Patent Grant
6979000
The present invention generally relates to multiplayer games, and in particular relates to a multiplayer racing game.
Racing games enjoy enduring popularity. Some types of racing games, such as pure head-to-head competition games probably are best suited for implementation as computer games. Indeed, a plethora of such “pure” racing games exist for personal computers and the various gaming consoles. Gaming outcomes in these pure racing games largely depends on the relative game play skills of the players.
In other racing game variations, game rules mix head-to-head competition with at least elemental racing strategies to provide a richer game play experience. With this type of racing game, the game play outcome depends on both luck and strategy.
However, even with the existence of such games, there remains a need for a racing game that may be implemented as a computer game, or as a traditional board game, and that combines elements of luck and strategy in a manner that provides consistently captivating game play. Preferably, such a racing game would include elements that tie in with real-world racing events, such as with popular stock car racing series, to provide further elements of fan enjoyment.
The present invention comprises a racing game method and apparatus that permits players to engage in a racing game reminiscent of real-world racing, such as the type of team/series racing involved in NASCAR WINSTON CUP racing, or in FIA FORMULA 1 racing. In general, players take turns advancing their respective game play tokens around a race track, with the overriding goal of purchasing at least one complete team of vehicles. By owning at least one team, a player becomes eligible to chance race qualification and, in turn, becoming race-qualified permits a player to compete in game “races,” which awards game money and game points. Thus, winning races enriches team owners and results in the accumulation of championship points, much like real-world racing series.
In an exemplary game play method, players move around a simulated race track that comprises a plurality of discrete track positions, wherein each track position corresponds to either a game command or to a race vehicle. Landing on a game command position requires the player to perform that command, which may have a penalty effect or a bonus effect, depending on the particular command landed on. Landing on a race vehicle allows that player to purchase the vehicle for a defined price, if another player does not already own that vehicle. If another player owns the vehicle, the player that lands on that vehicle must pay a vehicle fee to its owner. Since qualifying for races permits vehicle owners to increase the vehicle fees, a player gains significant advantage by quickly purchasing a complete team of vehicles, qualifying for one or more races and thus raising the vehicle fees for the cars owned by that player.
Complicating this task, the track positions representing the race vehicles are distributed around the track and interspersed with game command positions such that the vehicles corresponding to one particular team appear at different track positions. Thus, an element of luck comes into play because the opportunity to purchase the vehicles for a given team depends on that player individually landing on and purchasing all of the vehicles for that team before any other player. Indeed, one component of game strategy involves making so-called “blocking” purchases of one or more vehicles to prevent another player from collecting a complete vehicle team.
In addition to a game rules set, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention comprises a game board and a set of game tokens, or graphic representations thereof. That is, the game may be implemented as collections of physical pieces, or may be implemented through graphical representations on a computer screen for electronic game play versions. The exemplary game board, or board depiction, includes a representation of a simulated race track comprising a circuit of discrete track positions, preferably where each track position corresponds to a game command or a race vehicle as noted earlier.
One or more exemplary game embodiments further include a collection of game money in various denominations, one or more racing lists, sets of driver identification cards corresponding to the race vehicles and preferably styled according to the race team affiliation of each race vehicle, “finance cards” that correspond to finance-related game commands, fee increase cards and holders that denoted increased vehicle fees for given track positions, various game props, and miscellaneous scoring sheets to aid tracking the game progress. Exemplary game props include a tire change prop that determines tire change time penalties, and a race qualification spinner that introduces the element of chance into race qualification attempts by the players.
As noted above, the game may be defined with a racing theme that corresponds to a real-world racing series. As such, the present invention contemplates different embodiments of the game for different racing series, such as a NASCAR-themed game edition, possibly with particular editions for the WINSTON CUP series, the NASCAR LIGHTS series, the NASCAR TRUCK series, etc., and such as the FIA FORMULA 1 game edition or the IRL RACING LEAGUE game edition.
Such theme-based games are, in an exemplary embodiment implemented with fixed theme information, e.g., fixed race lists, driver identification cards, race team definitions, race vehicle graphics, etc., such that consumers must purchase new editions corresponding to real-world changes in teams and drivers, for example. In other exemplary embodiments, the game is themed using updateable themed elements. For example, the track positions corresponding to the various race vehicles may include an updateable label (e.g., through the use of replaceable labels or by allowing the installation of new label overlays). Thus, the present invention contemplates selling update sets such that a themed race game may be kept current with the real-world racing series on which that particular game edition is themed.
In any case, those skilled in the art will recognize the many opportunities for variation of game play, and the many possible game play strategies provided by the present invention upon reading the following detailed description, and upon viewing the associated drawings. However, those skilled in the art should understand that the present invention is not limited by the following exemplary details.
Regardless of its implementation details, an exemplary racing game according to the present invention includes elements of luck, skill and player interaction to provide a captivating game play experience in which players first compete with each other to purchase one or more racing teams according to defined game play rules. With team ownership comes the opportunity to compete for additional game money and game points, which may be used to determine which player “wins” the game. By structuring the game play rules according to the details herein, players engage in a racing series competition that is reminiscent of real-world racing series, such as NASCAR or FORMULA 1. Indeed, some embodiments of the present invention include “themed” game editions patterned on such real-world racing series.
Regardless of whether the game is themed, generalized game play consists of players taking turns moving their game play tokens around a race track. Game play begins by allocating a certain amount of starting money to each player (game money). Players then take turns incrementally advancing their game play tokens around the track. At each turn, the player rolls dice, etc., to obtain a movement number that indicates the number of spaces that player should advance on the track for that turn.
Generally, each space or position on the track corresponds to a particular race vehicle, e.g., to a particular race car, or corresponds to a particular game command, e.g., a bonus command, or a penalty command. Thus, at each turn, the player's token movement generally results in that player either landing on a command position or on a car position. The car positions are distributed around the track so that different cars from different racing teams appear at various locations around the track, with the idea that the cars from a given team are not “clustered” but rather are spaced apart and interspersed with various game commands and with the cars from the other teams.
General game play roughly divides into three stages: a starting phase which focuses on team building, a race qualification phase, and a championship phase. Note that some players may advance to the next phase (or fall back to the prior phase) sooner or later than other players. Of course, exemplary variations of game play may eliminate or alter one or more of these game play phases.
At the start of the game, each player is allocated a certain amount of game money, which usually is allocated in equal shares. Players begin taking turns advancing their game tokens around the track. When a player lands on a track position corresponding to a car (more generally, a “race vehicle”), that player is allowed to purchase the car if it is not already owned by another player, and if that player has sufficient funds. If another player already owns the car, then a vehicle fee is due to that owner and must be paid by the player that landed on that space. Thus, landing on cars owned by other players' costs the player game money and can lead to bankruptcy, which is one mechanism for eliminating players.
As an overriding goal, players attempt to purchase all cars in one or more teams, because ownership of at least one complete team is required to chance race qualification. Qualifying for at least one race, i.e., becoming a race-qualified player makes that player eligible to participate in the championship racing aspects of game play, which yields bonus game points that may be used to determine an overall game winner. Further, each time a player qualifies for a race, that player increases the fee for at least one car owned by that player, according to a fee increase dictated by the particular race for which the player qualified.
With the above in mind, the exemplary game board 10 generally comprises an inner racing track 12 of discrete track spaces or positions 14, a surrounding label set 16 comprising individual game board labels 18, and an infield area 20, which allows placement of one or more optional game play props on game board 10, and which includes a pit lane 22 that includes discrete pit positions 24 and additional command labels 26. An exemplary infield 20 includes an area 30 for placement of a qualification spinner 32, which may be held in place by retainers 34 (e.g., VELCRO strips), an area 36 for placement of a tire rack prop 38, which may have its own retainer 40, and an area 42 for placement of game play cards 44, the use of which is explained later herein.
Further, it should be noted that the track position numbers (TP1–TP38 for the main track 12, and TP39–TP49 for the pit lane 22) and the label position numbers (LP1–LP38 for label positions corresponding to the main track 12, and selected ones of LP39–LP49 corresponding to pit lane 22) generally are not printed on the game board 10. Instead, these track and label positions are illustrated to emphasize the correspondence between particular track/pit lane positions and particular label positions to emphasize that, for example, “landing” on the track position identified as TP3 has the effect of landing on penalty label LP3. Also, note that in one or more game variations, players move around label area 16 rather than around track 12, unless a “race” is underway.
According to the general game play described above, each player takes a turn, at which the player rolls dice, etc., to obtain a movement number, which dictates the number of track positions 14 to advance for that turn. Since each track position 14 corresponds to a particular label 18, one may think of a track position 14 as being either a car position or a command position. Landing on a car position requires payment of the vehicle fee if the car is owned by another player, or allows the player to purchase the car if another player does not own the car. Landing on a command position requires the player to perform that command, which may be a penalty effect command (skip a turn, pay money, etc.) or may be a bonus effect command (take an extra turn, receive extra money, etc.).
In an exemplary embodiment, the rule set defines a plurality of race teams, with one or more cars in each team. Thus, the game may define Teams 1 . . . 6, each comprising Cars 1 . . . 3. The label set 16 would thus include individual labels 18 carrying depictions of particular cars in the defined teams. In general, no two labels 18 depict the same team car, such that no two track positions 14 correspond to the same car for the same team. However, the same game command may appear at various track positions 14.
In any case, as game play progresses, the individual players attempt to purchase as least one complete team of cars, which requires luck to the extent that one must by chance land on each car within a given team to have the opportunity to make such purchases. Thus, an unlucky player might run several laps around track 12 as the game progresses before successfully completing his or her first team purchase. On this point, an exciting element of inter-player competition comes into play, inasmuch as players may make strategic “blocking” purchases.
With blocking, a player lands on and buys a particular car not because that player needs to complete one of his or her own teams, but because another player needs it to complete that other player's team. The purchase thus denies that other player the opportunity to complete the intended team purchase. In some variations of game play, players can barter or bargain with each other for needed cars. Thus, a car bought by a player as a blocking purchase against another player may be traded for a blocking purchase made against him or her. In an exemplary car trading scheme, players may trade cars among themselves as needed, and may sell cars back to the game “bank” but such sales are at a 50% reduction in the car's value.
As was described above, advancing in the game and gaining advantage over the other players depends on qualifying for races, which requires team ownership. Once a player buys all vehicles in a given team, that player is eligible to chance race qualification. Chancing qualification for a race brings another game prop into play.
Race list 68 preferably includes a defined list of races, with each race having its own qualification fee. In exemplary game play, the player attempting to qualify would pay the required fee for a particular one of the races appearing on racing list 68, and would then actuate spinner 32. Spinner 32 comprises a central post 70 having a spinner pointer 72, which may be a race vehicle-based pointer, that is centrally positioned within a surrounding area 74 that is segmented into “Qualified” (Q) and “Did Not Qualify” (DNQ) sections. Thus, the player spins post 70, which causes it to rotate. If the pointer 72 comes to rest pointing to a Qualified segment, the player is deemed to have qualified for that race. If the spinner 72 comes to rest pointing at a DNQ section, the player is deemed to have failed qualification and the qualification fee is forfeited. Note that spinner 32 could use ball bearing or “flywheel” mechanisms to increase its spin time for a greater element of suspense.
Racing list 68 may include a number of races (e.g., races 1 . . . M) from which players can select a race for which qualification is to be attempted. In exemplary game embodiments, racing list 68 is patterned after a real-world racing series. Thus, racing list 68 may list all of the races comprising the WINSTON CUP series, or all of the races on the FORMULA 1 circuit. In any case, one benefit of qualifying for a race is that the player is eligible to increase the vehicle fees for one or more race vehicles owned by that player. In an exemplary embodiment, each time a player qualifies for a race, the player chooses one vehicle owned by that player to receive the fee increase. Generally, the player must identify which of his or her “owned” teams will attempt to qualify for the race prior to chancing qualification, and the fee increase must be applied to a vehicle in that designated team.
Races listed on race list 68 may have varying qualification fees and varying vehicle fee increases. Thus, while one race may cost more than another race, its vehicle fee increase also may be greater. Thus, there is an incentive to put more game money at risk to gain greater vehicle fees. Indeed, the track positions 14 corresponding to vehicles whose owners have qualified for many races become quite costly to land on, and may result in “bankrupting” one or more other players unlucky enough to land on those positions.
In an interesting variation on game play, an “investing” option is allowed, wherein a player whose token 50 is at risk for landing on a track position 14 that corresponds to a vehicle owned by another player may “invest” in that vehicle. For example, the player may, in advance of moving his or her token 50, pay half the total vehicle fee to the vehicle's owner (i.e., half of the combined value of the base fee plus any fee enhancements gained by race qualification). The player then rolls die 66, or otherwise generates a movement number, and moves his or her token 50 the required number of spaces. If he or she lands on the vehicle invested in, the player gains back some or all of the investment, but if the token 50 does not land on the vehicle invested in, the investment payment is forfeited to the car owner. The game rules may be structured to limit investment opportunities to no more than two vehicles at a time, and may limit the number of track positions in advance of a given vehicle in which an approaching player is permitted to elect such investments.
To indicate the increased vehicle fees gained through race qualification, a player is given a block 62, which is slotted to hold a number of qualification cards 60 that are used to show which races a particular vehicle has qualified for, and to show the corresponding fee increases. Thus, a player may place a block 62 beside or on a vehicle label 18 and then add qualification cards as needed.
Preferably, there is a set of qualification cards 60 for each race listed on race list 68. For example, if there are sixteen races and the game is meant to accommodate six players, preferably there are at least six qualification cards 60 for each of the sixteen races, i.e., set 60-1 for race 1, set 60-2 for race 2, and so on. In an exemplary embodiment, the front of each qualification card includes a race logo or other identifier, and the reverse of each qualification card lists the vehicle fee increase gained by qualifying for that race.
A more important benefit of becoming race qualified is that only race-qualified players are eligible to participate in special race events, which are triggered when a race-qualified player lands on a track position 14 that corresponds to a special “Let's Race” game command. The exemplary track 12 has two or more track positions that correspond to the “Let's Race” command.
When the “Let's Race” command is triggered, the game play of non race-qualified players is suspended, and the tokens 50 of all race-qualified players are moved to the track position 14 labeled “Start/Finish.” All such race-qualified players then take turns incrementally advancing their game tokens around track 12, with the first player to lap track 12 being designated the race winner. Of course, game play rules permit race-qualified players may elect to race for more than one lap. In any case, the winner collects game money and game points, which points may be used like driver championship points in real-world racing series. That is, the first player to amass a defined number of game points may be considered the game winner, or the player with the most point and/or money at the end of a defined game play time may be declared the winner. Descending point and money awards may be given to second, or second, third, and fourth finishes, and so on.
In an exemplary game play variation, the first player to amass a given number of points, say, for example, ten points, is awarded a special game token 50, a “golden car” token. The golden car may be used for one lap of game play and, during its use, that player is exempted from all game penalties (and, optionally, exempted from all bonuses) and is not required to pay vehicle fees to any other players. Essentially, lapping track 12 with the golden car gives the player an opportunity to take acquired cars from other players.
In another exemplary game play variation, the “team creation” phase of the game is accelerated by giving a “checkered flag” 58 to the player with the most cars. The flag 58 eliminates all penalty commands and doubles all bonus commands. Preferably, the flag 58 does not affect the vehicle fees paid to other players. In awarding the flag, if two players have the same number of cars, the player owning the car or cars with the greater cumulative value is awarded the flag. Once any player purchases a complete team, the checkered flag 58 is retired.
With regard to game commands, it was noted that exemplary game commands generally were either penalty commands or bonus commands. An exemplary command set includes:
(Penalties)
(Bonuses)
(Special Bonuses)
With the above exemplary game commands distributed at different label positions around the board, players incrementally advancing their tokens around the track 12 encounter a mix of vehicle positions, bonus positions, and penalty positions. Also, note that the completion of each lap around track 12 by a player, which is designated as that player's token moving through the START/FINISH track position, may be rewarded by the payment of game money, $20 for example. As an extra bonus, actually landing the START/FINISH position may confer an enhanced award, $40 for example. In this manner, even players having difficulty amassing teams and qualifying for races receive at least a minimal infusion of game money each lap, which helps keep such players “in the game,” and provides opportunities to rebuild money reserves.
Further, one or more additional game props may be used in combination with certain ones of the game penalties. For example, players that land on a track position 14 corresponding to the pit lane entrance must detour through pit lane 22, which puts those players at risk for certain pit lane penalties, such as gas refill and tire changes. To make game play more captivating,
With this approach, the player landing on the tire change penalty position removes the stacked tires 82 from rack 80 and drops them. Each tire has a first side 84A and a second side 84B, which may be differentiated by color or other markings. Designating side 84A as the penalty side, the number (#) of tires the player must “change” is thus determined by counting how many of the tires 82 landed penalty-side up. The player may be required to “shake up” the tires 82 in his or her hand before dropping them to ensure a more random outcome. Then penalty calculation may include multiplying a base tire change fee by the number of tires that land penalty-side up, and by multiplying a base turn wait time by the same number of penalty-side up tires 82.
Indeed,
SW1 may be an actual momentary contact switch, it may be a reed switch (magnetic), or may be a Hall effect or some other type of sensing switch that is activated responsive to the player pressing on token 50. Regardless, movement number generator 110 generates a preferably random or pseudo random number responsive to such player actuation. The value of the generated number may be constrained to those discrete values obtainable from the die 66, or different numbers may be allowed.
Further, it may be noted that the game play experience can be enhanced by patterning the display numbers 102 after an elapsed time counter or lap timer used in real-world racing. Thus, actuation of the movement number generator 110 might result in a count-down or count-up sequence appearing on display 100, such that it appears a lap timing function is running, the ending of which results in display 100 displaying the number of spaces to be moved by the player for that turn.
It should be understood that movement number generator 110 may be implemented in a variety of ways, and that those skilled in the art will appreciate the various low-power and low-cost logic and display circuits developed for watches and inexpensive toys illustrate how compactly and economically such circuits can be implemented. In general, the present invention contemplates including movement number generation capability into the game play tokens 50 for an enhanced game play experience.
The present invention thus comprises a game board, a corresponding set of game rules having several exemplary variations of game play, and one or more supporting game play devices, including novel game play props that enhance the racing “feel” of the game. In accordance with the above details, a summary of exemplary game rules comprises the following items:
Of course, many other variations on exemplary game play exist. For example, a “speed version” of the game omits the Stage 1 (team building) part of game play by allowing players to draw for teams at the outset of the game. Players may roll dice 66 (or use the movement number generators 110 in tokens 50), to obtain random numbers. As such, a player would roll a number and then would be awarded the team corresponding to that number. The team number for each team may be printed on, for example, the driver IDs 52 corresponding to that team.
Suggested team divisions in the speed version include these allocations:
While the above rules contribute to the real-world racing aspects of the game, part of the racing feel may derive from the themed aspects of the game, which may be varied for different game “editions,” i.e., a NASCAR edition, a FORMULA 1 edition, etc. As such, the graphics used on the labels 18 may be tailored to the particular racing theme desired.
In particular, the game rules define racing teams comprising individual racing vehicles, the depictions of which are distributed around the track 12. These teams may be actual real-world racing teams, and the labels 18 used to depict the cars from such teams may include real-world graphic depictions of cars from such teams (color schemes, numbers, decals, sponsor information, etc.). Further, as players buy teams and qualify for races, they may be awarded driver identification cards 52, which may carry generic or make-believe driver pictures and names, but may carry real-world driver identifications corresponding to actual persons.
Of course, because the teams, drivers, and sponsors that participate in actual racing series changes from season to season, a themed edition of the inventive game may become outdated and, to some extent, might begin to lose its appeal as its fixed team/driver thematic elements became increasingly at odds with the real-world racing series it was patterned after. Thus, the present invention further contemplates that the labels 18 may be replaceable (e.g., slide in/slide out) or may simply be overlaid with new labels 18. Thus,
As an alternative to update packs, the game provider may simply choose to issue new themed editions with updated information on a seasonal or other periodic basis. Those skilled in the art will recognize these and other opportunities the present invention provides for effectively integrating details of real-world racing into the game play experience. Indeed, those skilled in the art should appreciate that, in general, the present invention is not limited by the foregoing exemplary details but rather is limited only by the following claims and the reasonable equivalents thereof.
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