Digital video and audio collectible card – Claims any physical card with an image that also functions as a CD-ROM. Examples include sports and fantasy cards with embedded video and pictures.

It’s a pretty short patent, and even specifically notes that it claims “a combination of a traditional collectible card with the ability to be read like a CD-ROM.” I thought (IANAL) that simply combining two things could not be patented. And no prior art for this?

Wagering game with table bonus – A side bet during a game where you bet on whether anyone at the table will get a hand of a certain rank or higher.

Method, apparatus and article for computational sequence generation and playing card distribution – A machine that generates a pseudo-random sequence and then arranges the cards into that sequence, in order to “improve shuffling”.

Orienting information presented to users located at different sides of a display surface – For Microsoft Surface, a method of automatically orienting text specific to a user so that it can be read by the user. By automatic, they mean after the user indicates where he or she is standing, by means of a touch or an object.

Assigned to Microsoft. It doesn’t seem to pass the non-obvious test, as far as I can see. No one would have thought of orienting text for each player at the sides of a table surface?

Table game, related tournament and entertainment broadcast – A Heads Up poker tournament, where members of one team sit on one side of the table, each opposite an opponent, the common cards are shared by all players, and you only have to beat your opposite. And a tournament system to go with it.

Play four poker with bad beat feature – Four card poker (because there are three and five card poker games, but not too many four card poker games). Assigned to Shuffle Master, the second one in this post; they’ve claimed a whole lot of patents covered in previous posts, too.

Memory and assembly game – A cooperative memory game, where each mistake requires you to assemble an object (spaceship) and you all win if you finish before the object is assembled. Assigned to Mattel.

Square peg round hole game – Players each have a box and take square pegs and try to stuff them into the box’s round holes. The first player to do so gets 3000 points, plus 10 points per unused peg from each other player. First player to get 6000 points wins.

… I think it’s the scoring system that disturbs me most, sad to say.

Faro’s revenge card game – A design patent, from something called L.B.B. Games:

Method for playing a poker game – From the abstract: “During play, the players are playing both their own hand and a ‘party hand’. Improving one’s hand, and, if applicable, wagering, requires exchanging cards from the hand one is playing with the party hand, with the restriction that the party hand must be improved using a standard poker ranking system. Both hands the public and the private will then split the pot.”

Casino poker game with community hand player choice (pick and win poker) – Offering the player a choice of which hand to play at the start of a Hold’em game, giving the dealer all the other hands. From the claim: “By permitting players to choose between community hands, players have a perception that premium hands are more easily attained.” The house maintains the advantage, supposedly.

Dice game – Not a dice game. Using six special cards numbered 1 to 6 (or multiple sets of these six cards) to simulate a dice roll. This allows the dealer to place the six cards face down, have the player select one of the cards, and then reveal it, in order to obtain his random result. Supposedly makes for more excitement.

Active dealer version of blackjack – This is, in fact, identical to last month’s patent with the same name, with the addition of the phrase: “The present invention further varies the standard game of blackjack by providing the option of playing the hand to obtain a target hand having a card sum as close to 22 as possible (as opposed to 21) without going over 22 and wherein the soft ace value is 12, instead of 11 (e.g. aces are valued as either 1 or 12, instead of 1 or 11).”

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RPG and mini game studio Privateer Press started a line of family games called “Bodgers”.

Their first game, released last year, is Infernal Contraption, a little take-that card game of building a machine while trying to destroy the other players’ power sources.

They have a new game in the same product line scheduled for release this September call Scrappers. It’s a board game, where players race around a factory trying to pull parts off a constantly moving conveyor belt in order to complete their contraptions.

(source)

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In our last update, talks between Topps and an unnamed company to purchase Heroclix fell through. This may have been with James Theis and Justin Ziran of Pinata Games (aka Save Heroclix), ex-Heroclix designers hoping to continue the line, or with an unnamed company. In any case, Topps indicated that it might just continue the line themselves.

Meanwhile, Heroclix sites have been disappearing: Whoclix, Myheroclix, … (source)

Now on the Heroclix Community Forums comes a few new tidbits: earlier this month, Justin joined Topps. And there will be something coming out this summer (or sometime soon, at least).

(source)

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Tabletop Gaming News, one of the best sources for mini gaming, was put up for sale last week. The owner and chief writer, Zac is not able to keep up with the site for personal reasons. (info, info, source)

This week, Zac posted that several offers that have come through may allow him to keep the site going for some time.

(June 8 Update)

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Grandmother Patricia Demauro went to an Atlantic City craps table and rolled 154 times without getting a 7. Odds: 1.56 trillion to 1. (source)

Rich Lewis from The Sentinel passed an old couple playing Scrabble and discovered that people still play board games, as well as the Toy Industry Association, Eric Anderson of About.com, and The Settlers of Catan. (source)

Foster Grandparent Program member Irene Darnell now reaches 1,500 kids with her in-school Chess program for at-risk children. Her motto: push pawns, not drugs (methinks I heard that before). (source)

Also: The Business Standard of India pimps a local board game club, Funskool, locally developed Anaryst, BGG, and Ystari’s Game Bombay. (source)

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Recent Ringling College graduate Ashley Lynn Burkett created this Mario World Board Game “Mushroom Kingdom” as an art project, and it’s pretty spiffy. I don’t know the rules (they’re on the back of the fake controllers), but I wouldn’t mind if my games came packaged like this.

Not to be confused with several other Mario board game items.

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A year ago, FAO Schwarz announced that, following some hard times including bankruptcy, they would be opening 700 branches within Macy’s stores around the country.

Time have changed. Last week Toys R Us announced that they had acquired FAO Schwarz. Any branches opened in Macy’s over the last year (260 of them) will be closed by November.

(source)

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Yomi is a fighting card game from David Sirlin, designer of a number of computer games.

The chief mechanic is rock-paper-scissors (attack-throw-block/dodge), with lots of special abilities and a fantasy setting for each. Players play and simultaenously reveal their cards. Each card can be used in either of two ways.

Each card also bears the standard sumbology of a standard set of playing cards and can be used as such. During the game, you can gain certain life or ability by discarding pairs or sets.

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