Heretofore, a number of question and answer games have found favor, but none have focused specifically on identification of the dates upon which various historical events occurred in a manner similar to the subject invention, or employed a weighted scoring system awarding varying degrees of credit depending on the accuracy of the answer given.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,752 issued Jun. 23, 1987 to Bradford Brothers discloses a state or territory trivia game with a game board bearing a map or representation of a particular state or territory. Game question and answer cards have eight questions relating to the history, geography or other pertinent information of a particular state or territory and the answers to same are provided on the other side of the card. While such invention discloses a trivia game, it does not suggest an invention of trivia questions whose answers are purely presented in the year of history in which a specific event occurred, nor does it involve a weighted scoring system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,878 issued Feb. 28, 1989 to Tripp teaches a trivia game utilizing a game board provided with four spinners. The first spinner determines which player is to answer the question; the second spinner determines the challenging player; the third spinner determines the category of the question; and the fourth spinner determines the point value and degree of difficulty of the question. This game in the prior art utilizes eight different sets of cards with each set of cards having questions and answers from certain subject categories. This games does not suggest trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which a specific event occurred, nor does it involve a weighted scoring system.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,780 issued Aug. 15, 1989 to Begley, discloses a trivia game which tests the players knowledge of basketball trivia specifically. During the play of the game, players advance their tokens on the board according to the role of a pair of dice. Depending on the square landed upon, the player may earn certain moves which are related to the play of the game of basketball in real life. By landing on certain spaces marked, a player can commit fouls and turn overs or be sent to the bench as in actual basketball. Likewise, this game does not show or suggest trivia questions whose answers are the year in history to which a specific event occurred, nor does it involve a weighted scoring system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,808 issued Mar. 13, 1990 discloses yet another board game based on trivia associated with the well known television series and movies, STAR TREK. The game provides a plurality of knock downed models representing the Enterprise, the well known star ship in the STAR TREK series. The players move their pieces in accordance with a certain roll of the dice and a player must answer trivia questions based on the adventures of STAR TREK. Here again, however, this patent does not disclose or suggest trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which a specific event occurred, nor does it involve a weighted scoring system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,816 discloses a board game based on knowledged of the Bible. Three sources of Bible questions exist depending on the game board space encountered. Success in the game is dependent upon the knowledge of the writings contained within the Bible. This patent does not disclose or suggest trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which a specific event occurred, nor does it involve a weighted scoring system.
Another U.S. Patent issued in 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,842 issued September 17th to Proctor, discloses a trivia game based on commercial products, slogans and personalities whose character is associated with those particular products or slogans. Cards are provided in the play of the game with appropriate information and a request for a response. Again, this patent does not suggest a game played with trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which a specific event occurred, nor does it involve a weighted scoring system.
The following year, U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,794 was issued on Jan. 28, 1992 to Santagata and discloses a board game based on trivia questions relating to a certain decade in history in which the player selects. The game board includes spaces which originate at a first date, December of the last year of the chosen decade of the game, and descend in equally spaced chronological order to a final predetermined date, January of the first year of the chosen decade. The play of the game is directed along a continuous serpentine path between adjacent columns. The movement is directed by a spinner which is color coded to match various stacks of cards of different subject matters. Each stack of said cards contains questions and answers relating to the decade of the board game. When the question is answered correctly, the card directs the player to move forward a certain number of spaces. Randomly positioned spaces also direct players who land on them to move backwards a certain number of spaces. The object of this game is to be the first player to reach the final space. While this prior art does disclose trivia questions relating to a specific decade in history, the answer to such questions are not specific years in history. This patent does not suggest the use of trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which a specific event occurred, nor does it employ a weighted scoring system.
On Feb. 16, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,467 was issued to Chasin and discloses a board game based on sports trivia and memorabilia. The first deck of cards is comprised of cards having a number printed on one side. The second deck of cards is comprised of cards having a team name and year printed on the first side and a list of the team players and their corresponding numbers printed on the reverse side. The object of this prior art invention is to match the number on the card drawn from the first deck with the player on the team listed on the card from the second deck. This prior art does not disclose or suggest trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which a specific event occurred, nor does it employ a weighted scoring system.
Canadian Patent #1,211,482 issued Sep. 16, 1986 to Thompson discloses a game board which consists, basically, of a spin wheel mounted on a stationary support base. The game is played in conjunction with question and answer cards that are coded for category and color, with the segments on the spin wheel. When the wheel is spun to determine the category, a point in value in that category for the card is selected. This patent does not disclose or suggest trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which a specific event occurred.
Also in the prior art is a game, manufactured by the game company Milton Bradley, known as TIMES TO REMEMBER. This game, is based on trivia questions whose answers relate to the year in history in which a certain event occurred. However, in this game, there is no game board and there is a use of a wheel containing the dates 1950 to 1990, as well as seven game pieces which span a period of one to seven years. Although this game relates to time trivia, the method of play of the game differs substantially from that disclosed in the present invention. TIME TO REMEMBER has no game board upon which the players progress. Further, the accuracy of a players response does not direct the players forward movement on the game board of a game piece towards victory. TIME TO REMEMBER does not disclose a game played on a game board based on trivia questions whose answers are the year in history in which specific events occurred, nor does it involve a weighted scoring system.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds