Game system, game apparatus and computer program for game

• US 9,283,475 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konami Digital Entertainment Company Limited (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Konami Digital Entertainment Company Limited (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Inubushi, Takashi, Narita, Yoshihiko
• Primary Examiner(s): D'Agostino, Paul A
• Assistant Examiner(s): GRAY, BRANDON RAMON
• Application Number:
  US12/097,086
• Publication Number:
  US 20090163276A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,668 Days
• Field of Search: 463/1, 463/7, 463/36, 463/43, 846/09
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/23 for interfacing with the game device, e.g. specific interfaces between game controller and console
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/44 involving timing of operations, e.g. performing an action within a time slot
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5375 for graphically or textually suggesting an action, e.g. by displaying an arrow indicating a turn in a driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/54 involving acoustic signals, e.g. for simulating revolutions per minute [RPM] dependent engine sounds in a driving game or reverberation against a virtual wall
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/814 Musical performances, e.g. by evaluating the player's ability to follow a notation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/303 for displaying additional data, e.g. simulating a Head Up Display
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/305 for providing a graphical or textual hint to the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/638 according to the timing of operation or a time limit
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/65 for computing the condition of a game character
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8047 Music games

Abstract

To provide a game system to perform various modifications to a tune being reproduced for game background displayed together with the tune, without the uncomfortable feeling, but with restriction of amount of memory consumption. The game system of the present invention is a game system (1) which informs a player of the operation timings of operation members (11) to a tune to be reproduced by a display device (3), wherein the game system (1) has background image data (24) for displaying game background image (34) by the display device (3), a break position monitoring device (7c) for monitoring at least one break positions set in the tune in units of beats during which the tune is reproduced, and a background image control device (7d) for controlling the appearance of modification of the game background image (34) so that the appearance of modification changes depending on the play situation of the player when the break position is recognized by the break position monitoring device (7c).

Claims

1. A game system comprising:

an input device for outputting signals when operation members mounted thereon are operated;

a game information storage device for storing plural pieces of tune data for reproducing each tune and operation timing data being associated with each piece of the tune data and deciding operation timings of operating each of the operation members to the tune to be reproduced;

a display device for displaying some image;

a tune reproduction device for reproducing a tune based on the piece of tune data; and

an operation guiding device for, based on the operation timing data of the tune reproduced by the reproduction device, informing a player of the operation timing of the operation member to the reproduced tune via the display device,

wherein the game information storage device stores background image data for a game background image displayed by the display device together with the reproduced tune, and

the game system further comprises;

a break position monitoring device for, during which the tune is reproduced, monitoring at least one break positions being set in units of beats in the tune; and

a background image control device for controlling appearance of modification of the game background image so that the appearance of modification is different between before and after the break position depending on play situation of the player, when the break position monitoring device recognizes the break position in a middle of the tune being reproduced;

wherein

the game information storage device further stores a plurality of types of image change parameters with respect to a common modification portion, each type of image change parameter indicating an amount of modification of the modification portion and being correlated with different maximum and minimum level number combinations from each other so that an amount of modification per level is different depending on the type of image change parameter even for the same play situation,

at least one type of image change parameter being correlated to a certain maximum and minimum level numbers is associated with the image data for the game background image,

the modification portion being a portion that is modified in the game background image, and

the background image control device sets a value of said at least one type of image change parameter in accordance with the current play situation and controls an appearance of the modification portion of the game background image so that the modification of the game background image occurs depending on the level corresponding to the set value of said at least one type of image change parameter.

2. The game system according to claim 1, wherein

the game system further comprises an evaluation device for evaluating the signals outputted by the input device when operation members mounted thereon are operated by the player, and

the background image control device controls the appearance of modification of the game background image so that the appearance of modification changes depending on evaluation by the evaluation device.

3. The game system according to claim 1, wherein

tempo information having information relevant to tempo in at least one predetermined range in a tune is further associated with the piece of tune data to be stored in the game information storage device,

the break position monitoring device has

a timekeeping device for keeping elapsed time of a tune reproduced from a start position of the predetermined range of the tune and

a beats count device for counting number of beats from the start position of the predetermined range in reference to the elapsed time kept by the timekeeping device and the tempo information.

4. The game system according to claim 3, wherein

the predetermined range is a range from a start position of reproducing the tune to a position of changing tempos;

the tempo information including a piece of tempo data for each different tempo, the piece of tempo data comprising elapsed time and total number of beats which are associated with each other, the elapsed time being time from the start position of reproducing the tune to the position of changing tempos and the total number of beats being total number of beats at the moment of the elapsed time from the start position of reproducing the tune under a tempo corresponding to the elapsed time;

information indicating relationship between number of beats and the operation timing is set in the operation timing data;

the break position monitoring device calculates a present tempo based on the elapsed time obtained by the timekeeping device; and

the operation guiding device informs the player of the operation timing so that a relationship between the elapsed time and the total number of beats indicated by each of the pieces of tempo data of the tempo information is equal to a relationship between the number of beats obtained by the operation timing data and the elapsed time obtained by the timekeeping device.

5. The game system according to claim 3, wherein

rhythm information relevant to rhythm of each of the tunes associated with each piece of tune data to be stored in the game information storage device, and

the break position monitoring device has a bar counting device for counting number of bars of the tune being reproduced by the number of beats counted by the beats count device and the rhythm information.

6. The game system according to claim 3, wherein

the background image control device controls the game background image to be displayed so that appearance of the game background image is different depending on the information relevant to tempo indicated by the tempo information.

9. The game system according to claim 2, wherein

tempo information having information relevant to tempo in at least one predetermined range in a tune is further associated with the piece of tune data to be stored in the game information storage device,

the break position monitoring device has

a timekeeping device for keeping elapsed time of a tune reproduced from a start position of the predetermined range of the tune and

a beats count device for counting number of beats from the start position of the predetermined range in reference to the elapsed time kept by the timekeeping device and the tempo information.

10. The game system according to claim 9, wherein

the predetermined range is a range from a start position of reproducing the tune to a position of changing tempos;

the tempo information including a piece of tempo data for each different tempo, the piece of tempo data comprising elapsed time and total number of beats which are associated with each other, the elapsed time being time from the start position of reproducing the tune to the position of changing tempos and the total number of beats being total number of beats at the moment of the elapsed time from the start position of reproducing the tune under a tempo corresponding to the elapsed time;

Information indicating relationship between number of beats and the operation timing is set in the operation timing data;

the break position monitoring device calculates a present tempo based on the elapsed time obtained by the timekeeping device; and

the operation guiding device informs the player of the operation timing so that a relationship between the elapsed time and the total number of beats indicated by each of the pieces of tempo data of the tempo information is equal to a relationship between the number of beats obtained by the operation timing data and the elapsed time obtained by the timekeeping device.

11. The game system according to claim 4, wherein

rhythm information relevant to rhythm of each of the tunes associated with each piece of tune data to be stored in the game information storage device, and

the break position monitoring device has a bar counting device for counting number of bars of the tune being reproduced by the number of beats counted by the beats count device and the rhythm information.

12. The game system according to claim 9, wherein

rhythm information relevant to rhythm of each of the tunes associated with each piece of tune data to be stored in the game information storage device, and

the break position monitoring device has a bar counting device for counting number of bars of the tune being reproduced by the number of beats counted by the beats count device and the rhythm information.

13. The game system according to claim 10, wherein

rhythm information relevant to rhythm of each of the tunes associated with each piece of tune data to be stored in the game information storage device, and

the break position monitoring device has a bar counting device for counting number of bars of the tune being reproduced by the number of beats counted by the beats count device and the rhythm information.

14. The game system according to claim 9, wherein

the background image control device controls the game background image to be displayed so that appearance of the game background image is different depending on the information relevant to tempo indicated by the tempo information.

7. A game apparatus comprising:

an input device for outputting signals when operation members mounted thereon are operated;

a game information storage device for storing plural pieces of tune data for reproducing each tune and operation timing data being associated with each of the pieces of tune data and deciding operation timings of operating each of the operation members to the tune to be reproduced;

a display device for displaying some image;

an operation guiding device for, based on the operation timing data of the tune reproduced by the reproduction device, informing a player of the operation timing of the operation member to the reproduced tune via the display device,

wherein the game information storage device stores background image data for a game background image displayed by the display device together with the reproduced tune, and

the game apparatus further comprises;

a tune reproduction device for reproducing a tune based on the piece of tune data;

a break position monitoring device for, during which the tune is reproduced, monitoring at least one break positions being set in units of beats in the tune; and

a background image control device for controlling appearance of modification of the game background image so that the appearance of modification is different between before and after the break position depending on play situation of the player, when the break position monitoring device recognizes the break position in a middle of the tune being reproduced;

wherein

the game information storage device further stores a plurality of types of image change parameters with respect to a common modification portion, each type of image change parameter indicating an amount of modification of the modification portion and being correlated with different maximum and minimum level number combinations from each other so that an amount of modification per level is different depending on the type of image change parameter even for the same play situation,

at least one type of image change parameter being correlated to a certain maximum and minimum level numbers is associated with the image data for the game background image, the modification portion being a portion that is modified in the game background image, and

the background image control device sets a value of said at least one type of image change parameter in accordance with the current play situation and controls an appearance of the modification portion of the game background image so that the modification of the game background image occurs depending on the level corresponding to the set value of said at least one type of image change parameter.

8. A computer program for game, stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, being encoded to allow a game apparatus to function as:

an input device for outputting signals when operation members mounted thereon are operated;

a game information storage device for storing plural pieces of tune data for reproducing each tune and operation timing data being associated with each of the pieces of tune data and deciding operation timings of operating each of the operation members to the tune to be reproduced, and background image data for a game background image displayed by the display device together with the reproduced tune;

a display device for displaying some image;

a tune reproduction device for reproducing a tune based on the piece of tune data;

an operation guiding device for, based on the operation timing data of the tune reproduced by the reproduction device, informing a player of the operation timing of the operation member to the reproduced tune via the display device,

a break position monitoring device for, during which the tune is reproduced, monitoring at least one break positions being set in units of beats in the tune; and

a background image control device for controlling appearance of modification of the game background image so that the appearance of modification is different between before and after the break position depending on play situation of the player, when the break position monitoring device recognizes the break position in a middle of the tune being reproduced;

wherein

the game information storage device further stores a plurality of types of image change parameters with respect to a common modification portion, each type of image change parameter indicating an amount of modification of the modification portion, and being correlated with different maximum and minimum level number combinations from each other so that an amount of modification per level is different depending on the type of image change parameter even for the same play situation,

at least one type of image change parameter being correlated to a certain maximum and minimum level numbers is associated with the image data for the game background image,

the modification portion being a portion that is modified in the game background image, and

the background image control device sets a value of said at least one type of image change parameter in accordance with the current play situation and controls an appearance of the modification portion of the game background image so that the modification of the game background image occurs depending on the level corresponding to the set value of said at least one type of image change parameter.