JP3165790B2 - Amusement vehicle equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a game vehicle device for operating a game vehicle and enjoying a game.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known a game in which a vehicle, a motorcycle, a bicycle, or the like is operated to operate a vehicle in a virtual space displayed on a display by operating devices simulating various vehicles. Such a game device was relatively easy to imitate because the vehicle in the virtual space was also mechanical.

[0003] However, for example, in order to play a game of riding an animal such as horse riding, a device imitating an animal is required, but it has been difficult to give a player a feeling close to operating an actual animal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an amusement vehicle apparatus which can give a feeling similar to operating a real animal. It is in.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 has a shape imitating an animal having a head and a torso, and a player straddles the torso,
A simulated animal device for grasping the reins provided on the head by hand, placing a foot on a pair of footrests provided on the body, and operating to manipulate an animal in a virtual space, and the virtual space Display means for displaying, the torso swings back and forth, the swinging back and forth of the torso is detected, and the animal is manipulated in the virtual space according to the detected information. It is characterized by the following.

According to the present invention, by moving the trunk of the simulated animal device, the player can obtain a feeling as if he / she is manipulating an actual animal.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the player has a shape imitating an animal having a head and a torso, and a player straddles the torso and grasps the reins provided on the head by hand. A simulated animal device that puts feet on a pair of footrests provided in the unit and operates to manipulate animals in the virtual space, and display means for displaying the virtual space, and the head is vertically The body part swings back and forth, the footrest swings back and forth, and the left and right rotation of the head and the back and forth swing of the torso are detected. The animal is manipulated in the virtual space according to the detected information.

According to the present invention, the head, the torso, and the footrests of the simulated animal device move, so that the player can feel as if he / she is manipulating an actual animal.

[0009] In particular, as in the third aspect of the present invention, only the left and right rotation of the head and the back and forth swing of the torso are detected, and the running direction of the animal is determined by the left and right rotation of the head. Preferably, the running speed of the animal is determined by the swing of the torso back and forth.

In this way, simply tilting the head back and forth or swinging the footrest back and forth does not mean manipulating the animal in the virtual space, and in particular swings the torso back and forth. Is required, and the movement of the player at that time is close to that when manipulating the actual animal.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the game vehicle apparatus according to the second or third aspect, by moving the reins up and down, the trunk swings forward and backward, and Swings back and forth according to the posture of the player.

According to the present invention, the trunk is swung by moving the reins. In particular, when the running speed of the animal is determined by the swing of the torso, the speed of the animal can be adjusted by manipulating the reins, which is close to that of manipulating an actual animal.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a game vehicle device according to the present embodiment. This amusement vehicle device has 2
It has one display 10 and two simulated animal devices 20. The display 10 displays a scene of a horse race in accordance with information from the simulated animal device 20 (see FIG. 4).
Correspondingly, the simulated animal device 20 is configured to imitate a racehorse.

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a simulated animal device. The simulated animal device 20 includes a main body including a head 22 and a torso 24, and a base 26 for swingably supporting the torso 24.
And FIG. 3 is a plan view of the head.

The head 22 is provided with a bridle 28 formed by bending a metal rod. In addition, reins 2
Numeral 8 is configured to rotate within a range of about 30 degrees via a mounting portion 30 provided inside the head 22. Here, the head 22 is fixed to the reins 28 and moves up and down together with the reins 28. In addition, the attachment portion 30 allows the rotation while giving a reaction force to the reins 28.

The head 22 is, as shown in FIG.
It rotates to the left and right along with 8. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, the reins 28 rotate a rotary resistor 34 via a rotation shaft 32 fixed to a mounting portion 30. The direction of the reins 28 and the head 22 can be detected by the rotary resistor 34. Further, a reaction force is applied to the rotating shaft 32 via a reaction force generator 36 so as to rotate in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation.

Next, a footrest 38 is provided on the body 24. The footrest 38 has a pedal 42 perpendicular to one end of the crank arm 40, like a bicycle pedal.
Will be attached. The pedal 42 rotates only in a range of about 20 degrees. Also, the crank arm 40
Based on the state of being lowered directly below, the rocker swings in a range of about 45 degrees forward and about 70 degrees backward. Further, inside the trunk 24, one end of a link 44 is rotatably connected to the other end of the crank arm 40, and the other end of the link 44 is connected to one end of a lever 46. Are rotatably connected. The other end of the lever 46 is attached to an attachment 48. Mounting part 4
8 gives the lever 46 a reaction force,
Is rotatably supported.

Thus, the crank arm 40, the link 4
A crank mechanism is constituted by the lever 4 and the lever 46, and the swinging motion of the crank arm 40 is transmitted so as to be the swinging motion of the lever 46. And, the mounting part 48 is the lever 4
Since a reaction force is applied to 6, when the crank arm 40 is to be swung, a force for returning the same in the opposite direction is applied.

A sheet 50 is provided on the body 24. However, the player is not seated on the seat 50 and plays the game while sitting on the center. The body 24 is attached to the base 26 so as to be swingable. That is, since the bearing 52 provided on the base 26 rotatably supports the rotating shaft 54 provided at the lower end of the body 24, the body 24 swings. Further, an elastic portion 56 made of rubber is interposed between the trunk portion 24 and the base 26 so as to apply a reaction force to the swing of the trunk portion 24.

Further, the swing of the body 24 can be detected by a rotary resistor 58 fixed to the base 26. That is, the swing lever 62 is fixed to a rotating shaft (not shown) of the rotary resistor 58, and the pin 60 is provided on the body 24. The pin 60 is arranged in a groove 62a formed in the swing lever 62. When the pin 60 almost moves up and down with the swing of the body 24, the swing lever 62 also swings up and down correspondingly, This swing is applied to the rotary resistor 58.
Is to be detected.

The present embodiment is configured as described above, and its operation will be described below. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a screen of a display during a game according to the present embodiment, and FIGS. 5A to 5C are diagrams illustrating a method of operating the simulated animal device according to the present embodiment.

First, as shown in FIG. 5A, the player rides on the pedal 42 of the footrest 38 and grasps the reins 28. At this time, a display is displayed on the display 10 to warn the user not to sit on the seat 50. Then, when the game is started, horse racing starts. As shown in FIG. 4, on the display 10, a back view of the horse 100 operated by the player is displayed as the viewpoint of the third party. The player operates the horse 100 in the virtual space by swinging the trunk 24 by pulling up or pushing down the reins 28.

More specifically, the traveling direction of the horse is determined by bending the reins 28 right and left and turning the head 22 in an arbitrary direction as shown in FIG. The direction is detected by the rotary resistor 34 shown in FIG.

The speed of the horse is determined by the magnitude of the swing of the trunk 24. That is, it is determined by the swing angle when the reins 28 are moved up and down to swing the trunk 24 back and forth. The greater the angle of the sway, the faster the speed of the horse.
More specifically, from the neutral state of the trunk 24 as shown in FIG. 5A, the trunk 24 is tilted forward by pushing down the reins 28 as shown in FIG. FIG.
As shown in (C), the trunk 24 is shaken by repeating the movement of inclining the trunk 24 by pulling up the reins 28. At this time, the head 22 tilts in a direction opposite to the direction in which the trunk 24 tilts so that the head 22 always looks in a certain direction. In other words, it moves like a real horse, raising the neck and pulling the chin, and lowering the neck to protrude the chin. The angle of the swing is detected by the rotary resistor 58 shown in FIG.

When swinging the trunk 24, the footrest 38 also swings according to the player's posture. However, the swing angle of the footrest 38 has nothing to do with the speed of the horse.

In this embodiment, various information is displayed on the display 10 as shown in FIG. For example,
A ranking display 12 is shown in the upper center of the display 10, and a navigation unit 14 showing the course and the current position is shown on the right side. On the left side of the ranking display 12, an intermediate display 16 indicating whether the passing time and pace of the leading horse is fast or slow when passing a predetermined point is shown. Then, on the left side of the intermediate display 16, a position display 18 indicating the position of the own horse among other horses is shown. Further, a stamina meter indicating the depletion of the stamina of the horse is shown at the lower right of the display 10, and an acceleration meter 13 indicating whether the speed of the horse is being accelerated or decelerated is shown at the lower center. It is. On its left side is shown a horse message 15 that informs the status of the horse. In the figure, a situation where a horse is running downhill is shown. On its left side, an identification display 17 displaying the number and name of its own horse is shown. Further, when the leading horse passes a predetermined point close to the goal, a display notifying the fact is displayed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, by operating the simulated animal device 20, the horse 10
You can control 0. Here, the operation of the simulated animal device 20 gives a feeling similar to operating a real horse, and the horse racing game can be played with the feeling of actually riding a horse.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above embodiment, the two displays 10 and the simulated animal device 20
, And can be played by two people. However, a large number of displays 10 and the simulated animal devices 20 can be combined to play with many people.

[0029]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a simulated animal device.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a game vehicle device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a head.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a screen of a display during a game in the embodiment.

FIGS. 5A to 5C are diagrams showing a method of operating the simulated animal device according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 display (display means) 20 simulated animal device 22 head 24 torso 28 bridle 38 footrest 100 horse (animal in virtual space)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hideaki Yamamoto 2-8-5 Tamagawa, Ota-ku, Tokyo Namco Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-5-76658 (JP, A) European Patent Application Publication 712650 (EP, A2) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A63F 13/00-13/12 A63F 9/24 A63G 31/00-31/04

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] A display means for displaying a virtual space in which an animal appears ; and a body imitating an animal having a head and a torso.
A simulated animal in which a player who puts his feet on a pair of footrests provided in the section straddles the trunk, grasps the reins provided on the head with his hand, and operates to manipulate animals in the virtual space. And a device, wherein the player operates the reins in a state where the player rests his / her feet on the footrests and leans on the torso with the waist in the middle , whereby the torso swings back and forth. is supported on the base so that, before the barrel portion
A reaction force is given to the later swing by the elastic portion, the swing of the trunk is detected, and the animal is manipulated in the virtual space according to the detected information. . 2. A display means for displaying a virtual space in which an animal appears , and said body having a shape imitating an animal having a head and a torso.
A simulated animal in which a player who puts his feet on a pair of footrests provided in the section straddles the trunk, grasps the reins provided on the head with his hand, and operates to manipulate animals in the virtual space. a device and, a, the footrests are swingably formed of back and forth against the barrel
The player operates the reins up and down against a given reaction force in a state where the player rests his feet on the footrests and leans on the torso with the waist in the middle. Accordingly, together with the head tilted up and down relative to the body portion, the base so as to swing before later said barrel portion
Is supported on, and the player the reins to a given reaction force
By operating counter to left and right, the head is attached to the torso
On the other hand , the body rotates right and left, and a reaction force is given to the front and rear swing of the torso by an elastic portion, and the left and right rotation of the head and the back and forth swing of the torso are detected. The animal is manipulated in the virtual space in accordance with the information. 3. The game vehicle device according to claim 2, wherein only the left and right rotation of the head and the back and forth swinging of the torso are detected, and the running direction of the animal is determined by the left and right rotation of the head. Is determined, and the running speed of the animal is determined by swinging the torso back and forth. 4. The amusement vehicle device according to claim 2, wherein the trunk is pivoted forward and backward by moving the reins up and down, and the head is in a direction opposite to the trunk. amusement ride system, characterized in that the rocking back and forth in response to tilting, the footrests in posture of the player.