(1) Field of the Invention
This invention involves a game of skill and requires a demonstration of vocabulary knowledge, logical reasoning and sequencing abilities—all of which are enhanced during play of this invention. More specifically, the present invention concerns, but is not restricted to, the area of child educational development. Further, it is at once adaptable to any of the related Indo-European languages, and can be further adapted to the Asian languages.
The key element of this invention comprises a closable-type box apparatus where grid regions are imprinted on the top box lid, and being connected to a bottom container of the same dimensions, opens to a ninety-degree angle wherein two more grids of the same height, length, and number of units are revealed as being imprinted on the interior surface of the top lid and the interior surface of the bottom portion of the apparatus.
The apparatus/invention operates as a concealing mechanism for words formed by opposing players in competition. Each player, or team of players, uses the bottom game grid to create words inside the apparatus via magnetized lettered tile pieces which are affixed onto individual spaces of the bottom interior grid. The upper grid on the inside of each apparatus is used to chart and track the progression of a player's attempts to locate and identify his/her opponent's words. In essence, the interior upper grid, inside the apparatus, represents the opponent's game region—the focus of attack. In a competition involving more than two players or teams, the hit or miss attempts against one's own region are identified on his/her own outer grid; he/she places the magnetized letters and other identifying game pieces onto the outer top grid as letters and their composite words are identified and eliminated out of competition. Obviously, the outer lid grids are visible to all opponents and therefore maintain the orderliness of who has eliminated what during play. Thus, this allows multiple players or teams to visually asses the game status of fellow competitors and judge future attempts to capture others' letters.
The game, as defined by the invented apparatus, while retaining aspects of similar commercial products, is characterized by its emphasis on elimination of pre-arranged words and configurations thereabouts. This enhances the game's ability to achieve and maintain involvement in several ways: (1) through requiring strategic placement of letters onto grid coordinates in ways which will prevent or delay opponents discovering such; (2) enabling players opportunities, by means of arbitrary and calculated guesses in various play options, to determine the precise locations and identities of opponents' letters before participants capture his/her own placed word grouping patterns, or in the case of more than two players or teams, being the last player or team with letters remaining on his/her or their bottom interior game grid—that region which is the focus of attack for the other opponent(s).
It is the element of attempting elimination of opponent's “fleet” of words which lends the game to aspects of simulated warfare. The game can therefore be categorized in a salvo classification.
(2) Description of Related Art
Games, where two participants play in opposition, have been provided which typically comprise a boxed apparatus. When this apparatus is opened, a pair of areas sectioned equally into coordinate grids of similar size and numbered units is revealed. Each coordinate within the pair of grids typically has an aperture into which valued game pieces are inserted and removed. A particular player's grids are hidden from the view of the competing opponent during play. One grid in the apparatus is for placement and prepositioning of valued game pieces—the targets that the opponent is to eliminate. The second grid in the apparatus is utilized relative to the opponent's action area—the grid onto which he/she has placed his/her own valued game pieces. The second grid is therefore used to record the attempts made in targeting and eliminating the opponent's valued game pieces. Thus, such a game is essentially a military or naval style product whose objective is to be the first in locating and eliminating the opponent's units.
An example is typified by Thomander in U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,110 which sets forth a boxed game board divided into a pair of identical sections adapted to be arranged adjacent to each other and separated by an upright barrier formed from the box lid so as to obscure the selected placement of ferruled game pieces on one of the boards from the view of opposing player. “Hit” or “miss” attempts relative to the opponent's grid placements are recorded on one of a player's grids. Once there is a hit, that is recorded not just by that player on one of his/her grids, but by the second opponent by inserting markings onto his/her own valued pieces.
Another example is set forth by Woolhouse in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,428 where the two playing fields, each composed of a pair of sectioned grid areas, are mounted to each other in a way that provides for ease of assembly and disassembly into a carrying case for transport.
Of course, the origin of such games is “Battleship”—a pencil and paper game invented by Von Wickler and then formally published as a pad and pencil game by Milton Bradley in 1943. These games have been restricted to competition between 2 players (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_ (game)).
Further, there are various word-forming type games where objectives vary, but whose underlying theme is creating, strategizing toward, solving for and discovering words and their composite letters. An example is typified by Kindred in U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,273 which sets forth a game that comprises a board having twenty six rows of playing areas arranged in five columns, into which playing pieces may be placed. An opponent attempts to break a hidden code formed by the pieces. The rows are numbered A-Z and the attempts are scores according to the nearness to an accurate guess by the player. The code has five such letters forming a word, one letter per column.
Another example is typified by Jones-Fenleigh in U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,036 which sets forth a game comprising a board, a holder, a set of playing pieces, a set of marking elements, a set of scoring elements, and a word list. The board has a number of rows of playing areas which serve as test areas for a player's attempts in duplicating a hidden code word chosen by the player's opponent.
While military/naval style games have been provided where participants strategically place valued pieces in coordinate grids and attempt to locate and eliminate one another's pieces within a defined area, and while there are various word-forming type games whose underlying theme is creating, strategizing toward, solving for and discovering words and their component letters, it is important to note that games have been provided regarding the injection of letters, instead of military or naval units, into a grid coordinate system so as to represent a “fleet” of words for elimination by an opponent Several games have been published on-line which provide set-up instructions and rules for such competitions.
For example, http://www.superteacherideas.com/spelling2-battleship.html has the game activity “Sink and Spell” where students make a sheet with two grids. Letters are written on the top and numbers to the side for coordinate identification. The players then write words into the grids. Coordinates are called out. A miss indicates no letter in a particular space, but a hit results in the opponent revealing the letter. This game is played by a pair of opponents.
Another example posted on this website, “Battleship Spelling”, is a more detailed version of “Sink and Spell” with guidelines regarding number of words to use and dimensions of paper sheets on which to create the grids. The listing actually states that this is “just like the Battleship board game”.
Http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LASpellBattleship3JH.htm, posts “Spelling Battleship” with the rule that once there is a “hit” on any particular coordinate, the opponent is immediately told the word and he/she then has to spell it correctly. If that player correctly spells the word, he/she gets a point and the word is revealed in its entirety; otherwise the turn is lost. That player, however, may reattempt the spelling on the next turn by calling the space coordinate. The first player to locate and spell all the words on his/her opponent's grid wins.
An advantage of military/naval style games of the prior art is developing within players the skills important for tracking dispersal of attacks over a coordinate system and anticipating where the next “hits” could be. This advantage is constrained, however, in that they engage players on mere hit-or-miss cues, limiting assessments to success failure ratios between opponents' progress against one another's targets. Advantages of word games of the prior art encourage players to develop spelling abilities for accurate vocabulary usage, as well as to figure out how words are encoded into language, their meanings, and differences in relation to one another for the ultimate objective of communication.
These two key features: (1) initiating, tracking, and assessing the success or failure in targeting unknown pre-positioned objectives within a military/naval style grid coordinate-type system, and (2) creating and solving for words in a puzzle-type environment have been combined by inventors to create innovative games. Substituting words and their respective letters for military/naval units into the typical coordinate grid system of a sectioned, visually hidden region is a clear advantage of such inventions. The result is an expansion of the identifiable qualities of each occupied coordinate so that, once a unit is determined to be occupied, arbitrary guesses leading to more calculated judgments can be taken, thus bringing a mere salvo objective to one where vocabulary can increase the necessity for higher logic and sequencing skills.
Typically, where games require a level of skill from players, it must be arranged in a way that provides adequate challenge to players/teams. Even though the game board is uniform throughout, the region itself changes as players agree from competition to competition on labels for rank (row) and file (column) to map the coordinate region. These labels can be letters, numbers, colors, objects, or such. This therefore keeps the apparatus' themselves changing and new, to an extent.
But over time, even this dynamic can become familiar, to the point of simplicity since the rules governing the word attack apply uniformly throughout the game board playing field. What adds complexity is the level of knowledge players bring to the game. In theory, the level of difficulty would only be limited by the degree of scholarship; college graduates with complex word knowledge could increase the level of challenge. Since the rules remain somewhat straight forward, the game can be as easy or as difficult depending on the sophistication of the players, whose talents ultimately govern the complexity of the competition itself.
It is important to note that a key disadvantage of previously provided word-salvo games is their allowance for a maximum of two players in any competition. They are thus limited in the scope of complexity which could be achieved through three or more opponent play.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a game of skill which avoids the aforementioned problem of the prior art—that being the word-salvo type games' limitation of a total number of potential opponents to two players in any given competition.
The object of the present invention is further to provide a closable-type game board box which opens to ninety degree angle from its bottom interior, and when paired with or brought together with other apparatuses, may enable two or more players to arrange words on their bottom interior grids, with each letter occupying individual coordinates, and, through initially arbitrary but increasingly strategic and calculating guesses, to be the first to capture all of the opponent's letters, or in the case of having three or more players, to be the last remaining contestant with un-captured letters on his or her game grid.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide a game of word and logic skill that allows for more than two players to compete in any given competition.
The advantages of the game which are the object of the present invention are the following:
The present invention is further described hereinafter with reference to the parts, their assembly and relationships, shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:
a represents the actual positioning of closable-type game grid boxes for play between 2 opponents;
As can be seen from the above figures, the game comprises a box-type apparatus (
The upper interior grid (
The lower grid (
The individual coordinates of each grid region (playing field) are rectangular in shape, and of equal measure on each side. The sides of each coordinate, length 13 and height 11, vary in size of approximately between 0.1 and 40 inches (
The grids are rectangular in shape and can vary in the exact number of columns and rows or total number of units per region. For this application, the rank of each grid is numbered in eight rectangular units (
The rectangular dimensions of either the top lid or bottom open-sided container, both of which are hinged together to create the box itself, vary in measure of approximately between 0.1 and 40 inches in height (
So as properly to identify the rank and file coordinates, magnetized labels can be affixed above or below and to the sides of all actual grids. The length of the rank labels varies in measure of approximately between 0.1 and 40 inches (
Each player must use the same rank and file labels for each grid during competition. It is permissible, however, to mix and match identifiers on the grids. Numbers or letters can be used for the rank coordinates, while colors or objects may represent file coordinates, and vice versa. For this application, objects labels 4/5 are used in the illustration of game play for the top row (rank) and colors labels 6/7 are used for the side columns (file) (
Player A (
a shows how a two player competition would most likely position the game apparatuses for live play. For the purposes of this application, the closable-type game grid boxes will be angled side by side starting with
Player A goes first. In this example, Player A, who is to the left of Player B (
It is now Player B's turn.
Player B places a question mark chip (24) onto the Red Tree coordinate of his or her upper interior game grid (
Upon this selection, Player A concurs that there is in fact a letter on Red Tree. Player B now has a choice of two moves: (1) take a direct aim at a single letter in the alphabet by choosing and calling out a letter and hoping that letter is in fact the correct letter in the opponent's grid coordinate, or (2) select a range within the alphabet to narrow the search for the letter. If a range is selected, it must contain the letter on that coordinate in order to proceed to capture in that turn. The player would then choose another range within the first, or call a letter outright, hoping he/she is correct.
Player B chooses to randomly call a letter, selecting “M” as the choice. This is incorrect. Player B makes a written notation of this. The question mark chip, however, remains on Red Tree coordinate as he/she can come back to it in the next turn to pursue further, or elect to go onto another coordinate, if that is so desired.
It is now Player A's turn.
Player A places a question mark chip 24 on Red Pencil (
It is now Player B's turn.
Player B now has two opportunities: (1) select a new coordinate, or (2) elect to continue in pursuing the Red Tree coordinate whereupon he/she can either select a range within the alphabet to narrow the search, or arbitrarily target another individual letter. Player B decides to select a range this time.
Player B calls the range of “B” through “F”. This is correct as the opponent's letter on the Red Tree coordinate falls within that range. Player B makes a written notation, and can either continue to narrow the range by selecting new upper and lower limits within the range just chosen or call a single letter within the “B” through “F” range in hopes of capturing that piece. Player B in fact calls as his/her target the letter “C”. This is correct and Player A removes the “C” from his/her interior bottom grid and gives it to player B, who then attaches it to the Red Tree coordinate in place of the question mark chip on his/her upper interior grid (
Player A may replace the “C” chip with a black colored one on his/her bottom grid to signify its loss, but this is optional.
And so the game continues until one of the opponents captures all of the other competitor's letters, at which time that player with letters remaining on his/her grid wins.
Where the competition involves three or more players, the same rules apply regarding only two opponents, but with some variation in play. For our illustration, Player A is shown to have assembled the words 26 “Man”, 27 “In” and 28 “Nap” in
In a case where an opponent, say player A (
In this instance, Player A targets player B (located in upper left of
Player A has a choice. Following selection of Player B, he/she can either choose a range and continue narrowing that range, so long as each attempt contains the opponent's letter, or simply call out a letter. If Player A chooses an incorrect range or letter, he/she can pick up where he/she left off, depending on whether or not other players have already elected to pick up where that player left off and succeeded in capturing that lettered piece first.
Player A selects the range “k” through “v”. The player is successful in continuing to narrow the range until the letter “T” is correctly hit.
Because both opponents have occupied their Green Book coordinates with the letter “T”, once the hit on player B is correctly made, all other players must relinquish their “T” chips. In this case, Players B and C remove the “T” chips 32 from their interior bottom grids and stick them onto their outer grids of the same coordinate (
Player A places a black chip (
Player A continues in his/her turn. Player A now places a question mark chip 24 onto the Red House coordinate of his/her interior upper grid and announces this selection to the other players (
Player A elects to pursue Player B.
Player A continues to select ranges to narrow the letter hit, then calls a letter outright. Player A successfully calls Player B's “D” chip 30 on the Red House coordinate (
Player A is unsuccessful in selecting the correct range or letter therein for Player C's coordinate.
It is now Player B's turn.
Player B, who is now in the lower center foreground of
Ultimately, either through selection of ranges and narrowing down to the correct letter, or by simply calling out the letter, Player B is successful in eliminating that opponent's letter off his/her grid. The “?” 24 of Player C's external grid is now replaced with that player's “P” chip 37 and player B places a black chip 38 on the Red House coordinate (
Player B continues in completion.
Player B places a question mark chip 24 onto the Brown Book space (
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3514110 | Thomander | May 1970 | A |
4059273 | Kindred | Nov 1977 | A |
4188036 | Jones-Fenleigh | Feb 1980 | A |
5154428 | Woolhouse | Oct 1992 | A |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20080265508 A1 | Oct 2008 | US |