Amusement devices: games – Board games – pieces – or boards therefor – Word – sentence – or equation forming
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-09
2001-11-27
Martin-Wallace, Valencia (Department: 3713)
Amusement devices: games
Board games, pieces, or boards therefor
Word, sentence, or equation forming
C273S275000, C273S430000, C434S322000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322074
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to the field of interactive entertainment systems and methods for using such systems by at least one player.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A large variety of games exists for entertainment and educational purposes. Some games involve the movement of a participant about a game area, for example hopscotch and the game sold under the trademark TWISTER. Other games require the spelling of words. For example, well-known games such as crossword puzzles require the participant to spell out the answer to a question or clue in a letter-by-letter fashion. The well-known game called “hangman” and the game produced under the trademark WHEEL OF FORTUNE require the participant to guess letters to fill in blanks, and to eventually make an answer attempt at a partially completed word or phrase. The well-known game sold under the trademark SCRABBLE takes a slightly different approach, providing the participant with a set of characters from which the participant forms words without consideration to any clue or question. In SCRABBLE, at least one letter of the participant's answer must make contact with at least one letter of a word already existing on the game board. The participant attempts to achieve a high score by incorporating letters that have relatively high point values, where the point values are assigned based on their frequency of use in the language of the game (e.g. English, Spanish, French). Another commonly known game is sold under the trademark BOGGLE. In BOGGLE, a number of cubes or die bearing letters are shaken in a container and randomly fall into a grid. The participant must then identify as many words as possible, where the words are formed by contiguous pairs of letters. Further, a large number of computer-based programs exists for teaching spelling, general knowledge, and trivia. While many of these games can be informative and entertaining, they lack the excitement associated with physical movement of the participant through a maze or game board.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Under one aspect of the invention, a game device includes a plurality of user-selectable cells extending between start and finish areas, where each of the cells is associated with a character for forming an answer to a question or clue that may be provided in the form of a category. One or more participants move from the start to the finish area by selecting cells where the characters associated with the cells form a valid answer when taken in order. A number of valid answers or paths between the start and finish areas can exist. The participant is scored at least in part based on the characters forming the valid answer.
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Boggle by Parker Brothers http://ww.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IWCZ/qid=98 . . . /107-5785330-610454, pp. 1-5 http://ww.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/toys/B0000 . . . /107-5785330-610454, PP. 1-3 [accessed Mar. 27, 2001].
Dance Maker by Moose Mountain Toymakers, Ltd. http://ww.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004YSZ3/0/qid=9 . . . /107-5785330-610454, pp. 1-3 http://mages.amazon.com/images/P/B00004YSZ3.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg, pp. 1 [accessed Mar. 27, 2001].
Game Show: Wheel of Fortune by Hasbro http://ww.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JPU4/qid=985 . . . /107-5785330-610454, pp. 1-4 [accessed Mar. 27, 2001].
Standard Scrabble by Milton Bradley http://ww.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IWDB/o/qid=9 . . . /107-5785330-610454, pp. 1-4 [accessed Mar. 27, 2001].
Twister by Milton Bradley http://ww.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000DMBK/qid=98 . . . /107-5785330-610454, pp. 1-4 http://mages.amazon.com/images/P/B00000DMBK.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg, pp. 1 [accessed Mar. 27, 2001].
U.S. application No. 09/001,739, Forrest et al., filed Dec. 31, 1997.
Adams Michael R.
Belyea Shawn A.
Forrest Andrew R.
Pruzan Alan J.
Sarrett Peter G.
Christman Kathleen M.
Forrest-Pruzan Creative LLC
Martin-Wallace Valencia
Perkins Coie LLP
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