Behind the scenes2 min readWhere Macau comes from: from the kitchen table to the server
One family of card games, many names, and what the online table kept from the game played at home.
One family
Macau belongs to a large family of card games: match the top card by suit or rank, and race to empty your hand. In English the best known is Crazy Eights; in German it’s Mau-Mau, which is why the German app calls “Mau-Mau!” at the last card.
Many names
Romanians call it Macao, Poles, Serbs and Turks Makao, Hungarians Makaó. The app uses each language’s own name.
What we kept
The Romanian rules as they’re played at home: five cards each, the 2 and the 3 attack, the jokers hit for +5 and +10, a 7 cancels, a 4 skips a turn, an ace names the suit, and a play that leaves you one card is a call of Macao, or five cards to draw.
What the server adds
A 30-second clock on every turn (35 when you could play an ace), and three timed-out turns and you leave the table. The app makes the Macao call for you. After 150 turns, whoever is still playing is ranked by the cards left. And every deck is committed to before the first card is dealt.
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