A Local Monopoly
Sri Lankan Monopoly, view full size
This was a late-night idea at Deshan’s which has gone farther than it perhaps should have. Not my idea, note. I have worked on this all day because it feels like work but it’s not. This is another localization of Monopoly, like the British version, Ghettopoly, etc. The districts are all Colombo 1-8, with corresponding street names. There are also localized Chance/Com Chest cards ranging from ‘Dengue’ to ‘Get Government Tender’. The game pieces are imagined to be Trishaw, Jaguar, Two-Three-Legged-Dogs-Copulating (one piece), cow, bus, etc. Strangely enough, I think it makes the most sense to use real Sri Lankan Rupees cause you only need Rs 1,500 to play. It also introduces a gambling element to the game. And yeah.
These are the districts, loosely broken down by property value, not location. Dias had the most hand in picking these and the order.
Wellawatta and Borella
Bamblapitiya and Havelock Town
Slave Island and Kollupitiya
Colombo 7 and Fort
Instead of Railroads there are local shopping establishments (MC, Barefoot). These could also be schools (Royal, St Thomas), Bus Lines (177, 138, Galle Road), or Hotels (Cinnamon, Hilton, Hotel de Pilawoos). I dunno. The Electric and Water companies are CEB and SLT. Jail is Welikada and Goto Jail is a checkpoint. I’m also not sure that Ward Place is equivalent to Boardwalk, but I dunno what in Colombo 7 is. Anyways, these are the cards we came up with thus far.
Chance
- Open Tuition Class – Get Rs 100
- Become Beach Boy for weekend – Get Rs 200
- Open Casino – Get Rs 300
- Get Out of Jail
- Student Riots, Car is Destroyed – Pay Rs 200
- Receive Dowry – Get Rs 200, gold, and cow
- BOMB! – Return to Go, collect no salary
- Get Government tender. Do nothing – Get Rs 300
- Grant from NGO – Get Rs 200
- Obtain public land for country club – Pick any property and took it. Plus slap
- Dengue! – Skip your next turn
- Win Sirasa Superstar – Win Rs 400 and hair straightening
- Get hit with siri-siri bag full of poo – Rs 100 dry cleaner bill
- Become Mayor of Colombo – Rs 400 payoff
Communist Chest
- Car towed by bomb squad – Pay Rs 200
- Throw cricket match – Get Rs 200
- Defraud VAT – Get Rs 500
- Start NGO – Get Rs 300
- Get completely shitfaced. Wake up in Ward Place
- Daughter gets married – Pay Rs 200
- Patronize Russian prostitute – Pay Rs 200
- Become MP – Rs 400
These are obviously not finished. I suppose you could actually print the cards and board on cardboard if you wanted to and play the game, or just laser print it. I would buy it, oi. Or perhaps this is a not entirely sober idea taken too far. I have been hanging out with babies all weekend and they or their parents have given me some new and vicious cold. Babies look cute but they’re shifty.
As far as I know, this was not the first attempt to localise Monopoly.
As far as I know, the credit should go to my next door neighbour Zulfi, who did a fantastic localisation of the Monopoly somewhere in late 1970s, when I was just a kid, and you were not even born! (Yes, there may be others even before this.)
The local version was further developed by few of us, so it became very different from the original one. I have played the original version only once but the local version(s) so many times I care to remember. Sometimes we have played it from morning to night, nonstop 8-9 hours during the holiday season. We stopped only when our parent reminded us it was the time to stop. (There were no TV those days, so this was an ideal past time.)
Also our property was not limited to Colombo. One of our property was Jaffna Airport!
No mention about the roadside garbage dumps in Colombo
Dickman’s Road is NOT the local equivalent of Old Kent Road. Fuck off.
It’s shocking how you’ve managed to strip it of all hilarity. Perhaps you should have left the finalisation to Dias and Desh who came up with all the good ideas.
and THAT’s what makes you an annoying git, indi.
It is still hilarious you wanker, maybe you’re just experiencing a brief moment of sobriety
here…whose babies are you calling shifty, eh? eh? i think it’s a fab idea and i want to play it asap. i will thrash you all and take all your money mwahahahaha!
I’m just saying, K looks like a Yakuza Mob Boss and he’s not even one year old. I’m already intimidated. You should get him tattoos now.
also, i woulod just like to point out to the sophist, that dickman’s road is full of tarts and…the sophist, which ranks it even less desirable that old kent road.
Erm, i would just like to point out that Dickman’s Road is the equivalent of Pall Mall, not Old Kent Road. That privelage goes to Tickell Road. So, Fuck you Sophist. Retard.
There is a Sri Lankan Monopoly board in a cupboard somewhere here, a remnant of the entertainment starved Seventies, if I recall correctly. If I get down to finding it, you can compare property and see what kind of price changes have taken place during the last thirty years. :)
Great idea…look forward to playing it…hopefully I will be able to patronize a Russian prostitute… ;)
It’s not full of tarts anymore Daytripper. They moved near Police Park! Apparently business was good there. A vendetta against Tickell road Tepid? Why would that be?
Fantastic Idea! Name it GINIPOLY, just to localize the name. Need a share of the profits if you do release it under the name or I will hunt you down and KILL YOU! or not, since you both have been nice to me.. Ideas cost, so my charge is 1 Billion dollars or a share of the profits (anything over Rs.5000 is fine)…
Can we pay you in monopoly money?
Apparently Sophist had a monopoly on the thriving business down in Dickman’s road so they all moved to Police Park..Thats just the word on the street, don’t shoot the messenger
Actually, I heard that Sophist used to kick the prostitutes’ customers up the backside to chase them from his garage, which they occasionally used as a shaggy-shack. I think that may have been more the reason that they left Dickman’s Road. Besides, it’s called DICK-MAN’s Raod for godsake. Not really the best cover, is it?
Great idea, but can do with some tweaks. Some of the roads you’ve mentioned there are not that well known (by me), especially the greens. I don’t think it’s important that the places with the same colour cards should be near each other in reality; just being in the same place on the coolness-to-shittiness spectrum should be enough.
Tickell Road is actually very nice (Much nicer than bloody Union Place) and the only hotel in Union Place is a dump, whereas the La Rambla restaurant on Tickell Road is very good. If you’re looking for shit places in Colombo: Grandpass, Panchikawatte Road, 1st Cross Street Pettah, Slave Island etc.
Norris Canal Road should be included, just because it has a canal called Norris in the middle of it. That’s unusual, and memorable. Independence Avenue, and Bauddhaloka Mawatha also. Thunmulla is important as well. Town Hall. Kanatta. Base Line Road… the list goes on in terms of important Colombo locations.
If you just want a posh one, you should consider including Longden Place, Independence Avenue, Rosmead Place, Fifth Lane, Charles’ Circus, Maitland Cresent, Green Path, Gregory’s Road, Rajakeeya Mawatha, Flower Road etc.
yes-yes-i-agree-with-ravana
correc-correc-correc
that-is-what-that- is- what
This is pure brilliance but another communist chest idea is in order – Minister’s Son smashes up your club – Pay Damges Rs. 400.
When will this game go on order? I WANT I WANT I WANT….
Can i order bulk and sell at double the price? if you say no i’ll KILL YOU! or may be not..
Also you guys should print escalating price stickers for land so that every two rounds the price of land and rent go up, i think that will bring the game closer to reality and widen the gap between the haves and have not’s. Maybe we should product test this in parliment, who know’s in the future our economy, lives and very existence in sri lanka might be based on this game. I smell a daibolical plot brewing, guys!!!!!????????? When the revolution happens can I have Hikkaduwa?
I was actually thinking it wouldn’t be that expensive to print, have to visit a printer today so I’ll ax him. Could print on card stock and glue it to cardboard, though maybe you’d want to laminate it. ComChest and Chance are just business cards, which are velly cheap. Dunno.
Also, Monopoly evolved from the public domain and it’s already been testing in a court case (Wikipedia), so you can actually localize and sell it legitimately. Not that anyone in SL cares
Try Lak Foil speak to a chap called Delan Silva on 2763730 or 4203730 they boast of having some sort of cheap six colour printing apparatus.
Also,
1. “Fall asleep at wheel, kill pedestrian. Go to jail or pay Rs.300 bribe.”
2. “Lime juice from Raheema Hotel gives you the shits. Buy immodium over the counter Rs.100.”
3. “Cheapo Preethi condom breaks. Pay for abortion (Rs.300) or get married (Go directly to jail).”
Ravana’s posts sound uncannily autobiographical. Especially the detailed knowledge of prostitute whereabouts.
That’s only autobiographical as far as it relates to “Chapter 6. The Early Twenties. …And then there was the day when Sophist told me that he’d chased prostitute out of his garage / car park while simulataneously booting the said prostitute’s patron’s ass. Upon making contact with the boot, the owner of the ass had exclaimed, “Aiyo… shot ekana sir?!” while hastily removing himself from the location.”
Mr. Blacker- you will spend the same amount of money trying to print the monopoly money, so let me just save you the hassle and ask you for the real thing. don’t get smart on me and print a billion dollar note, thats just not acceptable.
Indi- Get the cost price sorted out. It obviously depends on the bulk of the order so a 1000 numbers is a good start. Flood the market with it and make it the next big craze. Judging by the response on the blog it already is. I’m almost 30 and I still want to play it. You might have to tone down the chance and CC cards though if kids get a hold of it or clearly mark it as an adults only game. Get sponsors for this to put the initial order out, tv, radio, print. Use TNL, ETV, Sunday Times as places that can be purchased instead of Majestic City, Electricity Board an such coz your sure as hell not going to get anything out of them. Sell the idea and get this done, I for one want to see this played in SL, I for one will promote it!
I say, wasn’t all this Tim’s idea? I seem to remember he fled the party shouting something along the lines of “It’s my idea!”
The more you talk the harder it is to rewrite history. I am going to call it Samarajivaopoly just to be clear. Indrajitsamarajivaopolyopolis
Ado Flag Gun – sell my show you bugger. Got knows the Marketing Department isn’t.
Hello my friend – Your show doesn’t need any marketing, its doing really well. I think people have a genuine interest in listening to you every morning.. Do you have a blog to follow through with your show, if not you should get one started right away. You can link it with the YES FM site as well to generate more hits…
Indi – it sounds like a greek name now..well the last name suggestion does..
The thing flag gun….is that I need to start making some effing money.
The localised version of monopoly that I saw in the 1970′s or early 80′s was called Millionaire.
I can’t remember anything about the board (I never played the game) but I remeber the four railway stations (liverpool, Kings Cross, Paddington etc) were replaced by estates – think it was tea, rubber, coconut and something else but not sure.
It costs £90 quid here for Hasbro to produce an authentic, localised Monopoly set with whatever you want on it. That includes the money too. and any figurines.
BARGAIN innit :)