Leon's Mahjong

The Challenge Developing and publishing Leon’s Mahjong was, and continues to be, a challenge in many aspects. But there was one particular challenge I didn’t see coming: how much “retro” to incorporate into the retro software we create? The more faithful it is to its original versions from 20 or 30 years ago, the more it clashes with current user experience practices and modern devices. The Mahjong solitaire that Leon’s Mahjong is based on dates back to the late 80s. Back then, there were no mobile devices with touchscreens, computer screens only existed in 4:3 aspect ratio, and color palettes were generally restricted. ...

Intro Sometime in June 2023, my son Leon brought from Köln a mid-90s laptop with Windows 95 installed. The only game it had was a version of the famous Chinese solitaire Mahjong called “Shanghai II”. Leon didn’t know the game, and he got really excited about it. When I saw the game, I told him: “But that version is terrible, it looks horrible. There was an older version, on the Commodore Amiga, that I used to play with my dad that was much better.” Seeing the connection I had with that game, he said: “Why don’t you program it? So it’s available on modern computers?” ...