4tec was invented by John Dunne when he was 17 years old, in 1974. He was curious as to how a 3 dimensional game of naughts and crosses would play, so he made one with 3 squares of cardboard with the lines drawn, spaced apart with Lego blocks for the 3-D effect. He quickly realised the game has one fatal flaw – whoever put their mark on the centre square of the middle level was sure to win every time!
John decided to see how a 4x4x4 version of the game would work so again he made one out of cardboard but it was very difficult to see where the players marked. This lead him to build the first ever 4tec out of a steel frame and glass shelves.
4tec game made with a steel frame and glass shelves
The grid lines were thin silver sticky tape stuck to the underside of each glass shelf. John decided to use counters punched from metal paint instead of marking “X” or “O” on the cardboard. The first counters were the “punchings” from a steel fabrication shop after a hole is punched in sheet steel.
Having played the game extensively with family and friends John packed the game in the attic of his parents house and forgot about it for more than 20 years.
John’s Mum and Dad were moving from their home in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, Ireland to the fresher air of the country in neighbouring County Wicklow when John’s Dad gave him the box he had left in the attic saying – “I dunno what you want to do with that, but I wouldn’t give up on it”.
John played the game with his own family and decided to produce the game himself in his factory in Dublin. He produced a tool allowing him spot-weld a steel frame version of the game which he hot-dip plastic coated. He bought clear plastic shelves and screen printed them producing a product bought by all Smyths toy-stores throughout Ireland.
4tec was an excellent performer by new game standards when I launched it in 2001. Padraig Smyth was a great help when it came to the design of the box and ultimately in the generous shelf space he dedicated to the game.
Playing 4tec game with plastic coated frame
John recently revised the design of the 4tec game producing a wonderfully compact product which retains the look and feel of an extremely high quality product which is of course manufactured in Ireland. Below are a couple of pictures of John’s first prototypes before he asked his son to model the game using CAD (Computer Aided Design)
Compact prototype of 4tec game.
Working on the parts for the compact 4tec game.
Compact 4tec game in a wooden box.
The CAD model design allowed John approach a company in Mullingar, Co. Meath who produced an injection molding tool. The game can now be mass produced and sold worldwide!