Monopoly (video game)

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Monopoly
An example of a cover from a Monopoly video game

Developer(s) Leisure Genius (1985/1988)
Virgin Interactive (1991)
Westwood Studios (1995)
Runecraft, Ltd. (2002)
Publisher(s) Leisure Genius (1985/1988)
Leisure Genius (1991)
Hasbro Interactive (1995)
Infogrames, Inc. (2002)
Series Monopoly
Platform(s) BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Playstation, Playstation 2, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, NES, Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Super NES, Windows 95\Windows 98\Windows ME\Windows 2000\Windows XP\Windows Vista and ZX Spectrum
Release date (ZX/CPC) 1985
(C64) 1988
(PC 1991) 1991
(PC 1995) September 30, 1995
...
Genre(s) Board Game

There have been more than a dozen versions of video game adaptations of Parker Brothers' highly successful board game Monopoly.

The first of the adaptations were released in 1985 with the release of Monopoly for the BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. Over the years, Monopoly has been released for different operating systems on the PC and Macintosh platforms. Also, versions have been licenced and produced for the NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, Playstation, Playstation 2, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear and XBOX consoles.

The game plays by the same rules as the standard board game, and allows for single or multiplayer games. When a single player game is chosen, the game would generate computer-controlled opponents with (at least for the time) fairly sophisticated A.I..

One of the lesser-liked features of the game was the nessesity to play exactly in the style programmed into the game. This could be slightly different than the various "house rules" that many homes employ, and could cause problems. An especially problematic feature was the mandatory auctioning of un-bought properties, that led to rich players having a better run of the board. Some versions however, like the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation versions, do allow the most common "house rules" (Free Parking jackpot, no collecting rent in jail, unlimited houses/hotels, etc) to be turned off or on.

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