GB2057825A - Apparatus for playing games - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus for playing a game including a portable control device comprising a computer 22, a keyboard (20) input interface 24, a plug-in data storage device such as a ROM 18 and a video input interface 26 for connection to a conventional domestic television receiver. The computer is programmed, e.g. by inserting a programme ROM, to respond in accordance with the rules of the game, to the stored data and coded instruction input via one or more keyboards to generate a video display. Apparatus for playing bridge is described but different games can be played by changing the programme ROM and legends on or associated with the keys of a standard non-encoded keyboard. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION l Apparatus for playing games The invention relates to apparatus for playing and/or learning games, such as card games; especially bridge, which demand an intellectual response.

Intellectual games can be played on computer installation including a video display unit. Indeed, it is common to include one or two games in a programme package, since this has been found helpful for training computer operators. This idea has not, however, been exploited on the consumer market, probably because of the high capital cost of equipment.

In accordance with this invention, I now propose apparatus for playing a game comprising a portable, preferably hand held, control device comprising a computer, a keyboard input interface to the computer, a plug-in or otherwise removable data storage device and a video output interface adapted for connection to a conventional domestic television receiver, the computer being programmed to respond, in accordance with the rules of the games, to the stored data and coded instructions input via the keyboard, to generate a video output signal whereby information pertaining to the game is displayed.

Control units are available which can be used in conjunction with a conventional domestic television receiver but these are restricted to "bat and ball" games which involve manipulating simple analogue controls.

The apparatus of this invention is especially suited for playing card games, particularly bridge and may include one or more separate keyboards whereby different players may insert coded instructions. The keyboard or keyboards may be connected in the apparatus by a cable or may be remote, signals being transmitted to the computer by ultrasonic or radio waves.

One embodiment of apparatus according to this invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of apparatus especially for use as a teaching aid for the game of bridge; Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating the organisation of data representing n-different games of bridge; Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating the organisation of data for each of the n-games represented in Fig. 2; Figure 4 is a plan view of the keyboard unit of Fig. 1; Figures 5 and 6 show typical displays respectively at the end of bidding and during play; and Figures 7 to 11 in sequence together constitute a flow diagram illustrating the se quence of operations performed by the com puter in accordance with it stored programme.

The apparatus shown in Fig. 1 which is especially for use as a teaching aid for the game of bridge constitutes a keyboard unit 10 detachably connected by a simple coaxial ca ble 12 to the aerial socket of a conventional domestic television receiver 14. Bridge hands to be played together with the entire bidding sequence, the order of play, vulnerability, dealer etc, are stored as data in a read only memory (ROM)16 in the form of a plug-in cartridge. About thirty such hands of bridge can be stored in a 2 Kbyte ROM.Another read only memory 1 8 which contains the system programme, for sorting "cards", or ganising the display and accepting input data from the Keyboard 20, is shown separately in the Fig. 1, but may be incorporated in the micro processor unit 22. The keyboard 20 is interfaced via a parallel interface adaptor 24.

A display or video output interface 26, allows coded data stored in given locations within a visual display random access memory 28, to appear as characters or symbols at a particular point of the television screen. The character or symbol codes may contain within them information which allows the display of a given character to appear as one of four colours if a colour television receiver is used.

The software of the preferred embodiment is designed to suit a Motorola MC6800 or similar 8 bit microprocessor. Similarly key board input data is accessed via a MC6820 interface adaptor.

By suitable coding for a given card or bid all bids or cards can be represented by an 8 bit word (byte). In the following "pip" refers to the numerical attribute of a bid or a card and "suit" refers to the non-numerical a::tri- ibute of a bid or a card. e.g.

4NT pip = 4 ; suit = DBL ; pip = O ; suit = DBL pip ; pip = 7 ; suit = spades The byte organisation is as shown below bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 l

pip suit bit 7 is used to designate the winner of a trick.

It is this coding which allows a greatly simplified program and design of the key- board handling software.

In addition to the data appertaining to the cards and bids, two other coded words are required: one word which describes the order in which the suits of dummy's cards are to be displayed. As the four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs) are coded to be repre sented by 2 bits each, this information can be stored in an 8 bit word. The other word holds the information relating to the vulnerability and dealer.

Data is stored in the 2 kbyte ROM 16 which is organised in the manner shown in Fig. 2. The first word contains the number of games stored in that particular ROM, followed by the start addresses of each of the blocks containing the data relating to that particular game.

Game data is organised as shown in Fig. 3.

Assuming on average, three complete rounds of bidding (12 words) there will be 67 bytes of storage for each game i.e. 52 cards, 2 words describing vulnerability etc, 12 bid words, 1 terminator. Thus on a 2 kbyte ROM about 30 games of bridge can be stored.

The user inputs his responses via the keyboard 20 which is a standard non-encoded keyboard. Because of the coding the keyboard can be neatly organised to interface with a standard 2 X 8 bit parallel interface adaptor.

The keys relating to the "pips" and game number fit into a 4 X 4 matrix (A,K,Q,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0), the 16th switch is the "enter" key. Thus depression of one of these characters is registered by the B side of the interface adapter. The A side is devoted to the "suit" data and the "play" key, which allows room for expansion should additional features be considered desirable.

The coding described above allows this extremely efficient use of the keyboard and so simplifies the keyboard handling and encoding routine which occupies fewer than 100 hexadecimal bytes.

The game key is ''RESET''.

The output is a memory mapped VDU consisting of a 16 line X 641 character display.

Thus the display of text or other information involves merely the placing of correctly coded data into the appropriate memory location.

The program can be split broadly into five sections a to e which are illustrated by the flowcharts respectively of Figs. 7 to 1.

The entire program resides in well under 2 kbyte locations.

As explained above, stored in the plug-in ROM cartridge 16 are prearranged hands of bridge in which a preferred bidding sequence and order of play of the cards for all four participants is stored. The user interacts with the display on the screen via a keyboard of which an example is shown in Fig. 4. Initially, the user is requested by means of a message on the screen to enter the game number he wishes to play; a description of the games and expert commentary is given in an associated booklet. This is done by depressing appropriate keys on the keyboard. If the keys depressed do not represent a legitimate game number a request is issued for him to repeat the entry. This dialogue continues until a game number within the range of game numbers stored on the hands cartride has been successfully entered.When this has been accomplished system displays the number of the game to be played, the vulnerability status, the dealer and the user's hand (south) sorted into suits and into descending numerical order. If south is the dealer, the system waits for him to enter a bid, or if one of the others is the dealer his bid is displayed and successively the other player's bid until the bidding reaches south. Whenever it is south's turn to bid a message to that effect appears on the screen. If the user (south) enters the preferred bid via the keyboard, the bid is echoed on the display and bidding proceeds as in a normal game of bridge. If the user enters a nonpreferred bid, a message to that effect is displayed on the screen and the user may go on trying bids until he enters the preferred bid.Alternatively by pressing the key "play" the preferred bid is displayed automatically. (A typical display at this point of the game is shown in Fig. 5.) When the bidding is complete, the user may scrutinise the bidding sequence until he depresses the key "enter" whereupon the bidding sequence is erased from the screen and west's lead appears on the left of the screen followed by a display of north's hand (dummy) arranged in suits and descending numerical order. Simultaneously the final contract and a window with the north/south and east/west tricks won (at this state O 0) is displayed.

The user then enters, via the keyboard, the card to be played from dummy. If it is the preferred card, the selected card appears below the display of dummy's hand and at the same time dummy's hand is reorganised to show the depleted hand again sorted into suits and cards of each suit in descending numerical order. A frame enclosing the cards played depicts the bridge table and serves to differentiate between cards in hand or dummy from those played (see Fig. 6). If the card chosen is not the preferred one, a message to that effect appears on the screen and the user may try other cards repeatedly until he finds the correct card or requests "play" whereupon the preferred card appears automatically. After dummy's card has been selected correctly, east's card appears on the right hand side of the screen and finally the user enters south's card in the manner described before. The trick score is adjusted to show which pair won the trick. A typical display at this point in the game is shown in Fig. 3.

The display is retained on the screen until the user enters a card if it south or north's turn to play or the user depresses the "enter" key if the lead is from either east or west. If the trick was won by north/south a message appears indicating the lead is from hand or dummy. The cards from the previous trick disappear and the lead card is displayed if it has been correctly chosen by the user or appears automatically if the lead is from east or west. Play proceeds in this manner until all thirteen tricks have been played out.

At the termination of the game, the user may select another hand, go over the one he has just played or alternatively by substituing a new cartridge with a new set of hands he may select one of those to play which may illustrate some other aspect of the game of bridge.

in addition to the visual cues and prompts appearing on the screen, auditory cues such as bleeps may accompany the appearance of a message.

The colour interface: 6 bits are sufficient to represent all the alphanumeric data to be displayed i.e.

26 upper case letters 10 digits 4 switcharacters 1 table character 41 characters in total Thus with 6 bits 23 further characters can be displayed. The remaining two bits can be used to indicate one of four colours associated with each character.

1. The simplest coding is to have all alphanumeric information of a fixed colour say white. The background colour green and the four suits characters split into black and red as appropriate. This method requires no change in the program described other than altering the codes for the various letters, characters to include the colour code.

2. The colour of the pip information to be red when describing hearts or diamonds and black when describing clubs or spades. This is achieved by a very small change in the program. The code for the suits is Spades 011 Hearts 010 Clubs 001 Diamonds 000 Thus if bits 2 and 0 of the code word are zero then the colour is red otherwise black.

This is used to set a flag to denote the colour being dealt with and the code of the character is modified accordingly before being transferred to the VDU RAM.

Clearly, apparatus according to this invention may find application other than the teaching of bridge. It can, in fact, be adapted for a wide variety of purposes without the need for corresponding the increase in size and complexity which is necessary with conventional multi-purpose systems. What I propose according to another aspect of the present invention is to provide a keyboard in which the legends on the keys can readily be replaced by others, and to provide with each program package a fresh set of legends appropriate to the subject of the program. For example, when the computing apparatus is to be used for the teaching of bridge or other card games the legends will include the heart, club, diamond and spade devices. The system may further be extended by making the program ROM interchangeable as well as the ROM containing the date. In a preferred embodiment replaceable frames are provided which fit onto or over the keyboard and bear legends in positions corresponding to the key positions.

Claims (9)

1. Apparatus for playing a game, comprising a portable control device comprising a computer, a keyboard input interface to the computer, a plug-in or otherwise removable data storage device and a video output interface adopted for connection to a conventional domestic television receiver, the computer being programmed to respond, in accordance with the rules of the game, to the stored data and coded instructions input via the keyboard, to generate a video output signal whereby information pertaining to the game is displayed.

2. Apparatus according to Claim 1 and comprising a number of separate keyboards whereby different players can insert coded instructions.

3. Apparatus according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the date storage device comprises a Read Only Memory (ROM).

4. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the computer programme is also contained in a removal data storage device.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein the programme storage device comprises a Read Only Memory (ROM).

6. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein the keyboard is adapted such that the legends on the keys can be replaced by others.

7. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6 and comprising a series of interchangeable frames adapted to fit over the keyboard and each bearing in positions corresponding to the key postions, legends appropriate to the particular game to be played.

8. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the game to be played is Bridge.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the programme substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the flow diagrams shown in Figs. 7 to 11 of the accompanying drawings.

1 0. Apparatus for playing a game, constructed and arranged substantially as described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.