US 4,957,291 AGranted

Electronic puzzle

AssigneeVenture Technologies, Inc.

InventorsDonald C. Miffitt, Angelo Tortola, Charles S. Sebor, Robert L. Halliday

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An electronic game that includes a main body that consists of four panels assembled to form a four-sided pyramid having four vertexes. Each vertex serves as a node for supporting a light which may illuminate a plurality of different colors. Digital circuitry defines a color state vector at each node by illuminating one or none of the colors. Control circuitry connected to the digital circuitry is used for altering the color state of at least one of the lights as the tetrahedron is rotated. In one game, the color of the node brought to the top position changes in the color change pattern established by the color state vector. A player rotates the tetrahedron in an effort to figure out the pattern of color changes. Once the pattern is deciphered, the player makes additional rotations to achieve an object of the game such as having each vertex of the tetrahedron lighted the same color.

Claims14

Dependent claims

An electronic puzzle comprising:

(a) a puzzle body including a plurality of lightable positions, each lightable position capable of being illuminated in a plurality of colors;
(b) a first digital circuit for establishing color state vectors defining patterns of color changes for each lightable position, a single color state vector being assigned to a game being played;
(c) a second digital circuit for establishing one or more game rules, each game rule defining the application of one of said color state vectors, a single game rule being assigned to a game being played;
and
(d) a third circuit, interconnected with said first digital circuit and said second digital circuit, for changing the color, if required by the game rule, of at least one of said lightable positions;
whereby in response to a manipulation of said puzzle body to bring one of said lightable positions into a reference plane said first digital circuit, said second digital circuit, and said third circuit cooperate to change the color of at least one of said lightable positions to the next color, if required by the game rule, said next color being determined by the color state vector of the game being played and by the game rule of said game being played.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.