JP2004000652A - Game device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a game device such as a Pachinko game machine having a real and speedy animation display function while satisfying the specification necessary for preventing fraudulence. <P>SOLUTION: In a program of the game machine in which the animation varies according to a certain rule from game rules, basic information U1, which is a basic image of the animation displayed in an LCD panel 16, and difference information U2 and U3-U16, which is on the slight difference of the information quantity when the basic information U1 is offset by 1/16 according to the certain rule above, are stored in a data zone for the display control of a display ROM 56 for each of 15 kinds of special patterns U. Then, it is determined which one should be displayed among the 15 kinds of basic information and 16 kinds of difference information stored in the program zone for the display control of the display ROM 56 and in which coordinate in the LCD panel 16 the information should be displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a game machine such as a pachinko machine or an arrangement ball, and more particularly, to a game machine that displays a moving image according to a game situation and enhances the playability.
[0002]
[Prior art]
This type of gaming device has traditionally enhanced its playability by displaying various images, but in recent years, the amount of information that can be displayed has been dramatically increased by using monochrome or color liquid crystal panels and LED panels. Are increasing. For example, imitating a slot machine, driving a liquid crystal panel or LED as if three drums on which numbers and pictures are drawn are rotating, and by matching numbers and pictures, specific situations such as big hits There have been proposals for producing or displaying a unique moving image together with sound at the time of a big hit. Such a changing display is highly effective in appealing to the player's vision, and is effective in enhancing the playability of the gaming device.
[0003]
Therefore, in this type of gaming device, it is required to have more realistic and various moving image display functions, and not only a function of detecting a gaming state of the gaming device but also a display capability (display area, display area, The number of colors, resolution, etc.) are improving year by year.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the area for storing the program and data of the game control unit which inputs and monitors the game status of the game device from the request for prevention of fraud in the game device is extremely limited, and within the limitation of the memory space, There was a problem that it was not possible to realize moving image display. In addition, the game control unit is usually limited in data that can be taken in from the outside, and cannot receive data even from the display unit side. Therefore, it is also difficult to instruct to change the display content in consideration of the display and the game situation, and to move the image in a timely manner.
[0005]
For this reason, a conventional game device of this type, even if the display unit is composed of fine pixels such as a liquid crystal panel, increases the display unit by using a plurality of dots as one pixel, and uses simple numbers and symbols. It is customary to display only. Also, since the display of smooth moving images requires a huge amount of information, monotonous images are repeated or fragmentary images such as frame-by-frame display are displayed, which is sufficient to satisfy the player. A gaming device having a function has not yet been provided.
[0006]
The gaming device of the present invention is intended to solve such a problem and realize a real and high-speed moving image display function capable of satisfying a player sufficiently while satisfying required specifications from fraud prevention. Was adopted.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The first gaming machine of the present invention is:
A main control unit that grasps the game situation and outputs a moving image display instruction according to the game state, and a sub control unit that displays a moving image on the display unit based on the moving image display instruction output from the main control unit. A gaming device having
The sub-control unit, basic information that is a basic image of the video, storage means that previously stores difference information that is a difference between the basic image represented by the basic information and the video,
A gist of the invention includes a display unit that reads basic information and difference information from the storage unit based on a moving image display instruction from the main control unit and displays a moving image on the display unit.
[0008]
In addition, the second gaming machine of the present invention,
A main control unit that grasps the game situation and outputs a moving image display instruction according to the game state, and a sub control unit that displays a moving image on the display unit based on the moving image display instruction output from the main control unit. A gaming device having
The sub-control unit includes:
Storage means for storing image information in advance as image information of a portion that changes from the image displayed immediately before;
A gist comprises a display unit for sequentially reading image information from the storage unit based on a moving image display instruction from the main control unit and displaying a moving image on the display unit.
[0009]
[Action]
In the first and second gaming machines of the present invention configured as described above, an instruction to display a moving image according to a game situation is unilaterally output from the main control unit to the sub control unit. The display unit of the sub-control unit accesses the storage unit based on the moving image display instruction, reads out information necessary for composing a moving image according to the game situation, and displays the moving image on the display unit.
[0010]
Here, in the first gaming machine, a moving image is composed of basic information as a basic image and difference information as a difference between the basic image. In the second gaming machine, a moving image is constituted by image information sequentially read from the storage means as image information of a portion that changes from the image displayed immediately before. As a result, in any case, it is not necessary to store the information of the image overlapping between the frames.
[0011]
The function sharing between the main control unit and the sub control unit does not mean that one microprocessor realizes both functions by different programs by time division processing or the like, but the main control unit and the sub control unit are separate. , And realizes both functions in parallel by independent processors.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below to further clarify the configuration and operation of the present invention described above. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pachinko gaming device 1 as one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the gaming section DP, and FIG. 3 is a back view of the pachinko gaming device.
[0013]
As shown in the figure, the pachinko gaming machine 1 has a front frame 4 attached to the front of a 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 freely opened and closed. A game board 10 is detachably mounted on the back surface of the front frame 4 via a mounting frame (not shown).
[0014]
On the surface of the game board 10, a guide rail 11 for guiding the fired pachinko balls is provided, and in the game section DP surrounded by the guide rail 11, as shown in FIG. A first-type starting port 13 and a special winning port 14 are provided, and an out port 15 is provided below the gaming board 10. The first-type starting port 13 is provided with a normal winning sensor 13A for detecting a winning situation of a pachinko ball. The jackpot opening 14 is provided with a jackpot driving unit 14B that opens a movable piece when a jackpot condition is established and creates a state where a pachinko ball easily enters, and furthermore, a jackpot situation when a pachinko ball enters here. A large winning sensor 14C for continuing (so-called V winning) and a ten-count sensor 14A for detecting that ten pachinko balls have entered the condition for stopping the jackpot condition have been provided.
[0015]
At a substantially central portion of the game board 10, there is provided a liquid crystal display panel 16 constituted by using a 4-inch color TV liquid crystal display. That is, the liquid crystal display panel 16 employs an interlaced scanning of 2: 1 similarly to a normal TV display, and has a function of inputting and displaying an image signal of 60 frames per second. I have. That is, the liquid crystal display panel 16 of the present embodiment uses a normal liquid crystal television unit as it is. Therefore, if a signal for one frame is transmitted to the liquid crystal display panel 16 within 16.67 msec, a clear color image equivalent to that of a normal TV can be dynamically displayed.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 4, the display content of the liquid crystal display panel 16 of the present embodiment is largely divided into three areas in a normal game state, a message line 16A at the upper part, a special symbol display part 16B at the center, and a lower part at the lower part. The number-of-suspension display section 16C is provided. On the upper message line 16A, a message corresponding to the current game situation is displayed so as to flow. In the center special symbol display section 16B, a special symbol representing a gaming state such as a big hit or a miss is rotated and displayed over three digits. Further, the number of pachinko balls that have won the first-type starting port 13 and have not yet been subjected to rotation of the special symbol display unit 16B, the so-called number of reserved balls, is displayed in the lower left display area 16C of the rectangular display area. Up to four are displayed in reverse order from.
[0017]
As other display devices, the pachinko gaming device 1 is provided with a jackpot lamp 17A for displaying a jackpot and a game operation lamp 17B for indicating that a game is being played (see FIG. 1).
[0018]
On the front surface of the front plate 8, a hit ball supply tray 19 for guiding the inserted pachinko balls one by one to a firing position (not shown) is attached. In addition, an operation handle 20 for hitting the pachinko ball at the firing position to the game section and a lower ball receiving tray 21 for storing excess prize balls of the hit ball supply tray 19 are provided below the front frame 4. The operation handle 20 controls the resilience of the motor 26 for hitting the ball.
[0019]
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 gaming board control device 30 generally manages the gaming status of the pachinko gaming device 1 overall. That is, the game status of the pachinko gaming device 1 is determined from the operation status of the operation handle 20, the detection output of the winning sensor 13A, the ten-count sensor 14A, and the like, and the jackpot driving unit 14B, the liquid crystal display panel 16, The operation of the lamp 17A, the lamp 17B during the game operation, the motor 26 for hitting the ball, a speaker (not shown) and the like is controlled.
[0020]
In addition to these devices, the pachinko gaming device 1 includes a normal winning ball detection device that collectively detects the pachinko balls that have won the winning ports 12, 14 or the starting port 13, a mechanism for transporting a winning ball and an out ball, and a game. Although general equipment such as various other lamps, speakers, and fraud detectors for notifying the situation are provided, detailed description of these general device configurations will be omitted.
[0021]
Next, the configuration and operation of the game board control device 30 will be described. As shown in FIG. 5, the game board control device 30 mainly includes a one-chip microcomputer (hereinafter, referred to as MPU) 31 having an arithmetic logic unit, ROM, RAM, etc., a power supply unit 33, and input / output interfaces 35A, 35B. And an output interface 35C. Further, a crystal oscillator Xtal is externally attached to the MPU 31, which makes it possible to measure the elapsed time with high accuracy, and performs interrupt control and the like using an interval timer using the crystal oscillator Xtal.
[0022]
The power supply unit 33 is a circuit that generates three types of power supplies VE, VD, and VCC by inputting a 24-volt alternating current from the outside. The power supply unit 33 includes a diode stack 41 for generating a power supply VE by full-wave rectifying a 24 volt AC, and electrolytic capacitors C1 and C2 and a diode D1 for smoothing this to generate a DC high-voltage power supply VD. It comprises a regulator 43 for generating a stabilized power supply VCC of 5 volts stabilized from the high voltage power supply VD. Various voltage sources obtained by the power supply unit 33 are used as electric power of electrical components of the game board of the pachinko gaming machine 1.
[0023]
The input / output interfaces 35A and 35B and the output interface 35C are configured by a normal interface circuit for enabling input / output of signals to / from various electric components disposed separately from the MPU 31 disposed in the game board control device 30. . Therefore, the electric circuit is determined according to the electric characteristics of various electric components to and from which signals are input and output to and from the MPU 31, and a known chattering prevention circuit, waveform shaping circuit, level shift circuit, hold circuit, and the like are appropriately combined. It is composed of
[0024]
The game board control device 30 configured as described above can easily connect to the jackpot driving unit 14B, the hitting motor 26, and the like, including the separately provided jackpot lamps 17A and game operation lamps 17B. For this purpose, a connector CN1 is provided.
[0025]
Nine bits (P20 to P28) of the output ports of the MPU 31 are connected to the display unit 50 via a flat cable FC via an open collector type output interface 35C and a connector CN2 to control the liquid crystal display panel 16. Used for display command output (data 8 bits and strobe 1 bit). In order to supply power to the display unit 50 via the connector CN2, a DC high-voltage power supply VD and a 5-volt stabilized power supply VCC generated by the power supply unit 33 are connected to the connector CN2 together with a ground line. The flat cable FC is also used as a power supply line.
[0026]
In the display unit 50, in addition to a normal liquid crystal panel driver 52 for driving the liquid crystal display panel 16, a sub CPU 54 and a display ROM 56 that stores information in a nonvolatile manner are arranged. Here, the sub CPU 54 is a microcomputer that appropriately reads and executes the display control program stored in the 128 Kbyte area of the display ROM and the display control data stored in the 256 Kbyte area of the display ROM. The display command input from the panel control device 30 in units of 7 bytes is interpreted based on the display control program stored in the display ROM 56, and necessary display control data is read from the display ROM 56 based on the interpretation result. Is read out and output to the liquid crystal panel driver 52.
[0027]
Next, display control using a display command will be described. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the data format of the display command sent from the MPU 31 of the game board control device 30 to the sub CPU 54. As shown in the figure, the display command is game status information composed of a total of 7 bytes. The first byte is start information ST for notifying the start of the display command. One byte (8 bits) not used in the following 6 bytes of information, for example, 8 bits are all "1". It consists of a bit string “11111111”.
[0028]
The second to fourth bytes are symbol 1 information Z1, symbol 2 information Z2, symbol 3 information Z3. As described above with reference to FIG. 4, in the present embodiment, the special symbol display portion 16B of the liquid crystal display panel 16 includes three special symbols (in this embodiment, a total of 10 types of numbers from 0 to 9 and 5 types of other symbols). 15 types) are displayed as if rotating. The combination information of these three-digit special symbols has a meaning of determining the occurrence of a jackpot, and is one of the important game rules of the pachinko gaming device 1. Therefore, the main management is left to the MPU 31 of the game board control device 30, and the sub CPU 54 adopts a configuration in which only the display faithful to the command from the MPU 31 is executed.
[0029]
Therefore, three bytes from the second byte to the fourth byte are used, and the symbol information of the special symbol to be displayed in each digit of the special symbol display section 16B is stored in the upper four bits, and the lower four bits are used in the lower four bits. It sends out offset information of the display position to make the symbol appear to rotate. In the present embodiment, 15 kinds of special symbols are displayed, and 16 levels of offsets for rotating display can be displayed. Therefore, the upper 4 bits represent information of 0 to 14, and the lower 4 bits represent information of 0 to 15. I do.
[0030]
The fifth byte is information expressing the special winning information C / R. In the present embodiment, the gaming rules of the pachinko gaming device 1 include, as a game rule, "the state of the jackpot is stopped when ten pachinko balls enter the special winning opening 14 at the time of the big win. However, a predetermined point before the stop condition occurs. When a pachinko ball passes (V prize), the jackpot situation is continued up to a maximum of 16 rounds. " In order to detect such a condition, the ten count sensor 14A and the special winning sensor 14C are provided as described above, and the detection signals are input to the MPU 31. Also, since this kind of game situation has a very significant meaning for the player, it is preferable to visually display the game situation on the liquid crystal display panel 16. Therefore, ten count information 0-10, which is the detection status of the ten count sensor, is transmitted using the upper 4 bits of the fifth byte, and the number of rounds 0-15 is transmitted using the lower 4 bits.
[0031]
The sixth byte is the hold information RZ. This suspension information RZ is any information from 0 to 4 in the game rules, and the information amount may be small. Therefore, the upper 4 bits are not used, and the reserved numbers 0 to 4 are transmitted using the lower 4 bits.
[0032]
The last seventh byte is scene information SC, and represents the current game scene. As is clear from the above description, the pachinko gaming device 1 of the present embodiment has roughly two types of scenes, namely, a normal game scene and a big hit scene. Further, in each of these scenes, there are game scenes at a finer level, such as a special symbol being changed or a so-called V prize in which a continuation of a big hit is promised. The player of the pachinko gaming device 1 enjoys the game by enjoying such various kinds of scenes, and it is preferable that a visual display corresponding to each scene is made. Therefore, the MPU 31 transmits the current game scene determined from the detection signals of the various sensors to the sub CPU 54 as the last byte of the display command.
[0033]
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of scene information explaining details of the scene information SC transmitted as the information of the seventh byte. As shown in the figure, the upper 4 bits of the scene information SC are information indicating whether the scene is a normal game scene or a jackpot scene, and the most significant bit is not used, and the lower 3 bits are “101”. Indicates a normal game scene, and “010” indicates a big hit scene.
[0034]
The lower 4 bits are information for specifying a more detailed game scene of the game scene roughly classified by the upper 4 bits. When all of the game scenes are "0", the special symbol rotation display is unnecessary. The state is shown. When only the least significant bit is “1”, a winning of a pachinko ball is generated in the first-type starting port 13 and a symbol changing state in which a special symbol must be rotated and displayed is shown. When only the second bit is “1”, the two digits of the special symbol become the same numerical value (for example, “7”) and a big hit may occur (hereinafter referred to as a reach state). Shows a state in which the occurrence has occurred. When the lower 4 bits are “0011”, this indicates a hit determination state for determining whether or not the three digits of the special symbol have become “7”.
[0035]
When any of the third or higher bits of the lower four bits is “1”, the upper four bits are used as information for specifying the jackpot game scene of “X010” in more detail. . When the lower 4 bits are “0100”, it indicates that the fanfare is flowing from a speaker (not shown) immediately after the occurrence of the jackpot. When the lower 4 bits are “0101”, it indicates that the special winning release is being executed. When the lower 4 bits are “0110”, it indicates a state in which a V prize in which the jackpot is continuously executed is generated. When the lower 4 bits are “0111”, it is stored that the V prize has occurred, indicating that the next big prize release is reserved. When the lower 4 bits are “1000”, it indicates an interval state between the opening of the special winning and the opening of the special winning in the next round. When the lower bit is “1001”, it indicates a state in which the special winning opening has been completed, in particular, a state in which all the special winning opening rounds have been executed, that is, a so-called normal end (referred to as a final effect 1). When the lower 4 is “1010”, the state is the end of the special winning opening, but this indicates a so-called puncture end (final effect 2) in which all the special winning opening rounds have not been executed.
[0036]
Note that stop information (a so-called stop bit) indicating the end of communication information is provided in normal communication between computers. In the present embodiment, start information ST and information of the second to seventh bytes following the start information ST are provided. The end of the display command information can be clearly determined from the code system to be expressed, and such special stop information is omitted.
[0037]
The display unit 50 that receives the display command in the data format as described above needs to rewrite the contents of the VRAM incorporated in the liquid crystal panel driver 52 in order to display an image corresponding to the display command on the liquid crystal display panel 16. The capacity of the VRAM to be controlled is determined by the number of pixels and the number of display colors of the 4-inch color TV liquid crystal display constituting the liquid crystal display panel 16, but is large for natural high precision and multicolor display. VRAM capacity (S [bytes]) is required. Moreover, in order to express a so-called moving image in which the image changes smoothly, the capacity (S [byte]) is required for each frame, and the capacity (S × 60 [byte]) is indispensable for a moving image for one second. It becomes.
[0038]
However, as described above, the display ROM 56 of the display unit 50 only has a display control program area of 128 Kbytes and a display control data area of 256 Kbytes. Animation display is not possible.
[0039]
In view of this, the display ROM 56 of the present embodiment skillfully stores a large number of multi-color frame information with high accuracy by using the following data compression method. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of this data compression method. For example, when a prize is generated in the first-type start-up port 13 and the so-called “reserved number” becomes “1” and is transmitted as the retained information RZ (the sixth byte) of the display command, the game status is displayed. In order to visually display the display area, the leftmost display area of the hold number display section 16C must be highlighted. At this time, the only difference from the previously displayed display information is the rectangular area of the coordinates (X1, Y1) to (X2, Y2). Can be reached.
[0040]
Further, when the number of holds “2” is received as the hold information RZ, the leftmost display area of the hold number display section 16C has already been highlighted, so it is only necessary to highlight the display area adjacent to the left. . At this time, the coordinates to be inverted are only changed to the rectangular area of (X3, Y3) to (X4, Y4), and the display information to be displayed at that location is the coordinates (X1, Y1) to (X2, Y2). ).
[0041]
Similarly, in order to display 15 kinds of special symbols as if rotating on three rows on the special symbol display section 16B of the liquid crystal display panel 16, as shown in FIG. .., U16 when the basic information U1 is offset by 1/16 (the hatched portion in the figure indicates a new display portion, and the double hatched portion indicates a display deleted portion. Are stored as display control data. Then, the symbol information Z is interpreted by the display control program to determine which of the 15 types of basic information and the 16 types of difference information is displayed at which coordinates on the liquid crystal display panel 16. Therefore, even if the special symbol display section 16B is configured to display a special symbol over three digits as in the present embodiment, the storage capacity of the display ROM 56 is the storage capacity necessary for displaying the approximately one-digit special symbol. Is almost the same as
[0042]
Thus, the display content of the liquid crystal display panel 16 does not change randomly but changes while being governed by a certain rule. Then, a change in display content based on the certain rule is instructed from the game board control device 30 as a display command. Therefore, in order to display a moving image faithfully in accordance with the display command, the difference between the basic information which is a basic image of the moving image displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16 and the slight amount of information which is the difference between the basic information and the moving image is obtained. Information is stored in a 256 Kbyte display control data area of the display ROM 56, and a display control program for interpreting an area for displaying the basic information and / or difference information from a display command is stored in a 128 Kbyte area of the display ROM. It is enough to memorize it. In this embodiment, the image at the time of the occurrence of the big hit shown in FIG. 4, that is, the image when the player gazes at the liquid crystal display panel 16 the most is adopted as the basic information.
[0043]
Next, a description will be given of a game status reading program, a display command transmission program, and a display control program that are processed by the MPU 31 and the sub CPU 54 in the pachinko gaming machine 1 configured as described above.
[0044]
FIGS. 10 and 11 are flowcharts of the game situation reading program and the display command transmission program executed by the MPU 31. When the supply of power is started, the MPU 31 executes a predetermined hardware check, performs initial settings such as setting predetermined information in a storage area described later, and then starts processing of various programs described here. .
[0045]
First, a game situation reading program will be described with reference to FIG. This program is an interrupt program that is repeatedly executed by the MPU 31 every 1 msec. When the MPU 31 enters the processing of this program, the detection signals of various sensors such as the winning sensor 13A and the winning sensor 14C are read, and furthermore, the current jackpot is detected. The current game situation PJ is recognized from the situation and the like (step 100). Then, this game situation PJ is stored in the game situation storage area of the built-in RAM (step 110), and the program ends. With this program, the contents stored in the game status storage area of the internal RAM, that is, the latest game status PJ of the pachinko gaming device 1, are updated prior to transmission of a series of data to the display unit 50.
[0046]
When the MPU 31 is started up, the game status PJ0 indicating that the game is in a standby state without any special change such as a winning or a big hit is set in the game status storage area of the internal RAM by the above-described initial setting process. .
[0047]
The display command transmission program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 11 creates the above-described display command from the game situation PJ stored in the game situation storage area of the internal RAM by the processing shown in FIG. 10 and transmits the display command to the sub CPU 54. Is processed by the MPU 31 every 2 msec. Upon entering the processing of this program, the MPU 31 increments the transmission byte counter CB (step 200), and determines whether the value of the transmission byte counter CB is 7 or less (step 210). This is because a display command consisting of all 7 bytes is transmitted one byte at a time every 2 msec. When the determination in step 210 is affirmative, the CB of the display command indicated by the contents of the transmission byte counter CB is determined. The second information is transmitted to the sub CPU 54 (step 220), and the program ends.
[0048]
On the other hand, when a negative determination is made in step 210, that is, when it is determined that the transmission of the display command of all 7 bytes has already been completed, the game status storage area is accessed and the latest game stored there is accessed. The situation PJ is read (step 240), and the latest display command is created from the game situation PJ based on the rules described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7 (step 250). Since the transmission timing of the current display command is the first transmission timing of the newly created display command, the start information ST, which is the information of the first byte of the display command, is output to the sub CPU 54 (step 260). ), The content of the transmission byte counter CB is set to "1" (step 270), and the program ends.
[0049]
As described above, the display command is transmitted from the MPU 21 every 2 msec in byte units. The sub CPU 54 that inputs the transmitted display command executes the display control program shown in the flowchart in FIG. 12, and the liquid crystal display panel corresponding to the game situation PJ of the pachinko gaming device 1 grasped by the display command. 16 drive control is executed.
[0050]
When the display command divided into one byte is input from the MPU 31, the sub CPU 54 starts the processing of the display control program and stores the received display command (step 300). Then, it is determined whether or not all the display commands of all 7 bytes starting from the start information ST have been prepared (step 310). If the input of all the display commands has not been completed yet, the processing of this program is ended. .
[0051]
On the other hand, if the start information ST is input, it can be determined that the display command of all 7 bytes has been input. Accordingly, when it is determined in step 310 that the input of the display command of all 7 bytes has been completed, the display command is subsequently displayed. The VRAM rewriting process (steps 320 to 350) of the liquid crystal panel driver 52 according to the command is executed.
[0052]
Step 320 is a step of selecting and reading display control data (basic information and / or difference information) of the display ROM 56 necessary for executing the image display requested by the display command. In the following step 330, the same display command is interpreted, and the specified display control data is determined which area of the VRAM in the liquid crystal panel driver 52 is to be used as data to be changed. When the data update area and update data of the VRAM are determined in this way, a data string for updating the VRAM is created and output (step 340), and a series of these processes is performed on all the 7-byte display commands (step 340). Step 350). Then, the current display command stored for the above processing is deleted (step 360), and the processing of this program is terminated.
[0053]
That is, the sub CPU 54 reads the display control data stored in the display control data storage area of the display ROM 56 specified by the display command, and outputs this to the liquid crystal panel driver 52. The contents displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16 can be changed in any manner by replacing.
[0054]
According to the above-described pachinko gaming machine 1 of the present embodiment, a complicated color moving image can be displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16 only by outputting a display command divided into one byte every 2 msec from the MPU 31. . In other words, it is possible to develop on the liquid crystal display panel 16 real and various displays that can satisfy the player sufficiently while satisfying the memory space limitation of the MPU 31 which is a required specification from fraud prevention. The liquid crystal display panel 16 has the same specifications as a normal liquid crystal television, and is capable of displaying the same dynamic screen as a television. While it is impossible to directly output image information of 60 frames per second required for displaying the same moving image as a television from the game board control device 30 to the liquid crystal display panel 16, the image information is displayed on the display unit. According to the configuration of the present embodiment generated by the control unit 50, the limitation of the memory space of the game board control device 30 and the restriction of the data transfer between the game board control device 30 and the display unit 50 are eliminated, and the dynamic image display is realized. It can be achieved.
[0055]
In addition, in the pachinko gaming machine 1 of the present embodiment, various displays can be performed without outputting data from the game board control device 30 to the display unit 50, and without outputting data. In addition, since the display data is repeatedly transmitted from the game board control device 30 to the display unit 50, the game state recognized by the game board control device 30 and the display of the display unit 50 may be different. Absent.
[0056]
Display contents such as actual display symbols, movement and rotation are determined by the display control data stored in the display ROM 56. Therefore, the MPU 31 can be used in common for a plurality of types of pachinko gaming machines, and by replacing only the display ROM 56, the liquid crystal display panel 16 can execute a completely different graphic expression. In other words, since the graphic display portion of a highly fashionable user interface and the basic functional portion required as the pachinko gaming device 1 can be easily realized, the development period of a new pachinko gaming device can be shortened. Can also be achieved.
[0057]
Furthermore, when a simple 7-byte display command is output from the MPU 31, a graphic display corresponding to the display command is executed by the sub CPU 54 and the display ROM 56, so that the load of the MPU 31 for graphic display is greatly reduced. You. Therefore, it is possible to allocate much time of the MPU 31 to other program processing, or to adopt an inexpensive microcomputer as the MPU 31.
[0058]
The display unit 50 also uses the game rules of the pachinko gaming machine 1 skillfully and compresses and stores moving image graphics as display control data as basic information and difference information. It is possible to display a smooth moving image while adopting the limitation of the memory capacity of the display ROM 56. Since the basic information is an image at the time of the occurrence of the big hit, the image display content is reset as if the big hit was generated, and even if the display shift due to the difference information has occurred, this is surely eliminated. The image at the time of the jackpot occurrence is an image in which the player is most likely to look closely at the liquid crystal display panel 16, but since the image is used as the basic information, even if any data error occurs, the moving image display is shifted. Even so, the player does not feel uncomfortable with this.
[0059]
In this embodiment, a unit for a 4-inch liquid crystal television is used as the liquid crystal display panel 16 as it is. Therefore, a television tuner is provided separately, and the connection with the display unit 50 is switched, or a signal from the television tuner is input once by the sub CPU 54 and then output to the liquid crystal display panel 16 via the liquid crystal panel driver 52. Then, if necessary, a television program can be displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 16.
[0060]
Further, in this embodiment, the basic information and the difference information are stored in a display control data area of 256 Kbytes of the display ROM 56, and the basic information is stored in a display control program stored in a 128 Kbyte area of the display ROM. By interpreting the VRAM area for displaying the difference information and the display command from the display command, only one type of display control data, such as the number of reserved items and special symbols, is stored, thereby enabling significant compression of information. This means that the gaming rule of the pachinko gaming machine 1 is "three drums on which the same special symbol is drawn are rotating", and basic information and difference information of one digit of the special symbol can be used. It is based on the configuration. Which of the moving images to be displayed as the basic information or the difference information and what functions the display control program has is an arbitrary design item, and the game rules of the gaming machine to which the present invention is applied. It can be freely selected by taking into account the restrictions on functions and preventing fraud.
[0061]
Also, instead of decomposing the moving image into basic information and difference information, the difference information of the image of the second frame from the image of the first frame and the difference information of the third frame from the image of the second frame As in the case of image information,..., It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which moving image information is sequentially stored in the ROM 56 in the form of difference information from the immediately preceding image, and the contents of the VRAM are rewritten based on the difference information. If the video does not include repetition and changes greatly, the compression efficiency of the image data cannot be so high even if it is divided into the basic information and the difference information. It is effective to store the information of the difference. Note that the initial screen may be stored separately, or may not have the information of the initial screen, and may have all the information in the form of difference information. In the latter case, only a part of the image is drawn immediately after the image display is started, but the moving image is rewritten at high speed and eventually becomes a complete image.
[0062]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to such embodiments, and it is apparent that the present invention is applied not only to pachinko gaming machines but also to slot machines and other game machines. It can be embodied in various modes without departing from the above.
[0063]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, in the first and second gaming machines of the present invention, the sub-control unit executes the moving image display on the display unit according to the game situation grasped by the main control unit. That is, the functions of grasping the game situation and displaying a moving image are shared, and it is possible to achieve both the restriction from the improper prevention aspect required for the main control unit and the request for enabling various displays.
[0064]
In the first gaming machine, the sub-control unit divides the moving image into basic information and difference information, compresses and stores the moving image using the regular change of the moving image in accordance with the game rules, and stores the moving image from the main control unit. Basic information and / or difference information are read out as appropriate based on the display instruction, and a moving image is displayed on the display unit. A moving image is constituted by image information sequentially read from the storage means as image information of a portion that changes from the image displayed immediately before. Therefore, in any case, it is possible to display a dense and smooth moving image while observing the limitation of the memory capacity required for the sub control unit.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a gaming machine according to one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the game unit DP.
FIG. 3 is a rear view of the same.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a liquid crystal display panel 16;
FIG. 5 is an electric circuit diagram of the gaming machine centered on the gaming board control device 30.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a data format of a display command.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a code system of the scene information.
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of basic information and difference information when displaying the number of held items.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of basic information and difference information when a special symbol is rotated and displayed.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a game situation reading program executed by the MPU 31.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a display command transmission program executed by the MPU 31;
12 is a flowchart of a display control program executed by a sub CPU 54. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Pachinko gaming device 10 ... Game board 12 ... Normal winning opening 13 ... First kind starting opening 14 ... Big winning opening 13A ... Winning sensor 14A ... Ten count sensor 14B ... Big hit drive unit 14C ... Big winning sensor 16 ... Liquid crystal display panel 30 ... Game board controller 31 ... MPU
35A, 35B ... input / output interface 35C ... output interface 50 ... display unit 52 ... liquid crystal panel driver 54 ... sub CPU
56 ... Display ROM

Claims (2)

A main control unit that grasps the game situation and outputs a moving image display instruction according to the game state, and a sub control unit that displays a moving image on the display unit based on the moving image display instruction output from the main control unit. A gaming device having
The sub-control unit, basic information that is a basic image of the video, storage means that previously stores difference information that is a difference between the basic image represented by the basic information and the video,
A game device comprising: display means for reading basic information and difference information from the storage means based on a moving image display instruction from the main control unit and displaying a moving image on the display unit. A main control unit that grasps the game situation and outputs a moving image display instruction according to the game state, and a sub control unit that displays a moving image on the display unit based on the moving image display instruction output from the main control unit. A gaming device having
The sub-control unit includes:
Storage means for storing image information in advance as image information of a portion that changes from the image displayed immediately before;
A game device comprising: display means for sequentially reading image information from the storage means based on a moving image display instruction from the main control unit and displaying a moving image on the display unit.

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