CA2032375A1 - High tech board game - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

In a board game, the accessories commonly used to control, record and display the ever changing status of the game include part of the game board itself, card decks, tally or transaction sheets and others. In this invention, most of accessories used by prior art board games, except for the game board itself, are eliminated and replaced with a computer program executed on a personal computer to per-form the accessories' functions more effectively. This invention is well suited for any conventional board game which attempts to realistically simulate the operation of a complex and sophisticated environment and which uses cards to generate different events and situations. When a marker lands on certain predetermined spaces, instead of drawing cards, the appropriate keys are entered into the computer keyboard to interface with the computer program to display the specific event, effect the changes required and display the updated status of the game. In a pre-ferred embodiment, a stock market game has use the new ac-cessory to control the flow and update the statuses of the game. For example, the generation of events in a logically controlled random manner and the display of stock quotes and charts, among others.

Description

20323~5 SPECIFICATION

This invention relates to board games. More partic-ularly, this invention relates to a new and improved board game, which can be used in conjunction with conventional board games to increase the complexity and sophistication of existing board games thus making them more exciting and challenging. Accordingly, the creation of new board games to realistically simulate the operation of complex envi-ronments such as the Stock Market, Options and Futures Market, Real Estate Market, Currency Market, Bond Market and others may be accomphished.

The apparatus commonly used in current board games to control, record and display the statuses of the game and its players, include the game board itself, card decks, tally or transaction sheets, certificates or titles of ownership and play money. The game board, which is some-times partially used to record and display the statuses of the game, is very restrictive and inflexible. It is inca-pable of effectively recording and displaying the statuses of certain games due to its nature. The tally sheets that

2~ are used for calculating and record ng transactions are cumbersome and error prone. The card decks are used to 2032'~7~

influence the flow of the game as they contain specific event and situation that materially change the statuses of the game. These cards, which are shuffled before the start of the game, are drawn by the players whenever their tokens land on certain predesignated spaces on the board.
These randomly shuffled cards are without any controlling sequence and are incapable of handling a series of related events properly. For example, event B can only happen if event A happens. Otherwise, event C takes place instead lQ followed by event D. Such a logical process flow can not be build into a pre-shuffled card deck without losing the element of unpredictability.

The prior art is replete with board games which have at-tempted to simulate the operation of a real life complex environment but has fallen far short of that reality. For instance, U.S. Pat Nos. 4,431,195 and 4,452,457, show 2 board games of different concepts and designs which have the stock market as a common basis. Such games have unre-alistic view of the stock market such as stock prices ranging from $ 10,000 to $ 100,000 for a common share of a public company or becoming a majority shareholder of a particular company with a purchase of just 1,200 shares, among others. Because of the current accessories limita-203237~

tions, such board games can not realistically simulate theoperation of the stock market that the ordinary investor playing the stock market in real life can identified with.
For example, in their attempt to simulate the complex environment, such games often use many cumbersome accesso-ries and create unnecessary rules that are not indicative of the real life environment. These special rules and ac-cessories only serve to discourage the interest of younger aged players and are too elementary to interest and chal-lenge the more intellectual.

It has become apparent that many players of conventional board games begin to tire from the identical game play over a plurality of playing times. The critical compo-nents missing are: (a) the ability of random selective control of related and unrelated events to simulate interactive market forces that creates an environment close to the unpredictable real life situation, (b) the ability to effectively change, record and display the up-dated statuses of the environment.

Attempts were also made to simulate the operation of a real life market place for stocks through the sole use of an electronic microprocessor. With their special condi-203237~

tions and limitations, such games have also failed tocreate an environment that truly reflect the operation of the stock market as known by the ordinary investor. For instance, U.S. Pat No 4,363,489 shows an electronic stock market terminal game restricted to 4 players. This game also shows unrealistic view of the real life market, such as: (a) ~100,000.00 cash and $100,000.00 credit initially available for investment, (b~ restricted to hold no more than three different company stocks at any one time, (c) restricted to no more than 900 shares per transaction, (d) control of a company can be acquired when one holds 2,600 shares, ~e) a stock price can not exceed $60.00, among others.

It would be advantageous therefore, to provide a means whereby board games can realistically simulate the opera-tion of a real life complex environment and thus make the games more realistic, interesting, challenging and educa-tional.

SUMMARY OF T~E INVENTION

I have found that the above and other deficiencies of the prior arts ~ay be overcome and alleviated by the novel board game of this invention. In accordance with this in-vention, a novel board game interface which may be used in conjunction with prior art board games is provided.

The present invention is well suited for those board games attempting to realistically simulate the operation of a complex and sophisticated environment such as the Stock Market, Options and Futures Market, and Real Estate Market, among others. This invention is most suited for any conventional board game which has a series of marked spaces on the board forming a path through which tokens can be moved in accordance with the indications on the rolled dice. The invention is an interface in the form of a program executed on a personal computer. This new inter-face may replace a lot of the conventional accessories used in current board games and perform their functions above and beyond current expectations. For example, when player's token lands on certain predesignated spaces, instead of drawing cards to reveal specific events or situations, the appropriate commands are entered into the computer keyboard to display the specific events, effect the required changes and display the updated statuses of the game. By using a program executed on a personal compu-ter to create the events in a randomly sequenced, con-203237~

trolled manner, it can ensure certain events occur beforeanother related event can take place, or bypass certain events if previous event warrants it. This has the effect of preparing pre-sorted card decks with the ability to read or skip any card in the decks depending on certain condition that has transpired during the game. This capa-bility of the software program will enable the game to mirror a true life environment where events, if they do occur, normally occur as sequence of related events that interact with other events to produce specific situations.
To illustrate this capability of the program to generate different results by the random selective control of events, five sample related events, A to E, which are im-bedded and interspersed in a series of events, as listed below shall be used.

A- Tension built up in the Middle East caused the price of gold to rise by $ 5.00 an ounce.
B- Rumours of movement of military forces in the Middle East caused the price of gold to jump another $ 5.00 an ounce.
C- Continued tension in the Middle East caused oil to rise above $ 30.00 a barrel. Fear of inflation due to high oil prices caused gold to rise by $ 3.00 an ounce.
D- Iraq issued warning that war will break out in the region if she is attacked caused the price of gold to jump a further $ 7.00 an ounce.
E- The rumours on the movement of military forces in the Middle East were unconfirmed. Gold dropped by $ 4.00 an ounce.

Event A is established as a prerequisite event for the other 4 events, in other words the generation of events B
to E is conditional upon the generation of Event A. There-fore, if Event A is not randomly generated, Events B, C, D, or E can not be logically and randomly generated. How-ever, the random generation of Event A does not guaranty the logical random generation of Events B to E. By the same token, Event B is established as a prerequisite event for Event E and therefore the logical random generation of Event E is conditional upon the random generation of Event B which in turn in conditional upon the random generation of Event A. There is also no guaranty that event E will be generated just because Event B is generated.

Assuming gold was quoted at $ 400 an ounce before any of the above events. Based on its own algorithm, the computer 203237~

program can generate at random any one of the following 10 different scenarios to produce 10 different gold prices :

- Event A only Gold = $ 405 an ounce - Events A,B Gold = ~ 410 an ounce - Events A,B,C Gold = $ 413 an ounce - Events A,B,C,D Gold = $ 420 an ounce - Events ~,B,C,D,E Gold = $ 416 an ounce - Events A,C Gold = $ 408 an ounce - Events A,C,D Gold = $ 415 an ounce 10 - Events A,B,E Gold = $ 406 an ounce - Events A,D Gold = $ 412 an ounce - none of the above events Gold = $ 400 an ounce For the purpose of illustrating the simple calculation of the price of gold above, the amount of change in the price of gold in the above events, A to E, have been fixed at $5, $5, $3, $7 and $4 respectively. In an actual pro-gram, these price changes may be generated at random or based on the program's unique algorithm.

Another aspect of this invention is the ability to ef-fectively record, change and display the statuses of thegame and it's players without any true limitation. For in-203237~

stance, in the design of a stock market game, the stockprice quotations display will no longer have upper or lower limits. The stock price can be as low as one (1) cent or even delisted and as high the program specifica-tion will allow, i.e., Nine Hundred Ninety Nine dollars.
The same flexibility holds true for the stock price change, it can range from one (1) cent to as high as one would specify in the program, i.e., Ninety Nine dollars.
Although in real life situation, the upper limits cited as specified in the program will likely not be reached.

A further aspect of the present invention is to provide an exciting and challening board game which may serve as a teaching aid to help the players understand the operation of the real life complex environment by introducing the very same instruments, terminologies and situations that one encounters in the real environment.

In a preferred embodiment of this invention, a stock market board game is utilized to illustrate the novel board game. Accordingly, access means are provided by entering the appropriate commands on the computer keyboard whenever a player wants to initiate certain transactions or is instructed by the predesignated spaces on the board to do so.

The above discussed and other advantages of this invention will be apparent and understood by those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 present a plan view of a preferred embodiment of a game board in accordance with this invention.
FIG. 2 illustrates a display for entering the specified time period of play of a preferred embodiment of this invention on a computer screen.
FIG. 3 illustrates a display of the initial list of stocks available for trading with their Stock Ticker Symbol on a computer screen.
FIG. 4 illustrates an initial stock quotation display with the initial help instruction on a computer screen. !' FIG. 5 illustrates a stock quotation display with an event display on a computer screen.
FIG. 6 illustrates a display for entering stock trades order on a computer screen.

FIG. 7 illustrates a display of the result of entering a stock order on a computer screen.
FIG. 8 illustrates a display for entering the dividend calculation on a computer screen.
FIG. 9 illustrates a display of the result of entering the dividend calculation on a computer screen.
FIG. 10 illustrates a stock quotation display with a single status change on a computer screen.
FIG. 11 illustrates a stock quotation display with multiple statuses changes on a computer screen.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a game board in accordance with the present invention is illustrated at 10. The board 10 is provided with a closed loop path 11 divided into a plural-ity of spaces around the perimeter. The total number of spaces on the surface of game board 10 may, of course, vary but for the purpose of illustrating the invention herein constitute thirty six (36) in number as shown in FIG. 1. Some of the spaces represent various events such as News 12, Earning Reports 14, Rumours 15, Analysts Say 16, Dividend Reports 17, Business News 18, Insider Trading Reports 19 and Short Position Report 20 influence the 203237~

operation of the stock market. The Start position 21 also represents Interest Earned on cash balances. The remain-ing spaces on the board represent companies' Quarterly 22, Semi-Annual 23 or Annual 24 dividends payable when declared.

The total number of different securities available in the game may vary, but for purpose of illustrating the in-vention, is thirty two (32) while the number of companies whose securities are listed for trading is twenty eight (28). This is because two (2) companies have two (2) or more different securities available. The total number of different securities that may be listed for trading at any one time is between twenty eight (28) and thirty (30).
There are nine basic industries involved, with one indus-try, the Resource industry, being subdivided further into tHree subgroups. Each industry group or subgroup is made up of two or three companies. The stock price quotations, which are represented by the stock ticker symbol followed by the stock price and price change, are preferably listed adjacent to one another within an industry or subgroup.
For example, the Utility group which comprises of stock ticker symbols FN, G, and WLP appeared on the first line as shown in FIG. 5. Each industry group may also be color 20~2375 coded to match the stock certificates (not shown) and the Dividend Payable spaces on the game board. The stock cer-tificates which may be in denominations of 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 shares and the collection of play money (not shown) in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $50, $100, $500, $1000, $5000 and ~10000 may be eliminated if the computer program is programmed to keep an accounting on all players monies and stocks.

The example of the described invention is suitable for three to nine players but any reasonable number can play.
One of the players is chosen as the stock broker and is given charge of the stock certificates and money that is not distributed among the players at the start of the game. Such person may also fully participate in the game and shall be provided with an equal sum of money. The equal sum of money each player initially receives at the start of the game is not fixed and may vary from say, ten thousand dollars to forty thousand dollars. This equal sum to be distributed depends on the number of players participating. The greater the number of players, the smaller the amount should be and vice versa.

203237~

One of the players may then starts the computer program.
When the computer program is first started, it prompts the players to set a time limit for the game play, as shown in FIG. 2. A specified period of play, say 2 hours, may be entered into the computer to ensure that the period of play will not extend beyond 2 hours. However, the pro-gram, using its own established algorithm, may still end the game prior to the set time limit without any prior warning. The program then displays the the initial list of stocks available for trading with their stock ticker symbol as shown in FIG. 3. The program then calculates the initial stock prices using its algorithm to ensure that all stocks, such as bluechips and pennies, are priced accordingly in the stock quotations displayed with the initial instruction, as illustrated in FIG. 4.

At this point, each player selects a token (not shown) and places it on the start position 21. From this posi-tion, each player on his turn, moves his token along the path formed by the spaces in a clockwise direction in ac-cordance with the number of spaces indicated on the rolleddice (not shown~. If a player whose token lands on the po-sition 22, 23, or 24, he must enter the appropriate com-mand 'P' on the computer keyboard to display if dividends 203237~

have been declared and if so declared, to determine the amount payable, as shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9. If divi-dend has been declared and payable, any player who owns stocks of the specific company may collect the appropriate dividend. The dividend of an individual company may be declared through the Dividend Report space 17 if landed upon, by entering the 'D' command on the computer key-board. The Quarterly paid dividends 22 are declared four times as often as the Annually paid dividends 24 and ap-pears four times on the board. The Semi-annually paid div-idends 23 are declared twice as often as the Annually paid dividends 24 and appears twice on the board. The Dividend Report 17 may also declare special extra dividend and pay the dividend accordingly to all players who hold the stock of the company. Some of the listed companies do not de-clare and pay dividends as all earnings are retained and reinvested back into the business.

If a player whose token lands on space 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, or 20, he is require to enter the appropriate command on the computer keyboard to display the specific event, effect the consequent changes and update the sta-tus. A specific event may affect a single status such as a specific stock price as shown in FIG. 10 or several 203237~

statuses such as a specific group of stock prices within an industry or the whole stock market as shown in FIG. 11.
For example, entering 'N' for News, displays the event that "Interest has gone up half a percentage point and the stock market reaction to this news is to fall by 2%". The stock quotations display on the computer screen will show all stocks with their new stock prices and their specific changes (a drop of approximately 2% each). The interest rate will also be updated with this specific event and the new rate may be display with the appropriate command 'X'.

Any player during his turn may buy or sell any security with his cash on hand by entering 'C' on the computer key-board to effect the transaction. Before he decides which security to buy or sell, he may check the historical price chart ~not shown) of any stock listed through the 'L' com-mand. As shown in FIG. 6, He will be prompted to enter his buy or sell order, the amount of stocks in multiple of board lots (as defined in FIG. 6) and the stock ticker symbol. The computer program will then calculate the transaction cost incorporating the broker's fee and dis-plays the amount receivable or payable as shown in FIG. 7.
There is no restriction as to the number of shares a player may trade in a single transaction as long as it is 203237~

a long position. In other words, short selling or holding a short position is currently not allowed in this example.
The only real limitation is established by the stock float, which in this example is the number of shares in stock certificates available from the broker. The stock float is normally a percentage of the company issued capi-tal and normally does not include the control blocks owned by major shareholders or institutions.

If a player whose token lands upon a categorized event space that reveals the opportunity for all players to buy into an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of a new specific security to be listed on the stock exchange, any player with sufficient cash may participate without paying the regular brokerage fee.

If a player whose token further lands upon a categorized event space that reveals the oppportunity for all players or just the current player to buy into secondary stock offerings of a specific currently listed security at a small or significant discount to the current market price, the eligible player(s) may take advantage of this opportunity and also save paying the normal brokerage fee.

20323 ~

If a player whose token further lands upon a categorized event space that reveal the oppportunity for all players to tender their shares to a buyout offer, all eligible players may do so and pay no brokerage fee.

When a player whose token lands upon a categorized event space that reveals the oppportunity for all players who currently hold a specific security to receive Rights under a company's Rights offering, all eligible players may ob-tain said Rights from the broker at no cost. Said Rights may be traded on the stock exchange or exercised at a spe~
cific price upon the expiry date to obtain additional se-curities in the form of Stocks, Warrants or Units which is normally comprised of Stocks and Warrants.

When a player whose token completes a circuit of the marked spaces and then lands on the Start and Interest Earned position, he may enter the 'X' command on the com-puter keyboard to determine how much interest he will earn on his cash position. If the playerls token passes the start position and lands on a space following it, he may enter the 'X' command to calculate the interest earned and then he is required to enter the appropriate command of the space that his token lands onO A player therefore Pa~e 18 may, on occasion, have to enter more than one (1) command during his turn.

The winner of the game is determined by counting the money retained by each player after cashing in all their stock holdings at the end of the game.

While preferred embodiments have been shown and described, various modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the present invention has been described by way of illus-trations and not limitations.

Claims (15)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A process of performing the functions of conventional board game accessories such as play money, certificates or titles of ownership, various types of card decks, tally or score sheets, and even part of the game board itself with a new modern accessory such as a computer program executed on a personal computer through the use of an interface such as a keyboard or a mouse.

2. A process as claimed in claim 1 comprising of func-tions performed by a computer program such as :
generation of events in a randomly controlled logical manner that control the flow and affect the statuses of the game;
updating, recording and display of changes that affect the statuses of the players and the game;
calculation, recording and display of each transaction during the game;
display of the individual player's assests and statuses such as money on hand and other holdings; and overall display of the ever changing statuses of the game.

3. A stock market game wherein the process of some of the functions as defined in claim 2 are used.

4. A stock market game as set forth in claim 3, for play by two or more players comprising:
a game board whose surface is divided into a plurality of spaces around the perimeter forming a closed loop path;
said spaces wherein one of the said predetermined spaces is designated as the Start of game and Interest Earned space and imprinted with its computer command for in-terfacing with the computer program to calculate the monthly interest payable to the player on his cash balance; said spaces on which some is imprinted the name of a company with the Dividend Payable computer command for interfacing with the computer program to determine the amount of dividend payable and on which others are imprinted various categorized events with their respective computer commands for interfacing with the computer program to determine the actual events to happen;
two or more tokens employed to designate movement of the players on the closed loop path of the game board;
chance means operated by the players to determine the movement of the tokens from one space to another space on the loop path;
a plurality of asset means which are purchased by each player and said assest means including one or a combi-nation of play money and stock certificates;
said stock certificates in denominations of 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 shares provided for each of the thirty two (32) securities may be purchased or sold with said assets by any player during his turn or when allowed by events generated by the computer program; said purchase of said certificates being available until all the certificates in the broker's possession are exhausted;
said computer program being used to interface with the game board to perform all the functions that influence the flow and statuses of the game, record and display the updated statuses and calculate and record all transactions.

5. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein said computer program allows the players to establish a specific time limit for the game play prior to the start of game play to ensure that game play does not extent beyond said time period but does not guaranty that it's internal established algorithm will not supersede the specified period and end the game unexpectedly prior to said time period.

6. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein said computer program further performs, upon a player's request, functions such as; (a) the display of current statuses such as the Stock Price Quotations or the Divi-dends Declared and Payable table; (b) the display of all current securities listed with their stock ticker symbols and historical price charts; (c) the display of the cur-rent Interest Rate, Gold price, Crude Oil price and other statuses; and (d) the calculation of each Buy and Sell trade orders incorporating the broker's fee payable.

7. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player whose token lands upon said categorized events spaces such as News, Business News, Dividend Reports, Earning Reports, Insider Trading Reports, Short Reports, Rumours and Analysts Say, requires the player to enter computer commands of N, B, D, E, I, S, R and A respect-ively to interface with the computer program to generate a randomly controlled logical event based on the program's own algorithm that shall influence the flow of the game and one of the statuses of the game such as stock prices, dividends declared and payable, interest rate, gold price or crude oil price.

8. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player whose token lands upon said categorized events spaces such as News, Rumours and Analysts Say, requires the player to interface with the computer program to gen-erate events that can affect not only a single status such as a company's stock price, but that of many statuses such as a whole industry group's stock prices or the whole stock market, in a positive or negative manner.

9. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 in which said computer program controls the flow of the game with a multiple series of events that influence the many statuses of the game wherein said series of events are generated in a logically sequenced, randomly controlled manner in order to ensure that the logically related prerequisite events occur before another related event can take place or bypass a related event if the previous prerequisite related event warrants it.

10. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player may, during his turn, trade on any security listed on the stock exchange in multiples of board lots by entering his order into the computer wherein the only real limitation is the number of share certificates avail-able for purchase from the stock broker in the case of a buy order.

11. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player whose token lands upon said categorized event space reveals the opportunity for all players to buy into an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of a new specific security to be listed on the stock exchange without paying brokerage fee.

12. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player whose token lands upon said categorized event space may reveals the oppportunity for all players or just the current player to buy into secondary stock offer-ings of a specific currently listed security at a small or significant discount to the current market price.

13. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player whose token lands upon said categorized event space further reveals the oppportunity for all players who currently hold a specific security to receive Rights under a company's Rights offering and said Rights may be traded on the stock exchange or exercised at a specific price upon the expiry date to obtain additional securities in the form of Stocks, Warrants or Units which is normally comprised of Stocks and Warrants.

14. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player whose token lands upon said categorized event space further reveals the oppportunity for all players who currently hold a specific security to tender their shares to a buyout offer without paying any borkerage fee.

15. A stock market game as set forth in claim 4 wherein a player whose token completes a circuit of the marked spaces and then lands or passes the Start and Interest Earned space, is paid the equivalent of one month's inter-est using the current prevailing interest rate, on his cash balance, based on a minimum balance requirement of $ 500.