JPH05161759A - Playing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain various colorful presentations in a pachinko playing device having a large limitation on the size of a memory region for iniquity prevention. CONSTITUTION:A display unit 50 is provided on the outside of a game board control device 30, and a control code is outputted to the display unit 50 from the game board control device 30 according to the playing state. The display unit 50 inputs the received control code to a command interpreter 54 and converts it into a new control code for a liquid crystal panel driver 52 in reference to a code ROM 56. The display unit 50 is independent from the game board control device 30 and can realize the complex display from the simple control code based on the information stored in the code ROM 56 in advance without increasing the memory capacity in an MPU 31.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a game device such as a pachinko machine or an arrangement ball. More specifically, the game situation is displayed by a graphic, sound or light, vibration, or the like to further improve the game. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In this type of game machine, the playability is improved by displaying by voice or light.
The degree of freedom of expression has been increased by using an FM sound source or PCM for voice and by using a liquid crystal panel or an LED panel for display. For example, imitating a slot machine, driving a liquid crystal panel or LED as if three drums on which numbers or patterns are drawn are rotating, and by matching the numbers or patterns, a particular situation such as a jackpot can be determined. The playability is further enhanced by creating and playing unique music during a big hit.
That is, enhancing the display function for the player's eyesight or hearing cannot be overlooked in order to enhance the playability of the gaming device.

Therefore, in this type of gaming machine, it is required to have more realistic and various display functions, and not only the function of detecting the gaming situation of the gaming machine but also the display capability. It is improving year by year.

[0004]

However, fraud prevention is another requirement required for developing a game machine, and game control is performed by inputting and monitoring the game situation of the game machine from this requirement. There is a restriction that the data area of each unit cannot be increased infinitely and the control code for driving the display unit must be stored in the limited memory space. In addition, the data that the game control unit can fetch from the outside is also limited, and it is difficult to receive the data related to the display from the display unit side and display the complicated display.

For this reason, in the conventional game apparatus of this type, even if the display unit such as a liquid crystal panel is composed of fine pixels, the display unit is enlarged by setting a plurality of dots as one pixel,
It is customary to display only simple numbers and symbols. In addition, a simple display such as repeating monotonous music and blinking a single color lamp in the same cycle, and a game device having a display function necessary to sufficiently satisfy the player has not yet been provided. Absent.

The game device of the present invention is intended to solve these problems and to have a real and various display function which can satisfy the player sufficiently while satisfying the requirements for prevention of fraud. The following composition was adopted.

[0007]

A game device of the present invention is a game device having a display section for displaying sounds, lights, etc. according to the game situation, and receives the game situation of the game device. A game control section for outputting a control code according to the above, and a predetermined conversion rule for converting the code system of the control code into a new control code which is another code system is stored. A conversion rule storage unit, which is connected between the game control unit and the display unit, receives a control code output from the game control unit, and stores the control code in the conversion rule storage unit. The control code conversion unit for converting the new code system to the new code system based on the converted conversion rule and outputting the converted code system to the display unit.

[0008]

In the gaming machine of the present invention configured as described above, the control code output from the game control section is first input to the control code conversion section, and the predetermined conversion rule stored in the conversion rule storage section here. Is converted to a new control code based on Then, the converted new control code is output to the display unit.

In other words, the control code output from the game control device having a limited memory space has a kind of linguistic meaning for the control code conversion unit, and the method of interpreting that language is used. A conversion rule is stored in the conversion rule storage unit.

[0010]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in order to further clarify the constitution and operation of the present invention described above. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pachinko gaming machine 1 as one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a game part DP thereof.
FIG. 3 is a back view of the pachinko gaming apparatus.

As shown in the figure, this pachinko game machine 1
Has a front frame 4 attached to the front of the machine frame 2 so as to be openable and closable. A glass door frame 6 and a front plate 8 are mounted on the front surface of the front frame 4 so as to be openable and closable. In addition, the game board 10 is detachably mounted on the back surface of the front frame 4 via a mounting frame (not shown).

A guide rail 11 having a launch position is provided on the surface of the game board 10, and a game section DP surrounded by the guide rail 11 has a plurality of ordinary winning holes 12, a A kind of starting port 13 and a special winning port 14 are provided, and an out port 15 is provided in the lower part of the game board 10. A normal winning sensor 13A for detecting a winning situation of a pachinko ball is provided in the first type starting opening 13. The jackpot 14 is provided with a jackpot drive unit 14B that opens the movable piece when the jackpot condition is satisfied to create a state in which the pachinko ball can easily enter, and when the pachinko ball enters the jackpot situation. There are provided a big winning sensor 14C for continuing the game and a ten count sensor 14A for detecting that 10 pachinko balls enter there and the condition for stopping the big hit condition is reached.

Special symbol display portions 16L, 16C, 1 for displaying a special symbol by a dot matrix system of vertical 16 and horizontal 16 over three columns in the substantially central portion of the game board 10.
6R, and the upper part thereof displays the game state of the pachinko game machine 1 in the same dot matrix manner. Vertical 8 × horizontal 4
The liquid crystal display panel 16 including the eight status display units 16S is provided. All of these display parts can display in color. Also, as another display device, the pachinko gaming apparatus 1 has a jackpot lamp 17A for displaying a jackpot.
And a game operation lamp 1 that indicates that the game is in progress
7B is provided (see FIG. 1). The liquid crystal display panel 16 in this embodiment has three digits (16L, 16C, 16) in order to be commonly used with conventional three-digit display components.
Although it is divided into R), it is also possible to use a single liquid crystal panel having a length of 24 and a width of 48 including the state display portion 16S. When increasing the size of the entire display panel, it is easier to handle it as a single panel.

On the front surface of the front plate 8 is attached a hitting ball supply tray 19 for guiding the inserted pachinko balls one by one to the firing position (not shown) of the guide rail 11. Further, in the lower part of the front frame 4, an operation handle 20 for launching a pachinko ball at a firing position to the game part, and a hit ball supply tray 1
A lower ball tray 21 for accumulating 9 surplus prize balls is provided. The operation handle 20 controls the resilience of the ball hitting motor 26.

As shown in FIG. 3, a game board control device 30 is attached to the center of the back surface of the game board 10. The game board control device 30 generally manages the gaming status of the pachinko gaming device 1 generally. That is, the operating handle 20
Operation status, winning sensor 13A, ten count sensor 1
The game situation of the pachinko game machine 1 is judged from the detection output of 4A, etc., and the jackpot drive unit 14B, according to the judgment result.
It controls the operations of the liquid crystal display panel 16, the jackpot lamp 17A, the game operation lamp 17B, the ball hitting motor 26, and the like.

In addition to these devices, the pachinko gaming machine 1 includes a normal winning ball detection device for collectively detecting the pachinko balls that have won the normal winning opening 12, a mechanism for conveying winning balls and out balls, and a game situation. Various other lamps to notify,
Although a general equipment such as a speaker or a fraud detection device is provided, detailed description of these general device configurations will be omitted.

Next, the structure and operation of the game board control device 30 will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the game board control device 30 is mainly composed of a one-chip microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as MPU) 31 having a built-in arithmetic logic operation unit, ROM, RAM, etc., a power supply unit 33, an input / output interface 35A, It is composed of 35B, 35C and the like. Also,
A crystal oscillator Xtal is externally attached to the MPU 31, which makes it possible to measure the elapsed time with high accuracy, and measures the non-prize time and the elapsed time of the jackpot using an internal counter (not shown). be able to.

The power supply unit 33 is a circuit for inputting 24 V AC from the outside to generate three kinds of power supplies VE, VD, and VCC. The power supply unit 33 is a diode stack 4 that full-wave rectifies 24 V AC to generate a power supply VE.
1. Electrolytic capacitors C1 and C2 for smoothing the DC high voltage power supply VD and a diode D1, and a regulator 43 for generating a stabilized 5 volt stabilized power supply VCC from the DC high voltage power supply VD. ing. Various voltage sources obtained by the power supply unit 33 are used as electric power for the electric components of the game board of the pachinko game machine 1.

Input / output interfaces 35A, 35B, 3
5C is composed of an MPU 31 arranged in the game board control device 30 and a normal interface circuit for enabling input / output of signals to / from various electric components arranged on a separate board. Therefore, the electric circuit is determined in accordance with the electric characteristics of the MPU 31 and various electric components to which signals are input / output, and a known chattering prevention circuit, waveform shaping circuit, level shift circuit, hold circuit, etc. are appropriately combined. It is composed of

In the game board control device 30 thus constructed, the jackpot lamp 17A, the game operation lamp 17B and other lamps provided on a separate base, the jackpot drive portion 14B, the hitting motor 26, etc. Connectors CN1 and CN2 are provided for easy connection. M
8 of the input / output ports of PU31 (P20 to 27)
Is the input / output interface 35C and the connector CN2.
It is connected to the display unit 50 via the and is used as a conventional one for outputting a control code to the display unit 50 to which the liquid crystal display panel 16 is mounted.

In the display unit 50 in which the liquid crystal display panel 16 is arranged, in addition to a normal liquid crystal panel driver 52 for driving the liquid crystal display panel 16, a command interpreter 54 and a code ROM for storing information in a nonvolatile manner.
56 are arranged. Here, the command interpreter 54 is the liquid crystal panel driver 52 and the game board control device 3
A new new control code (8) which is connected between 0 and the control code of 8 bits input from the game board control device 30 is stored in the code ROM 56 based on a predetermined conversion rule.
The code is converted into a plurality of code strings each having one code unit and output to the liquid crystal panel driver 52.

An example of control code conversion stored in the code ROM 56 and executed by the command interpreter 54 is shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 5, this conversion rule interprets the graphic specification that is meant by the 8-bit control code input from the MPU 31 and transfers it to the liquid crystal panel driver 52 necessary for executing the liquid crystal display satisfying the graphic specification. , The output signal, i.e., certain rules for creating a new control code. In the illustrated example, when 8-bit information as a control code is input to the command interpreter 54, a new 8-bit 5-column control code is created and output to the liquid crystal panel driver 52. The conversion rule having such a property can be easily achieved by simulating the control code output from the MPU 31 as a kind of command and using the interpretation result of the command as a new control code.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, the first 4 bits of the control code are interpreted as an operation part, and the 4 bits cause the symbol to move in parallel in any of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions. "Move", "Enlarge / Reduce" in which the size of the symbol changes, "Invert" to invert the pattern in black and white or to generate a mirror image in the horizontal / vertical directions, and move as if the symbol was drawn on a rotating disk. A basic command for graphic display such as "rotate" is expressed. And
The subsequent 4 bits are a so-called operand part for specifying the target for executing the instruction represented by the previous 4 bits, and for example, specify a symbol to be "translated" or "rotated". ..

Depending on the type of instruction indicated by the first 4 bits of the control code, it is possible to define a plurality of operand parts. For example, a command "composition of symbols" is prepared as a command specified by the operation unit, and an 8-bit or 12-bit operand part is defined following this command, and two or three symbols are newly combined. It is also possible to instruct the liquid crystal panel driver 52 to display a different pattern.

As described above, the new control code output from the command interpreter 54 can be freely changed according to the control code from the MPU 31 and the conversion rule stored in the code ROM 56, and the liquid crystal display panel 16 can be arbitrarily changed. Graphic display can be executed.

Next, a control code communication program executed between the MPU 31 and the command interpreter 54 will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the outline of the main program executed by the MPU 31. When the supply of electric power to the MPU 31 is started, the initialization routine of step 100 is first processed to perform a hard check of various electric circuits constituting the game board control device 30 and various electric components connected to the game board control device 30. Check the setting status of each setting switch. Subsequently, the game situation detection and output routine of step 200 is executed, and the current game situation of the pachinko game machine 1 is detected by the sensor outputs of the winning sensor 13A, the ten count sensor 14A, etc., and the jackpot is hit according to the detection result. Drive unit 14B
To drive the jackpot lamp 17A or the gaming operation lamp 17B. In addition, in order to visually inform the player of such a game situation, the following step 3
The command interpreter 54 is executed by executing the control code output routine of 00 and selecting the control code suitable for the game situation.
Output to. This main program is repeatedly executed until the power supply to the pachinko gaming machine 1 is stopped.

The control code output routine (step 300) of the main program is constructed by specifically and appropriately adopting the programs whose flowcharts are illustrated in FIGS. 8 to 10. Hereinafter, these processes will be sequentially described. FIG. 8 is a program selected when the pachinko gaming machine 1 is playing a game, but the detection output from the prize sensor 13A does not occur for a certain time or longer. First, the non-win prize time t1 is counted by a counter or the like. The value is confirmed (step 302), and the count value t1 and the preset comparison values T1, T2 (where T1 <T2) are compared in magnitude (step 3).
04). Then, when t1 <T1, a total of 8 bits of control code for designating a 4-bit movement instruction 1 and the subsequent 4-bit symbol 1 as a control code is executed (step 306), and the process returns to the main program.

Here, the movement command 1 is the special symbol display portion 1
6L, 16C, and 16R are regarded as one display unit, and are instruction codes for displaying the designated symbols so that they flow from right to left or from left to right. The symbol 1 is a code that designates a symbol or a character string that is registered in the code ROM 56 in advance. Therefore, only by outputting the 8-bit control code once, for example, the character string "Flah !!" is displayed from right to left or with the special symbol display portions 16L, 16C, 16R of the liquid crystal display panel 16 as one display portion. It is displayed as flowing from left to right.

The content of the count value t1 is T1≤t1≤T2
, That is, when the no-win period continues,
Step 308 is executed instead of Step 306,
A control code of a total of 8 bits of 4 bits of the move instruction 1 and 4 bits designating the symbol 2 is output. For example,
Even if the pattern 2 is a complicated character string such as "Do your best!",
The control code to be output from the MPU 31 need only be a 4-bit operand code assigned to the symbol 2, and similar to the above, by outputting the 8-bit control code once, a complicated liquid crystal for moving the symbol 2 to the left or right. The drive control of the display panel 16 is achieved.

When such a non-winning period continues further, and when the count value t1 becomes T2 <t1, the process shifts to step 310 by the determination process of step 304, and the rotation command 4 bits and symbol 2 are designated. A 4-bit total 8-bit control code is output from the MPU 31. Therefore, when this game situation occurs, the symbol 2 that has been moving to the left and right until then, for example, the character string of "Go for it!" Is started to rotate with the special symbol display portions 16L, 16C, 16R as one display portion. .. Here, "rotation" means moving a character as if it were written on a rotating disk, and creates an atmosphere different from parallel movement.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a process for determining the liquid crystal display at the time of a big hit. As for the big hit, the prize sensor 13A is that the pachinko ball wins the first-class starting opening 13.
When detected by the special symbol display portion 16L, 16
C and 16R are used as independent digit displays, three-digit numbers are rotated independently, and combinations of three-digit numbers when rotation display is stopped at a predetermined timing (for example, “77
7 ").

When it becomes a big hit, the game board control device 30 starts the big hit process, and after starting the operation of the big hit drive section 14B, starts the process shown in FIG. First, check the count value t2 of the counter that has measured the time elapsed since the jackpot was started (step 312), and check the number of winnings since the jackpot was started (step 31).
4) is executed to grasp the jackpot gaming situation. Then, the symbol X to be displayed is determined from these confirmation contents (step 316), and the blink command 4 bits and step 31
A control code consisting of a total of 8 bits in which the symbol X determined in 6 is used as a 4-bit operand portion is output to the command interpreter 54 (step 318), and one processing is ended.

By this processing, in the case of a big hit, not only the simple blinking display of "777" so far, but also an interesting graphic display in which the display content appropriately changes depending on the combination of the elapsed time and the number of winnings can be performed. Examples of such a display include blinking a character string such as "Sugoi" when the number of winnings is relatively high even though the elapsed time has not passed so much, and conversely, when the number of winnings is long and the elapsed time is long. Design 2 cited as a precedent "Do your best!
! That matches the player's interest, such as flashing
Alternatively, a design in which the elapsed time and the number of winnings are simply displayed in the form of a bar graph can be easily considered. Further, as shown in FIG. 11, various graphic displays using the entire liquid crystal display panel 16 may be considered. For example, a spherical pattern expands (A), (B) and is broken into pieces (C), or a polygonal object is flying while rotating (D). It is also effective to improve the playability by reflecting the detection status of the ten count sensor 14B, the special winning sensor 14C, etc. on the change of the display.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of the process selected when the prize ball is discharged. In this process executed when the prize balls are discharged, first, the elapsed time from the previous and last two prize ball discharging operations is confirmed from the count value t3 of the built-in counter (step 320), and the count value t3 is set in advance. The calculated values T3 and T4 (where T3 <T4) are compared (step 322). When the comparison result in this step 322 is t3 <T3, that is, when prize balls are discharged with high frequency, a total of 8 bits of 4 bits of the movement command 2 and 4 bits indicating the symbol 3 The control code is output from the MPU 31.

Here, the movement command 2 is the special symbol display section 1
6L, 16C, and 16R are regarded as one display unit, and are instruction codes for displaying the designated symbols so that they flow from top to bottom. In addition, the symbol 3 is preferably a graphic that makes the player directly imagine the frequent ball discharge, and a plurality of pachinko balls are displayed as the specific symbol display portion 1
A pattern to be displayed on all of 6L, 16C and 16R (for example, see FIG. 11C) is suitable.

When the count value t3 is T3.ltoreq.t3.ltoreq.T4 or T4 <t3, instead of step 324, a step 326 for outputting a control code for instructing the movement instruction 2 and the symbol 4 or the movement instruction 2 and the symbol 5 is output. A step 328 of outputting a control code instructing is executed. This symbol 4 or symbol 5 is a plurality of pachinko balls that are specified by any one of the specific symbol display portions 16L, 16C, 16R.
One or two, and the above step 32
It is displayed visually and easily that the number of prize balls less than the discharge image of the prize balls drawn on the liquid crystal display panel 16 is obtained by executing the process 4.

According to the pachinko gaming machine 1 of the present embodiment described above, the MPU 31 only outputs a simple control code, and the liquid crystal display panel 16 has the specific symbol display portion 1
6L, 16C, 16R can be organically combined to perform a complicated and dynamic graphic display. That is, MPU, which is the required specification from fraud prevention
It is possible to develop a realistic and diverse display on the liquid crystal display panel 16 that can satisfy the player sufficiently while satisfying the limitation of the memory space of 31.

Moreover, the control code output from the MPU 31 is used as an instruction word for graphic control, and the command interpreter 54 interprets the instruction word based on the conversion rule stored in the code ROM 56. Designs, movements such as movement and rotation are determined. Therefore, the MPU 31 is commonly used for a plurality of types of pachinko game machines, and by replacing only the command interpreter 54 or the code ROM 54, it becomes possible to cause the liquid crystal display panel 16 to execute a completely different graphic expression. In other words, it is possible to easily separate the highly functional user interface graphic display part and the basic functional parts required for a pachinko gaming device, thus shortening the development period of a new pachinko gaming device. The effect can also be exhibited.

Further, when the control code is output only once from the MPU 31, the graphic display instructed by the control code is displayed in the command interpreter 54 and the code RO.
Since it is continuously executed by M56, the load for graphic display of the MPU 31 is significantly reduced. Therefore, it becomes possible to allocate a large amount of time of the MPU 31 to other program processing, or to employ an inexpensive microcomputer as the MPU 31.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and can be applied not only to a pachinko game machine but also to a slot machine or other game machine, or to a conventional game machine. It goes without saying that the configuration is such that the rotational display of the digit number and the simple pattern is also performed, and it can be embodied in various modes without departing from the gist thereof.

For example, in the above embodiment, the graphic display visually appealing to the player was taken up as a mode of various displays required for the game machine, but in addition to this, the game machine has various lamps. , A large number of visual or auditory display devices such as speakers are incorporated, and the gaming device of the present invention is extremely useful in order to enhance the display capability of these display devices and execute more precise display. is there. For example, the lamp can be multicolored and the brightness can be changed to enhance the decoration effect of the game device, and speakers are arranged on both sides of the game device to output various music in stereo according to the game situation. And so on. Also,
In this case, not only the present invention is applied to any one display device, but the present invention is also applied to a plurality of display devices, and the present invention may be freely determined according to the necessity of design.

[0042]

As described above, in the game device of the present invention, the control code output from the game control unit does not directly limit the display capability of the display unit, and the conversion rule storage unit and the control code conversion unit are provided. By combining the
A wide variety of displays can be performed. Therefore, it is possible to sufficiently satisfy the restriction of the memory space imposed on the game control unit for preventing fraud, and to make the display execution unit provided in the game device execute a realistic and complicated display.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a game device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the structure of the game section DP of the same.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the same.

FIG. 4 is an electric circuit diagram of the game device centering on the game board control device 30.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a principle of converting a control code into a new control code.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a logical meaning of a control code.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a main program executed by the MPU 31.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing executed by the MPU 31 when there is no winning.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing executed by the MPU 31 at the time of a big hit.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an outline of a process executed by the MPU 31 when a prize ball is discharged.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a symbol displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Pachinko gaming device 10 Game board 12 Normal winning opening 13 First-class starting opening 14 Big winning opening 15 Out opening 13A Winning sensor 14A Ten count sensor 14B Big hit drive 14C Big winning sensor 16L, 16C, 16R Special symbol display 16S State Display unit 16 Liquid crystal display panel 20 Operation handle 30 Game board control device 31 MPU 33 Power supply unit 35A, 35B, 35C Input / output interface 50 Display unit 52 Liquid crystal panel driver 54 Command interpreter 56 Code ROM

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A game device having a display section for displaying sound, light, etc. according to a game situation, wherein the game situation of the game device is received and a control code corresponding to the situation is output. A control section, a conversion rule storage section for storing a predetermined conversion rule for converting the code system of the control code into a new control code which is another code system, and the game control section Connected to the display section, the control code output from the game control section is input, and the control code is input.
A game device provided with a control code conversion unit for converting a code into the new code system based on a conversion rule stored in the conversion rule storage unit and outputting the new code system to the display unit. 2. The game device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit is a liquid crystal or plasma display capable of dot matrix display.