GB2210489A

GB2210489A - Gaming machine

Info

Publication number: GB2210489A
Application number: GB8822130A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Daniel Alan Tracy
Original assignee: Ainsworth Nominees Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Ainsworth Nominees Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1987-09-25
Filing date: 1988-09-20
Publication date: 1989-06-07
Also published as: FR2621154A1; GB8822130D0; JPH01153181A; NL8802281A; DE3832384A1; ES2012852A6

Description

POKER MACHINE J U, 4 The present invention relates generally to poker

machines, otherwise known as fruit machines or slot machines, and in particular the invention provides an improved poker machine wherein the number of winning combinations provided may be increased over conventional machines without changing the number of symbols per reel, and the number of reels provided on the machine.

The present invention consists in a poker machine having display means arranged to simultaneously display a plurality of indicia selected from a set of possibie indicia and random selection means arranged to select the indicia to be displayed on said display means from said set of indicia, the random selection means including random number generation means arranged to produce one random number for each indicia display position in the display means, a first look up table defining a first set of displayable indicia for each indicia display position, each indicia in the first table being associated with a respective random number within the range of random nimbers able to be produced by the random number generator means, a second look up table defining a set of displayable indicia for each indicia display position and each indicia of the second-look-up table also being associated with a respective one of the possible numbers produced by the random number generator means, selection means arranged to select between the first and second lock-up tables as the table to be used for a given game on the machine.

In preferred embodiments of the invention the sets of indicia provided in the first an second look-up tables are selected to produce different average player returns and the weighting of the table selection means is programmable to enable variations in the overall return of the machine to be achieved without altering the artwork of the machine, the available pay combinationsi or the 2 contents of the first and second tables.

In different embodiments of the machine the selection means may be arranged to provide a weighted or unweighted random selection or alternatively the selection might be changed after a given period.of time or a given number of games.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 illustrates first and second look-up tables for looking up reel symbols to be displayed for a given random number, or result, produced by a random number generator, Figure 2 provides a flow chart for the main controller of a poker machine according to the present invention; Figure 3 illustrates a flow chart for a display mechanism controller of the preferred embodiment; and Figure 4 schematically illustrates a reel strip for a first reel of a poker machine according to the present invention.

Referring to Figure 2, in a poker machine according to the present invention a random number generator 10 is.continuously operational while the poker machine is running, such that when a player operates the game starting switch 11, a set of random numbers are chosen 12, with one number being chosen for each reel of the machine. It will be noted that in the preferred embodiment of the invention the poker machine display is provided by a plurality of stepper. motor driven reels each carrying a strip of indicia such that rotation and subsequent stopping of the reel leaves one of the indicia positioned in a window, this indicia being one of the selection of indicia which are used to determine the game result. A table selection 13 is then made to determine 3 which of the first and second tables (tables A and B in Figure 1) are to be used to determine the reel symbols to be displayed. Having chosen a table, the random numbers generated by the random number generator are then converted 14 to symbol codes in accordance with the selected one of tables A and B of Figure 1 and the symbol codes are then transmitted 15 to the stepper mechanism controller which controls the spinning of the reels. The main machine controller then waits for acknowledgement 16 that the spinning of the reels has been completed and hen proceeds to make a pay 17, if required by the occurrence of a winning combination of reel positions.

Referring now to Figure 3, the reel mechanism controller receives 21 the symbol codes selected by the main controller, commences spinning of the reels 22 by initiating stepping of the respective stepping motors, waits for the index position of each reel to pass the datum point 23 and then applies to each reel the number of pulses required to bring the reel to a stop at the respective selected symbol number or position 24. The procedure of stepping the reels is then continued until all reels have reached their required indicia position and stopped, at which time the cycle is completed 25 causing a reel-stopped signal to be sent 26 to the main controller.

The main controller holds information on the sequence of symbols on each reel strip, as illustrated in Pigure 4, the number on the left of each symbol showing the number of steps required by the mechanism controller to step the reel from the index position to any given symbol number.

While the present invention has been described for poker machines having stepping motor driven reel displays, it will be recognised that video displays or any other display having the capability to display a selected symbol or indicia may equally make use of the invention as described.

4 Various methods may be used to select between the first and second tables, including the following:(a) fixed equal time periods for each table (or a fixed number of games to change over) (b) equal time (or games) In each table, but choose table "A" or table "B" at random (c) random time from one switching to the next (or random number of games) Having two tables instead of one doubles the possibilities from which jackpots can be calculated. This scheme also offers other advant.ages not possible with a single table machine. Even if each of the tables pay the same percentage, the characteristics of the machine could be varied by providing more, frequently occurring, small pays in one table compared with another. However, a more attractive concept is the use of tables of unequal return percentage, such as those illustrated in Figure 1 where table A has a theoretical return of 80% and table B which has no jackpot but due to frequently occurring small pays gives a theoretical return of 90%. If selection between tables A and B of figure 1 was truly random the machine would return an average 8% to the player even though there would be times when one or other of the tables would be chosen successively.

The time or number of games before changing from one table to the other will preferably be controlled by a plug-in circuit board or module, thereby allowing a manufacturer to send the same machine to markets requiring different percentages of revenue from machines without having to change combinations or artwork, nor re-write-the program, simply by using different modules which provided different weightings to the selection of the first and second tables. it will be recognised by persons skilled in Che art that numerous variations and modifications may be made to - the invention as described above without departing from 1 the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described.

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Claims

CLAIYS:1. A poker machine having display means arranged to simultaneously.

display in a set of display positions a plurality of indicia selected from a set of possible indicia and random selection means arranged to select the indicia to be displayed on said display means from said set of indicia, the random selection means including random number generation means arranged to produce one random number for each indicia display position in the display means, a first look up table definin a first set of displayable indicia for each indicia display position, each indicia in the first table being associated with a respective random number within the range of random numbers able to be produced by the random number generator means, a second look up table defining a set of displayable indicia for each indicia display position and each indicia of the second look-up table also being associated with a respective one of the possible numbers produced by the random number generator means, selection means arranged to select between the first and second look-up tables as the table to be used for a given game on the machine.
2. The poker machine of claim 1 wherein the sets of indicia on the first and second look-up tables are selected to produce different average player returns.
3. The poker machine of claim 2 wherein the selection means randomly alternates between the first and second look-up tables to produce an overall average player return between those which would result if look-up table 1 or look- up table 2 alone were used.
4. The poker machine of claim 3 wherein the random selection of table 1 or table 2 is weighted to produce a specific overall average player return.
5. The poker machine of claim 4 wherein the weighting is variable to enable variations in the overall return of the machine without having to alter the design of the machine or it's artwork.

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6. The poker machine of claim 2 wherein the selection means is arranged to change the selected look-up table after a predetermined number of games.
7. The poker machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein the selection means is arranged to change the selected look-up table after a predetermined period of time.
8. The poker machine according to any one of the preceding claims wherein one of the look-up tables is designed to result in a large number of relatively small payouts while the other is clesigned to result in,a relatively small number of large payouts.
9. A poker machine substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

A Published 1988 at The Patent Office. State House. 66 71 High Holborn. London WC 1R 4TP. Puxther copies may be obtained from The Patent Offi,e.

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