JP2002000927A - Game ball housing box - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To give a shape advantageous for a player to a game ball housing box. SOLUTION: A box-shaped game ball housing box with an opening part on one surface thereof has a truncated pyramid-shaped side having an apex in the direction opposite to the opening part and an internal bottom surface which is formed roughly in the shape of a truncated pyramid having an apex in the direction of the opening part to counter the opening part. Members making up the respective surfaces are formed almost evenly in the thickness thereof.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gaming machine, and more particularly to a pachinko ball storage case, and more particularly to a game ball storage box for preventing sound when a ball is dropped and preventing uneven stacking.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a case for storing game balls has only a structure capable of being stacked like a shopping basket in a supermarket, and prevents noise when transferring game balls from a game machine. At that time, just by operating the ball pull lever, the game balls discharged from the lower plate of the gaming machine are placed in the storage case like tap water is poured into the storage box from the lower plate of the game machine. Nothing was devised to be housed flat.

[0003]

In the conventional game ball storage box, when the game balls are transferred from the lower plate of the pachinko machine, the dropped game balls are discharged inside the storage box while suppressing the noise. It was usual that a mountain-like deposit immediately below. For this reason, the actual situation was that the player was able to uniformly and fully store the pile in the storage box while breaking the piles piled up with his hands. In this case, usually, the right hand of the player operates the opening / closing operation of the discharge port (operates the ball extraction lever), and the left hand performs the operation of flattening or leveling the game balls in the storage box. Operation was forced. Such work is
Occurs during special games that are advantageous to the player, and also during special games that are time-limited, and in some cases, when this advantageous situation cannot be used satisfactorily by the player Had occurred many times.

Further, when the game ball falls from the lower plate of the pachinko machine, it directly impacts the bottom surface of the storage box, and the shock propagates from the bottom surface of the storage box to the mounting table, generating loud noise. .

[0005] It is an object of the present invention to discharge and collect in a lower plate in order to make it possible for a player to make effective use of the advantageous situation or to concentrate on the game at all in a game situation that is advantageous to the player. When transferring a game ball to the game ball storage box, it prevents the game balls from accumulating in the storage box in a mountain shape, and reduces the labor and concern for the player in depositing the game ball inside the storage box. Another object of the present invention is to provide a game ball storage box or a member for the storage box, which simultaneously reduces noise when dropped.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a storage box that allows a game ball to be transferred to a storage box with only one left hand as much as possible.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a box-shaped game ball storage box having an opening on one surface and having a vertex in a direction opposite to the opening is provided. A side surface of a truncated quadrangular pyramid having, and an inner bottom surface opposing the opening formed in a substantially quadrangular pyramid shape having an apex in the opening direction, the thickness of a member constituting each surface The thickness was formed almost uniformly. Further, the inner bottom surface of the substantially quadrangular pyramid shape has a shape in which the apex angle of each of the opposing surfaces of the four surfaces including the apex of the quadrangular pyramid includes 120 degrees or more.

A box-shaped game ball storage box having an opening on one surface, a truncated quadrangular pyramid side having an apex in a direction opposite to the opening, Formed in the shape of a substantially quadrangular pyramid having an apex, the inner bottom surface having a portion opposing the opening, the inclination of each surface including the apex of the substantially quadrangular pyramid with the vertical line at the center of the bottom surface An inner bottom surface having a shape that is large in inverse proportion to the distance,
And the thicknesses of the members constituting the respective surfaces were formed substantially uniformly.

Further, in a box-shaped game ball storage box having an opening on one surface, an elastic member for reducing an impact, which is a member added to an inner surface opposed to the opening, is formed in a substantially quadrangular pyramid shape. The storage member was provided, and the apex of the member was disposed on the inner bottom surface of the storage box with the top of the member facing the opening of the storage box. The substantially quadrangular pyramid-shaped member has a vertex angle of each of four opposing surfaces including a vertex of the quadrangular pyramid of 120.
It was more than including the degree.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. However, description of the gaming machine itself is omitted. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the present invention, and is a diagram of a pachinko machine viewed from a side. The relationship between the lower plate of the gaming machine and the gaming ball storage box is shown. The game balls obtained by the player during the game are discharged to a ball supply plate (not shown) called an upper plate. The game balls in the ball supply tray can be transferred to a lower plate provided below the ball by operating a ball removal lever or a ball removal button. When game balls overflow in the lower plate, they are transferred to a game ball storage box that can be carried around. At this time, a ball removal lever (button) attached to the lower plate shown in FIG.
When the is operated, the game ball is moved from a game ball discharge port provided at a lower portion thereof into a game ball storage box placed by a player. At this time, usually, the right hand of the player operates the ball-drawing lever (button), and on the left, the operation of leveling the game balls accumulated in the game ball storage box or the amount of the discharged game balls. Will be engaged in the task of knowing by hand. However, many of such situations are often advantageous to the player, and the right hand of the player must originally operate the steering wheel to fire a game ball.

The game ball storage box shown in FIG. 1 is usually an "island".
2 shows a situation where the camera is placed on a mounting table provided in.
A spare game ball storage box or the like is placed on the mounting table.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing the relationship between the lower plate of the game board of FIG. 1 and the game ball storage box placed on the mounting table. When a ball-drawing lever (button) is operated on a game ball in the lower plate of the game board, a discharge port provided at a lower portion inside the lower plate is opened, and the game ball falls downward. At this time, the iron game ball is heavy, collides with the inner bottom surface of the game ball storage box, transmits the impact to the mounting table, and generates loud noise. The dropped game balls receive a small amount of potential energy due to the short fall distance, and they are heavy, so they do not bounce around in the storage box and tend to pile up in the vicinity immediately below. is there. In particular, when the game balls further accumulate on the top of the accumulated game balls, they enter between the accumulated game balls and form a positionally stable state in which the game balls are densely packed in the closed space. This is shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a simplified drawing, and is not a side view of an actual game ball in a stacked state. The game balls stacked on the upper portion are located at the center of the game balls forming three equilateral triangles when the diagram shown in the upper part of FIG. 7 is viewed from above. There are three points of contact of the lower game ball in contact with the game ball located at the center, and the plane including the three points is parallel to the plane on which the lowermost game ball is placed. is there.

Here, when three game balls are arranged in a triangular shape on a horizontal plane, and a game ball is further placed at the center thereof, the height of the center of the upper game ball from the horizontal plane is defined as a radius of 1 for the game ball. Then, it becomes 2.6329. When the upper game ball is moved, the plane including the center of the game ball and the center of the lower two game balls becomes a vertical plane, and when the three centers become equilateral triangles, The height of the game ball is 1 + 1.73
20 = 2.7320. When the upper game ball is located directly above the lower game ball, the center height of the upper game ball becomes 3.0000. From here, when the game balls move on the game balls densely arranged on the plane, the vertical movement thereof is at least 2.7320-2.6329 = 1 when the radius is 1.
0.0991, up to 3.0000-2.6329 =
0.3671. Once the height of the game ball is 2.6
It is understood that it is necessary to overcome the above-mentioned distance (height) when moving from 329 to another place. FIG. 7 is a simplified illustration of the movement of such a game ball. The upper part of FIG. 7 illustrates a state in which game balls are stacked in a horizontal plane. The middle part shows a case where the plane is inclined at 30 degrees from the horizontal plane. Is inclined by 15 degrees. From this, it can be understood that when the plane on which the game balls are placed becomes 30 degrees, the height over which the stacked game balls get over when moving is zero. This value of zero indicates that the highest value described above is zero. Further, although not practical, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between the height at which the disks stacked on each other as shown in FIG. This chart shows a tendency that is almost the same as the tendency of the maximum value that must be overcome by the game ball instead of the disk. From here, the surface on which the game balls are stacked is 15
It will be understood that the degree of inclination requires about one third of the height to be overcome as compared with the horizontal plane.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a first embodiment of the present invention, and is a perspective view of a game ball storage box having a characteristic bottom shape. This bottom shape is such that when placed on the mounting table shown in FIG. 1, a substantially linear portion around the bottom surface contacts the mounting table,
Most of the bottom outer surface of the box is shaped so as not to contact the surface of the mounting table. The member is preferably made of a material such as vinyl chloride, which has some elasticity or deforms when a force is applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface. For such materials,
This is because when the game ball falls from above, it undergoes some deformation to absorb the impact. This is because even if such deformation occurs, the surface of the box itself or the line on which the box is in contact with the mounting table is not substantially deformed, and does not affect the function of accommodating game balls or the performance itself.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, since the inner bottom surface of the box forms a quadrangular pyramid, the game ball dropped from above
At first, it rolls around the inside of the box and does not accumulate below the drop. And some game balls fall,
Even when the game balls are arranged on almost the entire bottom of the box, even when the game balls enter the upper part of the depression formed by the plurality of game balls arranged side by side on the bottom surface, the bottom surface has a slope. Therefore, compared to the case where the bottom surface is a horizontal plane, when the game ball enters the depression, the lower game ball 3
Since the three planes supported by the individual are inclined and the amount of upward movement when moving horizontally therefrom is small, the advantage is that the game balls can be scattered around the storage box relatively easily. is there.

Normally, the game ball storage box has a rectangular shape when viewed from above. Therefore, when the bottom inside the box is a quadrangular pyramid, the angle formed by the horizontal plane of the bottom surface forming the quadrangular pyramid extending to the long side of the box and the square water extending to the short side of the box are formed. The angle between the bottom surface and the horizontal plane is different. The former angle is large and the latter angle is small. From the foregoing, it is desirable that these angles be in the range of about 30 degrees to about 15 degrees. When the box shape viewed from above is square, it is possible to make both angles the same, but in the case of a rectangular shape, it is impossible to make both angles the same, depending on the ratio. It is. In the case of a rectangular shape, the bottom shape inside the box can be made into a gable roof shape, but in this case, the effect of scattered game balls inside the box is lost.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a preferred shape of the bottom surface of the game ball storage box. The top is a triangular pyramid with a vertex at the center, the middle is a quadrangular pyramid with a large slope at the center, the periphery is a quadrangular pyramid with the same slope as the top, and the bottom is a middle pyramid. The two inclined surfaces shown in FIG. 3 are linearly changing quadratic curved surfaces. The two proposals excluding the upper stage are based on the premise that the central part of the storage box is located immediately below the discharge port of the lower plate of the game ball, and have a shape that enhances the effect of preventing the game ball from accumulating immediately below the discharge port. It was done.

The angle of the slope of the quadrangular pyramid of the storage box shown in FIG. 3 with respect to the horizontal is, as described above, 30 degrees to 15 degrees.
Degree is desirable. When it is set to the apex angle, it becomes 120 degrees to 150 degrees.

In the first embodiment, the game balls are stacked while shifting the vertical position (height) of each of the stacked game balls, and the game balls move on the upper surface of the stacked game balls. It's easier. Therefore, the game balls dropped from the lower plate of the gaming machine are scattered in the peripheral direction in the storage box, and do not accumulate in a mountain-like shape immediately below the fall, so that even if the player does not attach a hand, it can be compared with the conventional method. As a result, many game balls can be accommodated in the storage box without overflowing. In addition, when transferring game balls from the lower plate of the gaming machine to the storage box, the conventionally required labor of the player can be reduced. Further, since the inner bottom surface shape and the outer bottom surface shape of the storage box are also quadrangular pyramid shapes, it is possible to stack storage boxes as in the conventional case.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment in which the above-described effects are added to a conventional game ball storage box by adding an adapter. FIG. 6 shows the appearance of the adapter to be added. As shown in FIG. 6, a suction cup for fixing the adapter to the inside bottom surface of the game ball storage box is provided at the center of the bottom surface of the quadrangular pyramid having the shape of a quadrangular pyramid. Therefore, when the adapter is pressed against the bottom inside the game ball storage box with the apex of the quadrangular pyramid facing upward, the suction cup is attracted to the inside bottom, and the adapter bottom and the box bottom come into contact.
In this case, a condition is that the bottom surface of the storage box to be applied is a flat surface. It must also be mirror-finished.
By using a flexible material as the material of this adapter, the impact given by the dropped game ball is absorbed, and the occurrence of a hitting sound is reduced. Also, by using a quadrangular pyramid, game balls falling from above near the apex are scattered around the inside of the storage box. The angle of the slope of the adapter shown in FIG. 6 with the horizontal is desirably about 30 to 15 degrees as described above.
When it is set to the apex angle, it becomes 120 degrees to 150 degrees.

The effect of the second embodiment is similar to the effect of the first embodiment. However, it is possible to stack storage boxes because the external shape of the storage box is unchanged and the internal shape is changed, but the height of the adapter is added in the height direction, and when the same number is stacked, the height is increased. Has the disadvantage that it increases. In addition, there is also a disadvantage that the number of game balls that can be accommodated in the related art is slightly reduced.

In the first embodiment, the number of game balls accommodated in the first embodiment is to solve the problem of the number of game balls by slightly increasing the entire shape of the square pyramid instead of the bottom. Is possible.

In the first embodiment, since the bottom surface of the storage box is not in direct contact with the mounting table, a buffering effect can be expected due to the vertical movement of the portion in the first embodiment.
In addition, since the impact is not directly applied to the mounting table, it has an effect of reducing noise. Further, in the second embodiment, since it is possible to use a flexible material, there is an effect of reducing the impact of a game ball falling at this portion.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the problem in the conventional method, the noise generated when a game ball is dropped, is reduced, and the game ball is dropped from the lower plate of the game machine to the game ball storage box. In addition, there is an effect that the falling game balls are scattered around the inside of the storage box, and therefore, the labor of the player when transferring the game balls from the lower plate of the gaming machine to the game ball storage box can be reduced. . Therefore, the player can effectively utilize the advantageous situation without waste.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a relationship between a gaming machine, a mounting table on which a game ball storage box is placed, and a game ball storage box.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the first embodiment of the present invention, and is a perspective view of a game ball storage box having a distinctive bottom shape.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a bottom surface shape in FIG. 3, showing a shape having an advantageous effect.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a second embodiment of the present invention, in which an adapter according to the present invention is added inside a conventional storage box.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a shape of an adapter according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a state of stacking game balls.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between the size of the unevenness when the game balls move on the upper surface of the stacked game balls and the inclination of the lower plane.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 gaming machine 101 gaming machine lower plate 110 mounting table 200 gaming ball storage box 300 adapter 301 sucker

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A box-shaped game ball storage box having an opening on one surface, a truncated quadrangular pyramid-shaped side surface having a vertex in a direction opposite to the opening, and the opening direction. An inner bottom surface opposed to the opening, formed in a substantially quadrangular pyramid shape having a vertex, and wherein the thickness of members constituting each surface is formed substantially uniform. Game ball storage box. 2. The quadrangular pyramid-shaped inner bottom surface has an apex angle of one opposing surface of each of four surfaces including a vertex of the quadrangular pyramid.
The game ball storage box according to claim 1, wherein the game ball storage box has a shape of an angle including 20 degrees or more. 3. A box-shaped game ball storage box having an opening on one surface, a truncated quadrangular pyramid-shaped side surface having a vertex in a direction opposite to the opening, and the opening direction. Formed in the shape of a substantially quadrangular pyramid having an apex, the inner bottom surface having a portion opposing the opening, the inclination of each surface including the apex of the substantially quadrangular pyramid with the vertical line at the center of the bottom surface A game ball storage box, comprising: an inner bottom surface having a shape that is large in inverse proportion to the distance; and wherein the thickness of members constituting each of the surfaces is substantially uniform. 4. A box-shaped game ball storage box having an opening on one surface, wherein a member to be added to an inner surface opposing the opening, an elastic member for cushioning an impact is formed into a substantially quadrangular pyramid shape. A game ball storage box comprising a formed member, wherein the apex of the member is arranged on an inner bottom surface of the storage box with the top of the member facing the opening of the storage box. 5. The substantially quadrangular pyramid-shaped member has an apex angle of 12 opposing surfaces each including a vertex of the quadrangular pyramid.
5. The game ball storage box according to claim 4, wherein the angle is not less than 0 degrees.