Game console and emulator for the game console

• US 20110092285A1
• Filed: 11/18/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hiroshi Yoshino, Keizo Ohta, Kenichi Sugino, Kenji Nishida, Masato Ibuki, Soichi Yamamoto, Teruki Murakawa, Yoshitaka Yasumoto
• Original Assignee: Hiroshi Yoshino, Keizo Ohta, Kenichi Sugino, Kenji Nishida, Masato Ibuki, Soichi Yamamoto, Teruki Murakawa, Yoshitaka Yasumoto
• Inventors: Yoshino, Hiroshi, Yamamoto, Soichi, Yasumoto, Yoshitaka, Nishida, Kenji, Ibuki, Masato, Sugino, Kenichi, Murakawa, Teruki, Ohta, Keizo
• Granted Patent: US 7,988,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions gaming systems which provide a financial reward G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/23 for interfacing with the game device, e.g. specific interfaces between game controller and console
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/26 having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5252 using two or more virtual cameras concurrently or sequentially, e.g. automatically switching between fixed virtual cameras when a character changes room or displaying a rear-mirror view in a car-driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1075 using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/203 Image generating hardware
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/301 using an additional display connected to the game console, e.g. on the controller
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/63 for controlling the execution of the game in time
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6669 using a plurality of virtual cameras concurrently or sequentially, e.g. automatically switching between fixed virtual cameras when a character change rooms
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6692 using special effects, generally involving post-processing, e.g. blooming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1647 including at least an additional display G06F1/1692 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1688 the I/O peripheral being integrated loudspeakers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 : the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 : by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1431 : using a single graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1438 : using more than one graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 : Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 : General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0247 : Flicker reduction other than flicker reduction circuits used for single beam cathode-ray tubes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/10 : Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/003 : to produce spatial visual effects
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 : Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 : Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/399 : using two or more bit-mapped memories, the operations of which are switched in time, e.g. ping-pong buffers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 : Games
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A portable game system includes two display screens, at least one of which is touch-sensitive. A memory card is selectively connectable to the portable game system.

Claims

1. An emulator for execution on a first hand-held system including a first processor, first user controls and a single display, the emulator at least in part emulating the operation of a hand-held second system used to play video games, the second system comprising a second processor, second user controls, and first and second displays, the emulator comprising:

first instructions for execution by the first system to access a memory storing video game program instructions compatible with the second system, wherein the video game program instructions are for a video game program in which game images are displayed on both the first and second displays of the second system when the video game program is executed by the second processor and wherein at least some of the video game program instructions stored in the memory are incompatible with the first system;

second instructions for execution by the first system to transform at least some of the video game program instructions stored in the memory that are incompatible with the first system into transformed instructions that are compatible with the first system; and

third instructions for execution by the first system to use the transformed video game program instructions in generating game images which are displayed on the single display of the first system and which correspond to the game images displayed on both the first and second displays of the second system when the video game program is executed by the second processor, wherein

the emulator alternately displays on the single display of the first system game images for the first display of the second system and game images for the second display of the second system.

2. An emulator for execution on a first hand-held system including a first processor, first user controls and a single display, the emulator at least in part emulating the operation of a hand-held second system used to play video games, the second system comprising a second processor, second user controls, and first and second displays, the emulator comprising:

first instructions for execution by the first system to access a memory storing video game program instructions compatible with the second system, wherein the video game program instructions are for a video game program in which game images are displayed on both the first and second displays of the second system when the video game program is executed by the second processor and wherein at least some of the video game program instructions stored in the memory are incompatible with the first system;

second instructions for execution by the first system to transform at least some of the video game program instructions stored in the memory that are incompatible with the first system into transformed instructions that are compatible with the first system; and

third instructions for execution by the first system to use the transformed video game program instructions in generating game images which are displayed on the single display of the first system and which correspond to the game images displayed on both the first and second displays of the second system when the video game program is executed by the second processor, wherein

the emulator selectively displays game images for the first display of the second system and game images for the second display of the second system based on inputs to the first user controls.