System for remotely activating a sound in a game unit

• US 6,416,412 B1
• Filed: 03/16/1999
• Issued: 07/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Warner Bros Entertainment Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Atari Incorporated (Infogrames Entertainment SA)
• Inventors: Ray, John, Riesenberger, Stephen R., Hightower, Aaron Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): ONEILL, MICHAEL W
• Application Number:
  US09/268,898
• Time in Patent Office: 1,211 Days
• Field of Search: 463/41, 463/39-42, 463/6, 463/43, 463/44, 463/35, 463/30, 463/36, 463/40
• US Class Current: 463/41
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/358 Adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection speeds between clients
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5372 for tagging characters, objects or locations in the game scene, e.g. displaying a circle under the character controlled by the player
• 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 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/803 Driving vehicles or craft, e.g. cars, airplanes, ships, robots or tanks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/306 for displaying a marker associated to an object or location in the game field
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/50 characterized by details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/534 for network load management, e.g. bandwidth optimization, latency reduction
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6063 for sound processing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8017 Driving on land or water; Flying

Abstract

A wide area vehicle driving video game is discussed that includes remote activation of sounds that are communicated to other players across the wide area network. Also discussed is a naming feature that presents the names of players next to the car that they are driving. The name is presented in a font that can be read no matter how far away the car appears in the video game display.

Claims

1. A system for remotely activating a sound in a game unit having a processor and a memory for storing sound bits, wherein the game unit is linked to other game units, comprising:

one or more sound bits, wherein the sound bits are set by a player action;

instructions for sending the one or more sound bits across a video game network to a remote video game;

a state table in the remote video game for storing the sound bits; and

commands in the remote video game for reading the sound bits and activating a sound.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sound bits comprise three bits.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote video game is a car driving game and comprises indicia of cars.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the state table comprises 32 appearance bits.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the remote video game comprises instructions for playing the sound bits when the indicia of cars are within a predetermined distance from each other in the car driving game.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote video game comprises a table that correlates the one or more sound bits with spoken words.

7. A video game unit comprising:

indicia of cars, wherein each indicia is linked to one or more data bits corresponding to sounds;

first instructions for determining whether one or more data bits have been set for a first indicia of a car; and

second instructions, responsive to the one or more data bits being set, wherein the instructions calculate the distance of the first indicia of a car from a second indicia of a car within the video game, and wherein the second instructions result in a sound corresponding to the one or more data bits being generated if the first indicia of a car is within a predetermined distance from the second indicia of a car.

8. The video game unit of claim 7, wherein the one or more data bits are three data bits.

9. The video game unit of claim 7, wherein the distance between the first indicia of a car and the second indicia of a car is calculated from positional information stored in a state table for each indicia.

10. A method for generating sounds on a game unit in a game unit network, comprising:

receiving sound bits from a first game unit on a game unit network, wherein the sound bits correspond to a first indicia of a car being driven by a first player;

reading first positional information for the first indicia of a car;

reading second positional information for a second indicia of a car being driven by a second player;

comparing the first positional information and the second positional information; and

playing a sound corresponding to the received sound bits if the first positional information indicates that the first indicia of a car is near the second indicia of a car.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the sound corresponds to spoken words.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the sound bits are stored in a state table.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the first and second positional information is stored in a state table.

14. A system for generating sounds on a game unit in a game unit network, comprising:

means for receiving sound bits from a first game unit on a game unit network, wherein the sound bits correspond to a first indicia of a car being driven by a first player;

means for reading first positional information for the first indicia of a car;

means for reading second positional information for a second indicia of a car being driven by a second player;

means for comparing the first positional information and the second positional information; and

means for playing a sound corresponding to the received sound bits if the first positional information indicates that the first indicia of a car is near the second indicia of a car.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the means for receiving the sound bits comprises a computer memory.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer memory comprises a state table.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the means for reading the first positional information comprises instructions that determine the three dimensional coordinates of the first indicia.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the means for reading the second positional information comprises instructions that determine the three dimensional coordinates of the second indicia.