Patent Application
20060220314
The present invention relates to a board game apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a board game apparatus comprising a plurality of variously-shaped three-dimensional toy blocks, some of the toy blocks being interconnectable with one another to form a game board for a checker- or chess-type board game while other toy blocks being used as playing pieces (or game pieces). Furthermore, the toy blocks may assume such interesting shapes that appeal to children to function as toys. The present invention further relates to a method of playing board games using the above board game apparatus wherein building the game board is an integral part of playing the game.
Block toys are well known in the art. Such toys usually include a plurality of blocks with interconnecting means for selectively connecting the blocks together to form toy structures of various configurations. Board games, such as chess and checker, are also well known in the art. These well known block toys and board games are played separately, i.e., either as a block toy alone, or a board game alone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,045 granted to Mermelstein on 3 May 1977 discloses a chess or checker board having individual blocks for each square enclosed by a raisable but normally recessed lattice or egg-crate structure. These individual blocks are not conventional toy blocks and are not interconnectable with one another to form a three-dimensional toy structure. In fact, these individual blocks are all fastened to a base of the board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,027 granted to Escamilla-Kelly on 7 Sep. 1982 discloses a multi-level board game consisting of a chess or checker board divided into a plurality of levels. The board is separated into a central portion at one level and a plurality of surrounding portions of square configuration separately supported at least at one other level. The separate square portions supported at another level are separately supported on support members permitting rotation of each square portion about its center. This is merely a board game and not a block toy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,388 granted to Benn on 26 Aug. 1997 discloses a three-dimensional board game. This three-dimensional board game comprises a three-dimensional game board and a set of movable pieces for each player. The three-dimensional game board is marked into a matrix of spaces forming a plurality of concentric perimeters, the innermost perimeter surrounding a single central space. Each perimeter comprises a separate level, the outermost perimeter being the lowermost level, and the central space forming the uppermost level. This three-dimensional game board is a one-piece solid game board and is not formed by interconnecting toy blocks.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,191 granted to Frost on 9 Dec. 1997 discloses a variation of an ancient Hawaiian konane game with a pouch that opens into a playable flat surface. The game pieces are in the form of black beach pebbles and white coral pebbles. Again, this is purely a board game and does not consist of any toy blocks.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0108655 published on 10 Jun. 2004 in the name of Liu discloses a strategy game with geometrical structure. This game has a geometrical structure or game device which can be any structure of geometrical shapes with a plurality of nodes formed by edges. The game device can be designed as two-dimensional or three-dimensional, single-plane or multi-plane, latticed or non-latticed geometrical structure. The nodes of the game device are categorized by the degree of freedom defined by the number of edges connected to the node. The game is played with grooved spherical game pieces mountable on the nodes of the game device. The geometrical structure discloses in Liu's application is not in the form of a block-type structure. The geometrical structure is not formed by directly interconnecting toy blocks with one another. In fact, Liu's geometrical structure is formed of interfitting wires and tubes. “Cathedral” is a board game disclosed in the website http://www.cathedral-game.co.nz/frame.htm. This board game comprises a game board having a plurality of square playing areas and a plurality of game pieces. The game board denotes a “city”. The game pieces are in the form of “buildings” of various shapes. The object of the game is to place all “buildings” in the “city”, while trying to prevent the opponent from doing so. Again, this is purely a board game and is not a block toy. The building-shaped game pieces serve only as game pieces for the board game and are not designed as interconnectable toy building blocks to form the game board.
Hence, this is a novel idea to have a game apparatus that can provide the fun of both building a variable three-dimensional game board and playing check-or chess-like game thereon.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a game apparatus comprising a plurality of toy blocks. The toy blocks are of two types. The first type is “board block” which refers to those toy blocks fabricated or configured to provide an ability to reversibly interconnectable with one another and, when interconnected together, to form a two- or three-dimensional game board for playing the board game. The second type is “game block” which refers to those toy blocks which serve as game pieces marked for each player and adapted to be movable on the two- or three-dimensional game board structure. All toy blocks may assume one or more shapes that appeal to children or young people so that they double as toys.
The term “toy block” means any two-dimensional or three-dimensional object or structure of any materials such as, for example, plastic, wood, bamboo, metal, glass, etc. Preferably, a toy block may adopt a particular shape to appeal to a particular group of players, such as the shape of animals and buildings. A simple geometrical shape, such as cube, pyramid or sphere, may also provide satisfactory results. As an illustration, a piece of playing card or a piece of jigsaw puzzle, although seemingly a two-dimensional object, all comes within the scope of the term “toy block.”
The term “interconnectable” means the capability of reversibly attaching to each other among “board blocks” through an interlocking mechanism provided by complementary structural shapes, magnetic attraction or any other ways known to people skilled in the art.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a game apparatus comprising a plurality of toy blocks, which function either as “board block” or “game block” as described above. This apparatus employs, however, a particular type of toy block, referred to as “3-D shaped block” thereinafter. “3-D shaped block” means a toy block which is shaped in all 3-dimemsions to form a 3-D figure interesting to children or young people. Such toy blocks therefore double as toys. By way of example, not limitation, such interesting 3-D shape includes the shape of an animal, human, plant, building or any other natural or man-made structure. On the other hand, a jigsaw puzzle piece is not a 3-D shaped block because it is shaped only in two dimensions.
In a particular embodiment of the game apparatus of the present invention, there may be two sets of board blocks, a first set and a second set. Each board block of the first set is connectable to a plurality of board blocks of the second set. When those two sets of board blocks are connected, they form a structure generally in the form of a lattice structure suitable for being used as a game board. For example, the board block of the first set may be shaped in a way that they can define a point or a place while the board block of the second set may be shaped in a way that they can define a line or a border on a game board. When the points and lines are connected, they define the positions that the game piece movies to and from, and the areas that each player owns. Of course, one does not have to use exact two sets of board blocks to practice the present invention. Based on the above disclosure, one may use just one set, or three or more sets to obtain satisfactory results.
Furthermore, there may be two sets of game blocks used as game pieces, one for marking or occupying a point or a place on the game board, the other for marking or occurring an area enclosed by the lines or borders. The game block bears indicia indicating the player it belongs to. For example, each player's game blocks may be of a particular color or a particular shape. Of course, one does not have to use exact two sets of game blocks to practice the present invention. Based on the above disclosure, one may use just one set, or three or more sets to obtain satisfactory results.
According to another aspect of invention, there is provided a novel way of playing a board game in that the game board is variably built according to the wish of participating players and may be built just prior to the start of game. The game board is built from a plurality of board blocks, preferably, 3-D shaped blocks. In other words, building the game board is part of playing the game.
In a particular embodiment of the way of playing the game of the present invention, the players are provides with two sets of board blocks: a first set and a second set. When building the game board, the players use the board block of the first set to define a place of the game board and the board block of the second set to define a border of the game board. The players are also provided with two sets of game blocks: a first game piece set and a second game piece set. Each of the two board block sets are further divided into groups which are visually distinguishable by color, shape or other indicia that comes to the mind of a person with ordinary skill in the art. Each player is to choose one group of game blocks with particular indicia to identify him or herself. The players use the game piece of the first set to mark the ownership of a place defined by a board block of the first set on the game board, and use the game piece of the second set to mark the ownership of an area defined by three or more board blocks of the second set. The player who owns a game piece, owns the place or the area marked by the game piece. At the end of the game, the player who owns most areas on the game board wins the game. Two or more players may participate in the game. To start the game, the players must first build a game board with provided board blocks according to a pattern or a plan that is agreed upon by all participating players. After building the game board, each player then choose one his or her game blocks (i.e., game pieces) which can identify this particular player. Then, the players take turn to place a game piece on, or move a game piece to or from, a point or place defined by a board block of the first set (for example, a fortress-shaped block), indicating they own the “fortress”. When a player owns all the adjacent points or “fortresses,” the player can place another game piece in the area enclosed by the adjacent castles, indicating the player now owns the area. The object of game is to own as many possessions as possible to win the game. However, there are rules to challenge the players to fight for a place and an area. For example, when it is Player A's turn and he realizes that only one of the adjacent points encircling an area is owned by an opponent and the point beyond this opponent's point is not owned by any player, Player A can place a game piece of his own on this unowned point whereby he seizes the possession of the point ahead of this unowned point from his opponent. This rule is provided as an example, not a limitation. Other rules can be readily adopted by people skilled in the art.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a game apparatus kit suitable for transportation and transaction in commercial activities. The kit include a packaging box, a plurality of 3-D shaped blocks as defined above, a label or sign indicating that the box contains a game apparatus. The kit does not include any ready-made game board.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages, and specific objects attained by its use, reference should be made to the drawings and the following description in which there are illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the invention.
Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
In this particular embodiment, the game apparatus has two sets of board blocks, one with a castle shape and the other with wall like shape, two sets of game blocks, one shaped like a panda and the other shaped like a tower. Each castle block is connectable to six wall blocks. The six wall blocks are disposed equidistantly radially and circumferentially about the castle block. Each castle block is provided with slot means for snugly receiving the complimentary structural extension of the wall blocks. The methods of fabricating those blocks are well known in the art and it is unnecessary to describe them in this disclosure.
The method of playing the chess- or checker-type board game comprising the steps of (a) agreeing by the players to the specifics about building a game board to play the game on; (b) building a two- or three-dimensional game board structure by connecting the plurality of board blocks provided; and (c) agreeing by the players to the rule by which the game will be played; and (d) using a plurality of game blocks provided to play the game on the game board according to the agreed rule. The playing rule can be readily designed by the players or provided by people skilled in the art. The following rules of building the game board and playing the board game are provided as an example.
A. Rules of Building the Game Board:
(A-1) Each cylindrical block possesses six slots and each of them can connect to a quadrilateral board.
(A-2) Both ends of any board must be fitted in any slots of the cylindrical blocks.
(A-3) Both ends of every board must be slid into the slots of 2 cylindrical blocks during the construction.
(A-4) The slot(s) of a cylindrical block can be empty and there is no requirement to fill up all the slots of a cylindrical block.
(A-5) There is no limit of the size of the game board to be built. It depends on how many connectable blocks the players got. The bigger the game board, the more fun the game will be.
(A-6) During the game, the game board cannot be re-constructed by any players except all players agree on it.
(A-7) The game activities are suspended when the reconstruction of the game board is being done. The turn of play should be given to the player who got a turn just before the reconstruction.
(A-8) There is no limit to the size of the game board to be re-constructed as well.
After building the game board, the player can start to play the game on the constructed game board. Each player must need a set of distinguishable playing figures and a set of distinguishable blocks to play the game. During the game, the players take turn to place a figure at the top of a cylindrical block.
B. Playing the Board Game:
(B-1) Two or more players can play the game. It depends on how many distinguishable sets of playing figures (game blocks) the game provided. It must require at least two distinguishable sets.
(B-2) The players can take turn to place the playing figures on the top of any un-possessed cylindrical block to claim the possession of that cylindrical block. The un-possessed cylindrical block is defined as the cylindrical block with no playing figure on top of it.
(B-3) If there are three connecting cylindrical blocks at the playing positions P2, P4, P7 respectively as shown in
(B-4) If the opponent possessed a cylindrical block at P9 as shown in
(B-5) Beside the “seize” move described in (B-3), the player can also take a “jump” move to remove the opponent's player figure. As such, the player's figure at the P2 position will be moved to the position P7 and the opponent's figure at position P4 will be removed.
(B-6) If the area bounded by the connecting cylinders is possessed by a player, the player must put a distinguishable block in there to claim (mark) the player's possession of the bounded area. As shown in the
(B-7) If the possession of any one of the surrounding cylinders is seized, the player's block at the bounded area must be taken away.
(B-8) If a player tried to violate the playing rules described as the above in (A) or (B), that player's violated operation must be corrected and his/her next turn will be suspended.
(B-9) The winner is the one who possessed the most bounded areas.
Referring now to the drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts throughout the drawings,
The base 18 of the toy block 10 is generally frusto-conical in shape and has six elongated slots 22 provided thereon. The six elongated slots 22 are disposed equidistantly radially and circumferentially about the base 18. Slot 22 has an elongated enlarged groove or channel 32 and provides a mechanism for interconnecting with other toy blocks. It is understood that a board block of the first set, i.e., toy block 10, can be of any shape provided that it is suitable for defining a point or a place on a game board 50. The castle-like shape is exemplary only.
Thus, in this embodiment of the game apparatus of the present invention,.there are a first set of board blocks, the “castle” set and a second set of board blocks, the “wall” set. The players may build a variety of three-dimensional game-board structures by connecting board blocks of the first set (toy blocks 10) with board blocks of the second set (toy blocks 12).
It is understood that the toy blocks 10, 12 can be selectively interconnected with one another to form toy structures of various sizes and configurations. Although it has been shown in
Furthermore, although it has been shown in the present embodiment that each toy block 10 has six elongated slots 22 adapted for interconnection with up to six toy blocks 12, it is contemplated that the toy block 10 may have more or less than six elongated slots 22. For example, the block 10 may have only four elongated slots for interconnection with four toy blocks 12 which may then be arranged perpendicularly to one another forming a rectangular or square toy structure.
Structure 50 functions as a three-dimensional game board for a chess- or checker-type board game. The interconnected toy blocks 10, 12 define a game path for the board game. The toy blocks 10 define thereon a plurality of playing surfaces or positions 34. The encompassed triangular courtyard areas 42 define a plurality of additional playing surfaces or positions.
In this particular embodiment, there are also two sets of game blocks, a first set and a second set.
Game block 60 is adapted to be able to stay steadily in playing positions 34 and be movable from one playing position 34 to another playing position 34 on game board 50.
Toy blocks 10, 12 and Game blocks 60, 70 are in the form of toy figures. Therefore, it is contemplated that are used as toys individually or played together in combination by children or young people, when the game apparatus is not used for the purpose of game playing.
Although it has been described in the present embodiment that each player is given a first set of panda-shaped game pieces 60 movable on the three-dimensional game board structure 50, 80 and a second set of tower-shaped game pieces 70 movable between the three-dimensional game board structure 50, 80, it is appreciated that the first and second sets of game pieces 60, 70 may be identical in shape.
Toy blocks 10, 12 and game pieces 60, 70 may be made of any suitable material, such as plastic, metal, glass, wood, bamboo, etc, by any conventional methods such as injection molding. Preferably, they are made of plastic.
Also shown in
The game piece of the player at the playing position P2 may “jump” or “seize” the opponent's game piece at the playing position P4 if playing position P7 is empty and the playing positions P2, P4 and P7 are on a straight line. To make the “jump” move, the player moves his game piece from the playing position P2 to the playing position P7. The game piece of the opponent at the playing position P4 should then be removed from the game board 80. To make the “seize” move, the player places one more game piece at the playing position P7 and the opponent's game piece at the playing position P4 should be removed as well.
However, the player's game piece at the playing position P1 cannot make the “jump” move and capture the opponent's game piece at the playing position P3 because the playing position P6 is not empty. Moreover, the player's game piece at the playing position P2 cannot make the “jump” move and capture the opponent's game piece at the playing position P5 because there is no playing position on the same line behind the playing position P5.
It can be seen in
The method of playing the combined block toy and checker-type board game of the present invention is described in details hereinbelow.
Two or more players may participate in the combined block toy and checker-type board game of the present invention. The combined block toy and board game of the present invention is divided into two stages. The first stage involves the building of a toy structure 40, 50, 80 by connecting the toy blocks 10, 12 together. The second stage involves the playing of a checker-type board game using the toy structure 50, 80 built in the first stage as the game board.
In the first stage, the players may selectively build three-dimensional toy structures of different sizes and configurations using the three-dimensional toy blocks 10, 12. The toy
In the second stage, each of two players is given a first set of panda-shaped game pieces 60 and a second set of tower-shaped game pieces 70. It is understood that these game pieces 60, 70 are the same as the toy pieces 60, 70 in the first stage. As in any conventional board game, game pieces 60, 70 of different colors are assigned to different players.
According to the present embodiment, the board game is a strategy checker-type game. The players take turns to place the game pieces 60 on top of the castle tower 14. If the three castle towers 14 at the corners of a courtyard area 42 are all occupied by the same player, that player places one of his game pieces 70 in the courtyard area 42 to denote possession of that area by that player.
Although it has been disclosed hereinbefore that the game board 50, 80 are to played with game pieces 60, 70, it is contemplated that the game board 50, 80 may be played with a set of game pieces of a conventional chess, checker, go, or like game. To this end, the players build the game board 50, 80 from a game board construction kit only consisting of toy blocks 10 and 12 without the game pieces 60, 70. The players build the game board 50, 80 by interconnecting the toy blocks 10, 12 with one another as described hereinbefore. The players then play the board game using game pieces of a conventional chess, checker, go, or like game. It should be appreciated that two or more players may participate in the game.
The players may disassemble the game board into a plurality of individual toy blocks which then function as toys.
For the purpose of describing the present invention, the terms “game piece,” “playing piece,” and “game block” are interchangeable, and the term “board block” refers to a subset of “toy block” and the two terms may be used interchangeably.
While there have been described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes, in the form and details of the apparatus and methods illustrated, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention.
The invention is not limited by the embodiments described above which are presented as examples only but can be modified in various ways within the scope of protection defined by the appended patent claims.
