GAME OF SKILL USING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MAZE The invention concerns individual games of skill, played on a table, whose purpose is to test the reasoning power of the player. These games are often based on systems invented in ancient times using new materials and means, such as electronics, substantially exploiting the possibility of achieving certain results by following certain routes, executing certain operations of a more or less complex kind, some- times depending on chance or offering a variety of possi¬ bilities only a few of which, or even only one, lead to a solution, but requiring memory and reaβoning capacity. Since the basic features of all such games are substantial¬ ly similar, it is no easy matter to devise new ones even though the market is always seeking novelties.

It follows that most new games are merely reproductions of old ones dressed up in different guises and made of

different materials but which therefore offer only li¬ mited possibilities of sale.

Purpose of the above invention, based on the ingenious conjectures known to the ancient world, is to provide a game in an entirely new form which makes it both in¬ teresting and original as will be explained below. Subject of the invention is a game of skill for a single player comprising a small ball, or marble, and a substan¬ tially transparent solid having an entry hole for the ball at the top and another at the bottom through which the ball comes out.

The problem posed by the game is solved when the ball, having been put in at the top falls out at the bottom. The two holes are connected by a variety of routes on three parallel planes one above the other.

Each plane, or floor, is connected to the one belo it by internal holes for entry and exit of the ball. The routes on each floor consist of a number of passage¬ ways one or more of which are blind and one or more con- nected to the ball's exit and entry holes.

To play the game the player puts the ball in at the top hole and moves it along the passages on the first floor by tilting the solid and tapping or shaking it to direct the ball into the passage connecting with a hole leading onto the second floor underneath.

When the ball has reached the second floor the player proceeds as for the upper one, and so on until the ball has dropped onto the bottom floor, then moving it to find the final exit hole. The solid is preferably made of clear plastic material, possibly coloured, to ensure sufficient transparency.

Advantageously the solid will be a rectangular paralle- piped .

The cross section of each passageway on each floor is square, its dimensions being slightly greater than the diameter of the ball, said passageway being made of partitions orthogonal to the floors, placed between one floor and another and rectinl inear , crossing the other passageways at right angles. Each passage communicates with others through apertures in the partitions, the width of each aperture being substantially equal to the cross section of the passage. Passage walls, including the upper and lower surfaces, are flat and smooth having slightly raised ribs on the four surfaces passing through a single transversal geo- metrical plane.

Centre distance between said ribs corresponds to the square cross section of the passages.

In this way the solid is divided up into a quantity of three-dimensional cubic boxes subs antially the same placed side by side and one above another, bounded in the three directions by said ribs, by the walls of the passages and by the apertures in them.

The ribs project so that the dimensions of the square cross section of the passages at said ribs are slightly greater than the diameter of the ball.

The purpose of all this is to make it possible to stop the ball by gravity inside a box because of the presence of the ribs, and also its movement from one box to ano¬ ther by tilting the solid and tapping or shaking it. Preferably there are three floors communicating through three holes while the entry and exit holes at top and bottom are situated centrally.

The solid therefore consists of a parallelepiped box, open above, of two rectangular sheets of material as wide as the internal width of the box, underneath which are fixed the partitions to make the passages, each sheet of material having in it three holes, and of a covering sheet also fitted with partitions for the pas¬ sages fixed to its lower surface and having in it a cen¬ tral hole, which sheet coincides with the walls of the box completing its parallelepiped shape so that, when put together, the solid consists of four horizontal sheets of material that form the three floors.

In one execution each floor has seven boxes along its shorter side and eleven along its longer side making a total of seventy-seven boxes so that the solid comprises altogether two hundred and thirty-one boxes, an upper hole, a lower hole, three holes between the first and second floors and three holes between the second and third floors . In one execution the external dimensions of the solid are mm 92 x 60 x 21, the boxes measure mm 7 x 7 x 7 with ribs that project for mm .05, therefore with a span of mm 6, while the diameter of the ball is smaller.

There may be a single floor or several, as the case requires Also as the case requires, the shape of the solid may be cubic, polyhedral, prismatic, pyramidal, cylindrical, spherical, ovoid or any other possible shape.

The boxes may be square, rectangular, circular, triangular, or in the shape of any polygon. Cross section of the ribs may be trapezoidal, triangular, arched, or of any other possible shape.

Like the sheets of material for the floors and like the partitions fixed to them, the internal parts of the solid

are transparent so that it is impossible or at least difficult to distinguish from the outside which routes and passages lead to the holes that allow the ball to fall out through the bottom hole. By inserting the ball into the hole at the top so as to make the ball fall out at the bottom, by finding the one correct route, among others which may seem possible but which are blind alleys or else lead to a hole that while opening into a passage on the floor below is blind as well, that correct route which will allow the ball to pass through all the floors including the bottom one with its centrally situated exit hole. The invention offers evident advantages. By the original extension of the features of a maze to the three spatial directions, not only are alternative routes created compared with a conventional flat maze, but the superimposed routes interact in a wide variety of ways communicating with each other both at their ter¬ minal points and intermediately as well: In addition to the pushing movements made by the player on the ball, there is also the force of gravity that interacts with these movements.

By means of the holes opening among the floors, alterna¬ tive passages are created both horizontally and vertically as well as partially horizontal and vertical, for the greater amusement of the player.

Characteristics and purposes of the invention will be made still clearer by the following example of its execution illustrated by diagrammat ically drawn figures. Fig. 1 Perspective view from above of the game subject of the invention. Fig. 2 The same as above, seen from below.

Fig. 3 Exploded perspective view of the game with the route the ball should follow marked out.

Fig. 4 The box seen from above.

Fig. 5 Detail of the box. Fig. 6 A longitudinal section of the box.

Fig. 7 Detail of the longitudinal section.

Fig. 8 Sheet of material forming the lower floor of the game, an orthogonal projection.

Fig. 9 Detail of the above sheet. Fig.10 Longitudinal section of the sheet.

Fig.11 Detail of the longitudinal section

Fig.12 Sheet of material for the second floor of the game, an orthogonal projection.

Fig.13 Detail of the above sheet. Fig.14 Longitudinal section of the sheet in Fig. 12.

Fig.15 Detail of the longitudinal section.

Fig.16 Cover of the box, an orthogonal projection.

Fig.17 Detail of the cover.

Fig.18 Longitudinal section of the cover. Fig.19 Detail of the longitudinal section.

The game 10 comprises a parallelepiped box I I, an inter¬ nal sheet of material 14, a second internal sheet 13 and a cover 12.

The bottom and sides of the box as well as the under sur- faces of the internal sheets and of the cover are crossed by a series of ribs in both directions which give rise on each surface of the internal sheets and of the cover to

77 boxes D .

The game has therefore a total of 231 cubic boxes E. A number of partitions of equal height are fixed to the under surfaces of the sheets and of the cover, said par¬ titions being rectilinear and crossing one another placed

at the position of the ribs to form passages, F, G, H.

In the lid 12 - here is a series of partitions 20 and a central hole 30.

The upper floor 13 has a series of partitions 21 and contains the three holes 31,32,33.

The lower floor 14 has partitions 22 and contains the three holes 34,35,36.

In the bottom of the box there is a hole 37.

A section through the crossed ribs, both those on the walls and bottom of the box and those present on the under surface of the floors and cover, is substantially trapezoidal .

It will therefore be seen that the 231 cubic boxes of which the game consists are bounded by the sides of the partitions, by the openings in said partitions and by the ribs that reduce the width of the passages at the side of each box .

The projection of the pairs of ribs on opposite sides of the passages formed by the partitions is such as to leave a space slightly greater than the diameter of the ball 15.

Figs. 4 to 7 illustrate the box I I clearly showing the bottom 41 with pairs of ribs 42 and 43, and walls 44 also with pairs of ribs 45 and 46. Figs. 8 to 11 illustrate the lower floor 14 with parti¬ tions 22, openings 25 and pairs of ribs 48 and 48' on the bottom 47, as well as 49 and 50 on the partitions.

The other holes 34-36 are also visible.

Figs. 12 to 15 illustrate the upper floor 13 with parti- tions 21, openings 26, with pairs of ribs 51, 51' on the bottom 50 as well as 53 and 54 on the partitions.

Figs. 16 to 19 illustrate the cover 12 with partitions 20, openings 27, pairs of ribs 56 and 56' on the bottom 55 also ribs 57, 58 on the partitions, and the hole 30. As clearly seen, especially in Fig. 3, when putting to- gether the solid that forms the game 10, matching the sheet of material 14 with the bottom of the box 11, the sheet 13 with sheet 12 and the cover 12 both with the edges of the box and with the sheet 13, three operative planes or floors A,B,C will be formed dividing the vo- lume of the solid 10 longitudinally.

To permit the ball 15, once inside the solid 10 through the hole 30, to come out at the bottom of the box 11 through the hole 36, it must follow the path marked I on the floor A, the path marked L on the floor B and the path marked M on the floor C.

To enable the ball to pass from path I to path L on floor B it must fall through the hole 33.

Similarly to follow path M the ball must fall through the hole 34. Having reached the path marked out by the partitions 22, the ball must follow path M so as to emerge from hole 37. Because the structure of the solid 10 is transparent, once having put the ball 15 in through the hole 30 at the top, much thought and skill will obviously be required of the player to make the ball follow its correct routes on the floors A, B and C not only to avoid blind alleys on each floor but also, when the ball is leaving one floor through one of the three holes, to prevent its entering another blind alley on the floor below. The solid will therefore have to be inclined and shaken in such a way that the ball not only finds the right way be¬ tween the upper hole and one of the holes in the next floor

but also that, having done so, it can follow a route on said next floor that allows it to pass through one of the three holes on the lower floor C that can lead it to its final outlet through the hole 36.