In a true story of desperation to riches and the all American dream come true, Charles Darrow of Germantown, Pennsylvania didn’t take no for an answer. Originally the executives at Parker Brothers rejected the game. Rejected for what was seen to be 52 design errors, Darrow was not dissuaded from his belief in himself. Due to the Great Depression, a lot of Americans were unemployed at the time and Darrow was no exception. Darrow’s first games were produced with the help of a friend who was a printer. 5,000 handmade sets were taken to a Philadelphia department store and sold out. The Monopoly game was a huge success. The rest is history, as the saying goes, when he went back to Parker Brothers. Today Millions of people play Monopoly in many countries and in many versions of the original game. Monopoly has become the best-selling board game in the world. It is sold in 80 countries and produced in 26 languages, including Croatian.

A game that began in 1933, developed by Charles Darrow, begins yet another new chapter with its new mock credit/debit card version. In 1934 the game was submitted to and rejected by Parker Brothers. In 1936 it became America’s best selling game and included 4 small wax wood pawns. In 1937 the came had die cast metal game tokens. By 1943 to 1947 we saw the game change to wood tokens to conserve metals for the war effort. 1959 Parker Brothers boards and game pieces game in a single white box. Several copies of these editions are now exhibited in the American National Exhibition in Moscow. Monopoly changed for a select few in 1964 with a special underwater edition developed for New England Divers, Inc. This edition had a special steel-backed game board laminated with cellophane and weighed in at a hefty 95 pounds. More and more changes have taken place over the years and through the generations but this year’s changes are the most significant changes in many generations.

The old parlor or dining room table game for family and friends, with cutthroat deals under the table to buy property, utilities, get out of jail and become the billionaire tycoon of your playgroup, is changing with the times. The latest version of Monopoly has an electronic banking machine that looks like a child’s calculator with a magnetic strip reader. With a swipe of the card money changes hands. The banker now transfers money from the 4-6 players using the electronic banking machine to record earnings and payments instead of the old-fashioned paper money transactions. Children and some adults will be learning intangible math (cash) quickly without the look, touch and feel of the real thing. Colorful large number, in the hand, Cash!

In the updated version you will see changes such as increased prices for property and new fines like having to pay for congestion charges. This old classic board game has been modernized to include up to date tokens like a Segway personal transporter, an Altoid tin, a space shuttle, a flat screen TV, baseball cap and a dog in a handbag. Also updated are higher property values and locations based on your favorite landmarks per the country you purchase your game in. The new game board comes with title deed cards, chance and community chest cards, 6 debit cards, 2 dice, 6 tokens, 32 houses, 12 hotels and instructions.

In a statement on the news.bbc.co.uk website, Chris Weatherhead, brand manager at Parker Games, the company which produces the Monopoly games, proclaimed ” We wanted to design a more relevant version of the Monopoly to reflect modern society.

As the popularity of plastic cards increases when paying for goods instead of using cash, we wanted to reflect that in the new Monopoly.”

Instead of players using colorful mock dollar bills while playing the game they will now use Phony Visa debit cards to track their winning or loosings.

You can currently purchase either version of the much beloved game, which has spanned several generations. It is expected the new version will phase out the older one in the coming months. The latest version of this ever popular game will retail somewhere in the $40.00 range here in the United States.

It will take creative minds to make up the new rules of the game as we all do in the nostalgic version, when we buy and sell those colored notes under the table to stay in the game.

Fast without cash or cool and calculating your game style will be changing as the new game boards hit the family game room.