GB2263436A - Greetings card with game. - Google Patents

Abstract

A folded greetings card (6) comprises a front portion (7) including a playing area (11) incorporating a representation of a game; a perforation or line of weakening (9) at or adjacent the fold (12) to allow separation of the rear leaf portion (8) from the playing area, and playing pieces (10) temporarily affixed thereto for separation and utilisation on the playing area (11). <IMAGE>

Description

GREETING CARD GAME SET The present invention relates to an improved playing piece generally for use in games, and especially for use in board games, and separately to greeting card game sets using such a playing piece.

Flipping counters have been a feature of a plethora of games for a long while. They are to be found in the game of tiddlywinks, for example, in which pressure exerted by a flipping counter on the edge of a playing counter causes it to jump into a receptacle or onto a target area. It is clear that the relative resilience of the playing surface will affect the parabola of flight of the counter, and attempts have been made before to take advantage of this fact. Counters used hitherto have typically been of plastics and have had generally parallel flat upper and lower surfaces and bevelled edges so that pressure on the upper surface imparts upon the distal edge a tendency to lift. Flight is induced as the flipping counter slides off the edge of the playing counter.

This shape of counter is perfectly satisfactory if all that is intended is to have a jumping counter. However, there are board games where what is required is a counter that can be caused to slide along the surface of the board game without a tendency to lift or jump.

There is often a further requirement for the played piece to impinge upon and transfer energy to, another piece. It is clear that in games such as "shove halfpenny", the sliding movement is imparted to the coin or disc by hitting its edge with the hand or a queue.

This indeed works well, especially when the disc is of appreciable weight, such as a halfpenny. One of the objectives of board game manufacturers is to reduce the weight and dimensions of board games. This is because of the expense of packing, the weight of transport, the number of items in the set, etc. Clearly, the more simple a game can be made, commensurate with retaining its characteristics, the better; the fewer items there are for children to lose and thus render the game unplayable, also the better.

There are many examples of counters having bevelled edges being used in board games.

For example, US 1546449 (Lavery) used flat discs with bevelled edges as playing pieces.

The flat edged counters provided are not used to propel another disc; merely to indicate the presence of player. Similarly Canadian Patent 458517 (Seguin) uses flat edged discs for snapping counters in the well known Tiddlywinks way. Common to all these is that the counters used have smooth parallel upper and lower surfaces and bevelled edges.

The invention may be used with an improved playing piece designed to be played manually or using a flipping counter; the pressure of the finger or counter on the domed, preferably slightly roughened upper surface causes it to slide along a playing surface, for example, without flipping or jumping, so that on hitting another piece, the substantially vertical cooperating striking surfaces impart relative motion without any tendency by the pieces to flip or overturn. The lower smooth sliding surface of the piece can be flat; in one embodiment, the sliding surface may be provided with a concave lower surface which reduces the area in contact with the playing surface and thus the coefficient of friction; this latter factor may be adjusted by persons skilled in the art to provide different lengths of run appropriate to the game being played.However, the centre of gravity of the playing piece should be kept as low as possible to ensure that it moves reliably across a smooth playing surface. Clearly, those skilled in the art can easily use these as variables to alter the characteristics of the game as seems most desirable.

It is generally a requirement in games such as simulated Billiards, Snooker or Pool, etc, for the direction and extent of run of the played piece to be expressly determinable. This is generally achieved by ensuring it has a round shape. However, there can be occasions when an element of randomness is deemed desirable. This may be applied to the improved playing piece by polytonality of the piece.

One aspect of the invention relates to an improved game set, preferably adapted to form part of a greeting card. It is known for the greeting card to be provided with interactive features, such as musical box effects and the like. However, we have found that successful games sets can be incorporated into a greeting card to provide an arrangement which is satisfactory both as a greeting card and subsequently for an interactive game.

Accordingly, the invention provides a greeting card assembly comprising a self-supporting web of printed and/or indicia receiving material, folded to provide a leaf portion for maintaining the card in its upright position prior to use, and a playing area incorporating a representation of a game; a perforation or line weakening at or adjacent the fold to allow separation of the leaf portion from the game area, and at least one counter temporarily affixed to the assembly for separation and utilisation on the playing area. The playing area may be printed on card with a gloss or matt surface depending on the characteristics-of the game to be played. Further, the playing area may also be embossed to provide physical indentations and/or raised areas in the playing areas to improve playing quality.

At least one counter can be a traditional playing piece of the "Tiddlywink" type or may be a playing piece as hereinafter described. The playing piece can be presented with one or more other pieces which may be in the form of counters, or may be winning posts, hoops, flags, etc., for interaction with the playing area during the game.

The present invention will now be described by way of illustration only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a cross-sectional side view of the playing piece, Figure 2 is a plan view from below, and Figure 3 is a side view of the traditional "Tiddlywink".

Figure 4 shows an alternative embodiment with slightly inwardly sloping flat sides, Figure 5 shows a plan view of a polygonal embodiment of the playing piece, Figure 6 shows an elevation from above of a Pool-type game set for use in accordance with the invention.

Figure 7 shows a representation of a croquet lawn for use in the present invention, Figure 8 shows a representation of a golf game for use in the invention, Figure 9 shows a representation of a soccer pitch for use in the present invention, Figure 10 shows a representation of a tennis court for use in the invention, and Figure 11 show a greeting card incorporating a representation shown in Figure 10 in diagrammatic form.

The piece is made of a generally hard plastics or other suitable material. The sides (1) are substantially vertical and flat. There may also be provided a recessed area (2) in the lower surface, although in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the lower surface is flat.

In use, the playing piece is placed on a suitable playing surface. The finger or flipping counter is pressed upon.the upper domed surface (3) of the piece, which has been slightly roughened to increase the coefficient of friction, which prevents the finger or flipping counter from slipping off. This makes for improved stability of play. When sufficient pressure has been exerted to overcome the coefficient of friction between the piece and the playing surface, the resultant force propels the piece slidingly along the playing surface (not shown). When the played piece slidingly impinges on another piece, relative motion is imparted by the impact of the cooperating surfaces upon each other. The angle at which pieces move is a function of the angle at which the pieces interact. In a game such as Pool, for example, this is highly relevant.The provision of a generally vertical side (1) or a slightly inwardly angled side (4), or pieces the sides of which are relatively so angled as to counteract any tendency of the piece to flip or jump, so that the total transferred kinetic energy is available to impart sliding motion.

Figure 4 shows a cross sectional side view of a traditional "Tiddlywink", with bevelled periphery. The disadvantage of such a construction is that upon impingement with another piece, there is a tendency for the piece to flip or ride up over the cooperating piece, thus wasting energy and resulting in lower energy transfer.

The present invention is particularly suited to miniaturised games of Billiards, Snooker or Pool, for example. The pieces can be coloured or have numbers printed upon them so that variants of the games may be played. In such a game, there may be provided a playing area of plastics, for example, the playing surface of which has a predetermined coefficient of friction. It is also furnished with raised sides to prevent played pieces from going out of play. The playing area is also provided with pockets, in the same scaled down format as that known in the game of Billiards, Snooker or Pool. The game may then be played exactly like the full-size variant, with the finger or a counter taking the place of the queue.

An appropriate size for such a playing area is 225mm x 300mm, but other sizes, larger or smaller, are also envisaged.

In another aspect the invention provides a greeting card assembly as shown particularly in Figures 7 to 11. Turning first to Figure 11, there is shown a greeting card assembly shown generally at (6), formed of printed card with a play area (7) forming the front face of the card, and a leaf portion (8) formed therewith about a vertical fold (12). The leaf portion (8) has traditional greeting card messages etc., thereupon and may be inscribed as desired. The leaf portion (8) is conjoined adjacent the vertical fold (12) to the playing area (7) by means of a perforation (9). It will be appreciated that thereby the leaf portion (8) can be readily separated from the playing area (7) prior to use.

The playing area (7) is formed in this particular instance with a representation (11) of a tennis game area, somewhat as shown in Figure 10 hereinafter described, printed on the play area. A plurality of playing counters (10) all with bevelled edges are temporarily secured to the lower right corner of the playing area (7). These are secured by means of a glue or a clear tape so that they do not readily become dislodged during the greeting phase of the use of the card. The play area (7) and its representation of the game (11), may be embossed, if desired, to retain, to an extent at least, the moving counters during the course of the game.

In use the recipient, having perused the contents of leaf portion (8), separates the leaf portion (8) from the playing area (7) along the perforation (9). Printed on the reverse face of a playing area (7) are the Rules of the game and, having perused the Rules, the recipient may place the play area (7) on a convenient surface, separate the playing counters (10) and utilise these to play the game in accordance with the Rules. The playing area may then be stored for future use.

Particularly with reference to Figure 7, there is shown a representation of a croquet lawn with a plurality of hoops therein. Playing area (7) is provided with three playing pieces which may be the same or different. The playing pieces are then utilised to follow the game of croquet substantially as described by British Patent No. 2222529. Similarly in regard to Figure 8, there is shown a representation of a golf game provided on playing area (7). This game, played by means of at least three traditional bevelled counters, commencing at the position (13) shown at the bottom right hand corner with an arrow. In this particular instance, a bunker (14) may be embossed into the card so that a counter, resting with a portion in the bunker (14) is considered to require a bunker shot. Again, the Rules of the game concerned are printed on the reverse face of the card.

Similarly in Figure 9 a soccer pitch adapted for playing with playing pieces in accordance with the present invention is shown; the Rules being printed on the reverse face of the card.

Finally a representation of a tennis court is shown in Figure 10 marked out with a tennis area for playing with traditional bevelled counters. The tennis net (15) may be printed on the game representation as shown in Figure 10 or may be separately formed in the card material and "popped out", so as to provide an extra dimension to the game whereby the net (15) is a separate element interfitting in the perpendicular to the plane of the playing area (7).

Claims (10)

1. A greeting card assembly comprising a self supporting web of printed and/or indicia receiving material, folded to provide a leaf portion for maintaining the card in its upright position, and a playing area incorporating a representation of a game; a perforation or a line of weakening at or adjacent the fold to allow separation of the leaf portion from the playing area; and at least one playing piece temporarily affixed to said assembly for separation and utilisation on the playing area.

2. An assembly according to Claim 1, wherein the playing area is embossed.

3. An assembly according to either of Claims 1 or 2, wherein the playing pieces include one or more additional playing pieces selected from winning posts, hoops, flags, and/or tennis nets.

4. An assembly according to any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the playing area comprises a representation of á game simulating; Croquet, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, Rugby, Cricket, or Baseball.

5. An assembly according to any of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the playing piece comprises a disc; characterised by a side or sides which are substantially vertical; in that the upper surface is convex and of a predetermined roughness; and in that the lower surface is smooth, and flat, or concave except for a rim pOrtiOn, the lower surface of which is adapted to lie flat on the playing surface.

6. An assembly according to Claim 5; characterised in that the side or sides are slightly inwardly or outwardly inclined towards the upper surface, to provide an angle of up to 10 from the vertical.

7. An assembly according to Claim 6; characterised in that the sides are so angled as to provide a reciprocal angle of contact with another piece of within 20 , to maximise the area of striking contact.

8. A game utilising an assembly according to any of Claims 1 to 7 that simulates the game of Pool.

9. A game utilising an assembly according to any of Claims 1 to 7 that simulates the game of Billiards.

10. A game utilising an assembly according to any of Claims 1 to 7 that simulates the game of Snooker.