Game and amusement device

What is disclosed is a novel game which depends on both memory and skill. The game consists of a spinner apparatus for determining play and a series of perforated, patterned discs and colored pegs which gives both a chance selection and chance peg insertion which gives the game ever-changing characteristics.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a game which can be utilized by both young 
and older persons to amuse themselves. This game is unique in that the 
playing pattern changes consistently so that the younger quicker minds 
cannot easily master its details. For the older gameplayer, however, the 
game has a high interest quotient because it has a chance selection 
mechanism as well as a chance peg insertion mechanism. 
Games utilizing pegs are very old as evidenced by the numerous peg games 
available on the shelves of many retail stores. 
Also, many games have been provided which give a chance selection to the 
players. There have also been many games which give the player chance peg 
insertion. Both of these approaches to games in general have provided 
games which, although entertaining, have a tendency to become 
extraordinarily uninteresting after a short period of play time. 
Such games are illustrated for example in U.S. Pat. No. 2,283,583, issued 
May 19, 1942 to H. Singer. Such a device is a "chance selection" device 
and depends for its novelty on a plurality of rotating discs which rotate 
around a center axis and which have a stationary indicator associated with 
each disc. The object of the game is to pre-select numbers or objects on 
the rotating discs and betting on such numbers or objects. If the 
pre-selected number or object appear under the stationary indicator after 
the discs have been spun, the person selecting such number or object is 
the winner. 
As an example of a chance peg insertion game or device, one can turn to 
U.S. Pat. No. 2,871,018 issued Jan. 27, 1959 to Lauretta Fink. The device 
consists of a hollow cup surmounted by a removable cover which has at 
least one aperture therethrough. 
Pegs are then passed through the aperture or apertures, as the case may be, 
and the manipulation of the pegs through the aperture is allegedly a test 
of skill. The pegs can be colored and the aperture sizes varied in order 
to provide additional skills to the game. 
A further peg insertion game can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,537 which 
consists of a hexahedral hollow body whose walls are provided with 
through-holes numbered from 1 to 6. Rods are provided which are adapted to 
be inserted into the through-holes. The rods are of varying length and the 
object of the game is to place each rod in the correct hole without 
causing interference with any other rod. It is obvious that this game 
could be mastered in a very short time by simple memorization. 
Another peg game which relys on peg insertion is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 
3,834,708 issued Sept. 10, 1974 to Philip L. Shoptaugh. This game has an 
objective of forming tight clusters of pegs of the same length. The game 
consists of a gameboard which has holes in it of differing depths and pegs 
of different lengths. The players in a series of moves attempt to get 
their pegs in a tight cluster with the pegs all extending the same heighth 
above the board. 
Finally, there is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,061,313, a game apparatus which 
simulates the drilling of wells. The object of the game is to insert a 
single peg through perforated plates until the proper perforation is 
pegged. The plates are pre-aligned to give a series of aligned holes and 
misaligned holes. Some aligned holes are electrically activated so that 
the insertion of the proper peg will activate an electrical circuit to 
light an electric bulb. Such a bulb when lit indicates a score i.e. a 
simulated oil pocket has been hit. This game, although very novel, 
requires only a chance peg insertion and is subject to memorization by the 
players. 
THE INVENTION 
It has now been discovered that the interest of such like devices can be 
enhanced by the combination of a chance peg insertion and a chance 
selection of both pegs and hole alignment. 
It is an object of this game to provide a game combining chance and skill 
such that there are multiple memory patterns so that the game is not 
easily mastered and is exceptionally difficult to memorize resulting in 
infinite play patterns which lead to great amusement for the players. This 
game can readily be manufactured at low cost from available materials such 
as wood, metal, plastics and the like. 
The inventive game consists of a gameboard surmounted by both a series of 
stacked, variable diameter, perforated discs and a spinner apparatus and, 
a series of colored or numbered pegs of varying lengths. 
The ancillary objects and features of the invention will become apparent as 
the following description proceeds.

What is illustrated in FIG. 1 is a game or device which consists of a 
spinner disc 1 which is a flat disc with a central vertical stable axis 2 
and a series of evenly spaced colored or numbered pegs 3. In addition, 
there is a spinner flapper 4 which serves to slow down and stop the 
spinner 1 and which also serves as an indicator to determine which 
numbered or colored peg is chance selected by the spinning of the disc. 
The entire spinner disc and spinner flapper is analogous to the well-known 
roulette wheel. 
Adjacent to the spinner disc and flapper is a series of flat discs 5, 6 and 
7 which have perforations in them and which are aligned on a central 
stable axis 8. These discs are freely rotatable independently of each 
other and the gameboard on the stable center axis 8. The gameboard 9 has 
holes or indentions bored in it directly underneath the discs 5, 6 and 7 
which correspond to a certain pattern. The discs 5, 6 and 7 have 
perforations which follow the pattern in the gameboard 9 but have, in 
addition, numerous other perforations as will be discussed later. 
FIG. 2 illustrates an exploded view of a portion of the gameboard 9 and the 
disc 7 to further illustrate the perforations and the alignment of the 
disc 7 and the gameboard 9. The disc 7 is illustrated as being tipped up 
slightly so that the bottom of the disc 7 and the top of the gameboard 9 
can be seen. 
FIG. 2 shows a typical pattern of indentions 10 in the gameboard which are 
all of the same depth. The broken lines in FIG. 2 show the same pattern in 
disc 7 and other perforations in addition thereto. 
FIG. 3 shows an exploded view of the discs 6 and 7 in which is illustrated 
the pattern of the gameboard indentions and additional perforations in 
each. Disc 6 is illustrated in a slightly tipped-up view to show the 
bottom while the disc 7 is shown in a slightly tipped down view to show 
the top. 
FIG. 4 illustrates an exploded view of discs 5 and 6. Disc 5 is tipped up 
slightly and disc 6 is tipped down slightly to show the alignment of the 
perforations and the additional holes therein. 
FIG. 5 is a cut through the assembled game of FIG. 1 at the lines AA of the 
stacked perforated discs and illustrates the variable length pegs 11, 12 
and 13, and their position in the stacked discs and the indentions in the 
gameboard. 
The pegs 11, 12 and 13 are numbered or colored to correspond to the numbers 
or colors of the pegs 3 shown in FIG. 1. 
Since there are three pegs 11, 12 and 13, the spinner disc should contain 
pegs which have three different colors. For example, on a typical game, 
the spinner disc is approximately five inches in diameter and contains 
twenty-four pegs around its outer periphery (see FIG. 1). Since three 
colors are required and since there should be an equal number of each 
color, our example spinner disc would have, say, eight red pegs, eight 
green pegs and eight black pegs which are randomly placed about the 
periphery of the disc. When the spinner disc is spun, the flapper 4 slows 
the disc down and the flapper comes to rest against one of the colored 
pegs 3. 
In actual play, the pegs 11, 12 and 13 are withdrawn from the holes in the 
discs 5, 6 and 7 and laid aside to be used as the game progresses. The 
discs 5, 6 and 7 are then randomly spun to misalign the holes in them. The 
first player then spins the spinner disc and when it comes to a stop, the 
peg color indicated by the flapper is selected by the player from the peg 
pile of 11, 12 and 13 pegs. The player then inserts that peg in the 
perforated discs. The player is allowed to rotate the perforated discs in 
any direction any number of times in order to insert the peg. Obviously, 
if one of the short pegs has been indicated by the spinner disc and 
flapper, the perforated discs needn't even be moved. Once the peg has been 
inserted in a hole and the player declares that it will remain there, then 
the turn at play is finished. Each player in turn plays in this manner 
until all the pegs are in the perforations or, the pegs will no longer 
fit, that is, during play, the deepest holes may have been inadvertantly 
filled by using the shorter pegs. The game can be scored a number of 
different ways such as assigning the pegs 11, 12 and 13 with numbers prior 
to play or, the game can be scored by simply keeping track of the pegs and 
counting the number each player has played. 
In the working model, the pegs are 3", 2" and 11/2" in length and are 
arbitrarily assigned a value of 20, 15 and 5 points each. The longest peg 
13 is long enough to go through the perforated discs 5, 6 and 7 and fill 
the indention in the gameboard thereby locking all the discs in place so 
that they will not rotate. The 2" peg is just long enough to go through 
the perforated discs 5, 6 and 7 but it will not reach into the indentation 
of the gameboard. Thus, if a 2" peg is played it will lock the discs 
together but it will not lock the discs to the gameboard. The 11/2" peg 
will not lock any discs together or will not lock the discs to the 
gameboard. Thus, if a 3" peg is played first in the game, the advantage of 
having movable discs during the remainder of the game is foreclosed. If a 
2" peg is played first the entire stack of perforated discs is movable but 
the separate discs will not be independently rotatable from the other 
discs. If a 11/2" peg is played first the entire stack of discs is 
rotatable on the gameboard and independently of each other. 
Thus, it can be readily observed that there are many variables to the game 
which make it difficult to memorize and therefore the game remains 
interesting. There is random selection by way of the spinner disc. There 
is random selection by way of each movable perforated disc and there is 
random peg selection. There is only one alignment that will allow the 
insertion of all of the pegs. 
Minor modifications and changes are within the scope of the claim and the 
description above is not intended to limit the scope of this invention. 
For example, a fourth rotatable, perforated disc could be added to the 
stacked discs to increase the complexity of the game.