AU700667B2

AU700667B2 - Tournament system

Info

Publication number: AU700667B2
Application number: AU27257/95A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Stephen William Byng; Leslie Gerald Gosden
Original assignee: Aristocrat Leisure Industries Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1994-08-15
Filing date: 1995-07-28
Publication date: 1999-01-14
Anticipated expiration: 2015-07-28
Also published as: AU2725795A

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 ARISTOCRAT LEISURE INDUSTRIES PTY LTD ORIGIN AL COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT .0 9 99 0 94*4 9 99 9 99 a *9 a *99 *0*4 9.

49 49.4 9 9 *4 9 09 a o *a Invention Title: Tournamenit system The folowing statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to us:- 2 Introduction The present invention relates generally to slot machines, otherwise known as poker machines, fruit machines or gaming machines and in particular the inven'.ion provides a new slot machine capable of operating in two distinct modes, the first being substantially identical to that of known poker machines and the second being a "tournament" mode whereby the operators of the poker machine may make use of the machine in a tournament mode to run a variety of competitions.

Background of the Invention I In the past, casinos have been known to provide slot machines for periods of free play, however such play has generally been confined to special machines set aside for S 15 this purpose and these machines were not readily switchable be from free playing operation to normal operation. More recent prior art provides slot machine connected to a separate central control system arranged to switch individual slot machines between conventional mode and tournament mode. The proposed invention permits one stand alone machine not connected to a central control system to be used in the .oea bconventional mode and to be changed at will to a tournament mode or back again to the conventional mode with a minimum of time and effort.

25 Summary of the Invention The present invention consists in a slot machine of a type having credit means for crediting a player with a number of games, game initiating means operable by a player to initiate a game on the machine, display means arranged to display a plurality of indicia, combinations of which indicate different game results, award means for crediting the credit means in response to the occurrence of a subset of said combinations of indicia representing a winning game result, payout means to return to the player a payment represented by a credit balance in the credit means and control means arranged to control the operation of the slot 3 machine, the machine being characterized in that the control means is provided with first and second operating modes, the first operating mode being arranged to enable operation of the payout means and to enable the initiating means to operate the machine only when a positive credit balance is present in the credit means and the second mode being arranged to disable the payout means and to enable the initiating means to operate the machine regardless of the credit balance, the slot machine further including switch means connected to the control means and manually operable to cause the control means to switch between the first and second modes.

°Preferrably, the switch means, allows for the manual o 9 selection of options in addition to the mode switching.

These options include, the selection of the time-out-period, "clearing of credit means, as well as initiating the games in each mode.

The switch means is preferrably implemented with a key "switch or other suitable switch but may also make use of the game initiating means instead of or as well as the key switch for mode and option selection.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the control means includes programmable means to program the said sequence of events and a timer means to control the 25 amount of time the control means allows the machine to be in the second mode of operation before time-out is reached by the timer means.

Brief Description of the Drawings An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Fig. 1 illustrates a poker machine according to the present invention; Fig. 2 schematically illustrates the interconnection of the various functional areas of the poker machine of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 illustrates a flow chart of the control sequence of events to switch the poker machine to tournament mode.

Uarrrr~ Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2, typically poker machines include a secure housing 10 in which the control unit 11 and other functional components of the poker machine are mounted, including a coin slot 12 and a coin detector 13 which are provided to enable the player to "purchase" a game or games on the machine, a credit meter 14 to indicate the current credit of the player, the credit being provided either by insertion of coins into the coin slot 12 or as a result of winning games on the machine, one or more game initiation switches 15, a payout device 16 which supplies O• coins to a payout chute 17 at the player's request and in response to the player's credit on the credit meter 14, 1 indicia display means 18 which may comprise a video screen or a plurality of rotatable wheels carrying strips of indicia on their periphery and a jackpot switch 19 which is used among other things to clear the machine after a large jackpot has ra eo been paid manually by casino staff. Some machines are also provided with an additional display means such as a dot 20 matrix display 21 which can be used to display messages to the player relating to his playing options, machine status, e eo mode of operation, or if the machine is not in use it may be employed to display messages to attract players to the machine.

0* In addition, the control means of the machine of the present invention includes a timer means which is used to indicate to the control unit when it is required to switch from tournament mode to normal play mode and vice versa and programmable means 20 which may be programmed to be responsive to a given sequence of events to generate an electronic mode switching signal to the control means, such that the first or second mode of operation is selected by the control means.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the poker machine is a stand alone unit requiring no separate external central control system to switch between operating modes. The poker machine can be switched from the normal operating mode to the tournament mode through the following sequence of events and will now be described with reference to Figure 3; Commencing with the poker machine in an idle state, so that no active games are being played and there are no outstanding credits on the machine, the display means 18 or the additional display means 21, whichever is appropriate, (and shall hereinafter be referred to as the display) would be showing a main screen of the normal play mode. Preferably the one or more game initiation switches 15 are push button type switches. A key and key switch 19, is provided to prevent unauthorised use of the mode changing facility, and when activated causes the display to change to a Show-Data screen having a menu option for selecting the normal play 15 mode of operation or the tournament mode of operation.

o Correspondingly, the game initiation switches 15 are assigned one or more options as indicated on the Show-Data screen.

ooQ Operation of a first of the push button switches 15, will cause the display to change from the Show-Data screen to a 20 tournament screen and operation of a second of the push button switches 15, will then cause the timer 22 to be oeo cleared of any time-out period left from a previous tournament. Operation of a third and fourth of the push button switches 15 will respectively increase or decrease the time-out period. When a time-out period has been chosen, operation of the first of the push button switches 15 will cause the machine to accept the chosen time-out period.

Thereafter the key may be turned and removed from the key switch 19, to leave the machine in tournament mode and ready to play. At this point the timer means 22 is set to start counting at the start of the first play.

The machine controller 11 then commences operating in a mode where the machine can be played with or without inserting coins or adding or deducting credits from the credit meter, but during this tournament mode winning combinations still result in a credit being credited to the credit meter in the normal manner. In all other respects

I

6 during tournament mode the machine operates in its normal manner with the player being able to initiate games and amass credits on the credit meter in the normal way. When the machine detects that the timer 22 is one minute away from the time-out value an alarm is sounded notifying the player that the end of the tournament is near and when the timer 22 has reached the time-out value the machine "freezes" at the end of the current game and cannot then be played again until a member of the casino staff operates the "cancel credit" (or jackpot) key switch 19 (see Fig. 2) to clear the credit meter and reinstate the credit previously held therein. Before S. clearing the credit meter, the casino staff member may assess the value achieved on the credit meter during the tournament mode operation and award prizes to players on the basis of 15 the scores achieved. Once the credit meter has been reinstated to the value which it held prior to the commencement of tournament mode, the machine will once again operate in its normal play mode in which a credit must be held in the machine before initiation of a game can commence and credits are deducted from the credit meter on each play of the machine.

It will be recognized by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is applicable to all kinds of slot machines including video slot machines and slot machines having stepping motor driven or free spinning reel displays.

However, whereas machines having free spinning wheels have return rates determined by the physical placement of indicia on those reels, stepping motor driven reel machines and video machines have return rates determined by the random number generating algorithms in the control unit and the mapping of the numbers so generated to the available display indicia.

Therefore, while the odds of the free spinning reel machines are substantially fixed it is possible to alter the odds in stepping motor driven machines and video machines by running a different selection algorithm and in these machines it is proposed that the odds available during tournament mode would be changed to provide a higher rate of return.

7 Multi-line machines (that is, machines which are capable of examining multiple combinations of indicia on the indicia display 18 when determining winning combinations) can also have their odds altered by "paying" on more than one line (and preferably on all available lines) when the machine is in tournament mode.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, S.e. to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

a.

I

I**

Claims

1. A slot machine of a type having credit means for crediting a player with a number of gaimes, game initiating means operable by a player to initiate a game on the machine, display means arranged to display a plurality of indicia, combinations of which indicate different game results, award means for crediting the credit means in response to the occurrence of a subset of said combinations of indicia representing a winning game result, payout mean-s to return to the player a payment represented by a credit balance in the credit means and control means arranged to control the operation of the slot machine, the machine being characterised in that the control means is provided with first and second operating miodes, the first operating mode being arranged to enable operation of the payout means and to enable the initiating means to operate the machine only when a positive credit balance is present in the credit means and the second mode being arranged to disable the payout means and to enable the initiating means to operate the machine regardless of the credit balance, the slot machine further including switch means connected I:to the control means and manually operable to cause the control means to switch between the first and second modes and timer means to time the period in which the machine remains in the second mode of operation, the timer means being enabled by the switch mean-s and activated by the first operation of the initiating means after being enabled. The slot machines as claimed in claim 1 wherein the switch means allows for the manual selection of options in addition to mode switching.

3. The slot machine of claim 2 wherein the options include the selection of 25 a time-out period.

4. The slot machine of claim 2 wherein the options include clearing of credit means, The slot machine as claimed in any one of claims 1-4 wherein the switch mneanis includes a key operated switch.

6. The slot machine as claimed in any one of claims 1-4 wherein the switch means includes game initiating means.

7. The slot machine as claimed in any one of claims 1-6 wherein the control means includes programmable means to program the said sequence of events. MIFFM 1101 9 8, A slot machine substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this 11th day of November 1998 ARISTOCRAT LEISURE INDUSTRIES PTY LT Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: F.B, RICE CO. S o oe o 4 0 4 o* *4 4 4 4. 44 4 4 6 1 -3 I .^j Abstract The present invention provides a slot machine having two operating modes, the first operating mode being arranged to enable operation of the payout means and to enable the initiating means to operate the machine only when a positive credit balance is present in the credit means and the second mode being arranged to disable the payout means and to enable the initiating means to operate the machine regardless of the credit balance, the slot machine further including switch means connected to the control means and manually operable to I, ,cause the control means to switch between the first and second modes. 4 -POO0 *4 I I