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Master System Mah-Jong / Mak-Jong variations
Post Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:24 pm
It's not too common, so I thought I could post pictures.
The export-shaped cartridge of Mahjong Sengoku Jidai, as released in limited quantities in China/Hong-Kong/Taiwan (not sure), has two variations.
One is titled 'Mah-jong', the other 'Mak-Jong'. Covers and manual differs, cartridges are the same.




The scans repository has the Mak-jong scan only. I will submit the other scan shortly.
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 1:40 am
That's pretty cool, I'd never seen those boxes...
Judging by the stuff that's popping up lately (like the black box light phaser), I guess I'll never stop seeing new SMS stuff :)
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:36 am
ah, this still illudes me. I like the Mah Jong box best aesthetically speaking. Is there any reason for the difference in spelling?

Was this game a test bed for the gaming market in that area?
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:59 am
james costello wrote
Is there any reason for the difference in spelling?

It's pure typo: "Mahjong" is the traditional English naming, it's pronounced Májiàng in Mandarin (roughly what the people in Taiwan and much of mainland China would speak) and Màhjeung in Cantonese (what people in Hong Kong would speak). However, the box has the alternative name 麻雀 which is Máquè (or Màhjeuk in Cantonese); neither has a matching K sound (què being pronounced a bit like "chuay").

Badly-typed Roman text is extremely common in far-eastern countries, so there's probably not much to be read into it.

Is it exactly the same as the Japanese version? I presume so due to the lack of alternative dumps. I am suspicious whether it's legit or a pirate effort - the box does seem rather badly-designed, but on the other hand it's far more official-looking than most pirate software of the time.


The box has traditional Chinese writing on it so it's probably targeted at either Taiwan or Hong Kong, not mainland China. The "Made in Japan" on the box probably wouldn't go down well in Taiwan.
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:47 am
Maxim wrote
Is it exactly the same as the Japanese version? I presume so due to the lack of alternative dumps.

Yes it is. I dumped both version, they are identically (in Japanese).

Quote
I am suspicious whether it's legit or a pirate effort - the box does seem rather badly-designed, but on the other hand it's far more official-looking than most pirate software of the time.

One thing's certain: SMS was released in this area. I have a Chinese SMS. I have also spotted chinese written Gold Cartridges boxes a while ago.
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:14 am
I look forward to seeing pictures (and scans...) :)
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:41 am
Yes it was, I have one from Hong Kong...

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n45/jamescostello/wongkongking.jpg

(have I linked to this image incorrectly?)
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:27 pm
As discussed elsewhere previously, availability does not mean release; some US-only games were available in major UK shops, for example, but they were unofficial imports.

What markings does the corresponding SMS have? It might help to figure out where it was imported from, if that is the case.

PS. It's usually better to attach images rather than link them, image hosts have an annoying habit of "losing" images.
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:57 pm
Last edited by james costello on Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:00 pm; edited 1 time in total
Maxim wrote
As discussed elsewhere previously, availability does not mean release; some US-only games were available in major UK shops, for example, but they were unofficial imports.

What markings does the corresponding SMS have? It might help to figure out where it was imported from, if that is the case.

PS. It's usually better to attach images rather than link them, image hosts have an annoying habit of "losing" images.


I'l attach in future sorry.
As for the markings are you refering to the underside of the system or the box? (i can check when i'm home from work tonight)
I know the manual says printed in Hong Kong...
http://shinobiman.proboards15.com/index.cgi?board=accessories&action=display&thread=1168461766 - 2nd one down in the pic.

(PS. without meaning to hijack this thread can anyone help with my quest to find the missing manulas in the linked thread?)

This thread has changed abit, that chinese box is cool.

My system form Hong Kong is a 3010-11 (no game just 'welcome...')
The only notable things I can tell about it is it's the only 1 of my 8 sms1's thats made in Japan and the power light is so bright it nearly burned through my retina. so abit boring... sorry guys.
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 1:19 pm
Well, whatever's there. In fact, it might be as simple as looking at the box and noticing if it's multilingual, or has Sega of America written on it, for example - just trying to figure out if there was an official retail channel there, or if it was unofficial.

The SMS ought to have something on it denoting the RF encoder's output - PAL-I, for example, is for the UK (and Hong Kong), Taiwan runs on NTSC and mainland China uses PAL-D. Then again, I'm not sure how much these things actually matter, does a German PAL-B/G SMS not work on a UK TV? They seem to be to do with audio and colour subcarrier frequencies, but then again these days TVs are often auto-switching, which would have been less common in the 80s.
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:22 pm
As to complete this thread, here's another auction I had spotted but unfortunately, it wen't to high:



A lot of megadrive games where released in HK, many of them having a second instruction booklet in chinese only
There is also known releases of HK nes, famicom and super nes so I assume this is definitely legit.





I've been lurking around a couple of chinese auctions site, but most of the sega stuff is either megadrive, saturn and dreamcast games, either sega toys.
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:36 pm
Kenneth wrote

Well, this one's simplified Chinese which confuses matters even more... since that's generally not used in Hong Kong or Taiwan...
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:56 pm
Maxim wrote
Kenneth wrote

Well, this one's simplified Chinese which confuses matters even more... since that's generally not used in Hong Kong or Taiwan...


I've sent the picture to a friend in hong kong, he told me the same thing as you but added "we don't write this way in hong kong anymore"
So it doesn't confuses things ^^ I guess ... lol
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:13 pm
Well, in 1986 they still used traditional characters...
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:48 pm
Wow, where was that SMS1 sold? On eBay, or a Chinese site?

There's also this SMSII that Bock posted a while back: http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6802

And if it would help convince anyone about Mah-Jong's official status, I could try making a couple of scans of the circuit board?
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:23 pm
On yahoo auction.
h111102 bought it (he also put 150 000 yens on the new sf7000...)
I think he is a member here.

As for the mah-jong, I will quote a shop owner in hong kong (from whom I bought my copy) "yes ! I know this game (mah-jong). But it is quiet expensive. Usually sells for 50 euros here. I sold a couple of them to foreign collectors in the past". Two weeks after "I have a copy of mah-jong for sale". Dunno if it means the game is not rare. Definitely means I'm a lucky bastard lol
As I don't trust chinese ghostly sellers, I asked his shop adress and sent my friend lol


Pretty expensive, yes. When you know some nuts will pay more than 300 euros here for it.
For instance, the second copy of bock was bought on ebay germany for 56 euros, shipping included: http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170058429888

Reminds me the copy retrotwat bought on the canadian ebay. I guess the game was not that rare after all.

But when I asked the hong kong guy for the master system itself, he didn't remember ever having sold one (he opened his shop 25 years ago...)
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:58 pm
Do you have to remind me of this auction Kenneth :.(
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:50 am
Maxim wrote
The SMS ought to have something on it denoting the RF encoder's output - PAL-I, for example, is for the UK (and Hong Kong), Taiwan runs on NTSC and mainland China uses PAL-D. Then again, I'm not sure how much these things actually matter, does a German PAL-B/G SMS not work on a UK TV?


No, not in the strictest definition of a UK TV. The audio would be missing.
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:56 am
Kenneth wrote


Do you notice the smaller text below the big "世嘉電子知能机"? The one that reads something like "中国電????用"?

I can't make it all out, but it says something about being made for China something. Of course, Taiwan considers itself China as well, but I don't think it would be phrased like that, and with simplified characters at that.
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:25 am
idrougge wrote
Do you notice the smaller text below the big "世嘉電子知能机"? The one that reads something like "中国電????用"?

I can't make it all out, but it says something about being made for China something. Of course, Taiwan considers itself China as well, but I don't think it would be phrased like that, and with simplified characters at that.

Taiwan would always use traditional characters and call itself Taiwan - only China considers Taiwan to be part of China...

I'll ask my tame Chinese native to read it, it's too blurry for me. The smaller text says 中国电(视?)(?)用 which says "Chinese television (something) use" which suggests it's for the mainland, ie. PAL-D. The big text says something like "Sega electronic videogame".
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:03 pm
Maxim wrote
Taiwan would always use traditional characters and call itself Taiwan - only China considers Taiwan to be part of China...


Au contraire, both countries consider themselves China, and don't recognise the "other China". All products made in Taiwan say "Made in Taiwan R.O.C.", and the R.O.C. means "Republic of China". But I don't know if the Taiwanese call their country China in Chinese.
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Post Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 9:19 pm
I opened both cartridges to note their ROM production dates:

MAH-JONG (HK): 8748KX, SEGA MPR-11193 W37
MAK-JONG (HK): 8826EX, SEGA MPR-11193 W37

In other words, at least for the 2 cartridges I own, "Mah-Jong" ROM was manufactured in December 1987, "Mak-Jong" ROM middle of 1988.
The original Japanese version was released on October 17, 1987.
Of course, games are often remanufactured so this can't be for sure, but it's possible that "Mak-Jong" was released after "Mah-Jong".

If you have a Mah-Jong cartridge, feel free to open it and note the dating on the ROM chipset. :)
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Post Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 12:35 pm
Mine has a Mak-Jong cover and the 8748 date on the ROM.
I may have swapped the cart when I upgraded my loose copy though, so you can probably ignore that :/
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Post Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 4:04 pm
hello sega fans! i am new there! today i'l buy that model MS. i from Russia, and man who sold me it, say about his father who go to japan in 1994 and buy to him that console. its work with 220v adapter

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:37 pm
The first image seems to include the receipt from where it was bought - can you show us a bigger picture of that?

Edit: actually, I can see the 1994 date on it so it's probably not the original receipt. I think some of the small text is Japanese, too, matching your story.
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Post Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:49 pm
Maxim wrote
The first image seems to include the receipt from where it was bought - can you show us a bigger picture of that?

Edit: actually, I can see the 1994 date on it so it's probably not the original receipt. I think some of the small text is Japanese, too, matching your story.

that it
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Post Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 9:41 am
some paper from box...
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Post Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:22 am
The shop is straight across from the station in Akihabara, that's where a lot of tax-free shops cater to tourists, which could explain the presence of a Chinese Master System in a Tokyo shop.
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:46 am
Hello guys! I find another china MS in Russia. This one in very good condition. Box with plastic foam now! And second controller new in film!

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Post Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:44 pm
Bock wrote
I opened both cartridges to note their ROM production dates:

MAH-JONG (HK): 8748KX, SEGA MPR-11193 W37
MAK-JONG (HK): 8826EX, SEGA MPR-11193 W37

In other words, at least for the 2 cartridges I own, "Mah-Jong" ROM was manufactured in December 1987, "Mak-Jong" ROM middle of 1988.
The original Japanese version was released on October 17, 1987.
Of course, games are often remanufactured so this can't be for sure, but it's possible that "Mak-Jong" was released after "Mah-Jong".

If you have a Mah-Jong cartridge, feel free to open it and note the dating on the ROM chipset. :)


I just found this topic and I have a copy of Mak-Jong and the ROM date for mine was also '8748'. I wonder if the mistake was made when the labels were printed?

AFAIK, mine is an original one and has never been swapped.
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Post Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:19 pm
ACYY wrote
Bock wrote
I opened both cartridges to note their ROM production dates:

MAH-JONG (HK): 8748KX, SEGA MPR-11193 W37
MAK-JONG (HK): 8826EX, SEGA MPR-11193 W37

In other words, at least for the 2 cartridges I own, "Mah-Jong" ROM was manufactured in December 1987, "Mak-Jong" ROM middle of 1988.
The original Japanese version was released on October 17, 1987.
Of course, games are often remanufactured so this can't be for sure, but it's possible that "Mak-Jong" was released after "Mah-Jong".

If you have a Mah-Jong cartridge, feel free to open it and note the dating on the ROM chipset. :)


I just found this topic and I have a copy of Mak-Jong and the ROM date for mine was also '8748'. I wonder if the mistake was made when the labels were printed?

AFAIK, mine is an original one and has never been swapped.


So strange you should mention this as I was reading Bock’s message yesterday as I had posted a pic of my Mah-Jong on instagram. I went ahead and opened mine too and it was the same as Bock’s.
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Post Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:32 pm
james costello wrote


So strange you should mention this as I was reading Bock’s message yesterday as I had posted a pic of my Mah-Jong on instagram. I went ahead and opened mine too and it was the same as Bock’s.


I suppose that means there were at least two batches...but both batches have Mah-jong and Mak-jong. That's very interesting and something I didn't know until just now.

I've had my copy for quite some time. Actually quite a good game but it takes a minute to learn. (It also helps if you know Mahjong IRL, which I do).
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