GB1414898A - Electronic amusement machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1414898 Indoor games T W CASTLE 17 Jan 1973 [17 Jan 1972] 2444/73 Heading A6H [Also in Division G4] An electronic amusement machine, which may be coin-freed, comprises a plurality of illuminatable displays, e.g. representations of playing cards, a memory containing bits respectively corresponding to the displays, means for addressing the memory in a random or pseudo-random manner to set a bit in the memory, circuit means connected to the memory bits to illuminate the display corresponding to the set bit and means operable by a player to reset a set bit and cancel the corresponding display, a predetermined number of such cancellations being permitted during one game. In the embodiment shown the deposit of a coin in detector 2 initiates a play of the machine via control unit 3. Pulse generators 4, 5 are set into operation, the generators having frequencies of approximately 15Hz and 0.2 Hz respectively, although as they are driven by a fluctuating DC source the time between pulses is not constant. At the start of the play pulse generator 4 cycles address generator 6 to cause momentary illumination of all of the twenty display cards and audio generator 13 is operated to produce a wavering sound to imitate shuffling of the cards. After reception of a pulse from generator 5 the control unit determines whether a vacant memory bit in memory 8 is being addressed and if so stops the generator 4 and sets the vacant memory bit to illuminate the corresponding display. The display may be cancelled within a preset time by the player, the total number of cancellations allowed being ten. When the total number of displayed cards reaches five the pulse generators 4, 5 are deactivated and the machine reset to its initial state. A detector 12 is provided for determining whether predetermined combinations of display cards have been achieved and if so to initiate a free game or the pay out of a prize. A detailed circuit diagram of the machine is shown in Fig. 2 (not reproduced). In a modification (Fig. 3 not shown) a read only memory (ROM) is programmed with a large number of memory bit addresses and is stepped from one address to another by pulse generator (42). Pulse generator (41) and the five bit address generator merely serve to provide the initial momentary allumination of the displays.