Weight Control Game Apparatus

The present invention relates to the field of board games. Presently much attention has been directed to weight control. In most weight control programs the relation between the food consumption and exercise activity is a vital element. Many board games are known which provide instruction in some field of endeavor, e.g., business, in an entertaining manner. The present board game, which may be played by one or more players, is directed at emphasizing the relationship between food consumption and exercise activity in a weight control program.

The present weight control game apparatus includes a gameboard having a plurality of consecutive playing positions between starting and finishing positions and chance selection means for enabling a player to make a chance selection of one of a variety of foods and exercise activities. Each of the foods and exercise activities has a number of playing position moves corresponding at least approximately to its caloric value. A first marker is provided to be moved between the playing positions when a food is selected. A second marker is provided to be moved between playing positions when an exercise activity is selected. The relative positions of the markers determines whether the player has lost or gained weight and the amount of weight lost or gained.

The sole FIGURE of the Drawing shows a gameboard and associate apparatus comprising the preferred embodiment of the present weight control game.

The preferred embodiment of the present weight control game includes a gameboard 1 for each player. Gameboard 1 is partitioned into an "eat" side, labelled "(+) CONSUME CALORIES", corresponding to the consumption of foods and a "feat" side, labelled "(-) EXPEND CALORIES", corresponding to the performance of exercise activities or feats. Each side has a series of playing positions 3 following a generally serpentine path between starting and finishing positions. At each playing position 3, an aperture 5 is formed partially through the gameboard 1 to receive one end of a peg 7 utilized as a playing position maker. Desirably, pegs having two ends of the same shape but of different colors, e.g., white and red, are provided. A peg is inserted with one color up on the "eat" side and another peg is inserted with the other color up on the "feat" side as playing position markers. The word "EAT" is printed in bold face letters on the top portion of gameboard 1. An area 9 in front of the word "EAT" is provided for the placement of a card 11 drawn by a player from a pack (not shown) accompanying the game. The pack of cards contains two kinds if cards, desirably of equal number. The first kind of card has the letter "F" printed in bold face on its playing face. The other kind of card (not shown) has a symbol or picture such as, for example, a picture of a food, a relatively obese person eating or the like, associated with food consumption printed on its playing face. As will be explained later, when a card is drawn from the pack, it is placed laying face up in area 9. If a card with an "F" has been drawn, the word "FEAT" is spelled out (as is shown in the FIGURE). Otherwise, thw word "EAT" remains A pair of dice 13 is also provided. A chart 15 printed on gameboard 1 relates the number determined by a throw of the dice into a number of moves on either the "eat" side or "feat" side. An "EAT" portion of chart 15 relates the dice count to a respective food. Each food has a number of moves (i.e., "NO.PEGS") along the series of playing positions on the "eat" side of gameboard 1 corresponding to the caloric value associated with it. A "FEAT" portion of chart 15 relates the dice count to a respective feat exercise activity. Each feat exercise activity has a number of moves along the series of playing positions on the "feat" side of gameboard 1 corresponding to the caloric value associated with it. A move between two successive playing positions represents a predetermined number of calories, e.g. approximately 60.

An examination of both sides of chart 15 will reveal that for dice counts between 1 and 6 there are 4 relatively low numbers of moves, i.e., 2,1, 1 and 1 for dice counts 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, and two relatively high numbers of moves, i.e., 8 and 7 for dice counts 1 and 6, respectively, while for dice counts between 7 and 12 there is a linear or uniform distribution of numbers of moves between 1 and 6 respectively. This feature, in conjunction with the rules of the game permitting a player to throw, at his option, either one die or two dice, adds an element of strategy to the present weight control game as will later be explained.

The present weight control game may be appropriately named "EAT or FEAT" for reasons as will clear from the following description of how it is played. The game may be played by one or more players. To initiate the game, a gameboard 1 is distributed to each player and the cards are shuffled and placed playing face down in a draw stack at some convenient location between the players. If there be more than one player, the players take turns in throwing dice 13 to determine the order of play. The player throwing the highest dice count is first in the order of play.

The player whose turn it is, draws a card from the top of the draw stack and places it face up in card area 9 on his gameboard 1. If the card he has drawn has an "F" printed in its playing face, the word "FEAT" is spelled out on game board 1. Otherwise the word "EAT" will remain. The player then at his option throws either one die or two dice. (The purpose of the election of how many dice to throw will be explained below.) Assuming that the word "EAT" remains spelled out on game board 1, the player refers to the "EAT" portion of chart 15 to convert the dice count to a number of moves along the series of playing positions on the "eat" side of gameboard 1. For example, assuming that the player has thrown two dice obtaining a total dice count of 8, by reference to the "eat" portion of the chart the player is informed that a dice count of 8 corresponds to a hot cross bun with two moves associated with it. As a result, for this turn, the player moves a peg 7 two positions from the starting position on the "eat" side and inserts it with its colored (e.g., red) end up. This move corresponds to a consumption of calories approximately proportional to the number of calories associated with a hot cross bun. Had the player obtained a dice count of 12, he would have had to move position marker peg 7 six positions from the starting position on the "eat" side corresponding to the consumption of peach ice cream soda which, by comparison, has approximately three times as many calories as does a hot cross bun. When a player's turn is finished he places the card he has drawn in a discard pile. (The discard pile may be shuffled in a long game when all of the cards have been drawn from the draw stack and placed back on the draw stack.) The other players now take their turns in the same manner.

Assume now that the player during his next turn does not draw a card with "F" printed on its playing face. As a result, the word "EAT" will remain spelled out on his gameboard 1. Since during the player's last turn, he moved two playing positions on the "eat" side corresponding to the consumption of a hot cross bun, to at least neutralize his previous weight gain, he must move at least two playing positions on the "feat" side of gameboard 1. Assuming that the player now rolls one die rather than two dice and that the result is a dice count of 6, by reference to the "feat" side of chart 15 the player is instructed to move a position marker peg 7 seven playing positions 3 from the starting position on the "feat" side corresponding to a feat activity of swimming 40 minutes. Thus, at the end of two turns the player has lost weight. Furthermore the player will note that the consumption of a hot cross bun has been more than compensated for by swimming for 40 minutes.

The game continues in the aforesaid manner until one player after another reaches the finish position on either the "eat" or "feat" side of his game board 1. The player having the greatest weight loss or, if no player has lost weight, the least weight gain, is the winner of the game. If a player has reached the finish position of the "feat" side of his gameboard 1, he computes the total weight lost during the game by counting the number of remaining playing positions between the peg and the finishing position on the "eat" side of his gameboard 1 and making reference to a playing position versus weight table, such as shown below, provided with the game. If a player has reached the finish position of the "eat" side of his game board, he computes the total weight gained during the game by counting the number of remaining playing positions between the peg and the finishing position on the "feat" side of his gameboard 1 and making reference to the playing positions versus weight table.

As earlier mentioned, the distribution of calorie values as a function of dice count of both portions of chart 15 in conjunction with the rules of the present weight control game allowing a player to throw either one die or two dice at his option adds an element of strategy to the present weight control game. To understand this, noting that a dice count of 1 can occur only when one die is thrown, dice counts between 2 and 6 can occur either when one die or two dice are thrown and dice counts between 7 and 12 can occur only when two dice are thrown, the following odds can be calculated:

The above table illustrates advantages and disadvantages of throwing either one die or two dice at each of a player's turn. For example, assume a player has drawn a card such that the word "EAT" remains on gameboard 1. In this situation, it is advantageous for the player to minimize the number of moves on the "eat" side of gameboard 1. To this end, the player may decide to throw only one die because then the odds are 4 to 6 (i.e., a 66% chance) of getting only 1 or 2 moves (for dice counts 2,3,4 and 5.) However, this decision should be considered against the 2 to 6 odds, (i.e., a 33% chance) of getting 7 or 8 moves (for dice counts of 1 and 6) when only one die is thrown. Therefore, it may be better for the player to throw two dice with only 11 to 20 odds, (i.e., almost a 50% chance) of getting 1 or 2 moves and with a relatively small likelihood of getting 7 moves and no likelihood of getting 8 moves.

During play it may be desirable to utilize two pegs 7 on each side of game board 1 to keep track of the playing positions. In this case, on each side of gameboard 1 a front peg is utilized to indicate the present playing position before the dice (or die) are thrown and a back peg is utilized to indicate the last playing position before the dice (or die) are thrown. When the dice (or die) are thrown, the back peg is moved the number of moves determined by chart 15 ahead of the front peg to indicate the new playing position.

Players may wish to play a series of games before a winner is declared. In this case, the player having the greatest cumulative weight loss or least cumulative weight gained (if no player has a cumulative weight loss) is the overall winner. Players may also wish to play by partners. In this case, it is the total weight lost or gained by the partners which is considered. Players may also wish to speed up play. This can be accomplished by doubling or tripling the food portions on the "eat" side of chart 15 and correspondingly increasing the time for performing the feat activities on the "feat" side of chart 15. This corresponds to doubling or tripling the number of moves made on the "eat" and "feat" sides of gameboard 1. It should be noted however, that when this is done, the number of playing positions counted to determine the weight gain or loss at the end of a game are not doubled (or tripled). It may also be desired to increase the food portions without correspondingly increasing the times of the heat activities. This tends to make it more difficult to lose weight than gain weight during the weight control game and therefore adds an additional element of reality to the present weight control game. The latter effect may also be produced by utilizing less "feat" cards than "eat" cards rather than utilizing an equal number if "eat" and "feat" cards. Furthermore, while the present weight control game has been described in terms of a gameboard 1 having two series of playing positions, a game board may also be provided having a single series of playing positions. In this case a peg of one color is moved along the single series when "EAT" is spelled out and a peg of another color is moved along the same series when the word "FEAT" is spelled out. At the end of the game, when one of the colored pegs is at the finishing position of the series, the weight gain or loss is calculated by the number of playing positions between the two pegs. In addition while cards and dice have been described as manually manipuable chance selection apparatus, such as a spinning device or the like, may be utilized. These and other modifications to the present weight control game apparatus are intended to be within the scope of the present invention as defined in the following claims.