Kyodai Mahjongg

At last, a new update! A lot has happened in the Kyodai community these last few months. Now if I can find some time to post an actual summary of everything that's going on... Keep coming back to the website :)
For starters, here's a quick list of the main new features in v2006 1.42. For a full list of improvements, install this new version and check out the help files!

• [New] Faster and improved startup sequence.
• [New] The "No more moves" event now triggers a (much requested!) sound effect.
• [New] Now, all winnable Solitaire games have a game seed attributed to them, allowing you to replay them if you enter the hall of fame (see "Replay" button).
• [New] Improved texturing for tile faces and borders. Cleaned up the menu options.
• [New] Added support for more skybox environments. Skyboxes also work on a larger array of video cards now.
• [Fix] Fixed lots of minor bugs.

(French)

Enfin, une mise à jour ! Il s'est passé beaucoup de choses dans le monde de Kyodai Mahjongg ces derniers mois. Il ne me reste plus qu'à trouver un peu de temps pour vous en parler... Merci de repasser de temps en temps ;)

Pour commencer, voici une liste rapide des nouveautés de la version 2006 1.42. Pour la liste complète des nouveautés (en anglais), c'est dans les fichiers d'aide du jeu !

• Lancement du jeu plus rapide et plus esthétique.
• La mention "Plus de coups disponibles" est désormais accompagné d'un effet sonore réclamé à corps et à cris depuis des années ;)
• Désormais, tous les jeux de Solitaire potentiellement "gagnants" sont accompagnés d'un numéro de jeu, qui vous permettra d'y rejouer si vous faites un des meilleurs scores, de manière à l'améliorer encore.
• Pas mal d'améliorations sur le système des textures pour les tiles (devant et côtés). J'ai également dépoussiéré quelque peu la section du menu concernant tout cela.
• Ajout du support pour d'autres skyboxes. Ces derniers devraient de plus être utilisables sur la plupart des cartes vidéo maintenant.
• Enfin, comme à mon habitude, j'ai corrigé une pléthore de bugs mineurs. Vous savez, le genre de truc qu'on ne remarque que des années après leur arrivée. Mais qui ne sont pas les bienvenus pour autant ! ;)

It looks great, Nao :-)

I't works well with all the tilesets I have tried. :patpat: :heart: :app: :great: :yes:

Well, the new "fit to texture size" option is disabled by default, so tile texture behavior shouldn't be any different from previous versions ;) Enable the feature and try it with large tilesets at least 1200 pixels wide. Should look good :)

how do you determine the tilesets that are 1200 pixels wide?

Well, it's a recommendation, they don't have to be exactly 1200+ pixels wide ;)
Just think of it this way: default tiles in KMJ are 128x128 in size. If you have any tileset that has a tile size higher than 128x128, then it will have to be shrinked to 128x128, reducing picture quality. The higher your original tile definition is, the better the result when disabling "fit to texture size".
There are also some tilesets that are quite small and still can benefit from disabling the option--I think Kyodai.bmp looks better that way. Of course, it's only a matter of taste...

You may have noticed the whole "fit to texture size" discussion spanned several days and was very heated. I originally wanted to remove "fit to texture size" altogether (because I'm more likely to remove stuff and clean up the menus than the opposite, right now), but most users wanted me to keep it in the code, so I gave up and included both possibilities in the game. In exchange, I moved all tileset texturing options to a submenu. Which, by the way, I forgot to enable in the multilingual system, so it's still called "Tile Textures" whatever the selected language. Oops ;)

Sorry for the messy rants ;)
To answer your question, you have to open your JPG tileset files and see how large they are ;)

aha!  thanks, nao.  i had perused the built-in tilesets and the community constructed tilesets, but other than overall size, i saw no indication of what constituted a high quality tileset.  so i will assume the larger the filesize, the higher the quality.

at any rate, i've only on a couple of occasions over the years, tried a tileset other than ancient.  i can appreciate the effort that has gone into the custom sets, but it's just not something i'm into.

i had initally disabled 'fit to texture size' because i was more interested in performance, and hadn't really noticed a tremendous difference in quality.  but since this discussion, i went back and tried it again, and there's a noticeable improvement with 'fit to texture size' turned on, even with the higher rez kyodai tileset.  i guess running an nvidia mx4000 isn't going to allow me to appreciate higher rez models, so the function stays on for the time being (doesn't make a big difference with the ancient tileset, but having 'fit to texture size' turned on doesn't affect performance noticeably either).

Yes, it's noticeable in loading speed. Loading a tileset with this enabled will take about half a second (sometimes up to a second). With it disabled, it will virtually be instantaneous.

You mustn't have tested with very-high-res tilesets, I suppose ;)

It is not a matter of videocard brand.

It isn't supposed to affect performance at all. Just the loading times.

Looks fantastic. I've been away. I have Kyodai 1.42 working in Windows Vista 64 bit RC1!  :yeah:

RaXeT

Yes, of course it does ;) It's not like it's a badly programmed game that wouldn't follow the Windows guidelines, eheh. (Remember how many games wouldn't work on XP when the OS was released? Well of course KMJ had no such problems...)

Vista 64-bit itself, though, is a bit scam IMHO... It has no performance benefit compared to the 32-bit version, and it takes more disk space....

Nao,

I just now noticed that you're the "grumpy" creator. What happened? Did you lose one of the first 6 days? Or did you get no rest on the 7th day?

Oh well, I just though I was probably as grumpy, if not more, as Ron Gilbert, one of my cult game developers from grumpygamer.com ;) (He's the one I met at a fan meeting earlier this year. I think I mentioned it already here.)

Ahhh. Well, that should have been obvious to the most casual observer. Making me...????? :whistle:

Nao as always I clap my hands. From the beginning. Thank you so much. I remember that day when I was sitting on my Mother couch and you were on the phone with me and I could not believe it was really you. Cyber who knows not us knows who we are and so blesses and appreciates your MJ.  :yes:

Will you hate me for having trouble remembering that phone call? ;)

Oh, and how is it, living in Hawaii?

Thanks for the french

Merci pour la traduction en français

What is the vertical variation???? It is in the "Play" dropdown.

taking the tiles from "front" or "behind" instead of left or right

Got it! Thanks.

At the risk of sounding like a complete dummy, can someone tell me what a "cumulative post" is?  I tried to get into the arcade and was denied permission because I don't have one?

Thanks for your time.

I suppose you meant "up" or "down" as opposed to "left" or "right" :)

@matt> you simply need to have at least one post on the boards to be able to play the arcade games ;) Well apparently that's done ;)

You now have 1 cumlative post   :-)


Welcome to the forum  :yeah:

Hi Matthew and welcome to our forum.  :yeah: :app: :yeahbaby:

Hi Pawprint and welcome to our forum as well.  :yeah: :yeahbaby:

Welcome!  The arcade is fun...the discussions "funner"!  :p

Are there any plans for an update or new version to this awesome game?

According to Nao -- it's pretty much perfect now.  I don't foresee an update or new version in the near future; but one never knows :-/ :-/

I believe that's, can has been more funner.
(redneck grammar nazi)

Not really; I don't know why bookwrym put it in quotes but funner is a word -- fun, funner, funnest.  Saying more funner is like saying more bigger.  But then maybe that's what you mean by redneck grammar!!   :lol:

It was a joke! Well spotted.

Back in 2007, I put KMJ on the side to learn web programming because I wanted to add social features to the software. In the end I got too involved in web programming and started hating Facebook & co -- so I started wondering whether these features would be useful in KMJ at all. It would be more 'competition' than 'social' stuff really. And I don't like encouraging competition. Maybe that's just me. The only person I like to fight against is myself. Or a computer.
So... Any plans? No.
I still have a small room in my head dedicated to Delphi programming, though... Something that tells me, "stop working on that silly forum software and give a go at rewriting KMJ to be more pluggable and easily add games to it..."
Of course, it's been there since 2007 and I always resisted it. Not because I fear I couldn't make it -- but mostly because I'm not sure I could outdo myself. Well, I was at the top of the game back in the early 2000's, but things happen, you drift away and suddenly you realize the game has moved to other platforms, other uses, and you feel like everyone's doing everything just for the money now, and you simply want to resist the trend. Maybe that's why I'm consciously staying away from anything that could actually make me tons of money. Feels like my soul isn't for sale, or something. Farmville and co... I totally resent the new economic model for 'social' games. Just read what I said above. KMJ is a fantastic game that I'm proud of, but I fear that adding anything to it could compromise the effort I put into making it a truly 'zen' experience.
Of course, your mileage may vary. But that's been my opinion so far. Never say never, as they say.

Well, as long as you keep the game site up and available, I'm happy. ;)

I have recommended Kyodai Mahjongg to others many times over the years, and plan to continue to do so.

I haven't posted here in a while, so I hope you're doing well, Nao.  :-)

As a loyal fan I find myself wondering why there has been almost no activity here since 2006 when the newest version came out. Please don't take me wrong I absolutely love this game in fact I refuse to even try any others. Just wondering that's all.

Enephew

According to the Most High [aka Nao]; "it's about as perfect as it can be".  But never say never, though.  He's still got the thought in the back of his mind.  But I will say it's pretty doggone good as it is right now.

That's probably why there hasn't been any new versions since 2006. . .but one can dream, can't they?

KMJ is in need of maintenance programming. Booster has already found it won't run right in Windows 8.  Windows 7 will be around for quite a while, but it won't last forever, and once it's gone, KMJ will go the way of the doodo.  Which will be a pity.

 :-/ :-/ :-/ I tend to agree.  Can you work on it, Nao?

Unfortunately, I don't think Nao even reads this forum anymore.   :(

 :(
You may be right.

Hello everyone,

 Maybe to help update the game, a suggestion to Port it over to Mac OS X?  I've been moving to Mac OS X since Snow Leopard, and the different advancements to the OS.  Currently, I have Mavericks installed and I really, really like it.  As long as they don't bring that bland look of iOS 7 to it.  Anyway, I haven't tried the game with VMWare Fusion or Parallels.  Personally, I'd love to see this game ported to Mac...natively??  I love the Virtual Screens.  I'm using the Mac more than I am Windows.  I refuse to go Windows 8[.1] because of what Microsoft has done with it.

 I still love this game, and that I'm able to create my own "boards" with it.  Because of my eyes, I mostly use the "Easy" tiles.  I have Not come across any other Mahjongg game that has it.  THANK YOU!!  I'm not into Anime at all, so I ignore that part of the game...and it really still has a great Layout.  My machine is advanced, so I use it in Full 3D.

 Please, Please....update for Mac OS X.  I'll even support you if you make it a separate price.  Money isn't the Root of all Evil because Evil doesn't exist unless you create it in your Mind.   You should create from your passion, which you have done, and that'll make money.

Smile!

KMJ hasn't been maintained by the developer since 2006.  So it isn't going to happen.

How do I get the new release Kyodai Mahjongg 2006 1.42 on my new Windows 8.1 computer?

My best guess is just download it like you regularly do.  You can download it from this site.

I have to admit, I'm a little concerned about the end of this month.
I'm supposed to upgrade to Windows 10. It shouldn't mess with any of my installed programs, but you never know.
If I disappear and can't get back, take care all.

If you disappear, I'll never speak to you again... :lol: :lol:

chuckle
Good one!  :great:

It plays on Win 10 but when you want to close it you have to use CTL ALT Del and the task manager  also some of the layouts no longer save you game scores.  I wish I could find  another version that has the same features but none I've look at do as yet so I'll struggle along with this.

That's odd, Elvira. I upgraded to Windows 10 and it works the same as it did before.
Perhaps it just ported it over with the rest of my stuff.

 ;)i am very happy with kyodai and have been for many years, i enjoy it so much

This is all due to KMJ being installed in 'Program Files'.
Uninstall it, and reinstall in a new folder, such as 'C:\Games\Kyodai Mahjongg\'...
Then move your .ini files from the old folder to the new one.

Problem fixed...

This has been around since Vista, BTW. But from the looks of it, Windows 10 started being meaner in that respect (not allowing programs to create or modify files within the Program Files folder, even if it's in their own folder...)

PS: glad to see there's still some activity in the forums. :)

Hello, Nao!!!!!

 :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:
 :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby: :yeahbaby:

Thanks for popping in, boss.
Good to hear from you.
For the 100th time, thank you so much for this game!

Dear Grumpy Creator,

I appreciate your comments concerning tactics of FB and Zynga games.  They behave that way because it works with so many people though.

Concerning Kyodai, if it isn't broken, don't fix it.  Kyodai was that rare thing, a good idea.  One per life time is the best most of us can expect, if any. 

Gaming generally, these days, involves doing the same thing over and over, with little demand on the brain cells, and lots of boost for the ego with every
little accomplishment.  So, if you were to have a 2nd good idea, the field is wide open for you.

For instance, there is a Mah Jong app for the ipad.  It's layouts are always easily winnable.  Every time that happens, the game wants access to your info so
it can give you a "reward".  A real Mah Jong gave could do well there, I bet.

Hey there everyone! Time for my yearly visit ;)

@sombrero, many years ago I played a MJ game on the iPad that was so close to Kyodai, I e-mailed the guy to offer it to rename it to 'KMJ Mobile' or something, to which he replied by saying he'd never heard of KMJ. (My ass :)) I don't remember the name of the game, though. I think it was 'Moonlight Mahjongg'.)

We're still ticking along, sir. Good to hear from you.

Hi there.

Just wondering if you've considered doing an update of KM for Win10 64bit.

Kindest Regards,

Delcorp