Archive (mahjong solitaire)

About Archive (mahjong solitaire)

Archive is classic mahjong solitaire: take free pairs of matching tiles off a stacked layout until none are left. A tile is free when nothing covers it and one side is clear. The difference is the guardrail. If taking a pair would leave the board unfinishable, Archive refuses it, tells you so and why, and the board stays as it was. Every position you see can still be cleared, so there is no undo button.

There are three layouts: the Turtle with 144 tiles, Desk with 96 and Pocket with 72, made for a phone held in one hand. Today's board deals the day's board at whichever size you choose, from the date, so it is the same board for everyone that day; New board deals a random one for practice. The clock runs until the board is clear, and a board cleared without the guardrail ever stepping in counts as clean, the only record kept besides your times.

A hint never suggests a move that would strand the board, tapping a blocked tile tells you whether it is covered or boxed in, and flower and season tiles carry a badge showing they match others of their set. At the end you can copy or share one line, such as Archive · 6 Oct · Turtle · 6:14 · clean, which gives nothing of the board away. There is a light and dark theme, keyboard play, a motion setting and no sound, and your board is saved as you go.

Stew Prod also makes the daily nonogram Figure, the email-sorting Triage and the card game Clock Out.

How to play Archive (mahjong solitaire)

1. Choose a layout: Turtle (144 tiles), Desk (96) or Pocket (72).
2. Press Today's board to play the day's shared deal at that size.
3. Click two matching free tiles to remove them; a tile is free when nothing is on top of it and its left or right side is open.
4. If a pair would strand the board, the game refuses it and says why: pick another pair.
5. Clear every tile to stop the clock, see whether the board was clean, and share your result line.

Screenshots

Tips

• Tap a tile that will not move to learn whether it is covered or boxed in, then work toward freeing it.
• Flower and season tiles carry a badge: look at it before hunting for an exact twin, since those tiles follow their own matching rule.
• A clean clear means the guardrail never stopped you, so before taking a pair, check whether it frees the tiles under it or only takes from the edges.
• Pocket is the quickest daily on a phone; the Turtle takes longest.

Questions