Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – In a game requiring strategy or problem solving by a...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-26
2001-06-26
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
In a game requiring strategy or problem solving by a...
C463S020000, C273S14300R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06251013
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gaming machines of the type arranged to play a game of poker, and in particular the invention provides an improvement to a game played on such a machine.
Players who regularly play gaming machines frequently tire of particular games. It therefore becomes desirable for gaming machine manufacturers to come up with innovative game features that add interest to the games, thereby keeping the players amused and willing to continue playing.
(b) 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 being wagered on these machines. There is a growing tendency for State Governments to legalise 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, the regulatory controls may ensure a minimum of 85% of monies invested must be returned as winnings. Manufacturers of gaming machines must therefore 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.
Many varied strategies have been tried in the past to make games more enticing to players. For example, in the commonly-known “double-up” feature a player is provided with the option of risking the winnings of a game in a double-or-nothing mode by gambling it on a subsequent and often different game, such as whether a red or black card will be the next card drawn.
Other techniques adopted in the past have been to provide complexity in the numbering and combinations of indicia which would result in a win, thereby hoping to convince the player that there is a greater chance of winning and keep their interest in a particular game.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a first aspect, the present invention consists in a gaming machine having display means and game control means, the game control means being arranged to play a game wherein a plurality of symbols are randomly selected from a predetermined set of symbols and displayed in rows on the display means, and if a winning combination of symbols results, the machine pays a prize, the game being characterised in that upon the occurrence of a predetermined triggering event, a game feature is invoked wherein a sprite randomly designates one or more of the symbols displayed on the display means to be treated as special symbols for that particular game and a prize is awarded for winning combinations formed with one or more of the special symbols.
The sprite may designate special symbols by touching or pointing to each symbol individually or to a group of symbols generally. Alternatively, the sprite may touch or point to one symbol, thereby designating every occurrence of the symbol on the display means as being a special symbol.
The triggering event may be the random display of one or more particular symbols in a particular arrangement on the display means.
Optionally, the triggering event may instead be a separate random prompt unrelated to the symbols displayed on the display means.
In a first embodiment, there is one special symbol which is a wild card symbol, and a prize is awarded for a winning combination formed with the wild card symbol, wherein the symbols in the winning combination are located in the same horizontal row as the wild card symbol.
In a second embodiment, there is one special symbol which is a scatter symbol, and a prize is awarded for each winning combination formed with the scatter symbol, wherein the symbols in each of the winning combinations are located in separate columns and may be scattered over any of the rows.
In a third embodiment, pairs of symbols are randomly selected to be special symbols and the symbols in each pair are swapped with each other.
In a fourth embodiment, the special symbols are all of those symbols appearing on a randomly-chosen simulated rotatable reel, and the simulated reel is made to appear to rotate a random number of times. The simulated rotatable reel may consist of a vertical column of symbols or a horizontal row of symbols.
In a fifth embodiment, the special symbols are the symbols occurring in a randomly-chosen row, and any winning combination formed in that row during the next game played will be awarded a prize which is double or triple the value of the normal prize for that winning combination.
In a second aspect, the present invention consists in a gaming machine having display means and game control means the game control being means arranged to play a game wherein a plurality of symbols are randomly selected from a predetermined set of symbols and displayed on the display means, and if a winning combination of symbols results, the machine pays a prize, the game being characterised in that upon the occurrence of a predetermined triggering event, a game feature is invoked wherein a sprite designates a win meter for indicating winnings, or a credit meter for indicating the amount of available credit, and increases the amount shown on both the win meter and credit meter.
In one embodiment, the sprite randomly doubles or triples the amount shown on the win meter.
The present invention is applicable to video gaming machines of the traditional poker machine style (also known as slot machines or fruit machines) in which the display means comprises a video simulation of a set of rotatable reels, each carrying a plurality of symbols. The invention is equally applicable to video draw poker machines in which a poker hand is displayed on the screen, the cards of the hand being selected from a standard 52 or 53 card deck.
The sprite may be a representation of a symbol or character which moves across the display means and touches or otherwise designates the special symbol.
In a particular embodiment the sprite depicts a fairy holding a wand and the symbols touched by the wand become the special symbols.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5332228 (1994-07-01), Schultz
patent: 5449173 (1995-09-01), Thomas et al.
patent: 5697843 (1997-12-01), Manship et al.
patent: 5772506 (1998-06-01), Marks et al.
patent: 5848932 (1998-12-01), Adams
Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd.
Layno Benjamin H.
Rosenman & Colin LLP
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