yet still winnable, challenges try 1973, 2432, 4095, or 25064.

Your official reward for victory is getting a shot at having your Name
and Time saved in the top ten Hall of Fame roster. Though having such a
roster is a plus, limiting it to just the ten best times does not make
sense. Since some patterns are considerably easier than others, the
best times are going to be for the weakest challenges. The victories of
which you are most proud may never be listed. A much better scheme
would be to record best Time and Name for each pattern.

GShisen comes with a docs file which explains game play and describes
System requirements. An accelerator board is recommended mainly because
it enables access to an automatic check for valid plays after each
match. If the this feature is not active, you must click Check Moves,
Suggest Move, or Show Matches in order to have the computer check that
a valid play is available. When playing a difficult pattern, having the
Auto Check is very nice indeed!  Otherwise, GShisen executes fine on an
unaccelerated IIgs.

Rendered in colorful 640 mode super-res, Kelvin Sherlock's GShisen is
as attractive and smooth-running as it is addictive. If your fingers
have been itching for the touch of cyber tiles, this is your game. Just
be sure to carve out a few hours before starting. To paraphrase the old
potato chip commercial: "No one can play just one!"

  
Rubywand, 1998 
  
  

*** is a rating of "Very Good" 

You can download GShisen from the A2-Delphi archive; for more info,
check ... 

http://www.delphi.com/apple2/

You can download the new GShisen "Nuggets" tile set from the Asimov-GS
archive at ...

ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/applegs/Games/GShisen.stuff/Tiles/ .

You can download a 'game fix' patch for the GShisen Hall of Fame prompts
from the Asimov-GS archive at ...

ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/applegs/Games/GShisen.stuff/