Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – In a chance application
Patent
1998-07-27
2000-01-18
Layno, Benjamin H.
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
In a chance application
463 16, 463 17, 2731382, 273139, 273143R, 273273, A63F 306, A63F 922
Patent
active
060153466
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to gaming machines of the type generally referred to as slot machines, fruit machines or poker machines, and in particular the invention provides an improvement to a game played on such a machine.
Players who regularly play gaming machines quickly tire of particular games and therefore it is necessary for manufacturers of these machines to come up with innovative game features that add interest to the games provided on such machines in order to keep the players amused and therefore willing to continue playing the game.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Gaming or poker machines have been well known in the state of New South Wales for many years and have more recently gained considerable popularity throughout Australia, with quite substantial amounts of money wagered on these machines. There is a growing tendency for State governments to legalize the use of gaming machines by licensing operators, with resulting revenue gains through license fees and taxation of monies invested. The licensed operation of gaming machines is the subject of State legislation and regulation. This regulation almost always dictates a minimum percentage payout for a gaming machine. For example, a minimum of 85% of monies invested must be returned as winnings, and manufacturers of gaming machines therefore must design their machines around these regulatory controls.
With the growth that has occurred in the gaming machine market there is intense competition between manufacturers to supply the various existing and new venues. When selecting a supplier of gaming machines, the operator of a venue will often pay close attention to the popularity of various games with their patrons.
Therefore, gaming machine manufacturers are keen to devise games which are popular with players, as a mechanism for improving sales.
In particular, manufacturers regularly devise new games which have not previously been seen on slot machines in order to stimulate renewal of player interest.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to a first aspect, the present invention provides a slot machine including display means arranged to display a game being played on the machine, game initiating means to initiate a game on the machine and game control means responsive to the initiating means to control the playing of the game, characterized in that the display means is arranged to display a plurality of indicia each indicia being associated with a prize or prize symbol which is initially not displayed, the machine including indicia selection means arranged to allow a player to select at least one pair of indicia, and the control means being arranged to reveal the prize or prize symbol associated with each of the selected pair of indicia and to award a prize to the player, in the event that a pair of selected indicia are each associated with the same prize or prize symbol or are associated with a predetermined pair of prizes or prize symbols, awarding a prize to the player.
In the preferred embodiment the display means is a touch sensitive video screen and the player selects indicia pairs by touching areas of the screen on which the selected indicia are displayed. However, other selection mechanisms are also possible such as buttons indicating grid references on the display, and the display can be a mechanical or electromechanical device such as a set of rotatable reels, with shutters or blinds over the display window.
Preferably, the display will provide a matrix of indicia locations which may be represented by video simulations of overturned cards, rotatable blocks or any other suitable representation. Preferably, the player will select the required pair of indicia by touching the respective screen locations which will result in the indicia changing, by for example flipping the cards face up or rotating the blocks to reveal a second face.
In some embodiments the selected indicia will change appearance as described above to reveal prizes or prize values, however it is also possible to simply display symbols such as playing car
REFERENCES:
patent: 1527929 (1925-02-01), Simons
patent: 5092598 (1992-03-01), Kamille
patent: 5605504 (1997-02-01), Huang
"Concentration", Scarne's Enyclopedia Of Games, John Scarne, Harper & Row Publishers, p. 364, 1973.
Aristocat Leisure Industires Pty. Ltd.
Layno Benjamin H.
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