***  MonopolyCal - a RISC OS Monopoly calculator  ***
***             (c) Paul Sprangers, 2012          ***
***               e-mail: paul@sprie.nl           ***


GENERAL
The most attractive part of the old game of Monopoly
is the exchange of banknotes - at least for children,
especially when they see their piles grow.
For parents however, those subsequent exchanges are the
most daunting quality, to be held responsible for at least
half of the game play duration.

This is where !MonopolyCal comes to rescue.
Never be short of certain banknotes again.
No more tedious calculations or bitter battles about whose
money that pile is.
No longer confusion about the 1000 and 10000 notes,
which (for some unobvious reason) are both yellow -
at least in our Dutch edition.
Just a few mouse clicks, and all the finances are
settled - crispy, clear and concise.


OPERATION
The program is, hopefully, largely self-explanatory.
Up to 6 Players can be entered in the main window.
Start a new game by clicking on New game.
Financial traffic is following the simple algorithm
of 

      A pays to B: C

where both A and B can be any of the players, as well
as the Bank or the Free Parking, and where C is the
amount to be payed.

For example, if Joan (player 1) wants to buy a street
of 20,000, she will have to pay that amount to the
bank. First, click on Joan, then click on Bank, and
finally enter the amount and click on OK. A text at
the top of the window will tell you what exactly is
going on.

If you accidently hit the wrong player, you can undo
that by clicking Undo. A wrong amount can be undone
by clicking the C, just as on a normal calculator.

Rather than using the pointer for entering all transfers,
you can also use the keyboard, or the numeric keypad.
The function keys F1-F6 represent the 6 different players,
while F7 represents Free Parking and F8 the Bank.
The Delete key duplicates the Undo button on screen.
The <- key duplicates the C button and will delete the
last entered number. The pointer needs to be over the
main window, though, for enabling keyboard input.

If you want to save a certain setup, for example the
names of all the players, or if you want to save the
game at a certain position, click on Save in the 
main window, or in the iconbar menu. The next time that
you run !MonopolyCal, all the figures will be there again.


CUSTOMISING !MONOPOLYCAL
There are 3 configurable options, that can be changed
in the Options window.
1. The start amount is defaulted to 150,000, but that
   can be changed here.
2. The number separator can be toggled between
   Anglo-Saxon (10,000) and Continental (10.000).
3. The language can be set. Currently there are only
   two languages: Dutch and Translated Dutch.
   If you want to add a new language (or improve the
   English version), open the directory Languages
   within the program directory, make a copy of one of
   the existing files under a new name (e.g. Deutsch,
   Espaol), or load English in an editor, and start 
   translating, or improving, the contents.


CONDITIONS
!MonopolyCal is freeware. There are no restrictions on
its use.


QUESTIONS, REMARKS, COMPLAINTS
paul@sprie.nl