System for remotely activating a sound in a game unit

Details System for remotely activating a sound in a game unit System for remotely activating a sound in a game unit

1999-03-16

2002-07-09

O'Neill, Michael (Department: 3713)

Amusement devices: games

Including means for processing electronic data

With communication link

C463S040000, C463S006000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06416412

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to electronic or video games which share information across a network. Aspects of the invention relate to remotely activating sounds on a video game and displaying an identification indicia such as a name next to a player's indicia.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring briefly to
FIG. 1
, there is shown one type of tournament system, referred to as a high score to date system, in which players do not compete interactively with each other. One system of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,271 to Thacher et al., wherein all players competing in a tournament play their games individually and when finished transmit their scores to a central server. Thus, in this system, each individual game unit
16
is linked via a modem
26
to a cooperating modem
28
of a central server
29
. This central server
29
then receives individual scores, one at a time from a number of game units
16
which are sequentially interconnected with its modem
28
, for example by polling of the various game unit modems
26
by the server
29
in some preselected sequence. While a given game unit
16
is being polled by the server
29
, information may be exchanged between the server and the game unit to indicate to the player scores of other players participating in the tournament who have completed games to date, such that the individual player may compare his score with other scores of games completed to date. Hence, the name usually given to such a system, “high score to date.”
FIG. 2
shows another system in which a server
39
facilitates interconnection for interactive play between only two game units
16
, each of which has a modem
26
. The server
39
may also include a modem (not shown) for communicating with the individual game unit modems
26
. The process is a three step process as indicated by arrows
1
,
2
and
3
in FIG.
2
. In the first step, the two modems
26
from the two game units
16
address the server either simultaneously or sequentially and indicate their availability for linked play. In the second step, the server indicates to the first player making such a request the availability of the second player and transmits the telephone number or the email address of the second player. If interested in engaging the second player, the first player, as indicated in step
3
, contacts the second player by using this telephone or email address, and play commences directly between the two players. The server
39
is not involved during the actual play between the two players, but only facilitates the task of initially locating another player.
The systems shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
have a number of limitations. For example, the system of
FIG. 2
cannot be used to link more than two players for interactive play, and cannot be utilized to facilitate tournament play as with the system of FIG.
1
. On the other hand, the high score to date tournament system of
FIG. 1
is not capable of supporting real time interactive play among the various players, but can only compare scores and transmit the resulting scoring information to the individual players.
Other prior art systems had the ability to display player's names to each player within a networked video game unit environment. However, these games had severe limitations that constrained the advantages of the name display. For example, in one system, each player's name was shown on the side of a racing car. Thus, if one player approached another player from the rear, neither player could see the other player's name. It was only when one car turned to the side that the player's name was shown.
In another prior art system, the name of each player was displayed on the rear portion of his car. However, as the car moved forward into the distance and became smaller, the name of the player was reduced accordingly. Thus, once the car was far in the distance, the name of the player could not be read. Thus, a need exists for a system of displaying player's names in an interconnected video game network that does not suffer from the disadvantages of prior systems.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
A method and system are described for sending information across a video game unit network. The invention includes systems and methods for remotely activating sounds on a game unit, such as an arcade game. The invention also includes systems and methods of displaying a player's name next to his indicia in a video game.
Embodiments of the present invention relate to game units, and game unit networks that transmit sounds from one game unit on the network to other game units on the network. In one embodiment, each game unit is a video game such as a car driving game. In one embodiment, a state table is stored within the car driving game that stores aspects of each player's car.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4846686 (1989-07-01), Adams
patent: 5184956 (1993-02-01), Langlais et al.
patent: 5558339 (1996-09-01), Perlman
patent: 5618179 (1997-04-01), Copperman et al.
patent: 6106399 (2000-08-01), Baker et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

System for remotely activating a sound in a game unit does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with System for remotely activating a sound in a game unit, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System for remotely activating a sound in a game unit will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2886396