Amusement devices: games – Board games – pieces – or boards therefor – Electrical
Patent
1990-10-31
1993-10-05
Layno, Benjamin H.
Amusement devices: games
Board games, pieces, or boards therefor
Electrical
273271, 273241, 273138A, A63F 300, A63F 924
Patent
active
052498050
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to board game apparatus.
Board ames commonly comprise a playing surface, divided in accordance with the nature of the game, which surface is marked or has counters or the like moved over it by the players. It is also known to provide a multi-tiered game board for three-dimensional games which have a plurality of playing surfaces disposed one above another in a vertical array. One such multi-tiered game board is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,474 which is for playing the well-known game of noughts and crosses or tic-tac-toe. The game board of the latter patent has at least three playing surfaces in a vertical stack, with the middle playing surface having at least three rank and at least three file rows and each upper and lower playing surface of the stack having one less rank and one less file row than the middle playing surface. It is also known to have a plurality of equally sized, square playing surfaces of equal rank and file numbers disposed in a vertical stack one above the other, the playing surfaces being supported in parallel, spaced apart positions by four pillars at the four corners of the stack, respectively.
Such board games, whether having a single or multiple playing surfaces, become predictable after regular use, since the playing strategies employed by the players are often repeated. The lifetime in which the game provides stimulating playing enjoyment is therefore strictly limited.
It would thus be advantageous if a board game apparatus could be provided which reduces considerably the likelihood of game playing becoming repetitious and boring.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a board game apparatus comprising at least one playing surface divided into a plurality of sections, each section having a unique locational identity, means for temporarily marking any of said sections, and a means for generating a reference identification corresponding to any of said sections which identifies that section in a manner which is functionally distinct from the location of that section itself.
Preferably the reference identification generating means comprises an electronically controlled generator which is housed on or within a base unit of the apparatus which supports said playing surface.
In a preferred embodiment the reference identification generating means is an electronic number generator.
Advantageously, the apparatus comprises a plurality of playing surfaces provided as tiered levels, the sections on each of which may be accessed easily by the players. In another embodiment, the playing surface may be planar but is marked so as to simulate a plurality of different playing levels. In either case, the electronic number generator may then generate two numbers, one number corresponding to the tier to be acted upon a player (or gives the player free choice of tier), and a second number corresponding to the section of that tier (or gives the player free choice of section).
The number of numbers can be generated on a purely random basis or may be biassable or weightable in favour of certain preselectable sections.
Preferably, the plurality of sections on the or each playing surface form a grid. The number of sections forming the length and the number of sections forming the width can be equal or different. In some embodiments, the number of tiers provided is equal to the number of sections forming the length or width of the grid.
In one embodiment of the present invention, each grid comprises a common "noughts and crosses" type pattern and has three tiered playing surfaces which provide a playing "volume" of twenty-seven sections, each tier measuring three sections in width, three sections in length.
In another embodiment, there may be included one or more additional playing surfaces disposed on the same level, so that several playing surfaces may be associated with a given level.
Preferably, the means for temporarily marking the playing surface sections comprises a plurality of tokens varying in shape, size, and/or colour, the tokens being
REFERENCES:
patent: 3819186 (1974-06-01), Hinterstocker
patent: 4181308 (1980-01-01), Fox et al.
Neil Ambroz U.
Neil Dwain A.
Casella Anthony J.
Hespos Gerald E.
Layno Benjamin H.
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