MXPA06002977A - Method, system, and program product for providing predetermined-prize bonus round play in a game - Google Patents

Abstract

In a method, apparatus and program product for adding a"predetermined-prize bonus"round to a game, such a bonus round includes activity that leads to the revealing of a hidden result (508) for the game. Where the underlying game comprises a bingo game, the game play result (502) includes a bingo card pattern and payout amount for an otherwise ordinary result of the game. A player makes a selection (507) in the predetermined-prize bonus round, but the selection has no affect on the amount awarded for the game, since the amount is determined prior to the player's selection (507).

Description

METHOD, SYSTEM AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDE A GAME WITH A ROUND OF BONUSES OF PREDETERMINED PRIZE, IN A GAME Field of the Invention The invention relates to electronic gaming systems that make it possible for players to participate in bingo games, including games in which there are players in many different locations. More particularly, the invention is directed to apparatus, methods and program products to help players in the fast and safe games of bingo games and to increase the player's participation in bingo games.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The game generally referred to as "bingo" is played with predetermined bingo cards having designations, such as numbers, letters or other symbols, arranged randomly in a grid or other arrangement in a card of bingo. The locations of such designations in a bingo card are sometimes referred to as points. Bingo cards may be physically printed on paper or other suitable material, or may be represented by an information structure that defines the various locations and designations associated with the locations. In a sequence of a traditional bingo game, a number of predetermined bingo cards are put into play for a particular game. After the sale of the bingo cards for a given game is closed, designations of a common stock of available designations are randomly selected, such as by extraction from a marked ball glass. The selected designations are then matched with the designations that are on each bingo card that is in the game's game. This pairing, which is commonly referred to as the marked cone of the card, results in an individual pattern of paired points for each card. In traditional bingo games the marking was done manually by the player who had the bingo card. Subsequently, if the player's marking indicated that the card had a winning model, the card was marked again by a game administrator in order to verify the winning model. The latest bingo game systems automatically verify the winning models in a bingo card as the designations are selected randomly for a game instead of or in addition to the player's marking. Regardless of how the bingo cards in play for a bingo game are marked, the first card that is marked in some predefined way is considered a winning card for the game. While traditional paper bingo games are still popular, the speed at which such traditional games are played is often a key issue among players of these times, who are increasingly accustomed to faster-paced entertainment . That is, certain stages in the traditional paper bingo game are relatively slow. These include the time for the acquisition of the letter, that is, a period of "purchase," followed by a period of sequential extractions of balls, for which there is an announcement for each individual designation that is extracted, followed by a period for allow players to manually mark their letter or letters, and then a time for verification of the winner. This time that is required to play a traditional bingo game tends to limit excitement and player satisfaction. Several systems have been developed to help players play bingo games and increase the player's participation in the games. The REEL TIMEMR game system proposed by Multimedia Games, Inc., includes a bingo game system in which players can participate in bingo games in different gaming facilities, which can be separated into a wide geographical area. Players participate in bingo games on the REEL TIMEMR system through electronic player stations maintained at various gaming facilities. According to one modality of the game system REEL TEVÍEMR, described in the applications referred to above, players of one or more gaming facilities electronically present one or more cards. A game engine included in the system automatically groups the players, conducts the games and then returns the results to the participating players in their respective player stations. The return of a result includes the communication of information that directly identifies the outcome of the game for a particular letter, or information that indirectly identifies the result, such as through a search table. The identified result is then presented at the respective player station in the form of a suitable graphic representation. The graphic representation may include the actual bingo model for the player card and may also include a graphic description of some aspect of a game not traditionally related to a bingo game, such as a horse race, or a model of positions of reel stop in a slot machine, for example. In some implementations a player may place more than one bingo card in a game at a given time and the results for the different cards are displayed in some unified graphical representation, such as a representation of a multi-line slot machine for example. Electronic bingo game systems and electronic player stations similar to those used in the REEL TIMEMR game system may increase the speed at which certain operations in a bingo game may be executed, such as those operations delayed that were mentioned above, For example, however, even in bingo games implemented electronically, lottery games and other games that are implemented electronically there is a need and opportunity to increase excitement and player satisfaction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses the aforementioned need with a method, apparatus and program product to add to a game a round of "predetermined prize" bonuses, especially a bingo game. The default bonus bonus round, which can be referred to hereafter simply as the "bonus round" includes at least one round of activity that allows a player to reveal a result in the game. For a bingo game, the result will be a result for a bingo card given in the bingo game. According to the invention, the result in the game is hidden or hidden from the player of the game while the player is presented with at least one group of selection options. The player is required to choose from among the selection options to reveal the result in the game. By requiring the player to make a selection or choice to see the outcome of the game, the activity of the bonus round makes the game more interactive and increases the player's participation in the game. In particular, the player's interactive engagement and the associated suspense that was added with the player's choice increases the excitement and maintains or captures the player's interest in the game. However, the actual result is predetermined by the game in question and in fact is not affected by the choice or selection of the player. A system according to the invention typically includes a number of electronic player stations and a result server connected to the electronic player stations in a communication network. The results server can be formed by a single computer system in some systems while in other systems it can actually include different computer systems in the same or in different physical locations and which jointly produce or obtain results from the game. Each electronic game station is used to generate a game starting request in response to a player input signal at the player station. Each game departure request fed into a player station is communicated to the result server or servers to obtain a result for the game starting request, that is, a result of the game game. For example, each game departure request may be communicated to a server through a suitable communications arrangement, and the server may use the game departure requests to conduct a game, such as a bingo-type game for example, and obtaining a result of the game game for each respective game starting request. Regardless of how the result is obtained for a game starting request in the game in question, a suitable bonus round association controller included in the system associates certain game game results with the bonus round, while others Results of game games are not associated with the bonus round. For a result of a game game since it is not associated with the bonus round, a display controller included in the system responds to the game game result by causing a display associated with the player electronic station to display or display the game. result of the game game in some way. For a result of a given game game associated with the bonus round, the display controller included in the system responds to the outcome of the game game by causing the display at the player station to present the player with a number of options for the game. selection from which you can choose. The viewer controller also causes the result that has been associated with the bonus round to be hidden or hidden until the player chooses one of the selection options, and then causes the result to be displayed to the player only after the selection by the player of any of the selection options. The invention can be implemented through a program product stored in a means that can be read by computer and adapted to be executed by one or more processing devices, such as the display controller for example, to direct the respective device. processing to carry out its function in the system. In a particular embodiment, the program product includes a main program code of display that responds to game starting results without a bonus that is not associated with the bonus round, and an option selection deployment program code to answer to game game results that are associated with the bonus round. In particular, the main display program code is executed to respond to a result of a game game without a bonus by having the player's display reveal or display to the player the result of the game game without a bonus. The deployment program code of the selection option is executed to respond to a result of a game by having the player's visualizer present the game player with the selection options from which it is chosen in the bonus round. . The program product according to one embodiment of the invention also includes a program code for displaying the bonus round which is executed to cause the player's display to display the game game result in response to the selection of the game. player of the game of any one of the number of selection options presented under the control of the program code of deployment of the selection options. These and other advantages and features of the invention will be clear from the following description of the preferred embodiments, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a bingo game system with which the present invention can be implemented. Figure 2 is a diagrammatic representation of an arrangement of a computer system that can be used by the central gaming server and the local area servers included in the system shown in Figure 1. Figure 3 is a diagrammatic representation of a electronic player station that can be used in the system shown in Figure 1. Figure 4 is a diagrammatic representation of one embodiment of the present invention as implemented with the system shown in Figure 1. Figure 5 is a diagram that provides a description of a process that embodies the principles of the present invention. Figure 6 is a representation of a display screen of a player station that can be used to communicate to a player the result of a game where the result of the game is not associated with a round of bonuses. Figure 7 is a representation of a display screen of a player station of selection options according to an embodiment of the invention. Figure 8 is a representation similar to that of Figure 7, but showing the result revealed to the player.

Description of Preferred Modalities The claims at the end of this application establish novel features that applicants believe are characteristic of the invention. The invention, a preferred mode of use and additional advantages and features of the invention will be better understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The present invention that provides a game with a bonus round can be used with many different types of games. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the game in question comprises a bingo game. The invention will be described below mainly in relation to this particular bingo modality. However, it should be noted that the invention is not limited to providing a game with bonus rounds in a bingo game or in bingo-type games. Rather, the invention can be used to provide a game with bonus rounds for lottery games and many other types of games. Figure 1 shows a gaming system 100 which includes a central gaming server (CGS) 101 that cooperates with a number of other components to enable bingo players, preferably on many different remote gaming sites, to participate in bingo games. Each game site includes a local area server (LAS) 102 and a number of electronic player stations (EPSs) 103. As will be described in more detail below, in the normal operation of a game system 100, a player in Any of the EPS 103 in the system can participate in a given bingo game with players that are in other EPSs 103 that are in the system. In this way, players who are in different gaming facilities can be grouped together for a given game of bingo, administered through the system 100. Grouping together players from different game facilities for the game of a bingo game allows that different bingo games are played quickly and reduces the time that players must wait to receive the result of their participation in the bingo game. The system 100 includes an arrangement for grouping players for the game of a simple bingo game to facilitate a quick game. This grouping includes limiting the number of players participating in a bingo game to reduce the time required to play the game. The system 100 reduces the time that elapses between a request to start in one of the EPSs 103 and the return of the results to the respective EPSs sufficiently to allow great flexibility in how the results of the bingo game are displayed to the player. In particular, bingo game results may be displayed in some way unrelated to bingo. For example, the results of the bingo game can be mapped to a display screen traditionally associated with a reel-type game (slot machine), a display related to a card game, or a display that shows a race such as horses or a dog race, for example. Preferred techniques for mapping bingo game results for deployment associated with games or contests unrelated to bingo are described in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 10 / 060,643, filed 30 January 2002 and entitled "Method, apparatus and product program for the presentation of results in a game type bingo." The entire content of this prior application is hereby incorporated by reference. System 100 quickly groups players and starts one game after another so that multiple games can be played at any given time. That is, once a first group of players has been assigned to participate in a bingo game offered through system 100, the system proceeds to simultaneously administer a bingo game for the first group of players and also begins to group players for an upcoming bingo game. System 100 does not necessarily wait for a bingo game to complete before starting to gather players to start a game in the next bingo game. The number of players grouped for the game of bingo games according to the present invention can be limited to reduce the time required for the grouping of players. For example, each bingo game offered through the gaming system 100 shown in Figure 1 can be limited to between 2 and 20 players, with 10 to 15 being the preferred number of players for any given game. Where the system 100 includes numerous EPSs 103 in the various remote locations, in the order of several hundred EPSs for example, hundreds of individual bingo games may be in process at any given time through the game system. Regardless of the speed of play provided by the system 100 and regardless of the manner in which the bingo game results are displayed, the game in question remains a standard bingo game played in the traditional game sequence of the game. bingo games. That is, each player gets or is assigned a bingo card or the representation of a bingo card, all the bingo cards that are in the game are marked or verified to match them with a sequence of randomly generated designations (for example, designations produced in a ball extraction or produced by a random number generator), and the first card in the game that matches the sequence of designations to produce the end-of-game winning pattern wins the bingo game. Additional prizes may be awarded for other models that may occur during the course of the bingo game. The mapping of different prizes for different bingo models that may occur in the course of a bingo game in the system 100 may be carried out as described in U.S. Patent No. 6,569,017, entitled "Method for the allocation of prizes in bingo-type games "or in the application of United States of America Patent with Serial No. 10 / 238,313, filed on September 10, 2002 and entitled" Prize allocation method and program product. for bingo-type games. " The complete content of each of these documents referred to above is incorporated herein by reference. The CGS 101 may comprise a computer system such as the basic system shown in Figure 2. The basic system may include one or more processors 200, non-volatile memory 201, volatile memory 202, a user interface array 203, and a communication interface 204, all connected to the system bus 205. It will be appreciated that the user interface array 203 may include a number of different devices such as a keyboard, a display screen, and a pointing device such as a mouse or pointer ball for example. It will also be appreciated that each of these user interface devices will commonly include its own interface to the computer system, although they are not shown in Figure 2. Alternatively to the integrated user interface array 203 shown in Figure 2, it can provide a user interface for the CGS 101 through a separate computer (not shown) in communication with the CGS. Regardless of the particular configuration for the CGS 101, in the normal operation of the system 100 shown in Figure 1, the CGS functions to group players for participation in bingo games offered through the system, produces or obtains sequences of designations (extractions). of balls, for example) for the game of bingo games, verifies the results in the bingo games, and communicates the results to the LASs 102. As used in this description any sequence of designations that can be paired against cards of Bingo or card representations in the present game system will be referred to as a "ball extraction" regardless of how the sequence is actually generated. Under this definition, it will be appreciated that a ball retrieval can be produced by a random number generator, a pseudo random number generator, or any other appropriate device or system or not necessarily a physical ball extraction device. Each of the LAS 102 included in the system 100 as shown in Figure 1 may comprise a computer system having the same basic structure as that shown in Figure 2. That is, each LAS 102 may include one or more processors 200, permanent memory 201, volatile memory 202, user interface array 203, and communication interface 204 all connected to the system bus 205. As with the CGS 101, the user interface for the respective LAS 102 may be provided through a separate computer and communications with the LAS more than the integrated user interface array 203 shown in Figure 2. In spite of the specific configuration of the LAS 102, each LAS serves, in the normal operation of the system shown in Figure 1, to transfer or transmit CGS 101 information from its respective EPS 103 and transfer or transmit information from the CGS to the EPSs of the respective LAS. Each LAS 102 according to the present invention may also have the ability to group players and actually play bingo games in certain situations. For example, where an LAS 102 service a large number of EPS 103, the LAS can group players from their respective EPSs during a time of high activity of the players, obtain or produce a ball extraction, detect the results of the game of bingo, and return the results to the EPSs rather than having the CGS 101 carry out these tasks. Also, each LAS 102 shown in Figure 1 can be configured to carry out the tasks normally performed by the CGS 101 in the event that the communication link between the respective LAS and the CGS is degraded below a certain level or that everything is broken down as a whole. Figure 3 shows an example of an EPS 103 that can be used in a game system embodying the principles of the present invention. Illustrated EPS 103 includes a processor 300, volatile memory 301, permanent memory 302, and a communication interface 303. Volatile and permanent memory stores a computer program code that can be executed by processor 300 to cause the processor to execute or direct the various functions provided by EPS 103. The communication interface 303 allows communications between EPS 103 and its respective LAS 102 and / or CGS 101. The EPS 103 also includes a user interface arrangement to facilitate the player's participation in the bingo games offered through the gaming system 100 shown in Figure 1, and display results in an exciting and attractive format. In particular, the user interface arrangement associated with EPS 103 facilitates the departure of the bingo game in question and participation in one or more rounds of bonuses in accordance with the present invention. A preferred user interface includes player controls 304, a display or display screen 305 with a touch-sensitive screen, a sound system 306, and perhaps other features 307 such as special alarms or displays or warning devices. Each EPS 103 preferably includes a convenient system to allow the player to feed player-specific information and to receive bets and share winnings. For example, the EPS 103 shown in Figure 3 includes a player card reader 308 that is adapted to read player-specific information from a player account card that is inserted into the player. A player account card may, for example, include player information or simply a player identifier encoded on a magnetic medium (magnetic tape) associated with the card, or encoded in a bar code, or a memory device associated with the player. the player's card The illustrated EPS 103 also includes a device 309 for receiving values and issuing values in the course of the game. This device can accept coins, vouchers, or tokens, for example, and also dispatch coins, vouchers, or tokens. Of course, a separate device may be used to receive or dispatch values for games played in accordance with the present invention. Alternatively or in addition to the value entry / exit device 309, EPSs 103 can read player account information from the player card or player information fed in some other way in the EPS, and post bets and winnings in the manner set forth in the application of United States of America Patent Serial No. 10 / 044,478, filed on January 10, 2002 and entitled "Game System Based on Distributed Account" whose content in its entirety is incorporates this as a reference. It will be appreciated that the particular configuration of devices shown in Figure 1 is illustrated for exemplary purposes only. A bingo game system or other gaming systems that can be used in an implementation of the present invention may omit some or all of the separate LAS 102's in various gaming facilities so that the EPS 103's communicate directly with the CGS 101. Also, several regions or different gaming facilities can be divided into separate systems each having a respective CGS such as the CGS 101. In these situations the system could be configured in such a way that a single EPS 103 could be served by either the CGS. In addition, a game system embodying the principles of the present invention may include multiple CGSs rather than a single CGS 101 as shown in Figure 1. Figure 4 may be used to describe the components of one embodiment of the present invention when it is implemented in relation to the game system 100. The illustrated game system includes a result server 401 and a viewer controller 402, the result server 401 produces, obtains, or identifies a result of a game game in a game in response to a request for game play. The display controller 402 causes the display device (such as a display screen 305 in Figure 3) associated with an EPS 103 to present the player with a number of selection options from which he chooses during a bonus round. according to the present invention. The display controller 402 also causes the display device to hide the outcome of the game game from the player until the player chooses one of the selection options., and then display to the player the result of the game game in response to the player's selection of any one of the number of selection options. In relation to the results of the game game that are not associated with a bonus round, that is, in relation to game starting results without a bonus, the display controller 402 may also cause the display device to display the player the result of the game without bonus immediately in response to receiving the result of the game without bonus and without presenting any of the selection options presented for the results of the game game associated with the bonus round. In the system 100, the results server 401 is implemented in CGS 101 or LAS 102 depending on the system configuration and the mode of operation in the particular time. That is, either the CGS 101 or the LAS 102 may be able to identify bingo results in the system 100, as described in greater detail in U.S. Patent Application No. 10 / 456,721, which it is incorporated herein by reference. The display controller 402 may be implemented in an EPS 103 in the system 100. In particular, the display controller 402 may be implemented through software code and EPS processing circuitry 103 which is used to control the images produced in the display (305 in Figure 3) associated with the EPS 103. In this way, Figure 4 shows the display driver 402 included in an EPS 103. The details of how a particular result server produces, identifies, or obtains a result for a game game are not critical to the present invention; a result server only needs to provide the result of the game game to be used by a display controller to control the deployment in the course of the game game according to the invention. In this way, many variations are possible for a result server within the scope of the present invention. The results server can be implemented in one or more servers located remotely to the player station and the results can be obtained through the game of a bingo game, bingo-like games, lottery games, or any other types of games. A result server may still be located in the player station itself within the scope of the present invention. The specific modality in relation to the system 100 is shown for example purposes only. The particular form of the outcome of the game game and the manner in which it is communicated to the display controller is also subject to wide variation within the scope of the present invention. A result of a game game may be a code or index value that is correlated with a result definition in the player station. For example, the result server 401 can communicate a bingo result in the form of an encoded value and the EPS 103 can request a locally stored look-up table to identify the value associated with the game game result, identify the model of specific bingo achieved in the game of the bingo game in question, and perhaps alternative symbols or symbols that can be used to display to the player the outcome of the game. Alternatively, the result server 401 may communicate a result of a game game in the form of a data group that specifies the value associated with the outcome of the game game, the bingo model achieved in the bingo game, and the symbols that are going to be used to reveal to the player the result of the game. The results of the game game can be communicated from the result server 401 substantially in any way that allows the EPS 103 and the display controller 402 to carry out their functions in accordance with the present invention. It should also be noted that a result of a game game may also change forms at different points in the processes of the present invention. For example, a game game result may comprise a value encoded in the communication from the game server to the player station, but may comprise a representation of a bingo model, and a prize value as finally displayed at player in a player station. Thus, a game game result as used in the following claims means any identifier or information that represents the result or the product of a game despite the particular form of the identifier or information. Similarly, the specific manner in which a display controller works to perform the display control function is not critical to the present invention. While the display controller 402 is shown to be implemented with circuitry included in an EPS 103 in Figure 4, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the functions of a display controller can be realized using any number of software techniques and circuitry arrangements. . For example, the entire processing required to produce the signals used to generate the actual images on the player display screen can be carried out at some location far from the player station and communicated to the player station through a cable or some other signal communications arrangement. Figure 4 also illustrates a controller 403 bonus association interposed between the result server 401 and the display controller 402. A bonus association controller such as that shown at 403 in Figure 4 can be employed in some forms of the present invention to produce an association between a given result from a result server 401 and the bonus round provided by the present invention. . This association between a result of a game game and a bonus round can be carried out in many different ways within the scope of the present invention. In one mode the association is done in a random mode, such as for a randomly selected time of day. In another modality a bonus round is associated with one or more models of bingo cards determined randomly. In another modality, the bonus round is associated with a randomly determined number of games that a player or a group of players have played. In another modality, a round of bonuses is associated with a randomly determined amount of winnings or losses for a player or a group of players. In yet another embodiment, a result of a game game is associated with a bonus round at a particular time of the day for a particular player station according to a predetermined program of elapsed times, such as the elapsed game time, or a predetermined schedule of hours of the day. In other embodiments, the bonus round is associated with a predetermined number of games played at a player station, or by a particular player, or a common player bag or a predetermined amount of winnings or losses at a player station, or by a particular player or a common bag of players. In other embodiments of the present invention, the bonus association controller 403 can provide the desired association between in-game results and the bonus round according to some predefined relationship. For example, the game system 100 in Figures 1 and 4 may be pre-programmed to associate a round of bonuses with each occurrence of an "X" model, or a "T" model, etc. for a player's bingo card. In this example, the bonus association controller 403 may include a look-up table in which certain types of results are correlated with a round of bonuses. In some embodiments of the present invention the association between the results of the game game and the bonus rounds can be carried out before the generation or identification of the results. That is, implementations of the invention can simply define certain possible outcomes in the game in question as being associated with a round of bonuses. In this case, the result is essentially preassociated with a round of bonuses in the sense that the result is associated with a round of bonuses without any affirmative action in the gaming system other than the generation or identification of the given result. These implementations of the invention will not include a bonus association controller element considering that the association is predefined. An association between the outcome of the game game and the bonus round is still carried out in these alternate implementations, only not in the course of the game of a given game. A method according to the invention can be described with reference to the diagram of Figure 5. In the following description of Figure 5 it will be appreciated that the references to the physical components are references to the diagrams found in Figures 1, 2 , 3 and 4 that show those components. The illustrated process begins with the presentation of a request for a game game in the game as shown in process block 501. Said request for a game game may be presented from a player station such as an EPS 103 in the Figure 1. The system responds to the request of a game game by obtaining, producing, or identifying a result in the game or result of a game game as shown in process block 502 in Figure 5. This stage can be performed by any suitable result server such as a CGS 101 and / or LAS 102 as described above and in related patent application 10 / 456,721. The stage shown in the process block 502 can also be performed by selecting a predetermined result of a sequence of lottery results or by generating a result randomly or according to some algorithm. The process may also include a step such as that shown in the association process block 503 of at least some results with a bonus round as described above in relation to the bonus association controller 403 in Figure 4. Regardless of how you get the result of a game game, and how certain game play results can be associated with bonus rounds, the preferred process illustrated below includes the determination of whether the respective game starting result is associated with a bonus round as indicated in decision block 504. If the game game result is not associated with the bonus round (a game game result without a bonus), the player station display screen shows or displays to the player the game departure result. game without bonus as indicated in process block 505, and then the process returns to wait for the next game starting request.

If the outcome of the game is associated with a bonus round, the process includes presenting the player with selection options from which the player can choose as indicated in block 506. It will be noted that this presentation of Selection options are carried out while the player is hidden from the outcome of the game. An example of selection options and concealment of the result will be described later with reference to Figure 7. In any case, after the presentation of the selection options, the system waits for the player to select one of the options. Upon receiving the selection as indicated in block 507, the process includes the disclosure or display of the game game result as indicated in process block 508. From this point on, the process will resume waiting for the next request game starting It will be appreciated from the previous process that the bonus round provides additional player interaction. In particular, the player selects one of the presented options. However, in the preferred form of the invention the activity by the player in the bonus round has no effect on the outcome of the game. Rather, the result is predetermined by the process of generation or identification of results that takes place in the result server 401 in Figure 4. The bonus round provides the player with the appearance of making a selection that affects the result of the game. This illusion is possible according to the invention because the result is hidden from the player during the bonus round, that is, in the period of time that elapses between the time the player is presented with the selection options and the moment when the player makes his choice. Figure 6 provides an example of a graphical display 600 that can be used to display to the player a result of a game game that is not associated with a bonus round according to the present invention. The graphic representation 600 illustrated includes a representation of a series of three reels 601, 602 and 603. These reels correspond to the reels of a slot machine or real-life type and are represented as having several symbols in various reel locations. The symbols displayed on a line such as line 604 are correlated through a pay table with a result of the game game in the game under consideration. That is, a particular level of a gain in the game may be related to the player displaying some predefined group of reel symbols through line 604. The graphic display 600 is particularly suitable for displaying results in a low bingo type game. consideration and also includes an area 605 in which the model achieved can be deployed. Area 600 can be used to display a "fast board" for the bingo game in question, that is, the series of numbers named in the bingo game.The area 607 can be used to display animated graphics or other graphics such as the amount of credits earned in the game game results Figure 7 illustrates a graphic display 700 that can be used in a bonus round embodying the principles of the present invention Presentation 700 is a graphic display that can be produced under the control of the display controller 402 shown in Figure 4 in response to a result of the game game that is associated with a bonus round.This particular example includes six different selection options represented by the doors 701 to 706. The player is instructed to select one of the gates using player controls associated with the player station. It will be noted that this example shown in Figure 7 follows the example shown in Figure 6 with area 708, 709 and 710 located above the selection options, gates 701 to 706. These deployment areas may correspond to areas 605, 606 and 607 in Figure 6, however, it will be appreciated that the areas are covered or covered some other way in order to hide information that would communicate to the player the outcome of the game. Other forms of the invention may simply omit areas 708, 709 and 710 and show only the selection options, in this example, gates 701 to 706. Figure 8 provides an example of a graphic display 800 displayed to the player after he has made his selection in the bonus round according to the invention. The player has used the player controls that are in the player's station to select gate 704. In this example presentation, the selected door, gate 704 has been opened to show that the result of the game game is associated with a value of 100 credits. The example of Figure 8 also shows the information in areas 708, 709 and 710 corresponding to the outcome of the game game. Area 708 shows the bingo model achieved in the bingo game in question, area 709 shows the bingo numbers named in the game, and area 710 shows the number of credits won. It should be appreciated that the graphic presentations shown in Figures 6, 7 and 8 are presented for purposes of example only and that by no means means that they are the only presentations that can be used in the implementation of the present invention. Rather, the graphic presentations that can be used to implement the present invention are limited only by the imagination of the presentation designer. For example, rather than showing objects such as doors as options of choice, objects can be packages wrapped as gifts, and the selected package can be unwrapped to display the outcome of the game of a given game. Also, the presentation can provide any number of exciting and interesting graphics in the course of the disclosure of the outcome of the game game after the player has made his choice. For example, in the example of a number of doors from which the player can make his selection, once the player has made his selection the selected door can expand on the display and the other doors disappear from the display screen . Continuing with this example, the presentation can show an animated person representing the player or a character for the player, who enters through the open door and who fights with a dragon, for example. The result of the battle can be correlated with the result of the game in question, which is finally shown on the display once the animation ends. In another modality the choice available in the bonus round is presented to the player as the contestants' choice for a contest. In one such modality of choice of a contestant, the EPS 103 graphically represents a horse race and indicates that the player is going to select one of the horses participating in the race. In another such embodiment, the player station graphically represents a rotating wheel and indicates that the player is going to select one of the wheel numbers. This presentation adds a missing aspect of the arrangement of choosing a door that was described above, for example. That is, according to the selection arrangement of a door there is no indication of whether there is something better or worse about the doors that the player does not choose compared to the door that the player will choose. However, according to the modality of the horse race, for example, which responds to the reception of the player's selection, the player station shows the result of the race (contest) and can show the full race. The player station would also reveal any prize associated with the result of the race consistent with the outcome of the game game in question. In this way, the contest modalities provide another opportunity to reveal something to the player, which tends to create more suspense and in this way maintains or captures the interest of the player. That is, there is an additional aspect of disclosure if the user's choice is a "winning" election in terms of the horse race, regardless of the disclosure of the outcome of the game in question. It should be understood, of course, that winning or losing in the horse race still has no effect on the amount of the predetermined prize for the outcome of the game game in question. That is, while the round of pre-determined prize bonuses may depend on the outcome of the game, as described above, the outcome of the game is independent of the occurrence of the bonus round. It should also be appreciated that the invention is not limited to a single round of bonuses or single bonus round activities such as the selection of a single object from several objects presented as selection options. In the battle animation with a dragon described above, for example, a victorious result of the battle could end with a presentation that shows the player a second group of selection options from which he must choose. The result of the game game in question in this example would be revealed to the player of the game after the player makes a selection of this second group of selection options. In still other implementations of the present invention the player may be required to do more than simply choose an object or choose a contestant. For example, a player may be required to make multiple entries to make his selection or even control a contestant in a contest or battle with animation. In this multiple entry selection mode, all of the multiple entries may be considered the selection of the player according to the invention. Many other features may be incorporated into the animations or displays for bonus rounds in accordance with the present invention. For example, a notification or alarm device associated with the player station may be activated when a result of the game game is associated with a bonus round. The warning or alarm device will attract attention to the respective player station and the next selection or selections and the animation for the bonus round. From the foregoing, it should be understood that even when the player is presented with an election, such as the choice of a door, and even when the aggregate activity that results from the occurrence of a predetermined prize bonus round here is referred to as a " bonus round, "the default bonus round in a bonus round only in which the player is entitled to take an action that resembles a choice between different alternatives, but not in terms of credits earned for a match request. given game. The choice of the player during the predetermined prize bonus round has no effect on the prize amount for the game and the amount won for the game accordingly is not greater or less than what would be the result without the bonus round. That is, a predetermined amount of credits for that game is established by the game server. This amount of credits is determined in advance of the player's choice during the "bonus round," such as the choice to open a door. In various embodiments a game system according to the present invention can take a variety of forms, including a personal computer system, a main unit computing system, workstation, Internet device, PDA, an embedded memory processor, etc. That is, it should be understood that the term "computer system" is intended to encompass any device that has a processor that executes instructions from a memory medium. The memory means preferably stores instructions ("a software program") for the implementation of various embodiments of a method according to the present invention. In several modalities, the one or more software programs are implemented in several ways, including procedural-based techniques, component-based techniques or goal-oriented techniques, among others, specific examples include XML, C, C ++ objects and libraries of class and Java. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to any particular hardware or software implementation.

The embodiments described above have been presented for illustrative purposes, but are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the forms described. Many additional aspects, modifications and variants are also contemplated and it is intended that they be covered within the scope of the following claims. Furthermore, it should be understood that in the following claims the actions are not necessarily performed in the particular sequence in which they were exposed unless a particular sequence is explicitly indicated. In addition, the information or data communicated or distributed in the various processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in a variety of ways. The present invention also applies regardless of the particular type of signal carrying means that is used in reality to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer-readable media include RAM, flash memory, media capable of being recorded such as floppy dis s, a hard disk drive, a ROM, CD-ROM, DVD and transmission type means, such as digital and / or analog communication links, including those for Internet communications.

Claims (23)

1. Claims 1. A method for providing a bonus round in a game, which comprises the steps of: (a) associating a respective result of a game of one player with a predetermined bonus round of prize; (b) present to the player a number of selection options from which he will choose during the predetermined prize bonus round; (c) hiding the outcome of the game game to the player during the predetermined prize bonus round until the player selects one of the selection options; and (d) displaying to the player the outcome of the game in response to the player's selection of one of the number of selection options.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, which further includes the step of responding to the receipt of a game game result without a bonus round by displaying the result of the game without a bonus round to the player, the result of the game game without bonus round not being associated with the predetermined prize bonus round.
3. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the game comprises a bingo-type game and the result of the game game includes a bingo card model.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the result of the game game with the predetermined prize bonus round is carried out in response to a random event.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the game game result with the predetermined prize bonus round is carried out in response to a predetermined event.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the game game result with the predetermined prize bonus round is carried out in accordance with a predetermined relationship between the outcome of the game game and the round of predetermined prize bonuses.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein: (a) the step of presenting the player with a number of selection options from which he will choose during the predetermined prize bonus round includes the step of presenting a graphic description of a number of objects from which the choice is made; and (b) the step of displaying to the player the result of the game game includes displaying a graphic description in which the result of the game game is revealed in relation to the selected object in response to the selection of the object player. selected.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein: (a) the step of presenting the player with a number of selection options from which he will choose during the predetermined prize bonus round includes the step of presenting a graphic description of a number of objects that represent respective participants in a contest; and (b) the step of deploying to the player the result of the game game includes presenting a graphic description of a contest result in response to the reception of the player's selection.
9. 9. A system for providing a round of predetermined prize bonuses in a game, which includes: (a) a player station that is operable to generate a game starting request in response to an input signal by a player respective player, the player station including a display device; (b) An operable game server for identifying a result of the game game for the game starting request; and (c) a display controller to cause the display device to present the player with a number of selection options from which it will choose during a predetermined bonus round of bonus associated with the game game result, to hide to the player the result of the game game during the predetermined bonus reward round until the player selects one of the selection options, and to display to the player a game game result in response to the player's selection of a of the number of selection options.
10. 10. The system of claim 9, which further includes a bonus association controller for associating the result of the game with the predetermined bonus reward round.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the bonus association controller associates the result with the predetermined reward bonus round in response to a random event.
12. The system of claim 10, wherein the bonus association controller associates the result with the predetermined reward bonus round in response to a predetermined event 13.
13. The system of claim 10, wherein the bonus is located with the game server.
14. The system of claim 10, wherein the bonus association controller is located with the player station.
15. The system of claim 9, wherein the display controller presents the player with the number of selection options by presenting a graphic description of a number of objects, and wherein the player station responds to the selection of the player by presenting a graphic description in which the result of the game is revealed in relation to the selected object.
16. The system of claim 9, wherein the display controller presents the player with the number of selection options by presenting a graphic description of a number of objects representing respective participants in a contest, and wherein the station of player responds to the selection of the player by presenting a graphic description of a contest result.
17. The system of claim 9, wherein the display controller is also operable to cause the display device to display to the player a result of the game game without a bonus in response to receiving the result of the game game without bonus
18. 18. A program product to communicate a result of the game to a player, the program product being stored in a medium that can be read by computer and which includes: (a) a program code for the deployment of options selection to respond to a game game result associated with a predetermined prize bonus round that causes a player viewer to present the player with a number of selection options from which he chooses; and (b) a bonus round display program code to cause the player viewer to display to the player the outcome of the game game in response to the player's selection of any of the selection options.
19. 19. The program product of claim 18, which further includes a main display program code to respond to a result of a no-bonus game by causing the player display to display the result of a game game without a bonus. .
20. The program product of claim 18, which further includes a bonus round association program code for associating a game game result with the predetermined prize bonus round for assigning a category to the result of the Game game as the result of the second type game game.
21. 21. The program product of claim 18, wherein the bonus round association program code associates the result of a game game with the predetermined prize bonus round in response to an event unrelated to the result of the game game.
22. 22. The program product of claim 18, wherein the selection option display program code causes the player display to present a graphic description of a number of objects from which the player will choose., and wherein the bonus round display program code causes the player display to present a graphic description in which the result of the game game is revealed in relation to a respective one of the objects in response to the selection of the game. player of the respective object.
23. 23. The program product of claim 18, wherein the selection option display program code causes the player display to present a graphic description of a number of contestants from which the player will choose, and where the bonus round display program code causes the player display to present a graphic description in which the result of the game is revealed as a result of a contest between the number of contestants in response to the player's selection of the respective contestant.