Background

History

Mahjong Solitaire is a puzzle game that uses Mahjong tiles but is not the same as the four-player table game. Here is how it grew from parlours to phones.

Traditional Mahjong

Mahjong developed in China in the 19th century and spread worldwide in the early 20th century. The classic game is played by four people: building melds, drawing and discarding tiles, and scoring hands. It is social, strategic, and rules vary by region (Cantonese, Riichi, American, and more).

A solo puzzle on tiles

Mahjong Solitaire (also called Shanghai Solitaire or simply Shanghai) stacks tiles in layers and asks one player to remove all pairs. The “turtle” layout became the best-known shape. Unlike table Mahjong, there is no betting, no opponents, and no hand scoring—only pattern recognition and planning ahead.

Computer era

Brodie Lockard created Mah-Jongg in 1981 while recovering from an accident, using an early PLATO system layout. Activision’s Shanghai (1986), designed by Lockard, brought the puzzle to millions of home computers. The name Shanghai became so common that many players still use it for any tile-matching solitaire.

Windows later bundled similar games; Palm Pilots and feature phones carried them forward. Each version introduced new shapes, timers, and scoring—but the core rule stayed: match free pairs until the board is clear or stuck.

On the web today

Modern engines like Phaser make it easy to run smooth tile graphics in the browser. TapMahjong follows that lineage: classic turtle-style play, multiple layouts, touch-first controls, and personal best times stored on your device.

Why it still works

The appeal is simple: readable rules, satisfying removals, and layouts that look harder than they are until you miss one early pair. A three-minute round or a thirty-minute deep solve both fit the same game.