WO2005121968A2 - Dispositif de jeu equipe d'une fonction d'echange de ressources - Google Patents

Dispositif de jeu equipe d'une fonction d'echange de ressources Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2005121968A2
WO2005121968A2 PCT/US2005/020133 US2005020133W WO2005121968A2 WO 2005121968 A2 WO2005121968 A2 WO 2005121968A2 US 2005020133 W US2005020133 W US 2005020133W WO 2005121968 A2 WO2005121968 A2 WO 2005121968A2
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
resource
file
cached
swap
preselected
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2005/020133
Other languages
English (en)
Other versions
WO2005121968A3 (fr
Inventor
Mark B. Gagner
Robertus A. Kloes
Craig J. Sylla
Original Assignee
Wms Gaming Inc.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Wms Gaming Inc. filed Critical Wms Gaming Inc.
Priority to US11/570,097 priority Critical patent/US20080194336A1/en
Publication of WO2005121968A2 publication Critical patent/WO2005121968A2/fr
Publication of WO2005121968A3 publication Critical patent/WO2005121968A3/fr

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F12/00—Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures
    • G06F12/02—Addressing or allocation; Relocation
    • G06F12/08—Addressing or allocation; Relocation in hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems
    • G06F12/0802—Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches
    • G06F12/0888—Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches using selective caching, e.g. bypass
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F12/00—Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures
    • G06F12/02—Addressing or allocation; Relocation
    • G06F12/08—Addressing or allocation; Relocation in hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems
    • G06F12/12—Replacement control
    • G06F12/121—Replacement control using replacement algorithms
    • G06F12/122—Replacement control using replacement algorithms of the least frequently used [LFU] type, e.g. with individual count value
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
    • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
    • G07F17/32—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for games, toys, sports, or amusements
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
    • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
    • G07F17/32—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for games, toys, sports, or amusements
    • G07F17/3202—Hardware aspects of a gaming system, e.g. components, construction, architecture thereof

Definitions

  • Embodiments of the invention include a method for conserving memory storage on a gaming machine.
  • the method includes creating a resource file and caching the resource file in RAM on a gaming machine; determining whether the resource file is accessed more than a preselected number of times within a preselected time interval; caching the resource file in a SWAP store as a SWAP file if the resource file has not been accessed the preselected number of times within the preselected time interval; monitoring the number of times the SWAP file is accessed within a preselected period of time; and caching the SWAP file as a resource file in RAM of the gaming machine if the SWAP file is accessed a number of preselected times or more.
  • Another embodiment includes a method for increasing the number of images, animations, and sounds on a gaming machine.
  • the method includes creating one or more resource files associated with one or more games and caching the one or more resource files in RAM on the gaming machine; determining whether the one or more resource files is accessed more than a preselected number of times within a preselected time interval; caching one or more of the resource filea in a SWAP store as one or more SWAP files if the one or more resource files has not been accessed the preselected number of times within the preselected time interval; monitoring the number of times the one or more "SWAP files are accessed within a preselected period of time; and caching the one or more SWAP files as one or more resource files in RAM of the gaming machine if the SWAP file is accessed a number of preselected times or more.
  • Another embodiment includes a gaming machine.
  • the gaming machine includes RAM; a plurality of resource files stored on RAM, wherein the resource files have been accessed a preselected number of times or more over a preselected time interval; a SWAP store; and a plurality of SWAP files cached on the SWAP store.
  • One other embodiment includes a Computer Readable Medium for conserving memory storage on a gaming machine
  • the computer readable medium includes creating a resource file and caching the resource file in RAM on a gaming machine; determining whether the resource file is accessed more than a preselected number of times within a preselected time interval; caching the resource file in a SWAP store as a SWAP file if the resource file has not been accessed the preselected number of times within the preselected time interval; monitoring the number of times the SWAP file is accessed within a preselected period of time; and caching the SWAP file as a resource file in RAM of the gaming machine if the SWAP file is accessed a number of preselected times or more.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a prior art gaming machine embodiment.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art block diagram of a control system embodiment suitable for operating the prior art gaming machine shown in FIG. 1.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a Cached Resource Swap mechanism that swaps unused Cached Resource Objects out of RAM and onto a secondary high-speed storage device. DESCRIPTION hi the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific exemplary embodiments in which the invention may be practiced.
  • these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities.
  • FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a gaming machine 10 for conducting a wagering game.
  • the gaming machine 10 includes a display 12 that may, for example, be a mechanical reel slot display or a video display. If implemented in video, the display 12 may include a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma, or generally any other type of video display known in the art. i the illustrated embodiment, the gaming machine 10 is an "upright" version in which the display 12 is oriented vertically relative to the player.
  • CTR cathode ray tube
  • LCD liquid crystal display
  • plasma or generally any other type of video display known in the art.
  • the gaming machine 10 is an "upright" version in which the display 12 is oriented vertically relative to the player.
  • the gaming machine may include a secondary display in top box 13, depending upon the design of the wagering game.
  • the gaming machine 10 includes a button panel 14 and an optional touch screen 16 for enabling a player to conduct the wagering game.
  • the button panel 14 and the touch screen 16 may have some corresponding buttons for performing the same functions and other buttons for performing different functions.
  • a "$" button may be pressed to insert money to increase a player's credits.
  • a "Change Denom" button may be touched to change denomination.
  • a “Collect” button may be touched to collect winnings.
  • a "Pay Table” button may be touched to see the game's pay table.
  • a "Select Lines” button may be touched to change the number of pay lines bet.
  • a "Bet Per Line” button may be touched to change the amount of credits bet on each line. The number of lines to play is generally selected prior to selecting the amount to bet per line.
  • a "Spin Reels” button may be touched to begin the game.
  • a “Stop Reels” button may be touched to stop the reels while they are spinning. If the player does not touch the “Stop Reels” button, the reels will stop on their own.
  • a “Max Bet Spin” button may be touched to play the maximum credits instantly. Prior art FIG.
  • Money/credit detector 18 signals a central processing unit (CPU) 20 when a player has inserted money or played a number of credits.
  • the money may be provided by coins, bills, tickets, coupons, cards, etc.
  • the player may select any game variables (e.g., number of pay lines in a reel slot game if more than one can be selected) and place his/her wager to play the wagering game.
  • the CPU 20 generates at least one random event using a random number generator (RNG) and provides an award to the player for a winning outcome of the random event.
  • RNG random number generator
  • the random event may be generated by a remote computer using an RNG or pooling schema and then transmitted to the gaming machine.
  • the CPU 20 operates the display 12 to represent the random event(s) and outcome(s) in a visual form that can be understood by the player, hi addition to the CPU 20, the control system may include one or more additional slave control units for operating one or more peripherals.
  • the terms "processor” and CPU as used herein are each intended to collectively cover the CPU 20 and any and all such control units.
  • a system memory 22 stores control software, operational instructions and data associated with the gaming machine.
  • the system memory 22 comprises a separate read-only memory (ROM) and battery-backed random-access memory (RAM).
  • system memory 22 may be implemented on any of several alternative types of memory structures or may be implemented on a single memory structure.
  • a payoff mechanism 24 is operable in response to instructions from the CPU 20 to award a payoff to the player.
  • the payoff may, for example, be in the form of a number of credits.
  • the number of credits are determined by one or more math tables stored in the system memory 22.
  • a wagering game is described below wherein the basic game is a multiline, multi-coin video reel slot game. It should, however, be understood that the basic game may be any type of wagering game, including but not limited to video or mechanical reel slots (one or more pay lines), poker, keno, bingo, blackjack, or roulette. Referring back to prior art FIG.
  • a player may select a number of pay lines using the "Select Lines” button, place a wager on each line using the "Bet Per Line” button, and start the reels 26 in motion using the "Spin Reels” button.
  • the player may select all lines, play the maximum bet on each line, and start the reels 26 in motion using the "Max Bet Spin” button.
  • the CPU spins and randomly stops the plurality of symbol-bearing reels 26 to place symbols on the reels 26 in visual association with a number of pay lines 28.
  • the number of pay lines 28 may, for example, be nine, fifteen, or twenty, but more or less pay lines may be provided is desired.
  • the display 12 on which the reels are implemented may be mechanical or video. If the display 12 is video, the reels are simulated with moving graphics. If, however, the display 12 is mechanical, the reels are physical and rotatably driven by stepper motors.
  • the CPU may use a random number generator to select a game outcome (e.g., "basic" game outcome) corresponding to a particular set of reel "stop positions.” The CPU then causes each of the reels 26 to stop at the appropriate stop position.
  • Symbols are displayed on the reels 26 to graphically illustrate the reel stop positions and indicate whether the stop positions of the reels 26 represent a winning game outcome.
  • Winning basic game outcomes e.g., symbol combinations resulting in payment of coins or credits
  • the pay table may be affixed to the machine 10 and/or displayed by the display 12 in response to a command by the player (e.g., by pressing the "Pay Table” button).
  • a winning basic game outcome occurs when the symbols appearing on the reels 26 along an active pay line 28 correspond to one of the winning combinations on the pay table.
  • a winning combination could, for example, be three or more matching symbols along an active pay line 28, where the award is greater as the number of matching symbols along the active pay line 28 increases.
  • the game credits the player an amount corresponding to the award in the pay table for that combination multiplied by the number of wagered credits.
  • the player may collect the amount of accumulated credits by pressing the "Collect" button.
  • Included among the plurality of basic game outcomes are one or more start-bonus outcomes for triggering play of bonus games.
  • a start-bonus outcome may be defined in any number of ways. For example, a start-bonus outcome may occur when a special start-bonus symbol or a special combination of symbols appears on one or more of the reels 26.
  • a start-bonus outcome may require the combination of symbols to appear along an active pay line 28, or may alternatively require that the combination of symbols appear anywhere on the display regardless of whether the symbols are along an active pay line 28.
  • FIG. 3 there is shown a Cached Resource Swap mechanism that swaps unused Cached Resource Objects out of RAM and onto a secondary high-speed storage device. This method conserves limited RAM space and allows more elaborate and complex games to be created.
  • Flash memory 32 is shown as the secure Resource Store. However, any secure, verifiable media (such as ROMs, CD-ROMs or DVDs) might be used.
  • a Hard Drive (HD) 34 is shown as the high-speed Swap Store but any type of high-speed media may be used in an actual embodiment.
  • a Cached Resource Object (Chnage in this example) 36 is created.
  • the specified Resource file 38 is read from the Resource Store, verified, decompressed, converted to the native display format and cached into RAM.
  • the Cached Resource Object 36 maintains a reference to this Cached Image. Note that the Cached Image may be deleted without destroying the Cached Resource Object. In this case the associated reference will be NULL. If swapping is enabled then a corresponding swap file 40 is created on the high-speed Swap Store 34 and the cached image is copied into the swap file.
  • a particular image may appear in more than one location on a particular display or set of displays. For example, a particular symbol such as a cherry may appear in multiple locations on one or more reels in a video slot game.
  • Each of these potential appearances has a reference to the associated Cached Resource Object (Clmage in this example).
  • the Cached Resource Object keeps a Reference Count.
  • Each reference to a Cached Resource Object is independent and may be visible or invisible at any given moment. If the reference is visible then it instructs the corresponding Cached Resource Object to Show. Conversely, if the reference is not visible it instructs the Cached Resource Object to Hide.
  • the Cached Resource Object maintains a Show Count, which keeps track of the number of references that wish to show the image.
  • the Cached Resource Object will delete the Cached Image from memory, which frees valuable RAM space. Thus, only those images that are actually visible are retained in limited system RAM.
  • the Show Count becomes non-zero then the cached image is restored from the swap file. Since the swap file has already been verified and decompressed and exists on high-speed storage, restoration is much faster than retrieving and decompressing the original resource image from the Resource Store. Swapping shall be enabled / disabled on an individual object basis. In other words, individual objects may be declared "non-swappable".
  • critical items such as tilt displays or frequently used items such as fonts may be declared "non-swappable.” If any single reference is non-swappable then the object is nonswappable.
  • the Cached Resource Object When the Cached Resource Object is destroyed it deletes the cached image from RAM and deletes the corresponding swap file from the Swap Store. Since the swap files are not validated (i.e. verified) they must be reconstructed each time the corresponding Resource file is loaded to satisfy jurisdictional requirements.
  • the above technique is not limited to graphical images but can also be applied for any type of Resource that may be stored in slow media. For example, the technique may also be applied to audio files or scripts.
  • gaming machines of this invention have been depicted as upright models having top box mounted on top of the main gaming machine cabinet, the use of gaming devices in accordance with this invention is not so limited.
  • gaming machine may be provided without a top box or the gaming machine may be of a slant-top or a table top design.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Slot Machines And Peripheral Devices (AREA)
  • Pinball Game Machines (AREA)

Abstract

Des modes de réalisation de l'invention concernent un procédé permettant de conserver le stockage de la mémoire sur une machine de jeu. Ce procédé consiste à créer un fichier ressources et à le mettre en antémémoire dans la mémoire vive sur une machine de jeu ; à déterminer si le fichier ressources est sollicité plus d'un nombre de fois présélectionné dans un intervalle de temps présélectionné ; à mettre en antémémoire le fichier ressources dans une mémoire SWAP sous forme de fichier SWAP si le fichier ressources n'a pas été sollicité le nombre de fois présélectionné dans l'intervalle de temps présélectionné ; à contrôler le nombre de fois que le fichier SWAP est sollicité dans une période de temps présélectionnée ; et à mettre en antémémoire le fichier SWAP sous forme de fichier SWAP dans la mémoire vive de la machine de jeu si le fichier SWAP est sollicité un nombre de fois sélectionné ou davantage.
PCT/US2005/020133 2004-06-07 2005-06-07 Dispositif de jeu equipe d'une fonction d'echange de ressources WO2005121968A2 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US11/570,097 US20080194336A1 (en) 2004-06-07 2005-06-07 Gaming Device with Resources Swapping

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US57770604P 2004-06-07 2004-06-07
US60/577,706 2004-06-07

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2005121968A2 true WO2005121968A2 (fr) 2005-12-22
WO2005121968A3 WO2005121968A3 (fr) 2007-08-23

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WO (1) WO2005121968A2 (fr)

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EP2592578A1 (fr) * 2011-11-10 2013-05-15 Research In Motion Limited Gestion d'accès de périmètre transversal
US9613219B2 (en) 2011-11-10 2017-04-04 Blackberry Limited Managing cross perimeter access
US9369466B2 (en) 2012-06-21 2016-06-14 Blackberry Limited Managing use of network resources

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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
WO2005121968A3 (fr) 2007-08-23
US20080194336A1 (en) 2008-08-14

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