| Patent Specification (Photocopy) - Application Date: Dec. 1, 1944 Complete Specification Left: Nov. 23, 1945 Complete Specification Accepted: April 1, 1947 |
| Completed by Anthony Ernest Pratt, this patent Specification No. 24000/44 reveals some details about the making of Clue/do that are vastly different from how the game turned out today. The text covers four pages followed by three pages of diagrams. | |
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Patent Details:
The Suspects: Originally there were to be ten suspects: The Victim: Doctor Black/Mr. Boddy was not the intended victim of the game - sort of. At the start of the game, one suspect card was to be removed from the deck (and its corresponding token removed from play) and shown to the players. This suspect would become the "victim". Thus, the one murdered could change with every game. The Weapons: Although the patent never specifically names the weapons, there are nine cards/tokens: The Rooms: The rooms for the most part stayed the same. There is an added Gun Room and Cellar - which has a door. The patent, however, does not depict cards for either of these rooms. The cellar appears in the center. The rest of the rooms (clockwise starting with the Hall): The Tokens: The weapon tokens appear as they do in the final version of the game. The suspect pawns, however, were to be two different sizes - a taller pawn for the male characters and a shorter pawn for the female characters. There were also to be counter chips to indicate how many times each player has made a suggestion. The Cards: Only the weapon cards bear images. The room and suspect cards have only their respective names. The patent, however, mentions they might potentially include images. The Solution Envelope: Does not exist in the patent. Instead, the Murderer/Weapon/Location cards are chosen and placed underneath the board. The Notepad: Also does not exist, though the patent does describe this method of keeping track of clues. The Game Board: The board has additional rooms as indicated above. There are two starting spaces for suspects on each side of the board - this accounts for the unused spaces between the Dining Room/Kitchen and Study/Hall on the final product when the game was reduced to six suspects. There are additional doors to some rooms as well. The patent specifies, however, that no two doors should be facing each other. There are no secret passages indicated. Game play: There are few changes to how the final product is played. First, the cards are not dealt to the players. Rather, they are distributed throughout the rooms of the mansion. If a player is the first to enter a room, that player takes the cards from that room. Once all the cards have been taken, players may start to make interrogations. In order to make a suggestion, however, the player must make contact with the suspect. Then, the accuser and suspect token are put in the room in question along with the weapon token. Each player is given a number of counters to use. Each time the player makes an accusation, he/she must give up a counter. Once the player is out of tokens, that player can no longer make accusations. The Provisional Specification was dated the 28th day of November, 1944. The Complete Specification was dated the 21st day of November, 1945. |
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