Shanghai: Second Dynasty

List Price: $29.95

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Cranium

Customer Reviews:

SHANGHAI SCORES A BULLSEYE! [Posted on 2001-04-14]
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!

A nice package! [Posted on 2001-05-15]
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.

Not for the G4 [Posted on 2001-09-11]
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.

Not for the iMac [Posted on 2001-12-03]
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.

Limited XP Compatibility [Posted on 2004-06-28]
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.

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