Subject: REVIEW: Monopoly
From: [email-masked] (Jason L. Tibbitts III)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

Monopoly is an Amiga version of the classic board game.  It has its good
points, but seems in spots to be a weak port from another platform.

[Moderator's Note: this is a reprint of an article that originally
appeared in comp.sys.amiga.games.  I repost it here with the author's
permission.  Tha above words are my own.  JLT3]

Well, I bought a copy of Monopoly (by Liesure Genius -- or something like
that) about a two weeks ago, and thought some of you might be interested in a
quick review.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT:

	- Graphics (not great, but good enough)
	- Let's you play a timed (SHORT) game or a regular (LONG) game
	- Up to 8 players (any number can be computer players)
	- Supposedly plays by tournament rules (I've never played in a
	  tournament, but the rules are very close to the way I've always
	  played with the following exceptions:

		- when someone lands on a property and doesn't purchase
		  it, it is immediately auctioned off
		- when you are in jail, you can still build houses, 
		  collect rent, and do anything else you want except move.
		- you don't have to wait for the start of your turn to 
		  build houses, etc.

	- You can make deals with other players (including computer players).
	- Hard disk installable -- with no copy protection.

WHAT I FIND IRRITATING ABOUT IT:

	- The computer can initiate deals -- this is only bad when it feels
	  it has some deal to make, in which case it offers a deal between
	  each interaction with the system (this can really slow down the 
	  game).  For example:

			- You build some houses
			- The computer offers a trade -- you say no
			- You roll the dice and move
			- The computer offers a trade -- you say no
			- You decide to look at the property status
			- The computer offers a trade -- you say no
			- You give the dice to the computer, it rolls & moves
			  and lands on your property (suppose it has to sell
			  5 houses to pay the rent)
			- Before selling each house, the computer offers
			  a trade -- you say no to each
			- You roll the dice and move
			- The computer offers a trade...

	  I usually decline a deal, because I don't think they are very 
	  good.  For example, the computer will offer to give me Pacific
	  Avenue for St. Charles place plus $329.  Usually, this would 
	  give us both a monopoly, leaving him with enough cash to build
	  hotels and me with not even enough cash to build a house.

	  One major weakness I have found with the computer is that it
	  values Mediterranean and Baltic the same as the two utilities.
	  If you both own one of each of these groups, and the computer
	  offers you a utility for say Baltic and some cash, you can say
	  no and immediately offer him your utility for Mediterranean and
	  some cash.  The computer will always trade.  With Hotels on these
	  two properties you should beat his utilities (which have an expected
	  value of only $70 for rent).

	- If you reject a deal, the next trade offered is sometimes worse.
	  For example, the computer will offer to trade properties if you
	  kick in say $125.  If you say no, the next offer may be the same
	  properties, but it now wants $175!!!  (This happens even when there
	  is no change in the state of the game, relative to the wealth of 
	  the players involved in the trade)

	- When the computer is short on cash, it will always start mortgaging
	  properties starting from its lowest valued property.  Often it will
	  have to mortgage a bunch of properties and by the time it is through
	  mortgaging, it has a surplus of cash and can unmortgage one of
	  the properties it just mortgaged (which it does).

	- The computer is too quick to buy houses -- even when you are no where
	  near hitting the properties being developed.  This often results in
	  great losses for the computer, since it keeps very little cash in
	  hand (usually it will get a bad chance or community chest card and
	  have to sell back houses (at half price) to pay its debt).

	- The interface is very non-Amiga.  You can use the keyboard to cycle
	  through menus (ala IBM) or use the mouse, in which case moving the
	  mouse into the menu area makes the menus appear, and clicking the
	  LEFT button selects a menu item).  Didn't these people even look
	  at Intuition?  Some operations (like buying and placing houses) 
	  are controlled strictly by the keyboard.  When selecting properties
	  using the arrow keys, you can't use a single arrow key to cycle 
	  through all of the properties -- you have to press the arrow key
	  that moves the "cursor" in the appropriate direction on the board.
	  That's just stupid.

	- Updates of small areas of the screen show visible signs of painting.
	  Probably no calls to the blitter and not very efficient use of the
	  68000 either.

	- The program is too slow at handing over the dice, when there is
	  nothing for it to do.  There must be some wasted processing there.
	  I often find my self moving into the menu area to try and roll the
	  dice, when it is still the computers turn.  Usually I am punished
	  for doing this, since the computer immediately offers me another
	  trade (do you want to trade? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO).

	- You have to demand rent when a player lands on your property.  Even
	  though this is part of the board game's rules, I don't expect that 
	  the computer will ever miss a chance at rent, so it would be nice 
	  if rent collection were automatic.  As far as I know, I haven't
	  missed collecting rent yet, but it's just another menu selection 
	  that slows down the game.

	- I am a bit suspect of the game's randomness.  In every game I play,
	  the computer ends up with three of the railroads and at least two 
	  of the  light blue property group -- How does it do this?  I also
	  wonder about the randomness of Chance and Community Chest cards.
	  I haven't actually performed any measurements, but something is 
	  fishy here.

Despite all it's flaws, this is probably the best version of Monopoly for
the Amiga (the one on ab20 crashed each of the three times I tried playing
it (I didn't like it's interface either) -- the one written in ABasic
(a long time ago) is nice, but it doesn't play by all of the rules).  

I have bought alot of stinker games for the Amiga, and this is far from 
the worst.  If you like Monopoly and have alot of patience, you probably
won't regret buying this game.

						MRH
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| Martin R Hoffmann        | Opinions expressed above are | 
| ([email-masked]) | not Kodak's (blah blah blah) | 
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