JPH0325817Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improvement in a television game device, particularly one that uses a disk to display a game screen.

In so-called video games, in which the game is played based on a screen projected on a cathode ray tube, in order to improve the quality of the screen display, it has recently been proposed to use a laser disc. These laser disks and magnetic disks have a much larger memory capacity than, for example, video tapes, and are randomly accessible, allowing for the high-quality images required for video games and instantaneous screen switching in response to game progress. fully satisfied.

Video games are generally games in which players compete to control the timing of operating buttons while looking at a display screen.
Depending on the appropriateness of the button operation timing, the game progress branches, and the screens to be displayed are switched and selected. Therefore, for example, if the timing of the operation button is within the time allowed for the progress of the game, a success screen display pattern will be displayed for the game, and if it is outside the allowable time, a failure screen display pattern will be displayed. To switch display patterns like this,
For example, in a conventional video game device using a laser disc, the reading head of the laser disc is moved to a predetermined position in response to a signal from a determining means that determines whether or not the operation timing of an operation button is appropriate. In many cases, the image signal part of a success pattern is formed continuously on the disk, and if the game progresses continuously, there will be no problem in displaying the screen, but if it fails midway, it will correspond to the subsequent success pattern. The reading head is moved over the image signal portions corresponding to the failure pattern, and the image signal is read from the area where the image signal portion corresponding to the failure pattern is formed. For this reason, with conventional devices, the display pattern tends to become uniform when the game fails, and furthermore, the screen display tends to be interrupted during the so-called access time, which is the time it takes to move the reading head to a predetermined position when the game fails. It is something that has.

The present invention has been developed in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional device, and it enables various display patterns to be displayed on the screen in response to various operation timings of the operation buttons during game progress, and also prevents screen cut-offs. The purpose is to do so. Therefore, the device of the present invention separates the image data for displaying the game screen into first image data for displaying the normal game progress screen and second image data for displaying the image when the game fails. The image data is stored in separate areas on the disk, and each image data is read out separately by the first and second heads. When the determination means detects that the timing of the operation member operated by the player during the game progress is outside a predetermined allowable range, the screen display based on the first image data from the first head is changed from the screen display based on the first image data from the first head. The game screen display is instantaneously switched to the game screen display based on the second image data read out from the second head.

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

In FIG. 1, a display surface 2 for a game screen is provided on the front side of a main body 1 of a video game device. As the display surface 2, in addition to a cathode ray tube display screen, a screen surface of a projection television apparatus or the like can be used. 3 is a coin slot, 4 is a game start button, and 5 is an operation button that the player operates according to the progress of the game.

FIGS. 2 to 5 show examples of game screens. When the game start button 4 is pressed after inserting a coin, a screen is displayed in which a human character walks from the right side of the screen to the left side of the screen, moving toward a protruding obstacle, but the player scolds while looking at the screen. When the operator presses the operation button 5 at the appropriate timing, a success pattern for clearing the obstacle is displayed on the screen as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. Furthermore, if the button operation timing is too early or too late, failure patterns such as those shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B will be displayed on the screen.

When the above-mentioned protruding obstacle is cleared, the human character continues walking and comes to the concave obstacle, but in this case as well, if the operation button 5 is operated at the appropriate timing, a success pattern as shown in Fig. 4 is achieved. , If the operation timing is off, a failure pattern as shown in FIG. 5 will be displayed on the screen. Of course, the gist of the device of the present invention is not the above-mentioned display screen pattern itself, but also assumes various other patterns, such as a failure pattern when the operation timing of the operation button 5 is too early, a failure pattern when the operation timing of the operation button 5 is too late, etc. You can also.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the present invention. Reference numeral 10 denotes a laser disk which is rotationally driven by a motor 13, and one side 10A of the laser disk is provided with the aforementioned FIGS. 2A and B, and 4A and B. An image signal section for reproducing images of the game success pattern and the game progress pattern following these is formed concentrically, and the other surface 10B has the above-mentioned FIGS. 3A and 3A.
B. An image signal section for displaying the failure pattern shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B is formed corresponding to the formation position of the image signal section for reproducing the success pattern. Reference numerals 11A and 11B are read-out heads (pick-ups) provided corresponding to both sides 10A and 10B of the laser disk 10 and read out each image signal independently.
As the laser disk 10 rotates, the head is sent to the center of the disk, and the image signal track is sequentially changed to provide the image signal as an electrical signal.
The image signals for image display obtained here are sent through independent lead wires to terminals X and Y of a signal switching circuit 28, which will be described later. A disk control section 15 controls the head feed drive section 12 and motor drive section 14 to maintain a predetermined disk rotation speed and head feed amount.

18 is a pulse generation circuit that generates clock pulses, and 19 is a gate circuit. This gate circuit 1
9 is an operation detection circuit 2 for the game start button 4
The clock pulse from the pulse generating circuit 18 is supplied to the disk controller 15 and the pulse counter 20 by the opening. The pulse counter 20 is a gate circuit 19
After opening, that is, game start button 4
The clock pulses generated after the operation are integrated. Reference numeral 21 denotes a comparison/determination section, which monitors the count value of the pulse counter 20 and compares the count value with data on a reference table 26 consisting of, for example, ROM, and also monitors the operation timing of the game operation button 5. Note that 24 is an operation detection circuit for the game operation button 5. Comparison/judgment section 21
Also, if the operation button 5 is not operated within a predetermined pulse count value range, it outputs a switching signal to the signal switching circuit 28, which normally selects the X terminal, and outputs a switching signal to the terminal Y through the connector 28'. It is configured to switch. Reference numeral 29 denotes an image processing circuit that displays an image on the cathode ray tube 30 based on the image signal supplied from the connector 28' of the signal switching circuit 28.

The operation of the above configuration is as follows.
After the disk control section 15, pulse counter 20, etc. are reset to the initial state by operating the game start button 4, the gate circuit 19 becomes open, a clock pulse is supplied to the disk control section 15, and the disk is put into operation. becomes. Therefore, an image signal relating to the surface 10A of the disk 10, that is, the game progress pattern, is read out by the reading head 11A and inputted to the image processing circuit 29 via the terminal X of the signal switching circuit 28.
The screen is displayed on the cathode ray tube 30. At this time, the reading head 11B and the reading head 11A
However, nothing is read out while the normal game progress pattern is being displayed on the CRT. (Even if some readout signal is obtained from the head 11B, the terminal Y is disabled, so there is no effect on the cathode ray tube display.)
As the game progresses, when a predetermined period of time elapses from the start of the game or a predetermined number of clock pulses are supplied to the disk control section 15, the game progresses as shown in FIG. 2 or 3, and the game is successful. A stage is reached in which the player is required to operate the operation button 5 in order to determine whether the game is a failure or not. For example, if the game is successful when the operation button 5 is operated within the range of 10,000 to 10,100 clock pulses from the start of the game, that data is stored in the reference table 26, but the comparison After the game starts, the determining section 21 monitors the count value of the pulse counter 20 while referring to the reference table 26. If the operation button 5 is operated at a pulse count value within the above-mentioned range, the signal switching circuit 28
Therefore, the state of the cathode ray tube 30 is maintained as it is.
The image pattern that appears on the surface 10A of the laser disk 10, that is, the successful pattern shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, is displayed as is.

On the other hand, the operation button 5 is the pulse counter 20.
If the operation button 5 is operated when the count value is less than 10,000, or if the operation button 5 is not operated even after reaching 10,100, the comparison/judgment section 21 outputs a switching pulse, which is supplied to the signal switching circuit 28. As a result, connector 28' of the signal switching circuit is switched to the Y terminal, thus validating the image signal from read head 11B. As mentioned above, since the image signal portion regarding the failure patterns A and B in FIG. 3 is formed on the surface 10B of the laser disk 10, the failure pattern is instantaneously projected on the cathode ray tube 30 at this point. become. When switching the display screen instantaneously, normally only the readout head 11A opens its shutter and irradiates the disk with a reproduction laser beam while reading out its signal part, while the other head 11B uses the laser beam while moving the disk. It is also possible to select an effective read head by cutting off the irradiation with a shutter or the like and switching the shutters in reverse using a switching signal from the comparison/judgment section 21. If the timing of the operation of the first operation button 5 is satisfied in this way, the game will proceed further (of course, the image reproduction from the surface 10A of the laser disc 10 continues), but the second operation button will be pressed again. 5 is within the next memory pulse number range (for example, 20,000 to 20,080) in the reference table 26.
Whether a figure is displayed or whether the reproduced image from the surface 10B, which is FIG. 5, is to be displayed is determined by the same action. In this case, the read heads 11A, 11
It is necessary that the heads B be fed equally, and that the successful pattern signal area on the surface 10A of the laser disk 10 and the failure pattern signal area on the surface 10B be formed at corresponding positions. However, it goes without saying that this is not the case if the read heads 11A and 11B are independently fed by separate head feed drive sections.

FIG. 7 shows another example of the structure of the read head.
In this example, both read heads 11A and 11B read image signals from one side of the laser disk 10. In this case, the game failure pattern is obtained by the read head 11B, and therefore, the image signal area related to the failure pattern is formed in the inner diameter area of the disk 10. Incidentally, if the embodiments shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 are combined, the number of read heads is not necessarily limited to two. For example, depending on the operation timing of the operation button, you can select and display one success pattern, a failure pattern if the timing is too early, or a failure pattern if the timing is too late.Three for one laser disk. It is also possible to provide a readout head of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000;

As detailed above, according to the present invention, the first screen for displaying the progress of the game smoothly.
Second image data for displaying a game failure screen is stored in an area separate from the image data, and this second image data is read out using a second head separate from the first image data. . When a game fails, the second image data from the second head is instantly used for display, so a single head is moved to the data storage area for displaying the failure screen, just like in a conventional video game device. This enables high-quality screen display without screen cut-offs. Note that the present invention is equally applicable to magnetic disks as well as laser disks as the medium of the image signal section.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a television game device to which the present invention is applied. Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4,
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a game display screen of the television game device of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a system block diagram showing the main structure of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a principle diagram showing another embodiment of the read head used in the present invention. 1...TV game device body, 2...CRT display surface, 4...Game start button, 5...
Operation button, 10... Laser disk, 11
A, 11B...Reading head, 18...Clock pulse generator, 20...Pulse counter, 21
...Comparison and determination section, 26...Reference table, 28...
...Signal switching circuit, 29...Image processing circuit, 30...
...Cathode ray tube.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] (1) In a video game device that displays game screens sequentially on a cathode ray tube, the first image data for displaying the game screen in the course of a smooth game progress and when the game fails. a disk storing second image data for displaying a game screen in separate areas; first and second heads for individually reading out the first image data and the second image data; an operating member that is operated by the player in response to the playback; a determining means that determines whether or not the operating timing of the operating member is within a range allowed for the progress of the game; During the display of the game screen based on the first image data, if the operating timing of the operating member is determined by the determining means to be outside the allowable range, the second image data read from the second head instead of the first head is used. A television game device characterized by displaying a game screen. (2) The television game device according to claim 1, wherein the first image data is stored on the front side of a disk, and the second image data is stored on the back side of the disk.