Well,
A few weeks ago I posted asking for feedback about SD vs. Aspyr's MJP. I
only heard from Tom ;-) so I solved my dilemma by getting both to try
out. Unfortunately the MJP disc actually contained Bonkheads so I haven't
been able to try MJP yet. However I have been playing SD for a while now
and have some comments/questions.
First of all... it seems awfully slow between hands. I can understand that if the AI is complex, each computer player has to 'think' for a bit between turns - but why would it take such a long time to set up each new hand? This is on a Mac with a 100MhZ PPC chip, System 7.6.1, 4x CD-ROM, tile animations turned on, standard tile set, tons of RAM allocated to the game, and minimal system install.
Second... it's nice that there are different voices, but as far as I can tell, the voices are randomly allocated to players. Is that true? I really don't like it when I get assigned a male voice. Another question I have about the voices is - is one of them speaking Japanese? By changing the language for the buttons to English or Chinese, I could see the spelling of "chow", "sequence", etc. However I can't figure out quite what some of the other players are saying ("seguo"?)
Third, where are the Hanafuda tiles for Shanghai? Are these available on the net somewhere? I like those the best, am not too excited by the "fantasy" or other options that seem to be included. Slowness seems to be a real problem here as well, compared to Shanghai II, which I still have and play a lot.
I do wish there was some way to install SD on my hard drive so that I could play when I'm on the road. That to me is the biggest bummer of all -- that the CD is necessary.
Now the positives: without knowing much of anything about Mah Jong, Shanghai: Dynasty was really easy to get up to speed with. I have learned a lot from the way it is implemented and shown on the screen. It's great to be able to experiment with different rules (jokers yes/no, special hands required/allowed/disallowed, etc.) while I am learning. The tile animations are really lovely.
And finally, a mixed positive/negative: the fact that it isn't possible to quit between hands, that the "Quit" function is disabled until a new hand has already been dealt, is DIABOLICAL! Makes it waaaaaay too easy to just keep playing... and playing... and playing... until it is 2 in the morning. ::sigh:: That was EVIL, I tell you.
Overall, I really dig the game, just wish it was speedier and more portable. Thanks!
- Sarah >
>From: sarahc@wrightinst.edu (Sarah C.)
>A few weeks ago I posted asking for feedback about SD vs. Aspyr's MJP. I
>only heard from Tom ;-) so I solved my dilemma by getting both to try
>out.
[snip]
>I have been playing SD for a while now
>and have some comments/questions. [snip]
Sarah,
I'm responding to you by direct Email. "Taking the discussion offline" is the
best way to go here, I think.
Tom Sloper, Activision
Senior Producer, Shanghai
tsloper@activision.com (weekdays)
Actsearch@aol.com (weekends)
news:rec.games.mahjong
The opinions expressed herein are those of the writer individually, not of
Activision.
On 25 Mar 1999 01:54:51 GMT, actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH) wrote:
>>From: sarahc@wrightinst.edu (Sarah C.)However, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who complains about
Shanghai's relative slowness... ;)
(although Sarah uses a totally different machine...)
Oh, by the way, did anyone download the latest version of Morejongg ?
(v7.0, released today...)
Sorry, I couldn't resist to talk about it : it's been eight months
since they released v6.1, and they didn't make any change to the code
itself !! They simply added a few tilesets, photos and musics... Funny
;) They've got a strange concept of "updating their software"... ;) I
wonder how many years it's been since they last changed their code
actually... ;) (two years ?? something like that.....)
Sorry again, as I said, I couldn't resist.... ;-) (Yes, I don't like Morejongg... Except for two cool musics...)
--
Rene-Gilles Deberdt (Naoki), Lille, France
Kyodai Mahjongg 7.77, http://come.to/kyodai
Cyber Namida, http://namida.animanga.com
Subject: Re: Shanghai: Dynasty - comments
From: actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH)
Date: 25 Mar 1999 02:50:49 GMT
[Snipped: who cares what he has to say?]
Perfect example of one reason why I prefer receiving Shanghai commentary offline.
Tom Sloper
The opinions expressed herein are my own, not those of my employer.
On 25 Mar 1999 02:50:49 GMT, actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH) wrote:
>[Snipped: who cares what he has to say?]Hey, what did I say wrong again ??
I didn't criticize Shanghai (and on the speed problem, you never
actually tried to discuss about that with me offline !!! after a day
or two you finally stopped writting to me !), I criticized Morejongg !
And it deserves even more than what I said yesterday... I've checked out Morejongg 6.1 again, and the "default" tileset in M7 is not a new tileset, it was already present in M6.1... So they added a few photos and musics, and that's a new major version... Cool :) I should do this for Kyodai... ;)
--
Rene-Gilles Deberdt (Naoki), Lille, France
Kyodai Mahjongg 7.77, http://come.to/kyodai
Cyber Namida, http://namida.animanga.com
Rene-Gilles wrote:
>Hey, what did I say wrong again ??Ahem. You... oh, never mind. It's fruitless to argue.
>(and on the speed problem, you neverMonsieur, in spite of my personal feelings on the matter, I did try to work with you about your Shanghai Dynasty concern, because you are a customer. After "a day or two" of several back-and-forth Emails, it became clear to me that your personal feelings towards Activision were more the issue than any actual problem. I explained that Shanghai Dynasty having a lot of high-end animations that "those other MJ solitaire games" don't, SD requires a high-end machine. We (you and I) determined that you do have a high-end machine, but you were still dissatisfied with the speed. I suggested turning off the animations and music to make it run faster. Most folks pick which way they want it -- fast, or fully loaded with bells & whistles. Most folks, when I explain it all to them, pick one (fast or fully loaded) and get back to playing and enjoying. But you continued to press for a solution. So you didn't like the speed of the game -- there was no actual problem, you were just nitpicking and grousing. I did not see that any purpose could be served by continuing to try to correspond with you on that topic. I do not expect that you will ever stop complaining about the way Activision came down on you for creating an unauthorized Shanghai game, and I do not think that any amount of customer support will ever make you satisfied. Thus I stopped that correspondence. I apologize to the group for airing this publicly, but I want it known to all Shanghai customers that Activision does not ignore its customers, even difficult customers.
Tom Sloper
The opinions expressed herein are my own, not those of my employer.
On 25 Mar 1999 18:32:49 GMT, actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH) wrote:
>Monsieur, in spite of my personal feelings on the matter, I did try to workYup.
>After "a day or two" of several back-and-forth Emails, it became clear to me1/ You're wrong. Indeed I had "personal feelings" before that
conversation, but you probably misunderstood me, because I was VERY
willing to cooperate with you (and especially understand why the game
was so slow on my computer), and our recent discussions had made me
changed my mind toward you.... The only person I have some
ressentiment (is that correct English??? ^^;) against, is the lawyer
who very roughly threatened me of lawsuits one week after I'd released
my freeware Mahjongg Solitaire.... But that is over since long, and I
had realized you, Tom, are very fond of Mahjongg and simply would
rather discuss about Mahjongg itself than about lawsuits and so. I'm
still very aware of that, and I hope you'll accept my request for the
"white flag" ;)
2/ As a customer, I'm still requiring to know why the game is so slow
on my computer.... Oh, and by the way : now I have a P3/450 and it's
still as slow as before.... So, it's definitely NOT an optimization
problem... It's probably got something to do with an internal graphic
module, or maybe the language in which it was programmed... Or even
maybe the way the mouse clicks are handled (for example, I experienced
"OnClick" events in Kyodai 2.0x, which were much slower than the
"OnMouseUp" events used since Kyodai 2.8...)
If you don't want to comment on the speed, that's fine... But you
can't stop me from commenting by myself on Sarah's message about the
slowness on her Mac...! It's not a "forbidden zone", I think...! We
can discuss freely about this, no....?
As I've always told you, I'm a fan of Shanghai Dynasty's Mahjongg
module, and it's the only Mahjongg game I play regularly... So, I'm
not trying to destroy Activision or anything.... I'm just wondering,
that's all...!! ;-)
Still, I'd removed the tile animations from Shanghai, but the tiles were still slow to be "selected"....
>We (you and I) determined that you do have a high-end machine, butI'm not "dissatisfied"... I also played the game with several friends, they all thought the game was very slow... And I didn't pay them...
>I suggested turning off theWhich I did.....
>Most folks pick which way theyIn both ways, the game was still as slow as ever (or "as fast", depending on your tastes.... ;)). It means the music didn't slow down the game at all... (The tile animations did, of course... But I never played with the tile animations, since they always slow down your play-rhythm...)
>Most folks, when II'm sorry if it appeared so, but as you know, my English is not perfect, and maybe you simply misunderstood what I was saying...
>I did not see that any purpose could be served by continuing toNo, Activision didn't stop me from creating a Shanghai game, they stopped me from using the "Shanghai" name, which I understand perfectly... (Only, they could have asked more kindly, since basically every MJ-Solitaire creator is a Shanghai fan and is a very good customer for Activision... As I am ;))
>and I do not think that any amount of customerAnd I'm not willing to destroy Activision or anything... Again, if you read my Kyodai help files, you'll see that I mention Shanghai Dynasty as using two of my layouts without permission, something I finally permitted because and only because without Shanghai there would be no Shanghai, but moreover I actually give Shanghai some publicity by specifying that I'm addicted to its Mahjongg module... The exact word is "Highly recommended :-)"
So, let's say we're even on this point.... And I hope we can have better relationship in the future... (I said, I don't have anything more against you since that very e-mail discussion, and I thought you had stopped replying because you had a lot of work to do and you forgot me... So maybe you could do the upgrade as well, thank you ;))
--
Rene-Gilles Deberdt (Naoki), Lille, France
Kyodai Mahjongg 7.77, http://come.to/kyodai
Cyber Namida, http://namida.animanga.com
Subject: Re: Shanghai: Dynasty - comments
From: actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH)
Date: 26 Mar 1999 00:07:07 GMT
Monsieur:
White flag recognized. As for my game's speed, I cannot see for myself how
bad a problem it is for you, and I do not think there is anything more that can
be done to make it faster on your machine. Especially if all your friends also
say it is slow on their machines. I'm sorry it's not fast enough for you. Now
can we please stop having technical support discussions in public forums?
Tom Sloper
The opinions expressed herein are my own, not those of my employer.
On 26 Mar 1999 00:07:07 GMT, actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH) wrote:
>Monsieur:Thanks ;)
>As for my game's speed, I cannot see for myself howIt is a bad problem indeed... At least for the "timed" games (everything except Mahjongg.....)
>and I do not think there is anything more that canYup. That's why I only play Mahjongg on Shanghai Dynasty... ;)
>Especially if all your friends alsoYep... And I tested it on a total of four machines, ranging from Pentium 90 to Pentium III/450... It's funny to see that the speed is apprxomately the same on these two machines....
> I'm sorry it's not fast enough for you. Nowyup, yup... (scared? ;))
you know, I also have my own speed problems with Kyodai... I just
discovered that when you launch a second copy of my game, the second
copy is actually twice faster than the first copy... (well, go and ask
Microsoft why Windows does that, and only for the second copy ! ;))
--
Rene-Gilles Deberdt (Naoki), Lille, France
Kyodai Mahjongg 7.77, http://come.to/kyodai
Cyber Namida, http://namida.animanga.com
I thought we had a truce going?
Tom Sloper
The opinions expressed herein are my own, not those of my employer.
On 26 Mar 1999 00:39:21 GMT, actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH) wrote:
>>yup, yup... (scared? ;))I was only teasing you ;)
--
Rene-Gilles Deberdt (Naoki), Lille, France
Kyodai Mahjongg 7.77, http://come.to/kyodai
Cyber Namida, http://namida.animanga.com
From: naoki@club-internet.fr.no-spam (Naoki Haga)
>>>yup, yup... (scared? ;))
>
>Me:
>>I thought we had a truce going?
>
>From: naoki@club-internet.fr.no-spam (Naoki Haga)
>I was only teasing you ;)
Parable.
It's wartime.
Two soldiers in a remote part of the line declare a truce.
GRAY: Hey, let's declare a truce, whaddaya say?
BLUE: Okay, fair enough. Truce.
SOUND:
BLUE: Hey! Don't shoot! We have a truce!
GRAY: Oh, quit yer whining! I didn't hit you!
SOUND:
BLUE: What the hell??? You shot me in the arm!
GRAY: You are the biggest sissy! It's just a flesh wound!
SOUND:
BLUE: I thought we had a truce! You just shot my ear off!
GRAY: Of course we have a truce. If we didn't, you'd be dead. Now will you stop complaining? Sheesh!
SOUND:
BLUE: Um, that bomb took my leg off.
GRAY: I can't believe what a complainer you are. If you don't shut up, we're just going to have to call off the truce....
Tom Sloper
The opinions expressed herein are my own, not those of my employer.
On 26 Mar 1999 06:11:48 GMT, actsearch@aol.com (ACTSEARCH) wrote:
>From: naoki@club-internet.fr.no-spam (Naoki Haga)(..)
Excellent ;)
--
Rene-Gilles Deberdt (Naoki), Lille, France
Kyodai Mahjongg 7.77, http://come.to/kyodai
Cyber Namida, http://namida.animanga.com