Gameboard With Two Playing Surfaces And Indicating Discs Slidable Therebetween

Abstract

A gameboard having two playing surfaces for the playing of "Bingo," "Lucky" and similar games and having a matrix of uniformly sized channels within which are positioned permanently attached slidable inserts. The inserts or markers, have indicia on opposed surfaces and the thickness of each of the inserts is less than the depth of the corresponding channel so that the insert may be manually urged from the flush position with one face of the board to a recessed position flush with the opposite face of the board, thereby indicating the call of the number and also permitting the use of both sides of the board as alternate "Bingo" cards. In the play of the game, the "call" of the number is preferably intended to be accomplished with a chance selector which agitates dice to designate the proper column and number to be played by each of the players.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention, in general, relates to new and useful improvements in amusement apparatus and, in particular, is directed to a gameboard having opposed playing surfaces for playing "Bingo," "Lucky" or similar games in which the gameboard has permanently attached game pieces or markers in the form of inserts which are adapted to be independently urged inwardly in corresponding channels provided in the board.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Heretofore, Bingo and similar games have been played with cards on which markers such as small discs, etc., have been placed over the identifying indicia on the cards as each number is called. Although there have been Bingo boards devised in the past which are, to some degree, an improvement over the conventional boards they have not, evidently, attained significant acceptability and, for the most part, have failed to reach any significant degree of commercialization.

Pasquale (U.S. Pat. No. 2,315,088) has developed a board which employs permanent game pieces instead of separate elements such as corn and other materials which frequently becomes displaced from the selected positions on the board during the play of the game. Pasquale's gameboard involves a construction with spring mounted pushbuttons which are mounted on the top plate of the board.

A gameboard for Bingo patented by Spitzner (U.S. Pat. No. 2,322,324) has means for covering or marking the numbers as they are called by having on the board individually mounted transparent slides for covering the numbers and also for showing or indicating the numbers thus covered.

Jones (U.S. Pat. No. 2,409,493) disclosing a gameboard relating to the play of such games as Bingo and/or Lucky whereby when a number is called by the master of ceremonies a member on the gameboard bearing this numeral can be pivoted to expose a letter in large type and a number in small type instead of having the face of the numeral covered by a movable object.

This representative prior art discloses rather complicated apparatus for eliminating the employment of loose or unattached markers and in none of the prior art of which Applicant is aware has the combination of securely attached markers been combined with the concept of a gameboard having two playable faces wherein the attached markers cooperate with the board panel in such a manner that either face can be alternatively employed in the play of the game.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprehends a gameboard for the playing of Bingo, Lucky or similar games which lends itself particularly to use by children but which has the quality of maintaining the interest of adults.

It therefore becomes an object of the invention to provide a gameboard in which the series of numbers are permanently affixed to the board and convenient means are provided for marking the numbers as they are selected, such as by the throw of dice.

It is an object to provide a gameboard with numbers and/or other indicia printed, impressed, embossed or otherwise affixed to the surface of inserts and having means for temporarily depressing the numbered inserts as they are "called" as by a chance selector.

It is a further object to provide a gameboard having alternate playing surfaces on opposed sides.

It is yet another object to provide a simplified gameboard which can be readily manipulated by small children.

These and further objects of this invention and the attendant advantages will be readily apparent as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description. The present invention, accordingly, consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the gameboard hereinafter described and of which the inventive scope will be indicated in the claims appended to the application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

In the accompanying drawing wherein like reference characters indicate like parts in the several figures:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the gameboard of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the gameboard;

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the gameboard;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged developed fragmentary sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 5--5 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 6--6 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 7--7 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 8--8 of FIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The invention contemplates the use of a plurality of gameboards as generally shown by the numeral (10) in FIG. 1 of the drawing. Each of the gameboards is comprised of a matching pair of rectangular frames (12), (14) which are joined in back-to-back relationship. As shown in FIG. 1, each frame consists of a panel (16), (18) and a peripheral depending wall (20), (22), respectively. When the gameboard is assembled by joining the frames at their depending wall edges the panels are held in spaced relation to the extent shown in FIG. 1.

Each of the panels is formed with a matrix of holes (24) arranged in a predetermined regular pattern and the holes in the panels are of uniform size and in alignment when the frames are joined.

In the disclosed embodiment as best shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, there are five horizontal rows of holes and five vertical columns of holes.

Interspaced between the plates and concentric with each of the aligned pair of holes is an enlarged tube or sleeve (26). Each sleeve has an internal diameter slightly larger than the diameters of the holes it joins. The frames, being of plastic, can be integrally molded with sleeves at alternate holes as shown in FIG. 4. Thus, when two frames each having integrally molded sleeves at different alternate holes, are joined together, a complete series of through channels are formed in the gameboard (FIG. 5). The wall (28) of each sleeve is formed with two diametrically positioned full slots (30) extending the total length of the sleeve.

A disc (32) as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is slidably mounted in each of the sleeves. The disc has two diametrically opposed ear-type members or extensions (34) radially extending from the circumference of the disc and which mate with the slots (30) in the sleeve. In the assembly of the gameboard, the discs are slidably inserted into their respective sleeves prior to joining the two frames together (FIG. 4).

Since each disc has a slightly larger diameter than the corresponding holes in the plates and has ear-type extension members which cooperate with the slots in the sleeve, the disc is prevented from rotatable motion and is retained in the sleeve interspaced between the two panels.

As illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 6, the overall thickness of the disc is less than the length of the sleeve and the disc may be urged from a position wherein one surface is substantially flush with the surface of one panel of the board to a position whereat the opposite surface of the disc is substantially flush with the face of the other panel of the board. The disc, having indicia on both surfaces (FIGS. 7 and 8), thereby serves the purpose of being a permanently attached marker and accomodates a board having two opposed, alternate, playing panels.

The gameboard may be formed from any conventional, durable material and especially of the type which permits mass-production of the board. By way of example, a synthetic plastic, e.g., high impact butadiene modified polystyrene is a suitable material and the gameboard may be formed by injection molding. The gameboard may be brightly colored to further enhance its attractiveness. Any of the molding techniques known to the art can be used in forming the gameboard panels, but injection molding is preferred. As an alternative to styrene a methyl mthacrylate plastic can be employed.

In the utilization of the device of the invention it is intended that two, three and four or possibly more gameboards having a different combination of indicia on each of their two playing sides be played by an equivalent number of children each having their own board. In the play of the game, a chance selector is the preferred device for calling the appropriate numbers and letters according to the well known rules of Bingo. A chance selector such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,369 is the preferred type of device. The die agitating device as disclosed in the patent is modified to the extent of having two dice, each die having the conventional six-faced indicia-bearing surfaces with one of the die having numbers from one to six and the other die having the letters corresponding to the word "Bingo" or "Lucky" on five of the six surfaces and indicia indicating a free call such as a star on the sixth face corresponding to the indicia on both sides of the center disc. As will be readily understood both dice are located within the cage of the dice agitating device which may be easily manipulated by each child playing the game in turn.

When the letter and number is selected by the chance selector each of the players having the particular combination on their respective board will depress the corresponding disc on the board whereby the number will be at a level below the surface of the board proper but will still be viewable. This is continued until the desired sequence of numbers are first depressed by any one particular player. After the numbers across any predetermined line have been depressed, the game is completed and the winning gameboard may be readily checked as the numbers in such series will all be in a depressed condition.

Further games may be played by depressing all the discs and reversing the boards to use the opposed side of each board which will have a different combination of numbers thereon.

It thus will be seen that a gameboard has been provided which achieves the several objectives of the invention and which is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible additional embodiments might be made of the invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein described or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A gameboard comprising:

a. a pair of opposed and spaced panels, each of said panels having a plurality of holes formed therein with the holes of both panels being aligned,

b. sleeves forming channels between the spaced panels, said sleeves in number corresponding to the number of pairs of aligned holes and concentric therewith, and

c. a plurality of discs, each of said discs having indicia affixed to top and bottom surfaces and a single disc slidably and inescapably mounted in each sleeve between the spaced panels, said discs having a thickness less than the length of the sleeve whereby the discs, constituting the playing members of the gameboard can be depressed from a position flush with the surface of one panel to a position flush with the surface of the opposed panel.

2. The gameboard of claim 1 wherein each sleeve has an internal diameter larger than the diameter of the pair of holes with which said sleeve is in concentric alignment.

3. The gameboard of claim 1 wherein the discs are constructed with radially extending ear-type members and the sleeves have channels extending their full length, said disc ear-type members mating with and cooperating with the sleeve channels to prevent the discs from rotatable motion.