JPH0639085A - Slot machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a game interesting by increasing the combination displays of hit symbols by arranging plural reels in a positive matrix shape, rotating each reel by an individual pulse motor, and arranging the hit lines on vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. CONSTITUTION:3X3 positive matrix-shape reel display windows 5a-5i are formed on a display panel 4, and hit lines 6a-6h are extended over them and marked vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. When a medal is inserted from a medal insert port 10, the hit lines which are made effective according to the effective processing of the operation of a start lever 11 and the number of inserting medals are lit. When a start lever 11 is operated, pulse motors 16a-16i are driven to start the rotation of reels 17a-17i in a batch. The reels 17a-17i are stopped and when the combination of symbols arranged on the hit lines 6a-6h which are made effective is judged as a hit, the display of the hit lines 6a-6h is changed to the flickering display and the medal is discharged to a pen 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a slot machine in which a plurality of reels are driven by individual pulse motors.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional mechanical slot machine, for example, a slot machine that rotates three reels, each reel in rotation is sequentially stopped by operating a start lever for a certain period of time or by operating a stop button. To be done.
Symbols such as "7", "apple", "banana", "star", "bell", etc. are written on the outer peripheral surface of each reel along the rotation direction, and stopped on the hit line. When it is determined that the combination of symbols is a win, the medals stored inside are paid out to the tray.

In the slot machine, three symbols are displayed for each reel in three display windows provided for each reel, and three symbols are arranged horizontally and two diagonally.
A book hit line is provided. The hit line is sequentially increased depending on the number of medals inserted from the medal insertion slot prior to the start of the game. For example, if there is one medal, one horizontal winning line, if there are two medals, then three horizontal winning lines, three medals.
In the case of a sheet, a total of five horizontal and diagonal hit lines are activated. Furthermore, in the slot machine,
If, for example, three "7" symbols stop on one hit line in order to boost the fun of the game, the right to the bonus game is obtained, and this bonus game has a higher probability of winning the hit than the normal game. You can do it.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional slot machine, when the symbol "7" cannot be found when the reel that has stopped first is observed from the display window, the hit line is horizontal and diagonal. Therefore, there was a problem that the interest of the game was not excited because it was found that the right to the bonus game could not be obtained.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a slot machine in which a player's interest in a game is enhanced.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in the slot machine of the present invention, each reel arranged in a square matrix form, a pulse motor for individually rotating them, and all pulse motors. When the combination of the symbols displayed in the display window when the drive of is stopped is a pattern of a winning combination, and the pattern determining unit determines that the combination of the symbols is a winning combination. When the determination is made, a payout control unit for paying out the number of medals according to the winning combination is provided.

[0007]

1 shows the appearance of a slot machine to which the present invention is applied, a front door 3 is pivotally mounted on a main body 2 of the slot machine so as to be openable and closable, and a display panel 4 is provided at a central portion of the front door 3. It is installed. This display panel 4 is shown in FIG.
9, a total of nine reel display windows 5a to 5i arranged in a square matrix of 3 rows and 3 columns are formed. Further, on the display panel 4, eight hit lines 6a to 6h are vertically, horizontally and diagonally arranged so as to straddle the three reel display windows 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, the front door 3 is provided with a medal slot 10 and a start lever 11, respectively. Inside the medal insertion slot 10, in addition to a medal selector described later, a medal counter for counting the number of inserted medals is provided. When a medal is inserted from the medal insertion slot 10 prior to the start of the game, the operation of the start lever 11 is activated, and the hit line 6 activated according to the number of inserted medals is turned on. When the start lever 11 is operated, the reel unit 15 shown in FIG.
The pulse motors 16a to 16i arranged in 3 rows and 3 columns are driven to simultaneously rotate the first to ninth reels 17a to 17i observed through the reel display windows 5a to 5i shown by the alternate long and short dash lines in the figure. The symbols observed from each reel display window 5 are three as shown in FIG. 4, but only one in the center is completely displayed, and two symbols sandwiching this are displayed. Is half shielded.

When the first to ninth reels 17a to 17i are stopped and it is determined that a combination of symbols arranged on the activated hit line 6 is a hit, the lighting display of the hit line 6 is changed to a blinking display. , A predetermined number of medals corresponding to the winning combination, the receiving tray 18 (see FIG. 1)
Be paid to. The number of medals paid out is
It is displayed on the display unit 19 provided above the medal slot 10.

In FIG. 5, which is an enlarged view of the reel,
The cylindrical reel body 25 includes a pair of rings 26, 27.
And six stays 28. A triangular side stay 29 is integrally formed on one of the rings 26, and a connecting portion 30 is fixed to the side stay 29 with three screws. The connecting portion 30 is fitted to the shaft of the pulse motor 16. Further, a tapered surface 31 is formed on the stay 26 side of the ring 26. The other ring 2
A collar 33 having a notch 32 formed in a part thereof is integrally provided at 7. The notch 32 is used for detecting the rotation of the reel body 25. When the sheet 34 shown by the alternate long and short dash line in the drawing is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the reel unit 25, the reel 17 is obtained. It should be noted that symbols such as "7", "apple", "banana", "star" and "bell" are written on the sheet 34 at regular intervals.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a part of the reel unit.
In the unit board 40, the pulse motor 16
Also, photo sensors 41 for detecting the notches 32 are fixed by screws. The shaft 42 of this pulse motor 16
When the connecting portion 30 is fitted and the reel 17 is attached,
The collar 33 is inserted between the light emitting portion 41a and the light receiving portion 41b of the photo sensor 41.

In FIG. 7 showing the functional blocks of the slot machine, the medal detector 43 detects the medals inserted from the medal insertion slot 10 one by one, and outputs a detection signal to the medal counter 44 each time. The medal counter 44 counts the number of detection signal inputs and sends the count value to the CPU 45 to which the ROM 46 storing the game program is connected. This CPU 45 stores the count value in RAM
The value is recorded in 47, and each hit line 6 is activated according to the count value. This data is sent from the CPU 45 to the lighting control unit 48 shown in FIG. The lighting control unit 48 to which the data is sent turns on the LEDs 50a to 50h corresponding to the hit lines 6a to 6h via the drivers 49a to 49h. For example, when the count value is "1", the hit line 6
When the count value is "2", the LEDs 50a to 50c of the hit lines 6a, 6b, 6c are the hit lines 6a, 6b, 6c, and when the count value is "3".
The LEDs 50a to 50e of 6d, 6e, and the hit lines 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, when the count value is "4"
The LEDs 50a to 50h of 6e, 6f, 6g, and 6h are turned on.

After the medals have been inserted, the CPU 45
A signal generator 5 that operates the random number generation circuit 55 and generates a start signal by operating the start lever 11.
Waiting for input from 6. When this start signal is input, the CPU 45 sends it to the motor controller 57 and the sampling circuit 58. The motor controller 57 uses the driver 5
The pulse motors 16a to 16i are driven via 9a to 59i to rotate the first to ninth reels 17a to 17i all at once. While the reels 17 are rotating, the notch 32 has the photo sensor 4
Each time the vehicle passes 1, the rotational position detection signal is output to the motor control unit 57 from the photo sensors 41a to 41i. From the rotational position detection signal and the number of pulses supplied to the pulse motor 16, the motor control unit 56 creates rotational position data for each of the first to ninth reels 17a to 17i.
Output to PU45.

Further, the sampling circuit 58 samples one random number from a random number sequence within a predetermined range by the input of the start signal, and sends the random number value to the hit judging section 60 via the CPU 45. The hit determination unit 60 determines the stop position of each reel and the number of payout medals for the executed game, based on the random number value. Therefore, the hit determination unit 6
The winning combination storing unit 61 is connected to 0. In the winning combination storage unit 61, data of the stop position of each reel and the number of paid-out medals is stored for every random number that can be sampled by the sampling circuit 58. The data of the stop position of each reel and the number of paid-out medals determined by the hit determination unit 60 are sent to the CPU 45. CPU
45 records the data of the number of paid-out medals in the RAM 47, and the stop position data of each reel is recorded by the motor control unit 5.
Send to 7.

When a certain period of time elapses after the start lever 11 is operated, the CPU 45 supplies a stop signal to the motor controller 57. As a result, the motor control unit 57 causes each pulse motor 1 to operate based on the stop position data of each reel.
6a to 16i are stopped, and nine reels 17a to
17i is stopped in the order of the circled numbers shown in FIG. By this stop control, a combination of symbols determined by the hit determination unit 60 appears on the hit line 6. The confirmation of the combination of these symbols is performed by the CPU 45 after all the reels 17 are stopped.

The result of this confirmation is sent from the CPU 45 to the lighting control unit 48. The lighting control unit 48 causes the LED 50 of the hit line 6 indicating the combination of the hit symbols to blink via the driver 49. In addition, the CPU 45
Sends the payout medal number data recorded in the RAM 47 to the payout control unit 62. The payout control unit 62 drives the medal payout device 63 to receive the stored medals 18
Pay out to.

The operation of the slot machine thus configured will be described. When four medals are inserted from the medal insertion slot 10, first the hit line 6a, then the hit lines 6b and 6c, the hit lines 6d and 6e, and finally the hit lines 6f, 6g, and 6h. All the hit lines 6 LEDs 50a to 50h are turned on. After that, when the start lever 11 is operated, the nine reels 1
7a to 17i rotate in unison. During this time, the hit determination unit 6
0 creates data indicating the stop position of each reel 17 and the number of medals to be paid out from the sampled random number value and the data stored in the winning combination storage unit 61, and sends them to the CPU 45 and the motor control unit 57.

When a stop signal is sent from the CPU 45 after a lapse of a fixed time, the motor control unit 57 causes the pulse motor 1 to operate.
6a to 16i are stopped in the order of the circled numbers shown in FIG.
As a result, each reel 17 in the reel display window 5 is reel 17a → reel 17b → reel 17c → reel 17d.
→ reel 17e → reel 17f → reel 17g → reel 17h → reel 17i are stopped in this order. When all reels 17 are stopped, for example, 3 reel display windows 5g
When the symbol "7" is displayed in the center of each of ~ 5i, the lighting control unit 48 switches the LED 50c from the lighting state to the blinking state. At this time, a large number of medals are paid out to the tray 18.

In this slot machine, even if the symbol "7" is not displayed on the first six reel display windows 5a to 5f of the nine reel display windows 5, there is still a possibility of a big hit. become. Therefore, the player who plays the game on this slot machine does not awaken even after the interest has passed the latter half of the game. Furthermore, in this slot machine, in the center of each of the reel display windows 5c, 5f, 5i,
When the symbols of "7" are displayed, the LED 50h of the hit line 6h can be blinked to make a big hit. Also, the reel display windows 5a, 5c, 5g, 5i
When the symbol “7” is displayed in the center of each of the LEDs, the respective LEDs 5 of the hit lines 6b, 6c, 6f, 6h
You can make a big hit by blinking 0b, 50c, 50f, and 50h. Furthermore, when the symbols "7" are lined up in the reel display windows 5a, 5c, 5e, 5g, 5i,
It can also be a big hit when lined up on the reel display windows 5b, 5d, 5e, 5f, 5h. In this way, the slot machine of the present invention can diversify the display form of the big hit.

FIG. 9 shows a reel stop sequence different from that of the above embodiment. In this embodiment, the motor control unit 57 stops the pulse motors 16a and 16i at the same time, next stops the pulse motors 16b, 16d, 16f and 16h at the same time, further stops the pulse motors 16c and 16g at the same time, and finally the pulse The motor 16 is stopped. As a result, the nine reels 17a to 17i are stopped in the order of the circled numbers shown in the figure. By stopping the nine reels in such an order, the possibility of a big hit can be left until the end of the game, and the player can be more excited about the game.

In the above embodiment, the present invention has been described by using the slot machine with an auto-stop mechanism, but the present invention can be applied to a slot machine with a stop button for stopping a reel by operating a stop button, and the same effect can be obtained. You can In each of the above embodiments, the big hit is explained, but when another symbol combination is displayed on the vertical, horizontal and diagonal hit lines, when the same symbol is displayed on all reel display windows, Needless to say, when the same symbol is displayed on the reel display windows at the four corners or when the same symbol is displayed on a plurality of lines, for example, like a cross, it may be a medium hit or a small hit. Furthermore, in the slot machine of the above embodiment, the reels are arranged in 3 rows and 3 columns, but the reels are arranged in N rows and N columns (N
> 3).

[0022]

As described above, in the slot machine of the present invention, a plurality of reels are arranged in a square matrix and each reel is rotated by an individual pulse motor. By arranging them on a diagonal line, it is possible to increase the number of combinations of winning symbols to be displayed, which makes the game more exciting.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a slot machine of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a reel display window and a hit line.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a reel unit in which nine pulse motors are arranged.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing symbols observed from a display window.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a reel unit.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view showing a part of a reel unit.

FIG. 7 is a view showing an electrical configuration of the slot machine.

8 is a diagram that complements a part of the electrical configuration shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an order in which nine reels are stopped.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a reel stop order different from that in FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 Display panel 6a-6h Line per 5a-5i Reel display window 11 Start lever 15 Reel unit 16a-16i Pulse motor 17a-17i Reel 25 Reel body 45 CPU 49a-49h Driver 50a-50h LED

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A slot machine in which a plurality of reels on which symbols are displayed are simultaneously rotated along a rotation direction by a start signal from a start means, and each reel is stopped automatically or manually. Multiple reels arranged in a square matrix, pulse motors that rotate each reel individually, multiple display windows for observing symbols on each reel, and display windows when all reels are stopped. A pattern determination unit that determines whether the displayed combination of symbols is a winning combination pattern, and when the pattern determination unit determines that the combination of symbols is a winning combination, the number of images corresponding to this winning combination. And a payout control unit for paying out the medals of the slot machine.