US3512779A

US3512779A - Game apparatus with cards played in alignment across a board

Info

Publication number: US3512779A
Application number: US685078A
Authority: US
Inventors: William H T Mcgaughey Jr
Original assignee: WILLIAM H T MCGAUGHEY JR
Current assignee: WILLIAM H T MCGAUGHEY JR
Priority date: 1967-11-22
Filing date: 1967-11-22
Publication date: 1970-05-19
Anticipated expiration: 1987-05-19

Description

May 19, 1970 I w. H. T. M GAUGHEY, JR 3,512,779

GAME APPARATUS WITH CARDS PLAYED 1N ALIGNMENT ACROSS A BOARD Filed Nov. 22. 1967 I I PIE 5 3 I I l I H ,2 /3 l4 l5 l7 /5 g l1 IT I N VEN'] UR. WILLIAM H- 7. MC 6.4066 5) J 9.

80nd) MacZao/wcm, ladd'ac, 8M 5 50/144446;

Jrroxusrs United States Patent 3 512,779 GAME APPARATUS w1rn CARDS PLAYED IN ALIGNIVIENT ACROSS A BOARD William H. T. McGaughey, Jr., 461 W. Maryland, St. Paul, Minn. 55117 Filed Nov. 22, 1967, Ser. No. 685,078 Int. Cl. A6315 3/00 US. Cl. 273135 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A game for two players each having a deck of fiftytwo cards including one carrying the profile of each state and of the District of Columbia and one wild card representing the United States, the cards of each deck being visually distinguishable from those of the other deck. The players select one card at a time at random and play it face up on one of a plurality of contiguous zones laid out on a board in a rectangular pattern. Players attempt to line up cards from their own deck in a pathway of adjacent cards. After the starting moves of the game, each card must be placed immediately adjacent another card of the same player. The game ends when one player completes a continuous pathway of adjacent cards from one side of the board to the other.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A game of the present invention utilizes a game board or other fiat surface on which is marked out a number of adjacent rectangles or similar zones. In the game as illustrated herein, these zones are laid out in a rectangular pattern. Each player is provided with a deck of cards, each card of each deck having a difierent identifying indicia thereon to distinguish it from every other card in that deck, but every card of each deck having a counterpart in the other deck. Each of the cards of each deck are distinguishable from the cards of the other deck. In the game as shown, the identifying indicia are the name and profile of the fifty states of the Union and of the District of Columbia, plus one additional card upon which a stylized representation of the US. Capitol is displayed along with the notation United States of America. Each of the cards for each of the states also carries the number of electoral votes accorded that state in presidential elections. This number can be used in scoring.

In the game as shown, the zones are rectangular in shape and are arranged in eight columns running in adjacent parallel lines on'the game board set between the two players and eight rows extending transversely of the columns, thus to provide sixty-four zones in all.

A preferred method for starting the play includes having each player arrange his cards in random and unknown order, with the players alternately drawing one of their cards and placing it on the game board. As lOIlg as there is no other card in any of the four rows adjacent to a player, he may place one of his cards anywhere in anyof those rows. Alternatively, a player may place his card in a vacant space next to another of his own cards, or may place his card on top of the counterpart card of his opponent, which lies face up on the board.

The object ofthe game is to build a continuous linear and/or rectilinear chain of cards from one end of the game board to the other. A game ends when either player first completes such a path. In a preferred form of scoring, the player completing the path from one side of the board to the other is awarded the sum of the points displayed on each of the cards in that path; for example, the number of electoral votes represented by the states illustrated by those cards. Additional games can be played and a set of such games will be worn by the player first achieving a predetermined number of pomts, for example, 538 points (the total number of votes in the electoral college).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a game board of the present invention with some of the cards thereon as they might appear at the end of one game;

FIGS.'2 and 3 are plan views of parts of the decks of cards belonging to first and second players of the game, respectively.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings and the numerals of reference thereon, a game board 10 has lines thereon to define eight columns 11 through 18 and eight rows 21 through 28. Of course other combinations of rows and columns could be utilized and, in fact, the arrangement would not have to be rectangular in its entire configuration as long as most of the zones were adjacent to at least three other zones and every zone was adjacent to at least one other zone. Obviously these zones could be designated by slots or dots, by circles, or even by pegs or holes.

The players will arrange themselves with respect to the board so that the columns extend in parallel relationship between them and so that the rows are transversely related to the columns. A first player will take position with respect to the board 10 at the top of the sheet where he can handle the cards 31 as laid out in FIG. 2, and a second player will take position with respect to the board 10 of FIG. 1 at the bottom of the sheet in position to utilize the cards 32 as disclosed in FIG. 3.

The cards 31 and 32 are parts of complete first and second decks of cards, each of said decks being fifty-two in number, fifty of the cards each carrying the profile of one of the fifty states of the union, the name of the state, and the number of electoral votes accorded that state in presidential elections. A fifty-first card of each deck carries the profile of the District of Columbia and the legend District of Columbia, and a fifty-second card carries a stylized representation of the United States Capitol dome together with the legend United States of America. The capitals of each of the states and any other interesting information about a state (not shown) can conveniently be carried on that states card. Each of said first and second decks of cards will be identical except that each deck will be difierently colored or otherwise marked so that any particular card can readily be distinguished as belonging to either the first or second deck.

In FIGS. 2 and 3 are illustrated, however, not complete decks of cards, but those cards remaining when a number of cards of each deck have been played on the game board.

The playing of a typical game will now be described.

Each player stacks his cards at random in an unknown order and in position where one card can be selected by him at a time. The first player selects the first card from his deck 31, and turns it up. He may place it anywhere in any of the rows 21 through 24. For this example, it will be assumed that this first card was the one representing Vermont, and that he positioned it at row 21, column 16, as shown at 41 on FIG. 1. a

The second player selected the first card in his deck, which was Oklahoma, and he chose to position it at column 14, row 27, as at 42. The second card of the first player was the one representing Minnesota, and he placed it at column 14, row 22, see 43, and the second card of the second player was Tennessee and was placed at column 15, row 26, see 44. Subsequent cards were drawn and placed on the game board by each player alternately in accordance with the following plan:

(1) The first card in any of the first four rows immediately adjacent to a player can be placed anywhere in that row,

(2) Any card can be placed in a vacant zone immediately adjacent another card belonging to the same player if it is placed in the same row or column as that card,

(3) Any card can be placed on top of the counterpart card of the other player, and

(4) The card marked United States of America is a wild card, and can be used as the equivalent of any other card in the deck. When this card comes to hand, the player can place it on top of any card of his opponent which is on the board. For scoring, its numerical Value is the same as that of the card underneath it.

The typical game of the illustration has been continued, and the arrangement of the cards as seen at the end of this game is illustrated in FIG. 1. Note that in the course of the game, the first player has placed his wild card on top of one of the other cards of the second player at column 15, row 25. (For example, over Connecticut, which has 8 electoral votes.)

The first player has, as shown, won the first game because he has the continuous pathway of cards extending from his edge of game board 10 to his opponents edge of the game board opposite.

A preferred means of scoring this game is to award this first player points in accordance with the number of electoral votes accorded these states making up his continuous path. Thus his score for the game illustrated would be as follows:

North Dakota 4 Minnesota 10 Iowa 9 Wisconsin 12 Indiana 13 United States of America 8 District of Columbia 3 West Virginia 7 Alabama 10 Mississippi 7 Louisiana 10 Thus the score for the first player in this game would be 93 points. Other games would be played in succession until a predetermined number of points was reached by one or the other of the players. A total of 538 points is a preferred number to determine a set winner inasmuch as this is the total number of points which each player has in his deck and is the total number of elector-a1 votes accorded the various states in a presidential election.

With sixty-four zones and fifty-two cards in each deck, a situation can sometimes be arrived at where one player cannot make a further move. In this situation, the other player is awarded a predetermined number of points (fifty-two points toward the total 538, for example).

It is to be understood that other indicia could be used to identify the various cards of each deck as long as each identifying indicia of each card in a deck finds a counterpart in one card in the other deck. Thus different numbers could be used, or the countries or rivers of the world, teams in a particular sports league, for example, all of the teams in the American and National Football Leagues;

and information relating to those units could be displayed on the cards. By repeatedly playing the game, the information on the cards will be easily and painlessly assimilated by the players. By utilizing empirical numerical representations of factors such as electrol votes or lengths of rivers or state populations, for example, the importance of the unit represented by the card with respect to the empirical value will also be assimilated and recognized.

I claim:

1. A game apparatus for use by at least two players comprising:

a game board having a plurality of identifiable adjacent blank zones designated thereon arranged side-by-side in rows and end-to-end in columns, said columns extended from one players side of the board to the opposite players side of the board;

at least two decks of the same predetermined number of cards, one deck for each of said players, each card of each deck having a different identifying indicia thereon to distinguish it from every other card of that deck, but every card of each deck having a counterpart in the other deck, each of the cards of each deck being visually distinguishable from the cards of the other deck, and each card being of size and shape to fit with each of the zones on said board.

2. The combination as specified in claim 1 wherein one card of each deck is identified with one of the United States.

3. The combination as specified in claim 2 wherein one card of each deck is identified with the District of C0lumbia and another card of each deck bears indicia enabling it to be used as a Wild card.

4. The combination as specified in claim 3 wherein each card is identified with a different political unit and is marked with a numerical representation of an attribute of the political unit with which it is identified.

5. The combination as specified in claim 4 wherein the attribute is the number of electoral votes accorded the political unit during presidential elections.

6. The game apparatus of claim 1 wherein each column has 8 zones, each row has 8 zones and each deck of cards has at least 50 cards.

7. The game apparatus of claim 6 wherein the indicia on each card is an outline of the geographical boundary of a state of the United States, each card of the same deck of cards having a boundary of a diiferent state.

8. The game apparatus of claim 1 wherein the indicia on the cards comprise words.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 320,091 6/1885 Ram 273 471,666 3/1892 Doty 273-130 678,824 7/ 1901 Carney 273-130 800,941 10/ 1905 Ragsdale 273--130 1,201,100 10/1916 Rice-Wray 273- 1,571,488 2/ 1926 Moisan et al 273135 2,726,087 12/1955 Dunham 273-130 3,075,771 1/1963 Dodge 1 273130 3,309,092 3/ 1967 Hardesty et al 273-135 X FOREIGN PATENTS 654,098 12/ 1962 Canada.

DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner