Shanghai 1986

Released: October 1986
Genre: Puzzle
Platforms: Arcade · PC-9800 Series · Sharp X68000 · PC-8800 Series · Commodore C64/128/MAX · Atari Lynx · Atari ST/STE · TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine · Amiga · Family Computer · MSX2 · Nintendo Entertainment System · Sega Master System/Mark III
Developer: Activision
More info: Wikipedia IGDB

Where to buy

Physical: Search on Amazon

Affiliate links: GOG, Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, ININ Games and Amazon

Is it still worth playing?

Programmed by Brodie Lockard in 1986, this mahjong solitaire game uses a full set of 144 tiles: dots, bamboos and characters from 1 to 9, winds, dragons, seasons and flowers. Every tile has four copies except the seasons and flowers, which have one each. You clear the board by matching pairs, but only a tile with at least one free vertical edge can be matched, and any two seasons make a pair, as do any two flowers. If no legal move is left, the game ends. A win makes part of the screen collapse to show a dragon blinking an eye. Matching tiles one pair at a time is a puzzle that still fits a few minutes today.