Abstract:
A board game providing a random letter selection tray holding a plurality of cubes, each cube displaying at least one letter, the plurality of cubes is shaken in the tray displacing the cubes randomly, whereupon after shaking ceases the letters fall into two columns divided into a plurality of rows. The game players must independently recognize known persons who correspond to the randomly selected initials read across the two columns by individual rows and mark down the persons on each players&#39;s game card. The game is timed and multiple players compete with the score based on the number of famous personage which each player can match to the randomly selected initial groupings. Alternate embodiments provide for balls to replace cubes, and cubes having a plurality of different letters, one letter on each face of each cube.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to play at home board games, in particular, the present invention relates to a trivia-type game utilizing the initials of known or famous people. 
     2. The Prior Art 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,409 to Scalia discloses a game where randomly selected letters are rearranged by the player to form abbreviations, acronyms or initials recognizable by that player. The method of selecting the random letters is disclosed to be by a pivotable pointer on a dial. In this game the player is free to rearrange the letters to form the selectable abbreviations, acronyms or initials. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,816 discloses a complex card game which has as its task the spelling out of words on a drawn word card. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,811 discloses a word game using lettered objects, letter selection devices and combination boards, and a set of rules, suitable for audience entertainment, testing and comparing the luck and skill of participants in drawing random combinations of lettered objects which consecutively or in rearranged order form recognized words. Rewards of fixed size and chances at further rewards of variable sizes are won by obtaining letters in consecutive order and, if no consecutive word order is obtained, for rearranging letters into word order., the rewards, either points or case or prizes, increasing for words formed from greater numbers of letters. Alphabetical orders of letters drawn may also be recognized and rewarded. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,725 discloses a card game using educational cards and a spin dial for selecting various letters. Random words or initials are not a part of the game. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,558 discloses a word forming game utilizing lettered tiles. The tiles are selected by players from a shuffled pile. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention, the &#34;Initial Game&#34; is an inexpensive board game most suited for at-home family competition, although such application is not the limit of the invention, television &#34;game show&#34; use and other use is encompassed by the invention. A means is provided for randomly selecting and displaying a plurality of letters, grouped in pairs, such as a plurality of objects having letters thereon which interfit randomly into a grid, forming a letter matrix. The objects can be cubes or balls having a single letter displayed thereon or alternatively, the plurality of cubes can have multiple different letters on each cube, with a different letter on a plurality of faces. A typical cube would thus have six letters thereon, most of the letters, or all of the letters, different. However, in the basic form of the gave each cube or ball would have a single letter. 
     Alternatively, the means for selecting can be spinning pointers on a dial, playing cards, other mechanical devices, or an electronic display. 
     The preferred embodiment of the game comprises a cube tray having two parallel columns comprising a plurality of rows. The two columns are configured to receive the cubes or balls in subcompartments similar in configuration to a rectangular ice cube tray. A tray hood is provided to interfit over the tray and provide a volume for shaking and intermixing the cubes or balls dislocated from the subcompartments. The cubes or balls can thus be shaken out of their subcompartments in the volume bounded by the hood and the tray, and upon termination of the shaking, the cubes or balls would resettle into random subcompartments in a random fashion. 
     In another embodiment of the game, the tray can be a surface with concave indentations and the objects can be balls. This configuration aids the insertion of the balls into random indentations in the surface. 
     Other variations include providing compartments which hold two cubes or balls therein instead of single cube or ball subcompartments, or providing that each cube or rounded cube comprises a variety of letters thereon and shaking of the tray rearranges such cubes or balls as to a visible face thereon, but the balls or cubes do not exit subcompartments during shaking. 
     Basically, the object of the game is to identify famous people whose initials correspond to the randomly selected initials which are paired on the tray grid such as read across the two columns, row by row. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is an exploded view of component parts to the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a selection tray of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken generally along line III--III of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a rounded cube shown in FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a letter ball; 
     FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a squared cube; 
     FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the selection tray of FIG. 2; and 
     FIG. 8 is a lateral sectional view of a second alternate embodiment of the selection tray of FIG. 2. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     FIG. 1 shows the parts to the game. Shown are the selection tray 10 with a hood 14 separated therefrom, and an egg-type timer 15. The purpose of the hood 14 is to provide a volume V openable to an open face 11 of the tray 10 wherein the cubes 16 can be shuffled or shaken and then randomly deposited into compartments 20 of the tray 10. The hood 14 can be a bulged out lid. The compartments 20 each hold two cubes 16. A separate holder could just as well be provided to shake the cubes therein, wherefrom the cubes 16 could be allocated onto the open face 11 of the tray 10. Pencils 18 and game cards 19 are auxiliary items assisting in the playing of the game. The hood 14 (and a lid 14a, discussed hereinafter) can be transparent or opaque and removable for letter recognition. 
     The hood 14, if transparent, can be fixed to the selection tray 10. 
     In a simple embodiment of the invention, 52 cubes 16 are utilized which interfit into 26 compartments 20 or 52 subcompartments 20a, 20b. Excess cubes 16 can also be utilized during the shaking operation which are not received into the compartments 20 or subcompartments 20a, 20b. Only those cubes 16 which are received by the subcompartments constitute the letter matrix for initial recognition by the players. Along with the tray and hood, the Initial Game can further comprise game cards for the players to write down their selected personage which corresponds to the initials, and an egg-type timer for limiting the duration of each game. 
     It is clear that the number of compartments 20 being 26 is an arbitrarily selected number and other numbers of compartments would work equally well provided that enough letters are utilized to provide a wide variety of random two letter initial groupings. Having 26 compartments 20 with 52 subcompartments 20a, 20b is logical as it provides for two cubes or balls allocated for each letter of the alphabet. 
     FIG. 2 shows the selection tray 10 having the open face 11 with randomly arranged cubes 16 therein, and a hood 14 installed onto the selection tray 10. For simplicity the cubes 16 are shown blank in FIG. 2, the cubes 16 would according to the invention have letters displayed thereon as per FIG. 1. The selection tray 10 comprises a rectangular elongate box-like structure with rectangular compartments 20 formed by a plurality of widthwise partitions 24. Each compartment 20 holds two cubes 16. A lengthwise partition 28 can be utilized to divide each compartment into left and right subcompartments 20a, 20b for holding the cubes 16 in a left and right orientation. The lengthwise partition 28 forms a first column 30a and a second column 30b of subcompartments. Adjacent and attached to the first column 30a is a numerical indicia column 30c labeled with numbers corresponding to each compartment or row. This indicia column 30c can be connected along a side of the tray 10 in a hinged fashion along the hinge 30d which runs a length of the indicia column 30 c. Its purpose is to fix a reference number to each compartment or row which corresponds to a reference number on a game card 48 held by each player. The indicia column 30c can be folded down when the hood 14 covers the tray 10, as shown in FIG. 8. 
     The completed game card 19 corresponding to the arrangement of cubes 14 in FIG. 1. It is readily apparent that a particular player who filled out the game card 19 was able to match known personage to four initial groupings of letters corresponding to compartments numbered 1, 2, 6 and 24. 
     When the game begins the cubes 16 are shuffled and randomly arranged into the tray 10 forming a letter matrix. All of the players begin simultaneously and independently to ascertain known personage who&#39;s initials match up with the letters displayed across each compartment. The players mark such personage on their individual game cards 19 at a point on the game card 19 corresponding to the compartment indicia from the indicia column 30c on the tray 10. Where more than one player chooses the same person having initials corresponding to the particular compartment or row of cubes 16, a lesser amount of points are granted to each player who chose that personage; thus rewarding unique selection of personage. After a predetermined period, monitored by the egg timer 15, the cards 19 are examined and points allotted rewarding the player who ascertains the highest number of persons corresponding to the randomly selected initials displayed in the compartments of the letter matrix. 
     After a predetermined number of rounds the points are tallied and a winner declared. 
     Of course it is possible to alter the rules of the game such as: 
     (1) having only one player or only one team of players play with a randomly selected letter matrix, a second player or team of players would thereafter shuffle and then play with a new matrix, thus an extra element of luck is introduced depending on the particular letters dealt to the individual player or team; or 
     (2) rewarding rather than penalizing players for choosing personage corresponding to a particular set of initials which matches personage chosen by other players, thus an element of chance is introduced whereby players attempt to choose based on what they perceive their opponents would choose; or 
     (3) when letters are grouped by pairs, allowing the letters to be used in any order, i.e., an &#34;AB&#34; grouping could be matched by &#34;Anne Brown&#34; or &#34;Bill Arnold&#34;; or 
     (4) limiting the personage eligible to be matched with the letters to a limited group such as entertainers, sports personalities, baseball players, singers, college classmates, etc. 
     FIG. 3 discloses the hood 14 to have a rounded rectangular configuration, arched upward. Other configurations of the hood 14 are possible. The cubes 16 residing in the subcompartments 20a, 20b are rounded cubes as more clearly shown in FIG. 4. The hood 14 is shown interfitting over the tray 10, in gripping engagement on the outside of walls 10a, 1Ob. This resilient gripping engagement prevents unwanted spillage of the cube 16 during storage and the like. 
     FIG. 4 shows the cube 16 being visualized as either a rounded squared-off cube or a round ball having flats 17 positioned at six places in typical cube face formation. In the shown cube 16 of FIG. 4 the letter &#34;A&#34; is displayed on all flats 17, however as described hereinafter an alternate embodiment of the game would provide for a variety of letters displayed on each cube 16, with one letter per flat 17. 
     FIG. 5 discloses an alternate embodiment of the cube 16 which is a letter ball 80 having at least one letter displayed thereon. As with the cube 16 a variety of letters can be displayed on the letter ball 80 depending on the embodiment of the invention. The letter ball 80 is particularly suited to the embodiment shown in FIG. 7. 
     FIG. 6 shows a conventional cube 16&#39; having a variety of letters displayed on its face 16a. The conventional cube 16&#39; can of course be utilized in the game as described in FIGS. 1-3. 
     FIG. 7 shows an alternate embodiment of the tray 10 wherein an alternate tray 10a is utilized. The alternate tray 10a has a surface 100 having concave indented regions 102 which are adapted to receive one letter ball 80 therein, centered in the region 102. The balls 80 can be therefore randomly allocated into other regions 102 by shaking or gyrating the surface 100. In this embodiment smooth and efficient distribution of the initials throughout the surface is enhanced. 
     As FIG. 8 demonstrates, if each cube 16 of the arrangement in FIG. 1 has a variety of different letters thereon, one letter on each face, simply shaking the tray 10 will produce a substantially different random letter matrix without individual cubes 16 leaving each compartment. Thus the hood 14 can be fashioned as a lid 14a to prevent cubes 16 from leaving individual compartments, the cubes 16 would simply be shuffled inside each compartment 20, or subcompartments 20a, 20b where provided, to display a randomly selected upper face 16b facing upwardly of the open face 11 of the tray. The lengthwise partition 28 and the widthwise partition 24 extend upward close to the lid 14a to prevent movement of cubes 16 between compartments 20 or subcompartments 20a, 20b. The lid 14a forms a volume V&#39; with the tray 10 above each cube 16&#39;, to permit random rearrangement of the upper face 16b for each cube, in each compartment 20 or subcompartment 20a, 20b. The lid can be periodically lifted to reshuffle cubes into different compartments 20 or subcompartments 20a, 20b. This method prevents unwanted jamups of cubes or uneven distribution of the cubes from the lid into the compartments. 
     The tray 10 and the hood 14 can comprise known materials such as plastic. 
     Although the present invention has been described with reference to a specific embodiment, those of skill in the art will recognize that changes may be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.