The History of Mahjong Solitaire: From Ancient China to Computer Screens
Anna | October 21, 2025
Mahjong is one of China’s great cultural exports. The four-player tile game has been part of family life and tea rooms for more than a century, but its roots stretch back even further into Chinese history. While most people today know Mahjong as a social game played with four players around a table, another version of the game, Mahjong Solitaire, became one of the most iconic digital puzzle titles of the late 20th century. Its story is one of tradition meeting technology, of ancient tiles finding a second life on computer screens.
From China to the West: The Origins of Mahjong
Mahjong developed in China during the Qing Dynasty, likely in the 1800s, though its exact origins remain debated. The game uses 144 decorated tiles that feature Chinese characters, bamboo sticks, circles, winds, dragons and flowers. Players pick up and throw away tiles, trying to collect sets that make a winning hand.
By the early 20th century Mahjong was booming in Chinese cities. Western travelers and traders brought it back to Europe and the United States, where it quickly gained popularity in the 1920s. Parker Brothers and other companies published Westernized rulebooks and sold tile sets to American families. Mahjong clubs and tournaments sprung up and for a while, the game enjoyed a craze similar to bridge and canasta.
Although its popularity in the West cooled somewhat by the mid-20th century, the game never vanished. In China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and across Asia it remained a cultural mainstay. And it was those beautiful, durable tiles that inspired an entirely different type of game: Mahjong Solitaire.
The Birth of Mahjong Solitaire on PLATO
The leap from social Mahjong to the single-player puzzle version happened in the early 1980s. In 1981, Brodie Lockard, a Stanford student, created the first digital Mahjong Solitaire game on the PLATO educational computing system. He called it Mah-Jongg.
Lockard’s story is remarkable. In December 1979 he suffered a catastrophic gymnastics accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. During his recovery he asked for access to a PLATO terminal, using a mouth stick to type. Despite his physical challenges, he mastered programming and poured his energy into creating games. At the hospital, a staff member introduced him to a tile-matching puzzle with real Mahjong tiles, a ward favorite. Inspired by it, he developed Mah-Jongg, the first digital Mahjong Solitaire.
The game arranged the tiles in a stacked “turtle” formation. The player’s goal was to match and remove pairs of identical tiles, following the rule that only tiles free on the left or right edge could be selected. Lockard’s version was simple, elegant and addictive. It spread across the PLATO network for free, giving thousands of early computer users their first taste of the puzzle that would later conquer home computers worldwide.
The 1986 Breakthrough: Activision’s Shanghai
The commercial breakthrough came a few years later. In 1986, Activision released Shanghai, a polished commercial version of Mahjong Solitaire for platforms like the IBM PC, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST and the Apple IIGS. Lockard developed the Macintosh version himself, while Ivan Manley and Brad Fregger (who later produced commercial releases that included Klondike and Spider Solitaire) worked on ports. Shanghai was a runaway hit.
Activision trademarked the name “Shanghai,” so while many players still called it that, others adopted the name Mahjong Solitaire. In some circles the game was also called The Turtle, Taipei, or Kyodai. Whatever the name, the concept was the same: clear the board by removing pairs of matching tiles until none remain.
Shanghai’s success proved that puzzle games could be mainstream hits. It was quick to learn, visually striking and perfectly suited to the new world of home computers. The fact that it used Mahjong tiles gave it an exotic flair, even though the rules had little in common with traditional four-player game.
Microsoft, Taipei and the Windows Era
By the late 1980s, the Mahjong Solitaire game made its way into the Windows ecosystem. Two Microsoft employees, Hans Spiller and Dave Norris, created a version of the game in 1987 called Taipei. They credited it to “Bogus Software,” a playful pseudonym for internal hobby projects. Taipei circulated informally within Microsoft before becoming part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows 3.x in 1990.
Taipei gave countless PC owners their first taste of Mahjong Solitaire. Its inclusion in the Entertainment Pack, alongside Minesweeper and other casual titles, made it a staple of office life and home computing. Many players remember sneaking in a game of Taipei at work or school, often long before Solitaire or Minesweeper became standard Windows fixtures.
Later Windows versions also embraced Mahjong Solitaire. Mahjong Titans was included with premium editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, introducing the game to a new generation with updated graphics and layouts.
From CD-ROMs to Social Media
During the 1990s and 2000s, Mahjong Solitaire spread across nearly every platform. CD-ROM collections bundled it alongside other casual games. Handheld consoles and shareware disks included their own variations. Developers experimented with new layouts, tile designs and even 3D versions.
On Facebook, Mahjong Trails became one of the most successful puzzle games of the early social gaming boom. Millions of players matched tiles while competing with friends for high scores, proving that Mahjong Solitaire had fully crossed into the online era. Nintendo even added the game to Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics for the Switch, introducing a two-player variation. The shift from a solitary puzzle to a light competitive challenge showed just how adaptable the format had become.
Why Mahjong Solitaire Endures
The game is simple to learn but still challenges players to think ahead. The tiles give it a unique charm, and the digital format made it easy to play anywhere. Today, you can play Mahjong Solitaire online for free on countless websites and mobile apps, showing how a puzzle born in the 1980s can still capture players around the world.
