Patent ID: 7806409
Filing Date: 2010-10-05
Classification: F41J

Abstract:
1. An electronic dart football game that allows individual players and teams to control and closely simulate the offensive and defensive strategies of a game of football, said electronic dart football game comprising: a game board configured for use as a target for darts and also having the appearance of a football field, said game board having a central scoring area extending between two opposed goal lines and consisting of the entirety of space between said two goal lines, said central scoring area being marked with areas providing yard gains, yard losses and ball possession losses, said game board also having an end zone adjacent to each of said goal lines that extends away from said central scoring area, a centered goal post within each of said end zones, one of said goal posts being larger than the other, said game board oriented during game play so that one of said end zones is positioned above the other to place the larger one of said goal posts above the smaller one of said goal posts, said central scoring area having a 50-yard line centrally between said goal lines and four horizontally-extending lines numerically marked to represent consecutive 10-yard increments between said 50-yard line and each of said opposed goal lines, including two 40-yard lines, the space in said central scoring area extending between said two 40-yard lines being configured as one enlarged scoring area marked to award a single low-value yard gain to a player throwing a dart that makes contact therein, said three horizontally-extending lines between each of said 40-yard lines and the one of said goal lines most adjacent thereto also defining four scoring areas collectively marked to award both yard gains and yard losses to a player throwing a dart that makes contact therein, said central scoring area additionally having at least one penalty area that causes a loss of down for a player; and said central scoring area also having a plurality of additional scoring areas each located within one of said eight scoring areas between said two 40-yard lines and the respective one of said two goal lines closest thereto, with the ones of said additional scoring areas marked to provide a yard gain being positioned within one of said eight scoring areas providing a yard loss, and the ones of said additional scoring areas marked to provide a loss of ball possession being positioned in one of said eight scoring areas providing a yard gain; and a control board housing a main computer control chip adapted to coordinate and maintain all aspects of a game of football in sequence once a first thrown dart makes contact with said game board, including control of said game board and electronic transmission of dart contact location information from said game board to said control board, and to further calculate and electronically provide game play and scoring information for visual display, said control board also housing at least one LED screen configured for visual display of at least a portion of said game play and scoring information, said control board also having a first electronic communication means adapted for connection between said control chip and said game board, a second electronic communication means adapted for connection between said control chip and said at least one LED screen, a first set button configured for use in establishing a player-selected time interval for each quarter of game play, and a second set button configured for use in establishing a player-selected maximum ball possession time length allowable for each player to throw at least one dart but no more than four darts at said game board, wherein after said first and said second set buttons are used respectively to establish said time intervals for said quarters of game play and player ball possession, and a first dart thrown by a player makes contact with said game board and activates said control board, said main computer control chip in said control board coordinates and maintain all aspects of a game of football in sequence, including said game play and scoring information visually displayed on said at least one LED screen.