JPH114941A - Variable symbol display game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize the smooth rotation of a reel at a time of low speed rotation. SOLUTION: A variable symbol display part is composed of reels 11a, 11b and 11c, each of which has a symbol shown on the outer peripheral face. In addition, each of the reels 11a, 11b and 11c is driven to rotate by a stepping motor 22, to the output shaft 22a of which a speed reducer 23 is connected. The output shaft 27 of the speed reducer 23 is connected to the center position of an elastic material 28 of a plate shape whose outer peripheral part is fixed to the boss part 21a of each of the reels 11a, 11b and 11c.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a variable symbol display game machine such as a pachinko game machine having a variable symbol display section, and more particularly to a plurality of reels having a plurality of symbols displayed on an outer peripheral surface. And a symbol variable display game machine comprising the variable symbol display section.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a typical pachinko game machine has a flat box-shaped main body and a transparent glass plate which is openably and closably mounted on a front panel of the main body. On the board surface of the main body, a winning opening is provided at various places, a symbol variable display section is provided at a central portion, and an out opening is provided at a lower portion. A plurality of reels are provided inside the main body in accordance with the position of the variable symbol display section.

In a pachinko game machine having such a configuration, when a pachinko ball fired on the board enters a specific winning opening, a plurality of reels of the symbol variable display section rotate for an appropriate time and then stop. When the combination of symbols on each reel becomes a predetermined combination, a profit state such as a big hit is given to the player.

A stepping motor is generally used as a rotation drive source of a reel in order to stop positioning of a symbol at an appropriate position. This stepping motor rotates by one step angle every time a clock pulse is given, and can detect the position of each symbol by counting the number of clock pulses per rotation.

Meanwhile, there is a slot machine as another amusement machine using a plurality of reels to constitute a variable symbol display section. In a typical slot machine, each reel after startup is controlled to rotate at a relatively low speed,
When the stop button switch is pressed, the reel suddenly stops. On the other hand, in a pachinko game machine, the reels that have been started up are controlled to rotate at a relatively high speed, then shift to a low-speed rotation as time elapses, and finally stop slowly. Therefore, there is a considerable difference in reel rotation control between pachinko game machines and slot machines.

In a conventional pachinko game machine, when a reel is started, a clock pulse of a constant high frequency is given to a stepping motor to rotate the reel at a relatively high speed, and then the frequency of the clock pulse is gradually reduced to reduce the frequency of the reel. The rotation speed is reduced, and finally, the supply of the clock pulse is stopped to stop the rotation of the reel.

[0007]

However, in the conventional pachinko game machine, since the reel is directly connected to the output shaft of the stepping motor, when the reel is rotated at a low speed, the frequency of the clock pulse decreases and the stepping is performed. The time interval of the step rotation of the motor increases,
The rotation of the output shaft is intermittent. As a result, the rotation of the reels and the movement of the symbols are intermittent, which gives the player a sense of discomfort.

In order to make the low-speed rotation of the reel continuous and smooth, there has been a contrivance to make the clock pulse applied to the stepping motor into an analog like a sine waveform at the time of low-speed rotation. Requires a circuit configuration for converting a clock pulse into an analog signal, which complicates the entire circuit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a variable symbol display amusement machine which realizes smooth rotation of a reel at low speed rotation with a relatively simple configuration. .

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a symbol variable display amusement machine comprising a plurality of reels each having a plurality of symbols displayed on an outer peripheral surface thereof. A stepping motor is used as a rotation drive source, and a speed reduction mechanism is connected to an output shaft of the stepping motor. The output shaft of the speed reduction mechanism has an outer peripheral portion connected to a central position of a plate-shaped elastic body fixed to a central portion of the reel.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of inverted conical tapered holes into which a screw having an inverted conical head can be inserted are formed in an outer peripheral portion of the elastic body, and a central portion of the reel is formed. The screw holes are formed at the locations corresponding to the respective tapered holes.Each screw is inserted into each tapered hole of the elastic body, and the screw portion of each screw is screwed into the screw hole of the reel. The body is fixed to the center of the reel.

[0012]

When the stepping motor is driven, the rotation of the output shaft of the stepping motor is reduced according to the reduction ratio of the reduction mechanism and transmitted to the reel. When the reel rotates at low speed,
If the frequency of the clock pulse applied to the stepping motor is set higher in accordance with the reduction ratio, the reel rotates continuously and smoothly at a low speed. In this case, since the elastic body is interposed between the speed reduction mechanism and the reel, even if the stepping motor rotates intermittently, and the intermittent rotation is transmitted to the output shaft of the speed reduction mechanism, the elastic body does this. Absorbs and the reel rotates smoothly.

[0013] In the symbol variable display amusement machine according to the second aspect of the present invention, by tightening each screw, the inverted conical head deeply enters the tapered hole and presses the elastic body toward the center of the reel. Is tightly attached to the reel and firmly fixed together.

[0014]

FIG. 1 shows the appearance of a pachinko game machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated pachinko game machine has a transparent glass plate 1B on the front of a thin box-shaped main body 1A.
Are openably and closably attached to form the body 1.

An operation unit 3 for firing pachinko balls, a receiving tray 4 for receiving pachinko balls, and a receiving tray 5 for receiving released pachinko balls are provided at the lower front part of the main body 1A. On the board surface 2 of the main body 1A, a winning opening 8 is provided at various places, a variable symbol display section 6 having three symbol display windows 6a, 6b, 6c at a central portion, and an out opening 9 is provided at a lower portion. In the figure, 7
Is a passage for guiding the fired pachinko balls to the board 2.

The variable symbol display section 6 includes a main body 1A.
At the position of each symbol display window 6a, 6b, 6c inside
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, three reels 11a, 1
1b and 11c are provided respectively. Each reel 11
The outer peripheral surfaces of a, 11b, and 11c are formed on a symbol display surface 14 on which a plurality of symbols 13 are displayed. The symbol display surface 14 is formed by attaching a belt-shaped sheet 15 on which the symbols 13 are printed to the outer peripheral surface of the reel body 21.

When the rotation of all the reels 11a, 11b and 11c is stopped, the symbols 13 for three frames on each of the reels 11a, 11b and 11c are stopped at the positions of the symbol display windows 6a, 6b and 6c, and each symbol is displayed. Windows 6a, 6b, 6c
The symbol 13 on each of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c can be visually recognized through the outside.

The variable symbol display section 6 is formed by a front panel 12 in which three symbol display windows 6a, 6b, 6c are opened in a horizontal line. The front panel 12 has a peripheral wall portion 12 a protruding rearward on the outer peripheral edge, and is fixed to the panel surface 2 with screws.

As shown in FIG. 3, a horizontally long rectangular frame 16 is interposed between the reels 11a, 11b, 11c and the front panel 12, and this frame 16 is fixed to the main body 1A by screws. I do. The frame 16 has openings 17a, 17b, 1 for allowing the symbol display surfaces 14 of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c to face individually.
7c, and each of the openings 17a, 17b, 17c
, The reels 11a, 11b, 11c are positioned. Also, each opening 17a, 17b,
The front panel 12 is placed on the frame 16 such that the symbol display windows 6a, 6b, 6c are superimposed on 17c.

As shown in FIG. 3, a light source 18 for illuminating the symbol display surface 14 of each of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c is disposed on the rear surface of the front panel 12.
The light source 18 includes a plurality of light emitting diodes. Each light emitting diode is mounted and held on a printed wiring board 19 sandwiched between the front panel 12 and the frame 16.

The reel body 21 of each of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c has a disk-shaped boss 21a at the center of the diameter.
A plurality of connecting shaft portions 21c in a radial arrangement are integrally connected between the boss portion 21a and one side edge of the outer peripheral annular portion 21b.

Each of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c is driven by an individual reel drive mechanism 20a, 20b, 20c.
An example of the configuration of 0c is specifically shown in FIG. FIG.
Is a reel drive mechanism 20a for the left reel 11a in FIG.
However, the reel drive mechanisms 20b and 20c of the other reels 11b and 11c have the same configuration. Therefore, only the reel drive mechanism 20a will be described here, and illustration and description of the other reel drive mechanisms 20b and 20c will be omitted.

A reel driving mechanism 20a shown in FIG. 4 includes a stepping motor 22 as a rotation driving source, a speed reduction mechanism 23 for reducing the rotation of the stepping motor 22, and a rotation of an output shaft 27 of the speed reduction mechanism 23. 11a
And a disc-shaped elastic body 28 that transmits the elastic force to the elastic member.

The speed reduction mechanism 23 includes a casing 24 in which a driving gear 25 connected to an output shaft 22a of the stepping motor 22 and a driven gear 26 meshing with the driving gear 25 are housed and arranged. The output shaft 27 of the reduction mechanism 23 is integral with the driven gear 26 and protrudes outside the casing 24.

As shown in FIG. 5, the elastic member 28 is formed of an elastic material such as rubber into a disk shape having the same outer shape as the boss 21a of the reel 11a. A connection hole 30 into which the output shaft 27 of the speed reduction mechanism 23 is press-fitted is formed through the center of the elastic body 28. Further, a plurality of tapered holes 31 into which screws 40 can be inserted are formed at 90 degree equiangular positions on the outer peripheral portion of the elastic body 28, respectively. Each screw 40 has a flat head 41 with a flat top and an inverted conical bottom, and each tapered hole 31 has a head 4
It is formed in an inverted conical taper along the shape of No. 1.

The boss 21a of the reel 11a is
8 are formed on a flat surface so as to be in close contact with each other. In the boss portion 21a, a through hole 32 through which the output shaft 27 of the speed reduction mechanism 23 penetrates is provided at a position corresponding to the connection hole 30 of the elastic body 28.
The screw holes 33 into which the screw portions 42 of the screws 40 are screwed are provided at positions corresponding to the respective tapered holes 31 of the elastic body 28.
Are formed respectively. In the figure, reference numeral 34 denotes a retaining member which is screwed to the end face of the output shaft 27 of the speed reduction mechanism 23, and has a diameter larger than the diameter of the through hole 32.

As shown in FIG. 2, a protrusion 21d is provided on the annular portion 21b of each of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c. Each time the protrusion 21d passes through a photoelectric sensor (not shown), the photoelectric sensor generates an initial reset signal and outputs the signal to a control circuit section mainly controlled by a microcomputer.

The control circuit section includes the reels 11a and 11
The position of the symbol 13 on each of the reels 11a, 11b and 11c is detected by controlling the driving of the stepping motors 22b and 11c and counting the number of clock pulses applied to the stepping motor 22 for each rotation.

In the above embodiment, when a clock pulse is supplied to the stepping motor 22 for each reel and the reel 11a, 11b, 11c is driven to rotate, the output shaft 22a of each stepping motor 22 is rotated by the speed reduction mechanism 23. , And is transmitted to the reels 11a, 11b, 11c via the elastic body 28. The frequency of the clock pulse is relatively high after starting the reel,
Thereafter, it is set to decrease with time and finally to zero. Thereby, the reels 11a, 11b, 1
1c rotates at a relatively high speed at first, gradually shifts to a low speed rotation thereafter, and finally stops the rotation.

If the speed reduction ratio of the speed reduction mechanism 23 is set to, for example, 1: 4, each of the reels 11a, 11b, 11
c is increased to a frequency four times higher than that of the conventional clock pulse when rotating the stepping motor c at a low speed.
2 can be driven. The rotation of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c at low speed rotation is continuous and smooth because the frequency of the clock pulse is quadrupled. In addition, since the elastic body 28 is interposed between the speed reduction mechanism 23 and the reels 11a, 11b, 11c, even if the stepping motor 2
2 performs intermittent rotation, and even if it is transmitted to the output shaft 27 of the intermittent rotation reduction mechanism 23, the elastic body 28 absorbs this.
As a result, during the period from the low-speed rotation of the reels 11a, 11b, 11c to the stop, each symbol 13 smoothly rotates and moves, and does not give a sense of strangeness to the player.

The elastic body 28 is formed by tightening each screw 40 so that the inverted conical head 41 is formed into a tapered hole 31.
11a, 11b, 11
The boss 21c is pressed against the boss 21a and strongly adheres. As a result, the elastic body 28 is firmly fixed to and integrated with the reels 11a, 11b, 11c.
There is no danger that b and 11c will rattle and vibrate, so that smoother rotation is realized.

The speed reduction ratio of the speed reduction mechanism 23 is as follows:
As this is set larger, the reels 11a, 1
Although the rotation of the reels 1b and 11c at low speed becomes smoother, it is necessary to set the frequency of the clock pulse for rotating the reels 11a, 11b and 11c at high speed after starting. Since the CPU of the microcomputer constituting the control circuit unit determines the symbol 13 every time the stepping motor 22 rotates by one step angle, the upper limit of the frequency of the clock pulse is restricted by the working time of the CPU. Therefore, the speed reduction ratio is set to a preferable value in consideration of this.

In the above-described embodiment, the speed reduction mechanism 23 employs a gear reduction mechanism. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a belt speed reduction mechanism may be employed. Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned pachinko game machine, but can be implemented in, for example, a slot machine as long as it has a symbol variable display section.

[0034]

According to the present invention, as described above, in a variable symbol display game machine in which a variable symbol display section is constituted by a plurality of reels each having a plurality of symbols displayed on an outer peripheral surface, a rotation drive source for each reel is used. Since the speed reduction mechanism is connected to the output shaft of a certain stepping motor, the reel can be rotated continuously and smoothly by increasing the frequency of the clock pulse applied to the stepping motor when the reel is rotated at a low speed. Moreover, since a plate-shaped elastic body is interposed between the speed reduction mechanism and the reel, even if the stepping motor rotates intermittently and the intermittent rotation is transmitted to the output shaft of the speed reduction mechanism, the elastic body absorbs this. I do. As a result, the reel symbols also rotate continuously and smoothly, so that the player does not feel uncomfortable.

Further, a plurality of tapered holes of an inverted cone shape into which a screw having an inverted cone-shaped head can be inserted are formed in an outer peripheral portion of the elastic body, while a screw portion of the screw is formed in a central portion of the reel. Is formed into a screw hole into which the elastic body is screwed, so that the elastic body is pressed against the central portion of the reel by the tightening of the screw, and adheres tightly, and the elastic body is firmly fixed to the reel and integrated.
As a result, there is no fear that the reel rattles and vibrates.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the appearance of a pachinko game machine according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a variable symbol display section of the pachinko game machine of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway front view showing the reel drive mechanism.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing an elastic body of the reel drive mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6 Symbol variable display portion 11a, 11b, 11c Reel 21a Boss portion 21b Annular portion 21c Connecting shaft portion 13 Symbol 22 Stepping motor 23 Reduction mechanism 27 Output shaft 28 Elastic body 31 Tapered hole 33 Screw hole 40 Screw 41 Head 42 Screw portion

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A variable symbol display game machine in which a variable symbol display section is constituted by a plurality of reels each having a plurality of symbols displayed on an outer peripheral surface thereof, wherein each of the reels uses a stepping motor as a rotation drive source. In addition, a speed reduction mechanism is connected to the output shaft of the stepping motor, and the output shaft of the speed reduction mechanism is a symbol variable having an outer peripheral portion connected to a center position of a plate-shaped elastic body fixed to the center portion of the reel. Display amusement machine. 2. A plurality of inverted conical tapered holes into which a screw having an inverted conical head can be inserted are formed in an outer peripheral portion of the elastic body, and a center portion of the reel has A screw hole is formed at a position corresponding to the tapered hole, and a screw is inserted into each tapered hole of the elastic body, and a screw portion of each screw is screwed into a screw hole of the reel.
2. The variable symbol display game machine according to claim 1, wherein the elastic body is fixed to a central portion of the reel.