Object-throwing video game system

• US 6,045,446 A
• Filed: 05/06/1999
• Issued: 04/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Konami Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Konami Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Ohshima, Naoto
• Primary Examiner(s): Martin-Wallace, Valencia
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARADISO, JOHN ROGER
• Application Number:
  US09/306,249
• Time in Patent Office: 334 Days
• Field of Search: 463/2, 463/3, 463/4, 463/30, 463/31, 463/32, 463/36, 434/247, 434/252, 434/307 R, 434/308, 473/130, 473/409
• US Class Current: 463/2
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/53 involving additional visual information provided to the game scene, e.g. by overlay to simulate a head-up display [HUD] or displaying a laser sight in a shooting game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/57 Simulating properties, behaviour or motion of objects in the game world, e.g. computing tyre load in a car race game A63F13/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/816 Athletics, e.g. track-and-field sports
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/303 for displaying additional data, e.g. simulating a Head Up Display
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/63 for controlling the execution of the game in time
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/64 for computing dynamical parameters of game objects, e.g. motion determination or computation of frictional forces for a virtual car
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8005 Athletics

Abstract

An object-throwing video game system displays at least an image of a throwing body and an image of an object to be visually hurled from the throwing body in a game space. The object may be a hammer, a shot, or a discus, and the throwing body may be a contestant who hurls the hammer, the shot, or the discus. The image of the throwing body is controlled to visually move in preparation for visually hurling the image of the object in the game space in response to manual operation of a controller, and the image of the object is controlled to be visually hurled from the image of the throwing body in the game space in response to manual operation of the controller. An image of an object-throwing guide is also displayed in the game space to indicate a throwing direction in which to hurl the image of the object from the image of the throwing body and which progressively varies depending on the movement of the image of the throwing body for visually hurling the image of the object. The displayed object-throwing guide which indicates the throwing direction allows the game player to easily recognize visually the exact time at which to hurl the object. The object-throwing guide is displayed in changing colors to indicate the remaining number of turns that the throwing body has to make before hurling the object.

Claims

1. A recording medium storing object-throwing game data including a game program comprising the steps of:

displaying at least an image of a throwing body and an image of an object to be visually hurled from said throwing body in a game space on a display screen;

controlling said image of the throwing body to visually move in preparation for visually hurling said image of the object in said game space in response to manual operation of a controller;

controlling said image of the object to be visually hurled from said image of the throwing body in said game space in response to manual operation of the controller; and

displaying an image of an object-throwing guide in said game space to indicate a throwing direction in which to hurl the image of the object from the image of the throwing body and which progressively varies depending on the movement of said image of the throwing body for visually hurling said image of the object.

2. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said step of displaying the image of the object-throwing guide comprises the steps of:

acquiring linear and angular displacements of the image of the object-throwing guide based on throwing angle information of the image of the object based on operation of the controller;

acquiring address data in a memory of the image of the object-throwing guide based on coordinate information of the image of the object-throwing guide and the acquired linear and angular displacements; and

supplying a graphic command comprising at least address data in the memory of representative points of the image of the object-throwing guide, information for indicating color information of the image of the object-throwing guide, and texture information of the image of the object-throwing guide to display the image of the object-throwing guide.

3. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said step of displaying the image of the object-throwing guide comprises the step of changing colors of said image of the object-throwing guide depending on movement of the image of the throwing body along an arc or about a center in said game space.

4. A recording medium according to claim 3, wherein said step of changing colors of said image of the object-throwing guide comprises the step of changing said colors successively from a cold color to a warm color.

5. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game program further comprises the step of generating an image of a trail of the displayed object-throwing guide, said step of generating the image of the trail comprising the steps of:

storing address data in a memory of the displayed object-throwing guide; and

supplying one set of address data extracted from address data in the memory of two present and past images of the displayed object-throwing guide, information for indicating a color of the displayed object-throwing guide, and texture information of the displayed object-throwing guide to generate and display the image of the trail of the displayed object-throwing guide.

6. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said step of controlling said image of the throwing body comprises the step of controlling said image of the throwing body to turn along an arc or rotate about a center in said game space.

7. A recording medium according to claim 6, wherein said step of displaying the image of the object-throwing guide comprises the step of displaying the image of the object-throwing guide at successive positions on a trail depending on the movement of said image of the throwing body.

8. A recording medium according to claim 6, wherein said step of displaying the image of the object-throwing guide comprises the step of displaying the image of the object-throwing guide along an image of a path along said arc or about said center at successive positions on a trail depending on the movement of said image of the throwing body.

9. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said step of displaying the image of the object-throwing guide comprises the step of three-dimensionally displaying the image of the object-throwing guide in said game space.

10. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said image of the object-throwing guide comprises a substantially arrow-shaped image shaped for pointing said throwing direction.