BACKGROUND ART Background art contains alphabet game equipment and games, such as the commercially well-known SCRABBLE board game and the game equipment and games disclosed in US Pat. No. 's 6,276, 940 and 5,199, 714. Background art, however, suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages and limitations: (1.) irregular alphabet letter distribution and/or a large number of playing pieces in a set of game equipment, e. g., SCRABBLE and the equipment disclosed in the'940 and'714 patents; (2. ) limited playability, e. g. , only one way to play a game with SCRABBLE and very limited number of ways to play a game with others, (3.) difficulty or impossibility for use to play games that involve spelling of certain words, specifically, words that contain certain letter or letters repeated multiple times; (4. ) difficulty or impossibility for use to play numerical games; and (5. ) inconvenience in use. A more thorough discussion of the background (prior art) alphabet and numerical game equipment and games is given in the Background of the Invention section of US. Pat. application No. 10/638, 778, filed by this inventor, dated 11 Aug. 2003, on the basis of which the present application claims priority.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION The present invention, as disclosed herein, comprises design of novel and useful alphabet and numerical game equipment and games, embodying features of construction of playing faces, combination of elements in the construction of the playing faces, combination or composition of playing faces for the construction of a set of the game equipment, and game rules including wild character rules, meld rules, rank rules, and score rules.

In accordance with a principal feature of the present invention, there is provided a set of alphabet game equipment having playing faces bearing indicia means comprising alphabet character indicia displaying and representing alphabet characters of a novel alphabet character distribution. The novel alphabet character distribution consists essentially of, in combination, a plurality of base characters and a plurality, or a combination of pluralities, of supplementary characters, a said plurality of supplementary characters being a member selected from the group consisting of a plurality of Repeat characters, a plurality of bonus characters, and a plurality of Wild characters and Super Wild characters in combination.

In accordance with a principal feature of the invention, Repeat characters are created in the present invention as part of the game equipment for use, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, as a generic representation of any alphabet character that occurs repeated in the word, or otherwise

repeated in the playing of a game. A plurality of Repeat character playing faces may be combined, in the playing of a game, to form melds of Repeat characters. A Repeat character playing face may also combine with another or other playing faces of other character types such as a Wild character playing face to form other types of melds.

In accordance with another principal feature of the invention, the plurality of base characters consists of at least one each of the standard alphabet letters, and a selected number of non-standard alphabet characters, that are used in writing an alphabetic language or that occur in words of a playable vocabulary of the alphabetic language, and the plurality of bonus characters comprises an additional copy or copies of certain members of the base characters that most commonly occur repeated or most frequently occur in words of the playable vocabulary, the bonus character playing faces being distinguished from the base character playing faces by way of distinction indicia means on the playing faces. One of such distinction indicia means is numerical point value indicia that distinguish the bonus character playing faces from the base character playing faces by way of a different, e. g. , higher, numerical point value or values than the base character playing faces. Another or further such distinction indicia means, for a set of the game equipment in the playing card format, is additional ornamentation, such as pictorial or background ornamentation, on the bonus character playing faces but not, or different on, the base character playing faces. During the playing of a game, a bonus character playing face may be assigned a different score point, a different rank, or otherwise treated differently or more specially than a base character playing face bearing a same character as the bonus character playing face. Bonus character playing faces may be combined to form bonus character melds.

In accordance with yet another principal feature of the invention, Wild character playing faces in combination with Repeat character playing faces may be present in a set of the game equipment of the present invention and used in the playing of a game in accordance with a novel"strict use Wild character rule". In accordance with the novel strict use Wild character rule, a Wild character playing face may be used, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, as a generic representation of any alphabet character found in the set of conventional alphabet characters (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the game characters or the game character set) represented, non-generically, by the alphabet character indicia of the playing faces of the game equipment, but not an alphabet character that occurs repeated in the word or that otherwise may be represented by a Repeat character playing face in the playing of the game.

In accordance with still another principal feature of the invention, Super Wild character playing faces in combination with Wild character playing faces may be present in a set of the game equipment of the present invention and used in the playing of a game in accordance with a novel"broad use"or a novel"strict use Super Wild character rules". The broad use Super Wild character rule permits use of a Super Wild character playing face to represent, generically, any alphabet character, whether present or not present in the game character set.

The strict use Super Wild character rule permits use of a Super Wild character playing face to generically represent only an alphabet character or writing symbol that is not found in the game character set.

In accordance with a further principal feature of the invention, there is provided a set of alphabet game equipment comprising a preferred combination of the Repeat character playing faces, the Wild character playing faces, and the Super Wild character playing faces. In a preferred mode, the set of game equipment comprises

four or five Repeat character playing faces, a same number of Wild character playing faces as the number of the Repeat character playing faces, and two to four, preferably two, Super Wild character playing faces.

In accordance with a yet further principal feature of the invention, there is provided a set of alphabet and numerical game equipment which includes a plurality of fifty-two or more playing faces. Of the fifty-two or more playing faces, fifty-two playing faces form a set of core equipment playing faces. Of the core equipment playing faces, twenty-eight to thirty-six, preferably thirty or thirty-two, playing faces are core equipment base character playing faces, twelve or so bonus character playing faces, four or five Repeat character playing faces, and four or five Wild character playing faces. The Wild character playing faces form one group or rank. The Repeat character playing faces form another rank. The base character playing faces and the bonus character playing faces form additional ranks each rank consisting of a same number of base and/or bonus character playing faces.

In accordance with a preferred mode for carrying out the invention, there are four each of the Repeat and the Wild character playing faces in the core equipment, and the fifty-two core equipment playing faces are divided into thirteen ranks each rank consisting of four playing faces.

In accordance with another preferred mode, there are five each of the Repeat and the Wild character playing faces in the core equipment, thirty core equipment base character playing faces divided into five ranks each rank consisting of six core equipment base character playing faces, and twelve bonus character playing faces divided into two ranks each rank consisting of six bonus character playing faces.

In accordance with yet another preferred mode, there are five each of the Repeat and the Wild character playing faces in the core equipment, thirty core equipment base character playing faces divided into three ranks each rank consisting of ten core equipment playing faces, and twelve bonus character playing faces divided into two ranks each rank consisting of six bonus character playing faces.

In a preferred mode, the base or bonus character playing faces of a same rank bear numerical point value or rank indicia displaying and representing a same numerical point or rank value different from the base or bonus character playing faces of a different rank. The numerical point or rank values displayed and represented by the numerical point value or rank indicia of the base character playing faces form a numerical series substantially regular in the progression. Additional, non-core playing faces, bearing additional or extended characters, for languages having an excessive number of alphabet characters over the standard number of the core equipment characters, may be present in the game equipment as extended character playing faces.

In accordance with a principal feature of the invention, a set of the game equipment of the present invention, constructed in a preferred mode and in a convenient playing piece format, may be used to play a significantly extended range of alphabet, word, numerical and other types of games.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the present invention, and other features and advantages, reference should be had to the following detailed description of modes for carrying out the invention, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a plurality of playing cards, illustrating by way of example playing faces of playing cards bearing indicia means constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and illustrating formation of certain melds in accordance with certain preferred embodiments of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a tabular list of indicia designations for the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention, constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment, for playing games with the alphabet and words of the English language and for playing other games; FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a playing block, constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the playing face of a playing block bearing indicia means displaying an indicia designation taken from the list of indicia designations shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 3B is a perspective view of a playing tile, constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the playing face of a playing tile bearing indicia means displaying an indicia designation taken from the list of indicia designations shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 3C is a perspective view of a playing chip, constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the playing face of a playing chip bearing indicia means displaying an indicia designation taken from the list of indicia designations shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 3D is a perspective view of a playing dice, constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating a playing face and other faces bearing indicia means displaying indicia designations taken from the list of indicia designations shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a tabular list of indicia designations for the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention, constructed in accordance with another preferred embodiment, for playing games with the alphabet and words of the English language and for playing other games; FIG. 5 is a tabular list of indicia designations for the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention, constructed in accordance with yet another preferred embodiment, for playing games with the alphabet and words of the English language and for playing other games.

The various expressions of indicia shown in the drawings, the collection of the character and the numerical indicia shown in FIG. s 2, 4, and 5, and the printed matter on the playing faces illustrated in FIG. s. 1, and 3A to 3D, are subject to copyright protection.

MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The term"playing face", as used herein, denotes a generally flat surface of a playing piece, or an electronic representation thereof, which flat surface bears indicia means displaying an indicia designation, and which flat surface may be freely amenable to combinations and re-combinations with another playing face or

other playing faces for the formation of melds during the playing of a game. In the known manner, a playing piece in the playing card, the playing tile, the playing block, or the playing chip format has one playing face, sometimes called herein"the front face", that bears the indicia means. The remaining parts of a playing piece in any of those formats, i. e., the back and the sides of the playing piece in those formats, are collectively called"the rear face"of the playing piece. The rear face is typically identical among the playing pieces of a given format in a given set of the game equipment. A playing piece in the playing card, the playing tile, the playing block, the playing chip, or another playing piece format, that is characterized by a generally thin or planar shape or body, and by a front face and a rear face, is sometimes generically called a"planar playing piece"or"planar alphabet playing piece"in the present patent document. A six-sided dice or cube has six flat surfaces, one on each side, each of which flat surfaces, or side faces, bears indicia means displaying an indicia designation, and one of which flat surfaces at a time, i. e., the top side face of the dice upon its landing on the table in the playing of a multi-dice game, is a playing face amenable to combination and re-combination with a playing face or playing faces from another dice or other dices. A multi-sided dice has multiple flat surfaces, one on each side, one of which at a time in the playing of a game is a playing face. A Rubik's cube has a plurality of sides each of which has a plurality of movable flat surfaces which flat surfaces may be playing faces amendable for combination and re-combination with another or other playing faces during the playing of a game. An electronic representation of a playing piece or playing face may be a pictorial representation of the playing piece or the playing face in a physical format, or the playing face's indicia means only, or an abstract representation of the indicia designation of the playing face, for a gaming purpose.

A basic mode for carrying out the invention is characterized by the construction of a set of game equipment in accordance with a basic feature of the present invention. In accordance with a basic feature of the present invention, a set of the game equipment of the present invention has a plurality of playing faces, each bearing indicia means comprising character indicia displaying and representing an alphabet character suitable for use for a gaming purpose. The plurality of playing faces consists essentially of a preferred combination of a plurality of base character playing faces and a plurality of supplementary character playing faces. Said supplementary character playing faces as a group or a plurality of groups distinctly differ from said base character playing faces as another group or another plurality of groups. Said supplementary character playing faces comprises at least one of three preferred groups of supplementary character playing faces, which three preferred groups of supplementary character playing faces, and the base character playing faces, are described in detail below.

The term"alphabet letter", as used herein, denotes either a single letter alphabet character or a combination alphabet character. A single letter alphabet character (hereinafter sometimes referred to as"single letter", in short) is an alphabet character that consists of, or may be written as, a single alphabet letter symbol, e. g., the single letter"E"in the English language. A combination alphabet character is an alphabet character consisting of a certain combination of single letter alphabet characters, most commonly double letter combinations (hereinafter sometimes referred to as"double letter alphabet characters", or"double letters"in short), e. g., the double letters"ER"and"EA"in the English language. In the known manner, words in an alphabetic language are made from certain combinations of alphabet characters placed side by side, or vertically, in a certain order.

words of a sufficiently large, or playable, vocabulary of the alphabetic language. In a preferred manner, the plurality of base characters consists of one each of the alphabet letters of the entire standard alphabet of an alphabetic language and one each of a selected number of non-standard alphabet characters of the alphabetic language. The non-standard alphabet characters are included in the plurality of base characters so that a desirable total number of base character playing faces may be constructed for a set of the game equipment.

In accordance with a basic mode for carrying out the present invention hereinafter sometimes referred to as first mode or mode (I) embodiment, the supplementary character playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention comprises a preferred group of supplementary character playing faces consisting of a plurality of a first wild or Repeat character playing faces. A Repeat character playing face is a playing face bearing character indicia representing a Repeat character. A Repeat character is a special character created in the present invention for use, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, to generically represent any alphabet character that is occurring the second time, or the third, the fourth, and so on, i. e. , repeated, in the word, or repeated otherwise in the playing of the game. A plurality of the Repeat character playing faces may also have uses in the playing of a game as a meld of Repeat character playing faces, as well as other uses specified elsewhere in the present disclosure or apparent to those skilled in the gaming art, taught by the present disclosure.

Repeat character indicia, or a Repeat character, may consist of any symbol, design, word or words, or a combination thereof, suitable for use in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game as a generic representation of any alphabet character that occurs repeated in the word, or repeated otherwise in the playing of the game, said symbol, design, word or words, or a combination thereof being distinctly different from any of the conventional alphabet characters and from any other indicia means of the game equipment.

One or more, preferably four or more, Repeat character playing faces may be included in a set of the game equipment of the present invention.

In accordance with another basic mode for carrying out the present invention hereinafter sometimes referred to as mode (II) embodiment, the supplementary character playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention comprises a preferred group of supplementary character playing faces consisting of a plurality of eight to sixteen, preferably twelve bonus character playing faces. A bonus character playing face is a playing face bearing character indicia displaying and representing a bonus character. A bonus character is an alphabet character selected from a group of alphabet characters forming a plurality of bonus characters. All or a substantial number of the bonus characters is a sub-set of the plurality of base characters of the game equipment, preferably a sub-set of the base characters that often occur in repeated manners in, or are most frequently used in construction of, the words of the playable vocabulary of the alphabetic language, and that further have special cultural significance, lexicon significance, or, preferably, both, in the alphabetic language. Bonus character indicia are printed on or inscribed in, a bonus character playing face, which distinctly differs from a base character playing face, including a base character playing face bearing character indicia representing a same alphabet character as the bonus character playing face, by means of difference or differences in the base and the bonus character indicia, or difference in further indicia means on the base and the bonus character playing faces.

In a manner similar to the manner multiple copies of an alphabet playing piece in prior art alphabet game equipment are used in playing a game of word construction, the bonus character playing faces in a set of the game equipment of the present invention may be used to supplement the base character playing faces in constructing words, including words that require more than one copy of certain alphabet character or alphabet characters, in the playing of a game.

In an inventive manner, which is a principal feature of the present invention in accordance with the present mode (II) embodiment, the bonus character playing faces form a group or a plurality of groups on their own, different from any other types of playing faces of the set of the game equipment, including, particularly, the base character playing faces that bear character indicia representing alphabet characters the same as the bonus character playing faces. The group difference or differences are intended for uses in enhancing the playability of the set of the game equipment, such as to allow more advanced and easier classification of the playing faces, easier playing face tracking, and to put an emphasis on the cultural and lexicon significance of the alphabet characters used as the bonus characters. One of said uses of the group difference or differences is the allowing of a bonus character rule or rules in the playing of a game. One of said bonus character rules permits a score or a rank assigned to a bonus character playing face to be different from, e. g., higher than, a score or a rank assigned to a base character playing face bearing a same alphabet character as the bonus character playing face. Another of said bonus character rules permits pluralities of bonus character playing faces to be melded to form certain special melds of certain special point values or ranks, or otherwise treated specially in the playing of a game.

Such bonus character rules impart the emphasis, often of significant educational values, on the alphabet characters used as the bonus characters. The plurality of the bonus character playing faces of the present invention differs from a second, or an additional, full set of standard alphabet character playing faces found in certain prior art alphabet game equipment, in that only a selected sub-set of alphabet characters that have the special cultural and lexicon significance, rather than a full set of the standard alphabet characters, are used as the bonus characters.

In a preferred form of the mode (II) embodiment of the present invention, each of the base and bonus character playing faces in a set of the game equipment of the present invention further bears numerical point value indicia displaying and representing a numerical point value. Different numerical point value indicia or numerical point values born by the base and bonus character playing faces classify the base and bonus character playing faces into different groups of playing faces. The numerical point value or values of the bonus character playing faces are distinctly higher than the numerical point value or values of the base character playing faces.

The distinctly higher numerical point value or values of the bonus character playing faces serve as the means or one of the means to distinguish the bonus character playing faces as a group or a plurality of groups from the base character playing faces as another group or another plurality of groups.

Wild characters may be used as character indicia on playing faces of the game equipment of the present invention for use in a known manner, i. a, as wild or generic representation of any alphabet character in forming words in the playing of a game. The use of the Wild characters in the known manner is hereinafter sometimes referred to as a"broad use of the Wild characters", or said to have followed a"broad use Wild character rule".

In accordance with a preferred mode for carrying out the present invention, Wild characters are included in a set of the game equipment of the present invention in combination with Repeat characters constructed in accordance with the mode (I) embodiment of the present invention described hereinabove. In a novel use in accordance with a"strict use Wild character rule", which is a principal feature of the present invention, a Wild character playing may be used, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, to generically represent any alphabet character of the game character set but not an alphabet character that occurs repeated in the word or that otherwise may be generically represented by a Repeat character playing face.

Preferably, the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention comprise four to six Repeat character playing faces and a same number of the Wild character playing faces as the number of the Repeat character playing faces. As with the Repeat character playing faces, the Wild character playing faces may be used for forming melds on their own, providing useful plays. In a novel and useful manner, which is a principal feature of the present invention, a Wild character playing face may be melded with a Repeat character playing face, forming a meld of"marriage".

In accordance with another mode for carrying out the present invention hereinafter some times referred to as the mode (III) embodiment, the supplementary character playing faces comprises a preferred group of supplementary character playing faces consisting of a plurality of Super Wild character playing faces in combination with a plurality of Wild character playing faces. A Super Wild character playing face is a playing face bearing Super Wild character indicia displaying and representing a Super Wild character. Super Wild character indicia or a Super Wild character may be any indicia means suitable for use, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, as a generic representation of another alphabet character, either in accordance with a strict use Super Wild character rule or in accordance with a broad use Super Wild character rule. The strict use Super Wild character rule permits use of the Super Wild character to generically represent any alphabet character or writing symbol that is conventionally used in writing the alphabetic language but not an alphabet character that is found in the game character set of the game equipment. The broad use Super Wild character rule permits use of the Super Wild character to generically represent any alphabet character, whether present or not present in the game character set. Super Wild character indicia or a Super Wild character is distinctly different from any of the conventional alphabet characters, from a Wild character, and from any other indicia means of the game equipment.

Examples of alphabet characters or writing symbols that may be used conventionally in writing an alphabetic language but are not represented by the game character set include such not so commonly used characters as symbols occasionally borrowed from foreign languages, e. g. the"g"symbol from the Chinese or Japanese language in a set of the game equipment for the English language. Other examples include such characters as the symbols of"-" (hyphen),"'" (apostrophe),"&","%","&num ", and"@", which may be needed in playing a game but may not be present in the game character set.

Super Wild character indicia, or a Super Wild character, may consist of a pictorial or artistic text design, or a symbol, a word or words, or a combination thereof, that is distinctly different from any of the conventional alphabet characters, the Wild character, and any other indicia means of the game equipment. In a convenient manner, a Super Wild character playing face in a set of commercialized game equipment of the

present invention may be so constructed that the Super Wild character playing face may also be used to display certain trademark information, certain game introduction information, or certain game instruction information.

Two to four, preferably two, Super Wild character playing faces may be included in a set of the game equipment of the present invention.

In a preferred mode for carrying out the invention, a preferred combination of Wild character playing faces and the mode (I) Repeat character playing faces is included in a set of the game equipment of the invention, in combination with the mode (II) Super Wild character playing faces. In accordance with the mode (I) embodiment of the invention described hereinabove, a Repeat character playing face may be used, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, as a generic representation of any alphabet character repeated in the word or otherwise repeated in the playing of the game. In a known manner in accordance with the broad use Wild character rule described hereinabove, a Wild character playing face may be used, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, as a generic representation of any conventional alphabet character found in the game character set of the game equipment. In a novel manner in accordance with the strict use Wild character rule of the present invention, a Wild character playing face may be used, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, as a generic representation of any conventional alphabet character found in the game character set but not an alphabet character that occurs repeated in the word or that otherwise may be represented by a Repeat character playing face. In a novel use in accordance with the broad use Super Wild character rule, a Super Wild character playing face may be used, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, as a generic representation of any conventional alphabet character, whether present or not present in the game character set. In a novel use in accordance with the strict use Super Wild character rule of the present invention, a Super Wild character playing face may be used, in the construction of a word or otherwise in the playing of a game, to generically represent only a conventional alphabet character that is not found in the game character set of the game equipment.

The Repeat characters, the Wild characters, and the Super Wild characters are sometimes generically called in the present patent document"special characters".

The bonus characters, the base characters, and any other conventional alphabet characters represented, non-generically, by the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention, by way of the character indicia on the playing faces, are collectively called in the present patent document"game characters", and constituent the"game character set"of the set of the game equipment. The term"game characters", or the term"game character set", does not embrace the special characters of a set of the game equipment of the present invention.

The tenn"conventional alphabet characters", as used herein, generically refers to any alphabet characters and writing symbols that are conventionally used in writing an alphabetic language, and embraces the standard and the non-standard alphabet letters of the alphabetic language, and such other writing symbols as symbols occasionally borrowed from a foreign language, financial and mathematical symbols, and punctuation marks. The term"conventional characters"does not embrace the special characters of a set of the game equipment of the present invention.

The tenn"alphabet characters", or its shortened form"characters", as used herein, has the broadest generic meaning and embraces the conventional alphabet characters and the special alphabet characters defined hereinabove.

In a preferred mode for carrying out the present invention, the plurality of supplementary character playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention comprises a combination of the mode (I) Repeat character playing faces of the present invention described hereinabove and the mode (II) bonus character playing faces of the present invention described hereinabove.

In another preferred mode for carrying out the present invention, the supplementary character playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention comprises a combination of the mode (I) Repeat character playing faces, the mode (II) bonus character playing faces, and a same number of Wild character playing faces as the number of the Repeat character playing faces.

In still another preferred mode for carrying out the present invention, the supplementary character playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention comprises a combination of the mode (I) Repeat character playing faces, the mode (II) bonus character playing faces, a same number of Wild character playing faces as the number of the Repeat character playing faces, and two to four preferably two of the mode (III) Super Wild character playing faces.

In a preferred mode for carrying out the invention hereinafter sometimes referred to as mode (IV) embodiment, for a set of the game equipment conforming to a standard that may be implemented, in a preferred manner, across the major contemporary alphabetic languages of European origins and other similar languages, for playing games with one of said major contemporary alphabetic languages of European origins and other similar languages, the plurality of playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention comprises at least fifty two playing faces. Fifty two of the playing faces of the set of the game equipment form a plurality of core equipment playing faces, consisting of a plurality of a standardized number of base character playing faces as core base character playing faces, a plurality of twelve or so bonus character playing faces, a plurality of four or five Repeat character playing faces, and a same number of Wild character playing faces as the number of the Repeat character playing faces. Each of the base character playing faces bears different character indicia displaying and representing a different alphabet character.

In a preferred form of the mode (IV) embodiment of the present invention, the playing faces of the game equipment are grouped into a plurality of playing face groups or ranks, each playing face group or rank having preferably an equal number of playing faces, such as three, four, five, six, or ten playing faces per group or rank. Each of the playing faces of a same group or rank bears numerical point value indicia displaying and representing a same numerical point or rank value different from the playing faces of another group or rank.

Each of the playing faces of a group or rank may further bear a suit identifier different among the playing faces of the group or rank.

A set of the game equipment of the present invention having suit identifiers on the playing faces is sometimes called a suited-set of the game equipment in the present patent document. A set of the game

equipment of the present invention having no suit identifiers on the playing faces is sometimes called a non- suited set of the game equipment herein.

In a preferred form of the mode (IV) embodiment of the present invention, two additional playing faces, consisting of two mode (III) Super Wild character playing faces described hereinabove, are included as core or standard playing faces in the set of the game equipment of the present mode (IV) embodiment, for a total of fifty four core equipment playing faces.

In a further preferred form of the mode (IV) embodiment of the present invention, a set of the game equipment of the present invention conforms to a first named standard, wherein the standardized number of core base character playing faces is thirty two core base character playing faces, evenly divided into eight groups or ranks of core base character playing faces, each group or rank consisting of four different base character playing faces. The plurality of bonus character playing faces consists of twelve bonus character playing faces evenly divided into three groups or ranks of four bonus character playing faces per rank. The plurality of Repeat character playing faces is four Repeat character playing faces forming a rank of Repeat character playing faces.

The plurality of Wild character playing faces is four Wild character playing faces forming a rank of Wild ) character playing faces. Thus, the fifty two core equipment playing faces consists of thirteen ranks of playing faces four playing faces each rank. Each of the thirteen ranks of playing faces is assigned a different rank value in accordance with a rank order, ranging from the first rank to the thirteenth rank. The indicia means of each of the core equipment playing faces comprise numerical point value indicia, which numerical point value indicia display a numerical point value identical among core equipment playing faces of a same rank, and different from core equipment playing faces of a different rank. The numerical point value is preferably a natural integer, having conventionally a numerical value the same as the rank order value of the playing face or substantially reflecting the rank order value of the playing face. The indicia means of each of the core equipment playing faces of each rank may further comprise a suit identifier selected from a group of four different identifiers. Thus, a core equipment playing face in a set of the game equipment of the present invention in accordance with the present first named standard may be classified in one way into one of thirteen different ranks and in another into one of four different suits, corresponding to the rank and suit of the playing face of a traditional playing card. A set of the game equipment of the present invention in accordance with the present first named standard, constructed in an appropriate playing piece format, such as the playing card format, may therefore be used to play traditional playing card games, in addition to alphabet and word games. The four different identifiers may be the same as the four traditional suit symbols of the traditional playing cards, four different color identifiers, four different numerical suit identifiers different from the numerical point value or rank indicia by means of different unique physical locations on the playing faces, or other appropriate suit indicia means. The four different suit identifiers, and thus the four core equipment playing faces in a rank bearing the four different suit identifiers, may be assigned different suit orders, for example, in the order of Spade, Heart, Club, and Diamond, or from the first to the fourth, or the order of Red, Blue, Orange, and Purple (color suits).

The tenn"alphabetic order"as used herein has its ordinary meaning, i. e., denoting the officially recognized sequential order in which the standard alphabet characters are arranged in the standard alphabet of an alphabetic language, e. g., the order from"A"to"Z"in the English standard alphabet.

The tenn"Quokker order"as used herein denotes a sequential order of the alphabet characters represented by the character indicia of the playing faces of a suited set of the game equipment of the present invention, arranged first in ranks according to the rank order of the playing faces bearing the characters, from lowest to highest, and second, within a same rank, according to the suit order, from the lowest to the highest.

In a preferred mode (IV) embodiment of the present invention, a set of the game equipment is characterized by a Quokker order in which the base vowel characters and the base consonant characters are separated from each other types of characters, in separate blocks. Within a block of base vowel characters, and within a block of base consonant characters, the Quokker orders from low to high substantially reflect the relative orders from high to low of the frequencies of occurrence of the respective characters in the playable vocabulary of the alphabetic language.

In a preferred form of the mode (IV) embodiment of the present invention in accordance with the first named standard, the thirteen groups or ranks of core equipment playing faces are arranged as follows: first rank, having a rank order value of one, said first rank consisting of said four Wild character playing faces each bearing numerical point value indicia of a value of one; second rank, having a rank order value of two, said second rank consisting of said four Repeat character playing faces each bearing numerical point value indicia of a value of two; third to tenth ranks, having rank order values of three to ten, respectively, each of said third to tenth ranks consisting of four of said core base character playing faces, each core base character playing face bearing numerical point value indicia of a value the same as the rank order value of the core base character playing face; and eleventh to thirteenth ranks, having rank order values of eleven to thirteen, respectively, each of said eleventh to thirteenth ranks consisting of four of said bonus character playing faces, each of said bonus character playing faces bearing numerical point value indicia of a value from the group consisting of eleven to thirteen or the group consisting of twelve to fourteen corresponding to the absolute or relative rank order value of the bonus character playing face.

For a language having standard alphabet letters less in number than the standardized number of base characters of the first named standard, i. e., thirty-two letters, one copy of each of the standard alphabet letters in the standard alphabet is preferably included in the set of core base characters born by the plurality of core base character playing faces. One copy of each of a selected number of non-standard consonants, non-standard vowels, or a combination thereof, is included in the set of core base characters, to make up for a total of thirty two core base characters. Preferably, the non-standard vowels and/or the non-standard consonants are selected from the non-standard alphabet characters most commonly used in writing the alphabetic language and/or having the greatest cultural and lexicon significance. The ratio of vowels to consonants, base and bonus characters both included, in the set of the game equipment should be reflective of the average ratio of vowels to consonants in the words of the playable vocabulary in such a manner as to enable most efficient use of the base and the bonus character playing faces of the game equipment in the playing of games of construction of words.

For a language having more than the standardized number, i. e., thirty two, of alphabet characters in the standard alphabet, one copy of each of the thirty two most commonly used, or culturally and linguistically most

significant, standard alphabet characters in the standard alphabet is used to make up the set of core base characters for the set of the core base character playing faces. Any additional standard alphabet characters present in the standard alphabet, and any desirable non-standard alphabet characters, may be born by additional base character playing faces forming the non-core or the extended base character playing faces where allowed by the playing piece format in the set of the game equipment of the present invention. The extended base character playing faces may be used in the same manner as the core equipment base character playing faces, or as desirable replacements for certain core equipment base character playing faces, in certain games allowed by certain playing piece formats. In other games or playing piece formats requiring the core equipment playing faces only, the extended base character playing faces are removed from a set of the game equipment or not used in the playing of the games.

While a plurality of thirty two core base character playing faces and a plurality of twelve core bonus character playing faces are preferred in a set of the game equipment of the present invention in accordance with the present first named standard, in other preferred forms of the mode (IV) embodiments of the present invention, the plurality of core base character playing faces my be more or less than thirty two, preferably in the range of twenty eight to thirty six, and the plurality of core bonus character playing faces may be more or less than twelve, preferably in the range of eight to sixteen.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there are shown several alphabet playing cards from a deck of alphabet playing cards constructed in accordance with a preferred mode for carrying out the present invention for playing games with the alphabet and words of the English language and for playing other games.

Focus first on the card 20 for the structure of the playing face of a Repeat character playing card of the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment. The playing face 30 of the playing card 20 bears indicia means consisting of cater-corner indicia 42,43, 44 and 42', 43', 44', cater-corner indicia 77,78 and 77', 78', and center indicia 62,63. The cater-corner indicia 42,43, 44 (or 42', 43', 44') comprise cater-corner Repeat character indicia 42 (or 42'). In FIG. 1, the cater-corner Repeat character indicia 42 (42') are shown to consist of a hollow asterisk symbol, i. e., 42 (42'), which is used to represent and display a Repeat character in the present embodiment of the invention. The cater-corner indicia 42,43, 44 (or 42', 43', 44') of the playing card 20 further comprise numerical point value or rank indicia 43 (43'), and a suit identifier or suit indicia 44 (44'). The numerical point value or rank indicia 43 (43'), of the playing card 20, are shown to consist of, or display, an Arabic numeral, i. e., 43 (43'), having a numerical point or rank value of"2". The suit identifier or suit indicia 44 (44'), of the playing card 20, are shown to consist of a traditional playing card suit symbol, i. e., 44 (44'), of the suit of the"Hearts". Thus, the cater-corner indicia 42,43, 44 and 42', 43', 44'of the playing card 20 display an indicia designation of"2 (Heart) ", read as"Repeat-Two of the Hearts", for the playing face 30 of the playing card 20. The center indicia 62,63 are shown to consist of an enlarged hollow asterisk symbol 62 and the English word"Repeat"63, further identifying the card 20 as a Repeat character playing card. The cater-corner indicia 77, 78 (or 77', 78') consist of a stand-alone set of numerical point value or rank indicia 77 (77') and suit identifier or suit indicia 78 (78'), duplicating the (regular) numerical point or rank indicia 43 (43') and the (regular) suit identifier or suit indicia 44 (44'), respectively. It can be seen that the stand-alone set of the numerical point value or rank indicia 77 (77') and the suit identifier or suit indicia 78 (78') displays a stand-alone traditional playing

card style rank and suit indicia designation, i. e. ,"the Two of the Hearts", or"2 (Heart) ", for the playing face 30 of the playing card 20.

Focus next on the card 22 for the structure of the playing face of a bonus character playing card of the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment. The playing face 32 of the playing card 22 bears indicia means consisting of cater-corner indicia 46,47, 48 and 46', 47', 48', cater-corner indicia 79,80 and 79', 80', and center indicia 65,66. The cater-corner indicia 46,47, 48 (46', 47', 48') consist of character indicia 46 (46'), numerical point value or rank indicia 47 (47'), and suit indicia 48 (48'). The character indicia 46 (46'), of the card 22, are shown to consist of an alphabet character 46 (46'), representing and displaying the English letter"A". The numerical point value or rank indicia 47 (47'), of the card 22, are shown to consist of an Arabic numeral, i. e., the numeral"14". The suit indicia 48 (48'), of the card 22, are shown to consist of a traditional playing card suit symbol of the suit of the"Clubs". Thus, the cater-corner indicia 46,47, 48 (or 46', 47', 48') of the playing card 22 display an indicia designation of"A 14 (Club)", read as"A-Fourteen of the Clubs" (or"A14 of the Clubs"), for the playing face 32 of the playing card 22. The center indicia 65,66, of the card 22, are shown to comprise an enlarged alphabet character symbol 65 and a pictorial background 66. The enlarged alphabet character symbol 65, rendered in artistic lettering displaying the English letter"A", further identifies the card 22 as a card for representing the English alphabet character of"A". In the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment, a base character playing card has a numerical point or rank value of no more than eleven and a bonus character playing card has a numerical point or ranlc value of twelve or more. Thus, for example, the cards 25,26, and 27 in FIG. 1 are base character playing cards, and the cards 22,23, and 24 are bonus character playing cards.

Further, the pictorial background 66, of the card 22 in FIG. 1, is identically present on the playing faces of other bonus character playing cards (not shown in FIG. 1) that have the same rank as the card 22, i. e. , the rank of "14", in the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment. The pictorial background 66 is absent from any of the base character playing cards, e. g, cards 25,26, and 27 shown in FIG. 1, and differs from the pictorial backgrounds of bonus character playing cards of different ranks, e. g., cards 23 and 24, of the same deck. Thus it will be seen that the pictorial background 65 will further identify the card 22 as a bonus character playing card, having the rank of"14". The cater-corner indicia 79,80 (or 79', 80') consist of a stand-alone set of rank 79 (79') and suit 80 (80') indicia. In the present embodiment, the stand-alone rank indicia 79 (79') on the playing card 22 are rendered in the traditional playing card rank symbol of"K" (79, 79') for"King", corresponding to the numerical point value or rank indicia of"14"47 (47'). The stand-alone indicia designation for the playing card 22, expressed in the traditional playing card terms, is therefore"the King of the Clubs", or"K (Club)".

The cards 23 and 24 shown in FIG. 1 are two bonus character playing cards of two other ranks than the rank of the bonus character card 22, of the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment. It will be seen that the playing faces 33 and 34 of the playing cards 23 and 24, respectively, in FIG. 1, display indicia designations of"A13 (Spade)"or"A13 of the Spades"and"Y12 (Spade)" or"Y12 of the Spades", respectively, and stand- alone indicia designations of"Queen of the Spades"or"Q (Spade) "and"Jack of the Spades"or"J (Spade)", respectively. Note that the different pictorial backgrounds 68 and 70, on the playing faces 33 and 34, respectively, correspond to the different rank indicia 50 and 53, respectively.

Focus now on the card 21 in FIG. 1 where the structure of the playing face of a Super Wild character playing card of the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment is illustrated. As shown in FIG. 1, the playing face 31 of the Super Wild character playing card 21 bears indicia means consisting of cater-corner indicia 45 and 459, and center indicia 64. The cater-corner indicia 45 (or 45'), of the card 21, consist of a vertically printed trademark word"Quokker", which is used to indicate and represent a Super Wild character in playing a game. The center indicia 64 consist of an artistic text containing product trademark and commercial information, which is also used to indicate and represent a Super Wild character in playing a game.

Turn now to the card 19 in FIG. 1 where there is shown a Wild character playing card of the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment. The indicia means born by the playing face 29 of the playing card 19 consist of cater-corner indicia 39,40, 41 and 39', 40', 41', cater-corner indicia 75,76 and 75', 76', and center indicia 60,61. The cater-corner indicia 39,40, 41 (39', 40', 41') consist of character indicia 39 (39'), numerical point value or rank indicia 40 (40'), and suit indicia 41 (41'). The character indicia 39 (39'), of the card 19, are shown to consist of a solid asterisk symbol, which is used to represent and display the Wild character in the present embodiment of the invention. The numerical point value or rank indicia 40 (40'), of the card 19, are shown to consist of an Arabic numeral, i. e., the numeral of"1". The suit indicia 41 (41'), of the card 19, are shown to consist of a traditional playing card suit symbol of the suit of the"Spade". Thus, the cater-corner indicia 39,40, 41 and 39', 40', 41'of the playing card 19 display an indicia designation of"* l (Spade) ", or "Wild-One of the Spades", for the playing face 29 of the playing card 19. The center indicia 60,61, of the card 19, are shown to consist of an enlarged solid asterisk symbol 60 and the English word"Wild"61. The cater- corner indicia 75,76 (75', 76') consist of a stand-alone set of rank 75 (75') and suit 76 (76') indicia. In the present embodiment, the stand-alone rank indicia 75 (75') on the playing card 19 are rendered in the traditional playing card rank symbol of"A" (75, 75') for"Ace", corresponding to the numerical point value or rank of"1" (40,40') of the playing card 19.

Turn now to the card 27 in FIG. 1 for an illustration of the structure of the playing face of a base character playing card of the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment. The playing face 37 of the playing card 27 bears indicia means consisting of cater-corner indicia 55,56, 57 and 55', 56', 57', cater-corner indicia 85, 86 and 85', 86', and center indicia 71. The cater-corner indicia 55,56, 57 (55', 56', 57') consist of character indicia 55 (55'), numerical point value or rank indicia 56 (56'), and suit indicia 57 (57'). The character indicia 55 (55'), of the card 27, are shown to consist of an alphabet character, i. e., the English letter"P"55 (55').

The numerical point value or rank indicia 56 (56'), of the card 27, are shown to consist of an Arabic numeral, i. e., the numeral of"6"56 (56'). The suit indicia 57 (57'), of the card 27, are shown to consist of a traditional playing card suit symbol 57 (57') of the suit of the"Diamonds". Thus, the cater-corner indicia 55,56, 57 and 55', 56', 57'of the playing card 27 display an indicia designation of"P6 (Diamond) ", read as"P-Six of the Diamonds"or"P6 of the Diamonds", for the playing face 37 of the playing card 27. The center indicia 71, of the card 27, are shown to consist of an enlarged alphabet character rendered in artistic lettering displaying the English letter"P". The cater-comer indicia 85,86 (85', 86') consist of a stand-alone set of rank 85 (85') and suit 86 (86') indicia, duplicating the (regular) numerical point or rank indicia 56 (56') and the (regular) suit identifier or suit indicia 57 (57'), respectively.

The cards 25 and 26 in FIG. 1 are also base character playing cards, having (regular) indicia designations of"A3 (Heart) ", or"A3 of the Hearts", and"L5 (Club)", or"L5 of the Clubs", respectively, and stand-alone indicia designations of"3 of the Hearts"and"5 of the Clubs"respectively.

It is understood that the rear faces of the playing cards of the deck of alphabet playing cards of the present embodiment have an identical design in accordance with playing card conventions.

For a full list of the indicia designations of the playing faces of the entire deck of alphabet playing cards of the present embodiment, refer now to FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, there is shown a list of indicia designations for the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention constructed in accordance with a preferred mode (IV) embodiment.

The list of indicia designations in FIG. 2 is shown in a tabular form, a row representing the indicia designations for playing faces of a same rank and a column representing the indicia designations for playing faces of a same suit. Broken lines are used to define and reference a block of the indicia designations, e. g., the block 100. Identical reference numerals in FIG. 2 and FIG. 1 refer or correspond to same indicia designations.

As shown in FIG. 2, by way of the indicia designations of the playing faces, illustrating a preferred combination of the preferred features of the game equipment of the present invention, the deck of alphabet playing cards of the present embodiment, of which several representative cards are shown FIG. 1, constructed with the alphabet characters of the English language as the base and the bonus characters, essentially consists of a plurality of thirty two base character playing cards (indicia designations shown in blocks 102,103, and 104 in FIG. 2) and a plurality of twenty two supplementary character playing cards (indicia designations shown in blocks 100,101, 105,106, and 107). The plurality of the base characters consists of one copy each of the twenty six standard English alphabet letters (blocks 102 and 103), and six most commonly used double letter alphabet characters (block 104), for a total of thirty two (32) base characters. The plurality of the supplementary characters consists of twelve bonus characters (blocks 105 and 106), four Wild characters (block 100), four Repeat characters (block 101), and two Super Wild characters (block 107). As shown in FIG. 2, the twelve bonus characters consists of two copies (blocks 105 and 106) of the five English standard vowels,"A","E","I", "O","U", and the dual letter"Y". The four Wild characters (block 100), the four Repeat characters (block 101), and the two Super Wild characters (block 107), together form a group of ten (10) special characters present in the instant embodiment of the game equipment of the invention. The thirty two base characters (blocks 102,103, and 104) and the twelve bonus characters (blocks 105 and 106) together form a group of forty four (44) conventional alphabet characters (the game characters) present in the instant embodiment of the game equipment of the invention. Thus, the instant deck of playing cards, constructed for playing games with the English alphabet characters, consists of a total of fifty-four playing cards. The fifty-four playing cards are conveniently divided into thirteen ranks, four cards per rank, plus the two Super Wild character playing cards, as follows: four Wild character cards, the indicia designations of which are shown in block 100, each card bearing the numerical point value or rank indicia of"1", forming the first rank; four Repeat character cards, the indicia designations of which are shown in block 101, each card bearing the numerical point value or rank indicia of"2", forming the second rank;

four base character cards, bearing the base characters "E", "A", "I", "O", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of "3" (block 102), forming the third rank; four base character cards, bearing the base characters"U","Y","S","R", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"4" (blocks 102 and 103), forming the fourth rank; four base character cards, bearing the base characters"N","T","L","D", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"5" (block 103), forming the fifth rank; four base character cards, bearing the base characters"C","G","M","P", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"6" (block 103), forming the sixth rank; four base character cards, bearing the base characters"H","B","F","K", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"7" (block 103), forming the seventh rank: four base character cards, bearing the base characters"W","V","X","Z", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"8" (block 103), forming the eighth rank; four base character cards, bearing the base characters"J","Q","NG","CH", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"9" (blocks 103 and 104), forming the ninth rank; four base character cards, bearing the base characters"SH","TR","TH","DR", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"10" (block 104), forming the tenth rank; four bonus character cards, bearing the bonus characters"Y","U","O","I", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"12" (block 105), forming the eleventh rank, or the traditional playing card rank of Jack ; four bonus character cards, bearing the bonus characters"A","E","Y","U", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"13" (blocks 105 and 106), forming the twelfth rank, or the traditional playing card rank of Queen; four bonus character cards, bearing the bonus characters"O","I","A","E", respectively, and the numerical point value or rank indicia of"14" (block 106), forming the thirteenth rank, or the traditional playing card rank of King; and two Super Wild character cards, each bearing the trademark word of"Quokker"as the Super Wild character and no numerical point value or rank indicia (block 107).

The rectangular symbols, one of which is indicated at 92, in FIG. 2, represent rank and suit positions reserved for extended alphabet characters, which are not presently used in the present deck of alphabet playing cards for English language games. tTl1e extended alphabet characters allow additional base characters, desirable for languages having additional standard alphabet letters beyond thirty two standard alphabet letters, to be included in a set of the game equipment of the present invention in accordance with the first named standard of the mode (IV) embodiment. Inclusion of the four positions for extended alphabet characters shown under bracket 113 will allow a total of thirty six base characters to be present in a set of the game equipment of the present . invention conforming to the first named standard of the mode (IV) embodiment, for languages having up to thirty six standard alphabet letters. Inclusion of additional positions shown under brackets 108, 109,110, 111, and 112, preferably in the order shown, will allow additional base characters, up to a maximum total of fifty-six (56) base characters, to be present in the set of the game equipment, for a language having up to fifty-six (56) standard alphabet letters. In a preferred manner, base vowels are limited to rank values of four or less.

It will be seen from the list of the indicia designations in FIG. 2 that the ratio of the total number of vowel character playing cards over the total number of consonant character playing cards in the deck of playing cards of the instant embodiment for the English language is about 0.7 (18 : 26). Such a ratio reflects the ratio of the vowel characters over the consonant characters in the words of a typical playable vocabulary of the English language, and is thus desirable for the efficient usage of the deck of playing cards for construction of words in the playing of a game. It will be seen that the desirable ratio has been conveniently achieved by the inclusion of the six double letter consonants in the base characters and by the allowing of all of the bonus characters to be vowels (the letter"Y"counting as a vowel here), which vowels happen to be among the alphabet characters most commonly repeated and most frequently occurring in words of the English language. It is understood, however, that bonus characters are not limited to vowels and may also include consonants, preferably consonants most commonly repeated or occurring in the playable vocabulary.

As shown in FIG. 2, by way of the indicia designations, each of the four cards of a same rank in the instant deck of playing cards bears a different suit identifier selected from the four traditional playing card suit symbols (see, e. g., the first row of the indicia designations in block 100). In a similar fashion, each of the four positions reserved for extended characters of a same rank shown under each of the brackets (113,108, 109,110, 111, and 112), in FIG. 2, is assigned a different suit identifier selected from the four traditional playing card suit symbols. In a preferred manner, the indicia means on the playing face of the two Super Wild character playing cards (indicia designations shown in block 107, in FIG. 2) are printed in different colors, differentiating the two cards from each other.

The cards of the present embodiment described above and illustrated in FIG. s 1 and 2 are suited alphabet playing cards of the present embodiment (suited deck of alphabet playing cards). It will be understood that a non-suited deck of alphabet playing cards of the present embodiment may be constructed without the presence, on the playing faces of the playing cards, of the suit identifiers or suit indicia described above and shown in FIG. s 1 and 2.

The Quoldcer order of the Wild, the Repeat, and the base characters in the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment of FIG. 2 indicia designation designs for the English language is as follows: Wild, Repeat; E, A, I, O ; U, Y, S, R; N, T, L, D; C, G, M, P; H, B, F, K ; W, V, X, Z; J, Q, NG, CH; SH, TR, TH, DR (semi- colons artificially separate the characters for easy recitation and memorizing).

It will be apparent to those skilled in the gaming art, taught by the present disclosure, that the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment, suited or non-suited, will be useful for playing games of word construction in either novel or conventional manner. An example of word construction in the conventional manner using alphabet playing cards of the present embodiment can be seen in FIG. 1, where the cards 27,26, 25, and 24 together form an English word, i. e., the word of"PLAY".

While the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment of the invention for the English language contains only 54-cards that fit into a handy pack of cards of a size and dimension familiar to many game players, the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment of the invention allows the playing of games with almost any word of the English language, including words that are difficult to play using prior art alphabet game equipment, such as words containing alphabet letters repeated multiple times. Thus, a word containing an

alphabet letter repeated up to four times, or containing several alphabet letters repeated for a total number of up to four times, may be played using cards from the present deck, by including up to four of the Repeat character playing cards. Including up to four of the Wild character cards, used under the broad use Wild character rule, the total number of times a letter may be repeated can be up to eight. Additional cards for repeated letters may come from the double letter cards and the bonus character cards.

A deck of 54-or so playing cards of the present embodiment of the invention (a"regular"deck) may be used alone, or in combination with one or more additional decks in the playing of a game. The process of combining two regular decks of 54-or so cards (or two regular sets of 54-or so playing pieces in another planar playing piece format) to provide a combined deck of 108-or so cards (or a combined set of 108-or so playing pieces) is called"double-decking"herein. The process of combining three or more regular decks of 54-or so cards (or three or more regular sets of 54-or so playing pieces) to provide a combined deck (or set) of 162-or more cards (or playing pieces) is called"multi-decking"herein.

It will also be apparent to those skilled in the gaming art, taught by the present disclosure, that the advantageous FIG. 2 numerical point value indicia design, of the deck of playing cards of the present embodiment of the invention, suited or non-suited, may be used alone without the other indicia means, in the playing of numerical games, in addition to functioning as point or rank values to the character indicia in the playing of alphabet and word games.

As described hereinabove and illustrated in FIG. s 1 and 2, the suited deck of playing cards of the present embodiment contains a card corresponding to every card of the traditional deck of playing cards by way of inclusion of identical or corresponding suit and rank indicia designations. Thus, it will be apparent to those skilled in the gaming art, taught by the present disclosure, that the suited deck of playing cards of the present embodiment will be useful for playing games adapted from many of the traditional playing card games, in addition to alphabet and word games.

In playing games adapted from traditional playing card games using a suited deck of playing cards of the present embodiment, the alphabet character indicia of a card may be ignored, and the numerical rank and the suit indicia alone are used, in a manner directly adapted from the traditional playing cards. It is understood that, in the present embodiment where the numerical point value indicia of"11"is reserved for extended alphabet characters for the cross-language standardization purpose, the numerical point value of"12"of cards of the present embodiment corresponds to the rank of Jack of the traditional playing cards, "13"the rank of the Queen, and"14"the rank of the King.

Alternatively, in playing games adapted from traditional playing card games, the character indicia and the numerical point value indicia of a playing card of a suited deck of playing cards of the present embodiment may be combined and considered together as the rank indicia of the card. For example, a player may call the card 25 in FIG. 1"the A3 of Hearts", instead of"the (traditional playing card) 3 of Hearts". It is understood that the rank of"A3"has a rank order value of"3".

Referring now to FIG. s 3A, 3B, and 3C, there are illustrated three other planar playing piece formats in which a set of the game equipment of the present invention having FIG. 2 playing face indicia designation

designs may be constructed. Identical reference numerals in FIG. s 3A, 3B, 3C, and FIG. 2 refer to same indicia designations.

Shown in FIG. 3A is a playing block 120 having a playing face 121 bearing indicia means 46,47, 48 consisting of character indicia 46, numerical point value or rank indicia 47, and suit identifier or suit indicia 48.

It is thus seen that the playing face 121 of the playing block 120 displays the indicia designation of"A14 of the Clubs"of FIG. 2.

Shown in FIG. 3B is a playing tile 122 having a playing face 123 bearing indicia means 46,47, 48 consisting of character indicia 46, numerical point value or rank indicia 47, and suit identifier or suit indicia 48.

It is thus seen that the playing face 123 of the playing tile 122 displays the indicia designation of"A14 of the Clubs"of FIG. 2.

Shown in FIG. 3C is a playing chip 124 having a playing face 125 located on one face 126 of the playing chip 124. The playing face 125 bears indicia means 46,47, 48 consisting of character indicia 46, numerical point value or rank indicia 47, and suit identifier or suit indicia 48. It is thus seen that the playing face 125 of the playing chip 124 displays the indicia designation of"A 14 of the Clubs"of FIG. 2.

The construction of playing pieces bearing various other playing face indicia designations of FIG. 2, in any of the three planar playing piece formats described hereinabove and illustrated in FIG. s 3A, 3B, and 3C, and the playing of games similar to the games played with the game equipment of the present invention in the playing card format, will be obvious to those skilled in the gaming art, taught by the present disclosure.

It is understood that removing the suit identifiers or suit indicia from the playing faces of the game equipment of the invention in any of the three planar playing piece formats described hereinabove and illustrated in FIG. s 3A, 3B, and 3C will result in a non-suited set of the game equipment of the invention in a said planar playing piece format.

Combination of two (regular) sets of the alphabet playing tiles (FIG. 3B) or chips (FIG. 3C) having FIG. 2 indicia designation designs of the present invention, i. e., double-decking, will provide a combined set of one hundred and eight or so alphabet playing tiles or chips. The combined set of one hundred and eight or so alphabet playing tiles or chips may be used, in place of the one hundred or so SCRABBLE playing tiles, for the playing of a SCRABBLETM-like alphabet and word board game. The combined set of one hundred and eight or so alphabet playing tiles or chips, of the present invention, however, offers advantageous features and new playing mechanisms of the game equipment of the present invention, such as the use of Repeat characters described hereinabove and further herenbelow, and the easier playing piece tracking and greater playability in general. In a preferred manner of the invention, one of the two regular sets of the alphabet playing tiles or chips may have a rear face design different from the other regular set of the alphabet playing tiles or chips. The difference in the rear face design allows the two regular sets of the alphabet playing tiles to be readily separated from each other, providing independent regular sets of the game equipment that may be used for playing regular games designed for a regular set of the alphabet playing tiles or chips. The two different rear face designs may also allow the two regular sets of the alphabet playing tiles or chips to be used for the playing of other board games such as the well known Checker game, on a Checker game board.

Referring now to FIG. 3D, there is shown a perspective view of a six-sided playing dice 128 from a set of the game equipment of the present invention constructed in the playing dice format in accordance with a embodiment of the invention.

Focusing on one side face 129 of the six-sided playing dice 128, there is illustrated, by way of example, the structure of construction of the indicia means on a typical side face of the playing dice. As seen in FIG. 3D, the side face 129 bears indicia means 46,47 consisting of character indicia 46 and numerical point value or rank indicia 47, both printed or inscribed on the side face 129 in a same color selected from one of four different suit- coding colors (e. g., Red, Blue, Green, and Orange, on a white background). In the present example, the character indicia 46 displays the English alphabet letter"A", the numerical point value or rank indicia 47 displays the Arabic numeral of"14", and the color of the indicia is"Green". Thus, the side face 129 of the playing dice 128 displays an indicia designation of"A 14 (Green) ", or"A 14 of the Green Suit", corresponding to the indicia designation of"A14 (Clubs)" of FIG. 2.

In the present embodiment, the set of the game equipment comprises a plurality of fourteen playing dices for playing multi-dice alphabet and word games. The indicia designations for the sides of the fourteen playing dices are adapted from the indicia designations shown in FIG. 2, and are arranged on the fourteen dices as follows: Dice 1 :"Wild"-l (Red),"Repeat"-2 (Red), E3 (Red), U4 (Red), N5 (Red), C6 (Red); Dice2 :"Wild"-l (Blue),"Repeat"-2 (Blue), A3 (Blue), Y4 (Blue), T5 (Blue), G6 (Blue) ; Dice 3 :"Wild"-l (Green),"Repeat"-2 (Green), I3 (Green), S4 (Green), L5 (Green), M6 (Green); Dice 4 :"Wild"-1 (Orange),"Repeat"-2 (Orange), 03 (0range), R4 (0range), D5 (0range), P6 (Orange) ; Dice 5 : H7 (Red), W8 (Red), J9 (Red), SHlO (Red), Y12 (Red), A13 (Red); Dice 6 : B7 (Blue), V8 (Blue), Q9 (Blue), TRIO (Blue), U12 (Blue), E13 (Blue) ; Dice 7 : F7 (Green), X8 (Green), NG9 (Green), THlO (Green), 012 (Green), Y13 (Green); Dice 8 : K7 (Orange), Z8 (0range), CH9 (Orange), DRlO (Orange), I12 (0range), U13 (Orange) ; Dice 9 : 014 (Red), 114 (Blue), A14 (Green), E14 (0range),"Quokker"(Red),"Quokker"(Blue) ; Dice 10: E3 (Red), A3 (Blue), 13 (Green), 03 (0range), W8 (Red), V8 (Blue) ; Dice 11: U4 (Red), Y4 (Blue), S4 (Green), R4 (0range), X8 (Green), Z8 (Orange) ; Dice 12: N5 (Red), T5 (Blue), L5 (Green), D5 (0range), J9 (Red), Q9 (Blue) ; Dice 13: C6 (Red), G6 (Blue), M6 (Green), P6 (0range), NG9 (Green), CH9 (Orange); Dice 14: H7 (Red), B7 (Blue), F7 (Green), K7 (0range), SHIO (Red), TR10 (Blue).

In the list of indicia designations for the sides of the fourteen playing dices above, "Wild"refers to the Wild character,"Repeat"refers to the Repeat character,"Quokker"refers to the Super Wild character, and the traditional playing card suit symbols of Spade, Heart, Club, and Diamond, of FIG. 2 are replaced by color suits of Red, Blue, Green, and Orange, respectively.

It is understood that printing or inscribing the indicia means on the faces of the above described playing dices in one color for all faces, or one color for the faces representing and displaying vowels and one color for the faces representing and displaying consonants, will provide a non-suited set of the playing dices of the present embodiment of the invention.

In the playing of a multi-dice word construction game by two or more players using the above described fourteen dices, one player throws or randomizes the playing dices. Upon a dice's landing on the playing table, the top side face of the dice becomes the playing face of the playing dice (e. g., the top side face 129 of the playing dice 128 shown in FIG. 3D). A second player attempts to construct the longest word the player can with the characters displayed by the character indicia of the playing faces of the fourteen playing dices. The use of special characters, i. e. , the Repeat character, the Wild character, and the Super Wild character, in the construction of the word, are as described in or will be understood from the present patent disclosure.

In an advanced mode of the multi-dice word construction game, each player plays for a highest total number of score points calculated by summing the values of the numerical point value indicia of the playing faces forming the word. In a preferred manner, each natural character forming the word counts as its face value, each Repeat character counts as ten (10) points, each Super Wild character used under the strict use Super Wild character rule counts as twenty (20) points, and each Wild character counts as minus ten (-10) points.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown another list of indicia designations for the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention, constructed in accordance with another preferred mode of embodiment. In FIG. 4, the alphabet characters of the English language are again used for the illustration of the base and the bonus characters.

Again, as in FIG. 2, the list in FIG. 4 is arranged in a tabular form, a row representing the indicia designations of playing faces of a same rank and a column representing the indicia designations of playing faces of a same suit, for playing faces representing conventional alphabet characters. Broken lines are used to define and reference a block of the indicia designations, e. g, the block 170.

There are shown in blocks 170,171, 172,173, 174,175, and 176 in FIG. 4 a total of fifty-four indicia designations for fifty-four playing faces. The fifty-four playing faces consist of thirty base character playing faces 170,171, 172, twelve bonus character playing faces 173, five Wild character playing faces 175, five Repeat character playing faces 174, and two Super Wild character playing faces 176. The thirty base character playing faces are grouped into five base character ranks of six base character playing faces per rank (170,171, 172). The twelve bonus character playing faces are grouped into two ranks of six bonus character playing faces per rank (173). The five base character ranks are each assigned a different rank value ranging from"1"to"5" (170,171, 172). The two bonus character ranks are assigned the rank values of"6"and"7", respectively (block 173). An indicia designation (e. g., 150,151, 152) for a playing face displaying and representing a conventional alphabet character is shown in FIG. 4 to consist of a character indicia designation (e. g., 150), a numerical point value or rank indicia designation (e. g., 151), and an optional numerical suit indicia designation (e. g., 152).

Unlike the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, indicia designations for Wild character playing faces and for Repeat character playing faces in the present embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 4, are shown to have no numerical or rank indicia component, nor a suit indicia component. In the playing of a game, a rank or numerical point value of"0"may be assumed for the Wild character playing faces and the Repeat character playing faces.

However, other rank or numerical values may be assigned to the Wild character and the Repeat character playing faces in the playing of a game as the game may require.

For yet another example of indicia designation designs for the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the invention, refer to FIG. 5. Shown in FIG. 5 is a list of indicia designations for the playing faces of a set of the game equipment of the present invention, constructed in accordance with yet another preferred mode of embodiment. The alphabet characters of the English language are again used in the illustration of the base characters and the bonus characters.

In FIG. 5, there are again shown fifty-four indicia designations for fifty-four playing faces, consisting of thirty base character playing faces (blocks 200,194, and 195), twelve bonus character playing faces (196), five Repeat character playing faces (197), five Wild character playing faces (198), and two Super Wild character playing faces (199). The same thirty alphabet characters of the English language are used to illustrate the base characters in FIG. 5 as in FIG. 4. Compared to FIG. 4, the thirty base character playing faces of FIG. 5 are divided into three ranks, each rank consisting of ten base character playing faces, each rank having a different numerical point or rank value ranging from"1"to"3" (200,194, and 195), rather than five ranks as in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4. Bonus characters (196) are shown to have numerical point values of"7"and "9"in the present embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5. However, other numerical point values higher than the numerical point values of the base character playing faces (200,194, and 195) may be used. The special characters (197,198, and 199) are shown to have no fixed numerical point values, as in FIG. 4. It is seen that the present embodiment is a non-suited set of the game equipment, without suit indicia.

It will thus be seen that the present invention has a number of new and useful features, and advantages over the prior art, as illustrated in, or made apparent from, the preceding description. Since certain changes may be made in the above illustrated constructions of the game equipment, and the methods or the use thereof for playing games, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention, it is intended that all matters contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

It is also understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein disclosed, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

It is further understood that the game equipment and the games referred to in the following claims, notwithstanding languages used therewithin, embrace any electronic representation and computer versions of the game equipment and the games.