Comments on: Alan Turing memorial Monopoly set

By: GregS

GregS — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:33:00 +0000

This is a great idea!

By: Chris Owen

Chris Owen — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:31:00 +0000

hi michael, I’ve explained the reason to this below – hope it makes sense. we did try… (but we’ve included a replica of the original so people can play on that too),

Chris

By: Chris Owen

Chris Owen — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:29:00 +0000

Listers and Pyes is on the original board which William Newman drew, and we retained these in this version as a link to the original. William’s was based on places around Cambridge, where the family home was, and Pyes and Listers were major factories in the area at the time.

Chris

By: Chris Owen

Chris Owen — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:29:00 +0000

yes, we sincerely hope so!

By: the damned fool

the damned fool — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 06:19:00 +0000

to [Monopoly Board]
add to [squares]
[historical]
[recognition]
[sexuality] remarks..from what I remember of Python

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 20:48:00 +0000

What do Listers and Pyes refer to?

Interesting the way Turing William broke up the blocks so that they are noncontiguous, and how he allowed bidirectional play *snerk*. I wonder what the X spots were. Nothing?

By: Darryl Moore

Darryl Moore — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Sadly not true.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/scrabulous-sc-1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexulous

By: Matt Popke

Matt Popke — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 15:57:00 +0000

You can’t copyright or patent game mechanics so you could make your own ripoff of this game right now, or even 80 years ago, if you really wanted to. None of the essential elements of Monopoly are copyrighted or patented. You can, however, trademark things like the word ‘Monopoly’ in the context of a board game. This applies to the street names, “community chest” cards and even the little shoe. Trademark never expires as long as the trademark holder continues to enforce it. You can also copyright the box art and the instruction leaflet, but it’s pretty easy to rewrite that to avoid problems.

So it’s totally legal right now for you to make a game with the exact same game mechanics as Monopoly, but you can’t use any of the names, images or other “assets” of the game when doing so. You could even create card whose effect on the game is absolutely identical to the deck of cards included in the game but that have completely different text on them (no more beauty pageants sadly).

It’s not impossible to do, it’s not even that difficult. Who would buy it? The myriad monopoly knock-offs sold today are all officially branded so that people know it’s Monopoly under the hood. How would you sell a game that is Monopoly but for which you cannot use any words or images that tells people “Hey! This is Monopoly!”? There’s just no market for such a thing.

By: tuxit

tuxit — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 15:02:00 +0000

This game has been around for about 80 years. Is copyright ever going to expire on it or is it going to be like that horrible mouse?

By: cellocgw

cellocgw — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:02:00 +0000

The real question is: Is this version of Monopoly NP-complete? :-) . Or, does it ever reach a halting state? Is the little race-car token a “Turing Car” … thanks, folks, I’ll be here all 2^N clock cycles.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:01:00 +0000

Actually, they could rename the game Monopoly to “Copyright” or “Patents” and …

/If anybody actually makes such a game, please contact me to negociate rights.

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:10:00 +0000

In other words, an effort to bring players the best of both worlds, if they so desire. Sounds excellent!

By: Chris Owen

Chris Owen — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 09:28:00 +0000

Hi Keith, the original diagonal line was added by William as he disliked the way that people could own half the board, so he added it in order to make the game more ‘fair’.

When we first discussed making a commercial version, this line obviously goes against the basic rules of the standard Monopoly game, so it had to be removed, and we had to think of a new way to bring the board to life. Hence, we took elements of the original (Cambs place names, ‘Pyes’ and ‘Listers’ from the original) and integrated these into a bigger board celebrating the life of Turing.

As pointed out by Stooge below, we’ve included a replica of the original in the edition too, along with the rules, so people can play this, while enjoying the gameplay of the overall game.

The edition also includes an insert explaining what each square represents, and the story of the board, so we’ve included as much as possible to keep the Turing Edition loyal to the original, without compromising the standard board design.

By: Stooge

Stooge — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:26:00 +0000

A replica of the original hand-drawn board is included.

Sorry about your cat, dude.

By: Stooge

Stooge — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:21:00 +0000

That’s the ‘Get out of jail free*’ card.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:03:00 +0000

Did somebody run over your cat today?

By: Keith Tyler

Keith Tyler — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 07:57:00 +0000

What’s remarkable about this gushing article is that the official board looks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like the actual original board in question.

The street names aren’t the same, the spaces aren’t the same, nothing at all is the same except that it looks like a Monopoly board.

So… what the fuck are you on about, OP?

By: retchdog

retchdog — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 05:41:00 +0000

too soon, man. too soon.

By: Blair Berkelmans

Blair Berkelmans — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 03:06:00 +0000

Is chemical castration a Chance or Community Chest card?

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 01:15:00 +0000

But it doesn’t have the alternate diagonal path.