SETUP
Setup of Monopoly is extremely
simple. Simply download the executable file
and run it on your desktop PC. Installation
is automatic.
PROGRAM
FEATURES
Handmark has done
a good job of faithfully bringing Monopoly to
the Pocket PC. All of the rules from the board
game are kept intact. I was even glad to see
that they offered variations to the rules.
| Title Screen |
Game Board |
The
interface is quite intuitive. There is a game
menu at the top that is activated by tapping
the menu tab. This menu includes the Game
submenu, the Actions submenu, and the Help
submenu.
| Game Menu |
Actions Menu |
Help Menu – just the rules…
The
game can be played against up to 3 other players,
computer or human. There is a ‘beam’ game function
that I was unable to test, but I assume you
could play against another over IR.
| Up to four players
|
Land on income tax…
|
| 10% or 200?
|
Just so you know what’s going on! |
| 2 different animations while the piece is moving |
Nice Interface |
Handmark
has already developed one version of Monopoly,
and that for the Palm. Some of the user interface
was a little bit awkward, making me think
that perhaps much of what we have on the Pocket
PC version is just a transfer of their Palm
version to Pocket PC. For example, the menu
does not have the ‘look’ or ‘feel’ of a standard
Windows CE menu. Don’t get me wrong – this
is quite okay. It just sometimes felt a little
bit awkward to me.
| Preferences Dialog Box |
Change the rules to your liking
|
Something
I really enjoyed about this version of Monopoly
was the abiility to completely turn off all
the bells and whistles so that I could play
a quick game in about 10 minutes! Imagine
playing a game of Monopoly, with four players,
in 10 minutes! (My grandmother still calls
Monopoly ‘Monotony’ because of the time it
takes to play the board game). The computer
handles all the dice throwing and the bank
so you can really fly around the board. I
recently purchased the official port of the
board game Risk to desktop PC’s and was extremely
disappointed. They tried to do too much, without
the option of streamlining for quick computer
play. Why would I play a board game on a PC
if there is no advantage against playing it
… on a board? To Handmark’s credit, they
did a good job in this area with Monopoly
for the Pocket PC.
| Chance |
Community Chest |
