MULTI-PLAY CENTRAL DETERMINATION SYSTEM

• US 20110223991A1
• Filed: 03/12/2010
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Yang, Wei, Robinson, Joshua, Powell, Tracy, Bolton, Paul W., Scheffel, Nick, Liu, Wensheng, Chong, Yu, Rasmussen, Eric, Oh, Meng, LeMay, Steven G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,932,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/26
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, apparatus, and systems implementing techniques for using a central determination system with multi-play gaming machines having sub-games and with gaming machines having a base game and a bonus game. A seed value is provided for each of the games (i.e., each of the sub-games or the base game and the bonus game). This ensures that all possible game outcomes may be displayed for each of the games.

Claims

1. A method of presenting one or more sub-games on a multi-play gaming machine, the multi-play gaming machine configured to display the one or more sub-games, each sub-game including a single instance of a wager-based game of chance, an outcome of the single instance of the wager-based game of chance being a sub-game outcome, the multi-play gaming machine connected to one or more servers over a network, the method comprising:

receiving bet information from the multi-play gaming machine;

identifying, based on the bet information, one of a plurality of pool files from which to select a game outcome register, each pool file including a plurality of game outcome registers, each game outcome register including one or more sub-game outcomes, each sub-game outcome including a sub-game payout and a seed value;

selecting the pool file from which to select the game outcome register;

randomly selecting one of the game outcome registers from the selected pool file; and

transmitting the selected game outcome register to the multi-play gaming machine, the multi-play gaming machine configured to determine a sub-game output to be displayed for each sub-game outcome in the selected game outcome register using the seed value in each sub-game outcome.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating the selected game outcome register in the selected pool file as used.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a zero value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is not zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a 32-bit number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the bet information includes at least one of a bet amount, a number of sub-games selected, and a number of lines bet in the selected number of sub-games.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a payout percentage of at least one sub-game is different than the payout percentages of the other sub-games.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

retiring the selected pool file when a percentage of game outcome registers in the selected pool file are designated as used.

8. A central determination gaming system comprising:

a plurality of gaming machines, including a plurality of multi-play gaming machines, each multi-play gaming machine comprising;

a controller configured to output one or more sub-games, each sub-game including a single instance of a wager-based game of chance,

a display configured to display the one or more sub-games, and

an input device configured to accept bet information for playing the one or more sub-games; and

a server configured to communicate with the plurality of gaming machines, and the server, for each multi-play gaming machine, further configured to;

receive bet information from the multi-play gaming machine,

identify, based on the bet information, one of a plurality of pool files from which to select a game outcome register, each pool file including a plurality of game outcome registers, each game outcome register including one or more sub-game outcomes, each sub-game outcome including a sub-game payout and a seed value,

select the pool file from which to select the game outcome register,

randomly select a game outcome register from the selected pool file, and

transmit the selected game outcome register to the multi-play gaming machine;

wherein the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to;

receive the selected game outcome register from the server, and

determine a sub-game output to be displayed for each sub-game in the selected game outcome register using the seed value in each sub-game outcome.

9. The central determination gaming system of claim 8, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a zero value, and the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to determine a sub-game output to be displayed for the seed value that includes a zero value.

10. The central determination gaming system of claim 8, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is not zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a 32-bit number, and the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to determine a sub-game output to be displayed based on the 32-bit number.

11. A method of presenting one or more sub-games on a multi-play gaming machine, the multi-play gaming machine configured to display one or more sub-games, each sub-game including a single instance of a wager-based game of chance, the multi-play gaming machine connected to one or more servers over a network, the method comprising:

receiving bet information at an input device of the multi-play gaming machine;

transmitting the bet information to a server in communication with the multi-play gaming machine;

receiving, from the server, a game outcome register, the game outcome register randomly selected from one of a plurality of pool files accessible by the server, each pool file including a plurality of game outcome registers, wherein the one pool file is selected by the server based on the bet information, the game outcome register including a payout;

selecting, based on a number of the one or more sub-games being played, one of a plurality of outcome lookup files, each outcome lookup file including a plurality of outcome distributions;

randomly selecting an outcome distribution from the selected outcome lookup file, the outcome distribution specifying how the payout is allocated into sub-game payouts, each sub-game payout associated with each of the one or more sub-games being played;

selecting, based on the sub-game payout for each of the one or more sub-games for which the sub-game payout is not zero, as specified by the outcome distribution, one of a plurality of seed files, each seed file including a plurality of seed values;

randomly selecting, for each of the one or more sub-games for which the sub-game payout is not zero, one of a plurality of seed values from the selected seed file; and

determining, for each of the one or more sub-games for which the sub-game payout is not zero, the sub-game output to be displayed on the multi-play gaming machine for each sub-game using the selected seed values.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the server is configured to designate the selected game outcome register in selected pool file as used.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the server is configured to retire the selected pool file when a percentage of game outcome registers in the selected pool file are designated as used.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the bet information includes a bet amount.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the bet information further includes a number of sub-games selected or a number of lines bet in a selected number of sub-games.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of outcome distributions in the selected outcome lookup file include at least one sub-game with a better chance of a sub-game payout.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein each sub-game has a plurality of seed files associated with it, and based on the sub-game payout for each sub-game payout not zero, as specified by the outcome distribution, selecting one of the plurality of seed files associated with the sub-game.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the seed values in a seed file are weighted differently.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the outcome distribution further specifies that a bonus game is associated with the one or more sub-games, the method further comprising:

randomly selecting one of a plurality of bonus seed values from a bonus seed file; and

determining the bonus game output to be displayed on the multi-play gaming machine using the selected bonus seed value.

20. A central determination gaming system comprising:

a plurality of gaming machines, including a plurality of multi-play gaming machines, each multi-play gaming machine comprising;

a controller configured to output one or more sub-games, each sub-game including a single instance of a wager-based game of chance,

a display configured to display the one or more sub-games, and an input device configured to accept bet information for playing the one or more sub-games; and

a server configured to communicate with the plurality of gaming machines, and the server, for each multi-play gaming machine, further configured to;

receive bet information from the multi-play gaming machine,

identify, based on the bet information, one of a plurality of pool files from which to select a game outcome register, each pool file including a plurality of game outcome registers, each game outcome register including a payout,

select the pool file from which to select a game outcome register,

randomly select a game outcome register from the selected pool file, and

transmit the selected game outcome register to the multi-play gaming machine;

wherein the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to;

receive the selected game outcome register from the server,

select, based on a number of the one or more sub-games being played, one of a plurality of outcome lookup files, each outcome lookup file including a plurality of outcome distributions;

randomly select an outcome distribution from the selected outcome lookup file, the outcome distribution specifying how the payout is allocated into sub-game payouts, each sub-game payout associated with each of the one or more sub-games being played;

select, based on the sub-game payout for each of the one or more sub-games for which the sub-game payout is not zero, as specified by the outcome distribution, one of a plurality of seed files, each seed file including a plurality of seed values;

randomly select, for each of the one or more sub-games for which the sub-game payout is not zero, one of a plurality of seed values from the selected seed file; and

determine, for each of the one or more sub-games for which the sub-game payout is not zero, the sub-game output to be displayed on the multi-play gaming machine for each sub-game using the selected seed values.

21. The central determination gaming system of claim 20, wherein when a sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is zero, as specified by the outcome distribution, the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to determine a sub-game output to be displayed.

22. The central determination gaming system of claim 20, wherein the outcome distribution further specifies that a bonus game is associated with the one or more sub-games, and wherein the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to:

randomly select one of a plurality of bonus seed values from a bonus seed file; and

determine the bonus game output to be displayed on the multi-play gaming machine using the selected bonus seed value.

23. A method of presenting a first game and a second game on a gaming machine, the gaming machine connected to one or more servers over a network, the method comprising:

receiving bet information at an input device of the gaming machine;

transmitting the bet information to a server in communication with the gaming machine;

receiving, from the server, a game outcome register, the game outcome register randomly selected from one of a plurality of pool files accessible by the server, each pool file including a plurality of game outcome registers, wherein the one pool file is selected by the server based on the bet information, the game outcome register including a first payout and associated first seed value and a second payout and associated second seed value;

determining a first game output to be displayed on the gaming machine for the first game using the first seed value; and

determining a second game output to be displayed on the gaming machine for the second game using the second seed value.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the second game is a bonus game.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the game outcome register further comprises a third payout and associated third seed value, the method further comprising:

determining a third game output to be displayed on the gaming machine for a third game using the third seed value.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the server is configured to designate the selected game outcome register in the selected pool file as used.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the server is configured to retire the selected pool file when a percentage of game outcome registers in the selected pool file are designated as used.