Tiles
32 Tiles
32 
Tiles 32 is a match-the-tiles game based on Mah Jongg. However, it's much more than simply Mah Jongg. In fact, I think I can safely call Tiles 32 a game design foundation upon which Mah Jongg can be built. But, like any foundation, Mah Jongg is only one of countless tile-removal games that can be constructed and played with Tiles 32.
You can use different tile graphics, different layouts, different tile sizes and aspects, different tile thicknesses, and even different play rules. And best of all, you can design your own games and share them with others!
While Mah Jongg may use different tile images, the game for all intents and purposes remains the same. Tiles 32, on the other hand, can play games simple enough for a small child to enjoy. It can also play games that would mentally tax even the most skilled and hard-core players of the Mah Jongg genre player.
A wide variety of layouts is included with Tiles 32, but remember, that's only the beginning. I encourage you to email me your layout creations (yes, that's an email link) so I can share them with others. Some layouts will be free. Others will be combined into groups for which I'll charge a small fee to cover my storage and download bandwidth costs -- but the layouts would still be considered free public domain. Or, if you create a new tile set and layouts to go with it and consider it a marketable addon product, I may be willing to put your collection on the site as a "for sale" item for which I get a small commission. But one way or another, I hope to provide a lot of continuous "bang for the buck" with this game. Of course, if you're very creative and have a number of different tile designs or layouts that you'd like to share on your own web site, let me know. I'll be glad to put a link from here to your Tiles 32 site!! If you charge a modest fee to cover your expenses, I don't mind. Internet space and bandwidth do cost money, which is why I have to charge for contributed files. All I ask is that you don't include "bootleg" copies of the latest registered version of Tiles 32 on your site, or offer to "sell registered copies" of Tiles 32. Both of those would, quite obviously, be violations of the copyright laws.
Tiles 32 is a 32-bit program (hmmm.. maybe that's where I got the name???) that requires Windows 95 or greater (I use it on Win XP). Tiles 32 should work with 16-color graphis, will work reasonably well (except for opening screen & default game) with 256-color graphics, and works best of all with 16- or 24-bit graphics (which most modern systems use anyway).
Note: Tiles 32 uses its own tile graphics format. Tile set files for Mah Jongg VGA, Mah Jongg for Windows, or MJ97 are not currently supported. If you need to use these tile sets, you should continue to use Mah Jongg for WIndows or MJ97.
You can download the shareware version (v1.0) of Tiles 32 from here.(link temporarily not working)
Extra Layouts
This is a small collection of very easy layouts to solve. These are great for showing someone how to play the game using a small and easy to win sample layout. They'd also be good for children -- the little ones would get the board cleared before becoming bored with the whole thing. These use the default tile set, so will work with all versions of Tiles 32.
You'll know why this one's called pyramid when you see it! It lets you remove tiles any which way, but don't think it's gonna be easy to solve. This one takes a lot of careful looking and planning. Note that this uses the stone256.bmp tile set. I'm not sure if that's included in all the shareware versions or not, so this layout may only work on registered copies of Tiles 32.
This is a strange one. The name is appropriate, as you'll see! This layout uses the Wingdings tile set. If your version of Tiles 32 doesn't have that set, you'll need to purchase the registered version to use this layout.
Vetical Mah Jongg. Yes!! Literally!! Try it if you don't believe me. This one uses the standard Mah Jongg tiles, so it should work with all shareware and registered versions of Tiles 32. See, even those of you who don't pay get a little something every so often!! :)
Registration fee for Tiles 32 is $20. When you register, you'll be able to download a copy of the latest version. To register Tiles 32, simply click the Buy Now button below. When I receive your payment, I'll send you a link to download a password protected ZIP file of the latest version and the password needed to use it. Then, just copy the install files to a temporary folder and run the install. Be sure to keep the ZIP file and password (or unzipped install files) in case you need to re-install Tiles 32 in the future!
New features to v1.1:
Automatic
move check
lets you know when no moves are left
Game pause to
handle
all those disasters that seem to happen
Re-shuffle of
remaining
tiles to remaining locations will help you out of sticky situations
New tile sets
&
games
New features to v1.2:
Add .BMP
files as backgrounds
to tile layouts
Right-click
to view
a stack of tiles
Let the
computer select
a random game, or choose one from a selection of 65000
When you
select a tile,
Tiles 32 can indicate, by a sound, how many of that type are left
Layout Design Bug
When you enter layout design mode, do a new layout, and save the layout, Tiles 32 DOES NOT re-calculate the size of the new layout. Instead, the size of the layout that was active when the tile designer was started will be used. This will either cut off tiles from the bottom and right side of your layout, if your layout was bigger than the initial one, or squish your layout into the upper left corder if your layout was smaller than the initial one.
The work-around is very simple. Just exit to the game design mode with your new design to test it. At that time, the new layout size will be properly calculated and passed to the play mode. Then, return to the design mode. Now the size is properly set and you can safely save your new layout.
