Where to Play ZJ
It can be hard to find a way to play Zung Jung, as the community is small at the moment, and other versions of mahjong are more commonly known and have numerous apps and websites that support their rulesets. Here is a list of some of the best websites and apps I’ve come across where you can play Zung Jung mahjong with pros and cons for each.
Found one that’s not on the list? Leave a comment below so I can check it out and see if it’s worth adding to the list!
Last updated 2 May 2020
Maque.games
An online website which allows for Zung Jung games, either against bots or other guests, as well as other game of other rulesets (e.g. MCR, Riichi, Hong Kong, etc.)
Pros:
- Free to play with no ads!
- Works on desktop or on mobile
- Has forums for asking questions or reporting bugs
- Scores hands accurately
- Site owner is very responsive to questions and feedback
- Site continues to be steadily improved
- Now has ability to invite people to a game by sending them a link! **Note: after it directs you to log in (either using your account or as a guest) if it does not bring you immediately into the game, just manually load the same link again. It will then bring you to the game.
Cons:
- Bare-bones interface (which could considered a pro to some)
- Can be difficulty to play on mobile due to screen size. It’s hard to hit the small tiles with your finger, and easy to discard a tile unintentionally on mobile.
- Bots aren’t very difficult, and often go for 1-point hands (you can avoid some of this by using the site’s “Australian Rules,” which has a minimum score of 5 to be able to declare mahjong).
- Buggy at times, hard to figure out how to join other games
- Small player base, I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than 2 real people on it at any given time. Seems to be growing (slowly), though
Mahjong World 2
Mobile app which has Zung Jung Scoring (listed in-app as ‘World Series of Mahjong’).
Pros:
- Available on Android and iOS
- Beautiful interface with easy-to-access pattern lists
- Has hints on best moves to make
- Will mark tiles for discard that create point-scoring ready hands (red carrot) or those that will make a ready hand but have no chance of winning (blue carrot)
- Leader boards which you can see how good you are against other app users
- Also includes a faan-based Hong Kong scoring system (labelled as ‘Mahjong World’ scoring)
Cons:
- Single player only. The online section is still just against bots (even when you get into the “advanced mode.”) The online section is just for tracking your stats and comparing you against other app users and how good they are at beating their bots.
- Ad-supported. They are minimal, but you can’t turn the sound of the ads off, so turn off your phone volume if secretly playing at work. Also it seems like there are in-app purchases (hints actually cost money after you use up your free ones).
- Some of the English translation is poor and unclear what they mean. Still haven’t figured out what ‘Dump’ in the settings means.
- Bots aren’t super difficult.
Places to Read and Talk about Zung Jung (other than here, obviously)
The Zung Jung community is pretty small, but there are a few places from time to time where Zung Jung is talked about online.
Boardgamegeek.com
Probably the largest community of Zung Jung players on the web. Even the creator, Alan Kwan, is a member and will chime in on Zung Jung questions and conversation! Forums have players of not just Zung Jung, but other variants as well.
Reddit’s r/Mahjong
While a subreddit for anything and everything mahjong, it is dominated by Riichi enthusiasts (which is unsurprising given it’s arguably the most popular variant in the English-speaking world). However, there are some discussions of Zung Jung here and there, so a place to check sometimes.
David Wu
I just found out about this website yesterday, and I want to say that what you’re doing right now is amazing and to please keep doing it. As a Zung Jung/WSOM enthusiast, it makes me happy when I see that other people are working hard to keep the game alive, even after the disappearance of the WSOM.
That being said, there is a Chinese website with URL smahjong.cn, and while it’s not a big or fancy website by any means, you can at least play Zung Jung against the bots (technically also versus other players, except I have never seen anyone else on there), as well as Riichi and MCR. Let me know if you would like instructions on navigating the website.
There’s also the biweekly Zung Jung tournaments on Mahjongtime, but because of the high entry fee, unless you are willing to spend real money or save up Dragon Chips from playing and winning non-Zung Jung games, you won’t be able to play. Also considering that Flash will be obsolete after 2020, it seems like Mahjongtime’s days are limited. I do give it credit though because that website has existed ever since the day I learned of Zung Jung and it’s the only place where I can consistently play against other people, even if it’s only for 8 or 16 hands every two weeks.
Also, for your information, “Dump” on the Mahjong World App means whenever you are waiting for a big hand of 30 or more points, the game will display a big tile with a finger covering it, and then you’re supposed to slowly move the finger and uncover the tile to see if it’s the tile you were waiting for. They do this to “increase the tension/excitement”, just like in a real life game if you make it extremely obvious that you’re waiting for a big hand by drawing and looking at every tile from the wall slowly and dramatically. I always turn it off, since the animations are shoddily done and it’s a hassle to do it every time when I don’t actually feel any more excited. It’s like, “I know I’m about to win a big hand, and I don’t need you reminding me every time I draw a tile. I can win on a discard too you know?” kind of feeling. Basically “Dump” is just a bad translation.
admin
Thanks, David! I appreciate the words of support! It’s been busy for me lately (navigating a move to a new town), so I haven’t had to time to add a new article in a few weeks. However, I still have ideas in the works. And certainly if you or anyone else ever has suggestions on something for me to write about, feel free to post a comment on any of the articles and I’ll gladly get to work! Also any comment in general, I see pop up on my end, so I can answer those and keep discussion going on ZJMJ.com in between new content.
One of the commenters on a Reddit post I made mentioned smahjong.cn, and it looked like a nice interface, but my limited Chinese slowed me down on that one. If you wanted to put together some basic instructions, that’d be great. Then I could add it to the list here as another place to congregate.
I saw the Mahjongtime tournaments and I ran into the same problem with how costly they were. It’s a shame they never just opened it up for general play – I can’t imagine it would have been a detriment to them to just have something open and available. This is the big problem with ZJ. There just isn’t a central place to gather around and play because none of the existing multiplayer platforms support it (and I don’t have the coding skills to make one, sadly). My hope would be for players of HKOS/HKNS to learn about ZJ and start playing ZJ since it would be able to unify that community over one set of rules that still emphasizes the patterns common in HK but builds a much broader, more interesting game.
Ah!, That makes so much sense. I remember that happening when I first started using that app and thinking it was so weird. Then I turned off Dump (since I didn’t know what it was) just to see what happened, and then I guess I forgot all about it. What an odd term for translation.
-ZJMJ
David Wu
1. The first thing you’ll see when you go to smahjong.cn is a title screen, with a yellow “Enter Game” (进入游戏) button at the bottom. Click on it, and it will take you to http://site.smahjong.com/index.jsp, which has the actual contents of the website.
2. Once you’re at http://site.smahjong.com/index.jsp, there will be some links at the top, and another yellow “Enter Game” (进入游戏) button at the bottom right. Ignore the links for now, click on the button, and it will take you to http://www.smahjong.cn/ssmj/game.html, which is the actual game.
3. You might see some sort of announcement. If you do, just click the yellow “Confirm” (确定) button.
4. From here, you can either log in with WeChat (微信登录), or via an email account by clicking on the yellow “Log in with Account” (闪麻账号登录) strip at the top left.
5. Assuming you’re logging in via email account, if you’re a new user, you need to click the yellow words “New User Registration?” (新用户注册?) at the top right. This will take you to the Account Registration (账号注册) page, where the fields say from top to bottom Account, Password, Re-enter Password, and Screen Name. Your account must be an email address (but since they never make you confirm it, you can use literally any email address such as xyz@gmail.com, as long as it isn’t already taken). There will also be a checkbox at the bottom that says “I have read and agreed to the User License Agreement” (我已经阅读并同意用户协议) which you have to check, and then you can click the yellow “Register Account” (注册账号) button at the bottom. Assuming all goes well, you should see a purple “Congratulations” (恭喜) message, which you can then click the yellow “Confirm” (确定) button of.
6. Now to log in, you simply enter your email address under “Account” (账号) and your password under “Password” (密码). The checkbox is for “Remember Password” (记住密码). Finally, click “Log in to Game” (登录游戏) and you should be set!
7. The simplest way to play is to click the green “Practice Match” (练习场). Then click the blue one for ZJ. (The green one is for MCR, and the red one is for Riichi).
8. Another way to play against bots is to click the purple “Friends Match” (友人场). (It says it’s only free for a limited time, but given that very few people actually use this site, “limited time” probably means a very long time). Click the yellow + for “Create Room” (创造房间), choose your style and number of rounds (ZJ is the middle of the three), and click the yellow “Confirm” (确定) button. Click it again. Now at the top right corner it says “Computer” (电脑). Click “+” 3 times, and you can play with 3 bots.
Let me know if everything works out for you!
admin
Wow, this is super thorough and super helpful! I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for putting this together!
Andrew
I just noticed that someone has made a mod for Zung Jung on Tabletop Simulator: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922046369&searchtext=mahjong.
I tried playing it. The experience is pretty smooth.
admin
Thanks for posting this! I can see this being an excellent option if the implementation is good. And Tabletop Simulator is reasonably priced as I recall, like 20 bucks or something? I’ve never used it myself.