Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – Data storage or retrieval
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-10
2004-05-18
Hughes, S. Thomas (Department: 3714)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
Data storage or retrieval
C463S035000, C463S044000, C463S001000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06736728
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program for processing a live commentary in a sport game, such as, for example, a computer-readable recording medium on which such a program is recorded, and a live commentary processing apparatus and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, games of various sports such as tennis, soccer, basketball, American football, and baseball are available.
Among sport games are ones in which a live commentary is reproduced in accordance with actions of players in the game. By reproducing a live commentary, it is possible to give a user the feeling of being at the site that is of the same kind as would be given by actual on-the-spot TV broadcast. In general, sound data of a live commentary is data obtained by converting an analog waveform into a digital one. Such live commentary sound data has a longer data length than data indicating musical scales etc. such as MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) data. Therefore, in the case of live commentary sound data, all data cannot be stored in a sound processing section which performs sound output. In reproducing a sound, it is necessary to transfer data from a main memory or the like to the sound processing section each time.
As an example technique for transferring live commentary sound data, a game machine having a live commentary function is known that is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei. 7-163754. This publication discloses a technique in which commentary terms are specified and transferred from a commentary term storing section to a buffer and then the data stored in the buffer is divided and divisional data are sequentially transferred to a sound CPU.
In recent sport games, the reality of a live commentary sound has been investigated. In particular, in baseball games, reproduction of a realistic live commentary sound as in TV broadcast is required because most of users are accustomed to viewing baseball TV broadcast.
To realize a realistic live commentary in a video game, it is necessary to reproduce not only simple words such as “batted” and “caught” but also sentences including a subject and a predicate. For example, a live commentary can be made closer to a counterpart in actual broadcast by reproducing a sound “the pitcher went into his motion to throw the first pitch” when a defense-side user has input a manipulation for throwing the ball.
Further, to output a live commentary sound in the form of a sentence, a great many kinds of sound data for various game situations are necessary. Therefore, it is necessary to reproduce a commentary sound by reading sound data each time from a large-capacity recording medium such as a CD-ROM.
However, where sound data is transferred from such a recording medium as a CD-ROM to the sound processing section after being divided into data having a data length that is suitable for the storage capacity of a buffer in the sound processing section, access to the recording medium occurs at a high frequency. In the case of access to a large-capacity recording medium such as a CD-ROM, certain time is needed to find target data. In the case of a CD-ROM, for example, a head seek time etc. are needed.
In general, while live commentary sound data is read from such a recording medium as a CD-ROM, other data necessary for advancing the game cannot be read from the same recording medium. In the above circumstances, a technique capable of reducing the number of times of access to such a recording medium as a CD-ROM for readout of sound data is now demanded.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a program for processing a live commentary in a sport game, a computer-readable recording medium on which such a program is recorded, a live commentary processing apparatus and method which can reproduce a sound by reading, efficiently with a smaller number of times of access, sound data from a recording medium on which a large amount of sound data is stored.
To attain the above object, a first aspect of the invention provides a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for processing a live commentary in a video game is recorded, the program causing a computer to execute the steps of judging states of a situation in a video game; determining a combination and order of one or more sound data that are necessary to commentate in accordance with the judged states from among sound data that are stored in a distributed manner as units of live commentary statements; recognizing storage locations of the one or more sound data based on information that is stored in advance to be used for recognizing storage locations of the respective sound data; and commentating by reading the one or more sound data from the recognized storage locations in the determined order.
A second aspect of the invention provides a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for processing a live commentary in a video game is recorded, the program causing a computer to execute the steps of judging states during processing of a video game; determining, in accordance with the judged states, code information from among pieces of code information that are provided in advance and each of which correlates each of situations that may occur in the game and a combination and order of one or more sound data; and commentating by reading one or more sound data indicated by the determined code information in order indicated by the determined code information.
A third aspect of the invention provides a program for processing a live commentary in a video game, the program causing a computer to execute the steps of judging states of a situation in a video game; determining a combination and order of one or more sound data that are necessary to commentate in accordance with the judged states from among sound data that are stored in a distributed manner as units of live commentary statements; recognizing storage locations of the one or more sound data based on information that is stored in advance to be used for recognizing storage locations of the respective sound data; and commentating by reading the one or more sound data from the recognized storage locations in the determined order.
A fourth aspect of the invention provides a program for processing a live commentary in a video game, the program causing a computer to execute the steps of judging states during processing of a video game; determining, in accordance with the judged states, code information from among pieces of code information that are provided in advance and each of which correlates each of situations that may occur in the game and a combination and order of one or more sound data; and commentating by reading one or more sound data indicated by the determined code information in order indicated by the determined code information.
A fifth aspect of the invention provides a live commentary processing apparatus comprising a recording medium on which a program for realizing live commentary processing in a video game is recorded; and a computer for reading at least part of the program from the recording medium and for executing it, the computer executing, by reading at least part of the program from the recording medium, the steps of judging states of a situation in a video game; determining a combination and order of one or more sound data that are necessary to commentate in accordance with the judged states from among sound data that are stored in a distributed manner as units of live commentary statements; recognizing storage locations of the one or more sound data based on information that is stored in advance to be used for recognizing storage locations of the respective sound data; and commentating by reading the one or more sound data from the recognized storage locations in the determined order.
A sixth aspect of the invention provides a live commentary processing apparatus comprising a recording medium on which a program for realizing sound output processing in a video game is recorded; and a computer for reading at le
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Hughes S. Thomas
Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
Rada, II Alex F. R. P.
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