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Downloads – Updates

Below are listed the most recent updates to Four Winds Mah Jong version 2.0.  If you look for updates to version 1.0, please check the Version 1.x files section, instead.

  • Four Winds Mah Jong version 2.09 – A patch that updates an already installed 2.x version
    File Size: 15 984 kB, Date: June-19-2007 – Download now

    NOTE:
    The packages containing the latest version of the program are available to registered users of version 2.x only. If you have registered version 2.x but do not have the required download password (it is delivered within the confirmation e-mail for orders that have been made after September 18, 2002), please contact technical support to have it sent by e-mail. If you have not registered, you can download a test version (2.01) from the section C of the Program Files download page.
    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your ISP or spam mail filter does not block e-mail from lagarto.fi since support e-mail normally proceeds from this domain name (and not 4windsmj.com).

    Note to Windows Vista users:  The latest version of Four Winds can display context help even if WinHlp32.exe is not installed, but since the WinHelp module supports rich formatting, it is recommended that Windows Vista users download WinHlp32.exe for Windows Vista from Microsoft's site (search the download address with Internet search engine by using "WinHlp32.exe for Windows Vista" as a keyword).
     
  • Update to the Microsoft HTML Help Control (needed if you have Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 and wish to use Four Winds HTML documentation). This also works if you have Virtual PC (software that allows Windows programs to be run on a Macintosh), since older versions come with IE 3.0.
    Note: Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, ME, and 98 users should not run Hhupd.exe, but instead update their systems by using service packs or Windows Update.

    HHUPD v. 1.40 (updates HHCTRL.OCX to version 5.02.3735.0)
    File Size: 752,994 bytes – Download now

Version history

For details, click to expand the list items.

  • June-19-2007 – Version 2.09
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. Fixed minor errors in the user interface (e.g., incorrectly updated menu commands when changing certain rules having effect on menus, discarded jokers occasionally showing as black tiles, the Tile Claimed box not always showing all required buttons when using jokers).
      2. Errors in recognizing certain Limit hands (e.g., Hidden Treasure and All Green) in a loser's calling hand. Also, the code erroneously gave points for All Green in joker based hands containing Chows of non-green tiles. In addition, the code failed to recognize Emerald, Ruby and Diamond Snake hands containing unassigned jokers.
      3. The program failed to recognize a chance for claiming a tile for a Pung in a joker based hand that could go out on a discard and had three true identical tiles already in hand.
      4. The multiplayer games would go out of sync in certain situations where two or more human players claimed the same tile (Chow claims and player's own Out declarations were handled correctly, but Pung vs. other human player's Chow based claims and Pung vs. other human player's Out declarations resulted in unsynchronized game).
      5. In a multiplayer game the AI players games would make different decisions on the hosting and joining computers and cause the game go out of sync, if the hosting player started the game by using the Game > Start a Multiplayer Game command directly after having launched Four Winds, instead of using the Game > New Game command.
      6. In a multiplayer game, if the hosting player was East, the joining players were not able to claim East's first discard (it was just shown and immediately placed amongst discards).
      7. The code ignored the "Included melded tiles" option in Early Winning 1 and Early Winning 2 hands (this would affect e.g. the Taiwanese rules): melded tiles were always included in the tile count no matter what the option's setting was.
      8. Fixed exclusion rules that incorrectly ignored certain patterns in complex hands. E.g., some Kong combinations were not given extra points when appearing with Two concealed triplets and Three concealed triplets kinds of patterns.
      9. The offending player's "Scores before" value was miscalculated in a situation where the player declared faulty out as East, and the rules specified double penalties for East.
      10. Competitive claiming precedence option "Pair > Pung > Chow" did not work correctly: the order of precedence was still "Pung > Chow > Pair" even if the alternative option was checked.
    • Other changes:
      1. Chinese Official rules have been updated (there are minor changes in Kong scoring and certain Limit hands, as well as scoring for the Fully concealed hand: now many limit hands that by nature are always concealed, get extra 4 points for Fully concealed instead of 1 point for going out self-drawn). Also, scoring for complex Kong hands has been updated to meet the CO rules (see help documentation for details).
      2. The program now supports user-specific data folders for saved games, statistics, high scores, etc. The default parent folder for these data files is still the Four Winds program folder, but on systems where restricted user privileges have been set, and on Windows Vista, the data files will be saved in folders under user's and all users' "Documents\4Winds2" folders. The folder paths can be specified in the Preferences dialog box.
      3. Context help now works on Windows Vista, even if WinHlp32.exe is not installed. Since the alternative method does not support formatted text, it is recommended though that users download WinHelp for Vista from Microsoft's site (Microsoft unfortunately does not allow including of WinHelp in 3rd party setup packages).
      4. The sound effects have been updated. Also, if DirectX is installed on the system, new background and win of the game music (.MP3 files) are used instead of MIDI files.
  • January-04-2006 – Version 2.08
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. The game would incorrectly give points also for a Pung hand in seven-pair hands that would get scores for being All even or All odd. This would happen e.g. in Chinese Official rules.
      2. There was an error in recognizing the special hand Knitted Dragon in certain situations. In addition, there were errors in displaying correctly the sets composing this special hand when showing the winning hand after a won deal. These errors would appear e.g. in Chinese Official rules.
      3. The code failed to recognize the character suit in the pattern 4 triplets in sequence of 1 suit and would only give it the merit for 3 triplets in sequence of 1 suit.
      4. Errors in recognizing the special hand Squirming Snake: the code did not check the presence of the Pung of nines in this hand.
      5. For the pattern 123789 twice of the same suit there is an option "Require pair of 5's of the same suit" but when the option is applied, the code would accept a pair of fives of any suit. Similarly, for the pattern 123789 twice of two suites there is an option "Require pair of 5's of the third suit" that would also accept a pair of fives any suit. These errors would appear e.g. in Chinese Official rules.
      6. There was an error in version 2.07 that would make use of the guided tour (Help > Guided Tour) impossible (the tutorial would get stuck once started).
      7. If the pattern Three Little Winds was used, the code would calculate incorrectly the number of surplus triplets in the hand. This might result in giving extra points for non-existing Pungs or Kongs.
      8. In a multiplayer game the game would go out of synch if a human player would claim a tile only for a Chow instead of using the same tile to declare out.
      9. Quitting the game via the Scores dialog box with a non-saved game file and saving the file to a location that would result in a full path name longer than 58 characters would cause program crashes.
      10. The Four Winds font that is used in printing the scores and graphical hand descriptions had Character tiles 7, 8 and 9 in incorrect places, resulting in these tiles being mixed.
      11. Fixed a scoring assignment error in Chinese Classical: losers should get 4 doubles for Big Four Winds instead of 5.
      12. Fixed an error in printing the favorite hands (the hands would have incorrect names).
  • February-04-2005 – Version 2.07

    • Fixed bugs:
      1. Fixed an error related to recognition of special hands Big/Small Four Winds and Big Three Dragons (Three Great Scholars) in a loser's hand containing jokers.
      2. AI players failed to go out immediately on a joker they grabbed from another player in a situation where the hand was declared ready.
      3. The initial replacement of flowers in the dealt hand would reveal the number of jokers in a player's hand by turning the flower tiles in their correct positions. Now the flowers are always replaced from the tail end of the hand.
      4. If the use of jokers was limited in some way (e.g., not allowed in Chows or in pairs), and the jokers were auto-assigned in the human loser's hand, checking of legal use of jokers would fail and often result in giving zero points for the player's hand.
      5. If jokers were allowed in melded sets only when that set would complete the hand, the code would still allow the human player to use jokers in other melded sets in situations where the player actually could have declared out but instead declared Chow, Pung or Kong.
      6. The code could not recognize the pattern Run of 6 tiles of 1 suit in situations where the hand contained other Chows of the same suit that would go between the run, or Chows starting from 5, 6 or 7 that would precede the Chows forming the run.
      7. Fixed recognition errors in the following special hands: Royal Chows, Suit Pairs and Honor Orphans (did not accept Dragons), Golden Gates (did not allow the Character suit or a Pung of 9's), True Gates and certain other "gate hands" (did not allow the Character suit).
      8. Fixed errors in the scoring logic: Windy Ones/Nines now precede Windy Pungs and Windy Pungs of Same Number, and Emerald, Ruby and Diamond Snake, and Great Brothers, now precede Great Snake.
      9. Jewel hands that can contain Chows (Jade Dragon, Ruby Dragon, Pearl Dragon, Jade Hand, Pearl Hand, Ruby Hand, All Red and All Green) were not always examined properly for alternative (Pung based) arrangements, which might result in failure to recognize these hands in situations, where the number of Chows was limited in the winning hand.
      10. AI players having jokers in hand were sometimes incorrectly given scores for Windy Pairs.
      11. Fixed yet another error in the recognition of the special hand Numbers Racket.
      12. Windy Pungs of Same Number did mistakenly get scores of the special hand Windy Pungs.
      13. Fully concealed hands where double Chows of the same suit followed each other (like B223344 556677) were not recognized as legal winning hands.
      14. The 1.x rule preset "Four Winds" was mistakenly marked as "Taiwanese 16-Tiles Rules" when opened in 2.x version.
      15. If the use of jokers was restricted so that they were not allowed in melds, the code might prohibit declarations of Pungs or Kongs even if no jokers were involved in the declaration.
      16. If the use of jokers was restricted somehow (e.g., not allowed in pairs, single tiles or Chows), the code might fail to see in which set the jokers were or could be used, if the winning tile was claimed from another player's discard.
      17. Errors in calculating limit scoring for losers. E.g., if the loser got 50% of the Limit for some special hands, the final score of other losers would be zeroed. In addition, the limit was erroneously applied to the scoring difference between two losers rather than to the final score of the hand itself (i.e., the option on the Payments option page was always on), and the calculation itself also contained errors. Also, if the loser's limit hand contained jokers, they might have been re-assigned with garbage data ("black tiles"), even though the scoring would still be applied correctly.
  • September-23-2004 – Version 2.06
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. Red Dora tiles were shown incorrectly when the user had two or more fives of the same suit in hand, and manual tile arrange was used (even the regular fives were shown as red fives).
      2. The code did not check the condition for sacred hand before checking the missed discard. This would result in false warnings as regards the player's rights to go out on a discarded tile. The error would appear only in Japanese Modern rules.
      3. Errors in handling the Limit point scoring for certain snake based special hands (i.e., hands consisting of a run from 1 to 9 of the same suit, the rest being winds and/or dragons). The scores were multiplied in certain situations.
      4. When starting a saved multiplayer game where no discards had been made so far, the program failed to synchronize the hands (the starting player was erroneously given the next tile of the wall while other players saw the original correct hand).
      5. In certain situations the bonus for Flower and Season of Wind of the Round was given for hands that did not merit it.
      6. Joker restrictions (e.g., allowing them in Chows but not in pairs) were not handled correctly. This caused erroneous faulty declaration of out messages in some situations, and apparently erroneous use of jokers in certain other situations. AI players also failed to recognize certain winning hands (e.g., Nine Gates) because of flaws in handling the joker restrictions.
      7. Fixed a couple of errors in printed scoring report (e.g., computer player's point scores were not shown in detail).
      8. The Pay between winners setting was not retained when the Preferences dialog box was opened.
      9. Fixed minor scoring errors (e.g., point scores for flowers were skipped in certain circumstances).
      10. Replaying a hand would cause occasional program shutdowns on computers running Windows 9x operating systems.
      11. The optional rule of Kuikae (forbid against illegal claims) did not work correctly as it would check also hands that were legally declared Out!
      12. Fixed a couple of errors related to use of jokers as part of the winning hand, and incorrect or missing tile assignment of jokers in AI players' hands (display problems only).
      13. Fixed some minor problems in the user interface: e.g. draw options related to payments for dealer's extra hands were not retained in certain situations, and the Available Tiles window behaved erratically when the Hints option was disabled.
      14. Ordinary Pung hands with a Dragon triplet and a Dragon pair, or a Wind triplet and a Wind pair were falsely given scores for the limit hand Numbers Racket.
      15. Improved losers' joker assignments when calculating points for losers.
      16. Fixed recognition errors related to the special hands Sparrow's Sanctuary and Fully Concealed Suit Hand. There were also errors in recognition of the special hand Nine Gates. In addition, Thirteen Orphans (impure) was not recognized if the rules specified scoring also for Thirteen Orphans (pure).
      17. Fixed problems related to continuing a saved multiplayer game when 3 or more human players participated in the game.
      18. Points for flowers and seasons were ignored in total scores for a special hand with a cumulative scoring assignment (i.e. a scoring setting which is not counted alone but combines with scoring values for other patterns) in situations where the rules would require a minimum point for a winning hand and would not allow points for flowers and seasons to be included in the check.
      19. When using the penalty option No choice, the notification "No choice" was shown in vain, if the penalty option Nine tiles error was enabled.
    • Other changes:
      1. Italian rules have been updated, and some scoring errors were fixed at the same time.
      2. Improved support for multiple monitor systems.
      3. Improved AI related to games where jokers are used.
      4. The special hand Knitted Dragon now also accepts component points for Independent (Knitted). This addition is meaningful in Chinese Official rules, where both these special hands have a scoring value specified in the point unit.
      5. The joker can now be assigned also by clicking the top right corner of the joker, holding down the mouse button, moving the mouse cursor over the joker palette that pops up, and releasing the button on the tile to be used as the joker's value.
  • February-22-2004 – Version 2.05
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. Fixed problems related to new statistical features when used with random or changing seat order. E.g., in certain situations the statistical view of the Points dialog box would show mixed total points (assigned to wrong players). The random seat order would also cause incorrect point adjustments when an already played deal would be replayed, and show mixed skill levels on the Players option page of the Preferences dialog box. In addition, the players' scores were added incorrectly in the Top 50 Games scores.
      2. Statistics tab of the Game Manager would display erroneous statistical information when the Scores dialog box was open (either as a result of a finished deal or using the Scores command on the View menu).
      3. The To Favorites button would be dimmed when returning from High Scores view to Current game view.
      4. Errors in display of tiles in situation where separate discards were shown for each player. E.g. when flowers and seasons needed to be rearranged because of having more than 16 tiles melded, the background was painted erroneously for the human player. Also, the extra tiles were not re-arranged correctly when a player declared a concealed or open Kong on his own turn. In addition, discards were shown erroneously for AI players when they were displayed on the second row (and when "Large" game board was used).
      5. In the Chinese Official rule preset the special hand Knitted Dragon did not allow regular melds.
      6. Errors in loser scoring in situations where a loser had a calling hand and would get bonus points for patterns like Concealed hand and other hands needing only one tile to be complete. This had effect in rules like Dutch League Rules or American Modern that specify a bonus for losers for certain calling hands.
      7. Certain irregular hands (like Wriggling Snake or Little Snake with Dragons), when having a percentage of Limit scoring assignment, were not given correctly scores. Instead of receiving the percentage of Limit scores they would be given only 1 double.
      8. When applying the minimum point requirement, the program evaluated incorrectly the pattern "All Chows and Simples", resulting in occasional poor playing. This was accentuated in rules like Hong Kong that do not give extra points for All Simples.
      9. Joker grabbing (replacing an opponent's melded joker with an equivalent real tile in the player's own hand) worked incorrectly, when manual tile arrange was used.
      10. In Italian rules the scoring for Seven pairs (2 doubles) was specified incorrectly so that points for all other patterns were ignored.
    • Other changes:
      1. You can now show the statistics of the specific deal number by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the bar graph of that deal (this works while having the Statistics view active in the Points dialog box).
  • October-11-2003 – Version 2.04
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. In scoring for losers with a calling hand the program erroneously duplicated scoring for certain patterns (e.g., Pungs), if the true scoring value of the hand after rounding off the final score would be zero.
      2. The program failed to recognize White Dragons as valid tiles in the pattern All Same Upside Down.
      3. The program sometimes listed bogus scores for losers that had a calling hand. This did not have effect on the final scores and payments but would be reflected in statistics.
      4. If the Preferences dialog box was closed with the Cancel button while there was a game in progress, the Random seats setting on the Players option page would be reset to the value saved in the system registry. This might have resulted in confused scoring in subsequent deals. 
        Also, certain settings on the Gameplay option page that normally can be changed while a game is in progress, but which are disabled when a multiplayer game is played, could be reset to the system registry values by closing the Preferences dialog box with the Cancel button (accordingly, a player could override the host's setting).
      5. The statistics of the current game (e.g., the amount of points won and lost) were calculated incorrectly if a deal was replayed from the Scores dialog box.
      6. Fixed errors in drawing the bar and pie graphs that would eventurally cause exhaustion of system resources. The problem was only evident on Windows 9x systems.
      7. The bar graph for the current game, as shown on the statistics page of the Scores dialog box, would be erroneously drawn if the number of deals in the whole game exceeded 100. In addition, the percentual wins and average winnings were calculated erroneously.
      8. The program would make the ready declaration for the player instead of just suggesting it, if the Hint command was used with rules that require obligatory ready declaration.
      9. Fixed certain inconsistencies in using the text color (Tile Claimed dialog box and the dialog box that showed the tournament scores). This would show in themes using other than the default system color (normally black) for the dialog text.
      10. If the discard timer was turned off (set to zero) and the Scores dialog box was opened while there was a discarded tile in a discard slot, the game could not be continued after closing the Scores dialog box without claiming the tile (and then making the claim or canceling it).
      11. If the crown or triangle symbol was clicked to access Top 50 Hands or Top 50 Games view, it was not possible to return back to the scores for the current game (crown and triangle symbols appear after a finished deal on the main page of the Scores dialog box, if the human's most recent hand or game has been added to these lists).
    • Other changes
      1. Statistical bar graphs for games belonging to a tournament are now shown separately for each game.
  • August-10-2003 – Version 2.03
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. In scoring for losers, the program failed to give doubles for Four Seasons (instead, an extra bonus would be given for the pattern Own Season).
      2. In scoring for losers, the program would ignore doubles for a Kong or Pung of player's own Wind, in case the wind would also be either Wind of the Round or Dominant Wind (disregarding whether points were given for these patterns).
      3. In scoring for losers, the program would mistakenly assume that a calling hand would automatically be given the best score by using the winning/calling hand's scoring engine. In certain situations, however, this method would ignore concealed suit Pungs and multiple pairs in hand. Now the program performs point calculations by using both the winning/calling hand's scoring engine, and the scoring engine for uncompleted hands, and picks the best by comparison.
      4. If the rules specified scoring for Flower or Season of Wind of the Round, the program would erroneously give these bonus points for having Flower or Season of Own Wind (rather than of Wind of the Round). This would occur only in scoring for the winner.
      5. The program would let a user overwrite a tutor card file in certain situations.
      6. Fixed a couple of errors in ASCII file reports.
      7. In Chinese Classical and American Classical rules scores for certain limit hands specified with the double unit (e.g., Little Four Winds, especially in loser scoring) were calculated erroneously. This was related to handling these scores as direct counts (that is, ignoring points for all other patterns), resulting in absurd scoring values like -1 or -3 points.
      8. The program would allow jokers in 7-pairs hands, even if the rules would prohibit the use of jokers in pairs or as single tiles.
      9. In multiplayer games the program could not calculate the losers' scores identically on all computers, if jokers were included in a loser's hand and they had been assigned a real tile value.
      10. In multiplayer games, if 8 jokers were used, the program would initialize incorrectly the joining players' data structures, which might have resulted in different moves on the joining players' computers than on the host's computer.
      11. Fixed an error related to unitialized index pointer to the supplement tile when using the rule according to which the supplement for a Flower or Season tile is taken from the open end of the Wall (rather than from the Dead Wall). This error resulted occasionally in unsynchronized multiplayer games when using Chinese Classical rules (where this type of supplement tile rule is used).
      12. 'No choice' declaration (related to pao penalties) did not work properly for the special hand All Green.
      13. The Random Seats option (on the Players option page) would not be saved with a saved game file, resulting in incorrect accumulation of scores when the game would be continued at a later time (this would happen if the current Random Seats option would differ from the initial setting used when the game was started.)
      14. When resuming a saved multiplayer game, the code could not handle situations where the joining player would hold the third seat counting from the host (e.g., if the host was East and the joining player North).
      15.  Discarding and undoing repeatedly a tile by using the keyboard (and without lifting up the tile between the operations) would give a player superfluous tiles in hand.
      16. When Expose Wall after deal is over option (on the General option page of the User Interface category) was used, the Wall window would be left in a stage where the Wall and the Dead Wall were exposed, in case a user replayed a deal.
      17. Restart of hand was mistakenly allowed during Charleston. Now the user can use the replay feature only after Charleston is fully completed.
      18. In multiplayer games the game would lock up if a human player promoted a melded Pung into a melded Kong or declared a concealed Kong on the last tile of the Wall, and there were no supplement tiles available for replacing the missing tile.
      19. The rule option according to which the seats are changed during the game session did not work in multiplayer games (the players would hold differents seats on different computers).
      20. Fixed several problems related to use of non-traditional precedence rules for competetive winning claims. In addition to not giving the win to the correct player, these errors would cause multiplayer games go out of synch.
      21. If overclaiming was allowed in a multiplayer game, the game would occasionally go out of synch in situations where the same tile was claimed by more than one player.
      22. When a saved multiplayer game was resumed and discards were placed in random manner, the joining players would be shown only part of the discards.
      23. Corrected some screen paint problems related to continuing a saved multiplayer game (e.g., the status bar information was not correctly shown, and changing the UI language before starting the game would result in displaying an empty board).
      24. If Nagashi Mangan was enabled and the deal ended in a draw or non-East's win, and East loser had only Terminals and Honors amongst his discards, the code would mistakenly think that East won the deal on Nagashi Mangan and would not pass the deal.
      25. Errors in recognizing a 16-tile winning hand if it contained more than two overlapping or identical Chows (e.g., B234 234 345 or B234 234 234).
      26. The program could not import correctly scoring for deals played in version 1.x of Four Winds.
      27. Corrected minor problems with overriding rules.
    • Other changes:
      1. Added statistics page in the Scores dialog box. In addition, the Statistics tab of Game Manager now shows summary information and pie graphs of the collected data.
      2. High score tables can now contain up to 50 high scoring winning hands. In addition, the program now also keeps Top 50 Games tables for each rule preset and saved, user-defined rule preset.
      3. Improved algorithms for calculating scores for AI losers when they have jokers in hand.
      4. Improved algorithms related to Kong declarations.
      5. The default chat command (Send to all players) can now be performed also with the Enter key (in addition to F5).
      6. Improved AI for Dutch League rules and other related rules applying minimum double requirements for a winning hand.
  • January-03-2003 – Version 2.02
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. Fixed an error that caused program crashes during Ding Dong (exchange of single tiles used e.g. in American Modern rules).
      2. Fixed an error related to the special hand "Run, Pung and a Pair". Due to
        an error in the evaluatioan algorithm, the program would crash if one of the AI players decided to go for this hand.
      3. Yakitori rule worked incorrectly: the winning of the last deal of the complete game was ignored when determining whether a player had won any deals during the game.
      4. The winning tile was erroneously ignored when determining the number of Ura Dora and Kong Ura Dora tiles a player had in hand.
      5. Discarded Red Dora tiles were not displayed correctly when discards were shown per player.
      6. The use of "Random seats" option on the Players option page of the Preferences caused errors with sound and player bitmap assignments, as well as with statistics.
      7. The program failed to recognize "Triple Knitting" if the pair was required to be a true pair and it did not appear as the last set of the hand (this error would occur in Australian Modern rule preset).
      8. "Out on a Chow hand" pattern (in the "Basic points" category) did not work correctly with some special cases of Chow hands (the points were omitted).
      9. Fixed errors related to recognition of special hands Little Snake with Dragons, Windy Chows, Dragonfly and 7-pairs version of Ruby Jade.
      10. Fixed several errors related to joker restrictions. E.g., the human players were allowed to use more than four identical tiles in irregular hands, and all players could use a joker in a Chow, pair or as a single tile in a regular hand if the joker was the winning tile (or any other tile in an irregular hand), even if these uses had explicitly been forbidden by the rules.
      11. When "Regulated doubles" settling table was used in customized rules, the "double" units were not available for editing. In addition, totals for losers were calculated incorrectly.
      12. Fixed a couple of errors related to replaying the hand, especially when Charleston was used in rules.
      13. The program did not update the joker counter in situations the human player used a joker in a concealed Kong, or used the replay feature while jokers were used in hand.
      14. Fixed problems related to use of jokers and special hands Jade Hand, Pearl Hand, Ruby Hand, Imperial Jade, Imperial Pearl, Imperial Ruby, All Red and Ruby Jade, especially when 7-pairs versions of these hands were allowed. The error would happen when examining near-complete hands where one or more of the examined sets (e.g. a pair or a Pung) consisted of mere jokers.
      15. Fixed problems related to allowing a player to go out on a non-supported 7-pairs hand in certain special circumstances (e.g., when Chow restrictions were applied and the hand could be interpreted as a regular winning hand consisting of 2 or more Chows).
      16. Fixed an error related to exhaustion of multimedia timer resources. The error would appear as sticky tile animation after the game had been played for about 20 minutes. The error was noticeable only on Windows NT and XP systems.
    • Other changes
      1. Following changes have been made to Australian Modern rule preset: identical pairs are now allowed in 7-pairs hands (including the special hand Knitting), and a knitted pair is now required in the special hand Triple Knitting.
      2. Improved slightly AI related to claiming of Kongs.
      3. Added support for Windows XP Visual Styles.
  • September-09-2002 – Version 2.01
    • Fixed bugs:
      1. Fixed an error that would result in occasional random winning hands (normally one of the AI adversaries declaring out with a non-existing 7-pairs hand).
      2. In rules where a minimum point requirement was applied on a winning hand, the losers might occasionally receive points as if they had a winning hand (this would appear e.g. in Dutch League Rules).
      3. The joker counter was not correctly updated if a player had Flowers or Seasons in the dealt hand and received one or more jokers as a supplement tile while exchanging the extra tiles. This would eventually result in inability to assign true values for jokers and other related problems.
      4. If eight jokers were used in the game, the Available Tiles window would not show the number of remaining jokers correctly.
      5. Performing Windows shut down while Four Winds was running would result in program error in case a user chose not to save the ongoing game. Also, the prompt for saving the game would be displayed twice.
      6. Fixed several problems related to games where rotation of seats was enabled (e.g., the customized sound assignments were displayed incorrectly, replaying deals across the seat rotation failed, etc.)
      7. The non-traditional Chow claiming options of a version 1.x game were not retained correctly when loading a version 1.x game in version 2.00.
      8. The basic point scores (for losers) and doubles for basic sets (for losers) were not imported when loading a version 1.x game in version 2.00.
      9. Errors in recognizing Knitted Chows in situations where a human player would go out by claiming the winning tile to a knitted Chow.
      10. Music files (background music and winning the game) were occasionally not played because the code omitted the path to the music files.
      11. When playing a tournament consisting of several matches, and the previous match ended in a Goulash deal, the first deal of the new match was erroneously played with Goulash rules, as well. This error would appear e.g. in British Official rules.
      12. Arranging tiles manually might result in dead locks in certain situations, e.g. arranging a tile while a computer player was claiming a tile would cause a dead lock. Now conflicting processes should not occur, or if they occur and a dead lock appears, the game can be resumed by Ctrl+clicking the hand (performing a temporary auto-arrange of the hand).
      13. Arranging tiles manually with the keyboard while the other players were making their moves would cause program errors and lockups. These problems appeared only when a Small or Medium sized game board was used.
      14. The regular payoff scheme was not correctly restored after an insurance penalty was applied. Accordingly, the remaining deals of the game were played with an incorrect payoff scheme according to which the discarder of the winning tile pays for all losers.
      15. Windows user names longer than 12 characters and without space characters (e.g., "Administrator") would result in reverting to default game settings each time Four Winds was launched. Now the default human player name "Player" is used if the Windows user name is too long.
      16. Error in the Missed Discard rule – in "Absolute" and "Absolute (conditional)" modes – when jokers were used and a player who missed the winning tile had at least one joker in hand. The program could not handle the jokers properly when evaluating whether the recent discards would have made a player's hand a winning hand.
      17. Start a Multiplayer Game Wizard could not handle correctly a join procedure, if the joining player did not have a registered copy of Four Winds.
      18. A multiplayer game would go out of synch if a human player clicked a discarded tile but did not specify the actual claim within a log-off timeout specified by the host (default value being 180 seconds). In addition, setting the log-off timeout to zero (which should have resulted in not using log-off timeout at all) would trigger this behavior practically immediately when a human would make a claim.
      19. Errors in scoring if  One-chance hand or Last-chance hand was acknowledged in rules. If the winning tile was claimed from the previous player, the program could not restore the state of the hand (as regards its being a hand that goes out on a discard) after checking whether a hand was one-chance or last-chance. This, in turn, would result in scoring errors, and as a side effect, considering irregular hands that go out on a discard as faulty declarations.
      20. Text color of tool tips did not honor the corresponding system color setting (though the background color did).
      21. If a custom tile set was used to override an internal tile set, the setting was not retained between the sessions or if a saved game file was opened, or a game was aborted and a new one was started – instead, the internal tile set was used. 
      22. The contents of players' hands after a just finished deal were not shown in the Scores dialog box even if  Always show all hands when the deal is over option (on the Gameplay option page of the Preferences dialog box) was checked (the hands were correctly exposed on the table, though).
      23. The program could not automatically assign files with .mp3 and other DirectX supported sound extensions for the 'Win of the game' and 'Background music' events of a user-defined theme. 
      24. Scores for All same upside down were erroneously given according to the scoring value specified for another pattern, All 2's, 5's or 8's.
      25. Fixed several serious problems in handling Triple Knitting hands (the version allowing a true pair in the winning hand).
      26. The winning tile was excluded from the count of Kong Dora and Kong Ura Dora tiles. In addition, Ura Dora tiles were not displayed in the Dora Tiles window (below the Wall) unless the winner actually got scores for Ura Dora (however, the Scores dialog box displayed the Ura Dora tiles correctly).
      27. The fixed point scoring value for Seven pairs was not correctly saved when using customized rules with a Mangan settling table.
      28. Corrected some problems related to use of Red Dora tiles (e.g., changing of Red Dora to regular tiles or vice versa, inability to use miniature sized Red Dora tiles from a custom tile bitmap, etc.). The program also failed to use custom tiles in creating the joker palette.
      29. Fixed problems related to marking the claimed tile in Pungs or Kongs in situations where one or more of the tiles involved was a joker or a Red Dora. Now the claimed tile is always the last tile of the set. Also, if the claimed tile was a joker and the game was replayed, all tiles of the claimed set would be shown as jokers.
    • Other changes:
      1. Minor corrections in the following rule presets: Taiwanese 16-Tile Rules (changed scoring for Flowers and Seasons), Korean Style (changed scoring of All Flowers, ready declarations and fully concealed hands that by definition imply Concealed hand) and Dutch League Rules (changed scoring for certain 7-pairs patterns).
      2. Added a feature that lets a user specify which of the buttons of the Tile Claimed dialog box (Chow, Pung, Kong, Out or Ignore) gets the keyboard focus when the window is opened. This can be done by pressing and holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the desired button (to avoid choosing the action assigned to the button, move the mouse cursor outside of the button area and release the mouse button only after that).
      3. Added Use smart cursor option on the General option page of the User Interface section of the Preferences dialog box. When checked, the mouse cursor is automatically moved over the button having the keyboard focus when a window is opened. The feature works only with windows with owner-drawn graphics and buttons (it has no effect on standard windows). This features is useful especially when using a system extension (like Smart Move included in Logitech's MouseWare) that does the same for standard windows. 
      4. The maximum length of a theme name is increased to 50 characters (was 20).
  • July-05-2002 – Version 2.00
    • Initial release of the new 2.0 version.
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