Win $300 in Heritage tic-tac-toe tourney

A Whitefish man has come up with a new take on an old game, and visitors at this year’s Heritage Days event in Columbia Falls will get a chance to see it in action. The winner will take home $300.

Mike Catena, who moved to the Flathead about 30 years ago and works at the Schoolhouse Gifts store in Apgar Village, Glacier National Park, perfected his version of three-dimensional tic-tac-toe starting with wood and steel pins and then moving to interlocking wood balls. He sent the model off to China for manufacturing.

The result is Vorhex, a high-end all-acrylic game that includes 27 interlocking balls — 14 red and 13 blue — and a beveled Lazy Susan-type rotating platform.

“The game swivels so players can get a better view of the game,” Catena said.

Unlike regular tic-tac-toe, players in 3D tic-tac-toe use up all their pieces until the game is over. Red goes first and gets one extra move. The number of times pieces line up vertically, horizontally and diagonally are tallied to determine the winner, Catena said

“The game involves different offensive and defensive strategies than regular tic-tac-toe,” he said.

3D tic-tac-toe games can be found on the Internet, but they either use three platforms to support the pieces or else vertical pins or dowels as in Catena’s first version.

An engineering friend suggested using interlocking balls which, when made to the correct size, help the game meet child-proof requirements.

Catena said he searched on the Internet for companies that could make the game out of acrylic and found a company in Guandong, China. He sent them his working model and they shipped him back 220 all-acrylic games. Each fits into a retro-looking vinyl carrying case.

“That makes it waterproof,” he said. “The instructions are silk-screened on the back of the carrying case.”

Catena will set up four tables during Heritage Days for a 3D tic-tac-toe tournament at Glacier Discovery Square across from the former Duvall’s store. Entry fee is $5, and the winner of the single-elimination tournament takes home $300. Players must be 12 years or older. He says he needs some volunteers to help with registration and keeping score.

In the long run, Catena wants to sell his Vorhex game through a large retail chain store like ToysRUs or Wal-Mart.

The suggested retail price is $50. For more information, call Catena at 260-0346.