JP2005087386A - Slot machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a slot machine which is equipped with a reel unit loaded with at least a main control substrate, and can be temporarily placed under a stable state when such a reel unit is removed. <P>SOLUTION: This slot machine has a box body, a front surface door which is openably/closably attached to the box body, and the reel unit 70 which is detachably fitted on a mounting base provided in the box body, and rotatably supports a plurality of reels 3L, 3C and 3R on which a plurality of kinds of symbols are drawn. In the slot machine, the reel unit 70 is loaded with at least the main control board 100 which controls the overall game processing motion on the upper surface. Also, on the back surface of the reel unit 70, a horizontal surface part is formed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a slot machine that incorporates a reel unit that rotatably supports a plurality of reels that variably display a plurality of types of symbols.

  In general, the slot machine described above controls various devices for executing a game, for example, a reel unit that rotatably supports a plurality of reels for variably displaying symbols as a plurality of types of identification information, and a game processing operation. A control device for performing a game, a medal payout device for paying out a game medal as an award, an image display device, a power supply device, and the like are accommodated in a box body which is a slot machine main body. In general, the control device is, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a main control board that controls the entire game processing operation, and a sub-control that controls the effects of the game including image display and audio output. The main control board transmits various commands related to image display, audio output, and the like from the main control board to the sub control board.

  The box is fitted with a front door that allows the symbols drawn on the reels to be opened and closed, and the front door is displayed corresponding to each reel so that the rotation of each reel can be seen. A window is formed. In addition, a mounting base (middle board) on which a reel unit (for example, see Patent Document 2) that rotatably supports a plurality of reels is provided in the box.

In the slot machine having such a configuration, when a combination of symbols arranged on a predetermined active line constitutes a winning mode in a state where the rotating reel is completely stopped by a stop button provided on the front door, A predetermined number of game medals corresponding to the winning mode are paid out by the medal payout device and received in the medal receiving portion on the lower side of the front door.
JP 2003-190374 A JP 2003-62152 A

  In the conventional slot machine described above, the main control board and the sub control board are mounted on the box or the front door. For the reel unit, various signal transmission / reception lines from the main control board and power from the power supply device are supplied. Supply lines and the like are connected to each other.

  However, in a slot machine, the main control board that stores the lottery program depending on the model and the reel unit that incorporates a reel having a symbol row corresponding to it can be easily changed (it can be replaced by simple work). It is preferable that both be integrated. That is, by integrally mounting the above-described main control board (which may include a sub-control board in some cases) on the reel unit, there is an advantage that work associated with changing the model is facilitated.

  By the way, when the main control board is mounted on the reel unit in this way, usually, the main control board is placed on the middle board in the box so that the main control board can be visually recognized. It comes to be provided on the upper surface. For this reason, the reel unit integrated with the main control board has a high center of gravity, and is unstable if temporarily placed in a posture when the box is mounted (placed on a part other than the box, such as during assembly or maintenance). It becomes. Thus, if temporarily placed in an unstable state, there is a risk of damaging the main control board and various components incorporated in the reel unit. Further, if a lock mechanism that prevents the main control board from being easily removed from the reel unit is provided on the upper side together with the main control board in order to prevent fraud, it becomes more unstable.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above-described circumstances, and includes at least a reel unit on which a main control board is mounted, and can be temporarily placed in a stable state when such a reel unit is removed. An object is to provide a slot machine that can be used.

  In order to solve the above problems, a slot machine according to the present invention is detachable from a box, a front door attached to the box so as to be opened and closed, and a mounting table provided in the box. And a reel unit that rotatably supports a plurality of reels on which a plurality of types of symbols are drawn, the reel unit has at least an upper surface mounted with a main control board that controls the entire game processing operation. The reel unit is characterized in that a horizontal surface portion is formed on the front surface or the back surface of the reel unit.

  According to the above-described configuration, the reel unit is provided with the main control board for controlling the entire processing operation of the game by each reel, and thus is simply mounted on the box mounting board (middle board). It is possible to respond to model changes, maintenance, etc. with a simple operation of simply removing the reel unit. Moreover, since the main control board is mounted on the upper part of the reel unit, it can be visually recognized by opening the front door. When removing or temporarily placing a reel unit to be newly installed, as described above, since the horizontal surface portion is formed on the front surface or the back surface, the reel unit is tilted to the front surface or the back surface side. The horizontal surface portion is placed on a horizontal surface such as a work table. At this time, the position of the center of gravity by the main control board, which is a weight part mounted on the upper surface side of the reel unit, is also lowered, so that the reel unit is in a stable state and is prevented from falling.

  In the above-described configuration, the horizontal surface portion of the reel unit may be formed so that the reel unit itself is in a stable state when temporarily placed, separately from the surface placed on the mounting table. For example, it may be integrally formed with the frame portion constituting the reel unit, or may be separately attached to the frame portion, and the horizontal plane portion may be a single horizontal plane, or a plurality of horizontal plane portions It may be constituted by a horizontal plane.

In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the horizontal surface portion is integrated with the back cover of the mounting portion on which the main control board is mounted.
In such a configuration, when temporarily placed on a work table or the like, a horizontal surface portion that is likely to be contaminated is placed on the back side that is not visually recognized when placed on the mounting table, so that the dirty portion or the like is exposed. There is nothing. In addition, since a horizontal surface is provided in the vicinity of the main control board, which is a weight part, the stability when temporarily placed is improved, and operations such as maintenance and assembly can be performed stably. It becomes possible.

  According to the slot machine of the present invention, when performing various operations such as maintenance and assembly with the reel unit removed from the box, the reel unit can be temporarily placed in a stable state on the top surface of the reel unit. It is possible to prevent damage to various components in the mounted main control board and reel unit.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the slot machine according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a slot machine 1 according to the present embodiment includes a box 3 having a front door 2 that can be opened and closed on the front surface. The front door 2 is provided with a panel display portion 2a, a liquid crystal display portion 2b, and a fixed display portion 2c, which are above the center of the front surface. Inside the front door 2 (on the back side of the liquid crystal display unit 2b), three rotating reels (hereinafter simply referred to as reels) 3L, 3C, 3R are rotatably arranged in a horizontal row. On the outer peripheral surfaces of 3L, 3C, and 3R, a symbol row composed of symbols as a plurality of types of identification information is drawn. The symbols formed on the reels 3L, 3C, 3R can be viewed through a rectangular symbol display area, and the reels 3L, 3C, 3R can be rotated at a constant speed (for example, 80 rpm). It is configured.

  A substantially horizontal plane pedestal 4 is formed below the panel display 2a, the liquid crystal display 2b, and the fixed display 2c. On the left side of the pedestal portion 4, BET switches 5 a to 5 c for betting game media (hereinafter referred to as medals) credited by a push button operation are provided. A medal insertion slot 6 is provided on the right side of the pedestal portion 4, and on the left side of the front portion of the pedestal portion 4, the credit / payout of medals acquired by the player in the game is switched by a push button operation. A P switch (stored medal settlement switch) 7 is provided. By switching the C / P switch 7, medals are paid out from the medal payout port 8 at the lower front, and the paid out medals are stored in the medal receiving portion 9.

  On the right side of the C / P switch 7, the reels 3L, 3C, 3R are simultaneously rotated by the player's operation, and a start lever for starting the change of the symbol within the symbol display area (starting the game) 10 is rotatably attached within a predetermined angle range. Three stop buttons 11L, 11C, and 11R for individually stopping the rotation of the three reels 3L, 3C, and 3R are provided on the right side of the start lever 10 at the center of the front surface of the base portion 4. It has been. Speakers 12L and 12R are provided on the left and right above the front door 2, and a payout table panel 13 is provided between the two speakers 12L and 12R to display a combination of winning symbols and the number of medals. It has been.

Next, a control device that controls the progress of the game in the slot machine 1 will be briefly described.
The slot machine 1 of the present embodiment incorporates a transmissive liquid crystal display device in order to enhance the production effect, and controls image display on the liquid crystal display device based on an enormous amount of image data. It is necessary to control audio data for generating sound. Therefore, the control device for controlling the progress of the game according to the present embodiment includes a main control board that exclusively controls game processing operations, and a sub-control board that receives various commands from the main control board and performs image display and sound control. It is divided into two parts.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the main control board.
The main control board 100 includes a main control circuit 81 that controls game processing operations in the slot machine 1. The main control circuit 81 includes a microcomputer 40 disposed on a circuit board as a main component, and is added to a circuit for random number sampling. The microcomputer 40 includes a CPU 41 that performs a control operation according to a preset program, and a ROM 42 and a RAM 43 that are storage means.

  Connected to the CPU 41 are a clock pulse generation circuit 44 and a frequency divider 45 for generating a reference clock pulse, and a random number generator 46 and a sampling circuit 47 for generating a random number to be sampled. As a means for random number sampling, random number sampling may be executed in the microcomputer 40, that is, on the operation program of the CPU 41. In that case, the random number generator 46 and the sampling circuit 47 can be omitted, or can be left as a backup for the random number sampling operation.

  The ROM 42 of the microcomputer 40 has a probability lottery table used for determination of random sampling performed each time the start lever 10 is operated (start operation), and a stop for determining a reel stop mode according to the operation of the stop button. The control table, various control commands (commands) for transmission to the sub control board 200, and the like are stored. Examples of this command include a “demo display command”, a “start command”, a “stop-out command”, a “bonus game state change instruction command”, and a “winning combination command”. The sub-control board 200 performs display control in the liquid crystal display unit 2b and sound output control from the speakers 12L and 12R based on a control command (command) from the main control circuit 81.

  A peripheral device (actuator) is electrically connected to the main control circuit 81. The operation of these peripheral devices is controlled by a control signal from the microcomputer 40. The main peripheral devices include various lamps (1-BET lamps 17a, 2 provided on the panel display unit 2a). -BET lamp 17b and maximum BET lamp 17c), various display units (payout display unit 18 provided on panel display unit 2a, game medal stored number display unit 19), instructions for storing medals and medal payout device drive circuit 51 There are a medal payout device 50 for paying out a predetermined number of medals, stepping motors (drive means) 59L, 59C, 59R for rotating the reels 3L, 3C, 3R.

  The output portion of the CPU 41 includes a motor drive circuit 49 that drives and controls the stepping motors 59L, 59C, and 59R, a medal payout device drive circuit 51 that drives and controls the medal payout device 50, and a lamp drive that drives and controls various lamps. A circuit 55 and a display unit drive circuit 58 that drives and controls various display units are connected via an I / O port 48. Each of these drive circuits receives a control signal such as a drive command output from the CPU 41 and controls the operation of each actuator. The main input signal generating means for generating an input signal necessary for the microcomputer 40 to generate a control command includes a start switch 10a, a 1-BET switch 5a, a 2-BET switch 5b, a maximum BET switch 5c, There are a C / P switch 7, an insertion medal sensor 22S, a reel stop signal circuit 56, a reel position detection circuit 60, a payout completion signal circuit 61, and the like. These are also connected to the CPU 41 via the I / O port 48.

  Next, the reel unit 70 in which the reels 3L, 3C, 3R, the stepping motors 59L, 59C, 59R and the main control board 100 are integrated will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  Each of the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R includes a cylindrical reel drum 72 and a long reel band 73 having translucency on which a pattern is drawn. The reel band 73 is formed along the outer peripheral surface of the reel drum 72. It is configured by pasting. The reel drum 72 is formed by connecting two annular frames having the same shape with a plurality of connecting members in a state of being separated by a predetermined distance (reel width). Further, the reel drum 72 has a transmission member that transmits a driving force of a stepping motor provided inside thereof to the annular frame.

  Further, illumination means is provided inside the reel drum 72 at a position facing a reel display window 74 (see FIG. 4) provided on the front door 2 corresponding to the symbol display area. This illuminating means is composed of a circuit board for LED storage, and illuminates the three rows of symbols on the reel band 73 appearing on the reel display window 74 from the back side when the rotation of the reels 3L, 3C, 3R is stopped. The LED storage circuit board has three LED storage portions arranged vertically along the circumferential direction (rotation direction) of the reel drum 72, and each of these LED storage portions has a reel display window 74. A plurality of LED lamps for illuminating each of the three vertical rows of symbols appearing in FIG.

  These reels 3L, 3C, and 3R are housed in a frame 75 as a support body together with the corresponding stepping motor and the main control board 100 to form one unit (reel unit) 70. The front surface side of the frame 75 is open so as to expose the design of each reel, and a substantially horizontal flat surface portion is formed on the upper surface so that the main control board 100 can be detachably installed. The frame 75 includes side surfaces 75a and 75b that cover the sides of the reels 3L and 3R on both sides, and a bottom surface 75c that is installed on a mounting table (middle board) provided in the box. Etc. are integrally formed. The frame 75 is provided with a lock mechanism 110 adjacent to a plane portion on which the main control board 100 is installed, and the main control board 100 is illegally inserted by inserting a predetermined key into the key hole 111. It is configured not to be removed.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the reel unit 70 configured as described above is installed in a predetermined space S of the box body 3 substantially facing the liquid crystal display unit of the front door 2. Specifically, the reel unit 70 is installed on a middle board 76 provided so as to partition the internal space of the box 3 vertically. A medal payout device 50 is installed below the space S, and a game medal payout counter switch 77 is provided below the medal payout device 50. Further, a power supply unit 78 is provided on the other side of the bottom of the box 3. The power supply unit 78 incorporates a power supply board and supplies power to components mounted in the box 3.

  As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the reel unit itself is stabilized on the frame 75 when it is taken out from the middle board and temporarily placed separately from the surface (bottom surface 75 c) installed on the middle board 76. A horizontal plane portion 75d is formed so as to be in a state. The horizontal surface portion 75d of the present embodiment is integrally formed with the frame 75 on the back side of the reel unit, and is integrated with the back cover 75e of the mounting portion (planar portion) on which the main control board 100 is mounted. Thus, a bridge is constructed between both side surfaces 75a and 75b. In this case, the horizontal plane portion 75d has a predetermined width in the vertical direction so that the reel unit can be temporarily placed stably, and when temporarily placed, sufficient strength can be maintained between the frame 75 and the frame 75. A plurality of ribs 75f are formed.

  When the reel unit 70 having the above-described configuration is removed and temporarily placed, as shown in FIG. 7, since the horizontal plane portion 75d is formed on the back side, the reel unit 70 is tilted to the back side, and the horizontal plane portion 75d. Is placed on a horizontal plane P such as a work table, the position of the center of gravity by the main control board 100, which is a heavy part, is lowered, and the reel unit 70 is in a stable state, thereby preventing overturning during maintenance and assembly operations. It is possible to prevent damage to the main control board and the like.

  In the present embodiment, the bulging portions 75g are formed along the reel shape on both sides of the frame portion on the back side of the reel unit 70, and the top portions 75g 'of the bulging portions 75g on both sides are also in the horizontal plane P. It is applied so that it can be temporarily placed more stably.

  In the configuration of the present embodiment, when the reel unit 70 is installed on the middle board 76 when the reel unit 70 is installed on the middle board 76, the back surface is not visually recognized when temporarily placing on the work table or the like. As a result, the soiled portion is not exposed. Further, since the horizontal plane portion 75d is formed in the vicinity of the main control board 100 that is a weight portion, the stability when temporarily placed is improved, and the operations such as maintenance and assembly are stably performed. It becomes possible.

As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to above-described embodiment, Various deformation | transformation implementation is possible.
The shape of the reel unit 70 is not particularly limited, and the horizontal plane portion provided in the reel unit 70 is in a stable state when temporarily placed apart from the surface installed on the middle board. As long as it is formed in the above manner. In the above-described embodiment, the horizontal surface portion is integrally formed with the frame 75 constituting the reel unit 70, but may be separately attached to the frame portion.

  Further, the horizontal plane part may be provided on the front side in addition to the rear part of the reel unit, and may be constituted by a plurality of spaced apart horizontal planes other than those constituted by a single horizontal plane. It may be what was done. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the front end surfaces 75m and 75n of the both side surfaces 75a and 75b of the frame 75 are formed with a predetermined thickness so as to become a horizontal plane. When the unit 70 is tilted to the front side, a stable temporary placement state can be obtained.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the embodiment in which the main control board 100 is mounted on the reel unit 70 has been described. However, a sub control board may be mounted together with the reel unit.

  In addition to the slot machine described above, the present invention can be applied to various gaming machines incorporating a reel unit that supports a rotating reel.

The perspective view of the slot machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main control board that controls a gaming operation of the slot machine of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a view showing a configuration of a reel unit installed in the slot machine of FIG. 1. The figure which shows the state which opened the front door of the slot machine of FIG. FIG. 4 is a rear view of the reel unit shown in FIG. 3. The perspective view which looked at the reel unit shown in FIG. 3 from the back side. The side view which shows the state which mounted the reel unit shown in FIG. 3 on the horizontal surface. It is a figure for demonstrating the modification of a reel unit, and is a side view which shows the state which mounted the reel unit on the horizontal surface.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Slot machine 2 Front door 3 Box 3L, 3C, 3R Reel 70 Reel unit 75 Frame 75d Horizontal plane part 76 Mounting stand (middle board)
100 Main control board

Claims (2)

A box, a front door that can be opened and closed with respect to the box, and a detachable attachment to a mounting table provided in the box, and a plurality of reels on which a plurality of types of symbols are drawn. In a slot machine having a reel unit supported in a possible manner,
The reel unit is equipped with a main control board for controlling the entire game processing operation on at least the upper surface,
A slot machine, wherein the reel unit has a horizontal surface portion formed on a front surface or a back surface thereof.   The slot machine according to claim 1, wherein the horizontal surface portion is integrated with a back cover of a mounting portion on which the main control board is mounted.

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