US2839303A - Game apparatus with rotatable marble transporting discs - Google Patents

Description

17;"1958 QS-B'AKER 2,839,303 AME APPARATUS WITH ROTATABLE MARBLE TRANSPORTING DISCS Fii'd Nov.' 4, 1955 a" I l. '0 I I j ygyi gya 6 J6 m/Jw /7 lZa 2s 24 3/ 32- MENTOR ATTORNEYSI United States atent GAME APPARATUS WITH ROTATABLE MARBLE TRANSPORTING DISCS David S. Baker, New York, N. Y.

Application November 4, 1955, Serial No. 544,990

2 Claims. (Cl. 273-134) This invention relates to parlor games and more particularly to a game device wherein the combination of skill and chance determines the extent of advance of the players markers by virtue of movement thereof by rotatable discs.

I have observed that most if not all commercially successful game devices, particularly those including one or more moving parts, are characterized by structural simplicity and readily understandable playing procedure. I have further observed that in most if not all of such games the players success or lack of it is directly attributable to chance, i. e. the throw of dice or the spinning of a wheel, for example, with little or no reliance on the players skill or strategy. Such games accordingly lack educational characteristics (they are not mentally stimulating) and to a certain extent the element of suspense as would otherwise be present were skill or strategy required in addition to good luck.

Furthermore many of such games have a limited market because of their lack of appeal to any but the immature mind; thus the adult or mature juvenile is, in effect, excluded from the market as he or she is not mentally stimuated and hence not amused in the playing of such games.

It is, accordingly, among the objects of my invention to provide a game device the successful playing of which depends on a combination of chance and skill. A further object is to provide a game characterized by structural simplicity and readily understandable procedural rules. A still further object is to provide a game of the above nature that may be inexpensively manufactured and at the same time be durable over an extended period of use. Other objects will in part be pointed out and in part apparent hereinafter.

In the drawing wherein I have shown one form of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of my game;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Figs. 3 and 4 are details illustrating the manner in which the rotatable and stationary discs of my game are mounted on a central supporting post.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Referring now to the drawing, the game structurally comprises in general a base, generally indicated at 10, having centrally secured thereto an upstanding square or non-circular post 11 on which are rotatably mounted discs 12 and 13, respectively, a stationary disc 14 and a spinner 15, the spinner being held in proper operating position by a thumb screw 16 threaded into the upper end of post 11.

Base is preferably square and may be fabricated from heavy cardboard, plastic or any other suitable material. If cardboard is used, the base may include a bottom plate 17, to which is secured in any suitable manner an upper plate 18 which, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, includes preferably four recesses, 18, 19, 20 and 21.

Patented June 17, 1958 This upper plate 18 is circularly hollowed out so as to provide a large diameter hole 22 in base 10, discs 12, 13 and 14 being concentrically disposed in relation to such hole.

Fitted about post 11 and resting on bottom plate 17 is a friction reducing washer 23 which may or may not be fastened to the plate, as desired. Bottom disc 12 rests on washer 23 and is accordingly spaced a slight distance above the top of plate 17 so as to be easily rotatable relative thereto. Another antifriction washer 24 is disposed on top of disc 12 and is preferably fastened thereto, this washer having a circular hole (see Fig. 3) so as to permit is rotation and accordingly rotation of the disc relative to the squared post 11.

Disposed on top of rotatable disc 12 is a stationary disc 25 on the top of which is secured a washer 26 having a square hole (see Fig. 4) through which post 11 extends, thus to preclude rotation of disc 25 relative to the post and to disc 12. This last-mentioned disc 25 spaces rotatable discs 12 and 13, which latter disc comprises upper and lower plates 13a and 13b secured to the opposite sides of and accordingly spaced by an intervening plate 27, these three plates havinga circular hole through which post 11 extends so as to permit rotation of the plates and accordingly the composite disc 13 relative not only to the post but also to the lower disc 12 and base 10. Furthermore immovable disc 25, by virtue of its relationship to rotatable discs 12 and 13 precludes rotation of one of discs 12 or 13 when the other is rotated. On the top of disc 13 is preferably disposed an antifriction washer 28 on which rests another anti-friction washer 29 secured to the underside of top disc 14, washer 29 and disc 14 being provided with a square hole through which post 11 extends so as to preclude relative rotation between this disc and the post.

It may now be seen that disc 12 is spaced from base plate 17 and is rotatable relative thereto, that disc 13 is spaced from disc 12 and is rotatable relative thereto and relative to base 10, and that top disc 14 is spaced from rotatable disc 13, but is held stationary.

As best shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, base 10 is provided with a ring 30 of indicia which illustratively is segmented into quadrants by virtue of the provision of recesses 18-21. Each of these segments is in turn subdivided into a number of lesser, or rather shorter sections, illustratively seven in number, and so numbered. As may be seen in Figure 2, lower rotatable disc 12 may be formed by upper and lower plates 31 and 32 which are secured together in any suitable manner, and in turn secured to the top of a spacer disc 12a which rides on washer 23. The plates are peripherally punched or cut out so as to provide generally U-shaped grooves or slots 33 in the upper plate and registering downwardly inclined tongues or ramps 34 in the lower plate, each registering slot and ramp accordingly forming with the edge of the hole a pocket 35 for the reception of a playing marble 36 or the like. As pointed out above, upper rotatable disc 13 includes lower and upper plates 13a and 13b, the latter plate being peripherally punched as shown in Figure 1 to provide a circular row of marble-receiving holes 37 (see also Figure 2). It will now appear that when my game is played, as will be described hereinafter, a marble deposited in one of pockets 35 will be transported upon rotation of lower disc 12 unitl the pocket in which the marble reposes passes one of recesses 1S21, e. g. recess 20. If the marble is in the pocket at the time such pocket passes the recess, it will roll by gravity out of its pocket down ramp 34 into recess 2%), for example. It will also appear that if a marble is deposited in one of holes 37 in upper rotatable disc 13, it will merely be transported upon disc 12 or hole 37 of slow disc '2 I.) rotation of the disc, without being released, other than manually, therefrom.

. which may be identified by the letters A-H. The four segments or quadrants of upper rotatable disc 13 are defined by differently colored starting stations 38, 39, 40 and 41, printedon stationary disc 14, which are inregistry with the correspondingly colored recesses 18, 19, 20 and 21. These recesses, as will more clearly appear hereinafter, are respectively home stations for the several players and also are penalty boxes for penalizing the unfortunate player during thecourse of the game.

The periphery of stationary discf14 is provided with a ring 42 of indicia segmentedintoquadrants by stations 3841, these indicia being illustratively seven in number and'numbered accordingly The center portion of stationary disc 14 which underlies spinner 15 is provided with concentric rings 43 and 44 of indicia, the outer ring 43 illustratively being provided with indicia ranging from 1-8, the inner ring being provided with indicia illustratively 0, 2, and 3 with a bonus indicia, illustratively 8, optionally provided. These two indicia rings 43 and 44 are preferably differently colored as arediscs 12 and 13, the color of ring 43 and disc 12 being the same, and the color of inner ring 44 and upper disc 13 being the same. Thus during the play of the game when the pointer is spun the proper disc for angular movement may easily be identified.

My game might be characterized as a bare and tortoise racing game with marbles, in the embodiment disclosed, for two, three or four players. The lower rotatable disc 12 may be identified as the fast or hare ring, while the upper disc 13 may be considered the slow or tortoise ring. a

While my game may be' played in various ways, I have found the following to be enjoyable: Each player may be provided with three marbles 36, each set of marbles being colored to correspond with the players home recess, such as recess .21; Each player then spins spinner 15 to determine (on the outer ring 43) his starting number. or

position. He then places one marble at the thusly determined station in either the corresponding pocket 35 or hole 37; for example, if the'player whose home station is 21 spins the spinner so that it stops at station #2, he has the option of placing his marble either in pocket N of fast 13 counterclockwise of his home station 21. 1 i 'After all the players have located their starting number or position, the player who spun the highest number may become the operator for that particular game, he alone spinning the spinner and moving the discs accordingly. Of

course, in case of a tie for operator. the players spin again. After eachplayers marbleis in starting position,

the spinner is spun with reference to inner or slow ring 44 and the slow disc 13 is moved angularly counterclockwise in accordance with the number indicated by the spinner'on ring 44. The operator again spins the spinner with relation to the outer or fast ring 43 to determine the extent of angular counterclockwise movement of fast disc '12. Thus, for example, if on the first spin the spinner stops at 3 on inner ring 44, disc 13 is moved counterclockwise 3 spaces, as determined by the numbers on ring 42 of disc 14. If on the second spin the spinner should stop at 6 on outer ring 43, then the fast disc 12 would be moved 6 spacesor stations, as determined by the ring 30 of numbers onbase 10. V

Before the operator spins the disc again the several players study the positions of their marbles so as to decide whichtrack they want their marbles to travel on. Thus, ifa-player has a marble in a hole37 in slow disc 13, he

- scale for determining the rotativeadvance of said second may shift it to a registering pocket 35 in the fast disc 12. The players preferably make their plays one at a time starting with the player at the right of the operator who is the last one to make his play. Each players second and third marble may enter the race on successive plays at any time after the first play, starting at station #1 counterclockwise of his starting location in either of discs 12 or 13.

It may occur that during the rotation of disc 12 one of its pockets 35 holding a players marble may register with or pass one of penaltypockets 1821, in which event the marble would roll down a ramp 34 out of the pocket into one of the penalty boxes; When this occurs the marble can get out of the penalty'boxes only on the following conditions:

(1) Marbles entering the penalty box on each turn free a corresponding number of marbles that may be in the box; F or example, if there are two marbles in the penalty box and oneenters, only one (the first to enter) is freed.

(2) Two or more marbles of the same color in a penalty box are automatically freed (3) Any marble in a penalty box can be freed only by the entrance of another marble, regardless of its color.

After a marble has been freed from a penalty box it is placed in the next station #1 on either of the discs 12 or 13 counterclockwise of the penalty box from which the marble was freed. If two or more marbles are freed at one time, the'last one to enter takes station #1, the next station #2, etc..

As I have stated hereinabove, the game may be played in various ways, but when played as. described, Ihave found it to be quite enjoyable through the judicious use of strategy in transferring marbles from the slow to the fast track and vice versa, depending on the relationship of any given marble to the penalty box which it is appreaching. The winner of the game, of course, is he who first moves all his marbles 360 from the starting position into his home box.

Accordingly it may be seen that I have provided a game. that attains the several objects set forth hereinabove ina thoroughly practical and efficient manner.

I claim:

1. Ina game apparatus, in combination, a base, ,a post secured to said base and extending upwardly thereof from its center, a lower disc rotatably mounted on said post and manually rotatable relative to said base, said disc having formed therein regularly annularly spaced holes adapted to receive and transport a playing piece, such as a marble, upon manipuiationby a player of the game,

said second disc having marble receptacles therein from which the marbles can be removed by manual effort only, and a counter having slow and fast scales, the arrangement of the receptacles in the second disc and the holes in the first disc being such that advance of a marblewhile rcposing in the second disc is determined by saidslow disc, while, if the player chooses to expedite the advance of his marble, he may manually remove it from the sec- 0nd or slowdisc and place it in a hole in the first or fast disc whose rotativc advance is determined by said fast scale whereby the player moving his marble from the slow disc to the fast disc takes the chance of his "so-moved marble being carried to a penalty pocket automatically should the counter so dictate, said counter including .a manually operable spinner registrable with said scales to determine the rotative advance of said discs.

2. In a game apparatus, in combination, a base, a support fastened to said base and extending upwardly therefrom, a fast disc rotatably mounted on said support, a slow disc rotatably mounted on said support above said fast disc, said fast disc having a plurality of playing piece receptacles formed around the periphery thereof and opening to a registering plurality of hazard or penalty pockets angularly formed in said base but with lesser frequency than the receptacles in said "fast disc, each of said pockets being of such depth that when a playing piece is transported into registry therewith, it will fall from said fast disc automatically into the registering pocket, and a slow disc rotatably mounted on said support above said fast disc and being of lesser diameter than said fast disc and having angularly spaced playing piece receiving holes adjacent its periphery adapted to manually receive and retain playing pieces deposited therein, whereby any playing piece placed in said slow disc can only be manually retrieved therefrom, and a counter having slow and fast scales, said slow scale having low value digits and said fast scale having high value digits, the arrangement of the holes in said slow disc and the receptacles in said fast disc being such that advance of a playing piece reposing in said slow disc is determined by said slow scale for determining the rotative advance of said slow disc, While, if the player chooses to expedite the advance of the playing piece, he may manually remove it from said slow disc and place it in a receptacle in said fast disc whose rotative advance is determined by said fast scale digits whereby the player moving his playing piece from said slow disc to said fast disc, takes the chance of his so-moved playing piece being carried to a penalty pocket automatically should the fast scale on the counter so dictate, said counter including a manually operable spinner registrable with said scales to determine the rotative advance of said disc.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,215,696 Graves Sept. 24, 1940 2,682,408 Warns et al June 29, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 403,761 Great Britain Jan. 4, 1934 569,835 Great Britain June 11, 1945

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