Four Winds Mah Jong v.2.01 - Traditional Chinese Mah Jong for Windows
=====================================================================
© 1996-2002 Lagarto. All rights reserved.

Four Winds is a computer version of the traditional Chinese game of tiles,
Mah Jong. The game was introduced to America early in the 20th century and
is now popular all over the world.

We are sure that you find Four Winds almost as challenging and fascinating
as the real thing. There are over 20 predefined rule presets you can choose 
from (e.g. classical and modern versions of Chinese, Japanese and American 
versions, several European versions, and Taiwanese 16-tile game). In addition,
all rules can be customized and saved as user-defined rule presets.

Version 2.0 lets you also play online against up to three other human players.

You will certainly enjoy the beauty of the graphics, and ease and smoothness 
of the playing. You can concentrate on your strategy and leave the tedious part
(dealing, scoring, etc.) to the computer. 

A comprehensive help file is included, explaining all the rules and discussing 
the playing strategies. A Flash tutorial is available as a separate download, and 
in-depth information related to most common versions of Mah Jong can be found in
our online knowledge base at http://www.4windsmj.com/kb.

For registered users additional themes (currently a total of 12) and several 
alternative tile sets are available free of charge from our site. 

Four Winds Theme Editor, a free utility for creating user-defined themes, is 
also available as a separate download from our site.

License and ordering
====================
See LICENSE.DOC and ORDER.DOC.


Installation
============

Depending on the distribution channel you may have received the program package 
as a zip file (4W2.zip) or as a self-extracting Windows setup file 
(4W2.exe).

To install Four Winds, either upack the zip file and run the setup program 
Setup.exe, or launch 4W2.exe. In both cases a Setup Wizard starts and guides
you through the steps of installation.

System requirements:
- a 486 or faster CPU with at least 32 MB RAM
- Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP or later
- a display supporting at least 256 colors in 640x480 mode or higher 
- at least 5 MB free hard disc space, the full installation with all
  themes and alternative tiles sets (separate downloads) takes about 65 MB
- a sound card (optional)
- MIDI support (optional)
- DirectX v.6.0 or later (for multiplayer games only)
- Microsoft Internet Explorer (for HTML documentation only; an alternative
  documentation is available for users who prefer to use other browsers).

NOTE: DirectX and Microsoft Ineternet Explorer are not included in the setup
package but are normally installed with the Windows operating system. 
If you do not have these programs installed on your system, you can download
free of charge the latest versions at http://www.microsoft.com.

For best results, you should run Four Winds on a Pentium system or faster using 
the 800x600-256 (or higher) color mode, with a sound card installed. 


Uninstalling Four Winds
=======================
To uninstall Four Winds, use Windows Uninstaller (open the Add/Remove Programs 
folder in Windows Control Panel and double click "Four Winds Mah Jong v.2.01", or 
choose "Uninstall Four Winds 2.0" on the 4Winds Start menu folder).


For comments and technical support, send mail to:
  support@4windsmj.com


Remember to visit our web site at 
   http://www.4windsmj.com
for latest Four Winds news and versions.


Enjoy!
 
