Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: When was the game Monopoly first released?
Monopoly is a Sega Master System video game based on the board game "Monopoly", released in 1988. Developed by Nexa Corporation and published by Sega itself, this title was one of many inspired by the property. According to Game Freaks 365, the game was "one of the first real boardgames that was programmed" into a video game.
In May 2018, Epic announced a partnership with sports apparel manufacturing company IMG to produce official "Fortnite"-themed clothing. A Hasbro-licensed "Fortnite Battle Royale"-themed version of "Monopoly" was announced for release by late 2018; the "Fortnite Monopoly" game reflects some elements of the video game, such as the money being replaced with player's lives, and the ability to protect properties on the board with walls. Further, with this deal, Hasbro will produce "Fortnite"-based Nerf blasters, which are expected to reach retail in 2019. Funko will release a series of "Fortnite" themed Pop! figurines by late 2018.
The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert, who designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert's frustrations with contemporary adventure titles led him to make the player character's death almost impossible, which meant that gameplay focused the game on exploration. The atmosphere was based on that of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride. "The Secret of Monkey Island" was the fifth game built with the SCUMM engine, which was heavily modified to include a more user-friendly interface.
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition was the first game to be released on InstantAction's embed-tech platform. The game is an enhanced remake of The Secret of Monkey Island developed by LucasArts. It was originally released on July 15, 2009 for the PC, Xbox Live Arcade and iPhone/iPod touch. On April 29, 2010 InstantAction released a 20-minute demo of the game to show off the companies new embed technology, along with the option to buy the full game for $9.99.
This is a list of the best-selling video games of all time. The best-selling video game to date is "Tetris", a tile-matching puzzle video game originally released for the Electronika 60 in 1984 and then popularised upon its Game Boy release in 1989. The game has been ported to a wide range of platforms and sold in excess of 170 million copies, including 100 million paid mobile game downloads and 35 million Game Boy version sales. "Minecraft" and "Grand Theft Auto V" are the only other games to have sold over 100 million copies. The best-selling game on a single platform is "Wii Sports", with nearly 83 million sales for the Wii console.
"Grand Theft Auto", the first game in the series, was released for Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS in October 1997, ported to the PlayStation in 1998 and the Game Boy Color in 1999. "Grand Theft Auto 2" was released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows, later receiving ports on the PlayStation, Dreamcast and Game Boy Color.
Grand Theft Auto is an action-adventure video game developed by DMA Design and published by BMG Interactive. It was first released in Europe and North America in October 1997 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It was later re-released on 12 December 1997 in Europe and 30 June 1998 in North America for the PlayStation. It is the first instalment of the "Grand Theft Auto" series, to be followed by 1999's "Grand Theft Auto 2". The series, which has led to five main entries and several special edition games over 16 years, has sold more than 150 million units as of September 2013. The story follows a group of criminals in three fictionalised versions of US cities as they perform bank robberies, assassinations, and other illegal activities for their respective crime syndicates.
"The Curse of Monkey Island" sold 52,049 copies in the United States by the end of 1997, according to market research firm PC Data. Another 40,538 copies were purchased in the country between January 1998 and July 1998, which drew revenues of $1.57 million for the period. The game was a success in the German market: Heinrich Lenhardt of "PC Gamer US" wrote, "[I]f it wasn't for the sales figures in Germany, LucasArts probably wouldn't have bothered" to continue the franchise. In the second half of November 1997, "Curse" debuted at #4 on 's computer game sales charts for the German market. It held in the top 10 through January 1998, peaking in third place for the first half of December, and its streak in the top 20 continued through March. The game had spent 24 weeks in Media Control's top rankings by the end of May, when it secured 27th place. In August, "Curse" received a "Gold" award from the (VUD), indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The first game in the series is based on the video game "Age of Empires III", and was originally titled Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery before being renamed to Glenn Drover's Empires: The Age of Discovery in 2011 following the loss of the naming rights to the "Age of Empires" series. It was originally published in 2007 by Tropical Games, and is currently distributed by Drover's own publishing company, Eagle Games. The game may be played by up to five players, though pieces for a sixth player were available in limited supply, and are included in the "Builders Expansion", released in 2011 along with the renaming of the series.
The game was first thought up in 2007 during a meeting between PopCap and Square Enix, which had published several of PopCap's games in Japan. Jason Kapalka, the co-founder and chief creative officer of PopCap, claims that he "half-jokingly" proposed a game collaboration between the two companies that would combine a role-playing game with "Bejeweled"-style gameplay, calling it “Final Fantasy Bejeweled”. Kapalka was envisioning creating a similar game to "", a 2007 video game which members of the development staff of both companies were playing at the time. The idea attracted the attention of Yuichi Murasawa, designer of "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance", and the game began formal development. To differentiate the game from "Puzzle Quest", the gameplay was based around "Bejeweled Twist" rather than "Bejeweled", which Kopalka feels fit the art design of the game more. Other candidates considered were "Zuma" and "Peggle", but they were dropped as the developers felt that they did not fit in with the combat theme. PopCap developed the early prototype for the game, then allowed Square Enix to complete the bulk of the work in designing and creating the game, especially in regards to the RPG aspects. Square Enix and PopCap announced the game on September 24, 2009. It was published by Square Enix on the Xbox Live Arcade and on the Steam platform for Windows PCs on November 18, 2009. A downloadable pack of maps and a pack of items were made available for sale a week after launch on November 23, 2009 for both versions of the game.
Throughout the rest of the 1960s, digital computer games were created by increasingly numerous programmers and sometimes sold commercially in catalogs. As the audience for video games expanded to more than a few dozen research institutions with the falling cost of computers, and programming languages that would run on multiple types of computers were created, a wider variety of games began to be developed. Video games transitioned into a new era in the early 1970s with the launch of the commercial video game industry in 1971 with the display of the coin-operated arcade game "Galaxy Game" and the release of the first arcade video game "Computer Space", and then in 1972 with the release of the immensely successful arcade game "Pong" and the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, which launched the first generation of video game consoles.
There is no consensus on what the earliest open world game is, due to differing definitions of how large or open a world needs to be. Ars Technica traces the concept back to the free-roaming exploration of 1976 text adventure game "Colossal Cave Adventure", which inspired the free-roaming exploration of "Adventure" (1980), but notes that it wasn't until 1984 that what "we now know as open-world gaming" took on a "definite shape" with 1984 space simulator "Elite", considered a pioneer of the open world; Gamasutra argues that its open-ended sandbox style is rooted in flight simulators, such as SubLOGIC's "Flight Simulator" (1979/1980), noting most flight sims "offer a 'free flight' mode that allows players to simply pilot the aircraft and explore the virtual world". Others trace the concept back to 1981 CRPG "", which had a free-roaming overworld map inspired by tabletop RPG "Dungeons & Dragons". The overworld maps of the first five "Ultima" games, released up to 1988, lacked a single, unified scale, with towns and other places represented as icons; this style was adopted by the first three "Dragon Quest" games, released from 1986 to 1988 in Japan.
The X-Men are a fictional superhero team in Marvel Comics' Marvel Universe. The group debuted in 1963 in an eponymous comic book series. Beginning in 1989, the characters appeared in video game adaptations for home consoles, handheld game consoles, arcades, and personal computers. An earlier game was planned for home computers in 1985, but the developer went out of business before its launch. The first games were released on 8-bit home platforms, and the series expanded onto handheld consoles and arcades in the early 1990s. Most X-Men games, especially those released in the 2000s, were released on several platforms. Several companies have developed entries in the franchise, including Paragon Software, Software Creations, Konami, and Capcom. The titles are action games that pit the X-Men against Marvel supervillains, typically taking the form of beat 'em up and fighting games. Each game features different groupings of X-Men heroes and villains, and typically allows players to control multiple characters.
In 1989, while designing the first Monkey Island game, Ron Gilbert wrote an article titled Why Adventure Games Suck outlining what he perceived to be design flaws in adventure games of the time.
Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Computer Game (referred to simply as Monty Python's Flying Circus in the game itself) is a 1990 scrolling shoot 'em up computer game developed by Core Design. It was released by Virgin Games for various computer formats including the Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It is loosely based on material and characters from the 1970s British comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus", in particular the Gumby character.
LucasArts's game producer Craig Derrick and his team conceived the idea of the remake in 2008. After researching the "Monkey Island" series' history, they decided to make "something fresh and new while staying true to the original", which resulted in the idea of "The Secret of Monkey Island" remake. The developers tried to leave much of the original design unchanged. Any changes were intended to achieve the level of immersion desired for the original. To that end, they added details like a pirate ship or pirates talking in the background of scenes. While the team considered the SCUMM interface revolutionary at the time, LucasArts community manager Brooks Brown noted that it is incompatible with an analog stick, which most consoles use. The designers made the cursor contextual to the game objects as the primary interface. Brown had considered updating the reference to advertise "" because "Loom" was not on the market at the time, but concluded that the game would not be the same if such changes were implemented. Prior to the "Special Edition" release, however, LucasArts announced that "Loom", along with other games from its back catalog, would be made available on Steam. Brown stated that the decision to distribute the game online was because "digital downloads have finally gotten going".
"The Secret of Monkey Island" received positive reviews from critics. According to Gilbert, it "sold well" but was "never a big hit". Grossman later summarized that the game's sales were "north of 100,000, far south of 1 million". According to "Next Generation", "The Secret of Monkey Island" was a "relatively minor hit" in the United States, but the game and its sequel became "blockbusters on the PC and the Amiga throughout Europe."
Prior to the first "Civilization" video game, an existing 1980 board game of the same name had been developed by Francis Tresham, published in Europe by his company Hartland Trefoil and licensed for publication in the United States by Avalon Hill. The board game and video game share many common elements including the use of a technology tree, and while Meier stated he had played the board game, he stated it had far less influence in his video game's design compared to the significant influence of "SimCity" and "Empire". When MicroProse opted on the name "Civilization" for the video game, the company worked out a deal with Avalon Hill to allow them to use the "Civilization" name.
LucasArts' first adventure game was the 1986 title "". The game's development was led by David Fox, with contributions from Douglas Adams, Christopher Cerf, Noah Falstein and Brenda Laurel. Based on the film of the same name, it is LucasArts' first video game adaptation of a film. It is the only adventure game not published by LucasArts, as "Labyrinth" was published and distributed by Activision. "Labyrinth" differs significantly from later LucasArts adventure games as it uses text parser gameplay as the main means of play.
"Labyrinth" was followed in 1987 by "Maniac Mansion". "Maniac Mansion" was the creation of Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, and marked the debut of SCUMM, the game engine that powered all but two of LucasArts later adventure games. The game was also the first LucasArts adventure game to be released for DOS. "Maniac Mansion" was LucasArts' first full graphic adventure game, using a point-and-click interface rather than the text-based gameplay seen in "Labyrinth". A menu of verbs allows the player to choose how to interact with the game's environment. "Maniac Mansion" aims to parody the horror genre. The game was subject to several enhancements and re-releases, and was included as a game within a game in its sequel, "Day of the Tentacle".
Critics praised "The Secret of Monkey Island" for its humor, audiovisuals, and gameplay. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the "Monkey Island" series. Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman also led the development of the sequel "". LucasArts released a remake of the original in 2009, which was also well received by the gaming press.
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Many adventure games (text and graphic) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult. "Colossal Cave Adventure" is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include "Zork", "King's Quest", "The Secret of Monkey Island", and "Myst".
"The Legend of Zelda" is a video game series created by game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is developed and published by Nintendo. The series debuted in Japan with "The Legend of Zelda" (known in Japan as "The Hyrule Fantasy: Zelda no Densetsu") on February 21, 1986, and was later released in North America (August 22, 1987) and Europe (November 27, 1987). "The Legend of Zelda" video games have been developed exclusively for Nintendo video game consoles and handhelds, dating from the Family Computer Disk System to the current generation of video game consoles. Spin-off titles, however, have been released on non-Nintendo systems. The franchise consists of 27 video games, including original titles, ports, and remakes. Over 52 million copies have been sold since the release of the first game. The franchise also includes a cartoon adaptation, multiple comic book adaptations, and soundtracks.
In early 2010, Hasbro began selling the "Free Parking" and "Get out of Jail" add-on games, which can be played alone or when a player lands on the respective "Monopoly" board spaces. If played during a "Monopoly" game, success at either game gets the winning player a "free taxi ride to any space on the board" or "out of jail free", respectively. A new, customizable edition called "U-Build" is also released. Later in 2010, for the 75th anniversary of the game's publication, Hasbro released "Monopoly Revolution", giving the game a graphic redesign, as well as returning it to a round shape, which had not been seen since some of Darrow's 1930s custom-made sets. The game includes "bank cards" and keeps track of players' assets electronically, as was introduced in the "Electronic Banking Edition" earlier in the decade. The game also features clear plastic playing pieces for movers, and electronic sound effects, triggered by certain events (for instance, a "jail door slam" sound effect when a player goes to jail). "Monopoly Live" was announced at the New York Toy Fair in February, 2011. The "Monopoly Millionaire" version of the game was released in 2012.
Monopoly City is a spin-off of the original Monopoly board game. It was released by Hasbro in 2009, making its first public appearance at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair. It was named 'Game of the Year 2009' by the British Toy and Hobby association at the 57th London Toy Fair. Gameplay is similar to, but more complex than, the original Monopoly.
In 1994, the license to the company that would become USAopoly was issued, and they produced a San Diego, California edition as their first board. In 1995, a license for new game variations and reprints of "Monopoly" was granted to Winning Moves Games. See the Localizations, licenses, and spin-offs section below for details on further releases by both companies.
In early 2013, a board game version of the "Monopoly Hotels" online game was released. From January 8 to February 5, 2013, through the "Monopoly" page on Facebook in a campaign called "Save Your Token", Hasbro took votes from the public to make another permanent change in the lineup of game tokens. The token with the least number of "Save Your Token" votes will be retired, and replaced with one of five other tokens, depending on which of the new candidates gets the most votes. The potential tokens were a robot, a helicopter, a cat, a guitar or a diamond ring. Neither the biplane nor the piggy bank from the 1998 vote are being considered this time. Early on February 6, it was announced that the iron would be retired for having received the least votes, and the cat would be replacing it, having received the most votes. Starting in February 2013, the U.S. discount chain Target began selling a "Golden Token" set with the eight classic tokens and all five candidates. Special editions with the thirteen golden tokens have also been released in the UK and France. The first Monopoly game to have the new token lineup was released in June 2013. In 2015, the game celebrated its 80th anniversary with eight tokens from each decade in a special edition.