JP2501991B2 - Play time control device in video game - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a time control device, and more particularly to a play time control device for a video game for setting a play time of a home video game in a preferable time zone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Since the American Atari Company developed a video game drive in the 1970's, it has evolved from the first simple table tennis game to the present, and its type has already been calculated with double digit numbers. Has been developed, and the content of the game has thousands of kinds, and the students and school children of each age group are always absorbed in video games and forget to sleep and eat, neglect their schoolwork, and parents and teachers If the guidance does not work, and in extreme cases, the player may be absorbed in the game, impairing his health, losing his visual acuity, or having quivering his fingertips. On the other hand, video game drives also have the aspect of training children's responsiveness and enlightening their wisdom from various changes in the game design and light rhythms, and it is also a perfect way to shut out video games from children. It should be considered, but rather, it would be better for an adult to appropriately determine the child's video game play time so that it will only be played during a certain time period.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the problems associated with playing the above video game in a home, the owner of the present invention sets a keyword and a play ban time, and a person who does not know the keyword knows the problem. It is an object of the present invention to provide a play time control device in a video game that prevents the video game from being played outside the play time.

[0004]

To achieve this object, the present invention makes the address bus AB and the data bus DB conductive.
Of the home video game drive (10) that is inserted between the cartridge slot (17) and the cartridge (18) inserted into the cartridge slot (17).
A play time control device (20) for controlling the play time
The device (20) has a keyword code and
Enter the keyword and the means to set the ban time
When force is applied, it is forcibly forced outside of the set playing time
And means for interrupting play .

Then, a bus control logic unit for controlling an address bus and a data bus conducted from the cartridge slot to the cartridge, a power management circuit for supplying power necessary for operation, and a timed latch program are stored. ROM for setting keywords and playing time
And a RAM for storing the keyword and the play time zone set by the ROM, a timer for collecting data stored in the RAM and controlling the operation of the bus control logic unit, and an alarm setting circuit. In addition, an inverted hook is provided on the surface of the NiCd rechargeable battery as a power source for the power management circuit, so that if the inverted hook is inserted into the cartridge slot, the inverted hook cannot be removed unless the inverted key is rotated with the attached key. It is more preferable to use either a non-chargeable lithium battery or a ZnC battery.

[0006]

As described above, according to the present invention, an address bus is provided between a cartridge slot of a home video game drive and a cartridge inserted into the cartridge slot, and the address bus is connected to the cartridge from the cartridge slot. Since the signal bus signal can be controlled by the owner by setting the keyword and playing time zone inside the present invention, anyone can enter the set playing time zone unless the set keyword is input. Other than that, you will not be able to play the game.

And, a bus control logic unit for controlling an address bus and a data bus conducted from the cartridge slot to the cartridge, a power management circuit for supplying power necessary for operation, and a timed latch program are stored. ROM for setting keywords and playing time
And a RAM for storing the keyword and the play time zone set by the ROM, a timer for collecting data stored in the RAM and controlling the operation of the bus control logic unit, and an alarm setting circuit. In addition, an inverted hook is provided on the surface of the NiCd rechargeable battery as a power source for the power management circuit, so that if the inverted hook is inserted into the cartridge slot, the inverted hook cannot be removed unless the inverted key is rotated with the attached key. , Or using a non-rechargeable lithium battery or ZnC battery,
Setting, updating or controlling the keywords and playing time zone will be more convenient and reliable. The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments with reference to the drawings.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 7 is a connection and operation block diagram of a general video game drive 10. As shown in the drawing, a CPU (Central CPU) is mainly the brain of the entire video game drive.
Processing Unit) 11 or a screen assembled from a moving image and a background is generated, and the data is temporarily recorded as a video R.
The video frequency processing unit 12 stored in the AM (Video RAM) 13 and various music sounds mixed in the screen are generated, and the data is temporarily stored in the audio RAM (Audio RAM).
RAM) 15 and an audio frequency processing unit 14 stored therein, and finally the generated video frequency and audio frequency are passed through an RF modulator (Radio Frequency Modulator) 16 to a T
It is transmitted to V, the screen of the game is displayed on the TV display, and the voice such as music is broadcast accordingly.

In addition to this, all video game drives are provided with cartridge insertion slots, and the cartridge slot 17 is provided with signals of an address bus AB and a data bus DB, each of which has a game internally edited. The cartridge 18 can be connected to at least one ROM (Rea
d Only Memory), which stores the program code of the entire game and directs the control of the video frequency processing unit 12 and the audio frequency processing unit 14 by the CPU 11 to generate the required screen and audio, A one-act and one-on-one vivid game is displayed on the TV display.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the use state of the play time control device of the video game of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the play time control device 20 of the present invention is the address bus A described above.
B and the data bus DB are the cartridge slots 17
The play time control device 20 is provided with an upside down hook (not shown) by utilizing the connection between the cartridge 18 and the cartridge 18.
Once the play time control device 20 is inserted into the cartridge slot 17 of the drive 10, it can be removed only by rotating the inverted hook with the key attached to the play time control device 20. , Otherwise the play time control device 20 will forever drive the drive 1
It becomes fixed in the cartridge slot 17 of 0 and cannot be removed.

FIG. 2 is a detailed electrical circuit diagram of FIG. 1 mentioned above, of which the play time control device 20 of the present invention includes a bus control logic device 21 having a detailed circuit as shown in FIG. Is included, and the disable signal EN of the bus control logic unit 21 is tri-stated (Tri
-State) The buffer 210 is regulated, and normally the three-state buffer 210 is a simple buffer 210, but it can be used as a switch when the EN signal is input. The read / write signal (R / W) is sent to the data bus DB.
Control the flow direction of R / W = 1, when R / W = 1, data is transmitted from the cartridge 18 to the drive 10 and R / W
When = 0, the data is transmitted from the drive 10 to the cartridge. However, the transmission of these data occurs only when EN = 0, and if EN = 1, all address buses AB, data buses DB and read / write signals R / W are isolated. The play time control device 20 of the present invention also includes a power supply management circuit 22. As shown in FIG. 4, Vpp in the play time control device 20 is a 5V power supply received from the drive 10 of the video game, and a route (Route).
One path is simply the power supply Vcc required to start the video game drive, and the other path is Vbp that should not be interrupted at any time, that is, when the drive is started, Vpp = 5V, Vcc = 5V, Vbp = 4.4V
Then, after activating the drive, Vpp = 0V, Vcc =
0V, Vbp = 3V, and in this embodiment, NiCd
Rechargeable battery, non-rechargeable lithium battery, or Z
Either of the nC batteries is used. The play time control device 20 of the present invention further includes a fixed memory (ROM) 23 , stores a timed latch program, and receives instructions from the CPU 11 of the video game drive 10 described above.
The standard of the program (between approximately 8K x 8 and 64K x 8) is determined by the difference of the drive 10, and most of the human interface (Human Interface) is in charge of displaying instructions and messages on the TV display.
The owner of the play time control device 20 is instructed to set the keyword and the play time zone, and the input data is stored in the RAM 24, and the standard time is set so that the play time control device 20 of the present invention can operate normally. To do so. The RAM 24 is a 62-bit unit static RAM, which is used to store the inputted keywords and a large number of sets of alarms (Alarm), and its power is supplied by Vbp of the power management circuit 22 to close the drive. However, it is ensured that the drive can hold the contents of the data so that it does not change.
The electricity consumption of 24 is extremely low, and is only about μA. The play time control device 20 of the present invention further includes a timer and an alarm setting circuit 25, the detailed circuit of which is shown in FIG. 5, that is, a quartz oscillator 250 oscillates a frequency of 32768 Hz, and Frequency divider 2
It is used as a clock counter by generating a signal of 1 Hz by dividing it by 52 to 32768, and the clock is formed by a preset counter 255 and can record a long time of 100 years.
55 is configurable (Presetabl
e) It is adapted to adapt to different time zones. In addition, there is also a time setting device 256 having a timer latch 256a, which can set one month's worth, and the contents thereof are copied from the RAM 24 at the time of starting the drive. The inside can save a lot of control time. Further, in order to keep the time of the clock accurately, the timer and the alarm setting circuit 25
Must always operate regardless of whether or not the drive has been started, so the necessary power is supplied from Vbp of the power management circuit 22, and the Vbp is a voltage of 3V from the battery when the drive is not started. However, if the drive is started, a voltage of 5V is supplied from the drive. Further, the 1 Hz signal output from the frequency divider 251 is used to control a comparator 253 by obtaining a 1-minute enable signal via a frequency divider 252 of ÷ 60, and a preset counter.
Current time by 255 and timer of time setter 256
The latches 256a are compared to see if they match, and if they match, an impulse is generated and the latch 254a
The suppression signal EN output is set and sent to the bus control logic unit 21 to cut off the bus from the cartridge 18 to forcibly stop the game.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart for the play time control device 20 of the present invention to set a predetermined time zone. First, after the play time control device 20 is inserted into the video game drive 10. When activated, the operation process goes from step 40 to step 41 to check whether it is the first use or not. If it is the first use, the process goes from step 41 to step 42 to inform the user of the keyword or current It is not necessary to set the time and play time zone, and then to input the setting each time the drive is started.
If it is not used for the first time, the process moves from step 41 to step 43 to inquire whether or not the play time zone should be renewed. When renewing, be sure to enter the keyword first, After it is determined that the keyword has been input, step 60 is entered to determine whether or not the input keyword is correct. If the keyword is incorrect, the process returns to the start side of step 43, and the keyword is returned. If it is determined to be correct, the user can enter step 61 to update the play permission time zone, and after that,
The process returns to the start side of step 43. But step 4
If no keyword is input in step 3, the process proceeds to step 44, and in the control of step 44, it is inquired whether or not the current time is outside the play time. Moves to the control of step 45 and displays "Please wait for a while, not in play time" on the display. If at that time it is within the play time, the process immediately moves from step 44 to step 46, and the user can start playing. On the other hand, the time counter starts counting time, and the control operation also goes from step 46 to step 47 to monitor whether or not the play time has passed, and if the time has not come, the user continues. Enjoy the play and if time comes, the control operation goes to step 49, the time counter signals the bus control logic unit 21 to send to the bus control logic unit 21, disconnects the bus and the game is stopped, and the play time of the game is stopped. Can be reliably controlled.

The play time control device 20 of the present invention can be applied to all video game drives already on the market, and the play time control device 20 of the present invention can be applied to a newly developed video game drive. Is directly provided in the drive 10, it can be a part of the function of the drive 10.

[0014]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, when it is mounted between the cartridge slot of the home video game drive and the cartridge inserted into the cartridge slot, the cartridge slot is inserted into the cartridge. Since it will be interposed in the path of the signal of the address bus and the data bus that conduct, therefore, if the owner sets the keyword and the play time zone inside, it controls so that the address bus and the data bus are conducted only during the predetermined play time zone. That is, no one can change the play time zone that has been set unless the keyword is entered, so set the game play time to an appropriate time zone, and You can prevent excessive immersion in video games.

And, a bus control logic unit for controlling an address bus and a data bus conducted from the cartridge slot to the cartridge, a power management circuit for supplying power necessary for operation, and a timed latch program are stored, ROM for setting keywords and playing time
And a RAM for storing the keyword and the play time zone set by the ROM, a timer for collecting data stored in the RAM and controlling the operation of the bus control logic unit, and an alarm setting circuit. In addition, an inverted hook is provided on the surface of the NiCd rechargeable battery as a power source for the power management circuit, so that if the inverted hook is inserted into the cartridge slot, the inverted hook cannot be removed unless the inverted key is rotated with the attached key. Alternatively, since either a non-rechargeable lithium battery or a ZnC battery is used, setting, updating or control of the above-mentioned keyword and playing time zone becomes more convenient and reliable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a usage state of a play time control device in a video game of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electric circuit of a play time control device in the video game of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a bus control logic circuit diagram of a play time controller in a video game of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a power supply management circuit diagram of the play time control device.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a timer and an alarm setting circuit in the play time control device.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an operation sequence of the play time control device.

FIG. 7 is a connection and operation block diagram of a general home video game drive.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... Video game drive 17 ... Cartridge slot 18 ... Cartridge 21 ... Bus control logic unit 22 ... Power management circuit 23 ... ROM 24 ... RAM 25 ... Timer and alarm

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (73) Patent holder 592005113 Wang Yong Yao Taiwan, Taipei Taipei Paytou Chui Lee Nonchie 1 Toan 6 How 6 Lou (72) Inventor Wang Young Yao Taiwan Taipei Paytoi Chui Lee Nonchie 1 Toan 6 How 6 Lo C

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cartridge slot (17) of a home video game drive (10) for electrically connecting an address bus AB and a data bus DB and the cartridge slot (1).
A play time control device (20) inserted between cartridges (18) inserted in the play time control device (7), wherein the play time control device (20) has means for setting a code of a keyword and a play permission time zone therein. And the key word
When the game is entered, the play time zone set for me is changed.
If you do not enter the keyword, you can
Can only be played during the play hours set in
But not to be able to set a new playing time
And a play time control device in a video game, comprising: 2. An address bus AB which is electrically connected to the cartridge (18) through the cartridge slot (17).
And a bus control logic unit for controlling the data bus DB (2
1), a power management circuit (22) for supplying power necessary for operation, a ROM (23) for storing a timed latch program and setting a keyword and a play time zone, and the ROM (23). The RAM (24) for storing the played keyword and the playing time zone and the data stored in the RAM (24) are received and the operation of the bus control logic unit (21) is controlled to control the address bus AB and the data.
Timer and alarm setting circuit to disconnect Tabus DB (2
5) A playing time control device in a video game according to claim 1, comprising: 3. An inverted hook is provided on the surface of the cartridge, and when the inverted hook is inserted into the cartridge slot (17), it cannot be removed unless the inverted hook is rotated by a key attached thereto.
A play time control device for a video game according to claim 1. 4. A play time control in a video game according to claim 2, wherein a NiCd rechargeable battery, a non-rechargeable lithium battery, or a ZnC battery is used as a power source for the power source management circuit (22). apparatus.