WO2003074139A1

WO2003074139A1 - Planar hexagonal tiles game apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2003074139A1
Application number: PCT/HU2002/000016
Authority: WO
Inventors: Katalin CSELÕTEI; Miguel Garcia Diaz
Original assignee: Cselotei Katalin
Priority date: 2002-03-05
Filing date: 2002-03-05
Publication date: 2003-09-12

Abstract

The invention is a game apparatus comprising hexagonal, regular, equal-size tiles, divided into seven regions. In each tile, six of said regions coincide with the sides of the hexagon, and are discriminated using six different colour or symbols; the seventh contains an arabic numeral. Several games and logic puzzles are suggested that require this special set of tiles to be played or solved; a dominoes variation, a Rummikub variation, and specially a collection of logic puzzles in which a group of tiles is provided, and the goal is to form an specific shape putting them together, fulfilling the matching condition, which requires that the contact regions for any two adjacent tiles should be of the same colour or symbol. In some logic puzzles, extra conditons are demanded over the numerals in adjacent tiles. These features lead to original logic puzzles with novel aspects and a strong mathematical taste, whose difficulties ranges from the very easy to the extremely hard.

Description

Planar Hexagonal Tiles Game Apparatus

1 Description

1.1 Background Art

The prior background art comprises several games and puzzles to be played with sets of regular, hexagonal, equal-size tiles divided into six regions, coinciding with each side of the hexagon, marked with some special indicia, symbol or colour, which may be represented by the following patents:

• U.S. Patent No. 4,673,185 Morley

• U.S. Patent No. 1,362,318 Hydes

They are used to play a variant of the classical dominoes game, with two colours and a special indicia or mark, and to solve a puzzle, respectively.

1.2 Object of the Invention

The invention consists on a specific set of 120 regular, equal-size, hexagonal tiles. Its objective is to be used in a variety of games and logic puzzles of different nature. For the sake of clarity in their descriptions, two essential notions are immediately defined. A shape is a set of adjacent empty hexagons, and a configuration is an specific set of adjacent tiles. The following games and logic puzzles are suggested:

1. A variant of the dominoes games with special conditions regarding to the playability of tiles, special rules for the case when no tile can be played legally, and its own scoring system. 2. A variant of the classical Rummikub in which, in each round, players draw a number of tiles from a drawing pile, and their goal is to place them all forming common configurations over the table, available to all players. In his turn, each player can recombine all his tiles with the tiles belonging to the common configurations, maybe splitting them, or creating new ones.

3. A collection of logic puzzles following the next scheme. A set of tiles and a shape built up with the same number of hexagons are provided (see an example in Fig l.e). The goal is to place all the tiles together, forming a configuration with the latter shape and fulfilling the matching condition, which will be defined later.

1.3 Detailed description

The tiles are regular, hexagonal, and their main side is divided into seven regions. Six of them should contain, maybe partially, exactly one side, and therefore they will be designated as side regions (see Fig l.a). Conversely, each side is contained, maybe partially, by exactly one of the side regions. The seventh region will be designated as numeral region. For aesthetical and practical reasons, the preferred embodiment described later will consist of tiles with equal, symmetrical side regions. Each tile bears a different integer arabic numeral in its numeral region, ranging from 1 to 120. The aim of this number is beyond the identification of tiles, since the scoring systems and special conditions in some logic puzzles make use of it. In each tile, the side regions are differentiated one another by using six different colours or symbols

(comprising letters of any alphabet, numerals of any numeric system, and icons), which are the same in all tiles. The back sides of all tiles are equal. The sets of 120 tiles subject to this patent are exactly the sets of all tiles of equal size which fulfill the previous specifications.

In the following paragraph, the preferred embodiment is described. Nevertheless,, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of this description, since it is possible to carry it out through a variety of other embodiments, all fulfilling the specifications provided in the previous paragraph. In each tile, the numeral region is a white circle in the mathematical center, bearing its numeral in black colour. The six side regions are equal, and result from dividing the tile into six equilateral triangles and removing from each one the sector corresponding to the numeral region. A set of six colours (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple) will be used to differentiate them. The tiles are made of wood, and are thick enough to be able to stand on their sides. The drawings included in this patent follow this specification except for the colours, which are represented by the initial letter of their names. Fig 2 shows a complete set of tiles protected by this patent.

1.4 Examples of possible games and logic puzzles, in detailed description

In the present subsection, the goals and rules concerning the games and logic puzzles that we suggest to be played with the set of tiles subject to this patent are detailed.

1.4.1 Logic puzzles

The next collection of logic puzzles is suggested. A set of tiles is provided, together with a shape built up with the same number of hexagons (see, for example, Fig l.e). The goal is to form with said tiles a configuration that has the latter given shape, and satisfying the matching condition, which is the same for all the games and logic puzzles subject to this patent: any two adjacent must have contact regions with matching colour. An equivalent, altough more complex formulation, is that any two adjacent side regions belonging to different tiles must be of the same colour. Fig l.e shows an example of a legal and an illegal way to play one tile, depending on this condition. As an example of logic puzzle, the tiles 30, 32, 51, 53, 71, 81, 83, 89 and 94 may be used to form a configuration whose shape is shown in Fig l.e, and a valid solution is shown in Fig l.f. In some of the logic puzzles additional information about the solution is provided: the position of one or more tiles, possibly including their orientations. For example, the tiles 31, 45, 59, 83, 112 and 114 may be used to make the shape in Fig l.b, constrained to the partial information available about the position of tiles 31 and 83. A special category demands additional conditions over the numbers of the tiles. For example, setting an upper bound for the difference of the numbers belonging to any adjacent tiles, or for its greatest common divisor. For this reason, the numeral in each tile is not merely an identification number, since it plays an important role in some logic puzzles. It is remarkable the wide range of difficulties of these logic puzzles, from the very easy to the extremely hard.

1.5 Dominoes variation with hexagonal tiles

The game follows the round system. When each round begins, a number of tiles, agreed by the players, is drawn by them all from a drawing pile, and in their turns, players must connect one of their tiles with the configuration which is already on the table. Better players may be handicapped with a higher number of tiles. In this dominoes game, not only the matching condition must be satisfied: additionally, it is also demanded that each tile has at least two adjacent tiles. Fig l.d shows an example of a legal, and an illegal way to play a tile. The round is finished when one of the players suceeds in getting rid of all his tiles. In that moment, players get a score according to their remaining tiles. Moreover, they receive extra points for special kinds of connections with a high number of adjacent tiles, etc. When no tile can be played, the player must draw three tiles from the drawing pile, and later he may play one of his tiles under a less restrictive connectivity condition.

The game shows considerable difference from the variations of dominoes previously played, and is worth playing. 1.6 Rummikub variation with hexagonal tiles

This game also follows the round system. When each round begins, a group of tiles is given to each player, and the winner is that who is the first to get rid of them all, by connecting them to configurations on the table, available to all players, or by forming new ones, satisfying always the matching condition described in the previous paragraph. Better players may be handicapped with a higher number of tiles. The score system is also based on the numbers of the remaining tiles of each player. The difference respect to dominoes games is that, in each players' turn, the player has a chance to recombine all the tiles on the table with his own tiles, producing new configurations or splitting the existing ones. However, there are certain conditions of symmetry, minimum number of tiles, mmimu number of adjacent tiles to each tile, which these configurations should fulfill in order to be accepted. In the traditional Rummikub game, only two sorts of configurations are legal, but within the game here described thousands are possible. Consequently, it is particularly complex and interesting.

1.7 Brief description of the drawings

l.a) One tile following all the specifications in the description,

l.b) An example of logic puzzle with partial information,

l.e) An example that illustrates the matching condition.

l.d) An example that illustrates the playability of tiles in the dominoes variant game,

l.e) A standard logic puzzle,

l.f) A solution for the previous logic puzzle.

2) An example of complete set of tiles protected by this patent.

Claims

2 Claims What is claimed:

(1) A game apparatus consisting of the set of 120 different, regular, equal-size hexagonal tiles verifying the following specifications:

(a) The main side of each tile is divided into seven regions, one of them an arbitrary planar shape -designated by numeral region-, and each one of the other six regions -designated by side regions- containing, partially or completely, exactly one of the sides of the hexagon. Conversely, each side of the hexagons is contained, partially or completely, exactly by one of the side regions.

(b) In each tile, the side regions are discriminated from each other using six different colours or symbols (comprising letters of any alphabet, numerals of any numeric system, and icons), which are the same for all tiles.

(c) each sequence of six different colours or symbols is present in one and only one tile, therefore exactly defining a set of 120 tiles, corresponding to all mathematical combinations of colours or symbols.

(2) The game apparatus according to claim (1) wherein each numeral region bears one of the integer arabic numerals ranging from 1 to 120, each numeral appearing exactly in one tile.

(3) The game apparatus according to claims (l)-(2) wherein the back side of all tiles is equal.

(4) The game apparatus according to any of the previous claims, wherein the borders of tiles are enriched with curved shaped like the ones used for the pieces of traditional jigsaw puzzles, to be connected to each other.