Gaming machine

• US 9,710,999 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2014
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empire Technological Group Limited, Universal Entertainment Corporation
• Original Assignee: Aruze Gaming America Incorporated (Aruze Gaming America, Inc. /Okada/), Universal Entertainment Corporation
• Inventors: Miyagawa, Yuji, Itagaki, Takehisa, Yoshida, Masahiro, Terada, Naoki
• Primary Examiner(s): D'Agostino, Paul A
• Application Number:
  US14/567,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20150206380A1
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3213 Details of moving display elements, e.g. spinning reels, tumbling members
• 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 17/34 depending on the stopping of moving members in a mechanical slot machine, e.g. "fruit" machines

Abstract

Provided is a gaming machine that is able to offer a variety of gaming patterns with avoidance of monotony during a free game that is a game played in a bonus game. A gaming machine, when a free game trigger is established, performs a control of shifting a game from a base game to a free game. In the free game, symbols are displayed in rotation and stopped in a symbol display region 4 in accordance with a result of a symbol lottery. When picture symbols are consecutively arranged on one reel, display regions where the consecutive symbols are arranged are coupled into a coupled display region, and a corresponding picture is displayed in the coupled display region.

Claims

1. A gaming machine that determines a payout based on symbols rearranged, the gaming machine comprising:

a plurality of reels each having a plurality of symbols provided on an outer surface thereof, each of the plurality of symbols defining a symbol display region; and

a controller that controls a game in which the plurality of reels are rotated and stopped to rearrange the plurality of symbols in a display region of a first display, the controller programmed to execute the processing of;

(1-1) when, as a result of the rearrangement of the plurality of symbols, a plurality of identical picture symbols are arranged along one or more paylines and consecutively arranged along a same reel, combining the symbol display regions of the plurality of consecutively arranged identical picture symbols that appear along the one or more paylines and along the same reel to form a combined picture symbol region along the same reel; and

(1-2) performing a control of causing a single picture to be displayed along the combined picture symbol region along the same reel, wherein,

the combined picture symbol region that appears along the same reel is equal in size to the region of the consecutively arranged identical picture symbols that appear along the same reel; and

wherein,

the single picture displayed along the combined picture symbol region corresponds to the identical picture symbol of each of the consecutively arranged identical picture symbols that appear along the same reel.

2. The gaming machine according to claim 1, wherein

the processing of (1-2) includes the processing of

(1-2-1) selecting data used to display the picture in the combined picture symbol region in accordance with the number of the consecutive picture symbols.

3. The gaming machine according to claim 1, wherein

the processing of (1-2) includes the processing of:

(1-2-2) generating a plurality of data domains based on which symbols to be displayed in the display region of the first display are managed, and performing such a control as to avoid the consecutively arranged identical picture symbols being managed in different data domains; and

(1-2-3) when rotating the plurality of reels, coupling the plurality of data domains sequentially.

4. The gaming machine according to claim 1, wherein

the controller is programmed to further execute the processing of:

(1-3) in a first game, determining symbols to be rearranged, by a first lottery;

(1-4) when the rearranged symbols determined by the first lottery satisfy a first condition, performing a control of starting a second game; and

(1-5) in the second game, determining symbols to be rearranged, by a second lottery,

the processing of (1-1) and the processing of (1-2) are executed when rearranging symbols by the second lottery.

5. The gaming machine according to claim 1, wherein

the processing of (1-2) includes the processing of

(1-2-4) performing a control of causing an animation of a picture corresponding to the consecutively arranged identical picture symbols to be displayed in the combined picture symbol region.

6. The gaming machine according to claim 1, wherein

the processing of (1-2) includes the processing of

(1-2-5) when the combined picture symbol region is formed and a single picture symbol identical to the picture symbols corresponding to the combined picture symbol region is arranged in a region other than the combined picture symbol region and positioned on a winning line that provides a line payout, causing an animation of a picture corresponding to the consecutively arranged identical picture symbols to be displayed in the combined picture symbol region and causing the picture symbol arranged in the region other than the combined picture symbol region to be displayed in association with the display of the animation.

7. The gaming machine according to claim 1, wherein

the processing of (1-2) includes the processing of

(1-2-6) when a plurality of the combined picture symbol regions are formed, performing a control of displaying an animation of a picture corresponding to the consecutively arranged identical picture symbols in each of the combined picture symbol regions, and performing a control of displaying the animations in the combined picture symbol regions in coordination with each other.

8. The gaming machine according to claim 1, further comprising:

a lottery unit that performs a lottery that shifts a first game to a second game;

a determination unit that determines appeal rewriting, the determination unit determining by a lottery whether to conduct appeal rewriting for each scrolling video reel in the second game;

a storage unit having a symbol array table for the appeal rewriting; and

a reel data generation processing unit that, when the determination unit has determined to conduct appeal rewriting, refers to the symbol array table of the storage unit to generate reel data that contains symbols positioned in frames prior and subsequent to the symbols displayed in the display region in a previous spin stop, and reel data that includes a plurality of reel data units to be coupled to said reel data, and couples the plurality of reel data units to the reel data to thereby form single reel data, and generates a plurality of single reel data, wherein

when, as a result of the rearrangement of the plurality of symbols, a plurality of identical particular picture symbols are consecutively arranged on one video reel and it is detected that each of the consecutively arranged identical picture symbols is positioned on a winning line that provides a line payout, a processing unit for forming the combined picture symbol region combines the symbol display regions of the plurality of consecutively arranged identical picture symbols into a combined picture symbol regions along the one video reel.