Multimedia emulation of physical reel hardware in processor-based gaming machines

• US 8,360,847 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2007
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Williams, David C., Beadell, John Leagh, Hedrick, Joseph Randy, Larsen, Kurt M., Mayne, Nicholas B., Vetter, Kay D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liddle, Jay Trent
• Application Number:
  US11/858,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20080113749A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,958 Days
• Field of Search: 463 16- 20
• US Class Current: 463/20
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3202 Hardware aspects of a gaming system, e.g. components, construction, architecture thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/34 depending on the stopping of moving members in a mechanical slot machine, e.g. "fruit" machines

Abstract

Gaming machines, systems and methods for providing more realistic emulations of rotating reels are disclosed. Gaming machines include an exterior housing, master gaming controller, display device, speakers and virtual reels. A reel spin timer can be adapted to vary the spin times of the simulated rotating reels from one game play to another, and a reel sound generator can be adapted to provide reel sounds to one or more speakers with respect to the simulated rotating reels. Provided reel sounds can also vary from one game play to another, and both reel spin times and reel sounds can be selected randomly from stored values or files. Stored values or files can include samplings from actual physical reels. A remote host can provide downloadable reel spin times and reel sounds to gaming machines within an associated gaming system.

Claims

1. A processor-based gaming machine configured to accept a wager, play a wager-based reel-type game of chance based on the wager and grant a payout based on the result of the wager-based reel-type game of chance, comprising:

an exterior housing arranged to contain a plurality of internal gaming machine components therein;

a master gaming controller in communication with at least one of said plurality of internal gaming machine components and configured to execute one or more aspects of said wager-based reel-type game of chance, the master gaming controller configured to generate video data for displaying a plurality of rotating video reels on an electronic video display device;

said electronic video display device configured to receive the video data from the master gaming controller and to present the plurality of rotating video reels using the received video data, said plurality of rotating video reels including a plurality of video reel symbols distributed on a plurality of video reel stops thereupon;

one or more speakers in communication with said master gaming controller and configured to present sounds with respect to said plurality of rotating video reels;

a reel spin timer in communication with at least one of said master gaming controller and said electronic video display device, wherein said reel spin timer is configured to randomly determine and select spin times from a plurality of acceptable spin times to vary the spin times of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games and to vary the stop times of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games on said processor-based gaming machine to emulate imperfections of a rotating mechanical reel; and

a reel sound generator in communication with at least one of said master gaming controller and said one or more speakers, wherein said reel sound generator is configured to provide sounds to said one or more speakers with respect to said plurality of rotating video reels, said provided sounds varying from one game play to another of reel-type games on said processor-based gaming machine and said provided sounds emulating sounds of a rotating mechanical reel.

2. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 1, wherein said one or more speakers comprises a plurality of dedicated reel speakers located in close proximity to the display of said plurality of rotating video reels.

3. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 2, wherein each of said plurality of dedicated reel speakers corresponds to one rotating video reel.

4. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 2, wherein said plurality of dedicated reel speakers are collectively configured to present stereophonic sounds with respect to said plurality of rotating video reels.

5. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 2, wherein each of said plurality of dedicated reel speakers and each of said plurality of rotating video reels correspond to each other on a one-to-one basis.

6. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 1, wherein said plurality of acceptable spin times are based upon sampling actual physical reels from a mechanical or electromechanical reel-type gaming machine.

7. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 1, wherein said reel sound generator is configured to vary said provided sounds from one game play to another based upon random selections from one or more stored sound files.

8. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 7, wherein said one or more stored sound files are based upon sampling actual physical reels from a mechanical or electromechanical reel-type gaming machine.

9. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 1, further including:

a storage device in communication with said reel spin timer, said storage device configured to store a plurality of files with respect to said plurality of acceptable spin times.

10. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 1, further including:

a storage device in communication with said reel sound generator, said storage device configured to store a plurality of files with respect to reel sounds.

11. The processor-based gaming machine of claim 1, further including:

a network interface configured to couple said gaming machine to one or more remotely located networked components, said network interface configured to facilitate the downloading of reel spin times, reel sounds, or both to said gaming machine.

12. A method of presenting simulated reels on a processor-based gaming machine, comprising:

generating video data for displaying a plurality of simulated video reels on an electronic video display device of said processor-based gaming machine;

displaying on the electronic video display of said processor-based gaming machine said plurality of simulated video reels in a static, non-rotating position, based on said video data;

accepting a monetary value wager from said player;

accepting a game-related input from said player;

initiating the play of a wager-based reel-type game of chance as a result of said game-related input;

randomly determining and selecting, by a reel spin timer, reel spin times from a plurality of acceptable reel spin times and determining stop times for each of said plurality of simulated video reels, said reel spin times and said stop times varying from one game play to another of reel-type games on said processor-based gaming machine to emulate imperfections of a rotating mechanical reel; and

displaying on said electronic video display said plurality of simulated video reels in rotational motion, wherein said presentation is based at least in part on the generated video data and on the determined and selected reel spin times and said stop times for each of said plurality of simulated video reels so as to emulate the motion of a rotating mechanical reel.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

generating reel sounds for each of said plurality of simulated reels, said reel sounds varying from one game play to another of reel-type games on said processor-based gaming machine and said reel sounds emulating sounds of a rotating mechanical reel; and

presenting said generated reel sounds on one or more speakers of said processor-based gaming machine.

14. A wager-based gaming system, comprising:

a plurality of processor-based gaming machines configured to accept a wager, play a wager-based reel-type game of chance based on the wager and grant a payout based on the result of the game, said plurality of processor-based gaming machines including;

an exterior housing arranged to contain a plurality of internal gaming machine components therein,

a master gaming controller in communication with at least one of said plurality of internal gaming machine components and configured to execute one or more aspects of said wager-based reel-type game, the master gaming controller further configured to generate video data for displaying a plurality of rotating video reels on an electronic video display device, and

said electronic video display device in communication with said master gaming controller and configured to present said plurality of rotating video reels based on the video data;

a remote host in communication with said plurality of processor-based gaming machines, said remote host being configured to download reel spin times, stop times and reel sounds to one or more of said plurality of processor-based gaming machines; and

at least one reel spin timer in communication with at least one of said remote host and said plurality of processor-based gaming machines, wherein said at least one reel spin timer is configured to randomly determine and select spin times from a plurality of acceptable spin times to vary the spin times of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games on one or more of said processor-based gaming machines and to vary the stop times of each of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games on said processor-based gaming machine to emulate imperfections of a rotating mechanical reel.

15. The wager-based gaming system of claim 14, wherein said at least one reel spin timer is located at said remote host.

16. The wager-based gaming system of claim 14, further including:

at least one reel sound generator in communication with at least one of said remote host and said plurality of processor-based gaming machines, wherein said at least one reel sound generator is configured to provide sounds to one or more speakers with respect to said plurality of rotating video reels, said provided sounds varying from one game play to another of reel-type games on one or more of said processor-based gaming machines and said provided sounds emulating sounds of a rotating mechanical reel.

17. The wager-based gaming system of claim 16, wherein said at least one reel sound generator is located at said remote host.

18. A wager-based gaming machine, comprising:

an exterior housing arranged to contain a plurality of internal gaming machine components therein;

a master gaming controller in communication with at least one of said plurality of internal gaming machine components and configured to execute one or more aspects of a wager-based reel-type game of chance, the master gaming controller further configured to generate video data for displaying a plurality of rotating video reels on an electronic video display device;

said electronic video display device configured to display said plurality of rotating video reels based on the video data; and

a reel spin timer in communication with at least one of said master gaming controller and said electronic video display device, said reel spin timer being configured to randomly determine and select spin times from a plurality of acceptable spin times to vary the spin times of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games on said wager-based gaming machine and to vary the stop times of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games on said wager-based gaming machine to emulate the imperfections of a rotating mechanical reel.

19. The wager-based gaming machine of claim 18, wherein said electronic video display device comprises a multi-layer display having a plurality of display screens positioned front to back with respect to each other.

20. A wager-based gaming machine, comprising:

an exterior housing arranged to contain a plurality of internal gaming machine components therein;

a master gaming controller in communication with at least one of said plurality of internal gaming machine components and configured to execute one or more aspects of a wager-based reel-type game of chance, the master gaming controller further configured to generate video data for displaying a plurality of rotating video reels on an electronic video display device;

said electronic video display device configured to present said plurality of rotating video reels based on the video data;

one or more speakers in communication with said master gaming controller and configured to present sounds with respect to said plurality of rotating video reels;

a reel spin timer in communication with at least one of said master gaming controller and said electronic video display device, said reel spin timer being configured to randomly determine and select spin times from a plurality of acceptable spin times to vary the spin times of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games and to vary the stop times of each of said plurality of rotating video reels from one game play to another of reel-type games to emulate the imperfections of a rotating mechanical reel; and

a reel sound generator in communication with at least one of said master gaming controller, said one or more speakers and the reel spin timer, said reel sound generator being configured to provide sounds to said one or more speakers with respect to said plurality of rotating video reels, said provided sounds varying from one game play to another of reel-type games on said wager-based gaming machine based at least in part on the spin times and the stop times of said plurality of rotating video reels and said provided sounds emulating sounds of a rotating mechanical reel.

21. The wager-based gaming machine of claim 20, wherein said one or more speakers comprises a plurality of dedicated reel speakers located in close proximity to the display of said plurality of simulated rotating reels.

22. The wager-based gaming machine of claim 20, wherein at least one of said one or more speakers is configured to provide haptic feedback with respect to the presentation of said plurality of simulated rotating reels.

23. The wager-based gaming machine of claim 22, wherein at least one of said speakers is configured to provide haptic feedback comprises a subwoofer.