Shuffleboard type of game with steps and sliding gamepieces

Claim 1

A shuffleboard type of game comprising a game board having a series of steps one of which at one end of the series is the highest of the steps and another of which at the other end of the series is the lowest of the steps, and said steps having progressively lower elevations from said highest to said lowest step, at least all but the highest of said steps each having a smooth relatively upwardly directed surface forming the entire upper area thereof, wherein said upwardly directed surface is continuous and is formed in a single plane over said entire upper area, gamepiece means having surface contacting means for moving along said upwardly directed surfaces of said steps, wherein at least part of said surface contacting means moves by sliding friction only, said surface contacting means also having a relatively low coefficient of friction, and gamepiece means being adapted to slide progressively down said steps from the highest toward the lowest of the steps, the frictional contact between said gamepiece means and said steps being influenced by the impact of said gamepiece means on a given step as it falls onto the latter from the next higher step, and propelling means operatively engaging said gamepiece means for propelling the latter with a force selected by the operator from the highest toward the lowest of the steps, the several steps being assigned different scores so that the score which is achieved is determined by that one of thE steps at which said gamepiece means stops after being propelled by the propelling means with the force selected by the operator.