TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to electronic games.

It is an object of this invention to provide the public with a useful alternative to existing games of this type.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

According to one form of the invention there is proposed an apparatus including a board for assistance of playing a game, a plurality of spaced apart electric lights positioned so as to be visible to players adjacent the board at least when illuminated, electronic circuit means connected to each of the electric lights, a first and second switch at least one of these being accessible by a respective one of a plurality of players adjacent the board connected with the electronic means such that upon activation of the first switch the electronic means are adapted to effect a connection of a power supply to respective electric lights so that each will be repetitively caused to be illuminated and extinguished, and such that upon activation of the second switch the electronic means are adapted to effect a connection of a power supply to respective electric lights such that a location on the board is thereby identified, and such location uniquely identifies one only of a plurality of thus selectable indicia or indicium on or with the board by which play of the game is progressed.

In preference the electric lights are each a light emitting diode.

In preference the electronic means are adapted to effect a connection of the power supply to respective electric lights so that each will successively be repetitively caused to be alight and extinguished with a rapidity such that a player will at least not easily be able to select the location uniquely identified by selection of the time when the second switch is activated.

In preference the electronic means are adapted to effect a connection of the power supply to respective electric lights so that a first light will be extinguished before a second light is lit so that there is firstly a visually discernible lighting pattern useful to players to indicate the apparatus is operating and secondly

^• that the rate of extinguishing a first light before lighting a second light is set at a rate so that a player can make an attempt to select the location uniquely identified by the lit light when the second switch is activated.

In preference the indicium or indicia comprise the letters of an alphabet and each identifiable location identifies a unique selection of some only of the letters of the alphabet each identifiable location identifying different ones of the alphabet from each other location or locations.

In preference the alphabet is the Roman alphabet.

In preference of the letters comprising the indicia there are none which occur more times than the other.

In preference there is for each of one or more players adjacent the board a sheet of paper having markings thereon identifying squares in a matrix for recording in each of the squares a respective letter of the alphabet from those successively and uniquely chosen in turn for each player.

Preferably the sheet of paper has further markings thereon identifying further squares each square uniquely associated with a row or column of the matrix for recording within each further square a score associated with the letters located in the associated row or column.

In preference the indicium or indicia comprises for each of the locations a score result at least some of which are different from others and useful for simulating the progressive results that may result from a bowled ball in a game of cricket.

In preference the board is marked so as to simulate the arrangement of the players playing a cricket game and the unique locations are located to identify playing positions on the simulated cricket ground.

In preference the indicium or indicia comprises for each of the locations a score result at least some of which are different from others and useful for simulating the progressive results that may result from a pitched ball in a game of baseball.

In preference the board is marked so as to simulate the arrangement of the players playing a baseball game and the unique locations are located to identify playing positions on the simulated baseball ground.

In preference the electronic circuit means are adapted to activate the second switch a predetermined time after the said first switch is activated.

In preference the second switch is adapted to be activated by manual activation by a player.

In preference the electronic means include an oscillator connected to at least one shift register and respective output connections of the shift register being connected to each of a respective one of the electric lights such that the lights are thereby successively connectable to a power supply.

In preference the frequency at which each of the electric lights is successively illuminated is at least 10 times within each second.

According to another form of the invention there is provided a game playing apparatus comprising a plurality of illuminated electric lights, two switch means, an electrical circuit means and an electrical power supply means, each of the light means being connected to the power supply for lighting of the respective lights through the electronic circuit means, the electronic circuit means being adapted upon the activation of the first switch to cause to be temporarily lighted each of the lights in a cyclical fashion with only one light being powered at any one time, the electronic circuit means further adapted upon the activation of the second switch to cause to stop the cyclical lighting of the lights and keep lit the light that was temporarily lit at the time of the activation of the second switch, the game playing apparatus further comprising respective indicia located adjacent to each of the lights.

In preference the order in which the lights are lit is in some predetermined sequence.

In a preferred form the game playing apparatus is a board within which are located the electric lights.

in another form of the invention there is proposed a method of playing an electronic game comprising the steps of :

^• operating a first switch to initiate a predetermined sequence of lighting of a number of lights in a cyclical fashion; operating a second switch to terminate the cyclical lighting of the lights and to cause the light which was lit at the time of the activation of the second switch to remain lit; reading indicia adjacent the light kept lit by the activation of the said second switch; and determining a course of action based upon the indicia read.

In a still further form of the invention there is proposed an electronic circuit for an electronic game comprising : a plurality of electric lights; one or more shift registers adapted to control the lighting of the lights; an oscillator adapted to provide repetitive signal pulses to drive the one or more shift registers; a first switch adapted to enable the oscillator thereby initiating a cyclical lighting of the lights; and a second switch adapted to disable the oscillator thereby terminating the cyclical lighting of the lights and leaving the light lit at the time of activation of the second switch lit.

In preference the lights are light emitting diodes (LED's).

In preference the arrangement of the lights on the game playing apparatus is geometrically symmetrical.

In preference the rate of repetition of the signal pulses can be easily varied by simple modification of the electronic circuit means to result in a different cyclical period of the lights.

In preference the operation of the first switch resets the cyclical lighting of the lights.

In preference the electronic circuit includes means for the automatic cessation of the cyclical illumination of the lights with no lights illuminated if the second switch is not activated within a given time of the operation of the first switch.

In one form the electronic game simulates a ball game such as cricket or baseball. The first switch is operated by a player acting as a bowler or pitcher

and the second switch is operated by a player acting as a batsman. The bowler commences the cyclical lighting of the lights by activating the first switch and the batsman stops the cyclical lighting by activating the second switch which causes the light which was lit when the second switch was activated to remain lit thus indicating a score or batsman out according to the indicia adjacent the then lit light.

The electronic game may be used to play various word games, by a number of players, where the respective indicia next to the lights consist of one or more letters. One such game comprises activation of the first switch by one player to begin the cyclical illumination of the lights while activation of the second switch by the same or another player stops the cyclical illumination of the lights and causes the light that was lit at the time of the activation of the second switch to remain lit. The player then records this letter or chooses a letter from the letters comprising the indicia adjacent the light which is illuminated and records it. All the other players also record the letter chosen by the said player. This arrangement of players starting and stopping the cyclical lighting continues until a desired number of letters are collected by the players who then try and construct as many words as they can think of from a combination of the collected letters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of this invention preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the attached drawings in which :

FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of an electronic cricket game;

FIG. 2 shows typical score cards;

FIG. 3a is a first part of a schematic drawing of the circuit layout of the game of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3b is a second part of a schematic drawing of the circuit layout of the game of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing of one electronic crossword game.

FIG. 5 is a schematic drawing of another electronic crossword game.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Referring now to the figures in detail there is shown one embodiment of an electronic game which is designed to simulate a game of cricket this being shown in Figures 1 and 2. The embodiment includes a board 1 which comprises a planar rectilinear sheet of cardboard having printed on an upper surface markings including a cricket pitch 2, a first switch 3 representing a bowling mark, a second switch 4 representing a batting mark and thirty-two spaced apart instructions 5 each adjacent a respective one of the light emitting diodes 6 which comprise the electric light in the embodiment in each case.

Each of the instructions provides a player with an action either a score or a description of one of the results that could happen when playing a game of cricket such as BOWLED, or CAUGHT and so on.

The electronic circuit as shown in Figure 3 and is arranged so that each of the LEDs will be illuminated and extinguished in turn so that there will be a possibility of the player being able to visually assess the eventual result when the stop switch is activated. This adds to the enjoyment of the game. Selection of the frequency with which the lights are sequentially illuminated and extinguished can be varied for the type of players that is young people may have a much slower frequency as compared to more senior players. A good average frequency has been found to be 10 Hz but frequencies as low as 2 Hz may be used in one case and as high as 20 Hz in another embodiment. A range from 2 Hz to 40 Hz is the approximate extremes of frequency considered possible for the embodiment where some visual effect to be observed.

The game is played in the following sequence. A first player presses the bowling mark 3 which starts the LED's 6 to illuminate in sequence. The LED's flick on and off rapidly such that it appears that a single light is progressing around the boundary of the cricket ground. A second player presses the batting mark 4 which stops the sequence of illuminating LED's leaving a single LED illuminated adjacent a batting result. This result is scored by the batsman on scoring cards such as those shown in FIG. 2. The result may be a number of runs or the fall of a wicket.

^• A degree of skill is involved since with practice a batsman may anticipate the correct moment to press the batting mark to maximise the score or at least avoid getting out.

FIG. 3a and FIG. 3b show a schematic layout of the circuit which drives the game of FIG. 1. The circuit includes bowlers switch S1 located beneath the bowling mark 3 and batsman's switch S2 located below the batting mark 4. There are thirty-two LED's number L1 to L32. The LED's are illuminated according to signals from the thirty-two bit shift register IC1 to IC4 which is driven by oscillator IC6. The circuit is powered by a 9 volt source Vcc.

The circuit operates as follows :

With Vcc applied to the circuit and switches S1 and S2 open the circuit is in a quiescent state. In this condition a reset voltage level is applied to the reset lines of the thirty-two bit shift register comprising IC1 to IC4. LED's L1 to L32 will be 'off' and the circuit consumes less than 100 microamps of current.

Depressing bowler switch S1 causes the shift register reset line to fall to zero volts as capacitor C5 is charged to Vcc via diode D1. The output of IC7;B is high.

After approximately 5ms the voltage on pin 8 of IC6:C exceeds the logic threshold and causes the output of IC6:C to go low thus driving the output of IC7:A high for about 150 μs and applying a data input pulse to the shift register.

The output of IC7:A also causes the RS flip-flop IC:5 to be set via input 6 of IC5:B causing oscillator IC6:D to start sending pulses to the clock line of the shift register. Setting the flip-flop also causes the output of IC6:C and IC7:A to be inhibited from further bowler switch operations via IC6:C pin 9. Capacitor C8 and resistor R34 form a time delay of approximately 150 μs.

Clock pulses to the shift register cause the data input to propagate from output DO, pin 5 of IC1 :B to D3, pin 2 of IC4:A thereby causing the sequential illumination of LED's L1 to L32.

It is to be understood that by varying the rate of the clock pulses by changing the oscillator or some other common electronic means the sequential illumination of the LED's can progress at a different rate.

^• If no other switches are operated, the last output of the shift register (L32) is fed back to the data input of IC1 :B and the sequence continues until capacitor C5 discharges via resistor R37. When capacitor C5 discharges a reset signal is applied to the shift register and the circuit returns to the quiescent or 'off state. The time delay between the operation of S1 and the circuit turning off is about 1 minute.

Assuming the bowler switch S1 has been depressed and the batsman switch S2 is depressed prior to the automatic turn-off mode, then flip-flop IC5 is reset. This enables IC6:C, stops oscillator IC6:D and causes one LED to remain illuminated depending on where the data pulse propagating through the shift register is at the time the oscillator is stopped.

Depressing the bowler switch S1 prior to or after the operation of batsman switch S2 causes the shift register to be reset via differentiator C3, R35, IC7:B and IC6:B which initiates the sequential operation of the circuit starting with the illumination of L1.

The circuit shown in FIG. 3 and described above is one embodiment of the invention. Slight variations of the circuit can be used to form different games which operate on the same principle.

For example, FIG. 4 shows one variation which is a crossword game. In this game a first player operates a first switch 10 to commence the sequential illumination of twenty-six LED's 6. A second player operates a second switch 11 to stop the sequence and leave one LED 6 illuminated. Around each LED 6 is a block of four letters 12, thus the alphabet is recorded four times on the game card. Player two selects any one of these four letters 12 and both players record the letter on a scoring pad. The scoring pad is a five by five grid of boxes. The chosen letter may be recorded in any of the twenty-five boxes.

Player two then operates the first switch 10 to start the LED sequence and player one stops the sequence by pressing the second switch 11 and chooses a second letter from the block of four letters 12 surrounding the illuminated LED 6. This continues until twenty-five letters are chosen and the scoring pad grid is full. Each player will have the same letters in the grid but they will be in different locations. Players score by making words from the letters in the grid in both the horizontal and vertical. The dimensions of the scoring grid may be varied to a desired size limited only by the imagination of the players.

In another example, FIG. 5 shows another crossword type of game with a start switch 10, stop switch 11 and eight LED's 6 and eight indicia 13 arranged in a circular arrangement. A first player activates the start switch 10 thereby activating the electronic circuit which causes the LED's 6 to illuminate in a sequential manner, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, at a set period. A second player then activates the second switch 11 which stops the cycle and causes the LED which was illuminated when the second switch was activated to remain illuminated. The second player than chooses one letter from the indicia 13 associated with the illuminated LED and places it on a five by five grid. All the other players also position the letter chosen by the said second player but at any position within the grid of their choice. The players then alternate until the grid has been filled in completely with letters. The players than attempt to construct as many words as possible from their grid in both the vertical and horizontal extent. In addition the players must construct the letters from left to right in the case of horizontal construction and from top to bottom in the case of vertical construction. Only adjacent letters may be used to construct words, i.e. no letters are allowed to be skipped. Furthermore each letter may only be used once. Various other methods of scoring may be individually tailored by the players.

In another form of the game (not illustrated) instead of letters or numbers associated with the indicia, one could have a number of cards which designate some action or score. For example, a player upon pressing the second switch and illuminating a LED could have an indicia associated with the LED which requires the player to pick up a card with a set of instructions on it. These instructions may be varied according to the type of game played, some examples could be treasure hunting games, role playing games, and many others.