GB2121299A - Apparatus for a darts board game - Google Patents

Abstract

The apparatus comprises a playing surface (40) marked with a plurality of radial sets of areas and movement of playing pieces (41, 42) over the board is controlled by a die having coloured surfaces, or a dice. A dart board, having the same markings, and darts are also disclosed. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Apparatus for playing a board game The present invention relates generally to apparatus for playing a board game, and particularly to apparatus in which the board is constituted by a variation of the widely known conventional dart board.

Although the game of the present invention can very suitably be adapted for playing with a horizontal playing surface in the form of a dart board at which darts or other projectiles are intended to be projected, the intrinsic features of the present invention lend itself to adaptation to other embodiments, for example in which the playing surface is a horizontal board and the player's pieces are moved over the surface of the board in dependence on the players choices, the rules of the game and, possibly also, a random component introduced, for example, by means of dice, cards or other random or pseudo-random number generating means.

According to one aspect of the present invention, therefore, there is provided apparatus for playing an indoor game, comprising a playing surface or board marked with a plurality of sets of areas visually differentiated from one another, for example by being indicated by characteristic colours or other surface marking or shading, and a plurality of player's pieces which can be positioned in or on any one of the different areas in a selected set in dependence on the individual player's selection, and means for introducing a random or pseudo-random component or a component of uncertainty into the selection of the areas into or onto which the player's pieces are positioned, the rules providing that each player progresses with a scoring pattern each time his piece lands in or on an area of a preliminarily selected set and is subjected to penalties or forfeits if his piece lands in or on an area belonging to another set.

In the embodiment of the invention outlined above, in which the board is adapted as a target board at which projectiles are intended to be projected, the playing surface of the board is preferably formed in such a way as to be able to retain thereon, in the position where they contact the board, the player's pieces projected thereat.

This may take any one of a number of forms. For example, the board may be made with a smooth hard surface and the player's pieces provided with a plurality of suction cups, or alternatively the board may be made with a yielding surface and the players pieces be formed in the manner of conventional darts with a sharply pointed end for penetrating the board to be retained in their position of impact. In yet another embodiment a cooperating arrangement of hooks and loops or interpenetrating form looking elements may be provided.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the board is generally circular in outline and the sets of areas are defined thereon by radial and circumferential separating lines. In the case of a board adapted to be mounted as a target board, of course, the said component of uncertainty in the play is introduced by the fact that the player's pieces are projected towards the target board from a distance. The amount of skill required to be able accurately to position a piece on the board from a distance can therefore be considered as the random element which introduces the component of uncertainty, although it is appreciated that, if a player were perfectly skilful, there would in fact not be any certainty element since a completely skilful player could project his player's pieces with certainty onto the intended areas.This, however, is unlikely to occur in practice, and the likelihood is so small as to be statistically insignificant.

In one embodiment of the invention each set of areas is defined by two parallel lines and the individual areas within a set are defined by a plurality of boundaries extending generally transverse the said two parallel lines. In the preferred embodiment each set of areas has one area indicated with one of a set of characteristic colours, the number of different colours being equal to the number of different areas in each set.

The permutation of the colours throughout the set is changed, however, so that, for example, if there are eight sets of areas and eight differently coloured areas in each set the position of any one colour within the set is different in each set. In the above example of the sets being defined by parallel generally radial lines each set is constituted by a row of generally rectangular areas extending radially outwardly from a central area which may be designated as a non target area and the position of any one colour in that set will be different from the position of that coloured element in all of the other sets.The rules of the game then provide that having selected a set of areas identified, for example by a given colour or a given type of surface marking, for example shading or hatching, a player has to project a piece into contact with the area of that colour or surface marking of each set in turn starting from a predetermined or selected set and progressing around the board in either a given direction, a selected direction or a random manner.

With an embodiment of the type outlined above there are substantial "dead" or non-target areas between the marked target areas, and the rules may provide that these do not count towards the scoring of the game or have some fixed penalty or benefit in dependence on what is required.

Various embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a face view of a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the invention; and Figure 3 is a perspective view of a third embodiment of the invention.

Referring now to Figure 1 , the embodiment illustrated is formed as a circular dart board generally indicated 11 , which may be of conventional size or of a larger size than normal dart boards. The board 11 has a central area 12 from which radiate eight pairs of parallel demarcation lines 1 3-20 indicated with the subscripts a and b respectively. These lines may be marked on the board with pigment or may be identified, for reasons which will be explained below, with narrow wires overlying the surface of the board. Each pair of parallel lines a, b constitutes the outer boundary for a set of areas the individual areas of which are identified by transverse lines c.Thus, the set of areas 15 is demarcated by two parallel lines 1 spa, 1 sub and a set of eight transverse lines 1 sic.

Each set of areas contains eight different rectangles each of which is uniquely identified from the others in the set in such a way that an alternative definition of groups can be identified.

Thus, for example, if each set defined between two parallel lines 1 3-20 contains areas identified by eight different colours, but these eight colours being the same for each set of areas, then a group of areas of the same colour can be identified as a cross group within the sets of areas. The circular central area 12 and the triangular areas demarcated between adjacent pairs of parallel lines can be all marked with a common representation or colour, for example white, to distinguish them from the coloured areas themselves, althrough a further inner central area 1 2a concentrically iocated within the central area 12 may be provided as a bonus-scoring target area or "bulls eye" as illustrated. The apparatus for playing the game also include conventional darts not illustrated in Figure 1.The rules of the game provide that a player, who may be one of any number up to eight, selects a colour to be his target colour for the game. The coloured areas are permutated in such a way that each colour occupies one of the eight sequential positions starting from the radially innermost position and extending to the radially outermost position in each of the different sets of areas defined between two parallel lines. Thus, whichever colour is chosen, there is eactly the same difficulty in scoring the totality of target areas around the board.The rules provide that, having selected a colour, the player must attempt to strike the area of the selected colour in each of the eight sets of areas starting with the area defined between the parallel lines 1 3a, 1 3b and proceeding in a clockwise direction around the radial sets of areas, passing next to the area defined between the parallel lines 1 4a, 1 4b, then the parallel lines 1 spa, 1 sub and so on. Each time a target is correctly struck with a dart the player deducts 10 marks from an initial score which can be decided in advance, whereas if his dart should strike an opponents colour then 10 marks are deducted from the opponents score.Should a dart strike the "dead" triangular area or a colour which has not been selected due to the lack of players (if, for example only two or three players are playing the game at any one time then there will be six or five unselected colours) then only five marks are added to the player's score. A special bonus, such as 25 marks being deducted from the score, may be allocated to the central area 12.

In the alternative embodiment illustrated in Figure 2 the sets of areas are again formed as linear arrays between horizontal parallel lines 21-29, but in this embodiment the board is square or rectangular and the individual areas are separated from one another in the sets by vertical lines 31-39. As in the previous embodiment these lines may be constituted by thin metal wires secured to the face of the board. Likewise, the sets of playing areas may be individually separated from one another by suitable identification such as hatching or colouring, and the colour of a particular location within a set may vary so that a given colour occupies a different location in each set.If eight sets of eight areas are used and the permutation of the colours is random then equal difficuity will be provided for each set of areas identified by a given colour. The rules of the game thus provide that each player, and there may be up to eight, selects a colour in advance and has to" strike the appropriate colour of each row in sequence starting from the row at the top defined by the separating lines 21, 22. As with conventional dart boards the metal wires separating the different areas serve as positive demarcations so that no "indeterminate" strikes can be obtained since the dart must land with certainty either on one side or the other of the wire if it strikes home. Should the dart be deflected by the wire and rebound without striking home no score is counted for or against the player on that occasion.

The embodiment illustrated in Figure 3 is for a game which does not involve the use of darts.

Here the playing surface is a board 40 marked with a playing area of substantially the same shape as that illustrated in Figure 1, and therefore identified with the same reference numerals, but in this game the player pieces are movable items or "men" 41, 42 (only two are shown although, obviously, there could be up to eight) and one or more dice 43 marked, instead of with the conventional numerical representation, a representative colour on each of the six faces.

Since dice have only six faces there may be provided two dice 43 in order to accommodate the eight different colours, or alternatively only six colours may be provided so that by rolling the dice 43 individual colours can be selected. Instead of throwing darts at the coloured areas in the dart board illustrated in the embodiment of Figure 1, - therefore, the players proceed in the same way, clockwise around the sets of areas marked on the board, by throwing the dice to select the appropriate colour. Having elected a certain colour in advance the player can then only move when his colour comes up on the dice.

Claims (12)

1. Apparatus for playing an indoor game, comprising a playing surface or board marked with a plurality of sets of areas visually differentiated from one another for example by being indicated by characteristic colours or other surface marking or shading, and a plurality of player's pieces which can be positioned in or on any one of the different areas in a selected set in dependence on the individual player's selection, and means for introducing a random or pseudo-random component or a component of uncertainty into the selection of the areas into or onto which the player's pieces are positioned, the rules providing that each player progresses with a scoring pattern each time his piece lands in or on an area of a preliminarily selected set and is subjected to penalties or forfeits if his piece lands in or on an area belonging to another set.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, in which the playing surface or board is a target board, the player's pieces are adapted to be projected towards the board from a point remote from the board, and to be retained thereon in the position where they contact the board.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, in which the player's pieces are in the form of darts having pointed projections for piercing the surface of the board, which latter has a structure such as to accept without damage repeated impacts by the darts.

4. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 2 or Claim 3, in which the board is generally circular in outline and the sets of areas are defined thereon by radial and circumferential lines.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which each set of areas is defined by two parallel lines and the individual areas within a set are defined by a plurality of boundaries extending generally transverse the said two parallel lines.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which each set of areas has one area indicated with one of a set of characteristic colours, the number of different colours being equal to the number of different areas in each set.

7. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 4 and Claim 5, in which the said two parallel lines extend generally radially of the board and the transversely extending boundaries extend perpendicular thereto.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any of Claims 2 to 7, in which the boundaries between adjacent playing areas are additionally defined by metal wires or other hard boundary-defining elements capable of withstanding impacts from the darts projected thereat.

9. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, in which the board is adapted as a playing surface and the means for introducing a random or pseudorandom component in the movement of the player's pieces includes random or pseudorandom number generating means such as dice, cards or the like.

10. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the correspondingly, differentiated areas of the different sets of areas are marked in a sequence, for example by means of numbers or sequential letters, indicating a predetermined order in which the player's pieces have to be moved from one area to another in accordance with the rules of the game.

11. A dartboard in which all the target areas are substantially the same shape and size, at least some of the target areas being separated by areas which are of different shape and/or size and which do not constitute target areas.

12. Apparatus for playing an indoor game substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.