Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – With communication link
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-11
2003-12-09
Harrison, Jessica (Department: 3713)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
With communication link
C434S30700R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06659873
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game system capable of linking data between multiple game devices, for example, a game device for business and a game device for use at home, and coordinating together games executed on the devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
A game device for business (commercial use) which can only be played in a range corresponding to an inserted financial value, and a game device for use at home which can be freely and repeatedly played by setting a memory medium such as a CD-ROM having software for games written therein, are types of game device. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. S63-242293 discloses a game system capable of exchanging data between these game devices, wherein role-playing games and simulation games are executed on the game device for use at home, characters appearing in the game are developed, and data relating to the development of the characters are input as initial capability data of the characters appearing in a game executed on the game device for business.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. HEI8-299596 discloses a game system in which a measurement of a player's physical strength, taken by a physical-strength-measuring game device, is stored in an IC memory, and the capabilities (e.g. jumping power and kicking power in a game) of characters operated by a player on a fighting game device are judged by referring to the data in the IC memory.
In the games industry, when a new game is made available on the game devices for business, some times later, software enabling a similar game to be played on a game device for use at home is marketed by the same company or a related company. Conversely, sometimes the software for the game device for use at home appears first, and a game having identical content is later made available for playing on game devices for business. This sort of activity is generally termed “Transplanting”. When transplanting, since the game contents are identical or closely similar at the transplant source and at the transplant destination, it may be imagined that it is comparatively easy to link up data in the manner of the patent applications mentioned above.
However, in the game systems of the applications mentioned above, since the data specifying the capabilities of characters appearing in the competitive game is common to both game devices, there are the following limitations.
Generally, capabilities of characters are judged by a combination of a great number of parameters, and in order to share the data among different game devices, the treatment of the respective parameters in the software of each of the game devices must be judged in detail beforehand. Consequently, the development schedules of software of multiple game devices to be linked must be synchronised, and there occurs limitations on developing software for other games devices to match the software specifications of a specific game device which has already been developed. These limitations make it practically impossible to link up the data.
Recently, musical games devices such as a game device which instructs the player to dance by operating an input device such as a stepping board in time with music, and a game device which simulates playing as a disc jockey or playing on various types of musical instruments, are becoming popular. These game devices do not involve playing a game while operating specific characters. Therefore, the conventional link-up methods of the patent applications described above cannot be applied with no modification. A data link-up for a musical game has not previously been attempted, and consequently a data link-up system appropriate for such game contents must be considered afresh.
Moreover, link-up in conventional game systems mainly concentrate on playing the game by inputting data created in the game device for use at home to the game device for business, and do not consider the usefulness of transferring the data in the opposite direction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a game system which is enhanced in its realisation and novelty by making a data link-up among multiple game devices more flexible, and to provide particular data link-up suitable for musical games.
The present invention will be explained below. To facilitate understanding of the present invention, reference symbols from the accompanying drawings are mentioned in brackets, but the constitution of the present invention is not limited to those shown in the drawings.
A first aspect of the game system (
1
) of the invention comprises first and second game devices (
2
,
3
) for executing games in compliance with predetermined programs, capable of exchanging information between the game devices, the first game device (
2
) comprising an information output device (
51
,
80
) for outputting judgement information (D
11
) for judging whether or not predetermined conditions have been satisfied in a game executed on the game device; and the second game device comprising a game content controller (
101
) for changing the content of the game executed on the second game device based on the judgement information output from the first game device.
According to this invention, in a game executed on the first game device, since the second game device judges only whether or not predetermined conditions have been satisfied and changes the contents of its game, the mutual relationship between the game devices need not be minutely specified beforehand as when the capability parameters of characters are transferred. For example, the judgement information may be flag information of one bit, and there is no particular need to recognise how the second game device changes the content of the game in accordance with the state of the flag at the development stage of the game to be executed by the first game device. Furthermore, in the development stage of the game executed on the second game device, there is no particular need to check the conditions on which the judgement information output from the first game device is based. Consequently, there are no limitation relating to the stage of development, enabling multiple game devices to be more flexibly and easily linked together.
A second aspect of the invention comprises the game system according to the first aspect, further comprising memory devices (
4
,
5
) for link-up, functioning as media for exchanging information between the first game device (
2
) and the second game device (
3
), the judgement information being transmitted from the first game device to the second game device via the memory device for link-up. Therefore, when for example exchanging information between a game device for business and a game device for use at home, it is not necessary to carry the game device for use at home to the place where the game device for business is installed. The memory devices for link-up may for example comprise a portable miniturized semiconductor memory, and the like.
A third aspect of the invention comprises the game system according to the first aspect, wherein the judgement information is transmitted via a predetermined communications medium from the first game device (
2
) to the second game device (
3
). In this invention, there is no need to provide a memory device for linking up separately from the game devices.
A fourth aspect of the invention comprises the game system according to one of the first to third aspects, wherein the information output device changes the content of the judgement information prior to outputting it, based on a play result of a game executed on the first game device (
2
). As a consequence, the contents of the game of the second game device can be changed in accordance with the game result of the first game device, and therefore, since the player's interest does not incline toward only one of the game devices, the first game device and the second game device both remain highly valuable. Play results may, for example, comprise hi
Ishikawa Hirotaka
Kitano Toyofumi
Nagaoka Kei
Nishibori Takashi
Takahashi Kazuya
Cherubin Y
Harrison Jessica
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
Konami Co. Ltd.
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