JPH0317510B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a commercial medal game machine, and in particular,
This invention relates to a bingo game machine that automates the progress of the game by transporting balls through a pipe using airflow.

[Prior Art] In the original bingo game, which is found in Western casinos, balls with various colors and numbers are ejected from a ball storage through a pipe into a play field using an air stream, and the balls are The bunny girl receives the ball and takes it out one after another while showing the ball's color and number to the player.
They decided on the combination of balls and played the game.

On the other hand, it is known that this bingo game is incorporated into a game machine and automated. The upper part is a hemispherical dome, the lower part is a mortar-shaped bottom part of the dome, and there are two inside the dome.
In order to prevent the book rail from being directly influenced by the rising air current at the center, a guide is provided so as to descend spirally along the inner peripheral surface of the dome.

In this bingo game machine, several types of balls of the same size and with various colors and numbers are placed inside a dome, and airflow is ejected from the mortar-shaped bottom of the dome toward the top of the dome. The ball is made to float and blown up to the top while being stirred, and then dropped along the inner circumferential surface of the dome. A part of the ball is caught by the rail of the guide and guided to the ball detection section provided below the guide. , where they played games by detecting colors and numbers.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional bingo game machine, the movement range of the ball is limited to the hemispherical dome, and while it can be made compact, it is not compatible with the original bingo game mode. It had the flaw of being far from interesting and lacking in interest. That is, as mentioned above, the original bingo game is characterized by the manner in which the balls are taken out, and the fun is concentrated in this point. However, in conventional bingo game machines, the balls only move within a sealed hemispherical dome, and the scale is small, and moreover, it lacks the fun of taking out the balls.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and it has a unique way of taking out the balls, automates the game in a manner similar to the original bingo game, and has a large scale and full of fun. The purpose is to provide a bingo game machine.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention involves randomly taking out a predetermined number of balls in a container while agitating them in a container, and combining the numbers. In a bingo game machine in which the game is determined by whether or not the balls follow a certain pattern, as a means to solve the above problem, a vertical movement section is provided that mainly performs vertical motions on the ball, and a vertical motion section that mainly performs horizontal motions on the ball. A horizontal movement section is arranged to perform the ball movement, and the vertical movement section has a container for housing and holding the ball in a movable manner, an air jet device that blows up the ball by blowing air into the container, and an air jet device disposed at an appropriate position inside the container. and a ball retrieval unit that captures the ball blown up to the position and passes the ball to the horizontal operation section, and the horizontal operation section includes a ball reservoir disposed on the upper surface of the tip side and a ball retrieval unit from the ball retrieval unit. A ball transport device that receives a ball and transports it through a transport path from a vertical movement section to a ball reservoir in a horizontal motion section, and a ball that transports the ball through an airflow through a transport path from the ball storage to the container after the game is over. The present invention is characterized in that it is configured to include a recovery device.

[Operation] As described above, in the present invention, the bingo game machine is composed of a vertical operation section and a horizontal operation section.
Conventionally, there was only a vertical movement part, so the balls simply circulated inside the container, which lacked interest.
However, in the present invention, by passing the ball from the vertical movement section to the horizontal movement section and sending it to the ball reservoir on the top surface of the horizontal movement section where the player is waiting,
It is possible to realize a state close to the original bingo game.

In this case, in conventional game machines that simply blow up the ball, the movement of the ball depends on its potential energy, so if the conveyance path is long or curved, kinetic energy is lost due to friction and other phenomena. It wears out and cannot be transported smoothly. However, in the present invention, since the ball is conveyed by ejecting airflow into the ball conveyance path, the ball can be conveyed smoothly even if the conveyance path is long or curved.

Therefore, the balls can be collected in the ball reservoir in the same way as the balls are taken out from the game field in the original bingo game. Moreover,
Since all the balls are automatically collected, the player can play the game alone.

[Example] An example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration of Embodiment> FIGS. 1 and 2 show the configuration of an embodiment of the bingo game machine of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front perspective view, and FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view.

The bingo game machine of this embodiment has a vertical motion section 1 that mainly performs motions in the vertical direction with respect to the ball.
and a horizontal movement section 2 that mainly performs horizontal movement. That is, a vertical operation section 1 is provided on the back side of the game machine, and a horizontal operation section 2 is provided on the front side. The vertical operation section 1 mainly has a function of stirring the balls and taking out a plurality of balls at random, and the horizontal operation section 2 mainly has a function of showing the balls taken out to the player to show the result of the game.

The vertical operating section 1 has a container 3 in the center of its upper part that movably houses and holds a ball (indicated by the symbol B in FIGS. 1 and 2), and a container 3 that blows out airflow into the container 3. The air jet device 4 includes an air jet device 4 that blows up the ball, and a ball take-out unit 5 that is placed at a proper position within the container 3 to capture the ball blown up to that position and to deliver the ball to a horizontal operation section.

The container 3 can have various shapes such as a rectangular parallelepiped shape, a cylindrical shape, a semi-cylindrical shape, a hemispherical shape, etc., but in this embodiment, it is a rectangular parallelepiped shape. This container 3 has a transparent front side, allowing the player to visually see the movement of the balls inside.

The airflow ejector 4 includes a plurality of blowers 40a, 40
b, 40c, and 40d, and a large number of jet ports 41 are disposed at the bottom 30 of the container 3 to blow air upward.

The ball take-out unit 5 includes, for example, a take-in pipe 50 which has a diameter slightly larger than the ball diameter and takes in the balls, and a ball delivery mechanism 51 which is disposed at the upper end of the pipe 50 and receives the balls from the pipe 50. be done.

The pipe 50 is provided to hang down from above the container 3, and is disposed with its lower end opened at a proper location in the center of the container 3. As shown in FIG. 3, the ball delivery mechanism 51 includes a trap section 510 that faces the upper end of the pipe 50 and captures the ball rising through the pipe 50, and supports the trap section 510. A support plate 52 that rotates from the upper end of the pipe 50 to a ball receiving port of a ball conveying device to be described later, a drive device 53 for the support plate 52, and a position detection sensor 54 that detects the position of the trap portion 510.
It is composed of:

The trap section 510 is a cylindrical storage section whose lower end is open on the surface of the support plate 52 and whose upper end is provided with a flange 511 to prevent the ball from falling out.
An air vent 512 is provided on the side surface thereof.
An air outlet 31 is provided in the container 3 above the trap section 510 to form an upward air current. The ball is pressed by this rising airflow,
The flange 51 is as if being sucked up.
1 and is housed and held in this trap portion 510. Further, a ball sensor 513 is attached to the flange 511 to detect whether or not a ball is stored.

The drive device 53 includes a motor 530, a rotating shaft 531 that pivotally supports the support plate 52, and a gear mechanism 5 that transmits power between the motor 530 and the rotating shaft 531.
32. The drive device 53 is activated by a ball detection signal from the ball sensor 513, and rotates the support plate 52 based on a detection signal from the position detection sensor 54 based on a drive command from a control device (not shown).

The position detection sensor 54 is made of a photoelectric conversion element, and has a mark M written on one end of the support plate 52.
is read, the angular displacement of the support plate 52 is detected, and a detection signal is output.

The horizontal motion section 2 includes a ball reservoir 6 disposed on the upper surface of the distal end side, and a ball that receives balls from the ball take-out unit 5 and conveys them from the vertical motion section 1 to the ball reservoir 6 in the direction of the distal end of the horizontal motion section 2. It includes a transport device 7 and a ball recovery device 8 that transports the balls from the ball reservoir 6 to the container 1 after the game is over.

The ball reservoir 6 is formed in a dome shape on the upper surface of the central portion of the horizontal motion section 2. This dome is formed transparent so that the players can easily see the plurality of balls taken out. Pipes of a ball transport device 7 and a ball recovery device 8, which will be described later, are opened in the ball reservoir 6.

The ball conveyance device 7 is connected to a ball receiving section 71 that receives balls from the ball take-out unit 5, a vertical conveyance path 70 for dropping and conveying the received balls within the vertical movement section 1, and a vertical conveyance path 70. The ball is stored in the horizontal motion part 2 in the ball reservoir 6
a horizontal conveyance path 73 for horizontally conveying up to
A horizontal conveyance path 73 is provided for conveying in the horizontal direction.
The blower 74 blows air into the air stream.

The horizontal transport path 73 uses a flexible pipe 730 for connection with the vertical transport path 70 and uses a transparent pipe 731 for transport within the horizontal movement section 2 . This is to allow the player to see the movement of the ball within the horizontal movement section 2. As mentioned above, the tip 732 of the transparent pipe 731 is
It is configured to open in the ball reservoir 6 and eject the transported balls together with the airflow.

The blower 74 is equipped with a valve (not shown) and is configured to send airflow only to the horizontal conveyance path 73. Additionally, a sensor (not shown) is provided and is activated when a ball is sent from the vertical conveyance path 70.

In this embodiment, a ball determining section 9 is provided adjacent to the ball receiving section 71. This ball determining section 9 identifies the ball passing through this portion, and detects unique data such as color, number, etc. of the ball taken out.

The ball recovery device 8 is a device that recovers the balls ejected into the ball reservoir 6, and in this embodiment, in order to improve the gameplay, a safe recovery path 8 is provided.
Two types of recovery systems, 0 and OUT system recovery paths 81, are provided. That is, normally one system is sufficient, but it is intended to improve the gameplay by randomly dividing the balls taken out into valid and invalid balls.

The safe recovery path 80 has a safe hole 8 at the tip.
A collection gutter 801 with an opening 02, a conveyance path 803 that conveys the collected balls to the vertical operation section 1 side,
A blower 804 forms an airflow to push up and transport the balls through the conveyance path 803; a confirmation section 805 confirms whether the balls have been recovered as safe; It is comprised of a stopper 806 for locking and a discharge port 807 for discharging the confirmed ball into the container 3.

The conveyance path 803 is made of a flexible pipe.

The confirmation section 805 is made of a transparent pipe, and allows the player to visually confirm the safe ball.

On the other hand, the out-system recovery path 81 includes a recovery gutter 811 having an outhole 812 at its tip, and a conveyance path 81 that conveys the recovered balls to the vertical operation unit 1 side.
3, a blower 814 that forms an airflow to push up and transport the balls through the transport path 813, and a discharge port 81 that discharges the transported balls into the container 3.
5.

In the case of this embodiment, the collection gutter 811 is branched into two, and each outhole 812 is provided at the tip of each branch. That is, in this embodiment, two outholes 812 are provided.

Further, the blowers 804 and 814 can be configured to operate by detecting the approach of the ball using a sensor, similar to the blower 74 described above, and this embodiment has such a configuration. However, each of these blowers 804, 814, and 74 may be configured to operate at all times, and the sensor may be omitted.

A plurality of monitor consoles 20 are disposed on the periphery of the upper surface of the horizontal movement section 2, and the players can set and input game conditions, and can set and input game conditions, and can also monitor and input the game conditions identified by the ball determination section 9. Ball specific data such as color, number, etc. can be displayed.

<Operation of the embodiment> The operation of the bingo game machine of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained.

Now, when the game machine is started up, the monitor and
Messages such as game rules are displayed on the console 20, and a screen for setting conditions is also displayed. After the player sets the conditions from the console,
When the start of the game is instructed, each blower 40a, 40b, 40c, and 40d of the air jet device 4 is operated in the container 3, and an air current is jetted into the container 3 from each jet port 41.

Inside the container 3, a plurality of balls indicated by reference numeral B are blown up by an upward air current, collide with the upper part of the container, enter a convection state, and are stirred.

Among them, some of the balls are connected to the intake pipe 5.
When the ball enters the interior through the opening of
The air rises inside the pipe 50 due to the rising air current, and is captured by the trap section 510 that branches at the upper end thereof.

The presence of the ball captured by the trap section 510 is detected by the ball sensor 513. As a result, the drive device 53 is activated, and the support plate 52 is rotated based on a detection signal from the position detection sensor 54 and a drive command from a control device (not shown).

The ball is conveyed from the upper end of the pipe 50 to the ball receiving section 71 of the ball conveying device 7 while being captured by the trap section 510. Here, the ball is sent from the receiving section 71 to the vertical conveyance path 70 via the ball determining section 9. Note that the ball determining section 9 detects unique data of the ball, such as color and number.

In the vertical conveyance path 70, the received balls are conveyed falling within the vertical movement section 1. When the presence of the ball is detected by a sensor (not shown) near the blower 74, the blower 74 is activated and blows out an airflow into the horizontal conveyance path 73.

This airflow causes the ball to move along the horizontal transport path 73.
is transported. In the horizontal motion section 2, the ball is transported through a transparent pipe 731 so that the player can see the movement of the ball. The balls are then ejected into the ball reservoir 6 along with the airflow from the tip 732 that is open within the ball reservoir 6.

Inside the ball reservoir 6, the ball continues to roll with the force of the jet, and during that time, the safe hole 80
2 or fall to outhole 812.

Assuming that the ball falls into the safe hole 802, the ball is sent from the recovery gutter 801 to the conveyance path 803, and the airflow of the blower 804, which is activated when the sensor detects the ball's approach, moves the ball to the confirmation unit 800.
Sent up to 5. At this point, the ball recovered as safe is confirmed. When the confirmation section 805 completes the confirmation, the stopper 8 that retains the ball
06 is released, and the ball is discharged into the container 3 from the discharge port 807.

On the other hand, if the ball falls into the outhole 812, the ball is sent from the collection gutter 811 to the conveyance path 813, and the airflow from the blower 814, which is activated when the sensor detects the ball's approach, causes the ball to reach the outlet 812.
5 and is discharged into the container 3.

At this time, the actual results for the conditions set by each player are displayed on the monitor console 20, and the players are informed of the results of the game.

In this way, one game ends, and the same operations as above are repeated in the next game. Therefore, the player can enjoy the game in a manner similar to the original bingo game in a completely automated manner without touching the ball at all.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention provides a feature in the way the balls are taken out, automates the game in a manner similar to the original bingo game, and creates a large-scale and fun bingo game. It has the effect of realizing a machine.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show the structure of an embodiment of the bingo game machine of the present invention, Fig. 1 is a front perspective view, and Fig. 2 is a front perspective view.
The figure is a rear perspective view, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the ball take-out unit used in the above embodiment. 1...Vertical operation section, 2...Horizontal operation section, 3...
Container, 4... Air flow jetter, 5... Ball take-out unit, 50... Pipe, 51... Ball delivery mechanism, 510... Trap section, 6... Ball reservoir,
7...Ball transport device, 70...Vertical transport path, 73...Horizontal transport path, 74...Blower, 8...Ball recovery device, 80...Safe system recovery path, 81...Out system recovery path , 802...safe hole, 812...out hole, 804,8
14...Blower.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. The present invention is based on a method in which a predetermined number of balls are sequentially and randomly taken out at random while stirring a plurality of balls with symbols such as numbers attached, and the combination of the symbols is a certain number. In a bingo game machine in which the game is determined by whether or not a pattern is formed, a vertical movement part that mainly performs vertical movement with respect to the ball and a horizontal movement part that mainly performs horizontal movement with respect to the ball are arranged, The operating part includes a container that movably stores and holds the ball, an air jet device that blows up the ball by jetting an air flow into the container, and an air jet device that is placed in a proper position in the container and captures the ball that is blown up to the position. , a ball take-out unit that passes the ball to a horizontal action section, the horizontal action section includes a ball reservoir disposed on the top surface of the tip side, and a ball take-out unit that receives the ball from the ball take-out unit and transfers the ball from the vertical action section to the horizontal action section. A ball transport device that transports the ball through the transport path to the ball storage by airflow, and a ball recovery device that transports the ball through the transport path from the ball storage to the container after the game ends by airflow. Bingo game machine.