JPH038308Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a slot machine equipped with a stop switch that is operated by a player to stop the moving display of symbol rows.

[Conventional technology]

Some slot machines are of the reel auto-stop type in which the spinning reels are automatically stopped, but slot machines are equipped with a stop switch to stop the reels, and the player can operate this at any time to stop the reels. is preferred because of the interest of the game.

In a conventional slot machine equipped with such a stop switch, a stop switch is provided for each of, for example, three reels, and the player operates these stop switches in sequence to stop the three reels.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

However, when stopping the three reels as described above, the operation of pressing the stop switch installed at a different location for each reel means that the slot machine game will be played over and over again. Taking this into consideration, it can be cumbersome in terms of operation. Furthermore, in terms of structure, it is necessary to incorporate a plurality of almost identical members according to the number of reels, which is disadvantageous in terms of cost and makes assembly difficult.

The present invention was devised to solve the problems of the prior art, and aims to provide a slot machine that simplifies the operation of the stop switch and is also structurally simple.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a single stop switch for a plurality of moving displayed symbol columns, and each time the switch is operated, the moving display of the plural symbol columns is sequentially stopped. I did it as I went along.

[Effect]

In FIG. 1, a slot machine 1 is provided with an operating handle 2 on its side, and by pulling this towards you, reels 3 to 5 start rotating at the same time. On the outer circumference of these reels 3 to 5 are "Lemon", "Cheery", "SKILL・STOP",
Pictures such as "7" are drawn at regular intervals, and the window 6
Through 8, three symbols can be observed on each reel. Furthermore, when the "SKILL STOP" symbols line up in a horizontal or diagonal line, the three reels automatically start rotating, and at this time they rotate more slowly than normal rotation. Therefore, this is a bonus game, and since the symbols are easy to visually recognize, it is almost certain to win by operating the stop switch, which will be described later.

When medals are inserted into the slot 12, the lock on the operating handle 2 is released by a magnet or the like.
You can start the game. When the number of medals inserted is one, the center line becomes the valid winning line, and when reels 3 to 5 stop, if the combination of symbols stopped on this line corresponds to winning, then A predetermined number of medals are discharged into a tray 13. When the number of inserted medals is 2, the 3 horizontal rows are the valid lines, and when the number of medals inserted is 3, the 3 horizontal rows and 2 diagonal rows are the valid lines. In addition, instead of increasing the winning line according to the number of inserted medals in this way, the number of medals discharged at the time of winning can also be increased according to the number of inserted medals. Furthermore, these two
It is also possible to combine the two methods. Particularly in this case, it is preferable to provide a selection switch so that the player can freely select whether to increase the number of winning lines or to increase the number of medals paid out at the time of winning.

A single stop switch 9 is provided to allow the player to stop the rotation of the reels 3 to 5 at any timing. When the player touches this stop switch 9 once with his or her finger, the rotation of the reels 3 is stopped. If the finger continues to be touched on the stop switch 9, the reel 4 will stop, and if the finger is further touched, the reel 5 will stop. That is,
This stop switch 9 is connected to the three reels 3 to 5.
It has come to be commonly used for stopping. Therefore, when stopping the three reels 3 to 5, the reels can be stopped at the same location without moving the position of the hand.

FIG. 2 shows the electrical configuration. The stop switch 9 is connected to an inverter 16 via a resistor 15. A high potential is applied to this inverter 16, and when a finger touches the stop switch 9, the output of this inverter 16 is inverted from "L" to "H". When the output of the inverter 16 becomes "H", the capacitor 17 is charged and the potential at the connection point 18 increases. When the potential at the connection point 18 rises to a predetermined level, the inverter 1
The output of 9 is inverted from "H" to "L".

When the operating handle 2 is pulled toward the user, the start switch 22 is turned on. Incidentally, instead of the operation handle 2, this start switch 22 may be provided on the surface of the housing, and it may be turned on directly. When medals 23 are inserted into the slot 12, a medal switch 24 is turned on and the number of medals 23 inserted is detected.

When the medal switch 24 is turned on, the microcomputer 25 turns on the solenoid and releases the lock of the operating handle 2 by retracting the stopper. When the start switch 22 is turned on, the game program is executed and pulses are supplied to the motor control circuits 26-28. As a result, the pulse motors 29 to 31 start rotating, and after a certain period of time, the pulse motors 29 to 31 start rotating at a constant speed.

On the other hand, the pulse signals supplied to the motor control circuits 26 to 28 are integrated by software by the microcomputer 25 itself, and the values are stored for each reel. Since the rotational position of the reel is detected based on the integrated value of these pulses, the reel 1
It needs to be reset (cleared) every rotation. For this purpose, a light shielding piece 3a is provided on a part of each reel 3 to 5.
4a, 5a are provided respectively, and these light shielding pieces 3a, 4a, 5a are used as photointerrupters 32-3.
4, and when this detection signal is sent to the microcomputer 25, the integrated value of the pulses is cleared to zero.

Furthermore, while the reels 3 to 5 are rotating at a constant speed, the detection signal should be generated at regular intervals, so
By determining whether this time is longer or shorter than a certain time, it is possible to determine whether the pulse motors 29 to 31 are out of step. If this step-out occurs, the pulse motor is restarted.
All these functions are performed by a microcomputer 25.
This is done using the following software.

After each reel 3-5 reaches a constant rotation speed, a stop signal is input to the microcomputer 25 each time the stop switch 9 is pressed. When one stop signal is received, no pulses are sent to the motor control circuit 26, only the pulse motor 29 stops, and the rotation of the reel 3 stops. Furthermore, when the second and third stop signals are taken into the microcomputer 25, the pulses are no longer supplied to the motor control circuit 27 and the motor control circuit 28, and the pulse motors 30 and 31 are sequentially stopped. Then, the rotation of the reels 4 and 5 also stops.

After all three reels 3 to 5 have stopped in this manner, the microcomputer 25 determines the combination of symbols that have stopped on a predetermined winning line. Then, when the combination corresponds to winning, the number of medals 35 corresponding to the combination is delivered to the medal discharging device, for example, the hopper 3.
It is discharged from 6. This ejected medal 35
After turning on the micro switch 37, enter the saucer 13. This micro switch 37
The number of medals to be ejected is detected by integrating the pulse signals from the machine, and when a predetermined number of medals is reached, the hopper 36 is activated to stop the medals.

FIG. 3 schematically shows the microcomputer 25, which includes a microprocessor 40, a ROM
41, RAM 42, and interface 43. The ROM 41 includes symbol table memories 44 to 46 provided for each reel, a winning table memory 47, and a program memory 48. The pattern table memories 44 to 46 are
Reels 3 to 5 correspond to each other, and the arrangement of the symbols is stored as a code signal. Therefore, if you access the reel position as an address signal,
The code signal of the picture on the center line is output. Then, for the symbols before and after the center line, "1" is added to the address signal, or "1" is added to the address signal.
This can be determined by accessing using the address signal obtained by subtracting .

First, after each of the reels 3 to 5 has stopped, the code signals of the three symbols on the winning line are taken into the microprocessor 40. This code signal is
One byte is allocated to one picture. The winning table memory 47 is accessed using the 3-byte code signal thus obtained. In this case, the 3-byte code signal may be subjected to four arithmetic operations to form a 1-byte address signal, and the winning table memory 47 may be accessed using this address signal.

Since the number of medals to be ejected is stored in the entry award table memory 47, this code signal is taken into the microprocessor 40 and controls the hopper 36. And micro switch 3
The motor of the hopper 36 is stopped when a predetermined number of medals are ejected by counting pulse signals from the hopper 7.

As the game program is stored in the program memory 48, the RAM 42 stores the number of medals inserted and the number of pulses of the pulse motors 29-31.

[Effects of the invention] As explained above, in the slot machine of the invention, while moving and displaying multiple symbol rows,
These moving displays are sequentially stopped by operating a single stop switch multiple times. Therefore, the same stop switch can be used to stop all symbol rows, and each time a single stop switch is operated, the moving display of multiple symbol rows can be stopped one by one, improving operability. can be improved. Furthermore, since only one stop switch is required regardless of the number of symbol columns, the number of parts and assembly steps can be reduced, which is advantageous in reducing manufacturing costs.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a slot machine using the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the slot machine of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing the microcomputer. 2...Operation handle, 3-5...Reel, 9...
...Stop switch, 25...Microcomputer, 29-31...Pulse motor, 32-34
...Photointerrupter, 36...Hopper.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] A slot machine that moves and displays a plurality of symbol rows all at once in response to a game start signal, includes a single stop switch that generates a stop signal every time it is operated by a player, and A slot machine comprising stop control means for receiving a stop signal and sequentially stopping the moving display of the plurality of symbol strings one by one each time the stop signal is generated.