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Shanghai
 
FAQ
NES 1987

Version: 1.01

BASICS
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* Controls:

     The D-Pad is used to control the cursor. Use the A-button to cycle
     through the options at the lower screen.

     During the game, select two tiles with the A-button and press a third
     time to remove them from the board.
     

* Tile: Choose a tile set. All the patterns are the same, with pre-set tile
        selections.

     Asshi!                                      Many Pairs
     Kitachan                                    One.Two.Three
     2 Bam Or Not                                Pairs To King
     Dots Alot                                   Season's Four
     Dots Nice                                   Sevens Up
     Dragon's Song                               Split Fives
     Dragonrider 3                               Sum Plum
     Fours Galore                                Three.Two.One
     Go West                                     Windfall
     Hiro Kun


* Newgame:
  
     Solitir: The single player game.
     
     Tunamnt: Tournament mode, consecutive of sets.
     
     Chaleng: 2-player competitive mode.


* Help:

     Backup: Undo a move.

     Retry:  Restart the puzzle.
     
     Find:   Shows a hint for helping you find matching tiles.
     
     Peek:   Look underneath tiles, it means you need to restart a game,
             however, so only use this when there are no more moves to see
             where required tiles are, for next time you play this set.


* Settings:

     Messages: Choose whether or not to receive game messages when you play,
               such as non-matching tiles.
     
     Music:    Select from three different music tracks played during the
               game, or have nothing at all if you prefer.

The Level at the bottom shows you the height of the tiles, as the game is only
two-dimensional. It is recommended to learn this early as often one forgets
the inside are actually higher and free to remove.


MAHJONG
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* Rules:

The object of the Mahjong solitaire board game is to match and remove alike
tiles and get rid of the entire stack of five layers. To removing a tile it
must be:

Free:  No other tile is lying above or is partially covering it and no other
       tile is lying to the left and to the right of it. In other words, one
       side must be free for the tile to be removed.

Pairs: One must remove the tiles in pairs. Two tiles are identical if they
       look exactly the same such as "O". Other pairs include flower and
       season tiles. Any of these tiles can be matched up with another.


* Tiles:

A MahJong set consists of 144 tiles. These are split in seven groups, called
sets. There are nine ball tiles, nine bamboo tiles, nine characters tiles and
four seasons tiles. Each season only appear once. There are also four wind
tiles: East, South, West and North represented as their Chinese characters.
The four flowers tiles also only appear once each: ORC (Orchid), PLM (Plum),
BAM (Bamboo) and MUM (Chrysanthemum). Any flower can be paired up with
another. Finally, there are the dragons tiles: Green Dragon, White Dragon 
and Red dragon. They are badly drawn in this game, but matching up two
look-alike tiles is not as hard as knowing what it represents.


* Strategy:

When removing a pair, an identical pair exists in the layout. Check if the
other pair has any problem being removed later or one of the tiles you want
to remove now should rather be used with another of its kind.

Long rows and tall stacks are hardest to remove and block the most tiles. Work
on those first but still keep the other strategies in mind when doing so.

Plan ahead to see which areas might have problems and which tiles need special
attention, so you do not remove a pair and get stranded with one you cannot
remove.

If all of a kind can be removed, do so straight away to clear space. An
emptier board is much easier on the eye and mind and after all the objective
is to remove all tiles anyway.

Using the hints shows you A possibility, not the best one. Following this 
advice might lead into a dead end.

If you have the choice between 3 tiles, keep the one that is least
affecting the rest of tiles, in other words remove the one that free up the
most tiles.  


* Game Modes:

Solitaire:
            1-Player, remove all tiles without time limit.

Tournament:
            1 point for each tile removed. Go through several puzzles with or
            without a time limit. Choose 5, 10 or 20 minutes to complete as
            many sets as you can.

Challenge: 
            2-Player time-limited turns. Choose between 10, 20, 30, 60 seconds
            per turn. Player 1 starts. A player gets one point per tile
            removed. Inevitably, some turns will result in a match being
            removed and some won't. At the end (when the layout is clear or
            unwinnable) the player with the biggest score wins.


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