<P> According to an advertisement placed in The Christian Science Monitor, Charles Todd of Philadelphia recalled the day in 1932 when his childhood friend, Esther Jones, and her husband Charles Darrow came to their house for dinner . After the meal, the Todds introduced Darrow to The Landlord's Game, which they then played several times together . At that point the game was entirely new to Darrow, and he asked the Todds for a written set of the rules . After that night, Darrow went on to utilize this by distributing the game himself as Monopoly--an act for which the Todds refused to speak to Darrow ever again . </P> <P> After Darrow had excellent sales during the Christmas season of 1934, the Parker Brothers bought the game's copyrights from Darrow . After finding Darrow was not the sole inventor of the game, Parker bought the rights to Magie's patent . </P> <P> By 1933, a variation on The Landlord's Game called Monopoly was the basis of the board game sold by Parker Brothers, beginning on February 6, 1935 . Several people, mostly in the midwestern United States and near the East Coast, contributed to the game's design and evolution, and this is when the game's design took on the 4 × 10 space - to - a-side layout and familiar cards were produced . The original version of the game in this format was based on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey . By the 1970s, the false notion that the game had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become popular folklore: it was printed in the game's instructions . </P> <P> In 1936, Parker Brothers began licensing the game for sale outside the United States . In 1941, the British Secret Intelligence Service had John Waddington Ltd., the licensed manufacturer of the game in the United Kingdom, create a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis . Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money, and other objects useful for escaping . They were distributed to prisoners by British secret service - created fake charity groups . </P>

Which us city is the game of monopoly based on