DE2235417A1 - GAMING MACHINE - Google Patents

Description

014-19.O7OP (19.O71H) 19-7 · 1972

Barcrest Limited, Dukin-fiejd (Cheshire), UK

Gambling machine

The invention relates to a gaming machine, especially ' special a so-called "fruit machine".

In such machines, multiple disks or drums, usually three or four, are independent of one another rotatable, usually around a common axis, the drums or disks have symbols on their circumference, of which at least one on each drum or disc is visible through one or more windows when di, e disc or drum stands still; usually three symbols are visible on each disc or drum through the window,

044- (6788) -HdBk

After inserting a coin or a token, the several drums or discs are set in rotation, either automatically or manually by actuating a starter device or a starter switch The rotating discs or drums are stopped automatically or by themselves, usually one after the other, however, on some machines, the player can exercise some control by using "stop" devices or -Switch actuated. A "stop" or "restart" facility may also be provided.

Certain combinations of symbols that are visible after the drums or discs have stopped constitute winning combinations so that the machine pays out either coins or tokens, or the winnings in a credit meter registered; In some cases, the withdrawal of coins or tokens can be triggered by pressing a collect button.

It is now the object of the invention to provide an improved such To create machine or the like, the relative position of the movable members at a standstill of importance is.

The machine according to the invention has several rotatable wheels,

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means for rotating the wheels, a light source for each wheel, several light-sensitive means for each Wheel, each wheel having a portion rotatable therewith, which is provided with means for controlling the transmission of light is provided from the corresponding light source to the associated photosensitive devices, so that the location of the corresponding part determines which of these devices receives light from the source, and a device for Linking the electrical signals from these devices to other signals depending on the rest positions of the To produce wheels.

The invention is explained in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which one embodiment of the gambling machine according to the invention is shown. Show in detail:

Pig. 1 a fruit machine »

2 shows the arrangement of the drums in this fruit machine, three drums being provided

Fig. J5 the position of a light source and light sensitive Devices in the arrangement of Fig. 2j

FIG. K is a diagram for explaining the interconnection of the photocells from FIG. 2 in a logic circuit.

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Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the arrangement of an associated Programmer is evident;

FIG. 6 shows the programmer from FIG. 5 in greater detail; FIG. and

7 shows the programmer of another exemplary embodiment the fruit machine.

The fruit machine shown in Fig. 1 has a housing 1 which can accommodate the mechanics of the machine. The mechanism comprises several drums, in the embodiment to be described here three, which will be explained in more detail below. The drums are coaxial with their axes, horizontally and parallel to the front of the machine. Part of each drum can be observed through a window 2 on the front of the machine. A slot *> is provided for inserting coins or tokens. "Several push buttons or buttons such as 4 are also provided at the front of the machine to the respective drums anzuha ¹ th to lift such a stopping or trigger the issuance of coins or tokens What is well known per se for such machines: The winning coins or tokens are issued at an opening 5 on the front of the machine, where the opening 5 is provided specifically for this purpose.

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The three drums of the fruit machine are shown in FIG 10, 11 and 12 and with peripheral parts 13, 1.4 or 15, on which at an even angular distance Symbols as at 16 are present. These symbols are visible through window 2 (Fig. 1). The drums that normally are closely arranged, are located behind the window 2 and have a device (not shown) of known structure to start the drums or to rotate around their axis of rotation at 17 after inserting a coin or circulate a mark and stop one after the other.

The drum 10 is assigned a light source 18, which can be an infrared source, as well as five light-sensitive cells 19 to 2J>. In each defined rest position, the drum has holes through which light from the source 18 can fall onto selected cells 19 to 2j5. In this exemplary embodiment of the invention, it is sufficient to provide holes for only two of the possible positions, namely at 24 and 25. A light source and a group of five photocells are similarly assigned to each drum.

A front sectional view of one of the drums is shown in Fig. ^. It can be seen that holes 24 and 25 are similarly distributed around the drum so that each time when the drum comes to a standstill, two of the five cells are 19> lit to 2 ~ *, wherein the specially illuminated

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Photocells are linked to the symbol or display the symbol, which then appears in window 2.

In each defined rest position, the combination of the illuminated cells shows the symbol that is then visible in the window at. For the sake of clarity, the drawing shows the holes and photocells arranged radially to the drum. however, in practice it is more expedient to arrange them nested in one another or in a honeycomb-like manner. In the present Embodiment, the invention are the photocells from Photo-resistor type, although the circuits discussed below also easily relate to the use of photoelectric Cells can be matched. It will be found, however, that the use of photoresistor cells is simple and expedient execution.

The signals emitted by the cells are used to determine whether the exposed combination of symbols is a winning combination. A method of arranging the cells for this purpose is shown in Fig. "*> Assume that there are ten symbols, labeled A through K, and three drums.

Some kind of binary coding is used in the coding system; of the 3? Codes generated by five bits of information

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are ten codes due to the occurrence of only two Information bits are defined as follows:

Symbol bits ₄ A BC D

F ■

The cells are interconnected as shown in Fig. 4, where the cells assigned to the first drum are identified as A3 to A5, those of the second drum as B] to B5 and those of the third drum as "Cl to C5. The cells Al, Bl and Cl are connected in series to a power supply, and this series circuit is in turn parallel to the input of certain of ten AND gates Gl to GlO. The other cells, which are connected similarly, are connected to the inputs of other of the logic elements.

2 * O . 2 ² 2 ¹ 1 O O O Ί 1 O 1 1 0 1 O O O 0 1 1 O O 0 0 O 3 3 1 0 O O .0 1 0 1 3
O 0 1 . 0
0 O
1 1 1
1 0
I.
0 0 1 Q 0

/ DB79

A special winning combination is then given by an output signal represented by one of the linking members, and the corresponding credit operation or coin or token dispensing mechanism is operated.

Although this system may require one more detector cell than a simple four-cell BinSr coding system the decoding of each winning combination can be done by logic gates with only two inputs, while when using a four-bit code, linkage terms with three entrances would be required.

The arrangement described can easily be modified to meet other requirements of winning combinations, for example a low value combination where a symbol appears only on a special drum and for other shapes of winning combinations.

Another arrangement, responsive to the cell output signals to indicate winning combinations, is shown in FIG. pictured. This system has the advantage of allowing adaptation to a change in winning combinations, and to make the arrangement more versatile by deriving an output signal from each drum, which is any of their, for example, 20 rest positions instead of the displayed symbol.

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In this arrangement, however, it is not possible to provide two and only two holes in the drum to two of the to illuminate five light-sensitive devices. As shown above, this can only be ten different Lead output signal combinations. Therefore, a different number of holes are used in this arrangement, wherein the only requirement is that a different combination be available for each of the 20th rest positions.

The cells A1 to A5 of the first drum are with the five parallel inputs of a decoding unit DUl connected, which has 20 parallel outputs. So there is a signal on one of the output lines according to the rest position of the drum. Though different "arrangements of links can be used, the unit can for example Have 20 NAND gates with three inputs. The cells B1 to B5 are with a similar decoding unit DU2 and the Cells C1 through C5 with a similar linker unit YOU? tied together. An output signal occurs at an output only from each linking unit when the drums are stationary.

The output signals of the logic units are in Inputs from actually three different switchboards PB1, PB2 and PB ^ fed. These switchboards each have

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wells several parallel outputs, the number of which can vary, but which, for example, have an output accordingly may have any symbol on the associated drum; in the present embodiment are for example 15 such outputs are provided.

The output signals from the switchboards PBl. PB? and PB ^ are fed into a coincidence unit CU can consist of 15 NAND gates with three inputs, e.g. to indicate when the same symbol is on all three drums occurs, or any other desired combination of symbols appears.

By changing or replacing the switchboards PB1, PB2 and PB3, the desired winning combinations can be easily achieved can be selected so that a machine is created which can easily be adapted to a wide variety of requirements.

The manner in which this can be done is indicated in FIG. It is assumed, for example, that positions 1, 10 and 18 are all positions in which an orange can be seen in window 2, the outputs from DU1 correspond! these positions are connected to one another and to one input of a logic element 51 with three inputs. Similar if the positions ~ *> and 12 are also the

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second drum correspond to the positions in which an orange can be seen in the window, the outputs of DU2 correspond accordingly these positions are connected to one another and to another input of the logic element 51. Similar are when the positions 4, 1 * 5 and 36 on the third Drum positions correspond to those in which an orange is shown in the window, the outputs from DIT3 correspond to these Positions connected to one another and to the third input of the linking element 51, This means that every time three oranges appear in window 2, logic element 51 emits an output signal, and this output on line 52 is used to

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Triggering a mechanism 53 * that has a price of e.g. ten Records or pays units,

Similar if the positions 9 and 3 are 4 on the first Drum correspond to the positions in which an apple can be seen in the window, the lines of DUl correspond to these Positions with one another and with an input of a linking element 54 connected to three inputs. Similarly, if the positions for the apple are positions 3 and 16 on the Drum 2, then the corresponding lines are connected to one another and to a further input of the linking element 54. Similarly for the third drum, if the positions for the apple are positions 8 and 12, the lines are

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according to these positions with each other and with the third input of the logic element *; 54 connected. if So the machine shows three apples in window 2, the logic element 54 is energized, and the output signal on a mechanism 56 is used on the line 45 for triggering, that records or pays out a price of e.g. 20 units. It can be seen that such an arrangement Can be expanded to include paying out or recording other or similar prizes for any in the Combination of symbols occurring in windows

The embodiment of FIG. 7 represents a compromise between the relatively rigid embodiment of FIG. 4 and the extremely easily modifiable embodiment of FIG. 6. According to FIG. 7, photosensitive devices A, B, C, D and E are each for one of the drums intended. Each is in series with a resistor between a plus 5 V and a minus 5 V line. If no light falls on the photosensitive device, then the connection points between the device and the resistor remain about plus 5 V. However, if light falls on the device, the resistance becomes low and the potential at this connection point drops to zero or below. The connection point is in each case connected to a corresponding logic element 6) to 65, which has three inputs.

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The remaining two inputs of the linking element 6l are connected to the connection point of the corresponding light-sensitive devices which are assigned to the remaining two drums. The same applies to the other four logic elements 62, 63, 64 and 65. The logic element 6l therefore only emits an output signal when all light-sensitive devices A are illuminated; the same applies to the other four logic elements. The outputs of the logic elements 6l to 65 are connected to lines A ^f , B ', C', D'. and E '. The lines A 'and B ^T represent two of the inputs of a logic element 66 with three inputs. The remaining input of the logic element 66 is connected to a line in which signals appear which indicate the cessation of rotation of all drums. In this way, output signals from logic gates such as gate 66 are suppressed until all of the drums have stopped rotating. When the light-sensitive devices A and B for all three drums are illuminated, the logic element 66 emits an output signal which can be used to control the recording or the payment of a prize *, for example, of six units. The lines A 'and C ^f are connected to the inputs of a logic element 67 with three inputs, while the lines A' and B 'are connected to the inputs of a logic element 68 which has three inputs. The third entrance of each of the

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Linking elements is the line F '. So when either the light sensitive devices A and C or A and D are illuminated, the link 67 or 68 is opened and a signal appears at their common output to signal the recording or disbursement of a prize of, for example, 8 units, similarly Three logic elements 69, 70 and 71 with three inputs are connected to lines A ¹ and E ', B' and C 'or B' and D '. In this case, when the corresponding light-sensitive devices are illuminated, a signal occurs at the common output of the three logic elements, and this signal can be used to trigger the recording or disbursement of a price of, for example, 10 units.

It is understood that the invention does not relate to the above disclosed embodiments is limited. The arrangement of the logic elements and logic circuits can can be varied to suit any desired association of symbols and payoff values. It goes without saying that, although the described embodiments are only three Have drums, the invention is not limited to three drums. Furthermore, the invention is applicable to machines which do not have drums, but wheels that are viewed in the direction of their axes.

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Claims (6)

Claims fly gambling machine with several rotating wheels and with a device to set the wheels in rotation, characterized by a light source (18) for each wheel (lj5 to 15), by several light-sensitive devices (19 to 2j5) for each wheel, each Wheel has a non-rotatable part which is provided with means (24, 25) for controlling the transmission of light from the associated light source to the associated light-sensitive devices, so that the position of the corresponding part determines which of the light-sensitive devices receive light from the light source, and by means for combining the electrical signals from the light-sensitive devices in order to generate further signals as a function of the rest positions of the wheels. 2. Machine according to claim 3, characterized in that the light source (l8) is an infrared source. 3. Machine according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that that the further signals for controlling the recording or disbursement of prizes as a function of the rest positions are usable. 2 098S5 / 0979 4. Machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the means for controlling the light transmission have a plurality of holes (24, 25) in the part of the wheels (I ^ to 15), with light being one of the light-sensitive Facilities (19 to 23) reached when one of the holes located between the light source (18) and the photosensitive device. 5. Machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the light-sensitive devices (A ₁ -A ₁ -Bp., C.-Cj.) for each of the drums (13 to 15) with an assigned ^p (DU ₁ ^ DU ₂ , DU ₃ )
associated decoder / are connected, each decoder having a number of outputs which is equal to the number of discrete rest positions of the wheels, and is connected so that an output corresponding to the rest position and a logic connected to the output of the decoder (CU)
or logic circuit / is energized to generate the further signals when predetermined rest positions occur. 6. Machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that five light-sensitive devices (A, B, C, D, E) are provided for each of the wheels (13 to 15) and corresponding ones of the light-sensitive devices with the inputs of five AND gates (6l to 65) are connected, of which predetermined outputs with further AND gates (66 to 71) are connected to the other 209865/0979 Give signals when selected combinations of light-sensitive devices are excited. 209885/0979