Customer Reviews

Shanghai: Second Dynasty

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This video game is a winner! Having played "Shanghai: Great Moments" for years, when I recently upgraded my PC, I thought that I would upgrade the game. I put "Shanghai: Second Dynasty" on my wish list, and, sure enough, my son bought it for me for my birthday. Am I glad that he did! The difference is like night and day. The graphics are more sophisticated and there are more games and variations. There definitely have been improvements. This is a great game! It is also suitable for children, as it can be put into a kid's mode, as well, providing hours of entertainment for the entire family.

"Shanghai: Second Dynasty" contains ten new and classic games, with fifty four tile sets, and one hundred and forty three layouts. Those of you who love Mah-Jonng or other tile matching games will love this one. You can play alone, against the computer, or online. You can even customize the tile sets. Let the buyer beware, however, as this game is highly addictive. Enjoy!

This is an extremely addictive game, with excellent graffics. There are many layouts and tiles to choose from, to keep you interested. It also includes several games of Mah-jongg. You can even play with others online. Sadly it lacks a tutorial, which is something that would have greatly helped, especially for Mah-jongg. All in all, it's a great game that I'm sure will keep me busy for a long time to come.

Shanghai has been one of my favorite games. My biggest pet peeves about this version is the lack of a tutorial and software incompatability. Buyer beware, this game has compatability issues with OS 9 and any system higher than 266 MHz. I played it on my older iMac (266MHz), and it ran great. But when I tried to play it on my brand new G4, the game froze repeatedly.
Dynasty II not only offers new games and layouts, but new tile sets as well. My favorites were the monster and the space sets. I tried out the different levels such as the Pandemonium, in which you play with three computerized players. That overwhelmed me, but some of you may enjoy this level immensely. Overall, I would recommend this game despite its touchiness.

In a household with 2 computers, the disk for this game somehow vanishes from one computer to the disk drive of the other, as my husband and I compete to play this infectious game. Clearly, we will have to become a two-Shanghai: Second Dynasty household. We use it to relax yet intellectually stimulate us away from the cares of the world. When our in-laws arrived for a week's stay, both of them took over our computers to play the game that we introduced to them. It will be a holiday gift for them that we know they'll enjoy. We've never seen a game that took off so rapidly among a group of four very different people. I can honestly say I never tire of the play, the challenging levels, or the sound effects. Highly recommended!

After installing the Shanghai software on my iMac, I was unable to get the game to play. I have no trouble with the games software I buy from the stores, so I don't know why this one wouldn't work. The software in the stores is also cheaper. I was very unhappy with this product.

Obviously, this program is one of the best of the Activision Shanghai family variants available for the PC, being the most recent and offering the greatest variety of options over the other versions. Indeed, the WindStorm variant itself is so unique as to have breathed new life back into mahjongg tile games in general!
However, I find that when this program is installed into Windows XP Home or Professional on a system which has a typical built-in sound card...there seems to be no background music available! Sound effects are present as normal under Windows XP. Clicking on 'Sounds & Music' under the "Preferences" tab causes a lock-up which can be resolved using the Task Manager to end the program. It may be possible to run this program under Windows XP with full compatibility if a sound card is utilized which closely represents one which was an industry standard when the game first came out (late 90s). Using the same system, this program runs well under Windows 95/98/ME, with no problems observed with either background music or sound effects.

This software includes several entertaining solitaire and two-player versions of various tile-matching "Shanghai" games, as well as a very playable implementation of the traditional 4-player Mah Jongg, with Chinese, Japanese, Western, and American-style scoring. (It even comes with a AMJA playing card for the year 2000.) All the games include lots of options to customize play, but one thing you cannot do is play 4-player Mah Jongg with two real people vs. two AI players.

All in all, a great value.

Matching tiles is an okay game and this allows you to play that if you want, but if you think that is playing mah jong, it's not. However, this game lets you play the real thing. It is fabulous!!! You can program the new card in each year(the card editor is easy to use)and you can play the real game against the computer. Or, if you want, you can use the card that comes with the game. It is the American Mah Jong League card and it is out of date. If you want an up to date card or you play with the National Mah Jong League card then you have to program it or look for it on the internet. I play the real game with actual tiles and people,with friends each week (you need a total of at least 4 to play) but in between I love playing the computer game. In addition, you can allow your opponents to be pushovers, okay players, or masters of the game. I highly recommend this game.

This review is based on my wife's frequently expressed views. I play Shangain only occasionally; she plays it for 2 or 3 hours a day. The problem is that for years she played Shanghai:Great Moments which she really loved. That game required Windows 3.1 and refused to operate on a screen with more than 256 colors or 640 resolution. I had a Dell computer using Windows XP Home which could play Great Moments although from time to time the game would not start. When that computer had to be replaced, the next computer, with Windows XP Professional, could not play Great Moments at all, and my second computer, 64-bit Vista, also cannot play it. Activision, or whoever owns Shanghai, has refused to reissue Great Moments for XP or Vista. After considerable searching around, I finally found an old copy of Shanghai:Second Dynasty, which can play on the XP computer. We can't use the sounds on this game because when you turn on the sound, a dragon keeps growling and won't stop, so my wife has to play the game in silence. That does not bother her but the game itself, especially the colors, just is not as appealing to her as Great Moments was. She never stops complaining that I should not have replaced the old computer.