JP2003230687A - Game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To respond to diversified performances by varying a speed simply in mechanical reels. <P>SOLUTION: A machine is provided with an interrupt interval setting/altering means for setting or varying the interrupt intervals of a microprocessor installed in a reel controller, a memory means in which are stored a plurality of set data representing a set of interrupt intervals for updating steps of a stepping motor and the number of steps to be updated at the respective interrupt intervals in each set and a step updating means which updates excitation pulses to be supplied per interrupt interval in one set data as for the number of steps to be updated in the same set data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pachinko gaming machine using a so-called mechanical reel as a symbol varying device, a spinning drum gaming machine, and the like.

[0002]

The pattern changing device of this type of gaming machine is roughly classified into a video system using a liquid crystal screen and the like, and a mechanical reel system. The video system freely changes the fluctuation speed of the design etc. It is possible to produce complicated and diverse effects relatively easily. On the other hand, the reel system is basically based on a simple operation of rotating and stopping the reel, and to the extent that re-fluctuation, frame feeding or frame returning by reverse rotation is added, the whole movement feels jerky. Yes, the current situation is that various productions have not been performed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a gaming machine in which speed can be easily changed in a mechanical reel and various kinds of effects can be dealt with.

[0004]

The invention according to claim 1 is
In a gaming machine including a reel having a plurality of symbols, a stepping motor for driving the reel, and a reel controller including a microprocessor for controlling the motor, the reel controller is an interrupt of a microprocessor included in the controller. An interrupt interval setting changing means for changing the interval setting; a storage means for storing a plurality of sets of set data each including an interrupt interval for performing a step update of the stepping motor and an update step number for performing a step update at the interrupt interval; Regarding the number of updating steps in the group data, the step updating means for updating the exciting pulse supplied to the stepping motor at every interrupt interval in the group data is included.

As a result, the excitation pulse supplied to the stepping motor is updated at every interruption interval in each set data, the stepping motor is displaced by one step angle, and the stepping motor is rotated by an angle corresponding to the number of update steps in the corresponding set data. To do. At this time, if the interruption interval of the group data is large, the speed at which the stepping motor is displaced by one step angle becomes slow. In this way, by setting the group data in advance, the speed of the stepping motor can be easily changed with respect to an arbitrary rotation angle, and various effects can be dealt with. The interrupt interval can be set arbitrarily, and analog speed changes can be made.

[0006] The invention according to claim 2 is the wind management law, Article 2, paragraph 1, 7
In order to solve the above problems while reducing the burden of inspecting gaming machines used for sales such as No. Pachinkoya at a testing institution, the reel control device, the main items of the game including winning determination processing The sub-control unit is connected to the main control unit to be determined by one-way communication means.

As a result, the software relating to the concrete effect of the reel such as the set data is provided in the sub-control unit connected to the main control unit by the one-way communication means, and the software affects the control of the main control unit. It does not give. For this reason, strict inspection of the group data and the like is not required from the viewpoint of security, while allowing various performances, and the inspection load on the test organization can be reduced.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a pachinko gaming machine 1 according to the present invention, in which a main body 11 is supported by a game frame 10 so that the main body 11 can be opened. At the front upper part of the main body 11, there is a front door 14 in which a glass 13 is fitted in a round window 12, and the game board 2 is provided inside thereof. The lower part of the front surface of the main body 11 is provided with an upper plate 3 for receiving balls to be rented and prize balls, a lower plate 4 for receiving balls overflowing inside the ball outlet 30 when the balls are full, and a handle 50 of the ball launching device 5. The upper plate 3 has a built-in stereo speaker 6 for outputting sound effects, BGM, error sounds, and the like, and
An operation switch unit 31 for lending a ball from a CR sand (not shown) installed adjacent to the gaming machine 1 is provided. Currently, one ball is 4 yen.

As shown in FIG. 2, on the game board 2, guide rails 20 and 21 for partitioning the game area and guiding the launch ball from the ball launching device 5, a decorative frame 22 and display windows 23L and 2 inside thereof are provided.
3C, 23R left reel 7L for changing and stopping the special symbol, middle reel 7C, right reel 7R, a jackpot that rotates these reels and arranges three specific symbols on any of the winning lines L1 to 5 Starting hole 24 consisting of tulip type ordinary electric auditors to start the lottery, a special winning opening 25 of special electric auditors called an attacker that opens at the time of a big hit,
The left and right upper winning openings 26, 26 and lower winning openings 27, 27, which are general winning openings, and the left and right windmills 28, 28 are provided. Reference numeral 29 is an out port for discharging out balls that have missed a prize on the game board 2. Although illustration is omitted, a large number of game nails are struck on the game board 2.

In FIG. 2, 8 is a normal symbol display device composed of a hit lamp 81 and a disengagement lamp 82, and 9 is a passage gate involved in the lottery process of the ordinary symbol. Reference numerals 71 to 74 are reserved ball indicators for the starting opening 24, and 91 to 94 are reserved ball indicators for the passage gate 9. 9L is a left LED for performance, 9C is a middle LED, and 9R is a right LED.
It should be noted that the number of prize balls per winning ball into the special winning opening 25 is set to, for example, 15 and the other winning openings 24, 26 and 27 are set to, for example, 5.

As shown in FIG. 3, red 7, green 7, blue 7, red dragon, green dragon, blue dragon, 1, 1, around the outer circumference of each reel 7L, 7C, 7R.
A total of twelve types of symbols 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, symbol numbers 1 to
It is drawn in a unique arrangement corresponding to 12. The jackpot pattern is 6 patterns, each of which includes red 7, green 7, blue 7, red dragon, green dragon, and blue dragon. Among them, in the case of three sets of each of red 7, green 7, and blue 7, the next big jackpot winning probability is, for example, 5
It is a sure change jackpot that doubles. In the special game at the time of a big hit, the special winning opening 25 is a maximum of 30 seconds or 10 for one round.
Open until the ball wins, operate the accessory continuous operation device on condition that the ball passes through the V prize area in the special winning opening 25,
Up to 16 rounds are continued.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the control device for the gaming machine. It is provided with a main board MC which is a main control device which takes charge of all winning determination processing such as jackpot lottery processing and winning ball processing and determines the main items of the game. Further, as a sub-control device connected to the main board MC by a one-way communication line PL, a symbol control board SC1 forming a reel control device, a lamp control board SC2 forming a decoration lamp control device, and a voice control forming a voice control device. A substrate SC3 and a prize ball control substrate SC4 which constitutes a prize ball control device are provided.

The main board MC is provided with a main CPU, ROM, RAM, and CTC (counter timer circuit) as a microprocessor, and on the input side, a starting winning ball sensor J1 for detecting a winning ball at the starting opening 24, a general winning prize. Mouth 2
General winning ball sensor J2 for detecting 6, 27 winning balls, large winning ball sensor J3 for detecting winning balls in the special winning opening 25, V winning ball sensor for detecting passing balls in the V winning area within the special winning opening 25 J4 and the passing ball sensor J5 of the passing gate 9 are connected. Further, a start opening actuator D1 for opening and closing the tulip of the starting opening 24 and a special winning opening actuator D2 for opening and closing the special winning opening 25 are connected to the output side.

Symbol control board S constituting the reel control device
C1 is a sub CPU, R as a microprocessor
Equipped with OM, RAM, CTC, reset IC, each reel 7 through the stepping motor control interface
Stepping motor PML for driving L, 7C, 7R,
It controls PMC and PMR. Further, via the lamp control interface, the left reel inner lamp BL, the middle reel inner lamp BC, and the right reel inner lamp BR, which are back lamps for illuminating the symbols of the reels 7L, 7C, and 7R from behind, are controlled to be lit. Each reel 7L, 7C, 7R has a reel index HL, H for detecting a reference position.
C and HR are attached, and the signal is sent to the pattern control board SC.
Input to 1.

The lamp control board SC2 is a left LE for production.
It controls decoration lamp display devices such as D9L, middle LED9C, right LED9R. The voice control board SC3 controls the voice output device including the speaker 6. The prize ball control board SC4 controls the ball launching device 5 and the prize ball payout device.

As shown in FIG. 5, in the main board MC, from power-on, initialization of all output ports, power-down error determination,
After MPU operation initialization process including CPU initialization,
The loop processing of the special symbol variation processing including the jackpot lottery processing and the reach effect of each reel 7L, 7C, 7R and the determination processing of the stop symbol is performed by allowing the interruption and winning the winning in the starting opening 24.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the interrupt processing of the main substrate MC,
Save each register, random number update processing such as jackpot random number, timer update processing, each input signal processing such as sensor, ordinary pattern processing, decoration control processing such as production LED, prize ball payout processing, error processing, After the command transmission process of transmitting the symbol variation command stored in the RAM to the sub control device side, each register is restored, the interrupt is permitted, and one process is completed.

As shown in FIG. 7, in the special symbol variation process of the main substrate MC, there is a starting winning prize memory in the starting port 24, and when it is determined that the jackpot is determined based on the jackpot determination random number, it is determined based on the winning symbol determination random number. Determines the jackpot design, and determines the winning effect based on the random number for effect determination. When it is out, the presence / absence of the reach effect is determined based on the reach determination random number, and when the reach is present, the reach presence / absence stop pattern is determined based on the out symbol determination random number, and the reach is determined based on the effect determination random number. Determine the performance. When there is no reach in the case of disengagement, the reachless disengagement stop design is determined based on the random number for disengagement symbol determination, and disengagement performance is determined based on the random number for effect determination. Then, a symbol variation command corresponding to each decision item is generated and stored in the RAM. In addition, a special game process is prepared depending on whether or not there is a big hit, and the process ends after the end process.
If there is no start winning prize memory, the process is finished through the demonstration control process of the lamp in the reel and the like.

As shown in FIG. 8, in the symbol control board SC1 which constitutes the reel control device, after the initialization processing at the time of power-on including initialization of the CPU and initialization of the RAM on the board SC1, the symbol control board SC1 The loop processing of the received command analysis processing for analyzing the command transmitted from the main board MC stored in the RAM and processing according to the command is performed. In the initialization process when the power is turned on, the CPU
When performing the initial setting of, set the operation mode of the interrupt to the single-shot count mode. Unlike the normal continuous count mode, this single shot count mode sets an interval (interrupt count value) until the next interrupt is generated for each interrupt.

As shown in FIG. 9, in the symbol control board SC1, the internal timer interrupt 1 in which the interrupt interval is fixed at 1 ms, for example, performs the input port reading process of each reel index HL, HC, HR and the like. Each reel index H
The time when the input of L, HC, HR changes to 1, 0, 0 is the index detection position, and this position is the initial position of the reel. Internal timer interrupts 2, 3 and 4 that variably set interrupt intervals, reel control processing for the left reel 7L (for the left symbol), reel control processing for the middle reel 7C (for the medium symbol), and right reel 7R (the right symbol) (For use) reel control processing.

As shown in FIG. 10, the internal timer interrupts 1 to
4 is an interrupt process in a mode different from that of the main board ST.
In the B (strobe) input process, the command data transmitted from the main board MC is received, and R of the symbol control board SC1 is received.
Store in AM.

As shown in FIG. 11, in the reel control process (FIG. 9), eight kinds of excitation pulse data (PI = 0 to 7) output to the stepping motor side, and interrupt intervals for switching the pulse data to perform step update A reel drive data table TB is used in which a large number of sets of set data including an interrupt count value IRcnt for determining the number and an update step number ST for performing step update with the same count value are stored.
The stepping motors PML, PMC, PMR are
For example, one rotation is 400 steps.

At the initial entry of the reel control process, the update step number ST is 0 (b), and the reel drive data table TB
The interrupt count value IRcnt and the update step number ST are acquired from the first number of (c, d, e, f, g). The next time the process is passed, the second and subsequent ones are acquired (h).
The interrupt count value acquired in d is set in the register in the process of a1.

The value of the update step number ST is decremented by 1 (i), the output data selection pointer PI is updated (k), and the value is adjusted within the range of 0 to 7 (l). Next, the output data is acquired based on the output data selection pointer PI and stored in the RAM (n). The output data stored here is output to the port in the process of a2.

Thus, the set interrupt count value IR
The output data selection pointer PI is updated and the excitation pulse is updated for each cnt (k). This update is repeated for the update step number ST of the set data, and the stepping motor rotates the step angle commensurate with the update step ST number of the set data. Then, ST = 0 (b), the next interrupt count value IRcnt and the update step number ST are acquired (c to h), and the same processing is performed thereafter.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a gaming machine to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a game board of the gaming machine.

FIG. 3 is a reel development view of the gaming machine.

FIG. 4 is a control block diagram of the gaming machine.

FIG. 5 is a main processing flow chart of the main board of the gaming machine.

FIG. 6 is an interrupt processing flow chart on the main board of the gaming machine.

FIG. 7 is a special symbol variation processing flow chart on the main board of the gaming machine.

FIG. 8 is a main processing flow chart of a symbol control board of the gaming machine.

FIG. 9 is an internal interrupt processing flow chart in the symbol control board of the gaming machine.

FIG. 10 is an external interrupt processing flow chart in the symbol control board of the gaming machine.

FIG. 11 is a reel control processing flow chart in the symbol control board of the gaming machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

7L, 7C, 7R Reel PML, PMC, PMR Stepping motor MC Main board (main controller) SC1 Symbol control board (reel controller) (sub controller)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A gaming machine including a reel having a plurality of symbols, a stepping motor for driving the reel, and a reel controller including a microprocessor for controlling the motor, wherein the reel controller is provided in the controller. Interrupt interval setting changing means for changing the interrupt interval of the microprocessor, and a plurality of sets of set data in which an interrupt interval for performing step update of the stepping motor and the number of update steps for performing step update at this interrupt interval are set as one set. The game machine characterized by including the storage means and the step updating means for updating the excitation pulse supplied to the stepping motor at each interrupt interval in the set data for the number of update steps in the set data. 2. The gaming machine according to claim 1, wherein the reel control device is a sub-control device connected to a main control device that determines main items of a game including a winning determination process by one-way communication means.