HFS+ (and iMac) Patch for Macintosh Monopoly

Last weekend I upgraded my wife's machine to use MacOS 8.1, and updated her boot disk to HFS Plus (aka MacOS Extended) format using Alsoft's PlusMaker software. Imagine my dismay when she tried to run her Monopoly game tonight and it could not find the CD-ROM, telling her to insert it even though it was already mounted.

A quick investigation with MacsBug soon followed, and this patch is the result. The problem turned out to be related to HFS+. The program scans the mounted disks to find its CD, but if it sees an non-HFS disk, it stops the scan. This patch simply removes the HFS check from the software. (My wife has version 1.0.4, and this patch will only work on that version.)

If you have an iMac or a newer Macintosh computer and can't get Monopoly to work, that's the problem as well. All new Macintosh hard drives come standard with HFS Plus formatting, so you'll need this patch.

I make no warranty on this and it could do bad things to your Monopoly program, even though I think it fixes the problem with no side effects. I've reported the issue to Westwood (who developed Hasbro's Macintosh Monopoly software) and Hasbro, though they don't seem interested in fixing it. Until they do, you can download my patch here.

1. Download the file (above). The file is encoded in BinHex format; if you're left with a file ending in ".hqx" or ".sit", and you don't have a file called "Monopoly CD-ROM 1.0.4 patch", you'll need to decode the file first. The easiest way is to open it with StuffIt Expander, which comes with most Macintosh systems. (Many web browsers will automatically decode it, so you don't need to worry about this step.)
2. Install the Monopoly game on your hard drive. (If you're at this page, you probably already did.)
3. Double-click the file "Monopoly CD-ROM 1.0.4 patch". It's an application, so it should run and display a dialog telling you about the patch.
4. Click the "Patch" button. You'll be asked to locate the original Monopoly program. This is the copy you installed on your hard drive, not the copy on the CD. Navigate to the folder where you installed the game, click on the file "Monopoly CD-ROM", and click on the "Patch" button.
5. Your copy of Monopoly will be updated. (The original file will still be saved, and once you verify that the patched version works, you can delete the original. After all, it's still on the CD.)

Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro, who publishes Macintosh Monopoly. The Macintosh version was developed by Westwood Studios. This page is not endorsed by either company.

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