THE MONOPOLY TILESET FOR MAH JONGG EGA

The MONOPOLY tileset was designed to be an alternate tileset for
Nels Anderson's Mah Jongg EGA game.  Most of the images appearing
on the tiles were captured from various screens appearing in Virgin
Games' MONOPOLY DELUXE for DOS, using a screen-capture utility
called NeoGrab which is included with OSCS Software Development's
NeoPaint for DOS.

Because the images were originally 640x480x256, certain alterations
were necessary before I converted them to EGA.  In most cases, I
was able to produce tiles whose images closely approximate the
originals.  Of course, I did touch-up, repaint, resize, crop, or
completely make-over the images, as I deemed appropriate; but each
essentially retains its original design.  Sometimes, adjustments
were necessary to aesthetically "place" an image in the background
I had in mind.  I've taken the time to describe the tileset below:


         1.  The Virgin Games logo (Virgin is a registered
trademark of Virgin Enterprises, Ltd., Virgin Games, Inc., 18061
Fitch Ave., Irvine, Ca 92714):  I included this tile because I
wanted to give credit to Virgin Games and the original artists.  I
make no claim that the artwork is mine alone or completely
original.  I take credit only for the original idea for the
tileset, creation of the tiles, and the artistic renderings and
alterations which I have personally made.  Since these tiles are
likely to be distributed far and wide, I wanted to be sure to add
this disclaimer as a matter of public record.  For myself, I
reserve only those rights which I may have as creator of this
MONOPOLY tileset.

       2-7.  The RAILROADS and selected PROPERTIES:  These were all
deliberate selections on my part.  For example, North Carolina is
my home state; this is an example of the kind of logic that went
into selecting these properties!

      8-14.  SPECIAL "CHANCE" SPACES and UTILITIES:  Actually, the
electric company and water works are properties themselves; the
distinction here is that these are all images without text.  This
set represents COMMUNITY CHEST, FREE PARKING, LUXURY TAX, ELECTRIC
COMPANY and WATER WORKS.  I decided to repaint FREE PARKING's red
car blue, because I felt that none of the other 15 colors properly
highlighted its red contours and shadows.  I also tried it in "gray
scale", just to see how it would look.  I was so pleased with the
result, that I decided to include it in the set also.

     15-17.  The GO SPACE and GET OUT OF JAIL FREE cards:  Even
after I'd finally sized "GO" to fit within the tile grid, I still
had to make adjustments to its rasterized pixel pattern to ensure
it did not stand out from the other tiles.  It's color is bright
red and brown with a light gray drop-shadow to give it both a
raised and "soft" effect.  To look at it you wouldn't think that
this was the tile which presented my biggest challenge--and it was
the last of the set.  The GET OUT OF JAIL FREE cards are the only
CHANCE and COMMUNITY CHEST cards appearing in the tileset.  Because
of EGA's limited range of colors (and differences among video
cards), the CHANCE card may appear somewhat brownish in color on
your system as opposed to its true orange.

     18-27.  The PLAYERS' TOKENS:  In order, they are the DOG, CAR,
WHEELBARROW, HORSE, SHIP, CANNON, THIMBLE, IRON, HAT and SHOE. 
Note that the background of the shoe token is different from that
of any other.  I thought it might be interesting to extend the
visual effect of its alternate yellow-and-gray pattern across the
entire tile face.  Boy, was it ever!  The shoe and its background
seem to be as one.  I think this tile is notable as being, perhaps,
the most unique in the set.

     28-30.  The PLAYERS' DICE and MONEY, and the BANK ICON: 
Actually, the dice were cropped from a larger PCX file included
with Virgin's original Computer Edition of MONOPOLY--they are not
from the MONOPOLY DELUXE game.  My contribution here is the
background.  Everyone is familiar with the multi-colored MONOPOLY
money; I opted for classic green, and kicked in the "$" to
represent all the various denominations of money.

     31-32.  The DOG and RICH UNCLE PENNYBAGS:  These are "mug"
shots.  The dog's head was obviously enlarged and cropped; Uncle
Pennybags' head was captured from the game's player setup window
and enlarged to fit exactly on its tile.

        33.  Lin's credit tile:  This is where I signed off as
creator of the tileset.  The initials are obviously mine, rendered
in NeoPaint's "Neon" font and accented with drop shadow.  The month
and year were rendered in the "System" font.  Most of the work was
done over two days time, with four additional days dedicated to
reviewing, revising and finalizing the tile designs.

        34.  The HOTEL PIECE:  Actually, I wasn't even going to use
this piece; but then, would MONOPOLY really be MONOPOLY without
hotels and houses?--I don't think so!  Originally, I placed the
hotel and each set of houses on separate tiles against a light gray
background (how mundane).  It was not until four days later (during
an uncharacteristic flash of brilliance) that I realized the
buildings should rest on the actual properties themselves.  I added
a "cast shadow" to the buildings to impart a sense of dimension. 
One of the interesting results of having done this is that as the
tiles are distributed on game startup, the random distribution of
these structures seem to give the board a sense of geography--like
houses on a hillside, for example.  It's a stunning perception,
which is apparent in nearly every tile arrangement.  This tile, and
the houses, are my favorite set.

     35-38.  The HOUSE PIECES:  This is one of the two "wildcard"
suits.  These tiles are based on the fact that you must place four
houses on a given property before you can place a hotel.  That
there are four tiles in this suit, illustrates the concept
perfectly.

     39-42.  The ROLLS OF THE DICE:  This is the second "wildcard"
suit.  Dice rolls of one through four are represented here.  To
create these tiles, I played the game and captured the screens as
the appropriate die appeared.  As each die fit exactly on its
tileface, no further alterations were necessary.  None of the other
tiles could match these for ease of creation.


So there you have it--MONOPOLY, Mah Jongg-style!  If you decide to
share these tiles with someone, please include this text file, and
distribute them as a set (MONOPOLY.TIL and MONOPOLY.TXT).  Take
care, and enjoy the MONOPOLY tileset!




Lin McDowell, December 27, 1993.