Board Game Apparatus and Method of Playing

This invention relates to games and, more particularly, to board games having a game path to be negotiated by playing pieces.

There have been many board games devised over the years. Most of these games involve players each of whom moves an individual piece along a game path to a game end, the player having the first piece to arrive at such end being the winner. Such prior art games normally have a means for selecting moves to be made by the pieces which involve both chance and strategic skill. It is unusual, however, for a board game to require manipulative skill to be exercised by the individual players even though such skill requirement would enhance the play value of the game.

In most prior art board games the play pieces may vary in size or shape from one another but each piece remains fixed in both size and shape throughout the game. An additional degree of excitement could be injected into such games were the size or shape of the play pieces to vary during the game and the outcome depend upon that size or shape.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and unique board game which utilizes the manipulative ability of the players in deciding the outcome of the game.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved board game in which size and shape of the characters changes during the game depending on the physical ability of the players involved.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a new board game which utilizes playing pieces which may be molded to various shapes from a pliable material and have their shapes changed during the play of the game by physical manipulation by the players, the shape of the piece determining to some extent the outcome of the game.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention are accomplished by a board game which has a plurality of positions which are to be occupied by playing pieces belonging to different players. The positions define a game path to be followed from a start to a finish. A selecting device which depends upon chance determines the length of each move to be made by each player. A number of different identifiable playing pieces are molded from a pliable material by the players and individual board spaces are identified with individual ones of the pieces. If a player lands on a board space belonging to another player, his piece is flattened by the other player hitting the piece. The board also contains positions which require that the size of pieces be measured and that certain actions be taken depending upon the size of pieces landing thereon. Consequently, the size to which a piece has been flattened and widened becomes determinative of a player's movement along the game path and the ability to flatten another player's piece becomes important.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a reading of the specification taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like elements in the several views.

FIG. 1 is a top view of a game board which is a part of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a mold for shaping pliable material into the playing pieces used in the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagramatic view of a spinner used to determine moves to be made in playing the game of this invention; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a mallet utilized to flatten the playing pieces in playing the game of this invention.

Referring now to the drawings and, more particularly, to FIG. 1, there is shown a playing board 10 for a game constructed in accordance with the invention. The playing board 10 has arranged thereon a number of positions 11 through 55 which define a game path which proceeds from a start at position 11 to a finish at position 55. In the preferred embodiment various of the positions are identified with playing pieces by being colored to match the color of the individual playing pieces. For example, spaces numbered 13, 20, 22, 32, 43, 48, and 51 may be colored purple in a preferred embodiment to match the color of a purple piece utilized by one of the players. In like manner, various other positions may be colored blue, yellow, and orange in a preferred embodiment to match other individual playing pieces.

In order to lend excitement to the game, various of the other positions direct players landing pieces thereon to move those pieces to other positions. For example, position 15 is labeled "ahead two" so that a player landing his piece thereon moves that piece ahead two more positions to position 17. The same sort of game enhancement is provided by squares 21, 25, 27, 30, 37, 44, 46, and 54 which direct players to move their pieces "ahead" and "back" by varying amounts. Other designations of moves might be made without modifying the philosophy of the play of the game substantially.

The board 10 also includes positions 18, 31, 42, and 50 which are identified as "size check" positions. These are used in association with the positions 34 and 40 which are labeled "remold" to provide the unique form of play to this particular game, as will be explained hereinafter.

Referring now to FIG. 2 there is shown a playing piece 60 which in the preferred embodiment is shaped by a mold 62 from a material such as moldable clay. The mold 62 has two recessed cavities 64 separated by a hinge 66 about which the cavities 64 may be pivoted so that when clay or other moldable material is placed therein and the cavities are brought together a shaped playing piece 60 will be produced. The mold 62 may be constructed of a relatively hard plastic material such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene which is inexpensive and may be molded into a hard smooth interior surface shaped to provide a playing piece of appropriate exterior finish.

Another part of the preferred embodiment of the game of this invention is a spinner shown in FIG. 3 which is utilized in playing to select the length of moves to be made by the players. The spinner is of a well known type having, in the preferred embodiment, six possible positions which provide moves of from one to six positions on the board simply by rotating the arrow 72 in a well known manner. Such spinners are found in wide use in the playing of various games.

An additional part of the preferred embodiment of the game of this invention is a hand mallet 74 shown in FIG. 4, one of which is furnished to each player. The hand mallet 74 shown in FIG. 4 may be constructed of a relatively hard plastic material which is generally insensitive to the shock which might be caused by a person gripping the mallet 74 about the exterior of its cylindrical surface and bringing its base down hard upon the playing surface. The use of the hand mallet 74 will be described in the following discussion of the play involved in the preferred embodiment of the game.

To use the game board 10 in playing a preferred embodiment of the game, two to four players each select a particular color of playing piece by selecting the particular color of moldable material such as clay from which the playing piece is to be constructed. Having selected the color of clay, the mold 62 is applied to the clay to produce a piece 60 of the desired identifying color. Such identification might be made in another way such as by placing a number on the playing piece or forming it in a different shape than are other such pieces formed or in some other manner. Once formed, the pieces 60 are placed on the start position and a player is selected to begin, either by chance or otherwise. In the preferred embodiment, the beginning player spins the pointer 72 of the spinner 70 and moves the number of positions determined by the final position of the pointer 72. For example, if the spinner dial 72 lands on the number three the first player moves his playing piece 60 to the position 14. In the preferred embodiment the position 14 is colored, and if another of the players has a playing piece which is the same color as the position 14 then that player brings his hand mallet 74 down upon the piece landing on the position 14 and attempts to flatten that piece.

The players continue to move their pieces ahead in rotation using the spinner 70 and the instructions printed on the game board. The pieces are flattened and reflattened as they land on squares identified with other players. Ultimately one or more of the pieces will land on a position such as the position 18 which is designated "size check". If such a piece has been flattened so that it is too large to fit within the boundaries of the position labeled "size check," then the piece must be remolded with the mold 62 and moved, in the preferred embodiment, back to the immediately preceding "size check" position (in the case of the size check position 18, back to the start). After being so moved, the piece 60 is advanced as explained before. If when subjected to a "size check" the piece is sufficiently small that it does not overlap the boundaries of the position, then it may be left on the "size check" position and advanced as before in normal rotation. If a player should have his piece land on a position labeled "remold," he may utilize the mold 62 to reform his playing piece 60 into original shape. The players move their pieces 60 until a first piece 60 arrives at the finish position 55 to win the game. Of course, various changes may be made in the labeling of the various positions so that moves are changed, varied, or the game is otherwise restructured without substantially varying the novelty provided by utilizing pieces the shape and size of which is changed during the playing of the game to affect the advance of the pieces and often the outcome of the game. For example, one variation which might be made would be to utilize positions of different sizes and molds capable of casting playing pieces of different sizes and require that a piece be of less than the size of a particular position to land thereon. The need to physically change the shape of the pieces during the progress of the game lends a manipulative requirement to the game which substantially enhances and makes more exciting the playing of the game.

While there has been shown and described a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications might be made within the spirit and scope of the invention.