Video game card having interrupt resistant behavior
First Claim
1. A video game card for interfacing a game controller having one or more analog input devices to a personal computer including a microprocessor having digital data and control buses and a card slot for receiving I/O cards, the game card comprising:
- a circuit board for mounting electrical components and connectors thereupon, the circuit board sized to fit in the card slot of the personal computer;
a game card connector for receiving an analog signal from the game controller, the analog signal having a signal level corresponding to a state of a corresponding game controller input device;
a bus connector for connecting the circuit board to the computer data and control bus; and
a game card circuit for providing to the microprocessor a digital signal corresponding to the analog signal level, the circuit including means for asserting the digital signal responsive to a "write" to the game card by the personal computer microprocessor and means for deasserting the digital signal responsive to a number of "reads" sent to the game card by the personal computer, the "read" at which the digital signal is deasserted being determined from the analog signal level.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A high precision game card generates a digital signal corresponding to each analog input signal from a controller. Each digital signal has a digital value proportional to the number of "reads" to the game card by a computer microprocessor. The digital signals can therefore be read by the computer without disabling the computer interrupts. The game card converts the analog input signals to a corresponding numeric value and this value is compared with an output of a counter which counts the number of "reads" by the computer. If the number of "reads" equals or exceeds the numeric representation, the corresponding digital signal is deasserted. The digital signals are initially asserted responsive to a "write" to the game card by the computer microprocessor. Alternatively, the numeric representations can be provided directly to the computer over the computer data bus. This embodiment provides all of the numeric representations over a single address.
97 Citations
41 Claims
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1. A video game card for interfacing a game controller having one or more analog input devices to a personal computer including a microprocessor having digital data and control buses and a card slot for receiving I/O cards, the game card comprising:
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a circuit board for mounting electrical components and connectors thereupon, the circuit board sized to fit in the card slot of the personal computer; a game card connector for receiving an analog signal from the game controller, the analog signal having a signal level corresponding to a state of a corresponding game controller input device; a bus connector for connecting the circuit board to the computer data and control bus; and a game card circuit for providing to the microprocessor a digital signal corresponding to the analog signal level, the circuit including means for asserting the digital signal responsive to a "write" to the game card by the personal computer microprocessor and means for deasserting the digital signal responsive to a number of "reads" sent to the game card by the personal computer, the "read" at which the digital signal is deasserted being determined from the analog signal level. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of signalling to a digital personal computer a state of a controller input device having an analog signal corresponding to said state via a digital signal on a game card, the method comprising:
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sampling the analog signal; converting the sample to a binary count; detecting a "write" sent by the personal computer to the game card; asserting the digital signal responsive to the detected "write"; detecting a "read" sent by the personal computer to the game card; counting the number of "reads" since the "write"; comparing the number of "reads" to the binary count; and deasserting the digital signal when the number of "reads" is equal to or exceeds the binary count. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A video game/simulation system for simulating operation of a complex system having a plurality of user-controlled functions, the system comprising:
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a computer having a microprocessor operable under control of a video game/simulation program, a display for displaying images produced by the program, and an input/output bus for connecting peripheral input and output devices to the microprocessor by producing a peripheral address and exchanging data therewith; a video game/simulator controller having a plurality of input devices, each input device having an analog signal line for transmitting an analog signal corresponding to the state of the input device; an interrupt resistant game card coupled to the input/output bus and having a game card connector coupled to the analog signal lines for receiving the corresponding analog signals from the video game/simulator controller, the game card having means for converting each analog signal to a corresponding digital signal, and means for asserting the digital signals responsive to a "write" sent to the game card by the computer microprocessor and deasserting the digital signals responsive to a number of "reads" sent to the game card by the computer, the "read" at which a digital signal is deasserted being determined by a level of the corresponding analog signal; means in the computer for writing to the game card; means in the computer for reading from the game card to receive the plurality of digital signals corresponding to the plurality of input devices of the video game/simulator controller; and means for effecting a corresponding change in the displayed images produced by the program responsive to the received digital signals. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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27. A video game card for interfacing a game controller having one or more input devices to a computer including a microprocessor having data and control buses and a card slot for receiving I/O cards, the game card comprising:
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a circuit board for mounting electrical components and connectors thereupon, the circuit board sized to fit in the card slot of the personal computer; a game card connector for receiving an analog signal from the game controller, the analog signal having a signal level corresponding to a state of a corresponding game controller input device; a bus connector for connecting the circuit board to the computer data and control bus; means for converting the analog signal to a corresponding numeric representation responsive to a "write" sent to the game card by the computer; and means for providing the numeric representation of the analog signal to the computer responsive to a "read" sent to the game card by the computer, computer responsive to a "read" sent to the game card by the computer; the game card connector including a plurality of analog signals from the game controller; and the means for converting the analog signal to a corresponding numeric representation including means for converting each analog signal to a corresponding numeric representation; and means for providing the numeric representation of the analog signal to the computer responsive to a "read" sent to the game card by the computer includes means for providing the plurality of said numeric representations at a single address; the means for providing the plurality of numeric representations of said analog signals at a single address including; a loadable counter; logic means for loading the counter with an initial count responsive to a "write" sent to the game card by the computer and incrementing the counter responsive to a "read" sent to the game card by the computer; and means for selecting one of the plurality of numeric representations corresponding to the counter count responsive to a "read" sent to the game card by the computer. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. A game controller interface for interfacing the game controller to a computer, the computer being capable of executing "write" operations to the interface and "read" operations from the interface, the interface comprising:
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a connector connectable to the game controller for receiving an analog signal from the game controller, the analog signal having a signal level corresponding to a state of a corresponding game controller input device; means for converting the analog signal to a corresponding numeric representation; means for providing the numeric representation of the analog signal to the computer responsive to a "read" sent to the game card by the computer during a first mode; and a circuit for providing to the computer a digital signal corresponding to the analog signal level during a second mode, the circuit including means for asserting the digital signal responsive to a "write" sent to the interface by the computer and means for deasserting the digital signal responsive to a number of "reads" sent to the interface by the computer, the "read" at which the digital signal is deasserted being determined from the analog signal level. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification