Taisen Hot Gimmick

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TAISEN HOT GIMMICK

PSIKYO 1997

Description:

Perhaps my favorite mahjong game in MAME. I just love the artwork. High in detail, high in color, and silky smooth. Very nice. Plus, the game is made by Psikyo, famed particularly for their shooting titles, AKA shmups.

The story goes that each opponent you face is troubled by some kind of problem or bad habit. It is your mission to relieve and cure such people of these troubles. Of course, the remedy to these problems, and just about anything else for that matter, is solved through the game of mahjong :)

By far the neatest and most popular feature of this game, as well as the series, is what happens after you defeat an opponent. Once defeated, you have the opportunity to "punish them by continuous hits." By continuous hits, I mean repeated pressing of any tile button. It's quite nice actually. The animation during the sequence is surprising smooth. In fact, silky smooth. You won't find this quality of animation and artwork in any other mahjong series. There are two to three different cut-scenes for each opponent, yet you can only choose one after you win. Each cut-scene has the opponent in a different pose or outfit. You can also choose to not punish them as well.

This is a great game for beginners. The difficulty is a bit on the easy side, even without using items as the opponents doesn't seem to cheat. By cheating, I mean declaring Reach every 2 out of 3 rounds after only their 4th or 5th turn while your hand is always crap at the start. Of course the game gets harder as you progress, but not by too much.

Difficulty: 2/5
Artwork: 5/5

TAISEN HOT GIMMICK
MINI FAQ

Who Starts First?

Dices are rolled at the start of each match. If the dices add up to an odd number, you are dealer. If it adds up to an even number, the opponent is dealer.

How to Win/Lose a Match?

To defeat one opponent, you need to either win 3 rounds against her or decrease the opponent's score to zero or less. Whichever comes first.

The only way you can lose the match is if your score goes to zero or less first.

Number of Opponents:

Each Opponent's Score at Opening Round:

2500, 3500, 4500, 5000, 6000, 7000, 10000, 16000

Your Score at Opening Round:

1000.

Points Gain/Lose when Tenpai/No-Ten:

1000.

You gain 1000 points as well as win the round if you have Tenpai, and the opponent has No-Ten at the end of the round.

Points Lose when Reach:

1000.

When you Reach and discard your unwanted tile, the game automatically takes over and draws and discards for you. It does so until there is a tile for you to go out. You can go out at that time or ignore it and wait for another tile if you want or get the chance.

Scoring Multiplier:

Type B.

Number of turns per player per round:

18.

Are there Items?

Yes, 6 total.

What does Each Item Do?

Item A. This item lets you discard any tiles in your opening hand and replace them with other random tiles. This item can only be used at the start of the round.

Item B. This item changes your opening hand into a more complete and rarer hand. This item can only be used at the start of the round.

Item C. This item changes your opening hand into a more complete and rarer hand. This item is better than Item B. This item can only be used at the start of the round.

Item D. This item changes your opening hand into a more complete and rarer hand. This item is better than Item C. This item can only be used at the start of the round.

Item E. This item changes your opening hand into a more complete and rarer hand. This item is better than Item D. This item can only be used at the start of the round.

Item F. This item makes the next tile, after declaring Reach, into the winning tile you need to go out. This item can only be used after declaring Reach.

Points for Items are not received by what you score for your hand but by the +400 POW bonus that you receive randomly when drawing tiles during the round. Each POW you get gives you 400 pts that can be used to buy items. You also get an additional 1000 pts if you continue the game after losing a match.

Can you Bet?

No.

Character Stories:

Each opponent you face is troubled by some kind of problem or bad habit. It is your mission to relieve and cure such people of these troubles. Of course, the remedy to these problems, and just about anything else for that matter, is solved through the game of mahjong.

Character	Story
Tomoko Shimizu	She is a bright, cheerful, and an excellent student. She is currently a high school senior. However, she is severely troubled by her bad misuse of language and has a sassy attitude to boot. In order for her to understand the beautiful and proper language that is Japanese, a game of mahjong is played.
Setsuna Yasui	She is a girl who looks much younger than she appears. It is so because she has serious troubles with her dislike of carrots. She does not eat carrots, and so does not grow. In order to cure her unbalanced diet, a game of mahjong is played.
April Ogain	She has lived in Japan for quite a long time working as a model and has become very fluent in Japanese. Yet, as an American, she still looks down on the Japanese people. In order to rid her of her principles of US supremacy, a game of mahjong is played.
Hatsune Suzuki	She is beautiful, intelligent, and works for a computer company. Yet she has an extreme dislike for men. In order to let her understand the wonderfulness of men, a game of mahjong is played.
Aoi Sanjyo	The angel in white who carries a carefree smile. However, she is troubled, as she is poor in her knowledge of needle injections as a nurse. In order to convey this technology upon her, a game of mahjong is played.
Yuko Oni	A policewoman faithful to her job as she always maintains a calm and steady composure. But for some reason, she seems to have a dislike to the game of mahjong. So much that she shivers at the thought of it. In order to let her understand the fun of mahjong, a game of mahjong is played.

Are there any Secrets?

Yes. There are 3 hidden opponents in the game. Each are characters from previous Psikyo titles.

	Marion from Gunbird I and II Beat the first 3 opponents without punishing any to play against her. By punish, I mean not punishing the opponent, which means choosing the last option from the menu selection presented after you beat an opponent.
	Miko from Sengoku Blade Beat the first 3 opponents without punishing any to play against her.
	Kain from Sengoku Blade Beat opponents 4, 5, and 6 without punishing any to play against him.

Dip Switch:

To access the dip switch, or Test mode as the game calls it, press F2.

Press A to move the cursor down, B to move it up, and Start to select.

Test Mode Screen	Setting Description
Screen Test	Test Screen
Input Test	Test Control Buttons
Acoustics Test	Test Sound Effects, Voices, and Music
Hard's Initial Set-Up	Adjust Hard Settings
Game's Initial Set-Up	Adjust Game Settings
Initial Set-Up Default	Restore back to default settings. Note that the default settings in MAME is slightly different from the actual default setting of the game.
Test End	Exit Test Mode

Hard's Initial Set-Up Screen	Setting Description
1P Monitor Screen Flip	Flip screen
2P Monitor Screen Flip	Flip screen
Credits	Adjust Coins per Credit. Default is 1/1. 1 coin for 1 credit.
Monitors and Link-Up	Adjust monitor display and link-up. Default is 2 monitors display and link-up, allowing for versus battle between the two monitors. Second option is 2 monitor display but no link-up. The third options turns off the second monitor. Note that the game runs much smoother with this option selected as you get a big boast in FPS. Plus game speed is not slowed down at all.
Demo Sound	Adjust demo sound. Default is on.
Menu Return	Return to Test Mode menu.

Game's Initial Set-Up Screen	Setting Description
Player's Starting Pts.	Adjust the amount of points that you start off with at the beginning of every match. Default in MAME is 1000 points. Actual default setting is 2000 points.
Computer's Starting Pts.	Adjust the amount of points that the opponent starts off with at the beginning of every match. Can choose from Few, Normal, Lots, or Whole Lot. Default in MAME is Few. Actual default setting is Normal.
Vs. Battle Starting Pts.	Adjust the amount of points that each player starts off with at the beginning of a Vs. match. Default in MAME is 10000 points. Actual default setting is 20000 points.
Difficulty Level	Adjust game difficulty. Can choose from Easy, Normal, Hard, or Very Hard. Default in MAME is Easy. Actual default setting is Normal.
Richi After	On default, tiles are drawn and discarded automatically by the computer after declaring Reach until you receive a tile that you can go out with.. If the 2nd option is chosen, you must manually draw and discard after Reaching.
Undressing	Choose Yes for nudity or No for none. You can't punish the opponent if you choose No. Default is Yes.
Sparrow Power Technique	??? Default is Yes.
Menu Return	Return to Test Mode menu.

Dual Screen to Single Screen:

If you want to get rid of the dual screen display, play the game using MAME32 Plus. It can be found at their homepage which is located by the following link:

http://mameplus.emu-france.com

In this version of MAME, dual screen support is disabled within the Psikyo driver. As a result, only one screen is displayed when playing the game. There may also be other MAME builts that eliminates the dual screen problem as well.

There is also an option in the dip switch, as mentioned above, that allows you to turn off the 2nd screen. Though that doesn't get rid of the 2nd screen as it is still displayed, except that now the screen is blank.