MONOPOLY

 The Computer Edition of MONOPOLY from Leisure Genius and Virgin Mastertronic is
faithful to the Parker Brothers board game version. It features adherence to the
rules, short (timed) and long games, good graphics and gameplay, joystick or
keyboard control, a couple of nifty computer tricks, and a save-game option.
Assuming your computer area has enough room, MONOPOLY accomodates as many as
eight scheming participants. This review is based on the Commodore 64/128
version; IBM-PC version notes follow.

 The board version of the game has been around since the Great Depression (the
what?), and it's now published in twenty-nine countries and twenty-three
languages. MONOPOLY is one of the most popular -- if not _the_ most popular --
family games ever invented.

 The object of MONOPOLY is to become the wealthiest player by buying, selling,
and renting property (just like Donald Trump does in real life). The equipment
consists of the game board, dice, eight tokens for player movement, houses and
hotels, Community Chest and Chance cards, and Deeds to the properties. The
computer handles everything: None of the cardboard or paper or plastic or metal
pieces that are part of the board version are available in the computer version,
except as screen graphics.

 After the game loads, you follow a series of prompts: start a new game or load
a saved game; number of players (2-8); tokens (car, thimble, hat, etc.); names;
and control (computer or human player). Selecting a short game requires setting
a time limit in hours and minutes; an on-screen clock ticks off this time. The
dice, which roll along a small road at the bottom of the screen, are then thrown
in turn, and the player with the highest total goes first.

 The C64 screen display consists of a graphic representation of the MONOPOLY
board. All properties -- avenues, railroads, utilities, Chance cards, Jail, etc.
-- have been faithfully reproduced. To the right of the board is the name of the
current player.

 Selecting Dice from the Option Bar throws the dice, after which a player's
token will move the correct number of spaces on the board. At the bottom left of
the screen is an enlarged version of the space a player currently occupies. At
the bottom right are four cards indicating the four game board spaces jus ahead
of the current player's token; these are updated as the token is moved.

 Across the top of the game board is the Option Bar that controls all aspects of
the game. As noted above, the Dice Option starts a player's turn. Other Options
include Fastmove, which (considerably) speeds up turns; Quit (you'll be asked if
you want to Save the game); and Save (you'll need a previously-formatted disk).

 You can mortgage your property from the Mortgage Option, or you can be forced
into it should you find yourself short of cash for a pressing debt. The Owners
Option lets you see a list of the cash and property values of your opponents.
There is a Buy Houses Option, a Sell Houses Option, and a Trade Option. Some
Options require Yes or No responses; others require replies to a series of
prompts.

 Also available from the Option Bar is Cash, which toggles the screen display of
the cash and property values of each player.

 MONOPOLY can be controlled from either keyboard or joystick. Moving the
joystick (which can be used in either port) highlights the choices on the Option
Bar; pushing the button selects the highlighted option. The Cursor keys can also
be used to highlight the choices; the Return key selects. A third alternative is
to press the first letter of an Option, which automatically selects it.

 Throwing doubles three times in a row sends a player to jail. The bank gets the
money from all transactions, thus making Free Parking merely a rest space rather
than an economic bonanza. Landing on Chance or Community Chest makes the
computer randomly select a card. Passing GO earns players a $200 salary -- a
fiscal windfall during the Great Depression (the what?), but an invitation to
poverty in the '90s.

 Messages concerning a game event, or the prompts required after selecting from
the Option Bar, appear in the center of the game board. They remain there for a
fixed period of time, although pressing the spacebar will remove them.

 As with SCRABBLE, Leisure Genius's initial foray into home board games,
MONOPOLY is more or less an exact translation of the board version. The
on-screen game board is clear and detailed, although somewhat less perfect than
the SCRABBLE graphic; still, the screen display looks good enough. Everything
operates smoothly, screen updates are accomplished quickly, and the rules of
MONOPOLY are strictly followed -- which leads me to my reservations about the
game.

 As anyone who has played MONOPOLY knows, it's the human interaction, and all
the fooling around with the cards and the deeds and the money, that makes it
fun. Three or four (or eight!) human players -- let's not mention hanging around
the screen -- keep some of the fun intact. Still, you can't mess around with the
game pieces, and the computer allows no deviation from the rules: a less than
real-life situation.

 As software, The Computer Edition Of MONOPOLY is fun, too, in its computerized
way. It is about as faithful to the board version as it can be. It looks good
and plays well as software, but it isn't the MONOPOLY you're used to.

 IBM-PC VERSION NOTES

 MONOPOLY is available for the IBM PC, XT, PS/2, Tandy 100, and other 100%
compatibles. The game is supplied on one 5-1/4" disk. A CGA, EGA, or Tandy card
and 512K are required.

 The program is not copy-protected. Virgin Mastertronic informed me that one
early production batch of disks has a bad install routine. I don't know if my
disk is one of those or not, as I copied it onto the hard drive with XTreePro,
and start it as if it were a floppy. (Note: Virgin Mastertronic said that anyone
who purchases the program with the bad installer can return it to them for
replacement.)

 Because I have an XT clone, my sound handling capabilities are basically zip.
However, the game is set up to run on the Tandy 1000, and there may be sound
associated with that option. On the XT, there are just clicks when dice are
rolled, at the end of a turn, and when the computer asks a question.

 The screen display is simply beautiful. (I used a low-feature VGA card with a
multiscan monitor in EGA mode.) A menu bar across the top of the screen lists
the various functions; there's no online help available. The playing field is
the classic MONOPOLY board. The color reproduction of the various properties is
quite accurate, compared to the fifteen-year old game board I have.

 Known negatives or bugs: First, the computer players jump in continually during
other players' turns. This is quite annoying, especially if the computer is
trying to trade. Second, the game manual says the computer will not allow a
property group to be built on unevenly. That seems to hold true for human
players only. I have seen a computer player with four houses on one parcel, and
one house each on the other parcels. It doesn't happen often, though, and
shouldn't detract from the game (unless you land on the parcel with the four
houses). Third, I have seen the program allow hotels to be built on parcels with
only three houses each. This seems to occur only on the front edge
(Mediterranean/Baltic, Oriental/Vermont/Connecticut) parcels. Luckily, the bank
only charges for the actual number of buildings (i.e., $200 per parcel for a
hotel, instead of $250), and I consider this a very minor bug. Finally, when a
computer player is selling houses to pay a bill, the program tries to maintain
as many as possible on "high-hit" parcels (i.e., St. Charles, Illinois, etc). I
suspect it wants to take advantage of the Chance cards directing players to
those particular parcels as much as possible.

 An additional problem: I can't prove it, but in the first long game I played,
the computer and I were basically in a "holding" pattern for about two hours.
Neither of us had any dangerous properties (I had hotels on Mediterranean and
Baltic; it had none), and we were just exchanging rents. During that time, it
was pushing trades heavily at me, and I was rejecting them. About every other
turn, I would land first on the Water Works (the computer owned both utilities),
and then received a seven to land on the Short Line Railroad (the computer owned
three of them). When I finally consented to a trade, I stopped hitting the two
properties consistently. I won't go so far as to say the computer "adjusted" the
rolls of the dice, but I was definitely amazed at how much the laws of
probability were stretched!

 If you like the classic board game, you'll love the IBM version of MONOPOLY.
Leisure Genius has translated the board version extremely well; from my
standpoint, it has been well worth the long wait to play the IBM version.

 The Computer Edition of MONOPOLY is published by Leisure Genius and distributed
by Virgin Mastertronic International, Inc.

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