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Mahjong

Mahjong (also spelled mahjongg, Simplified Chinese: 麻将; Pinyin: májiàng) is a game for four players that originated in China. Mahjong involves skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of luck. Depending on the variation which is played, luck can be anything from a minor to a dominant factor in success. In Asia, mahjong is also popularly played as a gambling game. The object of the game is to build complete suits, or melds, usually of threes, from either 13 or 16 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal wins the game. The winning tile completes the player’s set of either 14 or 17 tiles.

History

Mahjong in China

One of the myths of the origin of Mahjong suggests that Confucius,[1] the great Chinese philosopher, had developed the game in about 500 BC. This assertion is likely to be apocryphal. According to this myth, the appearance of the game in the various Chinese states coincided with Confucius’ travels at the time he was teaching his new doctrines. The three dragon (Cardinal) tiles also agree with the three Cardinal virtues bequeathed by Confucius. Zhōng (中 , lit. middle) the Red, Fā (發 , lit. prosperity) the Green, Bái (白 , lit. white) the White represent Benevolence, Sincerity, and Filial piety respectively, again under this myth. In fact, the “middle” is likely a reference to 中国 (zhōngguó) — China’s name in Chinese.

Also, this myth claims that Confucius was fond of birds, which would explain the name “Mahjong” (sparrow). However, there is no evidence of Mahjong’s existence before the Taiping era in the 19th century, which eliminates Confucius as a likely inventor.

The general consensus is that the game was developed from existing Chinese card and domino games sometime around 1850.[citation needed] Many historians believe it was based on a Chinese card game called Mádiào (馬吊) (also known as Ma Tiae, lit. Hanging Horse; or Yèzí (葉子), lit. Leaf) in the early Ming dynasty.[2] This game was played with 40 paper cards similar in appearance to the cards used in the game Ya Pei. These 40 cards, numbered 1 to 9 in four different suits along with four extra flower cards, are quite similar to the numbering of Mahjong tiles today.

There is still a healthy debate about who created the game. One theory is that Chinese army officers serving during the Taiping Rebellion created the game to pass the time. Another theory is that a noble living in the Shanghai area created the game between 1870 and 1875. Others believe that around 1850 in the city of Níngpō two brothers had created Mahjong from the earlier game of Mádiào.

This traditional Chinese game was banned in its homeland in 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded. The new Communist government forbade any gambling activities, which were regarded as symbols of capitalist corruption. After the Cultural Revolution, the game was revived, and once again Mahjong has become a favorite pastime of the Chinese. In Hong Kong, Macao and elsewhere, however, Mahjong has always been popular, particularly among the Cantonese.

Mahjong in the western world

By 1895, Stewart Culin, an American anthropologist, wrote a paper in which Mahjong was mentioned. This is the first known written account of Mahjong in any language other than Chinese. By 1910, there were written accounts in many languages including French and Japanese. In 1920, Abercrombie & Fitch became the first ever American brand to introduce the game.[3] It became a success in New York, and owner of the Company, Ezra Fitch, sent emissaries to Chinese villages to buy every set of Mahjong they could find. In the end, Abercrombie & Fitch sold a number of 12,000 sets.[4] Later, an important English book was Joseph Park Babcock’s Rules of Mah-Jongg, which, simplified in 1920, was simply known as the “red book”. Although this was the earliest version of Mahjong that had been introduced to America, many of Babcock’s simplifications were abandoned when the 1920s fad died out.

The game was a sensation in America when it was imported from China in the 1920s, as the same Mahjong game took on a number of trademarked names, such as Pung Chow or the Game of Thousand Intelligences. Part of Mahjong nights in America was to decorate rooms in Chinese style and dress like Chinese.[5] Several hit songs were also recorded during the mahjong fad, most notably “Since Ma is Playing Mah Jong” by Eddie Cantor.[6]

American Mahjong, which was mainly played by women during the time, grew from this craze. By the 1930s, many revisions of the rules developed that were substantially different from Babcock’s classical version (including some that were considered fundamentals in other variants, such as the notion of a standard hand). Standardization came with the formation of the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) in 1937, along with the first American mahjong rulebook, Maajh: The American Version of the Ancient Chinese Game.

While Mahjong was accepted by U.S. players of all ethnic backgrounds during the Babcock era, many consider the modern American version a Jewish game,[7] as many American Mahjong players are of Jewish descent. (Also, the NMJL was founded by Jewish players and considered a Jewish organization.) In addition, players usually use the American game as a family-friendly social activity, not as gambling.

British author Alan D. Millington revived the Chinese Classical game of the 1920s with his book, The Complete Book of Mah-jongg (1977). This handbook includes a formal rules set for the game. Many players in Western countries consider Millington’s work authoritative.

Current development

Today, the popularity and the characteristics of players of Mahjong vary from country to country. There are also many governing bodies, which often host exhibition games and tournaments. It remains far more popular in Asia than in the West.

In Japan, there is a traditional emphasis on gambling and the typical player is male. Many devotees there believe the game is losing popularity and have taken efforts to revive it. In addition, Japanese video arcades have introduced Mahjong arcade machines that can be connected to others over the internet.

Mahjong culture is still deeply ingrained in the Chinese community: Sam Hui wrote Cantopop songs, using Mahjong as their themes. Hong Kong movies have often included scenes of Mahjong games. Gambling movies have been filmed time and again in Hong Kong, and a recent sub-genre is the Mahjong movie.

A recent study by doctors in Hong Kong has found that the game can cause epileps

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, pubs, video arcades, and Family Entertainment Centers. Most arcade games are redemption games, merchandisers, video games or pinball machines.

History

The first popular “arcade games” were early amusement park midway games such as Shooting galleries, ball toss games, and the earliest coin-operated machines, such as those which claim to tell a person their fortune or played mechanical music. The old midways of 1920s-era amusement parks (such as Coney Island in New York) provided the inspiration and atmosphere of later arcade games.

In the 1930s, the earliest coin-operated pinball machines were made. These early amusement devices were distinct from their later electronic cousins in that they were made of wood, did not have plungers or lit-up bonus surfaces on the playing field, and used mechanical instead of electronic scoring readouts. By around 1977, most pinball machines in production switched to using solid state electronics for both operation and scoring. Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated version of the Spacewar computer game. This is the earliest known instance of a coin-operated video game. Later in the same year, Nolan Bushnell created the first mass-manufactured such game, Computer Space, for Nutting Associates.

In 1972, Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari essentially created the coin-operated video game industry with the game Pong, the smash hit electronic ping pong video game. Pong proved to be popular, but imitators helped keep Atari from dominating the fledging coin-operated video game market. Video game arcades sprang up in shopping malls, and small “corner arcades” appeared in restaurants, grocery stores, bars and movie theaters all over the United States and other countries during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Games such as Space Invaders (1978), Galaxian (1979), Pac-Man (1980), Battlezone (1980), and Donkey Kong (1981) were especially popular.

During the late 70s and 80s, chains such as Chuck E Cheese, Ground Round, Dave and Busters, and Gatti’s Pizza combined the traditional restaurant and/or bar environment with arcades. [2]

By the late-1980s, the arcade video game craze was beginning to fade due to the reputation of arcades as being seedy, unsafe places as well as the advances in home video game console technology. Arcade video games experienced a resurgence with the advent of two-player fighting games such as Street Fighter II (1991) by Capcom, Mortal Kombat (1992) by Midway Games, Fatal Fury (1992), Killer Instinct (1994) by Rare, and King of Fighters (1994-2005) by SNK.

However by 1996, home video game consoles and computers with 3D accelerator cards had reached technological parity with arcade equipment—arcade games had always been based on commodity technology, but their advantage over previous generations of home system was in their ability to customize and use the latest graphics and sound chips, much as PC games of today do. Declines in arcade sales volume meant that this approach was no longer cost-effective. Furthermore, by the late 1990s and early 2000s, networked gaming via console and computers across the Internet had also appeared[3], replacing the venue of head to head competition and social atmosphere once provided solely by arcades[4].

The arcades also lost their status as the forefront of new game releases. Given the choice between playing a game at an arcade three or four times (perhaps 15 minutes of play for a typical arcade game), and renting, at about the same price, the exact same game—for a video game console—the console was the clear winner. Fighting games were the most attractive feature for arcades, since they offered the prospect of face-to-face competition and tournaments, which correspondingly led players to practice more (and spend more money in the arcade), but they could not support the business all by themselves. To remain viable, arcades added other elements to compliment the video games such as redemption games, merchandisers, and food service. Referred to as “fun centers” or “family fun centers” [5], some of the longstanding chains such as Chuck E. Cheese and Gatti’s Pizza (“GattiTowns”)[6] also changed to this format. Many old video game arcades have long since closed, and classic coin-operated games have become largely the province of dedicated hobbyists.

Today’s arcades have found a niche in games that use special controllers largely inaccessible to home users. An alternative interpretation (one which includes fighting games, which continue to thrive and require no special controller) is that the arcade game is now a more socially-oriented hangout, with games that focus on an individual’s performance, rather than the game’s content, as the primary form of novelty. Examples of today’s popular genres are rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution (1998) and DrumMania (1999), and rail shooters such as House of the Dead (1998) and Time Crisis.

Technology

Virtually all modern arcade games (other than the very traditional midway-type games at county fairs) make extensive use of solid state electronics and integrated circuits. Coin-operated arcade video games generally use custom per-game hardware with multiple CPUs, highly specialized sound and graphics chips and/or boards, and the latest in computer graphics display technology. Sometimes, arcade games are controllable via more immersing and realistic means than either PC or console games, and feature specialized ambiance or control accessories, including fully enclosed dynamic cabinets with force feedback controls, dedicated lightguns, rear-projection displays, reproductions of car or plane cockpits and even motorcycle or horse-shaped controllers, or even highly dedicated controllers such as dancing mats and fishing rods. These accessories are usually what set modern arcade games apart from PC or console games, as they are usually too bulky, expensive and specialized to be used with typical home PCs and consoles.

Arcade genre

Arcade games often have very short levels, simple, easy to grasp controllers, iconic characters, and rapidly increasing difficulty. They are designed as quick bursts of adrenaline-fueled thrills, as opposed to most console games, which feature more in-depth gameplay, and stronger storylines. This is due to being coin-operated, where the player is essentially renting the game for as long as their game avatar can stay alive (or until they run out of tokens). Games on consoles or PCs can be referred to as an “arcade game” if it shares these qualities, or if it’s a direct port of an arcade title.

Many independent developers are now producing games in the arcade genre that are designed specifically for use on the Internet. These games are usually designed with Flash/Java/DHTML and run directly in web-browsers.

Arcade racing games are those which have a simplified physics engine and do not require much learning time, in opposition to racing simulators. Cars can turn sharply without losing speed or overdrifting, and the AI rivals are sometimes programmed so they are always near the player (rubberband effect).

Arcade flight games also use simplified physics and controls in comparison to flight simulators. These are meant to have an easy learning curve, in order to preserve their action component. Increasing numbers of console flight arcade games, from Crimson Skies to Secret Weapons Over Normandy indicate the falling of manual-heavy flight sim popularity in favor of instant arcade flight action.