Most 8-bit developers these days are out there releasing as many ‘shoot em ups’ and platformers as they can. Not the Amstrad CPC guys from Cargosoft, they take their time developing games, creating games that aren’t based on populist themes, so much time in fact has gone into their game development that since 2009 they have only made two games, the stunning graphical adventure, Orion Prime (2009) and now the incredible Imperial Mahjong (2016).

Incredible may not be the word to use, absolutely gob smacking may be more suitable, as Imperial Mahjong on the Amstrad CPC, is just so crazy good. The last time i got to play a Mahjong game on any computer was way, way, way back, in the days of the Microsoft Windows 3.1. Entertainment Packs remember them, those quirky addictive basic games like minesweeper, hearts, solitaire, as well as Mahjong also known as Taipei.

Using Microsoft’s Taipei as the benchmark, none of the 8-bit machines to my knowledge have ever even come close to demonstrating a Mahjong game of such high quality. Orbit, the space themed Mahjong game on the C64 (CP Verlag / Game On magazine), was a decent effort. Colossus MahJong on C64, Spectrum, Amstrad CPC (1987) and Mah Jong on the Spectrum (1984), were pretty ordinary to say the least.

All this talk about Mahjong, seeing its not a common or popular game in the western world, you must be thinking what the hell is it about ? For those readers who are unaware of what Mahjong is, basically speaking, it is a game of solitaire but not with cards, you play it with 144 Chinese Mahjong tiles. The tiles are laid out randomly, you can only match tiles that are ‘free’ and not obstructed or locked in by other surrounding tiles to their left, right or above them. Once you have got a set of tiles with the same number, symbol or character to match, they disappear and uncover more tiles, the more tiles you match the better chance you have of completing the game by removing all of the tiles from the board.

Cool board designs

While this sounds easy enough, what needs to be remembered is that the tiles are not flat on a single layer, that would be far too easy. Tiles are stacked up upon each other, this is where the difficulty is raised and the addictiveness of the game comes into play. You can’t just simply match and remove all the tiles from board, a tile needs to be free to do so, if a tile is placed underneath other tiles you can’t just swap them over. Gameplay consists of a simple concept but one that proves to hook you in no matter what age, experience or level of ability you have.

Cargosoft’s, Imperial Mahjong, is just so impressive on so many fronts. The game uses an EGX mode also referred to as an Extended Graphics mode. In the Amstrad CPC’s normal mode 2, only 2 colours can be displayed. But with EGX2 mode it displays 4 colors in a 640 x 200 screen. In the Amstrad CPC’s normal mode 1, only 4 colours can be displayed, but with the EGX mode, it can display 16 colors in a 320 x 200 screen.

Multi-Mode technique for mixing graphic modes is very old, but it’s the first time it’s been used this way. The graphic mode changes at each line.

So that’s some pretty amazing graphical features and the result, well just look at those stupendously gorgeous screenshots. The beauty of Imperial Mahjong doesn’t stop there though, a game that’s all graphics with no gameplay and no sound will never make a great game. However this game includes both great gameplay and sounds. The music features are outstanding for an Amstrad game. It’s the first game on a CPC to have digi-drums during the whole game. There is a sample during the loading of the game at full speed. The introduction music uses 3-channel sample-SID’s in stereo and to top it all off there are 6 different tunes with more than 30 minutes of music included.

This is all well and good, but just how does it play ? Are you kidding me, did you even have to bother asking me that question ? It plays like your best Christmas day ever! All other 8-bit Mahjong type games are the James May or ‘Captain Slow’ category (as in the tv show Top Gear / The Grand Tour) and Imperial Mahjong on the CPC, is The Stig (also from Top Gear), driving a hot lap in a McLaren 675LT. It really is that much fun to play, we are talking about a 128kb game that rivals anything from any other system with much more memory, greater graphic ability and better sound capabilities.

Imperial Mahjong is just so damn impressive from the start to the end. If you press the ‘ESC’ key, a whole heap of lovely options pops up along with a very helpful playing guide. You can change the music, turn the music on or off, change the board layout, ask for hints and so much more. It is packed full of features you won’t find in any other similar 8-bit Mahjong game.

Many, many, many options and features.

That loading screen and opening music score captures the oriental background and history of the game so magically, it’s hard not to be blown away from the outset. If I have any gripes about this game, it is that the tile heights are a little tricky to see at times. You could be clicking on a tile and nothing happens and you still think the tile is ‘free’. While playing the game via CPC emulator, Winape, I found some issues with the responsiveness of moving the cursor, a small frustration that was easily overcome with patience.

As the coders recommend, for the best results of the extended graphics, Imperial Mahjong should be played on a real CPC with colour monitor. You are going to need 128kb RAM and a disc drive to play it though. I can’t help but be incredibly impressed with Imperial Mahjong, it’s such a beautiful CPC game, so easy to play, so incredibly relaxing and enjoyable. An unbelievable achievement from the guys at Cargosoft to get so much out of the Amstrad CPC, I absolutely love this game, it’s a CPC classic !

(c) Cargosoft
Code & Music: Julien Nevo (Targhan / Arkos)
Graphics: Sylvestre Campin (Super Sylvestre)

Game Released: 2016.

PROS
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• Best 8-bit Mahjong game you’ll ever play.
• Amazing GFX.
• Incredible sounds.
• Fantastic gameplay.

CONS
========

• Responsive issues with cpc emulator.
• Some of the tile heights tricky to see, may not be as detailed as they could be.

Overall 98%

CPC4EVA