Amusement devices: games – Card or tile games – cards or tiles therefor – With educational data
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-19
2001-01-30
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Card or tile games, cards or tiles therefor
With educational data
C273S308000, C273S292000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179294
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
The present invention relates the games and methods of play, and more particulary pertain to a new and improved card game wherein the game directs an association with a particular year and event within the twentieth century and provides educational entertainment by providing an understanding of various categories of knowledge of the century. The invention uses an array of distinctive icons in conjunction with playing cards to designate various categories or identification of categories which relate to events occurring during the twentieth century. The unique method of the play of the game involves scoring methods which utilize the icons on the playing cards, representing categories of historical knowledge and chronological events relating to the twentieth century. Other periods in history may be employed as well. Games found in the prior art utilizing historical facts are based on knowledge of trivial facts. Such games which presently exist rely on the memory of the player to answer questions based on trivia as to historical events, regardless of the category. In the present invention, relation of a theme or category of historical events is key to understanding the difference in the play of the game. A player in the present invention need not have a mastery of trivia in order to be successful in the play of the game. To the contrary, during the play of the game and in the matching of categories and icons relating to historical facts, the player can gain a knowledge of history and learn facts that he or she did not know until the play of the game.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The subject invention is comprised of generally rectangular playing cards which contain an array of historical facts associated with one of several category icons. Each playing card is unique with respect to a single year within the century in which a variety of events occurred. Icons may relate to subject matter such as art, a disaster, a space event, a sporting event, or even a geographical location. The card game described in the present invention is not scored in the conventional fashion. Rather than accumulate score points, the object of the game is to be the first player to eliminate any cards being held.
Although the game teaches historical facts, it is not necessary that a particular player know anything about the chronology of the historical events that are being presented on the face of each playing card. Rather, education from the game accrues from the attention given by each player to those facts presented on the face of the card when matching the icon from one card to that which may be present in two or more cards also held, during the play of the game, by an individual player. Conventional trivia games normally require the player to guess a year that a particular historical fact occurred. The present invention may be utilized in that fashion, if desired, by using the apparatus as a list of historical events that occurred on the year of that particular card. This is illustrative of yet one more flexible means of using the apparatus to devise new and interesting game strategies for the same set of cards. The icon on the playing card appears adjacent to a particular historical event under the category of the icon and always presents itself within the same row in the array of each card. By assigning a permanent row to a particular style of icon, the play of the game becomes less burdensome to a player who necessarily must match one icon from a card to an identical icon on another card he or she may draw. By way of example, an icon of a soda can would be adjacent to historical information regarding the first time a particular, popular, and well-known beverage was introduced. Another example of a frequently appearing icon is the war icon, which appears in the preferred embodiment more frequently than the soda can icon. In the play of the game, a particular player would only need to look within the first row of the array of cards placed before each player to determine whether he or she has an icon match that would be an acceptable scoring situation. Scoring is also accomplished by relating the year designation on each playing card with other cards held by a player such that sequential years can be used in the scoring protocol as described below. It should be pointed out, however, that it is possible to have a particular category icon on more than one row on a single card, if such an icon is appearing more than once on that card. Although a particular category icon has what may be referred to as a home row, in certain limited circumstances, two or three of the same category icons will appear on the same card with the second or third such icon appearing in rows other than the so-called home row.
The apparatus disclosed in the present invention may be used successfully in the play of the game in accordance with a variety of different instruction sets. The basic game contemplated allows players from two to eight individuals to play. The object of the basic game, known as the “Century Classic”, is for an individual player to be the first to rid themselves of all the cards in the player's hand, by using a matching system. There are a variety of methods of keeping score, using penalty cards, wild cards and matching systems, all of which are described below in the detailed description of the drawing.
Having described the basics of the invention above, it should also be pointed out that the category of facts presented on the face of the playing cards can be associated with any culture or country, although the preferred embodiment described below presents world events as viewed through the American culture, it can be appreciated that other variations of the game can be based on a particular geographical area, another country's culture, sports events, movie events, or other specialized categories that might be of interest to the players of the game.
The invention described does not depend on any singular feature described above per say, but is an invention based on the particular combination of all of them disclosed and claimed and as distinguished in the combinations described hereafter. Though it has been described above, the more important features of the invention are such that the detailed description set forth below may be more easily understood, this summary of the invention is not meant to be all inclusive of the details of the game. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. Those skilled in the art of game design will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, might readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other games, method structures, and systems for carrying out the purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions in so far as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention described.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved card game which is based on a successful matching of icons which relate to various categories of historical facts taking place within the present century. It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved card game which is susceptible to both low cost of manufacturing with regard to materials required while providing a unique and educational experience to the card player in matching historical events to utilize in the scoring of the play of the game. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a new and useful card game which provides in the apparatus and methods in the play of the game advantages with respect to flexibility of play utilizing the same apparatus described. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved trivia game wherein the same employs various categories of icons matched to historical events to direct the play of the game along a chronologically ordered series o
Famiglio Robert B.
Famiglio & Associates
Layno Benjamin H.
LandOfFree
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