Multi-play central determination system

• US 8,932,129 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2010
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Powell, Tracy, Oh, Meng, LeMay, Steven G., Yang, Wei, Rasmussen, Eric, Robinson, Joshua, Chong, Yu, Liu, Wensheng, Bolton, Paul W., Scheffel, Nick
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Milap
• Assistant Examiner(s): PINHEIRO, JASON PAUL
• Application Number:
  US12/723,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20110223991A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,768 Days
• Field of Search: 463/22
• US Class Current: 463/22
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, apparatus, and systems implementing techniques for using a central determination system with multi-play gaming machines having sub-games and with gaming machines having a base game and a bonus game. A seed value is provided for each of the games (i.e., each of the sub-games or the base game and the bonus game). This ensures that all possible game outcomes may be displayed for each of the games.

Claims

1. A method of presenting one or more sub-games on a multi-play gaming machine, a controller of the multi-play gaming machine configured to display the one or more sub-games on a display of the multi-play gaming machine, each sub-game including a single instance of a wager-based game of chance, an outcome of the single instance of the wager-based game of chance being a sub-game outcome, the multi-play gaming machine connected to one or more servers over a network, the method comprising:

receiving bet information from an input device of the multi-play gaming machine wherein the bet information includes at least a number of selected sub-games;

selecting, based on the bet information, one of a plurality of pool files from which to select a game outcome register, each of the plurality of pool files including a plurality of game outcome registers, each of the plurality of game outcome registers including one or more sub-game outcomes, each sub-game outcome including a sub-game payout and a seed value, wherein all of the plurality of game outcome registers in an individual pool file contain the same number of sub-game outcomes, and wherein the pool file is selected based on the number of sub-game outcomes in each of the plurality of game outcome registers of the pool file and the number of selected sub-games in the bet information, such that;

(i) if a first number of at least one sub-game is selected, a first pool file is selected, said first pool file including a first game outcome register including a first number of at least one sub-game outcome corresponding to the first number of at least one selected sub-game, and (ii) if a second, different number of at least one sub-game is selected to be overlappingly displayed, a second, different pool file is selected, said second, different pool file including a second, different game outcome register including a second, different number of at least one sub-game outcome corresponding to the second, different number of at least one selected sub-game;

randomly selecting, using the one or more servers, one of the game outcome registers from the selected pool file; and

transmitting the selected game outcome register from the one or more servers to the controller of the multi-play gaming machine, wherein;

(i) when the number of selected sub-games is at least two, the controller is configured to determine a sub-game output to be overlappingly displayed on the display of the multi-play gaming machine for each of the at least two sub-game outcomes in the selected game outcome register using the seed value in each of the at least two sub-game outcomes, and

(ii) when the number of selected sub-games is one, the controller is configured to determine a sub-game output to be displayed on the display of the multi-play gaming machine for the sub-game outcome in the selected game outcome register using the seed value in the sub-game outcome.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating the selected game outcome register in the selected pool file as used.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a zero value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is not zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a 32-bit number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the bet information includes at least one of:

a bet amount, the number of selected sub-games, and a number of lines bet in the number of selected sub-games.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each sub-game includes a payout percentage, wherein the payout percentages of the one or more sub-games are not all the same.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

retiring the selected pool file when a percentage of game outcome registers in the selected pool file are designated as used.

8. A central determination gaming system comprising:

a plurality of gaming machines, including a plurality of multi-play gaming machines, each multi-play gaming machine including;

a controller configured to output one or more sub-games, each sub-game including a single instance of a wager-based game of chance,

a display configured to display the one or more sub-games, and

an input device configured to accept bet information for playing the one or more sub-games wherein the bet information includes at least a number of selected sub-games; and

a server configured to communicate with the plurality of gaming machines, and the server, for each multi-play gaming machine, further configured to;

receive bet information from the multi-play gaming machine,

select, based on the bet information, one of a plurality of pool files from which to select a game outcome register, each of the plurality of pool files including a plurality of game outcome registers, each of the plurality of game outcome registers including one or more sub-game outcomes, each sub-game outcome including a sub-game payout and a seed value, wherein all of the plurality of game outcome registers in an individual pool file contain the same number of sub-game outcomes, and wherein the pool file is selected based on the number of sub-game outcomes in each of the plurality of game outcome registers of the pool file and the number of selected sub-games in the bet information, such that;

(i) if a first number of at least one sub-game is selected, a first pool file is selected, said first pool file including a first game outcome register including a first number of at least one sub-game outcome corresponding to the first number of at least one selected sub-game, and (ii) if a second, different number of at least one sub-game is selected to be overlappingly displayed, a second, different pool file is selected, said second, different pool file including a second, different game outcome register including a second, different number of at least one sub-game outcome corresponding to the second, different number of at least one selected sub-game,

randomly select a game outcome register from the selected pool file, and

transmit the selected game outcome register to the multi-play gaming machine;

wherein the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to;

receive the selected game outcome register from the server,

when the number of selected sub-games is at least two, determine a sub-game output to be overlappingly displayed for each of the at least two sub-games in the selected game outcome register using the seed value in each sub-game outcome, and

when the number of selected sub-games is one, determine a sub-game output to be displayed for the sub-game in the selected game outcome register using the seed value in the sub-game outcome.

9. The central determination gaming system of claim 8, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a zero value, and the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to determine a sub-game output to be displayed for the seed value that includes a zero value.

10. The central determination gaming system of claim 8, wherein when the sub-game payout in a sub-game outcome is not zero, the seed value in the sub-game outcome includes a 32-bit number, and the controller of each multi-play gaming machine is further configured to determine a sub-game output to be displayed based on the 32-bit number.