Abstract:
A vending machine is combined with a game of skill and chance. A ball or other generally spherical item of merchandise is dispensed onto an intermediate carrier each time the player deposits an adequate amount of money. The player causes the ball to be ejected from the carrier, which may simulate a dump truck, onto an upper portion of a slanted playing surface and attempts to cause the ball to contact a target as it rolls down the slanted playing surface. The apparatus awards a prize or a prize credit of some sort if a target is struck, and, in some versions, may aggregate credits for multiple games. Whether or not the ball strikes the target, it eventually falls into a delivery chute from which the player can retrieve it.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     Not Applicable 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to article dispensing machines, and in particular to article dispensing apparatus in which a dispensed article is used as a playing piece in a game of skill or chance before being delivered to a buyer. 
     2. Background Information 
     Vending machines are well known for dispensing novelty items stored in generally spherical or egg-shaped containers, and for dispensing a variety of balls which may be rubber toys, hard candy or candy-coated chewing gum balls, etc. One commonly finds several such machines, each displaying items of merchandise stored in a transparent hopper, grouped together in a row to provide the customer with a selection of products. 
     It is also known to use an item being vended as a playing piece in a game of skill or chance in which the customer or player is awarded additional merchandise or some other prize in response for a successful play. An extensive discussion of such apparatus is provided by Dickerson in U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,656. In that reference Dickerson teaches a pinball-like game in which the playing piece, which may be a gum ball or some sort of generally spherical container holding an item of merchandise, is delivered to the player on each play. The disclosure of Dickerson in U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,656 is herein incorporated by reference. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention provides apparatus combining a vending machine with a game of skill and chance in which a “ball”, as hereinafter defined, is vended to a player each time the player deposits an adequate amount of money, tokens, or the like. In preferred apparatus of the invention, the vended ball is visibly dropped from a hopper onto an intermediate carrier whence the player causes the ball to be ejected onto an upper portion of a slanted playing surface. The player attempts to control the ejection so that as the ball rolls down the slanted playing surface it strikes or falls into a target, which leads to the apparatus awarding a prize or a prize credit of some sort or another. Whether or not the ball strikes the target, the ball eventually falls into a delivery chute from which the player can retrieve it. 
     In one preferred embodiment the intermediate carrier simulates a dump truck, train, or other cargo vehicle from which loads are customarily dumped. This carrier may be in constant horizontal reciprocating motion behind a front window of the apparatus whenever the apparatus is available for play. In preferred apparatus of this sort an item is vended into the simulative vehicle, which then resumes its reciprocating motion until the player hits a “Dump” button or the like, at which time the simulative vehicle stops and dumps the vended ball onto the top of the slanted playing surface. 
     In another preferred embodiment the intermediate carrier comprises a preferably circular rotatable surface partially surrounded by an upstanding wall or collar arranged to guide the ball towards an upper portion of a slanted playing surface. In apparatus of this sort an item is vended onto the rotatable surface, after which the player spins the rotatable surface so as to fling the item onto a slanted playing surface. In particular preferred embodiments of this sort, the slanted playing surface is tilted only slightly away from a horizontal orientation and means are provided to the player to shake and jostle the slanted surface in order to move the ball thereabout. 
     It is a further feature of some embodiments of the invention to provide apparatus that vends a selected item each time a player deposits a predetermined payment, that provides a game of skill and chance played with the vended item during the course of its delivery, that awards and accumulates credits for successful play or plays of the game, and that delivers a player-selected prize (where the prize is an actual item of merchandise rather than being a ticket or other credit-indicating means redeemable by a game operator) that is one of several displayed prizes corresponding to the player&#39;s accumulated credit. 
     Although it is believed that the foregoing recital of features and advantages may be of use to one who is skilled in the art and who wishes to learn how to practice the invention, it will be recognized that the foregoing recital is not intended to list all of the features and advantages. Moreover, it may be noted that various embodiments of the invention may provide various combinations of the hereinbefore recited features and advantages of the invention, and that less than all of the recited features and advantages may be provided by some embodiments. 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective elevational view of an apparatus of the invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a detail view of components used to control the motion of an intermediate carrier portion of the embodiment of FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 is schematic block diagram of a control system usable with apparatus of the invention. 
     FIG. 4 is a partial, cut-away, perspective view depicting an alternative embodiment of the invention. 
     FIG. 5 is a horizontal sectional detail view of a player control used in the embodiment of FIG. 3 
     FIG. 6 is a perspective elevational view depicting a second embodiment of a crediting means of the invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention provides several arrangements in which an item of merchandise is delivered to a player after the item rolls along a slanted playing surface. These vended items may themselves be spherical or quasi-spherical, or may be packaged in spherical, quasi-spherical, or ovoid packages. These vended items and their packaging, if used, are hereinafter referred to as “balls”  8 . Candy-coated gum balls are generally nearly spherical and provide one example of the sort of item that can serve as a ball. Small hollow containers are often used in novelty vending machines and provide another such example. These hollow containers sometimes comprise two generally hemispherical shells interfitted along an equator to form a quasi-spherical ball having an equatorial seam or seam belt  9  disposed thereabout. In extreme cases, the hollow novelty item container may be clearly ovoid in shape and may have a visibly thick belt where two shells join to close the package. These may all be used as balls in the apparatus of the invention inasmuch as they can be induced to roll down a slanted surface into a delivery chute of some sort. Moreover, in some embodiments of the invention an article of merchandise, hereinafter referred to as a “prize” is dispensed to a user responsive to a target being hit by a vended ball. In some embodiments, these prizes are configured as balls, but in most cases, as will be elucidated in greater detail hereinafter, the prizes, if packaged, are packaged in non-spherical containers and are delivered to the player by different means than used for the vended balls. 
     Turning now to FIG. 1, one finds an embodiment of the invention  10  having a plurality of hoppers  12  juxtaposed along the top of an enclosure  14 , where each hopper has some sort of dispensing mechanism  16  operatively associated therewith. A ball  8  can be selectively dispensed from one of the hoppers  12  by a player who whose play-initiating actions may comprise inserting currency, coins, tokens, or other suitable means of payment  17  into an acceptor  18  and then pushing a hopper-select button  20 . It may be noted that such arrangements using a single acceptor  18  to control dispensing from a plurality of ball hoppers  12  are well known and may be used as a component portion of the apparatus of the invention  10 . One example of such a multi-hopper dispensing arrangement is the “EBV Slimline” made by A&amp;A Global of Timonium, Md. It may also be noted in the foregoing that although the use of a plurality of transparent hoppers is preferred to provide the player with a selection of merchandise, the invention could function with hoppers having opaque walls, with an article dispenser or dispenser other than a hopper, or with a single hopper. 
     In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, a ball  8  vended from one of the hoppers  12  may fall out of a hopper chute  22  into an intermediate carrier  24  which may be configured as the dump bed of a toy truck  26 . In a preferred embodiment, the toy truck  26  is disposed on rails  28  running across the front of the enclosure  14  behind a front window  30  and is driven back and forth along the rails  28  whenever the apparatus  10  is turned on and awaiting a player. In a preferred embodiment, this reciprocating motion is provided by a reversing electric motor  34  driving a transversely ribbed flexible belt  35  of the type commonly used as a timing belt in automotive engines. The motion can also be provided by various known means such as connecting the truck  26  to a feed screw  32  that changes the direction of motion each time the truck hits a limit switch (not shown) adjacent either end of the rails  28 . Moreover, there are several arrangements for dispensing a ball  8  into the intermediate carrier  24 . One could juxtapose the outputs of hopper chutes  22  close together near one side of the enclosure  14  and controllably pause the reciprocating motion of the toy truck  26  adjacent that side whenever payment was accepted by the acceptor  18 . In a preferred arrangement, however, there is a limit switch operatively associated with each of a plurality of hoppers, the limit switches arranged so that the truck  26  stops directly beneath the selected hopper chute  22 . At the other extreme, the hopper chutes  22  could be spaced apart near the front of the enclosure and the apparatus could be configured to keep the truck in motion during dispensing. In this case, some of the vended balls would miss the intermediate carrier  26 , would fall onto a lower portion of a slanted playing surface  36  and would roll into a delivery chute  38  with little chance of striking a target  40 . 
     A preferred intermediate carrier  24  of the invention is vertically spaced apart from the hopper chute(s)  22  by a great enough distance that the ball  8  can be seen by a player looking through the window  30 . Having the ball  8  visible while in the intermediate carrier  24  can aid the player in his or her attempt to selectively position the ball  8  on the playing surface  36  so as to maximize the chance of having the ball  8  strike or fall into a target  40 . 
     In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the intermediate carrier  24  simulates some sort of vehicle body used for carrying and dumping loads. Although this is depicted as being a toy dump truck  26 , it will be understood that other such vehicles, such as the combination of a toy locomotive and a bulk carrier rail car (not shown) could equally well be used. In the depicted embodiment, the dump body  42  is pivotally attached to the chassis of the toy truck  26  and the combination of a rod  44 , crank arm  46  and electric dumping motor  48  is used to tilt and reset the dump body  42  during a single rotation of the dumping motor  48 . This dumping arrangement ejects the ball  8 , which lands on an upper portion  50  of the slanted surface  36  and rolls down the surface until it ultimately falls into the delivery chute  38 . 
     A player&#39;s chance of having his or her vended ball  8  strike a target  40  is, of course, maximized if the ball begins its travel along the playing surface  36  in a position generally above one of the targets  40 . Hence, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, choosing when and where the dumping operation is to be done is an important part of the game. In a preferred embodiment, the player watches the toy truck  26  move to and fro and, when the ball  8  in the dump bed  42  is appropriately aligned with a target  40 , hits a “dump” button  52 , which initiates the dumping sequence. It will be understood to those skilled in the art that the degree of difficulty in picking an appropriate dump point can be controllably varied by the manufacturer of the apparatus  10  by the selection of the shape of the dump body  42 , the deceleration rate selected for stopping the reciprocating motion, the speed of the dumping motor operation, etc. 
     Turning now to FIG. 4, one finds a second embodiment of the invention in which a rotatable circular element  56  serves as the intermediate carrier  24 . In this embodiment the ball  8  is initially vended onto the rotatable surface  56  from an array of hoppers  12  and chutes  12 , as discussed above with respect to FIG.  1 . The player then spins the rotatable surface  56  (e.g., by means of the depicted combination of a crank  58 , a drive wheel  60 , a twisted belt  62  and a driven wheel) until the rotatable surface spins fast enough that the ball is thrown, by centrifugal forces, through the output chute  66  onto an upper portion of the playing surface  36 . In a preferred embodiment, the rotatable surface is tilted away from the horizontal somewhat so as to ensure a higher speed of ejection. To some extent, the speed of ejection is controlled by the player who thereby controls the trajectory of the ball along the upper portion of the playing surface  36 . Although not shown, it will be clear to those skilled in the art that the output chute  66  is defined by a upstanding wall  68  that wraps around the rotatable surface to form a collar that prohibits the ball  8  from being ejected in other than the desired direction. 
     In either of the depicted embodiments the ball  8  is deposited on the playing surface  36  by some means that a player can at least partially control so as to improve his or her chance of having the ball  8  strike a target  40 . After being deposited, the ball  8  rolls downwardly along the slanted surface  36  and ultimately falls into a delivery chute  38 . As generally shown in FIG. 4, this may occur by the ball&#39;s falling through a target  40  (which is preferably shaped like the bell of a brass instrument), landing on the sloping floor  70  of the enclosure  14 , and rolling downwards into the chute. Balls that miss all the targets  40  eventually fall off a lower, front edge  72  of the playing surface and roll into the chute. 
     Thus, each time a player uses the apparatus of the invention  10  a generally spherical item which may be a container holding a purchasable object, is vended to the player. In preferred embodiments the use of a plurality of ball hoppers  12  provides the player with a choice as to which product is vended. Moreover, on each play the player has a chance to receive a credit or award from some sort of crediting means  45  that acts responsive to the vended ball  8  striking a target  40 . There are, of course, numerous possibilities for the award. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, for example, a ticket dispenser  25  dispenses one or more tickets to the player, with the number of tickets dispensed depending on which of the targets was hit. As is known in the arcade game business, the ticket or tickets can be accumulated by the player until he or she has enough to exchange the aggregated set of tickets for a desired thing of value obtained from the arcade operator. The embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, on the other hand, provides either an immediate or cumulative means for dispensing a selected prize to the successful player. In one arrangement of this sort the player is offered a choice from several different prizes that correspond to the value of whatever target  40  his vended ball  8  struck. This can be done, for example, by placing a suitable prize vending apparatus  57  having a separate prize dispensing chute  59  adapted to drop the selected prize directly into the delivery chute  38  rather than dropping the selected prize onto the playing surface  36 . The prize dispensing apparatus  57  may be one of the sort adapted to visually display available prizes hanging from ones of a plurality of “corkscrews”  61 , as depicted in FIG. 6, although it will be recognized to those skilled in the art that many other sorts of item dispensers may be used. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, each of the corkscrews  61  is associated with one of a corresponding plurality of “winner select” buttons  63  or other suitable means whereby the apparatus is adapted to respond to a prize-selecting action of the player. Depending on the value of the target that has been hit, various of these buttons  63  may be illuminated to show the player which prizes can be selected. As is known in the art, this arrangement may be employed in a cumulative scoring fashion in which the values of “hits” made on successive plays are added up and a button  63  or buttons corresponding to the aggregate credit due the player can be illuminated. This embodiment of the invention thus combines vending a selected item each time a player deposits a predetermined payment, providing a game of skill and chance played with the vended item during the course of its delivery, awarding and accumulating credits for successful play or plays of the game, and vending a player-selected prize that is one of several displayed prizes corresponding to the player&#39;s accumulated or aggregated credit. 
     One approach to controlling apparatus of the invention is depicted schematically in FIG. 3. A controller  54 , which may be a microprocessor operating under control of a stored program, is adapted to receive inputs from an acceptor  18 , hopper select switches  20 , a dump button  52  and one or more target sensors  41  having appropriate outputs when the ball contacts the target. The sensors  41  may be micro-switches tripped by a ball  8  falling through a horn-like target  40 . Responsive to these inputs, the controller  54  operates a merchandise dispenser  16  to dispense a ball  8 , optionally controls the reciprocation of an intermediate carrier  24  and the ejection of the ball therefrom, and awards whatever credit is won. Although FIG. 3 depicts the major inputs, outputs and control functions performed by apparatus of the invention, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that many other approaches may be used. For example, in the initial development of apparatus of the invention  10 , the acceptor  18 , hopper select switches  20  and merchandise dispensing equipment were procured as a single subsystem and the balance of the control system comprised an arrangement of switches, relays, timers, and electromechanical actuators. 
     As hereinbefore noted, the game played with apparatus of the invention has some similarities to the well known game of pinball. Correspondingly, many of the same objects and mechanisms, such as bumpers  74  and flippers  76 , may be provided on the playing surface  36 . A significant difference between the present game and pinball is that apparatus of the invention is to be used with balls that are both lighter and less regular in shape than are the well-formed steel balls commonly used in a pinball game. Because of these differences, a ball  8  used in apparatus of the invention is much more likely to “hang” on a bumper or otherwise come to rest on the playing surface. One solution to this is to use a playing surface that is tilted with respect to the horizontal by a greater degree than is used for a pinball table so that the balls experience greater gravitational forces in rolling down the surface  36  (e.g., a degree of tilt comparable to that indicated in the view of FIG.  1 ). This, however, can lead to unpleasantly short playing times when the ball rolls well, and does not fit in well with the desired size and shape of the overall game. 
     A preferred solution to this difficulty is provided by giving the player means to move the playing surface and to thereby re-start a ball that has stopped rolling. As depicted in FIGS. 4 and 5, this may be done by using a “floating” playing surface that is attached to the walls or floor of the enclosure  14  by suitable resilient means that allow the surface  36  to be moved to and fro short distances. In a preferred embodiment, the back, upper, portion  50  of the playing surface is attached to the back wall  80  of the enclosure by means of a vertical bar  81  pivotally attached to a bracket  83 . A combination of “nudgers”  82  and springs  78  is used to attach the lower, front, edge  72  of the playing surface to the housing  14 . As depicted in FIG. 5, a preferred nudger has one end fixedly attached to the playing surface  36  and the other end protruding outwardly through a bearing  84  attached to the front wall of the enclosure  14 . In use, a player can nudge the playing surface  36  rearwardly by pushing on either or both of a pair of nudge knobs  86  disposed on either side of the front of the housing  14 . 
     In a preferred embodiment the flipper  76  is actuated when a player strikes a nudge knob  86 . As depicted in FIG. 5, a preferred flipper  76  comprises a tab  88  that is connected to the housing  14  by means of a connecting rod  90  movably retained at both its ends. Thus, when the player pushes the nudge knob  86  toward the back of the housing, the flipper  76  moves so as to strike a ball  8  and drive it back up the playing surface that it has just rolled down. 
     Although the present invention has been described with respect to several preferred embodiments, many modifications and alterations can be made without departing from the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that all such modifications and alterations be considered as within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the attached claims.