"APPARATUS FOR A TABLE GAME"

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention concerns games. More particularly, it concerns apparatus for playing a table game in which one or more balls are rolled over a surface of the apparatus. The apparatus can be constructed to enable games of skill and/or chance to be played in locations ranging from the home to amusement centres.

BACKGROUND ART

Several common games are played by rolling balls on flat surfaces. These include skittles, ten-pin bowling, billiards, snooker and pool, lawn bowls, croquet, bagatelle and pinball games. In a skittle or bowling alley, the ball follows an unimpeded path to the target. In billiards, snooker, pool, croquet and lawn bowls, collisions between rolling and stationary balls are part of the game. The sloping flat surface in a bagatelle board or pinball machine is fitted with various protruding obstacles. In bagatelle, the protruding obstacles are pins which are positioned to deflect a ball or which are formed into small ball-enclosures to collect a ball. In a pinball machine, the obstacles are pegs, rigid fences, springs and stretched rubber bands that deflect the ball.

Only some of these games can be played, or be adapted to be played, as a table game.

O PI

With the exception of roulette, games in which -balls roll on a curved surface are rare.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Basically, the apparatus of the present invention provides a surface over which a ball is rolled, and which has ball-entrapping or ball- deflecting depressions or indentations formed in it. The surface may also have protuberances which deflect an incident ball rolling across the surface.

It will be appreciated that in none of the abovementioned prior art games does the surface on which a ball rolls have a plurality of shallow depressi or indentations which affect the path taken by a ball which is moving across the surface.

In the present invention, the depressions- or indentations are preferably dish-shaped or conical, with the perimeter of each depression being a circle, an ellipse or some other smooth closed curve. A ball that rolls through such a depression will be deflected from the path it was following before entering the depression (except in the special case of a trajectory passing through the centre of a circular depression) . The angle of deflection is greater the less the ball descends into the depression, and can exceed a right angle in the case of a ball that enters a depression having a circular circumference from a path which is - parallel to, but slightly nearer to the centre of the depression than, a tangent to the circumference of the depression. After leaving the depression, the ball continues on its new (deflected) path. 'If the ball, after entering a depression, has insufficient kinetic energy to mount the edge of the depression, it is captured and comes to rest at the bottom of the depression.

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When an array of depressions is present in the surface, the rolling ball will follow a complex trajectory as it encounters one depression after another. If the possible trajectories are not too complex, a skilful player can endeavour to cause a ball to follow a desired trajectory by setting the ball in motion in a particular direction, with a particular speed, from a particular starting point.

According to the present invention, apparatus for playing a game comprises:

(i) a generally planar or shallow concave surface having formed therein a plurality of shallow dish-shaped or conical depressions or indentations; and

(ii) a fence defining the perimeter of the playing area of the surface. The surface may have any suitable peripheral shape and size, and may be constructed of any suitable material. If required, and if appropriate, the apparatus may include or incorporate one or more of the following features:

(a) one or more projections, extending smoothly or abruptly away from the surface, the projections being made of the same material as the surface or being constructed to have an outer region of any other suitable rigid or deformable and resilient material; (b) at least one means for positioning a ball for projection over said surface;

(c) means to propel a ball over the surface;

(d) indicia associated with at least some of the indentations or depressions to indicate scores or penalties when a

ball comes to rest in one of the marked indentations or depressions;

(e) a switch, relay or like pressure sensitive electrical contact device located at the base of at least one of the indentations or depressions and activated when a ball enters into and remains within the indentation;

(f) an aperture formed in the base of at least one of the indentations, the or each aperture having dimensions sufficient to allow a ball to pass through it, the or each aperture optionally having an electrical switch, relay or similar electrical contact device associated with it and activated by a ball which passes through the aperture; and

(g) a resilient material forming, attached to or mounted alongside the fence. For use in a game, the playing surface of the present invention will usually have one or more starting points, each defined by a small pit or a tee, (constituting feature (b) noted above) to hold the ball in a fixed position before it is propelled across the surface by a player. Furthermore, the playing surface will usually have one or more of its depressions designated as a goal. Each goal may be assigned a number of points that are to be added to the score of a player whose ball ends its trajectory in that goal. Some depressions in the playing surface may be designated as hazards that contribute negatively to the score of a player whose ball comes to rest in one of them.

The depressions in the playing surface may form either a geometrically regular or an irregular array, and they may be identical in size and shape or they may be of different sizes and shapes.

O PI

The fence of the present invention is provided to prevent escape of the ball from the playing surface. The fence may be rigid and hard, or it may be rigid and covered with a compressible, resilient coating from which a ball will rebound. In another form, the fence may consist of a rubber band stretched on pegs or hooks placed around the periphery of the playing surface. The region enclosed by the fence may be rectangular, circular or any other convenient shape.

As indicated above, some or all of the depressions in a playing surface may be provided with an electrical contact device, which acts as a switch to cause an indicium to be illuminated. Another possible variation in the construction of the present invention—i -the provision of indentations which have holesor apertures that penetrate the material from which the surface is made, and through which a ball captured in the depression will fall. This feature may be useful in the construction of a coin—operated game for amusement parlours. Such games may also have electrical switches actuated by balls which fall through the apertures, such switches being linked to an electronic calculator which functions to display a score on a display panel.

In any of its forms, the surface of the present invention, again as indicated above, may be provided with protuberances. Such protuberances can be formed into the shapes of hillocks, cones or inverted dishes to deflect a ball rolling on the flat or gently curved playing surface. Typically, such protuberances will have perimeters at their bases in the shape of circles, ellipses or other smooth closed curves and will generally form a regular or an irregular array with the depressions of the surface.

The array of depressions Cor of depressions and protuberances) in a playing surface may be laid out in such a way that it takes a degree of skill on the part of a player to project the ball from a starting point to a particular goal. Alternatively, the surface may be constructed so that the trajectory of a rolling ball is very complex, and skill is of little value in determining the path a ball will take, in which case the game becomes a game of chance rather than a game of skill.

The playing surface to which this invention relates may range in size from that of a portable table-top game to room size, and may include features additional to those described above. Although the surface of the present invention may be formed of any suitable material, it has been found that fabrication of this surface from sheet plastic material, by a moulding technique, is a convenient way of realising the invention, The present invention also encompasses a game comprising a surface or board as described above and at least one ball for use with the surface or board.

By way of example, embodiments of the present invention will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figures 1 and 2 are perspective sketches of boards for a game, constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3 shows cross-sections through examples of, respectively, (a) a ball-locating pit, (b) a ball-mo nting tee, (c) an indentation, and (d) a protuberance that may be used in connection with the board of the present invention.

Figure - illustrates a simple ball- entrapping indentation, with an associated microswitch.

DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS The apparatus illustrated in Figure 1 compris a generally planar surface 10 moulded out of a sheet plastic material, having a rectangular shape and being provided with a peripheral fence 11. A plurality of shallow indentations 12 are formed in the surface and (at each corner of the board) four ball-locating pits

13 are formed. In the illustrated embodiment of Figure 1, the indentations 12 have the shallow dish¬ like shape shown in Figure 3(c) , and the ball- locating pits 13 have the shape shown in Figure 3(a) . Inside the fence 11, a thick rubber band

14 is stretched between mounting posts 15, which are located at each corner of the playing surface 10.

In use, a ball (preferably a steel ball as used in ball-bearings, or a heavy glass "marble") is mounted at one of the pits 13 and is projected across the surface 10 by striking the ball with the player's finger or with a suitable small implement (such as a spatula or flat wooden paddle) . The ball will then traverse the surface with a path that is controlled by the indentations 12 which the ball encounters, and by its reflections off the rubber band 14 if the ball was struck sufficiently hard in the first instance, until it eventually comes to rest in one of the indentations 12. According to the indicium that may be associated with the indentation 12 in which the ball comes to rest, the player is given a positive score or a penalty.

As already indicated, the surface 10 need not be planar, but may be gently curved; it may also be gently undulating. Furthermore, in addition to

indentations 12, the surface may be provided with protuberances. One such form of apparatus is illustrated in Figure 2, where the surface 10 is generally oval-shaped, and is provided with indentation 12 and with protuberances 16 which have the shape shown in Figure 3(d) . The apparatus illustrated in Figure 2 has a fence 11 which comprises a rubber or neoprene material, banded to an upwardly projecting flange (not shown) at the edge of the playing sur ace 10. This construction provides a fence with a resilient, compressible surface.

It is also possible, as shown in Figure 4,to have one or more of the indentations 12 provided with an aperture 40, through which a ball may fall and be removed from play. In the arrangement illustrated schematically in Figure 4, the falling of a ball into the aperture 40 causes the ball to strike a microswitch 41 and thereby allow an electrical current to activate, for example, illuminated indicia on a scoreboard.

ALTERNATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

Those familiar with games will recognise that various alternatives and modifications of the illustrated embodiments of the present invention can be adopted without departing from the present inventive concept. Some of these alternatives are foreshadowed in the preceding description and the claims of this application. One is illustrated in Figure 3(b) , namely the adoption of a ball-mounting tee in place of a pit 13. Another way of propelling a ball across the surface of the present invention is by using a ramp with a groove in its inclined surface, down which a ball may roll.

It will be appreciated that the illustrated embodiments of the invention all use a sheet material

to form the surface. However, the surface may be formed of non-sheet material - such as wood or expanded or foamed plastic material - if such constructions are desirable or convenient.

Among the commonest shapes for the surface of this invention are rectangular (including square) , circular and oval shapes. However, a surface may be provided with a fence of complex shape if a game is required in which one objective is to place a ball in an indentation which is so located that considerable skill (or luck) is required to achieve that objective.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention can conveniently be constructed from sheet plastic material, using a moulding process. However, as already noted, it may be constructed using any suitable medium and technique The main use of the present invention is in entertainment, and for this purpose the invention may be designed for use in the home, where a small table game is usually required, or for use in a club or amusement centre, where a large and more complex form of playing surface is generally expected.