MFC PSP (2004) Guide by Barticle at hotmail.com - Version 1.00 - 9 Sept 2019 _____ _____ _________ ___ ___ ___ _________ ___ ___ _______ | \/ || _ || | | | | || || \ | || | | || (_) || |_| |. | || _ || \| || ___| | |\/| || _ || _ ||\__| || (_) || || | | | | | || | | || | | || || || |\ || | | |____| |____||___| |___||___| |___||_______||_________||___| \___||_______| ______ ___ ______ ___ ___ _______ ______ ___ ___ ___ ________ | || || || | | || | | || | | | | || _ | | __|| || __|| |_| ||_ _| | __|| | | | | || |_) | | _| | || | || _ | | | | |__ | |__ | |_| || _ < | | | || | || | | | | | | || || || |_) | |___| |___||______||___| |___| |___| |______||______||_________||________| 01 INTRODUCTION 04 MAIN MENU 07 GAME MODES 10 RECORDS 13 RULES 02 FEATURE LIST 05 CONTROLS 08 RANKINGS 11 MAHJONG GUIDE 14 CONTACT 03 INITIAL SET-UP 06 GAMEPLAY 09 QUIZ MODE 12 OPTIONS 15 THANKS .------------------------------------------------------------------------------. | To jump to any section of this document use your web browser's Find function | | (with Ctrl+F on a PC or Cmd+F on a Mac probably) and search for the letter S | | followed by the exact section number - for example "s03" to find Section 03. | '------------------------------------------------------------------------------' .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 01 | INTRODUCTION s01 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' This is a guide to the Japanese PSP video-game Mahjong Fight Club* (or "MFC" for short). Specifically this guide is for the original 2004 version (red cover). I previously wrote a full guide to the updated 2006 "Zenkoku Taisen Ban" edition (gold cover) so obviously I've recycled some of the content from there. You'll want to use that guide instead if you have the 2006 version of the game. https://preview.tinyurl.com/MFCPSP2006 If you're new to mahjong or you play a version other than the modern Japanese "Riichi" rules used in this game, I would recommend my beginners guide which is available on the wiki site for the Yakuza game series. https://yakuza.wikia.com/wiki/Barticle's_Introduction_to_Japanese_Mahjong If instead you want a complete guide to the terminology and rules of Japanese mahjong, check out my illustrated hyperlinked PDF guide on the USPML website. http://www.uspml.com/site/downloads.htm (Barticle's Japanese Mahjong Guide) As with any Japanese mahjong game, you'll need to be able to read the Japanese kanji characters for the numbers 1 to 9 and the four winds (compass directions) plus the katakana words Chii, Pon, Kan, Riichi, Tsumo and Ron. Alternatively for quick reference you can use the translation chart I made for MFC PS3. https://preview.tinyurl.com/MFCPS3gif If you want to discuss Japanese mahjong, join the international community of enthusiasts on Reach Mahjong's English forums. Hope to see you there. :) http://www.reachmahjong.com/en/forum As usual I've used both Japanese and English mahjong terminology throughout this guide, generally with the Japanese term first and the common English equivalent afterwards in brackets. Following ninety years of tradition in English-language mahjong texts I refer to the three types of set as Chow (a "sequence" of three consecutive tiles in the same suit), Pung (a "triplet" of three identical tiles) and Kong (a "quad" of four identical tiles). This guide is designed to be viewed in a fixed-width font (preferably Courier New) and with 80 characters per line. Since December 2018 the default font for GameFAQs text guides is Courier New only when viewing on desktop platforms. *The original Japanese title is Maajan Kakutou Kurabu which simply means Mahjong Fight Club. It's also given in katakana script as "Maajan Faito Kurabu". The word "Kurabu" is quite interesting - it's a transliteration of the English word "club" (Japanese has no L sound so this becomes an R) but instead of being spelled in katakana in the main title (like most foreign loanwords) it's spelled in kanji characters using an older system called Ateji. It's clever because not only do the three kanji spell out "Ku-Ra-Bu" but they can also be translated as "together-fun-place" which could be taken as a definition of the word "club"! .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 02 | FEATURE LIST s02 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' Since it can be difficult to find any detailed information in English about the content of a foreign game I like to include a quick description of the gameplay features when I write a guide for a Japanese game - so here it is! o modern Japanese mahjong including Riichi, Dora and tiered limits o 38 rule options (see Section 13) o two gameplay modes (see Section 06) with persistent ranking (see Section 08) o local multiplayer for two to four players o save hands/matches and watch replays later (see Section 10) o Dora flash effect and waits indicator (see Section 06) o "auto win", "auto Kan" and "no calls" functions o jump to your Tsumo (drawn tile) with a single button press o quiz mode with four categories (see Section 09) o basic glossary of mahjong terms (see Section 11) o unlockable music from vintage Konami game/s (?) o comprehensive player stats (see Section 10) o 32-page full colour manual o Japanese language only Overall the game has the usual excellent presentation, options, functionality and stats that I've come to expect from the MFC series. I expected this original 2004 edition (red cover) to be the same as the 2006 version just without the online play, however there are several differences. This earlier version does lack the online multiplayer mode but it required a paid subscription and is probably long-dead by now so it's no great loss. Other missing features are the 48 pro opponents from the Japan Pro Mahjong League (JPML), Pro CPU Mode and some gameplay options (Tsumogiri highlights, speed and voice options). The original edition also has slightly different rule options (see Section 13) and there are fewer stats - although there are still plenty! The one advantage of the older edition is that it has Quiz Mode (see Section 09) which was cut from the updated 2006 version. This is a nice feature but I would gladly trade it for the option to increase play speed! Your opponents' ponderous turn speed is painfully slow (about 2 secs per turn) and is especially annoying combined with the mandatory time-limit for Fight Club Mode in the 2004 game. .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 03 | INITIAL SET-UP s03 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' On the title screen simply press the Start button to proceed. Remember this is a Japanese video-game so throughout the game you'll need to press Circle to confirm and Cross to cancel.* The first time you load the game you'll need to enter some basic details.. Firstly you need to enter your name. You're given an on-screen keyboard with English capital letters and Japanese hiragana and katakana characters. Press Circle to pick a character or Cross to backspace delete. At the top-left the first option is Confirm and the second is Delete. You'll notice that you can only input up to five characters for your name. This seems a little short by Western standards but since each kana represents a syllable (or technically "mora") in Japanese you have enough for five syllables. Even if you're unfamiliar with Japanese writing systems, you might like to play around with writing your name in kana. Look up "katakana" on Wikipedia for more information and a handy conversion table. The second thing to do is enter a four-digit numerical password. Use the little keypad that looks like a tiny calculator then select the "OK" button to confirm. Finally you need to choose which area of Japan to represent. There are two parts to this - first you pick a region and then a prefecture within that region. The regions are presented to you in the form of a map, in the following order (from top-right to bottom-left). | | number of | region/s | prefectures ===+======================================+============= 1 | Hokkaidou and Touhoku | 7 ---+--------------------------------------+------------- 2 | Kantou | 7 ---+--------------------------------------+------------- 3 | Chuubu and Hokuriku | 10 ---+--------------------------------------+------------- 4 | Kinki (also known as Kansai) | 6 ---+--------------------------------------+------------- 5 | Chuugoku and Shikoku | 9 ---+--------------------------------------+------------- 6 | Kyuushuu and the Okinawa archipelago | 8 It doesn't really matter what you select here. I don't have any affiliation to any specific part of Japan so I always choose Chiba-ken as my prefecture since this was previously home to the Mahjong Museum. (now sadly closed) Confirm your choice by picking "YES". After that you'll get a grey screen asking if you want to create a save file on your memory stick - pick the "YES" option again to accept, wait for the update to complete and then click Circle a few times to get to the main menu. (Every time you launch the game in future you'll be prompted to confirm loading data from your save file and to enter your passcode.) *Circle and cross are the Japanese equivalent of tick and cross. Bonus trivia: the circle is called Maru which also means "round" (and the word Marumaru means "chubby") so that neatly explains the name of a certain Youtube celeb kitty. :) .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 04 | MAIN MENU s04 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' The main menu for the game has the following six options: .-------------------. .-------------------. (see Section 07) | Fight Club Mode | | Free Rules Mode | (see Section 07) '-------------------' '-------------------' .-------------------. .-------------------. (see Section 09) | Quiz Mode | | Records | (see Section 10) '-------------------' '-------------------' .-------------------. .-------------------. (see Section 11) | Mahjong Guide | | Options | (see Section 12) '-------------------' '-------------------' If you use the suspend function to leave a match during play (see Section 06), the top two boxes will be replaced with the option to resume the match. Use that and pick "YES" to continue playing or "NO" to delete the save file - deleting will apply the usual range of penalties for losing a match! .-------------------. | Resume Play | '-------------------' .-------------------. .-------------------. | Quiz Mode | | Records | '-------------------' '-------------------' .-------------------. .-------------------. | Mahjong Guide | | Options | '-------------------' '-------------------' You can exit the game by pressing the PS or Home button as usual. The next couple of sections of this guide explain how to play the game. .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 05 | CONTROLS s05 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' Press X to Jason. Sorry, wrong game! :) This section lists the controls that are available during mahjong play. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Buttons ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' Remember to use Circle to confirm and Cross to cancel on all in-game menus. It's also worth knowing that you can tap the R button to skip through some long lines of text, for example when you save your game or start a new quiz. d-pad* left/right - move cursor to select tile This control can be used during your opponents' turns too so you can save time my selecting a tile before your turn starts. That's especially handy when playing with the time-limit on your moves (see Section 12). d-pad up/down - select option on pop-up command menu You can choose between multiple options with the d-pad. The bottom option always cancels/skips. Circle button - discard tile - confirm selected menu option This is the standard button for confirming your actions in Japanese Playstation games (although some modern PS4 games will switch to Cross on a Western console). If you have a choice of which tiles from your hand to use on a Chii call, you need to select both of them from your hand after selecting the Chii command. Cross button - cancel pop-up menu - toggle between current tile and the one just drawn (the default option on the Chii/Pon/Kan pop-up menu is cancel so you can also dismiss it by pressing Circle, although I think it's better to get in the habit of always using Cross as the dedicated Cancel button) Triangle button - extra thinking time You can press Triangle once per hand to be given an extra ten seconds to make your move. This function only applies in Free Rules Mode when you have the time-limit option applied (see Section 12) or in Fight Club Mode which always uses a timer. Square button - toggle calls ON/OFF When the side-bar indicator is highlighted, the game will automatically skip any calls (Chii/Pon/Kan). (this function resets to OFF at the end of the hand) Circle button (hold) - toggle auto-win ON/OFF When the side-bar indicator is highlighted, the game will automatically declare a win whenever possible. Of course during your turn the Circle button is used to discard tiles so you can only perform this action at the very start of a hand, while the other players are taking their turns or after you've declared Riichi. (this function resets to OFF at the end of the hand) d-pad* up (hold) - toggle auto-Kan ON/OFF When the side-bar indicator is highlighted, the game will automatically declare a Kong set when possible. (this function resets to OFF at the end of the hand) Select button - review rule settings This shows the rule options applied in the current game, either the fixed Fight Club rules in Fight Club Mode or your own custom rule-set in Free Rules Mode. These are shown over seven pages in the same layout used on the rule options screen (see Section 13). Use the L/R buttons to cycle through the pages. (NB the game is not paused after pressing Select!) Start button - suspend match Pick "YES" to suspend the match and save your progress or "NO" to return to the game. After suspending a match, you can use the top option on the main menu to resume play. Pick "YES" to re-enter the match or "NO" to delete the save. (and take a loss!) (NB the game is not paused after pressing Start!) d-pad* down - hide/unhide your hand tiles You can lay your loose tiles face-down on the tabletop, although your selected tile will still be visible. (I guess this might be useful with local multiplayer?) d-pad* up - unhide your hand tiles When your tiles are flat on the table you can restore the normal view with d-pad up or down. (doing this in the 2006 edition of MFC PSP replays the shiny effect which indicates Dora tiles in your hand, but sadly the original 2004 version of the game lacks this handy quality-of-life feature) R button (hold) - display player information panels This shows info panels for each player (see below). In Fight Club Mode after entering the Dan grades (see Section 08) pictures and colours are added to indicate the god to which each player is affiliated. The dealer (east) is marked with a flashing gold kanji. The hand count (and any Honba count) is shown in the top-left of the screen and if any bonus is applied (see Section 07) this will be indicated in the top-right. d-pad* up/down - cycle info panel views (while holding R) You can cycle between three different views: The default view shows the seat wind, name, rank and points for each player. Yellow text at the bottom of a panel indicates the player in 1st place. For the other players the orange text shows the points gap to 1st. Your progress towards your next ranking is also shown beside your rank, for example 245/300 (XP) in the Kyuu ranks or 3/5 (Orbs) in the Dan grades. The second view shows your prefecture (or "CPU" for bots) and the name and rank again. Below that is your match win-rate and your placings (1st to 4th) from your latest five matches. (For some reason your winning rate is split into three separate figures, e.g. if your win percent is 38.7% it will be shown as 3# 8# 7# using three kanji characters.) I haven't come close to getting one yet but the blank row between your win-rate and five placings is probably used to show how many Yakuman wins you've had. The third view just shows the graph plotting your Four Gods attribute ratings (see Section 08). Specifically this is your graph for the current mode and duration only, e.g. two-round matches in Fight Club Mode. L button (hold) - view additional control prompts (see below) The lower half of the side-bar shows prompts for several of the button functions. Hold L to view the other three control prompts which are not usually displayed. *You can also use the thumbstick for any d-pad controls if you want. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Side-Bar ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' The bar down the right side of the screen during play displays prompts for all the button controls and some useful info. .----. |####| <- green = one-round match / magenta = two-round match :----: |####| <- hand count (e.g. East 1 or South 3) / lime green text = final hand |=x02| <- Honba count |=x01| <- number of Riichi stakes on the table | ## | | 69 | <- number of tiles remaining to be drawn from the live wall []===: | ## | <- hold R button to view player info panels (see above) []---: | ## | <- press Triangle for extra thinking time (when using time-limit) []---: | ## | <- press Square to toggle calls (ON/OFF) []---: | ## | <- hold Circle (not during your turn) to toggle Auto-win []---: | ## | <- hold d-pad or thumbstick up to toggle Auto-Kan []---: | ## | <- press Start to quit match (pick "YES" to confirm) :----: |L..[] <- hold L to toggle the side-bar control prompts :====: |9:23| <- local clock time (from your PSP) '----' Holding the L button shows the remaining controls on the side-bar instead. []---. | ## | <- press Select to show/hide rule settings for current match []---: | ## | <- tap d-pad or thumbstick down to show/hide tiles []---: | ## | <- press Cross to switch between current tile and Tsumo (newest tile) :----: | | |L..[] <- release L to toggle the side-bar control prompts :====: |9:23| <- local clock time (from your PSP) '----' .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Commands ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' Contextual pop-up menu commands are given with Japanese katakana spellings: ----- __|__ _____ CHII | - call Chow (steal a discard tile to complete a Chow set) / __|__o \ | / PON / | \ / - call Pung (steal a discard tile to complete a Pung set) .' / _|__ \ | | / KAN | | / - call Kong (steal a discard tile to make a Kong set) / / / - declare a Kong using a self-drawn tile _____ _|__ " | | ./ | | | | AGARI | | | / - declare a win (can be either Tsumo or Ron) / / / / \ /____ /\ / /\ ' / \ TSUGI E | / \ \ - skip to the next tile (i.e. reject the option to call) | / \ | | ----- | | ____ __|__ RIICHI / | - declare Riichi (make a ready bet) / / \/ \ | | | /\/ _|__ / --+--. | | KYANSERU /\ | _) / | | | / - literally "cancel" (dismiss the pop-up) \ | / '-- \| |/ To view those characters properly see my translation chart for MFC PS3: https://preview.tinyurl.com/MFCPS3gif .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 06 | GAMEPLAY s06 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' This section covers the basic process of playing a match in either of the main gameplay modes - Fight Club Mode and Free Rules Mode. In Fight Club Mode only, the game counts out your scoring sticks (see below) at the start of a match - 20k in a one-round match or 25k in a two-round match. Next the four players are shown, the game assigns seating positions and the initial dealer (east) is decided and indicated with the flashing gold kanji. Two horizontal black banners will flash across the screen at the start of every hand. The first shows the match format - green text for Tonpuusen (one-round match) or magenta for Hanchansen (two-round match). The second shows the match type again and the current hand count including any Honba, for example East 3 and two Honba; this info is also shown on the side-bar during play. __ In the centre of the table display is the Wanpai (dead wall). The game shows all seven stacks of two tiles each which can be used as supplement tiles after a Kong (first two stacks) and Dora bonus tile indicators (other five stacks). The black bars around the dead wall give the name of each player. Once you enter the Dan grades these will also indicate each player's god with an icon and a kanji, both in the god's colour (see Section 08). Holding the R button displays more information for each player (see Section 05). The square marker on the tabletop indicates the round wind. It'll be yellow in the east round, then brown in the south round. It remains positioned to the front and left of the starting dealer (east) so a round always ends when the player seated to their left loses their dealership. The pair of dice will always be placed to the front and left of the current dealer. When you are east the announcer says "anata wa oya desu" which means "you are the Oya" (in Japanese the dealer is the Oya or "parent"). __ Instead of the traditional rows of six, discards are displayed with one row of ten and another row for the rest. On average (with no calls or Kongs) you will discard 17 or 18 tiles in a draw so (as a rough guide only) a hand will usually end when your second row is about three quarters full. When a discarded tile is taken by another player (by Chii/Pon/Kan) it is still shown among their discard tiles but shaded slightly grey. This can be useful in determining if you - or your opponents - are Furiten on a certain tile. When you draw a Dora tile (including red fives) this is indicated by a brief "glimmer" effect when the tile first appears in your hand. If you draw a tile and it continues to sparkle that means you can declare a Tsumo win with it, but it's not necessarily a Dora. Whenever any player discards a Dora (including red fives) it's accompanied by a sort of "whiplash" sound effect to draw your attention to it. When you select a tile to discard that would leave your hand Tenpai (one away from complete) the game will display the tile/s that could complete the hand. The game will show warnings if your hand is Furiten or all copies of the tile/s you need are already dead, but - unlike the 2006 edition - it does not indicate whether your hand qualifies for any Yaku (combinations). When you choose to declare Riichi from the pop-up menu, the game will highlight which tiles you can discard to give a Tenpai hand and the waits are shown as above. You can press Cross if you decide to cancel the Riichi but you cannot then change your mind again - if you want to reach you'll need to wait until your next turn! __ If a hand ends in an exhaustive draw (when the supply of tiles in the live wall is exhausted) the announcer will say "Ryuu Kyoku". Each player in turn (starting with east) declares whether their hand is ready (Tenpai - yellow) or not ready (Noten - purple). Tenpai players are required to display their hand; they all receive the Noten Bappu payment from any Noten players (see Section 13). If a winning hand scores at one of the limits (Mangan or higher) then a streak of lightning will descend from the heavens onto the table and strike either the winning tile (Ron win) or the dead wall (Tsumo win). The score screen for a win shows the winning hand at the top with the winning tile and any open sets to the right. The next row shows the winner's name, Ron or Tsumo, the discarder's name (for a Ron win) and the dead wall with all active Dora indicators shown. The third row shows the Fu (minipoints), Han (doubles) and the total value of the hand - the Fu and Han are given in kanji with the same characters as the Manzu (Craks) tiles and "+" for ten, e.g. "=+" would be twenty. The bottom section shows all the Yaku (combinations) and the number of Dora (bonus tiles) if any. The Yaku and number of Dora are read out by the female announcer. The five types of Yakuhai are spoken as Chun (red dragon), Haku (white dragon), Hatsu (green dragon), Bakazehai (round-wind) and Jikazehai (seat-wind). If the hand has only one Yaku, she will append the word Nomi ("only"), e.g. "Tanyao Nomi". Dora are counted with normal Japanese numbers, e.g. Ichi, Ni, San, Yon, Go, Roku, Nana, etc, so for example "Dora Go" means five Dora. __ After the match has finished, the game applies any payments for Uma and Oka (see Section 13). These are combined so, for example, with the default 0-5 Uma and 20k starting scores, 1st receives 45k pts and 4th pays 5k. In Fight Club Mode the players also pay/receive Orbs and P-points as appropriate (see Section 08). After a Fight Club Mode match the game shows your current ranking and progress towards the next level. It also shows the scoring sticks for your final score. Finally you'll be presented with a menu with three choices: 1. Continue playing (new match with same settings) 2. Save match log (see Section 10) 3. Stop playing (return to menu) Saved matches can be replayed from the Records menu. .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 07 | GAME MODES s07 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' The 2004 version of MFC PSP has two playable mahjong modes. Fight Club Mode is played for ranking and Free Rules Mode uses custom rules. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Fight Club Mode ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' The first option (red) on the main menu (left side) is Fight Club Mode. I believe this is based specifically on the Mahjong Fight Club 3 arcade game. You can choose whether to play multiplayer against one to three other players in the same room or single-player against three computer opponents. .------------------------------------. | Local Multiplayer | '------------------------------------' .------------------------------------. | Solo Play | '------------------------------------' (I'm unable to try out local MP so I won't be covering it here - sorry!) On the next screen you need to choose whether to play a match lasting for one round (east) or two rounds (east and south). .------------------------------------. .------------------------------------. | Tonpuusen (one-round game) | | Hanchansen (two-round game) | '------------------------------------' '------------------------------------' .------------------------------------. | Rules Confirmation | '------------------------------------' That third option is used to review the rule settings. Matches in Fight Club Mode are played using the fixed Fight Club rule-set, which can also be viewed by pressing Select during play or by checking pages 19-21 of the game manual. All the optional rules are explained later in this guide (see Section 13) with the Fight Club Mode rule settings marked with asterisks. The only "rule" you can change in Fight Club Mode is the option for the time- limit applied to your moves. However the Nashi option is unavailable in this mode so it's always played with a time-limit! :6 __ Matches in Fight Club Mode are played for ranking, so you can always win (or lose!) something that affects your progression - experience points in the Kyuu ranks, Fight Orbs in the Dan grades or golden Orbs in the Kouryuu levels. (see Section 08 for details of the ranking process) Random bonuses are applied in some matches in Fight Club Mode. These will be announced before play commences and are also shown in the top-right corner of the screen when you hold the R button. The P-points bonus can appear from the start of your career, but the two Orb bonuses don't starting appearing until the Dan grades where you start playing for Orbs. o "Double P-Points" Players win/lose twice the normal amount of P-points. This bonus is indicated by "####Px2#" (where each # is one kanji character). o "Double Orbs" Players win/lose twice the normal number of Orbs, so for example in a one- round match the player who finishes in 1st place would take two Orbs from the player in 4th instead of the usual one. This bonus is indicated by "%%%x2#" (where each % is one kana character). o "Winner Takes All" The player who comes 1st takes Orbs from all three other players - one each in a one-round match (three total) or two each in a two-round match (six total)! This bonus is indicated by "%%%##%#". One nice feature of Fight Club Mode is that it shows your mahjong scoring sticks before and after each match. These work just like casino/poker chips and come in four different denominations with standard Japanese markings as shown here: | | | | | | | | | o | black dot | | | | | | | . | | | | | |. .| |. .| |. .| | | |. .| | o | red dots | o | red dots | o | red dot |. .| black dots |. .| |. .| | | |. .| | . | | | | | | | | o | black dot | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 10,000 pts 5,000 pts 1,000 pts 100 pts So for example when you start a game with the default amount of 20,000 points, you'll have one 10k stick, one 5k stick, four 1k sticks and ten 100 sticks. __ After entering the Dan grades a screen showing your progress is always shown after every match. This shows your god (see Section 08) inside an octagon. The number of glowing sides is your current grade (e.g. three sides = 3rd Dan). Below the octagon are the slots you need to fill with Orbs to level-up. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Free Rules Mode ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' The second option (blue) on the main menu (right side) is Free Rules Mode. You can choose whether to play multiplayer against one to three other players in the same room or single-player against three computer opponents. .------------------------------------. | Local Multiplayer | '------------------------------------' .------------------------------------. | Solo Play | '------------------------------------' (I'm unable to try out local MP so I won't be covering it here - sorry!) On the next screen you need to choose whether to play a match lasting for one round (east) or two rounds (east and south). .------------------------------------. .------------------------------------. | Tonpuusen (one-round game) | | Hanchansen (two-round game) | '------------------------------------' '------------------------------------' .------------------------------------. | Rules Configuration | '------------------------------------' That third option is used to review or amend the rule settings. Matches in Free Rules Mode are played using whichever rule options you specify here. All the optional rules available are explained later in this guide (see Section 13). You cannot progress your ranking (or earn P-points) in this mode. .------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------. | Section 08 | RANKINGS s08 | '------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------' There are three consecutive sets of rankings used in Fight Club Mode: the Kyuu* ranks, the Dan* grades and the Kouryuu levels. These are all explained below. In that mode you can also win/lose what I call "P-points". These don't affect your ranking, they're more about representing your chosen prefecture. The amount gained/lost depends on your final placing and the match duration: Game Length | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place | 4th Place =============+=============+=============+=============+============= one round | +2 P-points | +1 P-points | -1 P-points | -2 P-points -------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------- two rounds | +4 P-points | +2 P-points | -2 P-points | -4 P-points A random bonus can be applied which doubles all these values. (wins or losses!) At any stage during the Dan grades, Kyuu ranks or Kouryuu levels you can check your current ranking and progress on the stats pages. (see Section 10) *If you've had any involvement with any of the Japanese martial arts then you'll probably be familiar with the Kyuu/Dan scheme used here. It's basically the same as the system used in karate, etc, so when you reach the Dan grades in MFC you could say you've become a "black belt" in mahjong. :D .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Kyuu Ranks ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' / ----- You start at the bottom of the Kyuu ranks which have ten levels \/ / | /__ numbered from 10 (bottom) up to 1 (top). \ / | / / | / These ranks are written with a Japanese numeral followed by the -----\ | / kanji for Kyuu (depicted here in high-def ASCII art). /|\ / \/ / | / /\ The numbers 1 to 9 are the same as those on the tiles of the | / / \ Manzu (Craks) suit and the symbol for 10 looks like a "+" sign. Each time you play a game in Fight Club Mode during the Kyuu ranks you will either gain or lose experience points (XP) based on your performance. You need to earn a certain amount of XP to gain promotion to the next rank. Kyuu | 10th | 9th | 8th | 7th | 6th | 5th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 1st =============+======+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+======+======+====== XP required | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 200 | 250 | 300 -------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+------ cumulative | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 550 | 700 | 850 | 1050 | 1300 | 1600 The black screen displayed after a match shows your current Kyuu rank in large characters. The number at the bottom left is your cumulative XP total and the number in the bottom right is the amount you need for your next promotion. When you progress to a higher level you get a gold screen showing your new rank in large characters and your previous one in small kanji. A similar screen with a blue background is displayed if you lose enough XP to fall a rank. Completing the 1st Kyuu rank promotes you to the first Dan grade (see below). The game is pretty generous with experience points - you get lots for a big win and don't lose many even if you come 4th - so it shouldn't take very long to get through all ten ranks. It's even possible to jump several ranks off one match if you get a big score. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Dan Grades and the Four Gods ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' ___ ___ | | | When you graduate out of the Kyuu ranks you move onto the eight |___ / |__. Dan grades which are numbered from 1 up to 8 (yup, it's the | _____ opposite order to Kyuu). The first Dan grade is called Shodan |___ \ / which means "beginning rank" and is written with two kanji. The | \/ higher grades are given using Japanese numbers again, however _|__ /\ Nidan and Sandan (2nd Dan and 3rd Dan) are written using the | / \ formal "Daiji" characters instead of the usual number kanji. The kanji for Dan grades are shown here: https://preview.tinyurl.com/MFCPS3gif When you first become Shodan, the game assigns you an affiliation to one of the Four Gods (see below) based on the dominant aspect of your playstyle. It also logs the date and time on the Events page of your stats (see Section 10). The Four Gods in the MFC games originate from Chinese astrology where each of them presides over seven constellations. In Japan they are known as the Shijin (literally "Four Gods") and they're often featured in video-games and manga. In Mahjong Fight Club each of them represents a different aspect of play: Japanese name: Seiryuu description: blue dragon (Azure Dragon of the East) Chinese name: Meng Zhang aspect: Luck (hands won with more Dora) Japanese name: Suzaku description: red bird (Vermillion Bird of the South) Chinese name: Ling Guang aspect: Speed (hands won more quickly and therefore more often) Japanese name: Byakko description: white tiger (White Tiger of the West) Chinese name: Jian Bing aspect: Attack (hands won with more Han value) Japanese name: Genbu description: green tortoise-snake (Black Tortoise of the North) Chinese name: Zhi Ming aspect: Defence (more hands played without getting "ronned") There's also a fifth god in the MFC scheme who features later in the game. Japanese name: Kouryuu description: golden dragon (Yellow Dragon of the Centre) Chinese name: Huang-Long The kanji for their names are shown here: https://preview.tinyurl.com/MFCPS3gif In my case I had a low payment rate (strong defence) during the Kyuu ranks and therefore I became affiliated with Genbu. My initial rank was Genbu Shodan, followed by Genbu Nidan, etc. (see table of Dan below) __ You advance through the Dan grades in Fight Club Mode by winning "Fight Orbs" off other players (I'll just call them "Orbs" here). Orbs are coloured to match the player's god (e.g. purple for Suzaku) but if you win an Orb off a player with a different god, the Orb will change colour to match your own. I've only spent a few hours on the 2004 edition of MFC PSP, but if it works like the 2006 version you can also earn a bonus Orb for a Yakuman (top limit hand). At each Dan you're required to fill a set of Orb slots to advance to the next grade. Conversely if you lose too many Orbs, you can get demoted back down to your previous grade. The amount gained/lost depends on your final placing and the match duration: Game Length | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place | 4th Place =============+=============+=============+=============+============= one round | +1 Orb | no change | no change | -1 Orb -------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------- two rounds | +2 Orbs | +1 Orb | -1 Orb | -2 Orbs In a one-round game the Orb won by the player in 1st is taken from the player in 4th, similarly in a two-round game the two Orbs won by 1st are taken from 4th and the one for 2nd is taken from the player in 3rd (much like the Uma points). This isn't significant during the Dan grades (since all the standard Orbs are equivalent) but it's important once you get to the Kouryuu levels (see below). (If two or more players have the same final score, the priority goes to whoever was the first to be dealer (east) in the match. For example in a two-round match I had 28,400 points going into the final hand but the player opposite me had 20,400 pts and pulled a Mangan from somewhere, giving them the same score as me at the end of the match. The other player had started the match as east in the East 1 hand (therefore I wasn't dealer until East 3) so they got 2nd place while I got stuck with 3rd - and lost a precious Orb!) __ Your primary goal should obviously be to win Orbs in every game you play but if this looks unlikely, you should at least strive not to lose any. For example if you find yourself close behind 3rd place in the final hand of a one-round match, you might aim for a fast/cheap one-Han hand win to edge into 3rd place and thus avoid the loss of an Orb that comes with 4th. Of the two choices available in Fight Club Mode I think it's better to play Hanchan (two-round matches) to win Orbs because it's easier to come 1st or 2nd than it is to consistently come 1st, although you need to avoid both 3rd and 4th. Also in Hanchan there's more time for skill to overcome luck - in theory! __ There are also two bonuses which can be applied randomly in ranking matches to affect the Orb payments. The first is the "double Orbs" bonus where everyone wins (or loses) twice as many Orbs as normal. Obviously in this scenario it's especially good if you win but also especially bad if you lose so you might want to adopt a less risky playstyle to avoid coming 4th. The second bonus is the "winner takes all" bonus in which the player in 1st receives Orbs from each of the other three players (either one Orb each in a one-round match and two Orbs each for a two-round match). In this case, if you aren't too worried about your general stats, I think it's worth taking a few risks to try to get those three/six Orbs. __ At Shodan (1st Dan) you need to fill five Orb slots to progress to the next rank but you're given three Orbs to give you a head-start. [I haven't played past Shodan so the rest of the info in this section is based on my experiences of playing through other Mahjong Fight Club games...] This table shows the number of Orb slots to fill to complete each Dan grade: Shodan (1st Dan) | 5 Orbs Godan (5th Dan) | 7 Orbs -------------------+---------- ---------------------+---------- Nidan (2nd Dan) | 5 Orbs Rokudan (6th Dan) | 8 Orbs -------------------+---------- ---------------------+---------- Sandan (3rd Dan) | 6 Orbs Nanadan (7th Dan) | 9 Orbs -------------------+---------- ---------------------+---------- Yondan (4th Dan) | 6 Orbs Hachidan (8th Dan) | 10 Orbs When you finally fill the tenth slot at Hachidan you advance to the rank of Master but you keep your god affiliation, so my new ranking was Genbu Master. (I think Master is probably equivalent to the 9th Dan grade which is the highest ranking seen among the JPML pro players in the 2006 edition of MFC PSP.) As a Master you continue to win or lose Orbs as usual but the game also gives you a special Orb from one of the other four gods each time you take 1st place. There are three to collect but you lose them all whenever you come 2nd, 3rd or 4th - so basically you need to win three consecutive matches to progress. Once you have all three special Orbs you're shown a congratulatory screen and the game credits roll! So in one sense you've completed the game, but in fact it's only just begun... .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. ( Kouryuu Levels ) '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' [I haven't played past Shodan so all the info in this section is based on my experiences of playing through other Mahjong Fight Club games...] After the credits finish you become affiliated with Kouryuu - the golden dragon - the fifth of the "Four Gods". You're assigned the ranking of Kouryuu level 1 and you now earn golden "Kouryuu Orbs" which you need to continue levelling. 
You can win golden Orbs from other Kouryuu players but if you win Orbs off a
Master player (affiliated with Seiryuu, Suzaku, Byakko or Genbu) they'll be the
standard coloured Fight Orbs which won't help you level-up.

Similarly when you lose Orbs the type of Orb that's taken from you will depend
on the type of player that takes it. For example, if a Master comes 1st and you
come 4th, you'll only lose standard Orb/s.

In ranking matches you'll usually play against one Shijin-affiliated Master
player and two Kouryuu players, so on average you might expect to receive one
normal Orb for every two golden Orbs you win and sometimes you can spend 10-15
minutes fighting hard to win a Hanchan only to see the Master in 4th give you
two *standard* Orbs which won't advance your level. :6

You begin at Kouryuu level 1 with ten slots but the game gives you five golden
Kouryuu Orbs so you need another five for the next level.

After that you need to fill five gold Orb slots per level up to level 9, ten
per level up to level 19 and *twenty* per level from level 20 onwards! :6

Here's a quick summary of the various stages of ranking:

 10th Kyuu --> 9th Kyuu --> 8th Kyuu --> 7th Kyuu --> 6th Kyuu --> 5th Kyuu -.
                                                                             |
 .- 2nd Dan <-- Shodan <-- 1st Kyuu <-- 2nd Kyuu <-- 3rd Kyuu <-- 4th Kyuu <-'
 |
 '-> 3rd Dan --> 4th Dan --> 5th Dan --> 6th Dan --> 7th Dan --> 8th Dan -.
                                                                          |
  ...Kouryuu level 3 <-- Kouryuu level 2 <-- Kouryuu level 1 <-- Master <-'

And so it continues... you can keep playing to advance your level.

You might also like to work on improving your stats, beating your records (e.g.
most consecutive game wins) and adding to your Yaku (and Yakuman!) collection.


.------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
| Section 09 | QUIZ MODE                                                   s09 |
'------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------'

The third option (green) on the main menu (left side) is the mahjong quiz.

This has four different rounds available:

                     .------------------------------------.
                     |     Mahjong Introductory Quiz      |
                     '------------------------------------'
                     .------------------------------------.
                     |       Score Calculation Quiz       |
                     '------------------------------------'
                     .------------------------------------.
                     |             Waits Quiz             |
                     '------------------------------------'
                     .------------------------------------.
                     |            Memory Quiz             |
                     '------------------------------------'

Each quiz consists of a series of stages but you need to pass stage 1 to unlock
stage 2, then pass stage 2 for stage 3, etc. Every stage has ten questions and
you need to score at least 80% (8/10) to pass.
                                       __

The Introductory Quiz has multiple-choice questions on basic topics such as
identifying types of tiles, types of sets, complete hands, types of waits and
working out the Dora from the indicator tile.

For the Score Calculation Quiz you need work out the total Han (doubles), total
Fu (minipoints) or total value of a winning hand. My PDF mahjong guide (USPML
link in Section 01) has lookup tables in English you can use for reference.

The Waits Quiz requires you to identify all of the winning tiles that could
complete Tenpai (ready) hands, starting with an easy stage of basic Tanki (pair
waits) and progressing onto more complex shapes. Use Circle to select a tile,
Cross to delete a tile and Triangle to skip to the button to submit your answer.

In the Memory Quiz you need to memorize and recall lists of tiles. Then in some
later stages you need to study a tabletop and identify the tile/s where all four
copies are visible on the table (in your hand, in discards, in open sets and as
Dora indicators) - it's harder than it sounds, especially on a 4" screen!
                                       __

After finishing all ten questions in a stage you're shown your results - red
circles are correct answers and blue crosses are wrong. The game also shows the
time taken, correct percentage and a letter grading (based on score and time).

On the grey box pick "YES" to save your progress to your memory stick.

The black box that follows gives these options:

1. Repeat the same stage
2. Continue to the next stage (if you passed the current one)
3. Review the questions you got wrong (if any)
4. Return to the quiz menu

After completing every stage in one of the four quizzes you get a gold screen to
confirm that all stages are clear. The date and time of your achievement will
also be logged on the Events page of your stats (see Section 10).


.------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
| Section 10 | RECORDS                                                     s10 |
'------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------'

The fourth option on the main menu (right side) is the records section.

Selecting this gives you the following three options:

                     .------------------------------------.
                     |          Individual Data           |
                     '------------------------------------'
                     .------------------------------------.
                     |             Player Log             |
                     '------------------------------------'
                     .------------------------------------.
                     |             Match Logs             |
                     '------------------------------------'

I'll cover each of those in turn below, starting with the big one!

 .----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
(                               Individual Data                                )
 '----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

The first option off the Records menu is used to view your stats pages.

Use d-pad or thumbstick up/down to move between the six pages.
  ____________________________________________________________________________

o Basics [stats page 1]

  This first page shows your ranking progress and hand win types and values.

  Top:

  1. Player name
  2. Rank position                         4. Cumulative XP / Orbs
  3. Region affiliation                    5. Nationwide ranking 

  During the initial Kyuu ranks the second entry will give your numbered rank,
  e.g. 10 Kyuu, 9 Kyuu, etc. After promotion to the Dan grades it'll show which
  of the Four Gods you were assigned to and your numbered grade.

  The fourth entry shows XP during Kyuu ranks or Orbs during Dan grades.

  (See Section 08 for more info on rankings in Fight Club Mode.)

  Wide box:

  1. Region contribution points (P-points)
  2. Region contribution rate              3. Region contribution ranking

  Big box (left side):

  The first four lines count your hand wins by type.

  1. Riichi - you won after declaring Riichi
  2. Dama[ten] - you won with a closed hand without reaching
  3. Naki - you won with an open hand (after stealing one or more tiles)
  4. Total

  (Press Circle, L or R to toggle between numbers and percentages.)

  5. Most consecutive hand wins
  6. Most consecutive match wins
  7. Most Dora in one winning hand
  8. Average time per discard - in seconds to two decimal places!

  Big box (right side):

  This shows the value of your winning hands:

  1. One Han
  2. Two Han
  3. Three Han
  4. Mangan limit* (hands worth 5 Han, or 4 Han and 40+ Fu, or 3 Han and 70+ Fu)
  5. Haneman limit (hands worth 6 or 7 Han)
  6. Baiman limit (hands worth 8, 9 or 10 Han)
  7. Sanbaiman limit (hands worth 11 or 12 Han)
  8. Yakuman limit (top limit hands and "counted Yakuman" hands worth 13+ Han)

  (Press Circle, L or R to toggle between numbers and percentages.)

  *All hands worth four Han are also included in the Mangan row.
  ____________________________________________________________________________

o Collated [stats page 2]

  Use d-pad or thumbstick left/right to switch between the eight filters:

  1. All 
  2. Last 30 Matches
  3. Fight Club Mode (one-round matches)
  4. Fight Club Mode (two-round matches)
  5. Fight Club Mode (both)
  6. Free Rules Mode (one-round matches)
  7. Free Rules Mode (two-round matches)
  8. Free Rules Mode (both)

  Top:

  1. Number of matches played         2. Average final position (1st to 4th)

  3. Number of 1st (blue) / 2nd (green) / 3rd (yellow) / 4th (red) positions

  Left side:

  The graph here shows your scores for the attributes       Genbu (Defence)
  of each of the Four Gods (see Section 08).                      /\
                                                        Byakko   /  \  Seiryuu
  This can be used to analyse your style of play -     (Attack)  \  /   (Luck)
  are you a "well-rounded" player or are you biased               \/
  toward certain aspects?                                   Suzaku (Speed)

  In later MFC games each of the ticks on the graph axes represents 50 points so
  the maximum value for each attribute is 250 (and the maximum sum is 1000).

  After promotion to the Dan grades you'll be assigned to one of the Four Gods
  and your graph here will be shown in your god's colour.

  Right side:

  1. Total number of points won (blue)
  2. Total number of points lost (red)
  3. Hand win rate* - proportion of hands where you won
  4. Average Han per win* - average number of Han in winning hands
  5. Payment rate* - proportion of hands where you got ronned
  6. Dora usage rate* (100% = one Dora in every winning hand)
  7. Riichi win rate - proportion of your winning hands won with Riichi
  8. Tsumo win rate - proportion of your winning hands won by Tsumo
  9. Yakuman win count - number of your winning hands worth Yakuman limit

  (Press Circle, L or R to toggle between numbers and percentages.)

  *I think your graph is probably based directly off these four stats.

    Seiryuu (Luck) = Dora usage rate    Byakko (Attack) = Average Han per win

    Suzaku (Speed) = Hand win rate      Genbu (Defence) = Payment rate
  ____________________________________________________________________________

o Yaku Distribution [stats page 3]

  These screens give a breakdown of the number and percentage of times you've
  made each Yaku (combination) and Yakuman (top limit hand) in winning hands.

  (Press Circle, L or R to cycle through the three screens.)

  First screen:

  This counts how many times you've had each Yaku in your winning hands.

  The number at the very top is the total number of hands you've won.

  First screen (left side):

   1. Riichi
   2. Menzen Tsumo (Concealed Self-Draw)
   3. Pinfu
   4. Yakuhai (Pung of Dragons / Seat Wind / Round Wind)
   5. Rinshan Kaihou (After a Kong)
   6. Haitei (Last-Tile Tsumo)
   7. Iipeikou (Pure Double Chow)
   8. Junchan (Pure Outside Hand)
   9. San Shoku Doujun (Mixed Triple Chow)
  10. Chii Toitsu (Seven Pairs)
  11. San Ankou (Three Concealed Pungs)
  12. Honitsu (Half-Flush)
  13. Honroutou (All Terminals & Honours)
      (gap)
  14. Dora (bonus tiles)

  Once you've won with Yakuhai or any Yaku that's worth one Han less in an open
  hand (with steals), you can use d-pad left/right to select it.

  For Yakuhai the following breakdown is shown:

   a. Bakaze (Pung of round-wind)
   b. Jikaze (Pung of seat-wind)
   c. Haku (Pung of white dragon)
   d. Hatsu (Pung of green dragon)
   e. Chun (Pung of red dragon)

  For other combinations the split has two parts:

   a. Menzen (closed)
   b. Naki (open)
 
  First screen (right side):

   1. Daburu Riichi (Double Riichi)
   2. Ippatsu ("One-Shot" win after Riichi)
   3. Tanyao (All Simples)
   4. Ikkitsuukan or Itsuu (Pure Straight)
   5. Chankan (Robbing the Kong)
   6. Houtei (Last-Tile Ron)
   7. Ryanpeikou (Twice Pure Double Chow)
   8. Chanta (Mixed Outside Hand)
   9. San Shoku Doukou (Triple Pung)
  10. Toi-Toi Hou (All Pungs)
  11. San Kantsu (Three Kongs)
  12. Chinitsu (Full Flush)
  13. Shou San Gen (Little Three Dragons)
      (gap)
  14. Nagashi Mangan (All Terminals & Honours Discards)

  Second screen:

  This counts how many times you've had each Yakuman in your winning hands.

  The number at the very top is the total number of hands you've won.

  Second screen (left side):

   1. Chinroutou (All Terminals)
   2. Shou Suu Shii (Little Four Winds)
   3. Suu Ankou (Four Concealed Pungs)
   4. Ryuuiisou (All Green)
   5. Kokushimusou (Thirteen Orphans)
   6. Tenhou (Heavenly Win)
   7. Renhou (Human Win)
   8. Paa Renchan (Eight Consecutive Dealer Wins)

  Second screen (right side):

   1. Dai San Gen (Big Three Dragons)
   2. Dai Suu Shii (Big Four Winds)
   3. Suu Kantsu (Four Kongs)
   4. Tsuuiisou (All Honours)
   5. Chuurenpoutou (Nine Gates)
   6. Chiihou (Earthly Win)
   7. Dai Sharin (Big Wheels)
   8. Kazoe Yakuman (Counted Yakuman)

  Third screen:

  This is a table which individually logs all your Yakuman wins.

  The three columns are Yaku(man) Name, Player Rank and Date/Time.

  The number at the very top is the total number of Yakuman hands you've won.

  (you can use d-pad left/right to cycle through multiple pages) (good luck!)
  ____________________________________________________________________________

o Results [stats page 4]

  This page gives a summary of the outcomes from your last thirty matches.

  Top:

  The table here lists your ten most recent matches.

  Once you've played more you can use d-pad left/right to view 11-20 and 21-30.

  1. Number - the most recent match is always shown at the top (number 1)
  2. Play type - the mode and duration*
  3. Play result - your final position (1st/2nd/3rd/4th/busted/retired)
  4. Points-stick balance - your points profit/loss
  5. Play date and time

  *(One-round matches are green and two-round matches are purple.)

  Bottom:

  The wide graph here simply plots whether you came 1st (blue), 2nd (green),
  3rd (yellow) or 4th (red) in each of your last thirty matches.

  Each 1st place is marked with a sparkly crown icon.
  ____________________________________________________________________________

o Orbs [stats page 5]

  This page unlocks when you achieve Shodan (1st Dan) in Fight Club Mode.

  It tracks your progress through the Dan grades (and Kouryuu levels).

  (See Section 08 for details of rankings in Fight Club Mode.)

  Top-left:

  The display here shows the types of Orbs you've lost (left) and won (right):

  1. Suzaku - purple Orbs from Red Bird players
  2. Byakko - cyan Orbs from White Tiger players
  3. Genbu - green Orbs from Green Turtle players
  4. Seiryuu - blue Orbs from Blue Dragon players
  5. Kouryuu - gold Orbs from Yellow Dragon players
  6. Rank position

  (Press Circle, L or R to toggle between bar charts and numbers.)

  Bottom-left:

  1. Special Orbs gained - you probably get one when you land a Yakuman
  2. Total Orbs gained
  3. Total Orbs lost
     (gap)
  4. Current total Orbs

  (Since you're given three Orbs at the start of the Dan grades, your current
  total should always equal your gains plus three and minus your losses.)

  Right side:

  When you enter the Dan grades you're assigned to one of the Shijin (Four Gods)
  and your god is shown here inside a sphere at the centre of an octagon.*

  The number of highlighted sides on the octagon indicates your current Dan
  grade, for example when three are glowing you're at Sandan (3rd Dan).

  Below the octagon are your current Orb slots which you need to fill to get
  promoted to the next Dan grade.

  *The sides of the octagon are marked with the eight Bagua (trigrams) of the
  I'Ching, the ancient Chinese divination system. If you're familiar with these
  you'll notice that they're arranged clockwise in the sequence Heaven, Wind,
  Water, Mountain, Earth, Thunder, Fire and Lake (Fu Xi's Arrangement).
  ____________________________________________________________________________

o Events [stats page 6]

  This page is a log of major events in your MFC career.

  The first entry will be the date and time you started playing the game.

  It'll also show when you completed all stages of one of the mahjong quizzes,
  when you unlocked new music and when you entered the Dan grades (and how many
  Fight Club Mode matches it took).

  If it works like the 2006 edition of MFC PSP, it'll also record each time you
  won with a Yakuman hand, when you obtained Master grade and when you were
  promoted to the Kouryuu (golden dragon) levels.

  (you can use d-pad left/right to cycle through multiple pages)

 .----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
(                                  Player Log                                  )
 '----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

The second option off the Records menu is a list of players.

As far as I can tell this screen keeps a record of all the people you've played
against in local multiplayer. If you haven't used multiplayer, the log screen
here will probably be empty.

The following controls are available:

          d-pad up/down - scroll through list

       d-pad left/right - select column heading

        Triangle button - sort by selected column (ascending/descending)

               L button - toggle column headings

               R button - show graph for selected player

The default seven columns are as follows:

         Name    Region    Rank     Wins / Losses    Win Rate     Date

Pressing the L button toggles to these six columns:

         Name   Affinity   Rank   Match Count   Four Gods Index   Date

 .----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
(                                  Match Logs                                  )
 '----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

The third option off the Records menu is the replay viewer.

After a hand has ended you can press Start to save that hand to watch later.

You can do this on the score screen for a won hand or on the tabletop view for a
drawn hand. Pick "YES" to confirm that you want to save it and then pick "YES"
again if you want to enter a "comment" to identify the file - this can be made
of one word from the left box and one from the right box, for example "Skilful
+ Tsumo", "Big + Win" or "Impossible + Draw".

After a match has finished you get a menu with the following three options:

1. Continue playing (with same settings)
2. Save match log (see Section 10)
3. Stop playing (return to menu)

You can use the middle option there to save the whole match (all hands).
                                       __

Saved hands and matches can be replayed in the Match Logs section.

The interface lets you choose which match to view. For each save file the game
lists your comment, your outcome, the hand count, the mode and duration (one or
two rounds), your rank and finally the date and time.

For a saved hand, the outcome will say who won the hand and the Han (doubles)
value, otherwise it'll say that the hand ended in a draw. The hand count will
give the number of the hand, e.g. East 2 with one Honba.

For a saved match, the outcome will give your final placing (1st-4th) and your
score. The hand count will be 'all hands' because you saved the whole match.

Press Circle to select a save, Square to delete a save or Cross to cancel back
to the Records menu. You can also use d-pad or thumbstick left/right to pick a
column and press Triangle to sort by that category.

The game will run an animated replay of the selected match using the normal in-
game view. The following controls are available:

           Cross button - pause/unpause playback

        Triangle button - skip back to start of current hand

          Circle button - skip forward to start of next hand

          Square button - skip back to start of previous hand

       d-pad left/right - decrease/increase playback speed

                          The replay speed is indicated in the top-left corner.

          d-pad up/down - toggle your hand display

                          You can stand your tiles as normal or lay them flat.

        R button (hold) - display player information panels (see Section 05)

          Select button - review rule settings

           Start button - exit replay

                          Pick "YES" to confirm exit or "NO" to cancel.


.------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
| Section 11 | MAHJONG GUIDE                                               s11 |
'------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------'

The fifth option on the main menu (left side) is the mahjong guide.

The menu here gives two options:

                     .------------------------------------.
                     |          Fight Club Guide          |
                     '------------------------------------'
                     .------------------------------------.
                     |          Mahjong Glossary          |
                     '------------------------------------'

The Fight Club Guide has three sections. The first covers which rules are (and
aren't) used in the game, gives basic lists of all the valid Yaku (combinations)
and Yakuman (top limit hands) and details of how Fu (minipoints) are awarded.

The second section has scoring tables which could be used for reference when
playing Japanese mahjong in real life.

The third section of the guide explains aspects of Fight Club Mode - the Shijin
(Four Gods), Orbs and P-points (see Section 08).
                                       __

The Mahjong Glossary starts with a complete list of all the Yaku (combinations),
Yakuman (top limit hands) and Double Yakuman. Use d-pad or thumbstick to cycle
through one-Han, two-Han, three-Han and six-Han Yaku, Yakuman and Double Yakuman
then select an entry to read the description. (no pictures!)

The other ten sections form a conventional glossary of Yaku names and other
mahjong terms, sorted by their spelling. Use the shoulder buttons L/R to jump
between the sections.


.------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
| Section 12 | OPTIONS                                                     s12 |
'------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------'

The sixth option off the main menu (right side) is the Options screen.

There are six game settings available. You can navigate and adjust these with
d-pad or thumbstick, then use the "OK" button to confirm and exit, "CANCEL" to
exit without saving or the third button to restore the default settings.

You can also press the R button to switch to a second screen which lets you
manually save (top option) or load (bottom option) your game data.

1. Volume Setting

   o Main Speaker* - sets all three volume options (see below) to 15

   o Custom - allows you to manually adjust the volume options

   o Headphones - sets Voice and Effects to 15 and BGM to 12

2. Voice Volume (0-15*)

3. Sound Effects Volume (0-15*)

4. Background Music (BGM) Volume (0-15*)

5. In-Game BGM

   o Normal*

   o Gradius - unlock by achieving 1st Dan grade (Shodan)

   o ???

   Initially only the "Normal" music option is available but others can be
   unlocked by completing certain achievements in the game.

   I've only played long enough to get one but I suspect there are more.

   (The 2006 edition of the game has ten unlockable BGMs - four MFC options and
   six taken from classic Konami games including Gradius and Castlevania.)

   Selecting the Gradius option here also replaces your in-game sound effects
   with retro shmup sounds. (The novelty wears off after a few turns!)

6. BGM Playback Mode

   o Normal* (always on)

   o Off during play

   o Always off

*This is the default setting for the option.

The 2006 version of MFC PSP added an option to highlight Tsumogiri discards
(where a player discards the tile they just drew on the same turn). The 2004
edition lacks this handy feature but if you watch a player's hand when they
discard, you can at least see if they discard their Tsumo (from the right end
of their hand) or a tile they already had (from anywhere else in their hand).

The upgraded edition also added the option to adjust the CPU opponent speed and
voice options for your player. The opponent speed in the 2004 version is really
sluggish and a real deal-breaker for me. (The game saves to the memory stick
after every single turn so that's probably why it's so slow. The 2006 version
doesn't do this and it has much faster turn speeds available as options.)


.------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
| Section 13 | RULES                                                       s13 |
'------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------'

The first rule of Mahjong Fight Club is you do not talk about Mahjong Fight Club
and the second rule of Mahj... sorry, it's an obvious joke! :)

There are 38 rule options (and three gameplay settings). In Fight Club Mode a
fixed rule-set is applied - you can view this using the Rules Confirmation menu
option (see Section 07). However in Free Rules Mode you're free to pick your own
custom rule-set with the Rule Config menu option (see Section 07 again).

The rules are displayed over eight pages which you can cycle through using the
shoulder buttons L/R. The listing below gives the rules in the sequence they
appear in the game along with descriptions.

To set a rule option in Free Rules Mode use d-pad up/down to pick a rule and
left/right to modify it. Click the OK button to confirm and exit, the CANCEL
button to exit without saving changes or the third yellow button to restore the
default settings. Any rule option with a value other than its default will be
helpfully indicated with a red tick.

The default setting for each option under Free Rules is marked below with an
asterisk (*). Those defaults also constitute the fixed Fight Club rules.

You can confirm the current rules applied during a match by pressing the Select
button and paging with L/R. The rule options (Free Rules defaults / Fight Club
fixed) are also listed on pages 19-21 of the game manual.

Many of the options here use the following two words to indicate if it's used:

  __|___    | _
   _|___    |/ \   ARI
  / |/  \   |   |  denotes "existence" and describes a rule that's applied (on)
  \_/  _/   ' _/ 

  __/__  _   |
   /    .    |     NASHI
  /    _|_   |     means "without" and describes a rule that's not applied (off)
 /    (_|    |__/

                                     Basic
                                     ¯¯¯¯¯
1.1 Kuitan (open Tanyao)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When Kuitan is Ari the game allows the combination Tanyao (All Simples) in
    an open hand (with one or more stolen tiles).

1.2 Kuikae (no melding restriction)

    Options: Ari (on) / Nashi* (off)

    When Kuikae is Nashi you cannot call Chii/Pon to steal a tile to make an
    open set (with two tiles from your hand) and then immediately discard a tile
    that could form a set with the two tiles you used.

    For example if you call Chii on 4 Dots to make a 456 Chow, you cannot then
    discard either 4 Dots or 7 Dots (because they'd make 456 again or 567).

                                   Hand Wins
                                   ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
2.1 Ryan Han Shibari (conditional two-Han minimum)

    Options: Ari (on) / Nashi* (off)

    Normally the game is played with a one-Han minimum - you need Yaku (combos)
    worth at least one Han (double) to declare a win. However with this rule in
    effect, a two-Han minimum is applied when the Honba counter shows five or
    more (i.e. after five consecutive hands resulting in draws or dealer wins).

    Han from Dora bonus tiles (including red fives) are not counted towards
    meeting the one/two-Han minimum requirements.

2.2 Agari Yame (the "quit while you're ahead!" rule)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When Agari Yame is Ari the current dealer (east) can end the match early if
    they win the final hand of a match and they're leading on points. This way
    they can secure their position (and any Uma and Oka) rather than risk losing
    in the Renchan (extra hand) that would usually be played after a dealer win.

    (The game probably ends the match automatically if the dealer is leading.)

2.3 Ta Cha Hou (multiple wins)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Atama Hane (off)

    When this rule is Ari two or three players are permitted to declare Ron wins
    on the same discarded tile (i.e. Double Ron and Triple Ron).

    When this rule is Nashi the Atama Hane ("head bump") rule is applied and
    only the player closest to the discarder's right gets the win.

2.4 San Cha Hou Ryuu Kyoku (draw when three players win)

    Options: Shinai* / Oya Nagare Suru / Oya Nagare Nashi

    (This is the first of the five situations which can force an abortive draw
    in Japanese mahjong - the other four are listed as rules 5.4 to 5.7 below.)

    This draw occurs when three players declare a win on the same discard.

    There are three settings for this rule:

    o Ryuu Kyoku Shinai

      The abortive draw is not applied.

      (Depending on rule option 2.3, either one or three players will score.)

    o Ryuu Kyoku - Oya Nagare Suru

      The abortive draw is applied so no players score.

      The hand counter is increased for the next hand (e.g. from East 1 into
      East 2) and the seat winds rotate so there's a new dealer (Oya). If the
      draw occurred in the final hand of the match (Oorasu), the abortive draw
      will cause the match to end.

    o Ryuu Kyoku - Oya Nagare Nashi

      The abortive draw is applied so no players score.

      The hand counter is not increased for the next hand (e.g. East 1 is
      replayed) and the seat winds do not rotate so the east player retains
      their dealership.

2.5 Hakoware Tobi (bankruptcy)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When this rule is applied the match ends early if a player gets busted.

                               Points Calculation
                               ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
3.1 Mochiten (starting score)

    Options: 20k* / 21k / 22k / 23k / 24k / 25k / 26k / 27k / 28k / 29k / 30k

    This option sets the points each player has at the beginning of a match.

    20,000 pts is the default for Free Rules Mode. In Fight Club Mode you also
    start with 20,000 pts each in one-round matches, however you always start
    with the traditional 25,000 pts in two-round matches.

3.2 Oka (winner's bonus)

    Options: Ari (on) / Nashi* (off)

    Technically players always buy into a Japanese mahjong game with 30,000 pts
    - this is called the Genten - but they usually start the game with a lower
    amount, known as the Haikyuu Genten, for example 20,000 pts (as specified
    by rule option 3.1 above). In this case the excess points will be paid to
    the overall winner of the match as a bonus called the Oka.

    For example, if players start the game with the default amount of 20,000
    points, each of them puts 10k into the pot and the Oka would be 40k!

3.3 Uma (1st place) (score adjustments)

    Options: 0 to 30k (default is +5k*)

3.4 Uma (2nd place)

    Options: -10k to +30k (default is zero*)

3.5 Uma (3rd place)

    Options: -30k to +10k (default is zero*)

3.6 Uma (4th place)

    Options: -30k to 0 (default is -5k*)

    These four options can be used to specify the Uma - a final exchange of
    points at the end of the game. Unlike other games, MFC lets you tailor all
    four values to suit - you can specify the amount that each of the four
    players will gain or lose. With the default settings, the player who is in
    4th place pays 5,000 pts to the player in 1st (and there is no change to the
    scores in 2nd and 3rd places).

    I've experimented with the settings in the game and it seems to apply the
    following rules: the Uma for 2nd cannot exceed the Uma for 1st (otherwise it
    might make 2nd the winner), the Uma for 3rd cannot exceed that for 2nd (same
    reason), the minimum value for 4th is -30k and consequently the maximum
    value for 3rd is +10k. Since the Uma involves sharing points between players
    the total of the four settings must always sum to zero. The game lets you
    adjust the values for 1st, 2nd and 3rd which determines the amount for 4th.

                                Dora (bonus tiles)
                                ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
4.1 Ura Dora (under-Dora)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    The Ura Dora indicator is the tile under the standard Omote Dora indicator
    and is applied when someone wins with Riichi.

4.2 Kan Dora (Kong Dora)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    An additional Kan Dora indicator is flipped when someone declares a Kong.

    When options 4.1 and 4.2 are both Ari the game will also apply Kan Ura Dora
    indicator/s under any active Kan Dora indicator/s on a Riichi win.

4.3 Akago Pin (one red five in Dots suit)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

4.4 Second Akago Pin (second red five in Dots suit)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

4.5 Akago Man (one red five in Craks suit)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

4.6 Akago Sou (one red five in Bams suit)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    These four options allow you to use red five tiles which replace the normal
    fives in each suit.

    Each red five in a winning hand adds an extra Han (double), just like
    normal Dora. As with other Dora, these cannot be used to meet the one (or
    sometimes two) Han minimum for declaring a win.

    Folks often play with one red five in each suit but in a Japanese mahjong
    set the red fives replace all four of the traditional flower tiles so there
    are four red fives. Whenever a set has four red fives, the fourth tile is
    always in the Pinzu (Dots) suit because historically the very first tile
    sets with red fives only had two of them - both in the Pinzu suit.

    The four rule options here allow you to play with no red fives, or one in
    each suit, or two in Pinzu only, or all four, etc!

                                       Draws
                                       ¯¯¯¯¯
5.1 Renchan no Shurui (types of continuance)

    Options: Agari Renchan* / Tenpai Renchan

    A Renchan is a continuance - an extra hand played without the seat winds
    moving so the dealer "stays on". This is counted in addition to the standard
    four hands which make up a round.

    o Agari Renchan - a Renchan occurs only when the dealer wins a hand

    o Tenpai Renchan - a Renchan occurs on a dealer win or in a hand which ends 
      in an exhaustive draw in which the dealer is Tenpai, i.e. they have a
      "ready" hand, one tile away from being complete

    (see also options 5.2 and 5.3 below)

5.2 Keishiki Tenpai (Tenpai without Yaku)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When Keishiki Tenpai is Ari a hand will be treated as being Tenpai even if
    it has no guaranteed Yaku (combination/s).

5.3 Noten Bappu (draw payments)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When Noten Bappu is Ari, 3,000 points are paid when a hand ends in an
    exhaustive draw (when the live wall is depleted). The players with Tenpai
    hands (see above) each receive a share of the 3,000 points, which is paid by
    the players that are Noten (unready).

    No payments are made if everyone is Tenpai or everyone is Noten.

The following four options (5.4 to 5.7) relate to four of the conditions which,
along with San Cha Hou (see rule option 2.3 above), make up the five different
situations which - optionally - can force an abortive draw in Japanese mahjong.

There are three settings for each option, shown in this order:

o Ryuu Kyoku Nashi

  The abortive draw is not applied and play continues as normal.

o Ryuu Kyoku - Oya Nagare Suru

  The hand ends immediately in an abortive draw. The hand counter is increased
  for the next hand (e.g. from East 1 into East 2) and the seat winds rotate so
  there's a new dealer (Oya). If the draw occurred in the final hand of the
  match (Oorasu), the abortive draw will cause the match to end.

o Ryuu Kyoku - Oya Nagare Nashi

  The hand ends immediately in an abortive draw. The hand counter is not
  increased for the next hand (e.g. East 1 is replayed) and the seat winds do
  not rotate so the east player retains their dealership.

5.4 Suu Cha Riichi Ryuu Kyoku (four-person Riichi draw)

    Options: Nashi* / Oya Nagare Suru / Oya Nagare Nashi (see above)

    This occurs when all four players declare Riichi in the same hand.

5.5 Suu Kan Nagare (four Kong re-deal)

    Options: Nashi / Oya Nagare Suru* / Oya Nagare Nashi (see above)

    This occurs when four Kongs in total are declared in the same hand by two or
    more players (if one lucky player gets four Kongs in a single hand then they
    can get the almost impossibly rare Yakuman of Suu Kantsu).

5.6 Suu Fon Renda Ryuu Kyoku (four Winds discard draw)

    Options: Nashi / Oya Nagare Suru* / Oya Nagare Nashi (see above)

    This occurs when all four players discard the same wind on their first turn.

5.7 Kyuu Shu Kyuu Hai Ryuu Kyoku (9+ Terminals & Honours draw)

    Options: Nashi / Oya Nagare Suru / Oya Nagare Nashi* (see above)

    This one happens when a player has nine or more different terminals (ones
    and nines) and honours (winds and dragons) on their first turn, although
    the draw will only be applied if the player chooses to accept it.

    (I haven't seen this happen yet but I suspect you just need to select "YES"
    to take the draw or "NO" if you want to keep playing with the hand. If you
    have at least ten unique "orphans", you might want to try for Kokushi.)

                                 Yaku (combinations)
                                 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
6.1 Tsumo Pinfu (Pinfu on self-draw win)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When Tsumo Pinfu is Ari you can claim the Pinfu combination on a Tsumo
    (self-draw) win. Pinfu is defined as a "no points" hand, with no Fu (mini-
    points) other than the basic 20 or 30 for going out. A Tsumo win is normally
    worth an extra two Fu but with this rule you waive the two Fu and take the
    extra Han (double) for Pinfu instead.

6.2 Riichi Ippatsu ("One-Shot" win after reaching)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    This simply turns on/off the Ippatsu combination.

6.3 Nagashi Mangan (all terminal and honour discards)

    Options: Nashi (off) / Mangan* / Baiman

    When Nagashi Mangan is Ari it can be claimed if a hand ends in an exhaustive
    draw AND all of your discards were terminals and honours AND none of these
    were taken by other players.

    By default this scores as a Mangan hand (12,000 points for a dealer or 8,000
    points for a non-dealer) but you also have the option to set it to Baiman
    (24,000 pts for the dealer or 16,000 pts otherwise).

6.4 Renhou ("Human Win" hand)

    Options: Nashi (off) / Mangan / Baiman / Yakuman*

    When Renhou is Ari it can be claimed when a player declares a Ron win off a
    stolen discard before their own first turn. However (like Chiihou) it's not
    allowed after any player has made a Chii/Pon/Kan call.

    The options let you specify which score limit will apply to Renhou.

6.5 Dai Sharin ("Big Wheels" hand)

    Options: Yakuman* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When Dai Sharin is Ari it can be claimed by winning with a closed flush hand
    of 22334455667788 specifically in the Pinzu (Dots) suit.

    Dai Sharin (literally "Big Wheels") is always scored as a Yakuman.

6.6 Manzu Igai no Chuurenpoutou (Nine Gates hand besides Craks suit)

    Options: Manzu suit only* / Ari (all suits)

    The rare Yakuman of Chuurenpoutou (Nine Gates) - a closed flush hand made
    of 1112345678999 plus one duplicate - is sometimes only valid in the Manzu
    (Craks) suit.

    This rule lets you choose if the hand is allowed in one suit or all three.

                             Yakuman (top limit hands)
                             ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
(NB: The last three rule options on the previous page relate to Yakuman too!)

7.1 Yakuman no Choufuku (Yakuman stacking)

    Options: Ari* (on) / Nashi (off)

    A Yakuman is a rare and precious thing but it is possible to get more than
    one at the same time! For example you might get Tsuuiisou (All Honours) with
    either Dai San Gen (Big Three Dragons) or Shou Suu Shii (Little Four Winds).

    When this rule is Ari you can "stack" multiple Yakuman in one hand - and
    claim the points for all of them! :D

7.2 Kazoe Yakuman (counted Yakuman)

    Options: 13 Han* (on) / Nashi (off)

    When this rule is Ari any winning hand worth thirteen or more Han (doubles)
    will be scored as a Yakuman (top limit hand).

    (Unusually my first ever Yakuman was a counted one. I had a hand with two
    Kongs and with Riichi, Tanyao and a staggering eleven Dora! I wasn't even
    playing with red fives.)

The final four rule options can be set individually to allow the four possible
optional Daburu Yakuman (double Yakuman) hands. These score twice the normal
Yakuman points, e.g. 96,000 pts for a dealer win! :o

7.3 Dai Suu Shii Hou (Big Four Winds win)

    Options: Double Yakuman* / Yakuman

    A hand of four Pungs/Kongs of wind tiles (and any pair).

7.4 Suu Ankou Tanki Machi (Four Concealed Pungs with pair wait)

    Options: Double Yakuman* / Yakuman

    A hand of four self-drawn Pungs, won after waiting on the pair.

7.5 Kokushimusou Juusanmen Machi (Thirteen Orphans with 13-sided wait)

    Options: Double Yakuman* / Yakuman

    A hand with one each of every terminal (one/nine) and honour (wind/dragon),
    won after waiting for a duplicate of any one of those thirteen tiles.

7.6 Junsei Chuurenpoutou (Pure Nine Gates with 9-sided wait)

    Options: Double Yakuman* / Yakuman

    A hand with a closed flush of 1112345678999, won after waiting for a
    duplicate of any one of those nine tiles.

*This is the default rule setting in Free Rules Mode which is also the fixed
setting in the Fight Club Mode rule-set.

                                    Environment
                                    ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
The last section doesn't feature rule options, it has three gameplay settings
instead. (Sensibly for the updated 2006 edition of MFC PSP these were moved to
the Options menu where they belong!)

8.1 Table Colour

    Options: MFC* / Green / Blue / Purple / Grey / Yellow / Random

    This lets you change the appearance of the virtual tabletop.

8.2 Tile Colour

    Options: MFC* / Green / Blue / Purple / Red / Black / Brown / Dark Brown /
             Dark Green / Random

    This lets you change the colour of the tile backs.

    When you select the Mahjong Fight Club option (the game's title spelled in
    seven kanji) it's applied to both the tiles and the tabletop. It either
    gives blue tiles on a blue table or green tiles on a green table.

8.3 Time-Limit

    Options: Fast / Fastish / Standard* / Slowish / Slow / Time-Limit Nashi

    This option applies a time-limit to all your moves.

    This is the only one of the 41 "rule" settings that can be adjusted for
    Fight Club Mode, but the Nashi option is unavailable in that mode so it
    always has a timer. (In the 2006 edition of MFC PSP the time-limit can be
    disabled globally across all play modes.)

    With the Slow setting you get about twelve seconds to pick your discard and
    when there are only five seconds remaining a countdown (in kanji numbers)
    appears over your selected tile.

    With the Fast setting you're only given five seconds to discard so the
    countdown commences immediately.

    A time-limit is also applied when you have a pop-up menu with commands for
    Chii, Pon, Riichi, etc. Whichever speed option you select, the timer for a
    command menu will always be five seconds.

    If you fail to make your move within the allowed time-limit, the game will
    automatically discard the currently selected tile or apply the currently
    selected command option.

    Once per hand you can press the Triangle button to be given extra thinking
    time - you get about ten seconds.

    Pressing the Start or Select button does not pause the game or the timer!

*This is the default setting for this gameplay option.


.------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
| Section 14 | CONTACT                                                     s14 |
'------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------'

I welcome all feedback on this guide and any contributions you'd like to make.
I'm also happy to receive questions about this or any other mahjong game, or
about the rules and terminology of Japanese mahjong.

You can email me at barticle at hotmail.com - obviously changing the "at" to an
@ and removing the spaces. It would be helpful if you include the word "mahjong"
in the subject line and tell me which game you're playing.


.------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
| Section 15 | THANKS                                                      s15 |
'------------'-----------------------------------------------------------------'

I would like to thank the following:-

o play-japan (eBay ID) for another smooth transaction

o Tangorin.com and Tuttle for great language resources

o Holon, Deaf Center, Detroit Escalator Co. and Brambles for super sounds

o Chuck Palahniuk

I will be happy to give credit and thanks to anyone who makes a contribution.
        ___________                                          ___        
        \______   /                              ___        /  /        
              /  /                       __      \_/       /  /         
             /   \___ ________ _________/  \__ ___ ______ /  /  ________
.-------o   /  __   / \___   //  ___/\_   ___//  //  ___//  /  /  __   /
| ANOTHER  /  / /  /_____/  //  /     /  /   /  //  /   /  /  /   \/  / 
'---------/  /-/  //  __   //  /-----/  /---/  //  /---/  /--/  _____/---------.
         /  / /  //  / /  //  /     /  /   /  //  /   /  /  /  /         GUIDE |
        /   \/  //   \/  //  /     /   \_ /  //   \_ /   \ /   \________ o-----'
        \______/ \______/ \_/      \____/ \_/ \____/ \___/ \___________/
--
Mahjong Fight Club (PSP 2014) Guide
Copyright 2019 James R. Barton
Initial version 1.00 completed 9 September 2019

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.

This guide may be downloaded and printed for personal, private, non-commercial
use only. This work is subject to copyright. It may not be hosted online or
otherwise distributed publically or reproduced either in whole or in part
without the advance written consent of the author. Any violation would
constitute an infringement of copyright and is strictly prohibited.

The only website with my consent to publish this guide is GameFAQs/Gamespot.

If you find this file hosted on any other site I would be grateful if you would
inform me at the email address given at the top. Thanks!