JPH0380037B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electric slot machine. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electric slot machine that allows a player to arbitrarily select the rotational speed of the reels and that allows the number of coins to be paid out to be a predetermined multiplier in accordance with the selected reel rotational speed.

Slot machines were previously mechanically driven machines that used levers, springs, etc. to give an initial speed to the reel, and kept it spinning using inertia (for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
119281, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 158673), the reel is driven by a stepping motor,
Rotating electric types (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 116280/1983) are becoming mainstream.

In such mechanically driven slot machines, the speed of the reels that continue to rotate due to inertia gradually decreases, so each player can choose when to stop the reels. Also proposed is a system in which the initial speed of the reel is varied by adjusting the force with which the lever is pulled.

On the other hand, an electric slot machine rotates the reels at a constant single rotational speed by inserting a coin and driving a stepping motor, and the player stops the reels by activating a reel stop switch at will. It is configured to detect a combination of symbols at a specific position on each stopped reel, and pay out a predetermined number of coins only when the combination of symbols is a specific combination.

However, in such conventional electric slot machines, the reels are driven by stepping motors, which makes it easy to detect combinations of symbols on the reels, but on the other hand, the rotational speed of the reels is always constant, so players cannot press the stop switch. The player can only participate in the game, and cannot play the game according to the player's skill.

The inventor of the present invention has conducted intensive research into electric slot machines in order to develop a slot machine that allows players to participate in the game itself to a greater extent. The electric slot machine of the present invention is capable of changing the number of coins to be paid out when a specific combination of symbols is achieved depending on the selected rotational speed, that is, whether the reel rotation is fast or slow. completed.

That is, the electric slot machine of the present invention rotates a plurality of reels by a stepping motor, stops the reels by operating a stop switch, detects the combination of symbols on each reel, and determines whether the combination is a specific combination of symbols. Determine whether there is
An electric slot machine that pays out a predetermined number of coins only when the combination is a specific combination, and (a) allows the player to arbitrarily switch and adjust the rotation speed of the reels; (b) means for determining the step interval of a basic clock signal for excitation of the stepping motor by inputting the signal from the selection switch, and for emitting the basic clock signal at the determined step interval; (c) driver means for driving the stepping motor at a selected speed based on the basic clock signal issued by the means (b); (d) only when the combination of symbols on the stopped reels is specific; , means for determining the number of coins to be paid out by multiplying the payout rate selected according to the input signal from the selection switch by a basic number of coins to be paid out that is unique to the combination of the specific symbols; and (e) means for determining the number of coins to be paid out. It is characterized by having means for paying out a number of coins according to the output.

A block diagram of the function realizing means of the electric slot machine of the present invention is shown in FIG.

1, 2 and 3 are all reels of the slot machine, and stepping motors 4 and 3 are respectively connected to the reels of the slot machine.
It is driven by 5 and 6. A is a reel rotation speed selection switch, and as described later, a rotary switch, a variable resistor, or the like is used. The output from switch a is sent to means b (hereinafter referred to as step interval determining means) which determines the step interval and generates a basic clock signal at the step interval, thereby generating the basic clock signal for exciting the stepping motors 4, 5, and 6. The step interval of the clock signal is determined, and the basic clock signal is issued at the corresponding step interval. The basic clock signal emitted from the step interval determining means b is sent to the driver means c, where it is converted into four-phase pulses for exciting the stepping motors for driving each reel, and is then sent to the stepping motors 4, 5,
Drive 6.

The output of switch a or step interval determining means b is sent to payout number determining means d.

The position of the displayed symbol on the reel is determined by the basic clock signal from the step interval determining means b and the reference position detectors 7, 8, and 9 of the reel symbol located on each reel 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The symbols are constantly detected by symbol detection means 10 to which a reference position signal of symbols on the reels is input.

11, 12 and 13 are reel 1,
The stepping motors 4, 5, 6 are stopped by the operation of each switch 11, 12, 13, and a reel stop signal is sent to the pattern detection means 10.

The symbol detection means 10 receives a basic clock signal, a reel reference position signal and a reel stop signal,
The position of the displayed symbol of the stopped reel is detected, and a signal of the stopped position of the displayed symbol is output to the symbol combination determining means 14.

The display pattern position is detected by the pattern detecting means 10 in a conventional manner. For example, when a protrusion (not shown) provided on the reel 1 that indicates a reference symbol passes through the reference position detector 7 of the symbol on the reel, the symbol detection means 10
Zero the reel counter (not shown) within. If one step of the basic clock signal corresponds to the rotation of the symbols on the reels, the number of steps of the basic clock signal will match the movement of the symbols, so by counting the number of steps of the basic clock signal with the reel counter, you can change the number of displayed symbols. Position can be detected. Therefore, by detecting the count number when the reel stop signal is input, the displayed symbol at the time of stop can be detected.

In the pattern combination determination means 14, the pattern detection means 10
When the display symbol stop position signal is received from the controller, it is determined whether the combination is a predetermined specific combination, and only if the combination of the stop symbols matches the specific combination, the display is set to that specific combination. The basic payout number information is determined by the payout number determining means d.
Output to.

The output of the selection switch a or the step interval determining means b is sent to the payout number determining means d in addition to the basic payout number information. In this payout number determining means d, a preset multiplier corresponding to the rotational speed of the reel selected by the selection switch a is determined according to the selected rotational speed, and this determined multiplier and the basic payout number The actual number of coins to be paid out is determined by multiplying by

The payout number information determined in this way is determined by the payout means e.
and the coins are paid out.

Of the above function realizing means, the pattern detecting means 10 and the pattern combination determining means 14 are constituted by a microcomputer. Also, step interval determining means b, driver means c, and payout number determining means d.
may be composed of only a microcomputer, a combination of a microcomputer and an electric circuit, or only an electric circuit.

First, a case in which the step interval determining means b, the driver means c, and the payout number determining means d are constructed only by a microcomputer will be explained with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, a, 4, b, c, and d are the switch a, stepping motor 4, step interval determining means b, and driver means c shown in FIG. 1, respectively.
and the payout number determining means d.

The input from the switch a is sent to the determining section f, which determines which reel's rotational speed has been selected, sets speed information corresponding to the selected rotational speed, and sends it to the timer g. The timer g counts up or down the speed information and outputs an output when there is an overflow or timeout. This output is the basic clock signal,
The step interval corresponds to the speed information.

The basic clock signal is sent to the driver section h,
Excitation patterns are sequentially read from a drive counter i in which stepping motor excitation patterns are stored, and pulses for each phase A, B, based on the patterns are output to the stepping motor 4.

The selection status from switch a or the basic clock signal from timer g is sent to magnification determining means j,
Then, a magnification according to the rotational speed of the reel is determined and sent to a magnification counter k. Magnification counter k
The output of is sent to the calculation section l, which multiplies the input from the symbol combination determining means 14 (basic number of payout sheets) by the multiplier to calculate the number of payout sheets, and outputs the number to the payout means e via the payout counter m. do.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of hardware corresponding to the function realizing means shown in FIG. 2.

20, 21 and 23 are CPU and ROM respectively
and RAM, which are connected to each other and to the input port 24 and output port 25 by an address bus 26 and a data bus 27.

The input port 24 includes a start switch 28, a reel rotation speed selection switch a, an input coin counter 29, a payout coin counter 30, reel stop switches 11, 12, 13, a payout switch 31, and a reel pattern reference position detector 7. Signals from 8 and 9 are sent.

From the output port 25, the stepping motor 4,
5, 6 and the payout hopper motor 32. In addition, the signal is also output to various display lamps not shown.

As the reel rotation speed selection switch a, for example, a rotary switch 33 shown in FIG. 4 or a variable resistor 34 shown in FIG. 5 may be employed.

When using the rotary switch 33 shown in FIG. 4 as the reel rotation speed selection switch a, the connection state of the rotary switch can be changed to the input port 2 as it is.
Just enter it in 4. Also, as switch a, the fifth
When using a switch that continuously changes the voltage, such as the variable resistor 3 shown in the figure, it is sufficient to convert the signal into a digital signal via the VCO or A/D converter 35 and input it to the input port 24.

Next, a series of schematic flowcharts of the electric slot machine of the present invention in which the function realizing means shown in FIG.
- Shown in Figure 7. In addition, the fourth selection switch
Using the rotary switch shown in the figure, each contact point RSW1, RSW2, RSW3 and
The step interval information of the basic clock signal corresponding to RSW4 is 1msec, 2msec, and 3m, respectively.
sec and 4 msec.

Each symbol in FIGS. 6 and 7 indicates the following processing and judgment, respectively.

100: Initial setting of input/output port 101: Has a coin been inserted? 102: Is the start switch ON? 103: Rotary switch contact RSW4 ON
mosquito? 104: Set step interval information of basic clock signal to 4 msec 105: Rotary switch contact RSW3 ON
mosquito? 106: Set step interval information of basic clock signal to 3 msec 107: Rotary switch contact RSW2 ON
mosquito? 108: Set the step interval information of the basic clock signal to 2 msec 109: Set the step interval information of the basic clock signal to 1 msec 110: Initial drive of the reel 200: Enter the set step interval information into the timer 201: Set the contents of the timer -1 202: Is the timer content 0? 203: Read the stepping motor excitation pattern from the drive counter 204: Output a pulse corresponding to the excitation pattern 205: Increase the content of the drive counter by 1 206: Is the content of the drive counter 5? 207: Set the contents of the drive counter to 1. 208: Is there an input from the reel's photo sensor? 209: Set the counter that detects the symbol position on the reels to 0. 210: Reel counter +1. 211: Is the stop switch ST ON? 212: Stop excitation of that reel 213: Save the displayed symbols on that reel 214: Are all three reels stopped? 215: Compare the combination of symbols displayed on the three reels and the winning combination 216: Winning? 217: Read the state A of the selection switch from the input port 218: Magnification counter = 1 219: Most significant bit of A = 1? 220: Shift A to the left by 1 bit 221: Magnification counter +1 222: Magnification counter = 4? 223: Calculate the basic payout number B for the winning symbol combination 224: Enter the contents of B x magnification counter into the payout counter 225: Hopper motor drive 226: Did you pay out one coin? 227: Payout counter-1 228: Payout counter = 0? 229: Hopper motor stopped The program advances from A to B.

FIG. 8 shows the stepping motor excitation pattern stored in the drive counter. Although the excitation pattern shown in FIG. 8 is a pattern used in a two-phase excitation method, other excitation methods may be used to excite and drive the stepping motor.

Furthermore, the state A of the selection switch read from the input port in the process of step 217 is shown in FIG. The state of the selection switch shown in FIG. 9 is when the switch is connected to RSW3. Note that the magnification is set to 1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x in the RSW1, RSW2, RSW3, and RSW4 states, respectively, but the settings are not limited to these settings, and the method for determining the magnification is also different. Various ones can be adopted.

Next, based on FIG. 10, an embodiment of a program flowchart in the case where the variable resistor 34 shown in FIG. 5 is used as a reel rotation speed selection switch will be described. The respective symbols in FIG. 10 are as follows.

300: Initial setting of input/output port 301: Has a coin been inserted? 302: Is start switch 28 ON? 303: Set the step interval information of the basic clock signal to 1 msec 304: Read the numerical value of the A/D converter 305: Add only the integer part of the read value to the step interval information 306: Initial drive of the reel The operation after this is the seventh Follow the program shown in the figure.

The processing in the A/D converter 35 is, for example,
In terms of program processing, it is preferable to divide 5V into eight levels, and when a voltage within a certain category is input, an integer value corresponding to that category is output.

In that case, the higher the voltage, the slower the reel rotation speed becomes.

Although the method of controlling the rotational speed of the reel using a microcomputer has been described above, in the present invention, the control can also be performed using only an electric circuit or a combination of an electric circuit and a microcomputer.

Next, an embodiment using only an electric circuit will be described based on FIG. 11. In this embodiment as well, a microcomputer is used to determine the combination of symbols on the reels and, if necessary, to control the payout.

34 is a variable resistor, which constitutes a reel rotation speed selection switch a. 35 is VCO
(Voltage Controlled Oscillator) which generates a basic clock signal based on the voltage of the variable resistor 34. The basic clock signal is sent to the driver means c, which excites the stepping motor 4 by dividing it into four phase A, , B pulses.
The driver means c basically consists of two flip-flops 36, 37.

On the other hand, the output of the VCO 35 is also sent to the input port 24, input to a microcomputer (not shown), and used as part of the picture information.

Note that the output of the variable resistor 34 may be input to the input port 24 via an A/D converter (not shown) and used as part of the picture information.

If a rotary switch is used as the reel rotation speed selection switch, an oscillation circuit that generates pulses of different frequencies corresponding to each stage may be used in place of the VCO.

In addition, either the step interval determining means b or the driver means c shown in FIG.
It may be replaced by step interval determining means b or driver means c constructed of the electric circuit shown in FIG.

Further, the payout number determining means d can be replaced with an electric circuit. Figure 12 shows the means d for determining the number of coins to be paid out.
A schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a circuit diagram in which a frequency dividing circuit is used is shown in FIG.

40, when a LOW level is applied to the LD terminal and a pulse signal corresponding to the basic payout quantity information is input to the CK terminal, the input codes of the A, B, C, and D terminals become Q _A , Q _B , Q _C , and Q _D terminals, respectively. This is a presettable counter that is latched to the output, and uses, for example, a 74160 type IC. 41 is a binary to decimal decoder, which converts binary inputs of A, B, C, and D into decimal outputs. Note that the output of the O terminal is LOW.
Reference numeral 42 denotes a gate group, which determines, based on the input from the rotary switch 33 and the output from the decoder 41, the pulse number of the basic payout number information to output from the gate 43 to the payout counter m.

For example, rotary switch 33 is contact RSW4
(i.e. lowest rotational speed),
Assume that the symbols displayed on the reels are a combination with a basic payout number of 12 pieces. In this case, the output of the gate group 42 is
HIGH, which is applied to the LD terminal of the counter 40.

The payout signal is sent from the payout switch 31 to the counter 4.
When the CL terminal of 0 is input, the counter 40 is enabled, and then when the pulse of the basic payout number information is input to the CK terminal, up to the second pulse, the counter 40 is enabled.
The LD terminal is maintained in the HIGH state, becomes LOW with the third pulse, and the counter 40 is cleared by latching the LOW of the A, B, C, and D terminal inputs with the fourth pulse, and the O of the decoder 41 is cleared. terminal output
Set it to LOW and set the LD terminal output of counter 40 to HIGH.
Make it. In this way, the output from the gate 43 occurs at the fourth pulse, so 1/4 of the basic number of coins to be paid out,
That is, three coins are paid out.

As the payout means, those normally used for paying out coins in gaming machines can be used, and among these, one having a combination of a hopper and a micro switch is preferable. This is because the hopper motor M (see Fig. 3) rotates due to the operation of the dispensing switch.
The number of coins paid out is counted by a micro switch (corresponding to the payout coin counter 30 in FIG. 3), and when the content of the payout counter reaches zero, the hopper motor is stopped.

As described above, the electric slot machine of the present invention can select several levels of reel rotation speed, and even for the same winning symbol combination, the number of payouts can vary depending on the reel rotation speed. It is something. For example, if the reel rotation speed is divided into four stages, and the lowest speed is 1 times the basic payout number and the 2nd to 4th speeds are 2 to 4 times each, then when the lowest speed is selected according to the player's skill, the In the case of high-speed rotation, 4 times as many coins are paid out.

In this way, when using the electric slot machine of the present invention, the player can select a reel rotation speed that is comfortable for the player to play, and the player's intentions can be incorporated into the slot machine game, which has conventionally been largely left to the machines. Therefore, the game quality of the slot machine can be further enhanced, and since the payout magnification is changed according to the rotational speed of the reels, the game quality can be further enhanced.

Note that the reel rotation speed may be configured so that it can be changed for each reel, or it may be configured so that the reel rotation speed can be changed even during the game.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the function realizing means of the slot machine of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the function realizing means when a microcomputer is used in the slot machine of the present invention, and FIG. FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic block diagrams of an embodiment of an electronic circuit used in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and FIGS. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a program for operating the apparatus of the embodiment, FIG. 8 is a stepping motor excitation pattern diagram used in the embodiment shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a bit pattern diagram showing the state of the selection switch used in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 10 is a flowchart of another embodiment of the program for operating the embodiment shown in FIG. FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram of a frequency dividing circuit used in the payout number determining means in the present invention. (Main symbols in the drawing), 1, 2, 3: Reel, 4,
5, 6: stepping motor, 7, 8, 9: reference position detector for reel symbols, 10: symbol detection means, 11, 12, 13: reel stop switch, 1
4: Design combination determination means, 20: CPU, 21:
ROM, 22: RAM, 24: Input port, 2
5: Output port, 30: Payout coin counter, 3
1: Dispensing switch, 32: Dispensing hopper motor,
33: rotary switch, 34: variable resistor,
a: Reel rotation speed selection switch, b: Step interval determining means, c: Driver means, d: Payout number determining means, e: Payout means, f: Discriminator, g:
timer, h: driver section, i: drive counter, j: magnification determining means, k: magnification counter, l:
Arithmetic unit, m: payout counter.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A stepping motor rotates a plurality of reels, a stop switch is activated to stop the reels, and a combination of symbols on each reel is detected, and the combination is a specific symbol combination. An electric slot machine that determines whether or not the reel rotation speed is the same and pays out a predetermined number of coins only if the combination is a specific combination, and (a) allows the player to arbitrarily switch and adjust the rotation speed of the reels to select the rotation speed of the reels. (b) determining the step interval of the basic clock signal for excitation of the stepping motor by inputting the signal from the selection switch, and determining the step interval of the basic clock signal for exciting the stepping motor; (c) driver means for driving the stepping motor at a selected speed based on the basic clock signal emitted by said means (b); (d) means for driving the stepping motor at a selected speed; means for determining the number of coins to be paid out by multiplying the payout rate set according to the input signal from the selection switch by the basic number of coins to be paid out that is unique to the combination of the specific symbols only when the combination is specific; ) An electric slot machine characterized by having means for paying out a number of coins according to the output of the payout number determining means.