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The invention belongs to the general category of guessing games involving words, categories, and the spelling of words. In these games, players are supplied with information of one or more of these types—word, category, or letters—and are asked to guess information about on or more of the other types. No prior art game has taught a
Certain games in the prior art provide a player with certain letters and ask the player to guess a word or phrase. The popular children's game “hangman” and the television game show “Wheel of Fortune” begin with a concealed word or phrase. These games gradually reveal letters located at various positions within the word or phrase, while the player or players seek to guess the word or phrase using as few letters as possible. In the game Scrabble, and in many similar games, players are provided with assorted letters, with which the players seek to form words of their own choosing. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,994 to O'Connor (1997).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,862 to Wong (2003) discloses a game which provides players with the first letters of words belonging to an acronym. The object of the game is to guess the spelled-out form of the acronym. The game gradually provides players with additional letters located at various positions within the words of the acronym. As in “hangman” or Wheel of Fortune,” the player or players seek to guess the answer using as few letters as possible.
The prior art also discloses games which provide a player with certain members of a category, and ask the player to guess the name of the category. The popular game show “$100,000 Pyramid” included a game segment of this type.
The prior art has also disclosed inventions which supply a player with a certain letter and a certain category, and ask the player to guess one or more words which begin with the given letter and fall within the given category. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,671 to Wyatt (1993), 4,928,976 to Vano (1990), 4,911,452 to Marchese (1990), 4,877,254 to Yuscavage (1989), 4,592,553 to Mammen (1986), 4,222,561 to Whitten (1980), 4,198,047 to Scott (1980), 4,123,051 to Tsacoyannis (1978). In these games, there are no predetermined “correct” answers to the challenge; a player need only guess any word which falls within the given category and which begins with the given letter.
There are prior art games which supply a player with an assortment of letters and a certain category, and the player must use the given letters to form words belonging to the given category. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,934,711 to Runstein (1990), 4,306,724 to Brzezinski (1981), and 4,198,047 to Scott (1980).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,435 (1993) to Tanner discloses a game which provides letters in the form of scrambled words, as well as the beginning letter or letters of a “main word” which may be a category to which the scrambled words belong. The player must guess the unscrambled words as well as the main word.
In short, the prior art involves games which either (a) provide given letters and require the guessing of complete words or phrases, (b) provide given words or phrases and require the guessing of the category to which the words or phrases belong, or (c) provide a given category along with the first letters of words—or provide a given category along with a set of scrambled letters—and require the guessing of members of the category.
The claimed invention is a method of playing a game by gradually revealing the letters of a series of words or phrases which belong to a single category and are arranged in a vertical list. At the beginning of play, the first letter of each of the words or phrases is exposed to the player, the rest of the letters of the words or phrases being concealed by a concealing device. Over the course of a turn, the concealing device is gradually slid to the right such that a second, third, fourth, etc., column of letters is exposed to the player. The object of the game is to guess the category to which the words or phrases belong. The player seeks to guess the answer category using the fewest number of exposed columns of letters as possible. Points are awarded based on the number of letters displayed at the time the player guesses the category.
The claimed invention differs fundamentally from other inventions which combine categories, the members of categories, and the spelling of words. The invention introduces a unique, original element of an interplay between categories of words and spellings of words. In the claimed invention, players are gradually given the first few letters of words or phrases belonging to a particular category and are asked to guess the category. In no prior game has the spelling of words been brought into this type of conjunction with word categories.
Unlike “hangman”-type games, the claimed invention supplies the beginning letters of a set of words or phrases, rather than letters located at random points within a single word or phrase. Unlike the Wong invention, the claimed invention involves members of categories rather than the words within an acronym. Also unlike the Wong invention, the claimed invention reveals multiple initial letters in sequence starting with the first letter of each word or phrase, rather than revealing the first letters followed by letters located variously within the words of the acronym.
The orthographic component renders the claimed invention original advance vis-à-vis “$100,000 Pyramid”-type games which require a player to guess a category based on a list of words or phrases. The claimed invention does not reveal all the letters of the words. In effect, the player of the claimed invention guesses at both the words and the category.
By contrast with category games in which players must guess words belonging to a given category and beginning with a given letter or letters, the claimed invention (a) involves an element of guessing the answer category based on given words, rather than guessing answer words based on a given category; (b) involves the gradual revelation of multiple initial letters rather than merely the first letter, and (c) involves the guessing of not any words belonging to the category but only the particular words printed on the game card.
With regard to games in which players must unscramble a collection of letters to form words belonging to a particular category, the claimed invention differs in that (a) the claimed invention involves an element of guessing the answer-category based on given words rather than guessing answer-words upon being supplied with a given category, (b) the deduction of words within the claimed invention is not an unscrambling but a gradual revelation of initial letters of words; and (c) the claimed invention involves an element of guessing multiple pre-selected words within the answer-category rather than the guessing of any word within the category.
The claimed invention differs from the Tanner invention in that the orthographic component is not an “unscrambling” and particularly in the claimed invention's method for gradually revealing columns of letters.
The game is played by two or more players or teams. In one embodiment, only one player or team (“the playing player”) seeks to guess the category during a particular turn. A turn begins with one game participant (“the judging player”) removing a game card (
Alternative embodiments include:
(a) An embodiment in which no players read the face of the card before placing it in the game device, and the players compete against each other to guess the category first. When a player concludes that he or she has determined the category, he or she declares his or her guess, and manually slides the sliding cover 4 to the right to assess the accuracy of his or her guess. A penalty is assessed if the player has guessed the wrong category.
(b) An embodiment in which the game card (
(c) An embodiment in which a player uses a piece of paper to write down words or phrases belonging to a category of his or her choosing, concealing those words by a folded portion of the paper or any other covering material, and quizzing another player as to the category name.
(d) An embodiment in which the category name is printed on the reverse of the card instead of on the same side of the card as the member words, so that the answer-category is revealed by flipping the card over rather than revealing the right side of the card.
(e) An embodiment involving the addition of a game board displaying a continuous path along which the players move playing pieces by a number of spaces based on each player's performance during his or her turn, with greater success in guessing categories being rewarded by greater movement on the continuous path. The game ends when one player's playing piece reaches the end of the continuous path.
(f) An embodiment involving the use of a computer program having a stored database of sets of words along with their associated category names. The program creates a letter display element 18 displaying an initial column of letters and then successive columns of letters over timed intervals. A cover element 19 may be used to aesthetically represent a cover concealing additional letters. A player input element 20 allows a player to enter input consisting of the player's guess as to the correct category. The program compares the player's guess against the correct answer in the database and advises the player as to whether he or she has guessed right or wrong.
(g) An embodiment in which the letters revealed to the player are not the first letters followed by second and third letters, and so forth, but random letters or columns of letters from the words or phrases.
(h) An embodiment in which the object of the game is to guess not only the name of the category but the names of the words or phrases themselves. The player or players may be apprised of the category name initially, or the category name may be revealed letter by letter along with the revelation of the letters of the words or phrase, or the category name may be concealed altogether.
This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 61/115876, filed Nov. 18, 2008 by the present inventor.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61115876 | Nov 2008 | US |