The Shanghai game modes in Shanghai: Dynasty support the use of custom tile sets. (The Mah-Jongg game, of course, can only be played with the Mah-Jongg tiles.) There is no "tile editor" built into the game, but there are a variety of graphic and paint utilities widely and cheaply (if not freely) available for the creation of custom tile sets (.bmp files).

Windows 95 users can use MSPaint (which comes included with Windows 95) - Macintosh users have access to a wide variety of paint programs and graphics conversion utilities.

Look in the folder where you installed Shanghai: Dynasty (on Windows 95 systems, this is normally C:\Program Files\Activision\Shanghai Dynasty\ -- Mac users won't have to look that hard to find it), or look on the Shanghai: Dynasty CD, in the Data\Custom Tilesets\ folder. There you will find a file called Template.bmp. This universal template can be used for a Mah-Jongg-style tile set (with two special groups) or for a pairs-style tile set (like the Math set or Shanghai: Great Moments' Romance and Inventors tile sets) or for a "regular" tile set (in which only exactly-identical tiles can be matched with one another). As you can see in this template file, a tile set is composed of 34 pairs of tiles, and two sets of four tiles. The pairs can either be made up of different-looking (yet logically matching) tiles, or of two identical tiles. Each of the four tiles in the two groups-of-four can be unique and can be matched with any one of the tiles in that group. The total maximum number of tiles you can have in a tile set is 144 tiles.

The template can be used for three different kinds of tile sets (which are explained in more detail later in this chapter):

- A Mah-Jongg-style tile set, which has two special groups of four tiles that are unique; each tile in the special group matches any of the four tiles in that group.
- A pairs-style tile set (like the Math and Alphabet sets) which has two identical pairs in each of the two groups-of-four.
- A "regular" tile set in which only exactly-identical tiles can be matched with one another, and all four tiles in each of the two groups-of-four are identical.

In the template file, the number determines which tiles match one another, while the letter indicates the variety which is possible within a tile number.

Make a copy of the template file and save it under a unique name. You can then paint, draw, or paste graphics into the template. Make sure not to alter the palette of the template file as you work on it. Make sure you do not use the first 10 colors of the palette or the last 10 colors of the palette (using those colors will cause the game to look strange -- we have a rather technical term for this phenomenon at Activision: "Hey, this game looks kaflooey!"). Check the manual or online help file of your graphics program if you need more information about working with palettes. If you're using MSPaint you can make sure that you do not change the palette settings when you use the Save As. . . feature in the File menu. The Save As. . . dialog box has a field entitled "Save As Type." Make sure this field reads "256 Color Bitmap." The tile set bitmap (bmp) file that you create must use the palette of the original template file. When you draw, paint, and paste your graphics, make sure to "stay in the lines" or your graphics won't look right when imported into the game. You can cut-and-paste a 38x48-pixel picture inside the borders of a tile in the template, or you can paste a 40x50-pixel picture over the 40x50 rectangle in the template (which would create a tile without a border). Experiment and play around with your file until you are pleased with the result. You won't hurt the program or your computer.

When your custom tile set is ready to be imported, put it in the Shanghai Dynasty\Custom Tilesets folder, then start Shanghai: Dynasty. From the Title screen, select Shanghai (or Kids). Go to the Tiles menu and select Custom Tiles.... Open the Custom Tilesets folder, highlight your file, and click on Open. Your tile set will be loaded and displayed on game tiles. If the colors are not right, something happened to the palette. Not to worry, it can be fixed. Check the manual or online Help file in the graphics utility that you are using. The template uses a custom 256-color palette. This custom palette is essential for your custom tiles to be read by the game. If the palette becomes altered, many graphics utilities allow you to make manual adjustments to the palette. Match or import the palette from the template (on your Shanghai: Dynasty CD).

In this type of tile set, there should be two different-looking (yet logically matching) tiles for each tile number. So you might draw a left-facing view of your cat in box 01A in the template file, and a right-facing view of your cat in box 01B. Or you might put a grown-up cat in box 01A, and a kitten in box 01B. Or you might put a male lion in box 01A, and a female lion in box 01B. Get it? When you get to tiles 35 and 36, you need to make two copies of the "A" picture, paste them into boxes A and B, and two copies of the "B" picture, and paste those into boxes C and D. You can create a special Back and Joker, too (they'll be used in the Dynasty game when Power Tiles are ON)

. Save your new tile set with a logical and unique name. If you are going to share the tile set with your friends or post it on the Internet, keep in mind that somebody else might use the same tile set name you do, if you don't make a good effort to come up with a truly unique layout name. If the blank template file on your hard drive gets filled with graphics, you can always get a fresh blank template file from the CD.

If the blank template file on your hard drive gets filled with graphics, you can always get a fresh blank template file from the CD.

You can also create a tile set in which each box in the template contains a unique graphic - the Alphabet tile set is an example of this (ALPTSET.BMP).

There is a Custom Tilesets folder inside the Shanghai Dynasty folder on your computer's hard drive. After creating or acquiring a custom tile set, go into the Custom Tilesets folder and put the custom tile set file (.bmp file) in that folder. Putting the file in a different folder might make it hard for the game to read the file, or might cause other problems.

If the creator of a custom tile set was not careful to preserve the tile set's palette (or if s/he used any of the first ten colors or the last ten colors of the palette), you may notice different colors on the menu, dialog boxes, and background when playing with the custom tile set. These different colors (while possibly hard to "read") will not affect the playability of the game. Playing with one of the tile sets that came with the game (selected via the Tiles menu, not via the Custom Tile Sets menu option) will restore the game's colors (the different colors will only be seen while playing with a custom tile set which was not properly palettized, or by loading an Activision tile set via the Custom Tile Sets menu option). If a custom tile set has so thoroughly confused the game's palette that you cannot read the menus to de-select the custom tile set, you can go into the Shanghai Dynasty folder on your hard drive, and delete or rename the file "Dynasty Preferences" to restore the menu colors. This will also set all the Preferences to their original "factory" settings and erase any Wall Of Fame entries you may have.

After creating and enjoying your custom tile set, you can share it with others by Email or posting on the Internet. Activision will make new custom layouts and tile sets available from time to time -- watch our website (http://www.activision.com).