Portable game apparatus with acceleration sensor and information storage medium storing a game program

• US 20020072418A1
• Filed: 01/14/2002
• Published: 06/13/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Suzuki, Toshiaki, Masuyama, Iwao
• Granted Patent: US 6,641,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/43
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/422 automatically for the purpose of assisting the player, e.g. automatic braking in a driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1018 Calibration; Key and button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands

Abstract

A portable game apparatus includes a housing is provided with an LCD and an insertion hole. A cartridge incorporating a program ROM is inserted in the insertion hole. A CPU in the housing processes a game program to display game scenes on the LCD. The cartridge further incorporates an acceleration sensor. The acceleration sensor detects movement and tilt of the housing. When the housing is positioned at an angle easy to play, if an operation key is operated, neutral position data is stored to an internal RAM. During game play, an output of the acceleration sensor is corrected by the neutral position data so that the CPU controls game scene display according to a corrected output of the acceleration sensor.

Claims

1. A portable game apparatus, comprising:

a housing to be gripped by a hand of a player;

a display arranged in one main surface of said housing to display game scenes;

an acceleration sensor provided related to said housing;

a neutral position set means for setting a reference tilt of said housing;

a temporary storage means for temporarily store as neutral position data a corresponding output value of said acceleration sensor to the neutral position;

a correction means for correcting an output value of said acceleration sensor based on the neutral position data; and

a game control means for changing a display state of a game scene to be displayed on said display based on an output value of said correction means.

2. A portable game apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said neutral position set means includes an operation key to be operated by the player, and a program to write as the neutral position data into said temporary storage means the corresponding output value of said acceleration sensor to a tilt of said housing when the player operates said operation key.

3. A portable game apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said neutral position set means includes a sight display means to display on said display a sight movable depending upon a tilt of said housing, and a target coordinate display means to display on said display a target coordinate that said sight is to position when said housing is in a proper tilt, wherein

the neutral position data is set by a corresponding output value of said acceleration sensor to a tilt of said housing when the sight overlaps with the target coordinate.

4. A storage medium to be loaded on a portable game apparatus, in use, having a display to display game scenes, a housing to be gripped by a hand of a player and arranged with said display on one main surface thereof, and a processing means, and storing information to be processed by said processing means, comprising:

an acceleration sensor output read program to read out an output value of said acceleration sensor;

a neutral position set program for setting a reference tilt of a portable game apparatus;

a write program for writing as neutral position data to a temporary storage memory a corresponding output value of said acceleration sensor to the neutral position;

a correction program for correcting the acceleration sensor output value by said neutral position data; and

a game control program for changing a display state of the game scene to be displayed on said display based on an output value of said correction program.

5. An information storage medium according to claim 4, wherein said acceleration sensor is provided related said housing.

6. An information storage medium according to claim 4, wherein said information storage medium is a cartridge to be unloadably loaded on said housing of said portable game apparatus, and said acceleration sensor being accommodated in said cartridge.

7. An information storage medium according to claim 4, wherein said portable game apparatus includes an operation key, and

said write program writing as the neutral position data to said temporary storage memory a corresponding output value of said acceleration sensor to a tilt of said housing when the player operates said operation key.

8. An information storage medium according to claim 4 or 7, wherein said neutral position set program includes a sight display program to display on said display a sight movable depending upon a tilt of said housing, and a target coordinate display program to display on said display a target coordinate that said sight is to position when said housing is in a proper tilt, and

the neutral position data being set by a tilt of said housing when said sight overlaps with said target coordinate.

9. A portable game apparatus having a display arranged on one main surface thereof, comprising:

a game map data storage means for storing game map data to display on said display a game map as a background image;

a game character data storage means for storing game character data to display on said display a game character;

an acceleration sensor for detecting an acceleration to thereby detect a change amount depending upon a movement or tilt of said portable game apparatus;

a program storage means for storing program data to move and display the game character depending upon at least a tilt direction detected by said acceleration sensor; and

a processing means for displaying a game image on said display in a manner of changing a display state of said game character by processing based on an output of said acceleration sensor and said program.

10. A portable game apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said acceleration sensor detects an acceleration due to an abrupt movement of said portable game apparatus and detects at least one of a tilt amount and a tilt direction due to a moderate tilt thereof, and

said program storage means including a program to move and display the game character in a manner of changing a moving amount based on a tilt amount as a detection output of said acceleration sensor.

11. A portable game apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said program storage means includes a program to vary a change amount of the game character depending upon an acceleration of a detection output of said acceleration sensor.

12. A portable game apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said game map data storage means further stores as a game map a plurality of kinds of lands of data, at least one of said plurality of kinds of lands being a land to have an effect upon a change amount in movement of the game character, and

said program storage means including a program to move and display the game character in a manner of controlling a change amount in movement thereof when the game character is present on the land to have an effect upon.

13. A portable game apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said game map data storage means stores game map data having an area greater than a display area of said display,

said game character data storage means storing data to display a player character to be operated by the player, and

said program storage means displaying on said display one area of said game map at around said player character, and including a game map movement display program to display the one area with scrolling in accordance with a movement of the player character.

14. A portable game apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said game character data storage means further stores non-player character data to display at least one of non-player characters not to be moved by the player, and

said program storage means further storing a program to move by self-control at least one of the non-player characters.

15. A portable game apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said program storage means further includes an impact determination program to determine a presence of an impact input based on an output of said acceleration sensor in magnitude equal to or greater than a given value.

16. A portable game apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said acceleration sensor includes an acceleration detecting section to detect respective accelerations in first and second directions perpendicular to each other to thereby output a first output value dependent upon an acceleration in the first direction and a second output value dependent upon an acceleration in the second direction, and

said impact determination program determines a presence of an impact input when a resultant vector having a vector component in the first direction taken by the first output value and a vector component in the second direction taken by the second output value is equal to or greater than a given value.

17. A portable game apparatus according to claim 15 or 16, wherein said program storage means includes a program to display a movement of the game character with a greater moving amount than that of a movement of display based on a program in its nature when said impact determination program determines a presence of an impact input.

18. A portable game apparatus according to claim 15 or 16, wherein said program storage means includes a program to display the game character with position inversion when said impact determination program determines a presence of an impact input.

19. A portable game apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said game character is displayed in a manner of moving over and along the background image, and

said program storage means simulating a tilt of the background image depending upon a tilt of said portable game apparatus to display said game character in a manner of moving over and along the background image depending upon a tilt direction of the background image.

20. An information storage medium to be used on a portable game apparatus including a display to display game scenes, a housing to be gripped by a hand of a player and arranged with said display in one main surface thereof, and a processing means, and processed by said processing means, comprising:

a game map data storage means for storing game map data to display on said display a game map as a background image;

a game character data storage means for storing game character data to display on said display a game character;

an acceleration sensor for detecting a change amount depending upon a movement or tilt of said portable game apparatus due to detection of an acceleration; and

a program storage means for storing program data to move and display the game character depending upon at least a tilt direction detected by said acceleration sensor, wherein

said processing means performs processing based on an output of said acceleration sensor and said program thereby controlling a game image displayed on said display such that a display state of said game character is varied depending upon an acceleration.

21. An information storage medium according to claim 20, wherein said acceleration sensor detects an acceleration due to an abrupt movement of said portable game apparatus and detects at least one of a tilt amount and a tilt direction due to a moderate tilt thereof, and

said program storage means including a program to move and display the game character in a manner of changing a moving amount based on a tilt amount as a detection output of said acceleration sensor.