System Requirements

• A 486 or faster CPU with at least 4 Mb RAM
• Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP (32 and 64 bit versions), Windows 2003, Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit versions), Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit versions), and Windows 8, 8.1, Windows 10 Home, Pro and Enterprise (32 and 64 bit versions), where Four Winds runs as a traditional desktop application (Windows 10 S needs to be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro before you can install the game). Four Winds also runs on all Windows 11 versions.
• At least 10 MB disk space, the full game with a tutorial and 24-bit alternative themes and tile sets takes about 140 MB
• Sound card (optional)
• MIDI support (optional)
• DirectX 6.0 or later (required only for multiplayer games and for .mp3 background music support).
  For playing multiplayer games on Windows 10 or 11, please check this post.

For best results, you should run Four Winds on a PC supporting at least 1024x768 or 1280x800 screen mode. Note that integrated game boards and square board layouts are available only on devices supporting at least 1024x768 screen mode (3:4 ratio displays) and 1280x800 screen mode (wide screen displays), or better, and that the user-defined themes and alternative tile bitmaps are available only in 16-bit (High Color) mode, or better.

Running Four Winds on Platforms other than Windows

Thanks to Splashtop Personal, you can stream Four Winds Mah Jong via LAN or fast Internet connection from your Windows computer onto Android/Chrome/Linux, iOS, macOS and Windows 8 RT/Phone devices. Practically all features, including the multiplayer games, are available. The only thing you are likely to want to change is configuring the "mouse" to perform so that discarding is done by "Click on raised tile", (and disabling the "Extended confirmation area"), instead of using the default "Right click on raised tile" (File > Preferences > User Interface: General > Game Controls > Mouse: Discarding) – or, you can keep the default configuration and simulate the right mouse button click by tap and hold. When streaming from Windows 10, tablet mode is recommended. All you need is visit the Splashtop Personal web site, create an account, download a streamer on your Windows PC (all versions from XP through Windows 10 are supported), download an app/client for your non-Windows device, and you're ready to go. If you have Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise, or Windows 8/8.1/10/11 Pro, a good alternative is using Windows Remote Desktop and equivalent Microsoft Remote Desktop Client (for Android/Chrome OS, macOS and iOS). Chrome Remote Desktop (available for most systems) might be useable on some configurations, as well, though there might be issues with audio.

Four Winds streaming from Windows 7 PC onto an iPad 2 using Splashtop 2 (now Splashtop Personal) streamer and a client app. (A simulated image.) You can use other layouts with bigger tile size, as well. Four Winds comes with three layouts designed for 1024 x 768 screen size, a perfect fit for original iPad, iPad 2 and iPad Mini (for the newer iPads, the graphics will be automatically scaled up to fit the screen). Click the image for an actual screenshot on iPad. On Android tablets, e.g. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, three perfectely fitted 1280 x 800 board layouts are available. >> Watch a video demo on streaming the game on iPad 2.

If you do not have a PC running Windows, you can run Four Winds on a Linux/Unix computer by using Wine/CrossOver compatibility layer (no Windows license is required), and on Mac OS X /macOS computer using either Wine/CrossOver compatibility layer (no Windows license is required, nor a separate boot), an emulator like Parallels, VMWare Fusion, or VirtualBox (Windows license is required but no separate boot), or using Boot Camp and installing proper Windows on a separate partition of your Macintosh hard disk (requires both a license and a separate boot). Note that when using a compatibility layer, some of the functionality of the program might not be supported, and there might be minor errors in displaying graphics (the degree of compatibility depends on the version of the compatibility layer and the version and kind of your operating system).

Four Winds running on MacOS X Lion with CrossOver Games v.10.1.2. The screen size is 2560x1600 pixels and the board size 1920x1200 pixels. Customized rules with two transparent sets: no problems with graphics! The latest version of CrossOver allows running Four Winds also on Monterey and new macs using an M1 (Apple Silicon) chip.

>> More.

IMPORTANT: When running Four Winds on a non-Windows system or using a TV as a display (running any OS), you might experience some problems with graphics. Turning off color management (Preferences > User Interface > General > Use color management)  and using 24-bit color theme usually corrects these errors.

When using the Wine/CrossOver compatibility layer, you might also need to disable animated cursors (Preferences > User Interface > General > Game Controls > Use custom cursors) and disable DirectX sound (Preferences > User Interface > General > Bypass DirectX sound) and use MIDI files for the background music instead of MP3 files, which require DirectX. The latest versions of Wine/CrossOver seem to tolerate (and partialy even support) these features, as well.