Patent Application
20050056998
Board games such as Chess, for example, have been long known. Today, the board of such games may take a number of forms ranging from cloth to paste board to screens that implement a pattern of the board optically, fluidically, electronically or in some other way. As used herein, the board of a board game comprehends all these.
Board games are traditionally played by people. However, particularly when the board is implemented electronically, at least one game player may be electronic as when a person plays Chess against Deep Blue or some other digital computer device. Therefore, players as used herein comprehends both people and devices.
Julia Child was memorialized at her death as having led popular expansion of interest, appreciation and knowledge of food and, in particular, national, regional, ethnic, ingredient (e.g., mushroom) cuisine types. Such popular expansion is, in any event, generally acknowledged.
The board games and food interest have combined. For example, Brown U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,739 of Dec. 31, 2002, discloses a Restaurant Theme Board Game in which players traverse successive table patterns on the board five times within a predetermined period of time in relation to questions such a “Things you stuff” (e.g., turkey) for a dollar-denominated prize for doing so first. For another example, Jackson U.S. Pat. No. 6,755,418 of Jun. 29, 2004, discloses a What's For Dinner Board Game in which foods of categories like “veggies” (e.g., mashed potatoes) and “desserts” (e.g, Jello) and cooking times are spaced about a board square for a player to be the first to accumulate cooking times for foods selected by rolling a number cube.
While these and other efforts may have combined board games with food interest, they have not added appreciation or, beyond basics, knowledge as in the popular expansion.
Toward this, the invention provides a cuisine-IQ board game for playing by at least a first player and at least one of second and next players. The cuisine-IQ board game has a board having spaces designated with respective cuisine types and playing tokens respectively for the players. A selection device is operated by the first player to select one of the cuisine types independently of the operation. A question device is operated by the second (therefore questioner) player to select a first question related to the one of the cuisine types independently of the operation. If the first player answers the first question correctly, the first player receives at least one point, but no point for not answering correctly. Award tokens are awarded to the first player upon accumulating a set number of points, a first of the players accumulating a set number of award tokens winning the board game. Thus, after the first player answers the first question correctly or not, the next player may operate the selection means and continue as the first player did, each player having a turn to answer a question to accumulate points and award tokens.
In preferred play with several players, the second (questioner) player is the player to the first player's right and the next player is the player to the first player's left, the first player taking the place of the second player when play has advanced to the next player. In this way, play continues clockwise from player to player about the preferably generally circular arrangement of the spaces on the board designating the cuisine types to which the questions are directed. Of course, when there are only two players, then the second and next player are the same, the second and next player being both to the right (counterclockwise) and left (clockwise) of the first player.
Preferred embodiments that illustrate but do not limit the invention will now be described with reference to an accompanying drawing, wherein:
A playing side of a preferred board 10 (as comprehended above) is shown in
The board is divided into segments 111, 113 by a line 115. When the line 115 is a fold line, the playing side of the board may be protected by folding the board and storage space for the board as in box 18 (
The cuisine-type designations of the spaces of the board may be printed or otherwise fixed to the board. Such fixing cooperates with enhancing, varying or updating the board game with replacement board sections as described above. However, in the preferred embodiment of
Playing tokens are shown at 12 in
A selection device 14 shown in
Thus, when a first player has a playing token 12 at the start space 101 and throws the selection device die 14 to have the up-facing number 4 shown in
When the first player has selected a cuisine type, another, second (questioner) player operates a question device 13 (
In the preferred embodiment of
The card selection provides a first question at 137 from the front side of the card like the front side 135 of a card for United States cuisine type shown in
If the first player correctly answers the first question, the first player is awarded at least one point. The number of points is a fixed 1 in the preferred embodiment but may be related to the question, for example by difficulty, and indicated on the front or back side of the card in other embodiments (not shown). If the first question is correctly answered a second, bonus question at 137a is asked and, if correctly answered according to the answer at 139a, another point is awarded the first player or, in other embodiments (not shown) question-related points may be awarded. The number of points is, of course, arbitrary and may be 1.1, 10 or 100 or other increments in other embodiments (not shown). No points are awarded for an incorrect answer and, in other embodiments (not shown), points or player turns may be deducted for incorrect answers.
When the first player has correctly or incorrectly answered the question(s) as described above, a next player preferably rotating about the board from player to player clockwise, comes into the status of the first player, the second (questioner) player being preferably the player to the first player's right thus also advancing clockwise about the players. The terms first, second and next player thus successively describe each player of the board game, the second and next players being the same when there only two players, it being recalled as well that one of the first and second or next players may be electronically or otherwise implemented in known ways contemplated within the scope of the invention.
When the first player has accumulated a set number of points by turns of play as above, the first player is awarded an award token preferably in a food-related shape such as chef's toque 16 in
Various embodiments and manners of play have been described for the board game. These in any and all combinations and still other variations as will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art are contemplated as being within the scope of the following claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/503,184 filed Sep. 15, 2003, and incorporates the same by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60503184 | Sep 2003 | US |
