It seemed ironic that when the creator of the board game Operation needed his own operation, it turned out he could not afford to pay for it. Determined to help, John Spinello’s friends decided to raise the money for him online, managing to raise enough to help Spinello pay for the surgery, as well as some other bills.
Spinello, 77, of Bloomingdale, Illinois, invented the buzzing game of precision in the early 1960s as an industrial design student at the University of Illinois. He sold the concept for US$500 to a toy inventor, who licensed it to board game company Milton Bradley.
It went on to be very successful, with merchandise and different versions of games sold worldwide. Yet because of the deal he struck, Spinello never got any royalties, something that is not unusual for game-makers unsure of how well a game might do.
Fast forward decades later, and Spinello and his wife ended up filing for bankruptcy after their warehouse business went under during the recession. Recently, he found out he needed oral surgery to fix his teeth at a cost of US$25,000. That is on top of other outstanding bills he has.
Peggy Brown and Tim Walsh, his friends and fellow game inventors, decided to raise money for him through the crowdfunding site crowdrise.com .
As of Friday, more than US$30,000 had been raised online, along with US$15,000 through other means — by selling games signed by Spinello and through other donations. The online campaign began on Oct. 22.
Hasbro, which now owns Milton Bradley, is also pitching in. It plans to buy Spinello’s original prototype and put it on display at its headquarters in Rhode Island.
Spinello, who still owns the patent to the game, is overwhelmed by the support, saying on Friday: “You can’t put a price on it.”
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