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So I played some games on the original GB Yakuman and I was surprised by one of the scoring quirks...

After I had gone out as the oya with a honitsu chiitoitsu after the CPU opponent had declared two kans - I had a total of 10 han - however, the game credited me with a sanbaiman for 36,000!

I had always thought a sanbaiman was only for hands that are of 11 han or 12 han and 10 han was considered to be just a baiman (oya 24,000/ko 16,000).

I do know that the game does count chiitoitsu as a yaku worth 50 fu, 1 han though.

I have played in a parlor where they use that type of scoring (in "San Group").

6-7 han is haneman
8-9 han is baiman
10-11 han is sanbaiman
12-13 han is "yonbaiman" (kazoeyakuman)

It makes it more understandable and simple to divide them 2-by-2.

That's kinda neat although there is an underlying symmetry in the usual system.

5 Han* = Mangan / 6 or 7 Han = Haneman / 8, 9 or 10 Han = Baiman / 11 or 12 Han = Sanbaiman / 13+ Han = Yakuman

That 1/2/3/2/1 pattern is how I always remember it.

If there's one thing that's consistent about the rules of mahjong around the world though it's that there are always inconsistencies! Even within one country and one era there will be countless variants.

I have Yakuman for the DS, released some 16 years after the Game Boy original. That uses the limit system I've listed here with Sanbaiman for 11 or 12 doubles.

If you (ahem) have the manual for the game you could check for info there. Mine has scoring tables in the back.

Yakuman DS gives three options for scoring Seven Pairs: 2 Han and 25 Fu / 2 Han and 30 Fu / 1 Han and 50 Fu.

*(or 4 Han with 40+ Fu, or 3 Han with 70+ Fu)

I did wonder if it might be an effect from a rule option. Under the Wareme rule the player whose wall section was broken pays and receives double but on a dealer Baiman by Tsumo with a Wareme non-dealer the payment would become 8k + 8k + (8k x 2) = 32k, not 36k, so that's not it.

Goldeneye wrote:[...]the CPU opponent

...and if it's a two-player "battle mahjong" game then it's certainly not a 4P Wareme effect!

Barticle, I will be getting an actual GB Yakuman game very soon - with the manual - Thank eBay for that!

Cool, hopefully that will shed some light on the issue. Aside from budget titles with smaller manuals, I've found that games often come with quite a lot of information in the book like illustrated yaku lists, scoring tables, rule descriptions, etc.

eBay's definitely a good way to go - I'm forever seeing Japanese mahjong games for all sorts of formats on there. Sadly though the region-locked PS2 games wouldn't play on my PS3 and (although it's bigger so there's plenty of space for it!) my Nintendo DSi XL lacks the GBA slot and backwards compatibility of the original DS.

Actually, Nintendo in Japan's website actually still has the Yakuman page available, except it is all in Japanese!

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n02/dmg/mjj/index.html

One of the links from that does explain in brief what the five CPU characters tend to do (Hint: the fifth one always tries for Yakuman level hands)
Another one of the links leads to explaining the options one can make before choosing which CPU character to face.
The third link leads to strategies on how to face those five CPU characters.

There is also another description of what these five CPU characters in Japanese wikipedia...
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%B9% ... 5%A0%82%29