Collectable video sports card

• US 5,743,801 A
• Filed: 08/19/1996
• Issued: 04/28/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Paul M. Welander
• Inventors: Welander, Paul M.
• Primary Examiner(s): MANUEL, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US08/697,023
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: 463/43, 463/44, 463/45, 463/46, 463/47, 273/236, 273/237, 273/238, 380/4, 380/23, 380/25, 40/427, 40/442, 40/445
• US Class Current: 463/44
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/206 Game information storage, e.g. cartridges, CD ROM's, DVD's, smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/06 combined with other apparatus having a different main function

Abstract

A sports commemorative having an exterior which resembles a sportscard and also having the capacity to store a video highlight sequence. The video highlight sequence features an entity, most commonly an athlete, and is stored as data in a video storage means 12. A decorated housing means 10 surrounds and houses the video storage means 12. The decorated housing means 10 also has, as a part of its structure, an interface means 14. When the interface means 14 is removably connected with a display means, the video highlight sequence may be displayed by the display means. The decorated housing means 10 also supports an identification means 20. The identification means 20 resembles the front of a sportscard and serves to commemorate the featured entity in that fashion.

Claims

1. A collectable video commemorative device simulating and representing a sportscard, such as a baseball card, in its external appearance, featuring an entity, most commonly a famous athlete and herein referred to as an athlete, on its exterior in a manner and format resembling a sportscard, in addition, the device having the capacity to store a video highlight sequence featuring the same athlete, further, the device having the ability to interface or otherwise interact with a display means, for the purpose of allowing said display means, using its own associated means, to retrieve and display said video highlight sequence, said video commemorative comprising:

a machine-readable video storage means for storing, as data, said video highlight sequence, further, said video storage means may take the form of any number of machine-readable video storage devices having the capability to store video information, including the storage devices selected from the group comprising memory chips, circuit boards, video tape and compact disks;

said video highlight sequence comprised of various moving video images and sequences which feature and commemorate the athlete, said video highlight sequence stored, as data, in said video storage means, said video highlight sequence, further, to be displayed by said display means;

a decorated housing means forming the exterior of said video commemorative and for the purpose of protecting and housing said video storage means, said decorated housing means further having an interface means allowing it to be removably connected to said display means, this interface condition allowing said video highlight sequence to be displayed by said display means through the use of means within said display means, said decorated housing means, further, supporting an identification means;

said identification means comprising pictorial images, statistical information, and graphic embellishment featuring the athlete, said identification means also in a manner and format substantially resembling a sportscard whereby the exterior of said video commemorative is given an attractive, aesthetic, commemorative quality in the spirit of traditional, cardboard sportscards;

said video commemorative also having proportions substantially resembling the proportions of a sportscard, said video commemorative further being of a size such that one video commemorative substantially fits within a typical, open, adult, human hand, whereby said video commemorative is conducive to being displayed, facilitates the exchange of collectable video commemoratives between people, allows space-efficient archival storage of annually issued sets of more than 250 video commemoratives and, in general, is conducive to activities associated with the collection of traditional, cardboard sportscards,

whereby, said video commemorative in its appearance and format, in essence, functions as a sportscard, but with the additional feature of supplementing its commemorative value with video highlights.

2. The collectable video commemorative of claim 1, wherein:

said collectable video commemorative has an optional display box in which it may be stored, said display box performing the functions of housing said video commemorative and supporting a supplemental identification means comprising pictorial images, statistical information, and graphic embellishment featuring the athlete, said supplemental identification means being in the format and style of a sportscard, whereby said display box is given an attractive, aesthetic quality which serves to commemorate the athlete in the spirit of traditional, cardboard sportscards;

further, said identification means and supplemental identification means, featuring the athlete, comprise any number of identifying elements including those selected from the group comprising pictures of the athlete, holographic images of the athlete, artists'"'"' renditions of the athlete, the name of the athlete graphically represented, the autograph of the athlete, personal information about the athlete, information about the career of the athlete, the uniform number of the athlete, the athlete'"'"'s position on a team, the name of the team on which the athlete plays, the logo of the team on which the athlete plays, relevant statistics, a reference number of the video commemorative in relation to a larger set of video commemoratives of which it is a part, graphic elements which enhance the design of the respective identification means and supplemental identification means and other elements which identify and describe the athlete being featured in said video highlight sequence,

further, said identification means and supplemental identification means being realized in various formats including those formats selected from the group comprising

1) said identifying elements of which said identification means and said supplemental identification means are comprised being displayed on a thin material suitable for attachment to the decorated housing means and said display box, respectively;

2) said identifying elements of which said supplemental identification means is composed comprise being imprinted in a booklet attached to said display box;

3) said identifying elements of which said identification means and said supplemental identification means are comprised being directly imprinted on said decorated housing means and display box, respectively.

3. The collectable video commemorative of claim 2, wherein said video highlight sequence, stored as data in said video storage means, comprises any number of elements including those selected from the group comprising video highlights of a featured athlete performing his or her sport, statistics in graphic form, personal information in graphic form, the name of the athlete, the athlete'"'"'s position on a team, the athlete'"'"'s uniform number, the name of the team on which the athlete plays, the logo of the team on which the athlete plays, written and graphic information about the career and past achievements of the athlete, interviews, video sequences which are relevant to the description and commemoration of the athlete, graphic elements such as borders and patterns, and other images which further enhance the design of said video highlight sequence;

said video highlight sequence further having an audio accompaniment comprising any number of elements including those selected from the group comprising announcers'"'"' descriptions of the action of the video segments, music, crowd noise, narration which discloses information about the athlete, the audio portion of relevant interviews and other audio elements which contribute to the commemoration of the athlete.

4. The collectable video commemorative of claim 3, wherein the feature of the collectable video commemorative may be any number of entities including the entities selected from the group comprising a plurality of athletes, a specific sporting event, a previous sporting contest, a specific sports team'"'"'s achievements in previous years, the achievements in a specific sport in previous years, coaches, motion pictures, actors, actresses, musical performers, musical performances, television shows, cartoon characters, historical events, historic personalities and other events, places, people and productions.

5. The collectable video commemorative of claim 4, wherein said video commemorative is realized within a specific system used for displaying video sequences read from machine-readable video storage devices, said specific system having among its associated elements said display means, said display means generally having a retrieval means and a processing means for the purposes of transforming the data of the video highlight sequence into video signals for display, also, generally having a control means for the controllable manipulation of video sequences it displays, further, for the purposes of its use with said video commemorative said control means has among its functions the following:

1) controlling the speed at which said video highlight sequence is played;

2) controlling the chronological sequence of said video highlight sequence as it is being displayed;

3) selecting a specific point of said video highlight sequence at which to begin displaying;

4) facilitating other user-input commands which control the mode of the display on the display screen.

6. The collectable video commemorative of claim 5, wherein the elements which comprise said video commemorative are realized within any number of specific systems used for displaying video sequences read from machine-readable storage devices, said systems including those selected from the group comprising:

1) the system of hand-held video games in which the display means is embodied in a hand-held video game unit with a built-in display screen and in which the decorated housing means and the video storage means, in combination, are chosen from any number of entities including those selected from the group comprising video game cartridges, two-piece video game cartridges, compact disk cassettes, and video storage disks;

2) the format of a home video game system comprising a home video game unit to which said decorated housing means is removably connected, and a separate video display device chosen from a group of display devices including display devices selected from the group comprising television sets and video display monitors, said display device and home video game unit working in combination to comprise said display means, said decorated housing means in combination with said video storage means, to be chosen from a selection of entities including those selected from the group comprising video game cartridges, two-piece video game cartridges, compact disk cassettes, and video storage disks;

3) the system of a video recording or playing machine VCR in connection with a video display device, which together comprise said display means, said decorated housing means and video storage means, in combination, being selected from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) video cassettes, wherein said video storage means is in the form of a video tape,

b) miniaturized versions of video cassettes, wherein an associated adaptor is used as needed to allow the mini-video cassette to interface with said video recording or playing machine

c) compact disk cassettes

d) magnetic tape cartridges

e) video storage disks

further, said video display device being selected from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) televisions

b) video display monitors;

4) a personal computing system wherein said video storage means and decorated housing means, in combination are selected from the group comprising

a) computer diskettes

b) compact disks

c) other external machine-read video storage means

further, a portion of said display means comprises a drive device chosen from a group of drive devices including those devices chosen from the group comprising

a) disk drives

b) cd, read-only-memory drives

said drive device working in combination with a video display device, to comprise said display means, said video display device chosen from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) television sets

b) lap-top computers with built-in screens

c) video display monitors.

7. The video commemorative of claim 6, wherein said video commemorative is realized in the format of a liquid crystal photograph, said video commemorative comprising:

said video storage means which is an externally programmable, read-only memory, which further comprises the second section of a two-piece interconnecting casing and which contains data representing said video highlight sequence;

said display means taking the form of a liquid crystal display means situated upon a first section of said two-piece interconnecting casing said liquid crystal display means having a mode control means which has the capacity to display elements of said video highlight sequence in a variety of display modes including the modes selected from the group comprising;

a) viewing a single frame of said video highlight sequence continuously

b) viewing a series of selected frames from said video highlight sequence in a time-delayed sequential order

c) viewing the entire video highlight sequence

a connecting means situated upon both pieces of said two-piece interconnecting casing for allowing said video storage means comprising said second section to be inserted into said first section which comprises said display means;

said liquid crystal photograph may have energizing means wherein a plurality of solar cells are connected so as to provide a permanence of power to said display unit to the extent that a viewer may continuously view what is displayed on said liquid crystal display means due essentially to the presence of ambient light when the two sections are removably connected

said video commemorative further having two identification means comprising;

a) with said two-piece casing in its connected position, an identifying element in the form of a predetermined or user selected image displayed on said liquid crystal display screen and which is displayed on the display screen even when the video highlight sequence is not being actively viewed in its entirety due to being powered by said solar cells in the presence of ambient light

b) an identification means which is integral to a lower portion of said second section of said two-piece interconnecting casing which protrudes beyond the bottom of said first section of said two-piece interconnecting casing when the two sections are in their connected position.

8. The modification of a sportscard, such as a baseball card, into a collectable video commemorative whereby it is given the additional ability to provide video highlight of a featured entity, most commonly an athlete and herein referred to as an athlete, the prototype sportscard of the type comprising pictorial images and graphic embellishment attached to both larger surfaces of an approximately six and one-quarter centimeters by eight and three-quarters centimeters piece of semi-rigid backing material, the modification comprising:

1) providing an inner void in between the two largest exterior surfaces for the purpose of housing a machine-readable video storage means

2) changing the material, as needed, to provide said housing for said video storage means

3) changing the traditional dimensions of the sportscard, as needed, to accomodate the housing of said video storage means, the modified structure surrounding the video storage means and between the two larger, pictorial surfaces is herein referred to as the decorated housing means

4) replications of the pictorial format of the surfaces of the traditional sportscard, in the form of identification means are supported by the decorated housing means, said identification means depicting the featured athlete

5) storing a video highlight sequence depicting the same athlete in motion, as data in said video storage means

6) providing an interface means as part of the structure of the decorated housing means which allows said decorated housing means to removably connect to a display means, the interface condition allowing said display means to access and display said video highlight sequence;

said video storage means may take the form of any number of machine-readable video storage devices including those selected from the group comprising memory chips, circuit boards, video tape, and compact disks;

said video commemorative having proportions substantially resembling the proportions of a sportscard, said video commemorative further being of a size such that one video commemorative substantially fits within a typical, open, adult, human hand, whereby said video commemorative is conducive to being displayed, facilitates the exchange of collectable video commemoratives between people, allows space-efficient archival storage of annually issued sets of more that 250 video commemoratives and, in general, is conducive to activities associated with the collection of traditional, cardboard sportscards;

whereby, said video commemorative, in its appearance and format, in essence, functions as a sportscard, but with the additional feature of supplementing its commemorative value with video highlights.

9. The collectable video commemorative of claim 8, wherein:

said collectable video commemorative has an optional display box in which it may be stored, said display box performing the functions of housing said video commemorative and supporting a supplemental identification means comprising pictorial images, statistical information, and graphic embellishment featuring the athlete, said supplemental identification means being in the format and style of a sportscard, whereby said display box is given an attractive, aesthetic quality which serves to commemorate the athlete in the spirit of traditional, cardboard sportscards;

further, said identification means and supplemental identification means, featuring the athlete, comprise any number of identifying elements including those selected from the group comprising pictures of the athlete, holographic images of the athlete, artists'"'"' renditions of the athlete, the name of the athlete graphically represented, the autograph of the athlete, personal information about the athlete, information about the career of the athlete, the uniform number of the athlete, the athlete'"'"'s position on a team, the name of the team on which the athlete plays, the logo of the team on which the athlete plays, relevant statistics, a reference number of the video commemorative in relation to a larger set of video commemoratives of which it is a part, graphic elements which enhance the design of the respective identification means and supplemental identification means and other elements which identify and describe the athlete being featured in said video highlight sequence,

further, said identification means and supplemental identification means being realized in various formats including those formats selected from the group comprising

1) said identifying elements of which said identification means and said supplemental identification means are comprised being displayed on a thin material suitable for attachment to the decorated housing means and said display box, respectively;

2) said identifying elements of which said supplemental identification means is composed comprise being imprinted in a booklet attached to said display box;

3) said identifying elements of which said identification means and said supplemental identification means are comprised being directly imprinted on said decorated housing means and display box, respectively.

10. The collectable video commemorative of claim 9, wherein said video highlight sequence, stored as data in said video storage means, comprises any number of elements including those selected from the group comprising video highlights of a featured athlete performing his or her sport, statistics in graphic form, personal information in graphic form, the name of the athlete, the athlete'"'"'s position on a team, the athlete'"'"'s uniform number, the name of the team on which the athlete plays, the logo of the team on which the athlete plays, written and graphic information about the career and past achievements of the athlete, interviews, video sequences which are relevant to the description and commemoration of the athlete, graphic elements such as borders and patterns, and other images which further enhance the design of said video highlight sequence;

said video highlight sequence further having an audio accompaniment comprising any number of elements including those selected from the group comprising announcers'"'"' descriptions of the action of the video segments, music, crowd noise, narration which discloses information about the athlete, the audio portion of relevant interviews and other audio elements which contribute to the commemoration of the athlete.

11. The collectable video commemorative of claim 10, wherein the feature of the collectable video commemorative may be any number of entities including the entities selected from the group comprising a plurality of athletes, a specific sporting event, a previous sporting contest, a specific sports team'"'"'s achievements in previous years, the achievements in a specific sport in previous years, coaches, motion pictures, actors, actresses, musical performers, musical performances, television shows, cartoon characters, historical events, historic personalities and other events, places, people and productions.

12. The collectable video commemorative of claim 11, wherein said video commemorative is realized within a specific system used for displaying video sequences read from machine-readable video storage devices, said specific system having among its associated elements said display means, said display means generally having a retrieval means and a processing means for the purposes of transforming the data of the video highlight sequence into video signals for display, also, generally having a control means for the controllable manipulation of video sequences it displays, further, for the purposes of its use with said video commemorative said control means has among its functions the following:

1) controlling the speed at which said video highlight sequence is played;

2) controlling the chronological sequence of said video highlight sequence as it is being displayed;

3) selecting a specific point of said video highlight sequence at which to begin displaying;

4) facilitating other user-input commands which control the mode of the display on the display screen.

13. The collectable video commemorative of claim 12, wherein the elements which comprise said video commemorative are realized within any number of specific systems used for displaying video sequences read from machine-readable storage devices, said systems including those selected from the group comprising:

1) the system of hand-held video games in which the display means is embodied in a hand-held video game unit with a built-in display screen and in which the decorated housing means and the video storage means, in combination, are chosen from any number of entities including those selected from the group comprising video game cartridges, two-piece video game cartridges, compact disk cassettes, and video storage disks;

2) the format of a home video game system comprising a home video game unit to which said decorated housing means is removably connected, and a separate video display device chosen from a group of display devices including display devices selected from the group comprising television sets and video display monitors, said display device and home video game unit working in combination to comprise said display means, said decorated housing means in combination with said video storage means, to be chosen from a selection of entities including those selected from the group comprising video game cartridges, two-piece video game cartridges, compact disk cassettes, and video storage disks;

3) the system of a video recording or playing machine VCR in connection with a video display device, which together comprise said display means, said decorated housing means and video storage means, in combination, being selected from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) video cassettes, wherein said video storage means is in the form of a video tape,

b) miniaturized versions of video cassettes, wherein an associated adaptor is used as needed to allow the mini-video cassette to interface with said video recording or playing machine

c) compact disk cassettes

d) magnetic tape cartridges

e) video storage disks

further, said video display device being selected from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) televisions

b) video display monitors;

4) a personal computing system wherein said video storage means and decorated housing means, in combination are selected from the group comprising

a) computer diskettes

b) compact disks

c) other external machine-read video storage means further, a portion of said display means comprises a drive device chosen from a group of drive devices including those devices chosen from the group comprising

a) disk drives

b) cd, read-only-memory drives

said drive device working in combination with a video display device, to comprise said display means, said video display device chosen from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) television sets

b) lap-top computers with built-in screens

c) video display monitors.

14. The video commemorative of claim 13, wherein said video commemorative is realized in the format of a liquid crystal photograph, said video commemorative comprising:

said video storage means which is an externally programmable, read-only memory, which further comprises the second section of a two-piece interconnecting casing and which contains data representing said video highlight sequence;

said display means taking the form of a liquid crystal display means situated upon a first section of said two-piece interconnecting casing said liquid crystal display means having a mode control means which has the capacity to display elements of said video highlight sequence in a variety of display modes including the modes selected from the group comprising;

a) viewing a single frame of said video highlight sequence continuously

b) viewing a series of selected frames from said video highlight sequence in a time-delayed sequential order

c) viewing the entire video highlight sequence

a connecting means situated upon both pieces of said two-piece interconnecting casing for allowing said video storage means comprising said second section to be inserted into said first section which comprises said display means;

said liquid crystal photograph may have energizing means wherein a plurality of solar cells are connected so as to provide a permanence of power to said display unit to the extent that a viewer may continuously view what is displayed on said liquid crystal display means due essentially to the presence of ambient light when the two sections are removably connected

said video commemorative further having two identification means comprising;

a) with said two-piece casing in its connected position, an identifying element in the form of a predetermined or user selected image displayed on said liquid crystal display screen and which is displayed on the display screen even when the video highlight sequence is not being actively viewed in its entirety due to being powered by said solar cells in the presence of ambient light

b) an identification means which is integral to a lower portion of said second section of said two-piece interconnecting casing which protrudes beyond the bottom of said first section of said two-piece interconnecting casing when the two sections are in their connected position.

15. The combination of a sportscard, such as a baseball card, featuring an entity, such as an athlete and herein referred to as an athlete, said sportscard, further, of the type comprising an essentially flat piece of semi-rigid material having pictorial images and graphic embellishment attached or otherwise imprinted upon each of the two largest surfaces, combined with a video storage and display system, such as a hand-held video game system, wherein said combination as a collectable video commemorative essentially retains the exterior characteristics of the sportscard but has the additional ability to store a video highlight sequence for display on a display means, said video sportscard comprising

a decorated housing means having the outer form and appearance of a sportscard and housing a machine-readable video storage means

said video storage means storing a video highlight sequence featuring the same athlete, said video storage means, further, taking the form of any number of machine-readable video storage devices having the capability to store video information, including the storage devices selected from the group comprising memory chips, circuit boards, video tape, and compact disks;

said video highlight sequence comprised of various moving video images and sequences which feature and commemorate the athlete, said video highlight sequence stored, as data, in said video storage means, said video highlight sequence, further, to be displayed by said display means;

said decorated housing means, further, having an interface means as part of its structure, said interface means being able to removably connect with said display means which is a part of said video storage and display system, in the interface condition said display means having access to said video highlight sequence for the purpose of displaying it;

said decorated housing means, further, supporting an identification means which replicates the pictorial images and graphic embellishment of the original sportscard;

said collectable video commemorative also having proportions substantially resembling the proportions of a sportscard, said video commemorative, further, being of a size such that one video commemorative substantially fits within a typical, open, adult, human hand, whereby said video commemorative is conducive to being displayed, facilitates the exchange of video commemoratives amongst people, allows space-efficient archival storage of annually issued sets of more that 250 video commemoratives and, in general, is conducive to activities associated with the collection of traditional, cardboard sportscards;

whereby, said combination acting as a video commemorative, is the cooperative synthesis of the format and content of said sportscard with the capabilities of the video storage and display system to display video images, said combination, in essence, forming a sportscard with a video component.

16. The collectable video commemorative of claim 15, wherein said collectable video commemorative has an optional display box in which it may be stored, said display box performing the functions of housing said video commemorative and supporting a supplemental identification means comprising pictorial images, statistical information, and graphic embellishment featuring the athlete, said supplemental identification means being in the format and style of a sportscard, whereby said display box is given an attractive, aesthetic quality which serves to commemorate the athlete in the spirit of traditional, cardboard sportscards;

further, said identification means and supplemental identification means, featuring the athlete, comprise any number of identifying elements including those selected from the group comprising pictures of the athlete, holographic images of the athlete, artists'"'"' renditions of the athlete, the name of the athlete graphically represented, the autograph of the athlete, personal information about the athlete, information about the career of the athlete, the uniform number of the athlete, the athlete'"'"'s position on a team, the name of the team on which the athlete plays, the logo of the team on which the athlete plays, relevant statistics, a reference number of the video commemorative in relation to a larger set of video commemoratives of which it is a part, graphic elements which enhance the design of the respective identification means and supplemental identification means and other elements which identify and describe the athlete being featured in said video highlight sequence,

further, said identification means and supplemental identification means being realized in various formats including those formats selected from the group comprising

1) said identifying elements of which said identification means and said supplemental identification means are comprised being displayed on a thin material suitable for attachment to the decorated housing means and said display box, respectively;

2) said identifying elements of which said supplemental identification means is composed comprise being imprinted in a booklet attached to said display box;

3) said identifying elements of which said identification means and said supplemental identification means are comprised being directly imprinted on said decorated housing means and display box, respectively.

17. The collectable video commemorative of claim 16, wherein said video highlight sequence, stored as data in said video storage means, comprises any number of elements including those selected from the group comprising video highlights of a featured athlete performing his or her sport, statistics in graphic form, personal information in graphic form, the name of the athlete, the athlete'"'"'s position on a team, the athlete'"'"'s uniform number, the name of the team on which the athlete plays, the logo of the team on which the athlete plays, written and graphic information about the career and past achievements of the athlete, interviews, video sequences which are relevant to the description and commemoration of the athlete, graphic elements such as borders and patterns, and other images which further enhance the design of said video highlight sequence;

said video highlight sequence further having an audio accompaniment comprising any number of elements including those selected from the group comprising announcers'"'"' descriptions of the action of the video segments, music, crowd noise, narration which discloses information about the athlete, the audio portion of relevant interviews and other audio elements which contribute to the commemoration of the athlete.

18. The collectable video commemorative of claim 17, wherein the feature of the collectable video commemorative may be any number of entities including the entities selected from the group comprising a plurality of athletes, a specific sporting event, a previous sporting contest, a specific sports team'"'"'s achievements in previous years, the achievements in a specific sport in previous years, coaches, motion pictures, actors, actresses, musical performers, musical performances, television shows, cartoon characters, historical events, historic personalities and other events, places, people and productions.

19. The collectable video commemorative of claim 18, wherein said video commemorative is realized within a specific system used for displaying video sequences read from machine-readable video storage devices, said specific system having among its associated elements said display means, said display means generally having a retrieval means and a processing means for the purposes of transforming the data of the video highlight sequence into video signals for display, also, generally having a control means for the controllable manipulation of video sequences it displays, further, for the purposes of its use with said video commemorative said control means has among its functions the following:

1) controlling the speed at which said video highlight sequence is played;

2) controlling the chronological sequence of said video highlight sequence as it is being displayed;

3) selecting a specific point of said video highlight sequence at which to begin displaying;

4) facilitating other user-input commands which control the mode of the display on the display screen.

20. The collectable video commemorative of claim 19, wherein the elements which comprise said video commemorative are realized within any number of specific systems used for displaying video sequences read from machine-readable storage devices, said systems including those selected from the group comprising:

1) the system of hand-held video games in which the display means is embodied in a hand-held video game unit with a built-in display screen and in which the decorated housing means and the video storage means, in combination, are chosen from any number of entities including those selected from the group comprising video game cartridges, two-piece video game cartridges, compact disk cassettes, and video storage disks;

2) the format of a home video game system comprising a home video game unit to which said decorated housing means is removably connected, and a separate video display device chosen from a group of display devices including display devices selected from the group comprising television sets and video display monitors, said display device and home video game unit working in combination to comprise said display means, said decorated housing means in combination with said video storage means, to be chosen from a selection of entities including those selected from the group comprising video game cartridges, two-piece video game cartridges, compact disk cassettes, and video storage disks;

3) the system of a video recording or playing machine VCR in connection with a video display device, which together comprise said display means, said decorated housing means and video storage means, in combination, being selected from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) video cassettes, wherein said video storage means is in the form of a video tape,

b) miniaturized versions of video cassettes, wherein an associated adaptor is used as needed to allow the mini-video cassette to interface with said video recording or playing machine

c) compact disk cassettes

d) magnetic tape cartridges

e) video storage disks

further, said video display device being selected from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) televisions

b) video display monitors;

4) a personal computing system wherein said video storage means and decorated housing means, in combination are selected from the group comprising

a) computer diskettes

b) compact disks

c) other external machine-read video storage means further, a portion of said display means comprises a drive device chosen from a group of drive devices including those devices chosen from the group comprising

a) disk drives

b) cd, read-only-memory drives said drive device working in combination with a video display device, to comprise said display means, said video display device chosen from a group of devices including those devices selected from the group comprising

a) television sets

b) lap-top computers with built-in screens

c) video display monitors.

21. The video commemorative of claim 20, wherein said video commemorative is realized in the format of a liquid crystal photograph, said video commemorative comprising:

said video storage means which is an externally programmable, read-only memory, which further comprises the second section of a two-piece interconnecting casing and which contains data representing said video highlight sequence;

said display means taking the form of a liquid crystal display means situated upon a first section of said two-piece interconnecting casing said liquid crystal display means having a mode control means which has the capacity to display elements of said video highlight sequence in a variety of display modes including the modes selected from the group comprising;

a) viewing a single frame of said video highlight sequence continuously

b) viewing a series of selected frames from said video highlight sequence in a time-delayed sequential order

c) viewing the entire video highlight sequence

a connecting means situated upon both pieces of said two-piece interconnecting casing for allowing said video storage means comprising said second section to be inserted into said first section which comprises said display means;

said liquid crystal photograph may have energizing means wherein a plurality of solar cells are connected so as to provide a permanence of power to said display unit to the extent that a viewer may continuously view what is displayed on said liquid crystal display means due essentially to the presence of ambient light when the two sections are removably connected

said video commemorative further having two identification means comprising;

a) with said two-piece casing in its connected position, an identifying element in the form of a predetermined or user selected image displayed on said liquid crystal display screen and which is displayed on the display screen even when the video highlight sequence is not being actively viewed in its entirety due to being powered by said solar cells in the presence of ambient light

b) an identification means which is integral to a lower portion of said second section of said two-piece interconnecting casing which protrudes beyond the bottom of said first section of said two-piece interconnecting casing when the two sections are in their connected position.