Quarter Masters

Abstract

A portable in-door, out-door, token game board consisting of four equally-spaced tiles permanently affixed horizontally in line atop a rigid rectangular board at graduated distances from a target at the end of the board, and also serving as a protective surface for play of the traditional game called “Quarters” (See FIG. 5 Illustration). The tiles are of a uniform size, and of a sufficiently hard and smooth surfacing to facilitate predictable, repetitive bounces of a token used as a projectile game piece. The receptacle, a circular hole framed by a square, twice the thickness of the base board, secures against undue motion, a target vessel, such as a plastic drinking cup. Play on the game board entails people competing subject to a set of uniform rules printed on the back of the board. Play involves participants sequentially bouncing, by hand, a token off one of the tiles with the goal of landing the token within the target. The token and the drinking vessel are not part of the invention. Various tokens, of the participants' choice, may be used. The game board facilitates the uniform play of the traditional, informal game of Quarters. The token most likely to be used in play, as the projectile, is a coin (in the United States, typically a United States Treasury minted quarter-dollar coin, hence the description of the traditional game, “Quarters”).

1 : Convenience of Use. The subject game board invention includes the innovative attribute of uniform, compact dimensions facilitating convenient play in locations at which the traditional play of quarters would be otherwise less likely. 
     
     
         1 . 1 : Portability. The subject game board invention includes the innovative attribute that it is portable. It can be played almost anywhere. It can be easily held in one hand, and will fit comfortably within cars, trains, buses, planes, and boats. It will easily fit within most luggage, backpacks and purses. 
     
     
         1 . 2 : Accessible Storage Display. The subject game board invention includes the innovative attribute of readily accessible and efficient storage while accommodating visible display in venues of likely play, e.g. commercial bars. The game board receptacle allows for the stacking of multiple units on a simple peg or nail in a wall or on a post without impairing foot traffic or lines of sight. This, in turn, facilitates more spontaneous play. 
     
     
         2 : Damage Resistant. The invention includes the innovative attribute that it contains a hard playing surface (the tiles) resistant to projectile impact damage. 
     
     
         2 . 1 : Protects Against Damage to Structural Subsurfaces. The invention includes the innovative attribute that it permits efficient play without damage to numerous, alternative structural subsurfaces such as glass, fine woods, fine marble, fine alabaster, or subsurfaces with fine finishes such as paint, acrylic, urethane and lacquer or otherwise susceptible to damage if used as the direct surface of play. 
     
     
         3 : Uniformity. The invention includes the innovative attributes of compositional and elemental uniformities for each manufactured unit thereby accommodating fair and consistent competitive play on any unit for resumed play or after disruption of play. 
     
     
         3 . 1 : Uniform Hardness. The invention includes the innovative attribute that its playing surfaces (the tiles) are of uniform hardness. This eliminates the risk of projectile rebounds (bounces) off surfaces of insufficient or inconsistent elasticities. These advantages make the invention a better, more uniform means of the play of Quarters. A projectile bounce off the tile closest to the player will be off a surface of the same hardness as a bounce off the most distant tile. In contrast, play of Quarters on another surface, of insufficient uniformity of hardness, decreases the equality of play from bounce to bounce and decreases the predictability of each bounce necessary to fair competition or comparable replicated play. A game of Quarters played on the invention in one venue can be comparably played on the uniformly hard surfaces of other copies of the invention in other venues, regardless of the elasticities of the varying subsurfaces. 
     
     
         3 . 2 : Uniform Smoothness. The invention includes the innovative attribute that its playing surfaces (the tiles) are of uniform smoothness, i.e. coefficients of friction. This eliminates the risk of errant bounces off lumpy, broken, coarse, intermittent, irregular, rough, uneven, wrinkled, granular, cracked, or erose surfaces such as concrete or common plywood. These advantages make the invention a better, more uniform means of the play of Quarters. A projectile bounce off the tile closest to the player will be off a surface of the same smoothness and coefficient of friction as a bounce off the most distant tile. In contrast, play of traditional Quarters on another surface, of insufficient uniformity of smoothness and coefficients of friction, decreases the equality of play from one toss to another and decreases the reasonable predictability of each toss necessary to fair competition or comparable replicated play. A game of Quarters played on the invention in one venue can be played on surfaces of uniform smoothness and coefficients of friction as other copies of the invention in other venues. 
     
     
         3 . 3 : Uniform Set of Rules. The invention includes the innovative attribute that it contains a uniform set of simple game play rules, printed on its back. 
     
     
         3 . 4 : Uniform Bounds of Play. The invention includes the innovative attribute that it contains uniform, pre-set tile dimensions, governing the boundaries of what constitutes in-bounds and out-of-bounds play. Tosses not hitting a tile on the invention (out-of-bounds) during play are conspicuous because impacts on the tiles sound distinctly different than impacts not on the tiles. Such missed tosses are also more conspicuous because the top, out-of-bounds, fringes of the rigid base board are recessed from and uneven with the tiles, resulting in visibly erratic bounce paths. 
     
     
         3 . 5 : Uniform Distances to Target. The invention includes the innovative attribute that each copy of the invention contains uniform, pre-set surfaces of play (tiles) of equal distance from the target receptacle. 
     
     
         3 . 6 : Uniformly Sized Receptacle. The invention includes the innovative attribute of an integral target receptacle, the hole, of uniform size, thereby accommodating the use of multiple types of target vessels while minimizing undue motion and displacement in comparison to the common use of such target vessels without any motion abating mechanism.