Musical playing card board game

Abstract

A musical board game and playing method that permits players to respond to playing cards both visually and aurally without requiring additional manual intervention by the game player. By incorporating computer-readable indicia such as RFID tags or bar codes in player's cards and providing a suitable computer assisted reader in the game board, it is possible to play music when enabled player cards come within proximity of a reader.

1 . A board game comprising:
 a) a board, comprising:
 i) a playing surface having a plurality of playing positions arranged along a path; 
 ii) a sensor mounted to the board, having a sensor input for reading machine-readable indicia and an output; 
 iii) a processor having an input coupled to the output of the sensor; 
 iv) a memory coupled to the processor, comprising a plurality of audio files and a a look up table indexing each of the audio files to an identification; and 
 v) an audio processing unit having an input coupled to the processor and an audio output; 
   b) a plurality of cards bearing machine-readable indicia readable by the sensor; and   c) a plurality of player tokens for movement along the path;
 wherein the processor is programmed such that when the sensor reads a machine-readable indicia from a card and an identification corresponding to the indicia is provided to the processor on the output of the sensor, the processor looks up the identification in the look up table and retrieves an audio file from memory based on the index of the identification in the look up table, and the audio file is provided to the input of the audio processing unit, playing the audio file on the audio output. 
   
   
   
       2 . The board game of  claim 1  in which the cards further comprise at least one question related to the audio file. 
   
   
       3 . The board game of  claim 1 , in which the machine-readable indicia on the plurality of cards comprise RFID tags, and the sensor is an RFID reader. 
   
   
       4 . The board game of  claim 1 , in which the machine-readable indicia on the plurality of cards comprise optically readable indicia and the sensor is an optical reader. 
   
   
       5 . The board game of  claim 4 , in which the optically readable indicia is a bar code. 
   
   
       6 . The board game of  claim 4 , in which the optically readable indicia is a plurality of punched holes. 
   
   
       7 . The board game of  claim 1 , in which the machine-readable indicia on the plurality of cards comprise a strip of magnetic material having indicia encoded magnetically and the sensor is a magnetic stripe reader. 
   
   
       8 . The board game of  claim 1 , in which the audio files are MP3 files. 
   
   
       9 . The board game of  claim 1 , in which at least part of the memory is in the form of removable memory media. 
   
   
       10 . The board game of  claim 9 , in which the removable memory media is a plug-in ROM containing at least a plurality of audio files and an associated look up table. 
   
   
       11 . The board game of  claim 1 , further comprising a speaker coupled to the audio output of the audio processing unit. 
   
   
       12 . The board game of  claim 1 , further comprising a transmitter coupled to the audio output of the audio processing unit and a receiver having an audio output for connection to a stereo, such that the audio files are transmitted from the audio processing unit to the receiver and a user may listen to the audio file through a stereo connected to the receiver. 
   
   
       13 . The board game of  claim 1 , in which the path comprises a plurality of musical notes arranged on a staff. 
   
   
       14 . A method of playing a board game using a plurality of cards bearing questions and machine-readable indicia, a plurality of player tokens, a chance device, a plurality of monetary tokens, and a board comprising a playing surface having a plurality of playing positions arranged along a path; a sensor mounted to the board, having a sensor input for reading machine-readable indicia and an output; a processor having an input coupled to the output of the sensor; a memory coupled to the processor, comprising a plurality of audio files and a a look up table indexing each of the audio files to an identification; and an audio processing unit having an input coupled to the processor and an audio output; the method comprising:
 a) a player using the chance device to produce a movement count;   b) the player moving a player token from a current playing position to a new playing position based on the movement count;   c) the player choosing a card based on an action indicator at the new playing position;   d) the player reading at least one question from the card and placing the machine-readable indicia on the card proximate to the sensor;   e) the sensor reading the machine-readable indicia from the card and providing an identification corresponding to the indicia to the processor on the output of the sensor;   f) the processor looking up the identification in the look up table and retrieving an audio file from memory based on the index of the identification in the look up table and providing the audio file to the input of the audio processing unit;   g) playing the audio file on the audio output;   h) the player answering the at least one question; and   i) if the player answered the at least one question correctly, providing the player with a monetary token.   
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 14 , in which the board further comprises a center stage area comprising a plurality of spaces on a path from a starting space to an ending space, and the method further comprises, after step (i):
 j) if the player has more than a chosen number of monetary tokens, moving the player piece to the starting space on the path in the center stage area;   k) once a player's player piece is in the center stage area, controlling the movement of the player piece along the path in the center stage area solely by success in answering questions from the cards; and   l) ending the game when a player reaches the ending space in the path in the center stage area.   
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 14 , in which the question on the card chosen in step c is related to the audio file. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 14 , in which the machine-readable indicia on the plurality of cards comprise RFID tags, and the sensor is an RFID reader. 
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 14 , in which the machine-readable indicia on the plurality of cards comprise optically readable indicia and the sensor is an optical reader. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 18 , in which the optically readable indicia is a bar code. 
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 18 , in which the optically readable indicia is a plurality of punched holes. 
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 14 , in which the machine-readable indicia on the plurality of cards comprise a strip of magnetic material having indicia encoded magnetically and the sensor is a magnetic stripe reader. 
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 14 , in which at least part of the memory is in the form of removable memory media. 
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 22 , in which the removable memory media is a plug-in ROM containing at least a plurality of audio files and an associated look up table. 
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 14 , in which the path comprises a plurality of musical notes arranged on a staff. 
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 14 , in which in addition to the cards bearing questions and machine-readable indicia, the game further comprises a plurality of non-enabled cards bearing questions but no machine-readable indicia, and at least one of the action indicators refers to the non-enabled cards, such that when a player piece is moved to a new playing position having an action indicator referring to non-enabled cards, the player reads the question and skips to step h of the method.