ASYNCHRONOUS PERSISTENT GROUP BONUS GAMES WITH PRESERVED GAME STATE DATA

• US 20130196779A1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Incorporated (Aristocrat Leisure Limited)
• Original Assignee: Binh T. Nguyen
• Inventors: NGUYEN, BINH T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,486,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/43
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3211 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3225 Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3267 Game outcomes which determine the course of the subsequent game, e.g. double or quits, free games, higher payouts, different new games
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3288 Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/34 depending on the stopping of moving members in a mechanical slot machine, e.g. "fruit" machines

Abstract

A system, apparatus, and method for preserving game state data for an asynchronous persistent group bonus game may have a plurality of gaming machines associated with the asynchronous persistent group bonus game and at least one network server having at least one processor and at least one non-volatile memory. The processor may be configured to determine whether a bonus game session is triggered on any of the plurality of gaming machines; and if the bonus game session is triggered, display live game monitor activities, and periodically save the persistent bonus game state and other data on the at least one non-volatile memory.

Claims

1. A program storage device readable by a machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for preserving persistent bonus game state data for an asynchronous persistent group bonus game on at least one network server configured to communicate with a plurality of gaming machines, the plurality of gaming machines being configured to receive a wager from a player to play a primary game of chance on the plurality of gaming machines, comprising:

operating an asynchronous persistent group bonus game from at least one network server, the asynchronous persistent group bonus game having persistent bonus game state data;

receiving a request from at least one of the plurality of gaming machines to save the asynchronous persistent bonus game state data; and

periodically saving the persistent bonus game state data on at least one non-volatile memory, the at least one non-volatile memory stored on the at least one network server.

2. A program storage device as recited in claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

displaying the persistent bonus game state data on a community display as well as on multiple displays associated with the plurality of gaming machines.