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Mah Jong Quest: Expeditions
FAQ/Walkthrough by FemmeFromMars
Version: 1.2 | Updated: 11/04/08 | Search Guide | Bookmark Guide
******************************************************************************* MAHJONG QUEST EXPEDITIONS Full Game Guide by FemmeFromMars Version 1.0 "Flowers" 7/10/08 Version 1.1 "Winds" 8/21/08 Added times for the Puzzle World layouts and made a few minor corrections. Version 1.2 "Dragons" 11/04/08 Added times for all remaining puzzles. Added scoring section. ******************************************************************************* I. INTRODUCTION [MJQ01] II. HOW TO PLAY [MJQ02] III. THE CONTROLS [MJQ03] IV. MAIN MENU [MJQ04] V. THE TILES A. Standard tiles [MJQ05] B. Power tiles [MJQ06] C. Game-winning tiles [MJQ07] VI. THE WORLDS A. ADVENTURE - KWAZI'S QUEST -- Overview [MJQ08] -- Game display and menu, bottom screen [MJQ09] -- Game display and menu, top screen [MJQ10] -- The levels [MJQ11] B. CLASSICS -- Overview [MJQ12] -- The Modes [MJQ13] -- Game display and menu, bottom screen [MJQ14] -- Game display and menu, top screen [MJQ15} -- The Layouts [MJQ16] --Classic --Easy --Fun --Hard Challenges C. PUZZLES -- Overview [MJQ17} -- The Modes -- Game display and menu -- The Layouts [MJQ18] --Puzzle Group 1 --Puzzle Group 2 --Good Challenges --Unique Puzzles VII. SCORING [MJQ19] VIII. STRATEGY TIPS [MJQ20] IX. LEGAL STUFF, ETC. [MJQ21] ************************ I. INTRODUCTION [MJQ01] ************************ Welcome to Mah Jong Quest Expeditions! I've always found mah jong solitaire to be fun and addictive, and this game, with its power tiles and adventure quest, seemed like it would be a lot of fun. I was not disappointed. However, when I would put the game down for a few days, I found that when I came back, I couldn't always remember what the power tiles were supposed to do, and there wasn't any place I could check in the game or manual to refresh my memory about which tiles were which or exactly how to use them. So I decided to write a tile guide. But then it seemed there was other information that might be helpful to gamers, and it wouldn't be too much trouble to include it, and after awhile it just seemed sensible to write a complete guide to the game. One thing that I do not include is step-by-step solutions to the puzzles. There are several reasons for this. First, many, if not all, of the puzzles have more than one possible deal. Second, all puzzles have more than one possible path, except possibly some of the Puzzle World puzzles. Third, it would be just too complicated to describe! And finally, there are some situations where it is just impossible, as in the Gong Master layouts - also to be explained later. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I have, and that this guide is helpful to you! ************************ II. HOW TO PLAY [MJQ02] ************************ Mah jong solitaire is a matching game. Tiles are laid out on a board in various configurations and your job is to get rid of them. You do this by matching identical tiles, or by matching any flower to any other flower tile, or any season to any other season tile. Simple enough. What gives the game its challenge is that most of the tiles are hidden or unavailable. To be selected, the top face and one of the vertical sides of a tile must be open. Strategy is required so your moves uncover new tiles to ensure tiles are available for matching. To pick a pair of matching tiles, tap them with your stylus and they will be discarded. In traditional mah jong solitaire and also in this game's Classic World, the object is to clear the board. In the Adventure and Puzzle worlds, there are some variations. In particular, power tiles are added to the mix. Power tiles and how they work will be described later. In Adventure, the object of each layout is not to clear the board, but to match the yin and yang game-winning tiles, which will also be described. In some cases, matches will require choosing three tiles of a kind, rather than two. The mechanics of making the matches remain the same, however; use your stylus to tap the tiles you want to match, and they will be removed. *************************** III. THE CONTROLS [MJQ03] *************************** Controls in Mah Jong Quest Expeditions couldn't be much easier. You can use the stylus and touch screen to do anything, as long as you know which icon to tap. If you lose your stylus or prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, everything can be done by using the D-pad, A, shoulder buttons, start, and X. Just hit the D-pad and a cursor will appear. (For some reason, sometimes you need to press the A button instead of the D-pad to get it started.) It's a colored arrow (green or yellow depending on where it is) and easy to see. Move the cursor around with the D pad until you get to the tile you want, then select with A. When you've chosen two (or three) acceptable tiles, they will automatically be removed. The cursor can also be used on the menu. The left and right shoulder buttons can be used to "flip" the gameboard so that obscured tiles can be more easily viewed. The left shoulder button flips the board top to bottom, and the right shoulder button flips it left to right. This action can also be accomplished by tapping the left-right or up-down arrow icons at the bottom of the game screen, either with your stylus or by using the cursor. The start button will take you into the pause menu, although for some reason it will not get you out again. To close the menu, tap the X icon, either with your stylus or with the cursor. The X button will show you available matches on the gameboard, but only when you are down to one or two possible matches. This can also be accomplished by tapping the sun icon in the lower right corner of the screen, either with your stylus or the cursor. There does not seem to be any use for the B or Y buttons. *********************** IV. MAIN MENU [MJQ04] *********************** Since the menus are primarily icon-based, they can be a little tricky to navigate, particularly since some of the icons are not all that obvious. Who knew that a pyramid could mean Restart the Level? The main menu is the opening menu under the title screen. It welcomes you and gives you a choice of three puzzle worlds to play. Along the bottom of the menu screen are four icons. From left to right, they are: Person wearing a hat - This allows you to choose which file you want to play, and also to delete a file. To choose a file, highlight it and tap the check mark. To delete a file, highlight it and tap the trash can. You will be asked to confirm. To start a new file, highlight "add new player" and tap the check mark. You'll be asked to enter your name to start a file. The game card can handle three files. Use the stylus to tap the letters or numbers on the keyboard on the lower screen. Your name can be up to 10 characters or spaces long. If you make a mistake, press the trash can icon to backspace. Press the check mark icon when you're finished. The X gets you back to the list of files. Press X again to get back to the opening screen. Continuing along the row of icons in the main menu, you'll see a hammer and chisel. This allows you to set the relative volume of music and sound effects. You can also watch the credits. The ? icon opens up a brief description of the three gameplay "worlds": Kwazi's Qwest (Adventure), Classic Mah Jong, and Mah Jong Puzzles. The comedy and tragedy mask icon allows you to view "movies." These are the cutscenes that open, close, and mark the stages of Kwazi's Qwest. You can view each scene as soon as you have seen it in the Kwazi's Qwest game. World and game menus will be described as we come to them. ********************** V. THE TILES ********************** A. STANDARD TILES [MJQ05] Standard tiles are the tiles that appear in a real-life mah jong set. In real life, they have the solid form of dominoes but work something like playing cards. All boards in Mah Jong Quest Expeditions make use of standard tiles. Not every board will use as many tiles as I describe, and some will use more than a standard set, but these are the types of tiles you will see. Although real mah jong tiles tend to be rectangular, the ones in this game are almost square. -- Suits Most tiles in a mah jong set belong to one of three suits: Bamboos, Characters, and Coins or Dots. Each suit has 36 tiles: four each of numbers 1 through 9. They are easy to tell apart: Bamboo tiles are decorated with what looks like gold bamboo pieces; Characters are decorated with Chinese calligraphy characters, and Coins have round dots on them corresponding to the value of the tile. To make things easy, each tile also has a standard Arabic numeral with its value. In many mah jong sets, the Ace of Bamboo is depicted as a bird, and I think it's a bird in this set too. However, unless you're looking at it under a magnifying glass, it looks more like a bowl of rice. You must match these tiles exactly: for example, 4 of Bamboo to 4 of Bamboo. -- Honors and Specials The Four Winds -- These are hard to describe, except to say they each have a calligraphy character on them, along with a small Roman letter indicating which wind they are (north, south, east west). A standard set has four of each, and you must match them exactly. Dragons -- Dragons come in three colors: red, green and white, which in this set looks blue. Happily for us, in this set the dragons really do look like dragons, and not like the calligraphy characters that depict them in many sets. There are four of each color, and you must match them exactly. Flowers -- There are four flower tiles - not four kinds, but four total. Each can be matched with any of the others. They're not all flowers exactly: one is a bamboo shoot and another looks like a purple plum. The other two are, I would guess, a purple chrysanthemum and a pinky-peach-colored cherry blossom. Seasons -- These work like the flower tiles, except they depict the seasons. There are four total. Spring has a pink flower in the center. Summer looks like a sun, and Autumn is a leaf. Winter is a white snowflake on a blue background. Each can be matched with any of the others. B. POWER TILES [MJQ06] These are the tiles that set Mah Jong Quest Expeditions apart from other mah jong solitaire games. They are used in Kwazi's Qwest and also in the Puzzles section. Power tiles are dealt out as part of the layout. I'm listing them in the order in which they appear in Kwazi's Qwest. 1. Balloon First appearance - Level 2, Balloon Party. "Balloons will rise by themselves when uncovered." To put one of these into play, just expose the top of it; the sides don't matter. The balloon will rise up and float away out of the layout, usually exposing the side of a standard tile that might have been unplayable otherwise. 2. Firecracker and Wall First appearance - Level 3, Eve of Destruction. The walls actually appear first in Level 1, but there's nothing you can do with them. "Match a firecracker with its corresponding wall to blast it away." Like dragons, firecrackers come in three colors: red, green and blue. Reds must be matched with a brownish tile inscribed with a circle; it's apparently supposed to be a brick. Greens must be matched with a sort of gold-colored bamboo wall tile, and blues are matched with a grayish stone tile. The firecrackers must be normally selectable with at least one side exposed, but the walls need only to have the top face exposed. As when the balloon tiles rise, blasting away a wall tile can make standard tiles playable. Occasionally walls appear without firecrackers to blast them away. There aren't necessarily enough firecrackers to blast all the walls, so use your explosives wisely! 3. Ice Cube First appearance - Level 4, Frozen Reservoir. "Ice cubes melt when too many sides are exposed." For an ice cube to melt, the top face and at least one vertical side must be exposed. They're fun because getting one tile to melt can set off a chain reaction where a whole sheet of ice can evaporate into nothingness, exposing lots of tiles to play. 4. Earthquake First appearance - Level 5, Earthquakes and Balloons "Earthquakes divide..." Earthquake tiles at first glance look like a torch on a two-tone green background. Look more closely and you'll see it's a flame coming out of some sundered earth. Cool! To use, match two selectable earthquake tiles. The entire board will split along a fault line, greatly increasing your number of selectable tiles. In my opinion this is probably the coolest tile effect of the game! 5. Magnet First appearance - Level 10, Wise Choices "Match a magnet with any visible tile to free up additional tiles." This looks like your classic Acme red horseshoe magnet on a green background. To use, tap a magnet tile and then a standard mah jong tile. The magnet will pull the standard tile to where the magnet tile was, and the magnet tile will be discarded. The magnet tile must be selectable, but the tile you match with it can be blocked by other tiles. 6. Typhoon First appearance - Level 11, Return to Thunderdome "Match a typhoon with another tile to remove all occurrences of that tile." These look like white aerial views of hurricanes on a blue background. To use, tap a typhoon tile and then a standard tile. Both the typhoon and the standard tile must be selectable, but every tile identical to the selected standard tile will be removed from the layout, whether they're selectable or not. 7. Up Arrow First appearance - Level 15, Triple Trouble No explanation! This is a white arrow, pointing up, on a blue background. Tap the arrow tile, then a numbered suit tile. All copies of that tile still on the board will go up one number in that suit. For example, all the 2's of Bamboo will become 3's of Bamboo. This has no effect on honors or special tiles, or on 9's, for that matter. 8. Swap First appearance - Level 16, Swaptastic "Match a swap with two other tiles to switch them." Swap tiles are blue, with a couple of blank tiles pictured in the center. Above and below the picture of the blank tiles are two yellow arrows pointing different directions. When you touch a swap tile, the two blank tiles exchange places and make a shuffling noise. To use, tap the swap tile, then tap two other tiles you would like to have change places. The swap tile will be discarded. Although the swap tile must be selectable, neither of the standard tiles needs to be. 9. Copy First appearance - Level 17, Balanced Brotherhood "Match the copy tile with two other tiles to make them identical." Copy tiles have a turned-down top left edge, as though you're pulling a white sticker cover off a pale green base. I'm not sure what this has to do with copying, but oh well. To use, tap the copy tile. Then tap the tile that you want more copies of. Then tap a tile to be made into a copy of the first tile. All instances of the second tile will become identical to the first. For example, if you tap a copy tile, then a four of Coins, then a three of Bamboo, all tiles in the layout that are three of Bamboo will turn into four of Coins. The copy tile is then discarded. The copy tile and both standard tiles that you tap must all be selectable. 10. Down Arrow First appearance - Level 18, Balloon Magic "Up, down, and magic wand tiles act only on numbered tiles..." Down arrow tiles look just like the up arrow tiles we met on Level 15, except the white arrow is pointing down (duh). And you probably can guess that they work the same way. Tap the down arrow tile and any suit tile except a 1, and the value of all instances of that suit tile in the layout will go down by one. For example, if you tap a 6 of Characters, all 6 of Characters tiles in the layout will become 5 of Characters, and the down arrow tile will be discarded. There is no effect on honors or special tiles, or on 1's. Both the down arrow tile and the standard tile must be selectable. 11. Magic Wand First appearance - Level 18, Balloon Magic "... Magic wand makes all tiles of the same number adopt the suit of the selected tile." These are blue with a little picture of a magic wand on them. The magic wand even has a star on the end - how cute! To use, tap the magic wand tile, then tap a selectable number tile. All tiles with that number in the layout, regardless of suit, will become identical to the tile you selected. For example, tap a magic wand tile and a 5 of Coins, and all 5's of Bamboo and Characters in the layout will become 5 of Coins. The magic wand tile will then be discarded. Both the magic wand tile and the standard tile must be selectable. 12. Cover First appearance - Level 20, Lots of Help "Covers hide tiles until they are selectable." Talk about a mixed blessing! On the one hand, cover tiles, by hiding any tile that is not selectable, make it easier for you to find matches quickly. On the other hand, because you can't see what's under the covers, it becomes harder to plan your strategy for digging out tiles you might need for matching. You do get a hint, though. Cover tiles are rather pretty and give the board the appearance of a patchwork quilt. They have a blue background and an icon on the front that gives a clue to what's underneath, as follows: - A red calligraphy character means a Character tile is underneath. - A yellow equal sign means a Bamboo tile is underneath. (I suspect this is really supposed to look like two pieces of bamboo laid out one over the other, but it looks like an equal sign to me.) - A blue wheel-shaped icon means a Coin tile is underneath. - A yellow star means anything else could be under there: wind, dragon, flower, season, or another kind of power tile. To use covers, you don't do anything. The covers will disappear when the tile becomes selectable. 13. Bounce First appearance - Level 26, Friendly Helpers "Bouncing help lets you find matches more quickly." These have a red dot in the upper left corner of a pale yellow tile. It's a little hard to figure out what it's supposed to represent, until you tap it. The red dot is an animated bouncy ball and it bounces back and forth! To use, you must have two selectable bounce tiles. Tap both of them and they will be discarded. Then tap a tile for which you want a match - probably something that is in a crucial position. All selectable matches for that tile will pop out of the layout. If there are no matches for that tile, you can try to match another tile. You can keep trying until you make a selection. 14. Hourglass First appearance - Level 34, Trying Times "The Zhong hourglasses will buy you some extra time." These are green tiles with an hourglass on them. When you tap a selectable pair of them, they refill your time bar a little bit. C. GAME-WINNING TILES [MJQ07] These special tiles appear in Kwazi's Qwest and in Puzzles, and are another feature that sets them apart from classic mah jong solitaire. In classic puzzles, the object is to clear the board by matching all tiles. In Kwazi's Qwest and some of the Puzzles, the object is to clear the board only until you make the game-winning tiles selectable, when you can match them to each other. This may cause you to adopt a different strategy, especially in Kwazi's Qwest, aiming for the spots where you think the game-winning tiles are buried. The game-winning tiles are always dealt last in a quest layout, and you can see the approximate area where they are buried. The game-winning tiles are supposed to look like the straw hats of girl Kwazi and boy Kwazi, or like two halves of the yin-yang symbol. To me they look like a couple of fish, one black and one white, facing each other. In any case, the background of the tiles is bright yellow, so there's no mistaking them. In layouts where you must match three tiles, a yin-yang symbol tile is added and must be matched to the other two. ***************** VI. THE WORLDS ***************** What to call the three types of gameplay you encounter in Mah Jong Quest Expeditions? I would call them Modes, but that designation has already been co-opted by the developers for something else we'll see in sections B and C. So I am going to call them worlds. There are three of them: Kwazi's Qwest, the adventure world and heart of the game; the Classic World; and the Puzzle World. A. ADVENTURE: KWAZI'S QWEST (puzzles 1-64) -- Overview [MJQ08] "Too many arguments and too many wars Nature grew sick of the endless disputes And so everything that was or will be Has split into clean absolutes." So begins our story, along with a simple animation. As far as we are concerned, "everything that was or will be" is limited to a young man named Kwazi, who, after Nature got fed up, is not only a young man but also a young woman. It is your job to reconcile the two sides of his personality and bring him/her back together again. For some reason you are able to do this by solving mah jong puzzles - 64 of them. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. To play Kwazi's Qwest, tap the big circle, containing two hats, right in the center of your opening screen. If you're having trouble finding it, it's the one with "Kwazi's Qwest" written right above it. As your game begins, you'll see the opening sequence described above. You'll get a similar sequence moving the plot along every time you solve eight layouts. Once you've seen a movie, it will be available to view by pressing the comedy/tragedy mask icon in the lower right corner of the opening screen. -- Game Display and Menu: Bottom Screen [MJQ09] The solitaire layout is on the bottom screen of your DS. There is also a row of menu icons at the bottom of the screen. You select them by tapping with your stylus or highlighting them with a cursor. From left to right, they are: Sun/Lightbulb - Will show you available matches, but only when you get down to two available matches. Reverse arrow - Will step you back through your previous moves. It will step you back to the beginning of the puzzle if you want. Horizontal arrows - Will flip the puzzle left to right along a vertical axis. This can also be done by pressing the right shoulder button. Vertical arrows - Will flip the puzzle top to bottom along a horizontal axis. This can also be done by pressing the left shoulder button. Circular arrows - Will restart the layout, after asking for confirmation. Book - Opens up a pause menu, which begins with four choices: --Hammer and chisel (top left) - This is your options screen, which lets you set the relative volume of the music and sound effects. No matter whether you press the check mark or the X after changing your settings, the game will do the same thing: accept the changes, close the screen and send you back to the game. --Gate (bottom left) - Returns you to the main menu, after asking for confirmation and warning you that your progress will be saved up to the last completed puzzle. Translated: you will lose all progress on this uncompleted puzzle. --Question mark (top right) - Oh! It's a tutorial! Not a very detailed one, but it's helpful. There are five pages; the second, "Thematic Matches," shows your season tiles on the top row and flower tiles on the second row. It looks like I guessed right in identifying the seasons earlier. --X (lower right) - Closes the menu and returns you to the game at the point where you left off. After you successfully beat Kwazi's Qwest, a fifth menu option opens up: --Pyramid of tiles (center top, above the others) - This is a puzzle selection screen that allows you to play any of the quest puzzles. Your best score and time for each will be displayed as you move through the choices. Unfortunately, from the first puzzle, you can move only one way, so if you want to play the last puzzle, you must step through the first 63. -- Game Display and Menu: Top Screen [MJQ10] The top screen contains a nice background picture and information about the layout you are playing, as follows: --Tiles (top row, left) - At the start, shows the number of tiles in the layout. Counts down as you make matches. --Lives (top row, center) - Shows the number of lives you have. Yes, this is an adventure game, so you have lives. You start with four and gain lives as you complete puzzles successfully, lose them if you run out of time before completing a puzzle. It's not really a big deal, however, as running out of lives will merely reset your total score to 0. You don't get a Game Over screen or have to go back to the beginning or anything; you can just start over again on the same puzzle. Unfortunately you can't go back and build up lives by redoing puzzles you've already completed. After you complete the entire quest once, your lives re-set to 0. --Matches (top row, right) - Shows the number of available matches you can currently make. --Time bar (just below the top information row) - The puzzles are on a timer and the time bar shrinks as you play. When it gets to the end, a gong sounds and you're out of time. Your time varies according to puzzle, and the exact time you have left is not displayed on the bar. Time does not start counting down until you make your first move, so take your time to study the board before you start. Available times posted in this FAQ were calculated by me and my Seiko, and should be considered approximate. Not all times are listed in version 1.0, but I will add the rest in future versions. --Puzzle name - Displayed on an illustration that fills the center of the page. --Total score (bottom row, left) - Shows your cumulative score from all completed quest puzzles so far. Resets to 0 after completing all layouts. --Last match made (bottom row, center) - Shows the last match you removed from the board. --Score - Shows the score for the current game. The Levels [MJQ11] 1. Two Houses: Loud/Quiet Number of tiles: 105 Time: 10 minutes 30 seconds (All times are approximate, but should be accurate to within 5 seconds.) Special tiles: There are some wall tiles stuck in there for decoration, but no firecracker tiles, so you can't blow them up. They really do nothing. This is your basic tutorial level. I challenge you to lose it - I don't think you can! For this level only, all available matches are highlighted, but unavailable tiles are still visible. Also, for this level only, you can hit the sun icon at the lower left of the screen and it will show you exactly where the matches are. For all other puzzles, you can use this button only when your matches get down to 1 or 2. 2. Balloon Party: Decisive/Thoughtful Number of tiles: 198 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Balloon The balloon tiles will float up as you uncover them, exposing more playable tiles. 3. Eve of Destruction: Old/Young Number of tiles: 98 Time: 9m 55s Power tiles: Red, green and blue firecracker, and red, green and blue wall Red firecrackers must be matched to the reddish-tan bricks, green firecrackers to the bamboo tiles, and blue firecrackers to the blue stone tiles. The firecrackers will blow up the walls and expose more tiles. 4. Frozen Reservoir: Driven/Patient Number of tiles: 176 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Ice cube This looks like two ovals of staggered tiles, with maximum dimensions of 11 x 5. Melt the ice cubes by uncovering the top and one side of each. 5. Earthquakes and Balloons: Cuddly/Coarse Number of tiles: 158 Time: 19m 30s Power tiles: Earthquake, balloon Split the board into three or four parts, depending on how you match the earthquake tiles. 6. Shake, Rattle and Roll: Cautious/Brave Number of tiles: 146 Time: 20 minutes Power tiles: none Instead of special tiles, this board features the Gong Monster. As soon as you make your first match, Gong Monster starts walking back and forth between two gongs. It takes him about 12 seconds to get from one gong to the other. If he sounds a gong before you have made a match, the remaining tiles on the board reshuffle. If you make a match before he gets to a gong, he turns around and heads the other way and you get a little more time with that shuffle. There doesn't seem to be any point penalty for having the gong sounded, and it's kind of fun having things mixed up. 7. Two on the Beam: Love/Hate Number of tiles: 177 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Ice cube, balloon Hunt for matches for your tall stacks and long horizontal rows first, or you could get trapped in there. 8. Tri Tri Again: Small/Large Number of tiles: 147 Time: 20 minutes Power tiles: none In this game, instead of matching pairs of tiles, you must match three of a kind. To win the game, match the two hat tiles with the yin-yang symbol tile. 9. Funny Balloons: Creative/Grounded Number of tiles: 18 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Balloon I'm not sure what's so funny about these balloons, other than they seem to rise up unexpectedly out of the grid. 10. Wise Choices: Shy/Bold Number of tiles 159 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Magnet I found this layout pretty easy. You might not even need to use your magnets, at least not more than one or two of them. 11. Return to Thunderdome: War/Peace Number of tiles: 159 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Typhoon This layout looks like a top view of a jet fighter, sort of. It's a little difficult, with both deep stacks and long rows. 12. Demolition Time: Fast/Slow Number of tiles: 167 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Firecracker & wall There are fewer firecrackers than there are walls, so use them judiciously. 13. Water Balloons: Formal/Casual Number of tiles: 186 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Balloon, ice cube Work your way in from the edges or you'll get stuck. 14. Bricked Eagle Revisited: Poor/Rich Number of tiles: 182 Time: 20m 40s Power tiles: Magnet, typhoon, ice cube, firecracker & wall Why do we have a Bricked Eagle Revisited when we haven't had a Bricked Eagle? I don't know. 15. Triple Trouble: Glamour/Ugliness Number of tiles: 150 Time: 20m Power tiles: Up arrow This layout is shaped like three number 3s. It's another where you must match three of a kind. 16. Swaptastic: Talkative/Quiet Number of tiles: 156 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Swap Shaped like a wheel; don't let yourself get trapped under the axle stack. 17. Balanced Brotherhood: Dishonest/Blunt Number of tiles: 152 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Copy, swap A 14 x 6 rectangle with a deep wave in the middle. 18. Balloon Magic: Lead/Follow Number of tiles: 180 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Up arrow, down arrow, magic wand, balloon 19. Courtyard Demolition: Reactive/Stable Number of tiles: 170 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Magnet, typhoon, firecracker & wall 20. Lots of Help: Clear/Confusing Number of tiles: 160 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: Cover, up arrow, down arrow, magic wand, copy, magnet, hurricane, swap 21. Classic with Help: Imaginative/Practical Number of tiles: 158 Time: 20m 15s Power tiles: Firecracker & wall This is probably the most common layout for traditional mah jong solitaire, with the addition of firecrackers & walls, and of course the game-winning tiles. 22. Going, Going, Gong!!!: Trusting/Vigilant Number of tiles: 146 Time: 20m Power tiles: none Another visit from the Gong Master. 23. Lots of Surprises: Polite/Outspoken Number of tiles: 178 Time: 20m 10s Power tiles: ice cube, balloon, copy, swap, up arrow, down arrow, magic wand 24. Through the Looking Glass: Private/Forthright Number of tiles: 155 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: magnet, swap, copy, typhoon This layout really forces you to use the menu icons or shoulder buttons to flip the layout, both right to left and top to bottom. Because of the deep stacks, after making a few matches, you will need to flip the layout to see what tiles are available. 25. Classic Covers: Concrete/Abstract Number of tiles: 344 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: ice cube, balloon The most fun opening move of the game. 26. Friendly Helpers: Sloppy/Perfect Number of tiles: 162 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: bounce Bounce tiles help lets you find matches more quickly, but don't wait until you've run out of matches to use them. 27. Melting My Life Away: Naive/Cynical Number of tiles: 190 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: ice cube Attack the ice floe from both sides. 28. Frozen Fountain: Earth/Heaven Number of tiles: 180 Time: 21m Power tiles: ice cube 29. Mess of Trouble: Heavy/Light Number of tiles: 175 Time: 19m 55s Power tiles: ice cube, typhoon, copy, balloon 30. Ice Cube Test: Submissive/Dominant Number of tiles: 196 Time: 19m 40s Power tiles: ice cube 31. Calm Before the Storm: Masculine/Feminine Number of tiles: 148 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: none Another variation on the traditional layout. 32. Full Houses: Tall/Short Number of tiles: 211 Time: 20m 45s Power tiles: wall only (no firecracker) 33. 2nd Half Fun: Low/High Number of tiles: 168 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: ice cube, firecracker & wall You're halfway done! The board layout announces its name. 34. Trying Times: Inside/Outside Number of tiles: 164 Time: 5:30 before hourglass tiles are used. Add approximately 2 minutes for every pair of hourglasses matched. Power tiles: hourglass Is it just me, or does the timer count down faster in this one? Try to match the hourglass tiles to gain extra time. 35. Typhoons of Doom: Indifferent/Sensitive Number of tiles: 159 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: typhoon, balloon 36. Ice Breaker: Flexible/Rigid Number of tiles: 294 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: ice cube, balloon 37. Crisis Intervention: Dark/Light Number of tiles: 166 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: bounce The matchmaking bounce tiles are very useful because many selectable tiles are hidden. See the four stacks? All of them are bounce tiles all the way down. 38. Frozen Bifocals: Big/Little Number of tiles: 174 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: ice cube Be sure to whittle away at the "lenses," which keep many tiles trapped. 39. Hard Times: Weak/Strong Number of tiles: 162 Time: 7m 05s before hourglass tiles are used. Add approximately 2 minutes for every pair of hourglasses matched. Power tiles: hourglass 40. Flip-Flop: Happy/Sad Number of tiles: 290 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: none This puzzle earns its name. Be prepared to flip the layout often along both the horizontal and vertical axes to be able to see obscured tiles. 41. Typhoons and Balloons: Grab/Release Number of tiles: 165 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: typhoon, balloon 42. Knot Easy: Bad/Good Number of tiles: 162 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: balloon, ice cube 43. 4-D Goggles: Giving/Selfish Number of tiles: 298 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: typhoon 44. Decisions, Decisions: Wrong/Right Number of tiles: 222 Time: 16m 10s Power tiles: balloon, ice cube, firecracker & wall 45. Knockout Punch: Assertive/Passive Number of tiles: 185 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: typhoon, wall only (no firecracker) 46. Coins in the Fountain: Plain/Showy Number of tiles: 186 Time: 21m 10s Power tiles: ice cube, balloon Another match-three layout. 47. Through a Glass Darkly: Group/Self Number of tiles: 149 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: typhoon 48. Beetle Bully: Easy/Hard Number of tiles: 174, becoming 173 very quickly as two ice cube tiles melt and two balloon tiles rise before you even start to play. Time: 20m Power tiles: ice cube, balloon, typhoon A match-three layout. 49. Floorplan: Noisy/Silent Number of tiles: 290 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: none This is a maze-like layout with deep stacks and long rows. Where are all the matches, you wonder? Even with flipping, it is impossible to see all of the selectable tiles. 50. The Last Gongurai: Relaxed/Tense Number of tiles: 290 Time: 24m 50s Power tiles: none Another Gong Monster layout. This has a lot of deep stacks, so whittle away at them with an even hand, or you could end up with duplicates stacked underneath each other. 51. Calm Before the Storm II: Shallow/Deep Number of tiles: 294 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: magnet, typhoon 52. Byzantium: Rebel/Conformist Number of tiles: 307 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: typhoon 53. Assembly: Cold/Hot Number of tiles: 326 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: ice cube, balloon 54. Watch Your Step: Aloof/Enmeshed Number of tiles: 158 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: bounce 55. Double Time: Cheap/Expensive Number of tiles: 318 Time: 3m 45s without hourglasses. Add approximately 2 minutes for every pair of hourglasses matched. Power tiles: hourglass, wall 56. Easy Empathy: Generous/Economical Number of tiles: 298 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: typhoon 57. Double Triple Towers: Wet/Dry Number of tiles 336 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: balloon Try not to skip around; work on clearing a level of a tower so that the balloon tile will rise up, or else tiles underneath will be blocked. Be sure to flip the layout, as many matches will be hard to see. 58. One Typhoon: Here/There Number of tiles: 299 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: typhoon Fortunately, there is more than one typhoon tile, despite the name. 59. Priorities Revisited: Staid/Whimsical Number of tiles: 165 Time: 19m 50s Power tiles: balloon 60. What's Your Viewpoint? Emotional/Rational Number of tiles: 290 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: none Flipping is essential. 61. All Together Now: Modest/Liberal Number of tiles: 314 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: firecracker & wall, copy, typhoon, magnet, swap 62. Boxes of Trouble: Health/Sickness Number of tiles 299 Time: 24m 25s Power tiles: typhoon Match three. 63. Triple Fortress: Life/Death Number of tiles: 327 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: magnet, typhoon, up arrow, down arrow, copy, swap Match three. 64. Final Triumph: Serious/Joking Number of tiles: 330 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: balloon This one is harder than it looks, but it's the last adventure puzzle! You might think the logical strategy would be to dig down into one stack until you release a balloon, then dig down into another. However, in my experience the puzzle seems to be set up so you have to draw your threesome from different stacks. At first there are hardly any matches. It opens up after a little while, but even then you run a decent risk of stalling near the end. Just keep trying and you'll get it eventually. Remember, all puzzles are solvable! After finishing puzzle 64, you will have completed Kwazi's Qwest! Enjoy the animation, watch the credits, turn off the game and come back. You can now access any of the 64 adventure world layouts, in case you haven't had enough of them. Unfortunately, if you want to redo number 64, you will have to step all the way through the previous 63 puzzles; there is no back arrow to take you backwards from 1. Also, numbering the puzzles is an invention of mine; the game identifies them only by name, so you'll have to either count or pay attention. B. CLASSIC WORLD (puzzles 65-96) -- Overview [MJQ12] The 32 puzzles of the Classic World can be found by tapping the circle that is to the right of and a little bit smaller than the Kwazi's Qwest circle. It is labeled "Classics." The tap will take you into a menu with four level choices: Classic, Easy, Fun, and Hard Challenges. Each section has eight puzzles. Puzzles of the Classic World s are straight-out mah jong solitaire. There are no power tiles, game-winning tiles or matching three of a kind. You win by clearing the board. You can, however, vary the gameplay through the use of modes. -- The Modes [MJQ13] Once you tap the level of puzzles you want to play, you will be asked to choose a mode. Each of the four levels can be played using the same five mode options, which you step through by tapping the arrow icons. To select, tap the check mark. Tapping X takes you back to the level menu. You cannot select more than one mode at a time. The five modes of play are: -- Classic. Yes, there is a classic world, a classic level, and now a classic mode. Try to keep up. In classic mode, you solve the puzzles using standard mah jong rules. All uncovered tiles are visible and they don't change throughout the game. This is how most mah jong solitaire is played, hence the triple-classic appellation. -- Speed. Only tiles that can be matched immediately are visible. The rest are blank white until they become playable and have a playable match as well. This does speed up the process of matchmaking. Unfortunately, it hinders strategy planning, as it keeps you from seeing what is available to free up next. -- Mixer. This works like the Gong Monster, without the gongs or the monster. Tiles remaining on the board will be reshuffled whenever no matches are available or you take too long to make a match. This definitely makes things a lot easier. Just make sure you don't allow any big stacks to remain standing, or you'll end up with matches stacked one on top of the other, out of playing reach. -- Memory. If Mixer is the easiest mode, Memory has got to be the hardest. It plays like an old game of Concentration. All tiles are blank white, playable or not. You make tiles visible one at a time by tapping them with your stylus. You need to remember where the matches are. When you tap a matching pair one after the other, they will be removed from the board. -- Lids. All right, there is one type of power tile used in the Classic World: those patchwork-quilt-type lids that cover playable tiles. Remember: red calligraphy character = character suit (or "cracks" as the game calls them) yellow equal sign = bamboo suit ("bams") blue wheels = coins ("circles") yellow stars = anything else After you pick a mode, you will be asked to select one of the puzzles in the level you have chosen. You can do the puzzles in any order. On the puzzle selection screen, you will see displayed the best score and best time so far. This will be the best score and time for all files on the cartridge. so if you share the cartridge, you will be competing against the players of the other files. -- Game Display and Menu: Bottom Screen [MJQ14] The solitaire layout is on the bottom screen of your DS. There is also a row of menu icons at the bottom of the screen. From left to right, they are: Sun/Lightbulb - Will show you available matches, but only when you get down to two available matches. Reverse arrow - Will step you back through your previous moves. It will step you back to the beginning of the puzzle if you want. Horizontal arrows - Will flip the puzzle left to right along a vertical axis. This can also be done by pressing the right shoulder button. Vertical arrows - Will flip the puzzle top to bottom along a horizontal axis. This can also be done by pressing the left shoulder button. Move-along arrow - This icon looks sort of like a little M or H. Tapping it will move you to the next puzzle layout in the level, after asking for confirmation. Circular arrows - Will restart the layout, after asking for confirmation. Book - Opens up a pause menu, with six choices: -- Moon and pyramids (top left). This allows you to set the background of the upper screen. --Hammer and chisel (middle left). This is your options screen, which lets you set the relative volume of the music and sound effects. No matter whether you press the check mark or the X after changing your settings, the game will do the same thing: accept the changes, close the screen and send you back to the game. --Gate (bottom left). Returns you to the main menu, after asking for confirmation and warning you that your progress will be saved up to the last completed puzzle. Translated: you will lose all progress on this uncompleted puzzle. -- Pyramid of tiles (upper right). This takes you back to the board choice option. --Question mark (middle right). Another tutorial. This one explains the various modes, in addition to the general rules. --X (lower right). Closes the menu and returns you to the game at the point where you left off. -- Game Display and Menu: Top Screen [MJQ15] The top screen shows information about the layout you are playing, as follows: --Tiles (top row, left). At the start, shows the number of tiles in the layout. Counts down as you make matches. --Matches (top row, right). Shows the number of available matches you can currently make. --Time bar (just below the top information row). The puzzles are on a timer and the time bar shrinks as you play. When it gets to the end, a gong sounds and you're out of time. The exact time you have left is not displayed on the bar. Time does not start counting down until you make your first move. --Puzzle name. Displayed on an illustration that fills the center of the page. --Time (bottom row, left). Shows the time spent on the current game. --Last match made (bottom row, center). Shows the last match you removed from the board. --Score (bottom row, right). Shows your score for the current game. -- The Levels [MJQ16] ** Classic ** 65. Classic Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Yes, there is a classic world, a classic level, a classic mode, and now a classic layout. This is what you play if you want the most traditional mah jong solitaire experience. 66. Block Party Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s 67. Bowtie Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Looks like its name. Work on the long rows. 68. Courtyard Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Attack from the inside as well as the outside. 69. Easy Crates Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Small and large boxes. 70. Intersection Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Looks like a crossroads cutting through town. 71. In the Warehouse Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s 72. Mini Classic Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Same number of tile as the classic, but a more compact layout stacked more deeply. ** Easy ** 73. Vertebra Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Work on the horizontal rows in the middle, using the verticals for matching tiles when needed. 74. Where Genius Starts Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s A set of initials. Lots of verticals means lots of available matches. 75. Dead Eye Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 76. This Is the Empty Layout Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Not empty at all. It's packed full. 77. Hard Crates Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Harder than Easy Crates, I guess. 78. Igloo Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Looks like an igloo. 79. King Tut Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Looks like a face with an Egyptian wig. 80. Odometer Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s If you use your imagination, this could look like an odometer. ** Fun ** 81. Balance Too Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Multiple overlapping staggered layers increase the challenge. 82. Empty Pedestals Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s These look like the title. A group of small platforms over tall stacks over larger platforms. 83. Hidden Fountain Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s The fountain is hidden indeed. It must be that little stack in the center. Get rid of the single tile in the middle first, but don't worry too much about the stack right away. Work in from the edges first. 84. Hint of Trouble Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 85. Over and Under Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Kind of a fun basket-weave layout. 86. Platformer Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s The middle is deep, so work in from the sides, especially on that center row. 87. Priorities Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Work in from the edges. Try not to clear the middle tiles on top until you need them for matches. 88. Twin Beds Too Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s So cute! And challenging because of all the long rows. Try to get rid of the pillows. ** Hard Challenges ** 89. Hollow Cube Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Underneath the top layer, the cube is partially hollow. Tiles underneath are staggered. 90. Solid Block Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Just as it describes, the block is solid. 91. Fortress of Solitude Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s 92. Hollow cubes Number of tiles: 288 Time: 24m 30s Twice as much fun as puzzle 89, above. 93. Through the Looking Glass Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 35s Flip the layout to see all the tiles. 94. Quatro challenge Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s A fun puzzle. Try to get a group of four cleared and out of the way so you don't have one tile blocking two or more staggered tiles underneath. 95. Solid Blocks Number of tiles: 288 Time: 24m 30s Twice as much fun as puzzle 90, above. 96. Classic Number of tiles: 288 Time: 24m 30s Yet another classic puzzle. This one has twice as many tiles, with everything stacked twice as deep as the usual classic puzzle. C. Puzzle World (puzzles 97-128) -- Overview [MJQ17] The Puzzle World is a strange animal. A few of the layouts really are puzzles: small layouts that give you a particular problem to solve with the aid of power tiles. Most of the layouts, however, are just more mah jong matching layouts. They make no use of power tiles or the yin-yang hat tiles. This is not to say they aren't fun. I suppose they're included in this world because there was nowhere else to put them. -- The Modes The modes are exactly the same as in the Classic World. See section [MJQ13] for more information. -- Game Display and Menu: Bottom Screen -- Game Display and Menu: Top Screen - These are exactly the same as in the Classic World. See sections [MJQ14] and [MJQ15] for more information -- The Levels [MJQ18] ** Puzzle Group 1 ** The eight layouts in this group are all what I would consider true puzzles. For this reason, I wouldn't recommend using Mixer mode with these layouts, as it would just make things too easy. On the other hand, using Memory or Lids modes can add to the challenge. 97. One Two Three Number of tiles: 26 Time: 3m 20s Power tiles: none, but uses the hat tiles Win by matching the hat tiles. You must figure out in which order to clear the other tiles. 98. Magnet for Hire Number of tiles: 15 Time: 1m 45s Power tiles: magnet You have one magnet to pull one tile out of a long horizontal row and set up the rest of your matches to win the game. 99. North by Northwest Number of tiles: 50 Time: 6m 05s Power tiles: magnet A larger layout, with four magnet tiles. 100. Elementary My Dear Number of tiles: 15 Time: 1m 10s Power tiles: down arrow, magnet, magic wand, up arrow, wall If you include the hat tiles as power tiles, your ratio of standard to power tiles is 8:7. The challenge is figuring out the order in which to use them. 101. Kwazi's Dilemma Number of tiles: 16 Time: 1m 10s Power tiles: down arrow, typhoon, firecracker & wall 102. Kwazi's Dilemma Too Number of tiles: 17 Time: 1m 10s Power tiles: magnet, down arrow, typhoon, firecracker & wall 103. Tale of Two Swappers Number of tiles: 22 Time: 2m 35s Power tiles: swap 104. Temporary Setback Number of tiles: 55 Time: 5m Power tiles: firecracker & wall The real puzzle might be how quickly can you solve this? ** Puzzle Group 2 ** This group starts out with some puzzle layouts similar to the ones in Group 1, then moves into solitaire layouts. 105. Smiling Dragon Number of tiles: 36 Time: 2m 25s Power tiles: firecracker & wall A smiley face layout composed with dragon tiles, firecrackers and walls. 106. Brick or Brag Number of tiles: 36 Time: 3m 55s Power tiles: firecracker & wall 107. A Tale of Two Bricks Number of tiles: 20 Time: 1m 45s Power tiles: firecracker & wall 108. Buried Treasure Number of tiles: 124 Time: 6m 45s Power tiles: firecracker & wall This is a treasure hunt. If you can solve it without restarting the board, you're just incredibly lucky. 109. Copy of a copy Number of tiles: 22 Time: 2m 35s Power tiles: copy 110. Triple Fortress Number of tiles: 288 Time: 24m 30s Power tiles: none Beginning with this layout, power tiles and hat tiles disappear, nor do you get a hint anymore when your possible matches get down to two. Your object is to clear the board. 111. Tribute Number of tiles: 288 Time: 24m 30s Two tall stacks to work down. Try to work your way down in steps to maximize the number of selectable tiles. 112. The End??? Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Not the end by any means. ** Good Challenges ** 113. Sand Block Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Like a dune, this has waves that ebb and flow. 114. Temple Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s This is built more like a pyramid, with depth at the center. Work your way in from the sides. 115. That a way Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s The horizontal rows are layered in a staggered fashion, so the ends of rows pile up in the middle. 116. The Three Wisdoms Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Remember to flip the layout. 117. Three Columns Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s This is relatively easy, as you start with a great many available tiles. Try to clear the rows of tiles on top first, which are staggered over the middle tiles underneath them. 118. Tiger's Eye Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s This is more challenging than it looks. As you work your way down through the stacks, many tiles around the perimeter will be blocked horizontally. 119. Tough Crates Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 120. Tri Tri Again Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Concentrate on the large layout of tiles on top, going to the bottom group for matches as needed. ** Unique Puzzles ** These layouts look like their names. 121. A Bridge Too Far Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 122. Tetrahedron Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 123. Town Square Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 124. Parking Garage Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 125. Connectors Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Work inward from the ends of the horizontal rows. 126. Bathtub with No Shower Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s 127. Bathtub with Shower Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Use the tall shower pipe to match tiles from the horizontal rows. 128. Through a Glass Darkly Number of tiles: 144 Time: 19m 30s Work on the large diamond first, using the reflection for matches when needed. Congratulations! You have finished all the puzzles! Now you can go back and try for better times or higher scores, or challenge yourself with some of the more difficult modes. ***************************** VII. SCORING [MJQ19] ***************************** I really don't pay much attention to scoring when I play, but if you want an extra challenge, you can try for a high score. I don't know what the potential high score for any puzzle is, nor do I know whether there's a bonus for scoring high. If you figure it out, send me an e-mail and I'll include the information (with credit, of course) in this FAQ. There are two ways to score points: first, by matching tiles, and second, by earning a time bonus by completing the puzzle in less than the alloted time. You get a big bonus if you can match identical tiles two or more times in a row. For example, say you make a match with 9s of bamboo. For that match, you will score 9 points. If, on your very next turn, you match another pair of 9s of bamboo, you will score 34 points. The scoring is the same if you are matching 3 tiles in a match 3 layout. If you happen to make a third match in a row, as can happen in some layouts, you will get the 34 points again. This will not work if you change suits; the subsequent matches must be exactly the same card. The exceptions are the flower and season tiles, because each of those series has four unique tiles, each of which can be matched with any of the others. If you match two flowers, you will get 15 points, and if you can immediately match the other two, you will get 40. Seasons score the same. Here is a list of tiles and the scores you get for initial and repeat matches: Tile 1st match Immediate repeat match 1 1 26 2 2 27 3 3 28 4 4 29 5 5 30 6 6 31 7 7 32 8 8 33 9 9 34 Dragons 10 35 Winds 10 35 Flowers 15 40 Seasons 15 40 There is no score given for using a power tile. In addition, you are penalized in a sense for using the typhoon tiles, because you get no score for the tiles they sweep off the board. So if you have a choice, you might want to use those on 1s and 2s rather than your honors tiles. Even making duplicate matches earns small potatoes when compared to the time bonus, however. Roughly, you earn about 2 points per second for completing the puzzle in less than the maximum allotted time. This may not sound like much, but if you can complete a puzzle 15 minutes early, you can earn a couple thousand points. So, while it's good to grab those repeat tile match bonuses when you see them, don't spend too much time looking for them or setting them up. ***************************** VIII. STRATEGY TIPS [MJQ20] ***************************** -- Work to maximize the number of tiles that are available. When faced with a choice between two tiles, choose the one that will uncover at least one other tile. -- Try to whittle away at long horizontal rows and deep vertical stacks. Both can trap needed tiles. -- The timer doesn't start until you touch a tile, so take a little time to study the board at the beginning before making a move. -- Don't assume a tile isn't playable. In several layouts, tiles that look like they are directly underneath other tiles are playable. At other times, what looks like a long horizontal row might actually be a series of stacks with playable tiles. If you see a possible match, tap it with your stylus. The tiles might be playable. -- If you don't see a good match, flip the layout both horizontally and vertically. Many times this will show up obscured tiles. Other times, it might just provide you with a fresh point of view. If an obscured tile is playable but you can't see what it is, tap it with your stylus to highlight it before flipping the layout. --Use your power tiles judiciously, but do use them! Not only do they work as intended, but sometimes you just need to get them out of the way. --When working on a long horizontal row that is several tiles deep, try to get the ends to form "steps." This will expose more tiles than if you start by trying to just get rid of a row at a time. --When you work a stack or row down to the point where you have some single tiles or pairs of tiles on the board, try not to use them unless absolutely necessary. This is because they don't make anything else available when you use them, and they will always be available when you need them. ****************************** IX. LEGAL STUFF, ETC. [MJQ21] ****************************** Copyright Notice: This document is Copyright 2008 Cici L, "FemmeFromMars." It may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site outside of GameFAQs. It may not be distributed electronically outside of the GameFAQs web site, and it may not be distributed otherwise at all. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public format is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks etc. belong to their respective holders. If you have questions, comments, corrections or additions to this FAQ, please e-mail me at femmefrommars (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please note in the subject field that your mail is about the Mahjong FAQ, or it might get deleted. In conclusion, I'd like to thank IWin and GameFAQs, darklao for being my FAQ mentor, anotherdeadcow for his encouragement, all my homies on the Grups board, my husband and kids for more than I deserve, and you for making it all the way to the end! This guide is dedicated to Spiral Subject.
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London, 8th February, 2016. Artesian Solutions, the market leader in client engagement and sales acceleration has today announced its first legal sector client. FBC Manby Bowdler LLP is currently rolling out the Artesian solution across its firm, following an accelerated pilot programme that delivered an immediate return on investment in terms of increasing the speed of information gathering and attracting new business.
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Hi there, I am designing a logo for a client at the moment. He has shown me an existing logo he likes and asked if I can do him one in the same style, but with his company name on. I'm just wondering if I will be infringing on any copyright laws if it looks too similar to the example he has given. How different does an image have to look so that it is not considered to be copying someone else's work? Any advice much appreciated! Thanks!


text:
Late in high school I had a secret source of inspiration.
For a year and a half or so my dad and I had a boarder living with us. Richard was a lit major at UVIC. I remember him pointing out the poets Sean Virgo and Susan Musgrave, down at the beach, and trying to explain to me their very complicated relationship, which was he promised me, "very poetical".
I was 16 and had no idea what he was talking about. In hindsight, I was dealing with my own sexual issues and had no way of getting at them. So who cared which poet slept with which and why.
One thing that Richard brought to our house was his friend Dick, who he claimed was the biggest dope dealer in the city. Hence Dick's self-financed trips to NYC at the age of 22.
Dick told this 16 year old that my love of Lou Reed's Transformer was the epitome of good taste. That I arrived at this on my own, just because of the cover of the record, was frankly amazing to him. And god, I needed that at that time of my life.
Richard's new friends led to my first acid trip (pretty much my last). I realized early I didn't need complex drugs to think differently. Drugs never took hold with me.
And Dick didn't really care that I didn't want to buy his product. He did care about the records I bought. I can see his big head with his long, long hair grinning at me as he went through my latest stack with nothing but praise.
So what did he give me the thumbs up for when I added them to my meagre collection? I don't remember all the approvals – I know he liked the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead, Neil Young's Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere and more spectacularly, all things Parliament.
Now, I can't think of a whiter city than Victoria. Dick, telling me about NYC and the wide world in between confirmed it, introducing me to a pile of records that was so weird and so different from what the average guy in Victoria was buying that I realized I had just discovered a new way of showing off how odd I was.
Screw it has been my motto about music ever since. I like what I like.
Parliament, Funkadelic and now Galatic and all the rest… I am so lame when it comes to creating music but at least when it comes to spending my money I am able to focus on the beats.
Now, what was I saying? Right, Lou Reed.
All the tributes seem to be in. And as they should be they are all over the place: NYC, punk, the Velvets, art, Warhol and the Factory and his now partner Laurie Anderson…
But I am surprised that nobody seems to say anything about one of my favourite Lou Reed songs – a tough song that perfectly captures – not that I should know – seventies New York. It's a song that plays like a version of "This Love Goes to Building on Fire" with three separate movements, a surprise hidden guest and like the times, lots and lots of drugs.
It's nasty, dark and a platform for love and redemption. It's "Street Hassle". I love this song. I was 21 or 22 when I first heard it. And it means no less to me today than then. (warning: this is so not suitable for very young ears – much street language).


text:
John Terry faces backlash: Outraged players call on football's authorities to act after the Chelsea captain cleared
Football's governing authorities are under pressure from black players to take action against the sacked England captain John Terry despite his acquittal yesterday on a charge of racially abusing a black fellow professional.
The 31-year-old was acquitted of a racially aggravated public order offence by the Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle at Westminster magistrates' court, after the magistrate ruled that when Mr Terry said the words "f***ing black c***" to Anton Ferdinand during a match he may not have meant it as an insult.
Mr Terry admitted he said the words to Mr Ferdinand during the game between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers in October last year, but only as a sarcastic response to Mr Ferdinand first having accused him of using the words. Mr Ferdinand denies ever having done so.
There was an instant backlash against the verdict among black players. The captain of QPR on the day that the incident took place, Fitz Hall, tweeted "Shock", and "F***ing joke", yesterday. Cameron Jerome, a black footballer at Stoke City, tweeted: "May as well go rob a bank and when I get caught just say was only banter."
The BBC pundit and former Tottenham footballer Garth Crooks led the calls for Terry to be charged by the Football Association.
Mr Crooks, one of the first generation of black footballers in English football in the 1970s and 1980s, said Mr Terry had to face action by the governing body for English football for "bringing the game into disrepute".
There were cheers at the verdict from the public gallery among Mr Terry's supporters. Mr Terry did not comment to the waiting media as he left the court but his lawyer, Dan Morrison, said outside: "The court has today acquitted John Terry of all charges. He did not racially abuse Anton Ferdinand, and the court has accepted this."
The wrong result would have wrecked Mr Terry's England career and potentially cost him a fortune in lost sponsorship deals.
Mr Crooks said: "The FA needs to decide if he has broken any of their rules – ungentlemanly conduct, bringing the game into disrepute and so on. I'm afraid this is only half-time for John Terry. This is not over.
"The world is watching this saga and it's an unedifying spectacle. I'm sure the FA will want to put this to bed before the Olympic Games start," he added. "Industrial language is used across the length and breadth of the country. No one is naive enough to think footballers don't get involved. But it's the FA's test – do they think John Terry should have said those words?
"I believe it was wrong of him to say these words – and though Mr Terry has been found not to have committed a criminal offence, the FA must now decide whether the former England captain should be charged for contravening its rules," he said.
In police logs read in court, Mr Ferdinand's public relations adviser Justin Rigby was said to have warned police that if Mr Terry was not charged it would be regarded by black footballers all over the country as a case of their word not being taken as seriously as their white counterparts'.
Paul Elliott, an ambassador for the anti-racism campaigners Kick It Out, said: "It's about learning the lessons and ensuring that this type of situation doesn't come into a court again."
The FA announced yesterday that it would "conclude its own enquiries" into the matter.
Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said there would now be a "searchlight" on English football.
"It has not been a very good week for football. It has been unedifying. This has festered in football for eight months. I don't want black players to feel they must be restrained [in reporting racial abuse] because of this."
Belfast Telegraph


text:
|NZXT Tempest-EVO Case TEVO-001BK
|Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases
|Written by Joey Peng - Edited by Olin Coles
|Sunday, 31 January 2010
Page 5 of 6
Detailed Interior Features
Migrating hardware into the NZXT Tempest Evo case went pretty smoothly. Installation of the hard drive was made incredibly easy thanks to the screwless rail design.
Once the rails were positioned properly, just slide it into the cage and it will automatically clip on and hold the hard drive in place. Simple and effective. It's also very interesting how it's designed like a server HDD rack.
All three fans on the top of the case can be removed and replaced should you choose to. The case comes with wires tied up nicely. It's strongly recommended that you don't untie them completely if you want to keep the cables neat. Each fan has 2 wires, both long enough to reach the opposite side of the case. Best would be to untie just a little bit, connect the fans to each other, and unwrap one power connector for routing to the PSU.
There are three slots for external drives, tool-free design. There are wires that drop down from the top, which connect to the power buttons and ports. They will touch your top external drive even if you try to route the wires along the side and slip through the cable management openings.
To insert and external drive, simply turn the knob and the holder pops right out. You can see the screw holes matching up. Once inserted, stick the holder into the matching whole screw, turn the knob and it locks. However the lock doesn't seem to be tight enough. When the disk drive is spinning at maximum speed, the entire case vibrates and it can get a little shaky.
Overall the interior is well done. A few parts lack a little, which is unfortunate, but overall usability is great. Small details like rubber stands for power supply, rubber fringes for cable management really make the case nicer. There has been significant improvements from the original Tempest that make this new case much better.


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Whey Protein Isolate Strawberry 8 PacketProduct Description
Bluebonnets 100% Natural Whey Protein Isolate is sourced from grass-fed cows that are not treated with antibiotics or recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), also known as bovine somatotropin (BST). Additionally, whey protein has the highest biological value (BV) of any protein on the market, which refers to a protein that has all of the essential amino acids in adequate quantities to sustain growth and development. Thats why Bluebonnets 100% Natural Whey Protein Isolate uses high-quality, microfiltered whey protein isolate with important, naturally-occurring immunoglobulins, which help support the immune system. Whey is also a rich and natural source of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) and glutamic acid. Bluebonnets 100% Natural Whey Protein Isolate provides fast-acting protein meaning its amino acids are easily and readily available to the body for immediate use - an especially important consideration for athletes to use after exercising to optimize the recovery phase by quickly replenishing the bodys amino acid pool. Unlike the common practice of using a heat-processed whey protein isolate that can denature (render useless) the protein and immunoglobulins, Bluebonnet employs a special low-temperature method, which leaves the protein and immunoglobulins intact.
Other Ingredients: Undenatured whey protein isolate, natural flavors, beet juice powder (natural colorant in strawberry and mixed berry flavors only), grape skin extract (natural colorant in mixed berry flavor only), non-GMO sunflower lecithin, Stevia Extract (Reb A).
Does Not Contain: Free of egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans. Also free of corn, yeast, gluten, barley, rice, and sugar.
Warnings: Keep out of reach of children. As with all dietary supplements, consult your healthcare professional before use. See product label for more information. Allergen Manufactured in a facility that Processes Products containing milk, eggs, soybeans, wheat, Shellfish, fish oil, Tree nuts, peanut flavor
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Our collection of Free Online Drawing Games available on the Internet - games that teach, build or strengthen some skills and concepts while having fun. We categorise and review the games listed here to help you find the games you are looking for.
Hold the left mouse button to draw lines. Avoid black shapes, collect power ups and guide the ball to the goal.
Y3.com - 9500+ Free Games
Y3.com - 9500+ Free Games


text:
The Outland rifle was a slugthrower produced by Czerka Arms that saw use during the final decades of the Galactic Republic. It was sometimes used with a NightMight 4NS scope.
Qymaen jai Sheelal wielded a Czerka Outland rifle during the Huk War on his home planet of Kalee, prior to his rebirth as General Grievous.
- The Eyes of Revolution (First appearance)
- "Unknown Soldier: The Story of General Grievous"—Star Wars Insider 86 (First identified as Outland rifle)
- "The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War" on Hyperspace (article) (content removed from StarWars.com and unavailable)
- Galaxy at War
- Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 27
In other languages


text:
Interactive contagion
A local interaction game is a game where agents play an identical stage game against their neighbors over time. This paper obtains a general result on the long-run equilibrium distribution of the local interaction game whose stage game is the 2 x 2 coordination game. It is established that starting from a random initial configuration with a positive probability of playing the risk dominant strategy, a sufficiently large population coordinates on the risk dominant equilibrium with probability 1 for the nearest neighbor interaction Our result improves previous ones including Blume (1995), Ellison (1993,1995), and Morris (1997) in a non-trivial way. It proves that there is an interactive contagion mechanism through which the risk dominant equilibrium may spread, in addition to the autonomous mechanism considered by others. Taking advantage of the mechanism we prove that for the nearest neighbor interaction, half dominance is sufficient for the degenerate long-run equilibrium distribution concentrated on the risk dominant strategy.
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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Groves, Theodore & Ledyard, John O, 1977.
"Optimal Allocation of Public Goods: A Solution to the "Free Rider" Problem,"
Econometric Society, vol. 45(4), pages 783-809, May.
- Theodore Groves & John Ledyard, 1976. "Optimal Allocation of Public Goods: A Solution to the 'Free Rider Problem'," Discussion Papers 144, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
- Hurwicz, Leonid, 1979. "On allocations attainable through Nash equilibria," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 140-165, August.
- Groves, Theodore & Ledyard, John O, 1980. "The Existence of Efficient and Incentive Compatible Equilibria with Public Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1487-1506, September.
- Groves, Theodore & Ledyard, John O., 1978. "The Existence of Efficient and Incentive Compatible Equilibria with Public Goods," Working Papers 203, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
- L. Hurwicz, 1979. "Outcome Functions Yielding Walrasian and Lindahl Allocations at Nash Equilibrium Points," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 217-225.
- Tian, Guoqiang, 1988. "On the constrained Walrasian and Lindahl correspondences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 299-303.
- Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Maskin, Eric, 1980. "A Differential Approach to Dominant Strategy Mechanisms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1507-1520, September.
- Guoqiang Tian, 1989. "Implementation of the Lindahl Correspondence by a Single-Valued, Feasible, and Continuous Mechanism," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 613-621.
- Andrew Postlewaite & David Wettstein, 1989. "Feasible and Continuous Implementation," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 603-611. Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)
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text:
Get DVD Talk Feeds
The Program1
As the great
Steve Martin once said: "Comedy is not pretty"... OK, I have no idea what that
has to do with anything. Let me start this review again:
The Program
As the sagacious Carol Burnett once
put it: "Comedy is tragedy plus time"...wait, what the hell does that mean?
Weak, weak opening. Start again:
As the prolific funnyman Mel Brooks
once remarked: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an
open sewer and die."
*ding ding ding ding ding*
Brooks's definition of comedy is as good as any (although his is certainly
funnier.) What makes you (the reader) break out into guffaws of childlike,
impish laughter can make me (the reviewer) burst into uncontrollable torrents of
tears. To this day I think Tootsie is one of the unfunniest exercises
in "comedy" ever conceived. Or Some Like It Hot
, for that matter. Someone please tell me, why is it that so many
people break into giddy is fits of hysterics the second they see a man in a
dress? To me that goes over about as well as a screen door on a submarine.
My point –
don't worry, we're getting there – is that stand-up comedy is the most difficult
type of media to either recommend to or from which to dissuade a potential
viewer. Your enjoyment of a program like the Funny Ladies
Collection will all depend upon whether or not you find any of the
women in this collection remotely entertaining, and even then the particular
routines presented in this set might not meet
with your satisfaction.
Funny Ladies runs nearly four
hours over four DVDs, and features thirty-two comediennes as they hawk their
wares in a series of taped routines. Ironically enough, each performance is
bridged by some of the most obnoxious and condescending commentary you're ever
likely to encounter this side of a corporate Help Desk farm. Nothing smacks of
patronizing schmaltz as much as the narration between, say, Judy Gold's and
Caroline Rhea's set, when an off-screen male voice chuckles to himself and
utters something along the lines of "Ha ha ha! Gosh you gals are swell! Say!
Here's another funny little dumpling coming our way..." I'd like to find this
schmo and lock him in a room with Camille Paglia for an hour or
So the question really remains: is
this set of material actually funny? The short answer: not really. Don't
get me wrong, I did laugh at a few segments. Ellen Degeneres always cracks
me up. So do Margaret Cho, Judy Tenuta, and Sarah Silverman. I'm a Janeane
Garofalo fan for life, and the hysterical Curb Your Enthusiasm
cast members Susie Essman and Wanda Sykes are also represented here. But
these talents are not represented at their best. The clips look as if they were
filmed for late-night network television sometime between 1988 and 1993, and
many of these ladies are captured at the beginning of their careers. And forget
the claim on the back of this set that the material is "uncensored"; you can
catch more bawdy material watching The Sound of Music run through one
of those "CleanFlix" DVD players.
The main problem is there is way too
much filler and unfunny material. There's over a
dozen names here that I couldn't recognize, and with good reason.
And what in bloody hell are freakin' Morgan Fairchild and Twiggy doing here?
Morgan, you're beautiful and luscious and you make those Old Navy commercials a
hoot, but as a stand-up comedian you're about as effective as feathers on a
So while there are too many
female comedic talents out there worthy of our attention - many of them
showcased in this very set - the Funny Ladies Collection does little to
engender laughter or hilarity. In short: this is four DVDs worth of hackwork.
The talent in this group deserve better.
Funny Ladies Collection
features performances by:
The DVD
Filmed for television, Funny Ladies is
presented in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The quality of the
video is adequate. Satisfactory. Workmanlike. The image is a little shimmery,
but this is probably due to the age and quality of the original taped source
material. Colors are neither strong nor muted, but rather averagely rendered.
Image detail is spotty, but again this is shoddy source material. You're not
going to get your socks knocked off, but you'll get a decent presentation of the
The audio is presented in
both monaural Dolby Digital 2.0, and is about as impressive as the video. That
is to say, it delivers the soundtrack in a somewhat basic, no-frills manner. The
routines are delivered cleanly, without distortion or hollowness. There is some
occasional hiss, but nothing major.
Zilch. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Feh. You can get funnier routines watching anything on
Comedy Central, and that pretty much comes free with your cable. It's
actually a little disheartening, because the Funny Ladies Collection
features many extremely talented women who have proven themselves time
and time again as some of the funniest comedians of our time. You'd never know
it from this set, though. If you're in dire need or serious laughter, you can
pretty much skip this collection entirely and watch Conan O'Brien or
Futurama tonight instead.


text:
UPDATE: Fire damages Hunter Hill townhouse complex on New Year's Eve
A fire the morning of New Year's Eve has displaced the residents of two townhouses in the city of Hudson.
Firefighters were dispatched to the homes at 533 and 535 Hunter Hill Road after a resident of one of the townhouses was awakened by a smoke alarm.
Ann Martinson, who owns the four-plex with her husband, Paul, said the young man opened a bathroom door and smoke billowed out. The bathroom fan had fallen from the burning ceiling, she said.
Martinson suspects the ceiling fan in the bathroom of the residence at 535 Hunter Hill Road of causing the fire. Phone directories list Jennifer L. Johnson as residing there.
The Hudson Fire Department was dispatched to the scene at 9:50 a.m.
Flames were seen coming from the roof of building within a few minutes of the fire being reported, according to Miranda Kustrich, the fire department's administrative assistant.
The town of St. Joseph and Lower St. Croix Valley fire departments assisted the Hudson department at the scene. River Falls firefighters stood by at the Hudson station in case another call came in while the Hudson firefighters were busy.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control within 45 minutes.
Kustrich said they worked for another hour after that, tearing holes in walls to make sure there were no remaining embers.
The majority of fire damage occurred in a wall separating the bathrooms of the two townhouse units. The fire also burned a hole in the roof above the bathrooms, and through the exterior wall.
In addition, the units sustained significant smoke and water damage, according to Kustrich.
Jodi Colbeth, whose late father Donald Colbeth was Hudson firefighter for 37 years, lived in the townhouse at 533 Hunter Hill Road.
Colbeth was at work at Health East in St. Paul when the fire started.
Ann Martinson said both of the damaged townhouses are uninhabitable for now. She expects it to take five to six months to repair them.
She said Colbeth and the Johnson household are looking for temporary housing. Colbeth currently is staying with her mother, also a resident of the Hunter Hill neighborhood.
The American Red Cross reported that it assisted three adults and one child displaced by the fire.
The two other townhouses in the four-plex weren't damaged.
The townhouses are located on a cul-de-sac west of Wisconsin Street and St. Patrick Catholic Church. The townhouse neighborhood is south of Hudson High School.


text:
Veterans clinics closed due to weather
The Watertown and Wagner VA Outpatient Clinics will be closed Wednesday due to hazardous winter weather conditions.
Veterans with a medical or mental health emergency should call 911 or report to the nearest hospital. Those with thoughts of harming themselves should call the Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255.
For all other issues, call the Sioux Falls VA Medical Center at 1-800-316-8387. After clinic hours, during evenings, nights, federal holidays and 24 hours a day on weekends, call the toll-free Nurse VA Advice Line at 1-866-687-7382.


text:
US Soccer took a big step toward identifying the future of the national-team system with the announcements on Thursday of Caleb Porter as Under-23 national team coach and Tab Ramos as the Under-20 team coach.
Porter, in his sixth season as head coach at the University of Akron, will remain in place at his current position while beginning preparation for qualification for next summer's Olympic Games. The CONCACAF qualification tournament, hosted by the US, will begin in March.
"We are excited to have Caleb join our youth national team staff," US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said in a statement. "Still early in his career, Caleb has been extremely successful and has demonstrated the ability to mentor and develop young players. A proven winner, we believe he will do a great job of leading our Under-23 men's national team as they look to qualify for the Olympic Games next summer."
Last year, Porter coached the Zips to their first-ever NCAA Championship, with seven players departing for the pro ranks at the end of the 2010 season. He has coached numerous current MLS players, including Perry Kitchen, Teal Bunbury, Steve Zakuani and Zarek Valentin.
Former US men's national team star and MetroStars midfielder Ramos will succeed Thomas Rongen as the head coach of the Under-20s. Ramos and US youth technical director Claudio Reyna will oversee a training camp for both the U-20s and U-23s in Germany from Nov. 7-16.
Travis Clark covers college and youth soccer for MLSsoccer.com.


text:
They are actually tooth pics painted silver. I drilled holes top and bottom and stuck them through and glued them in place. Considering doing red plug wires if I get too bored...
7 3S 2200 packs later I have to say SHE's BACK. i had maiden her earlier last week but it was only one flight. Today was different. I had 6 flights today - all with success .
Just as I remembered, she has a VERY BAD CASE of LEFT TORQUE ON TAKE-OFF. Luckily I was prepared this time .
Once in the air, she's well behave. I flew mostly in medium rates just as a precaution. I did all the basic maneuvers on this rate just fine. I noticed elevator could be better (I didn't feel it was a responsive as I liked) and didn't give me the lift I was expecting. I did used rubber bands on both front and reach of the canopy just as a precaution since I didn't want the canopy flying out.
I had 6:30 minutes on the timer and both battery and ESC was hardly warm to the touch. i think I could easily bump timer up slightly higher next time depending on recharge data.
i sure missed this plane...and now she's back (ill left tempter and all).
Last edited by Reef_rc; Feb 29, 2012 at 06:09 PM. Reason: sentence
Just noticed Model Aviation did their review on the Stearman - http://www.modelaviation.com/superstearman. The magazine has more details than what's on the web I noticed.
I find it interesting how most reviews somehow always seem to leave out the most obvious facts any pilot should be aware of if they purchase/fly this plane (i.e. major left turn on take-off) which could affect the user's chances of success. Sadly this review too did not mentioned such thing.
Regardless - I like mine for the past few weeks I've flown her. I have finally add the wheel pants and added a minor touch of silver/gray and black spray paint to the plastic motor
The winter weather finally let me maidian my Stearman today. I was ready on my sticks for some left temper that I read in this forum, but not fast enough. The plane turned 120 degrees left on take off. None of my 12 other planes have been so drastic. I will always take off with the right side facing me unless something changes with this plane. I flew around a while, it took more trim than almost any plane I have built. You can see a noticeable right aileron and right rudder when I came down. When I was about ready to land, I let it get a little too slow and it fell right out of the sky, but I let it dive and speed up and pulled it out just above the ground. It was back lit and I could not tell which side was up so I rolled around until I figured out which way was up and got it headed back to me. I flew by and pulled straight up. The eflite power 10 I put in the Stearman is larger, heaver, and more powerful than stock. That motor pulled the Stearman straight up at less than full throttle with unlimited vertical. I came down at a fairly steep angle and leveled off about a foot above the runway and cut power for a perfect landing. If I had not had 4 years of practice on other planes I would have crashed this one, it was a handful and I was shaking after I landed. I flew my Eflite Extra 260 just before this plane the Extra if very responsive but much easier to fly than the Stearman. After the Stearman, I flew my T28 which is extremely easier to fly by comparison.
Flying GP Stearman is like taking chances with Russian Roulette on take off . I had three flights today and each take-off was an adrenaline rush. The rush comes and go once she gets some air. Expo will help some. So far I mostly fly on medium rates (high on elevator).
I have found if you increase throttle slowly left turn isn't as bad. Not sure if slightly bigger prop (10x8) will also help. These last few flights I was using 10x7 and recalled the previous 7 flights was with 10x8 and there seems to be less left turn on take-off. Anyway I plan to switch back to 10x8 just to see.
Also helps if you stay on FAR RIGHT on take-off
Last edited by Reef_rc; Mar 05, 2012 at 09:28 AM. Reason: update additional info.
SS setup...
hello all,
i picked up a SS (cheap) and couldn't resist 'cause I thought it was such a great looking plane. I installed the recommended Rimfire .10, running a 40A ESC, and now looking into a prop. I have a 10x7SF lying around, & after reading about some of the thrust/torque issues, wondering if I should go w/ the 10x7E or 10x7SF?
relatively slow thread and not much new maiden it seems based on the activity. Seems everyone is either flying theirs happily without much issues or have had major set back. Luckily I am the "happily" crowd .
Some recommedations for those who have not maiden theirs. Since the plane has a bad take-off tendency to steer left,I find the following helps me to be successful and hope this help others. It's really is a nice plane outside of a few bad traits which might steer others away.
With too many numerous flights to count with mine, I have to say it has gotten a lot easier once I settled on 10x8 prop, medium rates on elevator and rudder on take-offs and landings. I also find no bounce wheels help avoid scenarios I come in slightly too fast an the plane does a small hop. Take off with head winds is definitely a must have otherwise being a relatively small plane, she'll tend to steer herself that directtion whether you like it or not and at times it's not for the better (especially if you have concerte parking lot blocks in the way ).
Now back to replacing the motor I just burned out on my last flight today. Somehow the motor gave out on my last flight today. I could smell the burnt smell after the a last minute mayday landing.
Hi guys,
I have been following this thread with a lot of interest!!
I have couple of questions if you don't mind
I have 3 DS410 servos laying around, can I use them instead of the S3114?
I also have AR6115e, can I use this Rx?
And as far as the ESC, can I use CC PHOENIX ICE 50 BL and get away with the rimfire 0.1 motor or you would still recommend other motor?
Align DS410 Digital 0.45 oz (12.7 g) 0.93×0.49×1.04 in (23.6×12.4×26.4 mm)
4.8V: 25.0 oz-in (1.8 kg-cm)
6.0V: 30.6 oz-in (2.2 kg-cm)
4.8V: 0.13 sec/60°
6.0V: 0.09 sec/60°
Futaba S3114 Analog 0.28 oz (7.8 g) 0.87×0.43×0.79 in (22.1×10.9×20.1 mm)
4.8V: 21.0 oz-in (1.5 kg-cm)
6.0V: 24.0 oz-in (1.7 kg-cm)
4.8V: 0.10 sec/60°
6.0V: 0.09 sec/60°
Thank a lot, I appreciate anything to have to suggest.
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|Last Post
|For Sale
|Midwest Super Stearman kit NIB
|Aircraft - Fuel - Airplanes (FS/W)
|Jul 11, 2012 08:13 PM
|Need GP Super Stearman Landing Gear
|Howard L
|Aircraft - Fuel - Airplanes (FS/W)
|Mar 03, 2011 03:46 PM
|For Sale
|Kyosho Super Stearman OS46AX, Brandie new motor
|Aircraft - Fuel - Airplanes (FS/W)
|Jan 25, 2006 02:48 PM
|For Sale
|Great Planes Super Stearman RTF "NEW"
|Rick Poire
|Aircraft - Fuel - Airplanes (FS/W)
|Jun 29, 2005 03:28 PM
|Great Planes Super Stearman RTF New
|Rick Poire
|Aircraft - Fuel - Airplanes (FS/W)
|Apr 07, 2005 04:37 PM