Portable color display game machine and storage medium for the same

• US 6,315,669 B1
• Filed: 05/27/1999
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Okada, Satoru, Nakashima, Takanobu, Umezu, Ryuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Sager, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOTALING, JOHN M
• Application Number:
  US09/321,201
• Time in Patent Office: 901 Days
• Field of Search: 463/1, 463/30, 463/31, 463/43-47, 345/214, 345/690, 345/814, 345/866, 345/530-535
• US Class Current: 463/44
• 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 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1018 Calibration; Key and button assignment
• 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 2300/206 Game information storage, e.g. cartridges, CD ROM's, DVD's, smart cards

Abstract

A portable color display game machine includes a game cartridge type determining circuit configured to determine whether a color game cartridge storing color data for a game or a monochrome game cartridge storing monochrome data for a game is attached to the color display game machine. Color display generating circuitry is configured to generate a color game display based on the color data when the color game cartridge is attached to the color display game machine, and to generate a color game display based on the monochrome data when the monochrome game cartridge is attached to the color display game machine.

Claims

1. A storage medium for a portable game machine, said storage medium being removably attachable to said portable game machine so as to supply data and a program to an image processor of said portable game machine, said storage medium being characterized in that both tone data and color data are pre-stored for image display, and one of the tone data and the color data is selectively processed by said image processor of said portable game machine.

2. The storage medium according to claim 1, wherein

the color data includes color palette data, and

said image processor of said portable game machine outputs a display signal comprising a background character image and a display signal comprising an object character image, and

the color palette data includes background color palette data used for the background character image and object color palette data used for the object character image.

3. A computer-readable medium for use with a hand-held display system that comprises a liquid crystal display, user operable input devices, and processing circuitry that generates a display on the liquid crystal display for a video game based on a video game program stored on said computer-readable medium and user inputs from the input devices, the computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure comprising the video game program;

background character data for each of a plurality of background characters for the video game; and

object character data for each of a plurality of object characters for the video game, the character data for each background and object character including tone data for use with monochrome display processing circuitry and color data for use with color display processing circuitry.

4. The computer-readable medium according to claim 3, wherein the color data for the background characters includes palette designating data for designating one of a plurality of background character color palettes and the color data for the object characters includes palette designating data for designating one of a plurality of object character color palettes.

5. The computer-readable medium according to claim 4, wherein the palette designating data for the background characters designates one of eight background character color palettes and the palette designating data for the object characters designates one of eight object character color palettes.

6. The computer-readable medium according to claim 5, wherein each background character color palette has four colors and each object character color palette has three colors.

7. The computer-readable medium according to claim 3, wherein the tone data for the object characters is four-tone data and the tone data for the background characters is four-tone data.

8. The computer-readable medium according to claim 3, wherein the data structure further comprises color compatibility data.

9. The computer-readable medium according to claim 3, wherein the data structure further comprises logo data.

10. The computer-readable medium according to claim 3, wherein the data structure further comprises a machine identification data determining program for determining the type of processing circuitry of the hand-held display system.

11. The computer-readable medium according to claim 3, wherein the computer-readable medium is read-only.

12. A method for generating display data for background characters and object characters of a video game played on a hand-held display system comprising a liquid crystal display and user operable input devices, the method comprising the steps of:

operatively connecting processing circuitry to a computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure comprising a video game program for the video game, background character data for each of a plurality of background characters for the video game and object character data for each of a plurality of object characters for the video game, the character data for each background and object character including tone data used for monochrome display processing and color data used for color display processing; and

generating display data for displaying the background characters and the object characters on the liquid crystal display of the hand-held device in accordance with a processing operation that uses one of the tone data and the color data stored on the computer-readable medium.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the color data for the game background characters includes palette designating data for designating one of a plurality of background character color palettes and the color data for the game object characters includes palette designating data for designating one of a plurality of object character color palettes.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the palette designating data for the game background characters designates one of eight background character color palettes and the palette designating data for the game object characters designates one of eight object character color palettes.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein each background character color palette has four colors and each object character color palette has three colors.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein the tone data for the game object characters is four-tone data and the tone data for the game background characters is four-tone data.

17. The method according to claim 12, wherein the data structure of the computer-readable medium further comprises color compatibility data.

18. The method according to claim 12, wherein the data structure of the computer-readable medium further comprises logo data.

19. The method according to claim 12, wherein the data structure of the computer-readable medium further comprises a machine identification data determining program for determining the type of display processing of hand-held device with which the computer-readable medium is used.

20. The method according to claim 12, wherein the computer-readable medium is a read-only computer-readable medium.

21. A hand-held display system for playing a video game comprising:

a housing grippable by a user'"'"'s hands;

a liquid crystal display viewable by the user gripping the housing;

input devices operable by the user when the user grips the housing;

a connector for operatively connecting to a computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure comprising a video game program for the video game;

background character data for each of a plurality of background characters for the video game; and

object character data for each of a plurality of object characters for the video game, the character data for each background and object character including tone data for use with monochrome display processing circuitry and color data for use with color display processing circuitry;

processing circuitry for processing the video game program, user inputs from the input devices and one of the tone data and the color data stored on the computer-readable medium in order to display the background characters and the object characters on the liquid crystal display.

22. The hand-held display system according to claim 21, wherein the data structure of the computer-readable medium further comprises a machine identification data determining program for determining the type of processing circuitry of the hand-held device with which the computer-readable medium is operatively connected.

23. The hand-held display system according to claim 21, wherein the computer-readable medium is a read-only computer-readable medium.

24. The hand-held display system according to claim 21, wherein the user input devices include one or more buttons.