JP2018161224A - Game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a game machine capable of reducing power consumption of a driving source.SOLUTION: A game machine 1 includes a driving source 10, a movable member 30 operating in a prescribed range by the power of the driving source 10, and drive control means 20 for controlling the output of the driving source 10. The drive control means 20 controls the output of the driving source 10 so that the output when the movable member 30 is displaced downward becomes smaller than the output when the movable member 30 is displaced upward. For the driving source 10, a stepping motor can be exemplified.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a gaming machine including a plurality of effect members that construct an integrated effect form.

  Various gaming machines including a movable member that is operated by a driving source such as a motor are known (for example, Patent Document 1 below).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-083039

  In such a gaming machine, it is required to reduce the power consumption of the drive source.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a gaming machine capable of reducing power consumption of a drive source.

  A gaming machine according to the present invention made to solve the above problems includes a drive source, a movable member that operates within a predetermined range by the power of the drive source, drive control means for controlling the output of the drive source, The drive control means controls the output of the drive source so that the output when the movable member is displaced downward is smaller than the output when the movable member is displaced upward. And

  In the gaming machine according to the present invention, since the output of the drive source is controlled to be smaller when the movable member is displaced downward than when the movable member is displaced upward, power consumption by the drive source can be reduced. It becomes possible.

  The movable member is capable of reciprocating, and is configured such that one of forward movement and backward movement is an upward displacement, and the other is a downward displacement. The output of the drive source is set so that the output when the movable member performs one of the forward movement and the backward movement is smaller than the output when the movable member performs the other movement of the forward movement and the backward movement. It is good to control.

  As described above, in the case where the movable member is reciprocated by a certain driving source, it is preferable to set a difference between the outputs of the certain driving source at the time of forward movement and at the time of backward movement.

  The drive source is a stepping motor, and the drive control means rotates the rotor of the stepping motor by a one-phase excitation method when the movable member is displaced downward, and the movable member is displaced upward. For this, it is preferable to control the rotor of the stepping motor to rotate by a two-phase excitation method.

  As described above, when the stepping motor is used as the drive source, the magnitude of the output is preferably controlled by switching between the two-phase excitation and the one-phase excitation.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the drive source.

1 is a front view of a gaming machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the figure which showed the state (a) in which the movable member was located in the original position, and the state (b) in which the movable member was located in the production position. It is the figure which showed the displacement (a) to the downward direction of a movable member, and the displacement (b) to the upward direction of a movable member. It is the figure which showed the rotation mode (a) of the rotor when the stepping motor which is a drive source is controlled by the one-phase excitation method, and the rotation mode (b) of the rotor when controlled by the two-phase excitation method (excited) The electromagnet is hatched). It is a figure for demonstrating a modification.

  Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the vertical direction refers to the vertical direction in FIG.

  First, the overall configuration of the gaming machine 1 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. The gaming machine 1 includes a game board 90. The game board 90 is formed of a substantially square plywood, and a strip-shaped guide rail 903 made of a thin metal plate for guiding a game ball fired by the operation of the launching device 908 to the game area 902 has a substantially arc shape. It is provided as follows.

  In the game area 902, a display device 91, a start winning opening 904, a big winning opening 906, an out opening 907, and the like are provided. As the display device 91, for example, a liquid crystal display device is used, and special symbols, normal symbols, etc. (not shown) are displayed on the display screen (display unit) of the display device 91. The display screen of the display device 91 is visible through an opening 901 formed in the game board 90.

  In addition, the game area 902 is provided with a plurality of game nails as obstacles that change the flow-down mode of the game balls when the flow-down game balls collide. The game ball flowing down the game area 902 changes into various modes depending on the condition when it collides with the game nail.

  In such a gaming machine 1, a game ball is launched toward the game area 902 by operating the launching device 908. When a game ball flowing down the game area 902 wins a winning opening such as the start winning opening 904 or the big winning opening 906, a predetermined number of winning balls are paid out by the payout device. In addition, the jackpot lottery method, effects, and the like can be applied to those similar to known game machines, and thus description thereof is omitted. The gaming machine 1 according to the present embodiment is a so-called pachinko gaming machine, but may be other types of gaming machines such as a slot machine.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the gaming machine 1 according to the present embodiment includes a drive source 10 (see FIG. 3) and a movable member 30 (see FIGS. 1 to 3) that is displaced by the drive source 10. The drive source 10 in this embodiment is a stepping motor. The drive source 10 is controlled by drive control means 20 (see FIG. 3). The drive source 10 and the drive control means 20 are disposed at a position covered by the game board 90 and are in a state that cannot be visually recognized by the player.

  The power of the drive source 10 is transmitted to the movable member 30 via a power transmission mechanism including one or a plurality of types of power transmission members (such as gears). Since the power transmission member may have any configuration, the description thereof is omitted. The movable member 30 can operate within a predetermined range. The movable member 30 in the present embodiment is slidably supported with respect to the support member 31 extending in the vertical direction (see FIG. 3), and the original position (position shown in FIG. 2A) and the effect position (FIG. 2). (Position shown in (b)). The movable member 30 is normally located at the original position, and moves toward the effect position when a predetermined condition is satisfied (forward movement). After maintaining the state positioned at the production position for a predetermined time, it moves again to the original position (return). In the present embodiment, as one aspect of the effect indicating that the probability that the determination result is a big hit has increased to a certain degree, the movable member 30 located at the original position is moved toward the effect position.

  In the present embodiment, the original position is located above the effect position. Therefore, the movable member 30 is displaced downward during the forward movement (see FIG. 3A). On the other hand, at the time of backward movement, the movable member 30 is displaced upward (see FIG. 3B). Note that the movable member 30 in the present embodiment is displaced in the vertical direction along the direction of gravity. Here, “displaced downward” and “displaced upward” refer to the direction of gravity. It does not mean only the displacement in the direction along. “Displacement downward” means downward in the horizontal direction, and “displacement upward” means upward in the horizontal direction.

  When the movable member 30 is displaced downward, the weight of the movable member 30 itself contributes to the displacement of the movable member 30. On the other hand, when the movable member 30 is displaced upward, the weight of the movable member 30 becomes a resistance against the displacement of the movable member 30. Therefore, in this embodiment, when the movable member 30 is displaced downward (during forward movement in this embodiment), the drive control means 20 makes the output of the drive source 10 relatively small (FIG. 3A). On the other hand, when the movable member 30 is displaced upward (in the present embodiment, during backward movement), the drive control means 20 causes the output of the drive source 10 to be output from when the movable member 30 is displaced downward. (See FIG. 3B). That is, when the weight of the movable member 30 itself contributes to the displacement, the output of the driving source 10 is reduced in consideration thereof, and when the weight of the movable member 30 becomes the resistance of the displacement, the driving is performed in consideration thereof. Increase the output of the source 10. By doing in this way, it becomes possible to reduce the power consumption of the drive source 10 as compared with the case where the output of the drive source 10 is the same when displaced downward and when displaced upward (at least The power consumption can be reduced by reducing the output when the movable member 30 is displaced downward). Moreover, even if the difference is set in the output between the case of displacement downward and the case of displacement upward, the weight of the movable member 30 contributes to the displacement when displaced downward, and Since the weight of the movable member 30 serves as a resistance to displacement, the difference in operation mode (for example, operation (displacement) speed) between the downward displacement and the upward displacement does not increase.

  Executing such control is particularly effective for the movable member 30 that moves up and down along the direction of gravity as in this embodiment. This is because, in the case of moving along the direction of gravity, the influence of the weight of the movable member 30 on the displacement of the movable member 30 is greater (as compared to the case where the weight is not along the direction of gravity).

  The output control when a stepping motor is used as the drive source 10 as in this embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, when the movable member 30 is displaced downward, the rotor 11 of the motor is rotated by a one-phase excitation method. That is, only one electromagnet 12 is excited (the coil is energized) out of the plurality of electromagnets 12 that are equally arranged around the rotor 11 in the circumferential direction. The electromagnet 12 to be excited is sequentially switched in the direction in which the rotor 11 is rotated (see FIG. 4A). On the other hand, when the movable member 30 is displaced upward, the rotor 11 of the motor is rotated by a two-phase excitation method. That is, two adjacent electromagnets 12 among a plurality of electromagnets 12 equally arranged in the circumferential direction around the rotor 11 are excited (the coil is energized). The combination of the two electromagnets 12 to be excited is sequentially switched so that the combination changes in the direction in which the rotor 11 is rotated (see FIG. 4B).

  When controlled by the two-phase excitation method, about twice as much output can be obtained as compared to when controlled by the one-phase excitation method. The power consumption when controlled by the one-phase excitation method is about ½ of the power consumption when controlled by the two-phase excitation method. Thus, when a stepping motor is employed as the drive source 10, the output (power consumption) of the drive source 10 (stepping motor) may be controlled by varying the excitation method (number of phases to be excited).

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  The gaming machine 1 according to the above embodiment is a so-called pachinko gaming machine, but other types of games including a movable member that may be “displaced downward” or “displaced upward”. The same technical idea can be applied to a machine (for example, a rotary game machine).

  Although it has been described that the movable member 30 in the above embodiment is displaced downward during forward movement and is displaced upward during backward movement, the operation mode is merely an example. It is sufficient that both the downward displacement and the upward displacement are included in the series of operations. It is not limited to a reciprocating operation in which the operation modes of the forward movement and the backward movement are completely reversed.

  Moreover, it is possible to apply the same technical idea to a thing provided with the several movable member 30 and the several drive source 10 which operates these. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that a first movable member 30a that is displaced downward from the original position and a second movable member 30b that is displaced upward from the original position are provided. The first movable member 30a is operated by the first drive source 10a (first drive control means 20a), and the second movable member 30b is operated by the second drive source 10b (second drive control means 20b). In addition, the structure which can control the 1st drive source 10a and the 2nd drive source 10b may be sufficient as one drive control means. In this case, when the first movable member 30a and the second movable member 30b are simultaneously displaced, the output of the first drive source 10a is made smaller than the output of the second drive source 10b (the first drive source 10a and the first It is possible to operate the first movable member 30a and the second movable member 30b at a closer displacement speed and to reduce power consumption (compared to the case where the outputs of the two drive sources 10b are the same). Is possible.

1 gaming machine 10 drive source 11 rotor 12 electromagnet 20 drive control means 30 movable member

Claims (3)

A driving source;
A movable member that operates within a predetermined range by the power of the drive source;
Drive control means for controlling the output of the drive source;
With
The drive control means controls the output of the drive source so that the output when the movable member is displaced downward is smaller than the output when the movable member is displaced upward. Machine. The movable member is capable of reciprocating, and is configured such that one of forward movement and backward movement is an upward displacement, and the other is a downward displacement,
The drive control means is configured so that an output when the movable member performs one of the forward movement and the backward movement is smaller than an output when the movable member performs the other movement of the forward movement and the backward movement. The game machine according to claim 1, wherein an output of the drive source is controlled. The drive source is a stepping motor,
The drive control unit rotates the rotor of the stepping motor by a one-phase excitation method when the movable member is displaced downward, and the stepping motor by a two-phase excitation method when the movable member is displaced upward. The game machine according to claim 1, wherein the game machine is controlled to rotate.

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