History of video games/Platforms/Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman

Background
The game of Mah-Jong has existed since at least the 1800's. Mah-Jong became a popular game in Japan from the 1920's on, following its introduction from China. Thus Nintendo would try to bring a portable electronic version of the popular board game to market.

Launch
Nintendo launched the Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman in 1983 for 16,800 yen.

The Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman was succeeded by the Nintendo Game Boy, which would feature the return of the Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman brand as the 1989 GameBoy Yakuman cartridge. Unusually for a Nintendo console, the system has been poorly documented, and relatively little is known of its history.

Technology
The Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman uses a black and white dot matrix LCD.

The Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman supported a link cable for multiplayer, becoming one of the first consoles to support a console to console communication standard by default.

The Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman is powered by four AA batteries. The system could also take 6V DC input.

The console bore the model number MJ 8000.

External Resources

 * Handheld Museum - Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman page.