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57 lines
3.0 KiB
57 lines
3.0 KiB
The second version of the popular windows game Taipei has been released. On
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the surface there appear to be few changes, but a look underneath reveals many
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changes from the first version.
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How to play Taipei
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Taipei is one of those games that is simple to learn, yet difficult to master.
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It has provided several minutes of enjoyment to at least half a dozen people.
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The game is played using Mah-Jong tiles, arranged in a formation called a
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"wombat." The "wombat" has a head (on the right), a tail (on the left), and
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four legs (in each of the four corners). Your job is to dismember the wombat
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by removing the tiles in pairs.
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Basically, tiles have to match exactly to be removed as a pair. The exceptions
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are that any two flowers and any two seasons match.
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Only "free" tiles can be removed. A tile is "free" if it does not have a tile
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blocking it to the right or left, and does not have a tile on top of it.
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Taipei will give you an error message if you try to take off tiles that don't
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match or that aren't free.
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Strategy
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You'll want to get the end tiles off as soon as you can. Watch out for snags
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such as two matching tiles adjacent to each other on the end of a row of tiles;
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be careful not to remove their opposite match, or else you will have a block at
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the end of the row. If there are three matching tiles free and the fourth on
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is hidden, try for another move; you may regret taking two of the three tiles
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and then having the third tile block another important tile later. Go slowly,
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and eventaully Confucious will reward you with some Chinese wisdom.
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New Features
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One of the changes in version 2 is that you can now select a game number to
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play. This number is a random number seed which initializes Taipei's
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board-building algorithm. Note that not every board is necessarily winnable.
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This is in contrast from version 1, where Taipei tried to build a "wombat" that
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was theoretically winnable; but I found that people won about the same amount
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of time with the new version, and building the board is faster. Now you can
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challenge your friends to win a particularly hard game you have found.
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Try clicking the right mouse button on the wombat. You'll find that Taipei
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instantly iconizes itself, a feature we call "boss mode."
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The biggest change in version 2 involved Taipei's hint algorithm. In previous
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versions, Taipei would cycle through all available moves on successive hint
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commands. The new version actually evaluates each move by assigning various
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weight factors for different conditions. For example, Taipei tends to strongly
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favor taking off the end and top tiles, which block more than one tile at a
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time. Also, for each pair it checks to see if its matching pair has already
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been removed; if so, it will strongly recommend that move. You can use the
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"H" key to show the next hint, or use the menu.
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Taipei is not yet available in computer software stores such as Egghead (which
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does not as yet carry Bogus products). Instead, you can get it from the bogus
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directory in \\windex\public.
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