|Publication number||US7654900 B2|
|Application number||US 10/267,770|
|Publication date||Feb 2, 2010|
|Filing date||Oct 10, 2002|
|Priority date||Oct 11, 2001|
|Also published as||EP1302225A2, EP1302225A3, US20030114223|
|Publication number||10267770, 267770, US 7654900 B2, US 7654900B2, US-B2-7654900, US7654900 B2, US7654900B2|
|Inventors||Takumi Yoshinaga, Hitoshi Nakanishi|
|Original Assignee||Kabushiki Kaisha Sega|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (19), Non-Patent Citations (9), Referenced by (1), Classifications (8), Legal Events (2)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display technique for game screens and particularly to an improved technique for making a game environment amusing.
2. Description of the Related Art
As mentioned above, in order to decide which display, either “highly fragmented display” or “roughly fragmented display,” should be adopted, it is necessary to examine the type, nature and contents of the game. For example, the “highly fragmented display” is suitable for a scene in which a few player mistakes are permitted and the player can enjoy the game in a comfortable atmosphere, while the “roughly fragmented display” is suitable for a scene in a tense atmosphere where even a slight player mistake can be fatal and, therefore, no mistakes are permitted. Therefore, even in the same game, by switching between the “highly fragmented display” and the “roughly fragmented display” for each scene, it is possible to heighten or ease a tense atmosphere and to create a lively game environment.
On the other hand, in a conventional quiz game, the setting of a quiz question in a window on the game screen and presentation of a plurality of alternative answers is suggested. In order to select one answer, the player executes key operation on a controller, puts a cursor on the answer they wish to select, and inputs a decision button. However, in a conventional game device, no matter which answer is selected, the acting performance of the character that answers a quiz question is always the same and cannot be altered in accordance with the player's feelings when he/she is playing the game. For example, when the character answers a quiz question, the manner in which the character raises his/her hand, the character's facial expression, the volume of the character's voice, the character's posture and so on are stereotyped. Whether or not the player answers a quiz question with confidence, the acting performance of the character answering the quiz question is always the same, and this lacks spice.
Therefore, it is the first object of the present invention to realize a more amusing and enjoyable game environment by switching between the “highly fragmented display” and the “roughly fragmented display” for each game scene in the same game.
Moreover, it is the second object of the present invention to realize a more amusing and enjoyable game environment by changing, under the circumstances in which the player is required to execute any key input operation, the acting performance of the characters displayed on the game screen according to the input operation chosen by the player.
In order to achieve the first object, in order to continue playing the game, the image display method of the present invention is provided to display a player's variable capable of changing in a large or small amount, as a quantity continuously varying per highly fragmented unit quantity in a first game scene, and as a quantity continuously varying per roughly fragmented unit quantity in a second game scene, by switching between these display forms for each game scene.
Accordingly, by changing the display form of the variable according to the game scenes, it is possible to realize game scenes that can be comfortably enjoyed and game scenes with a tense atmosphere. Moreover, by changing the display form of the variable according to the game characteristics, it is possible to make determinations and evaluations which are suited to the game and to create a more amusing game environment.
In order to achieve the second object, the image display method of the present invention is provided to change the motion state of a character according to the type of key input by the player, under the circumstances in which the character displayed on a game screen makes motions with the same purpose regardless of which key among a plurality of keys is inputted, and where the player is required to execute such key input.
The “motions with the same purpose” refers to motions with a common purpose such as the character “raising his/her hand” at the time of answering a quiz question. The “motion state” refers to the state of the “motions with the same purpose” such as “raising a hand with confidence” and “raising a hand without confidence.” Accordingly, the motion state of the character can be changed through the player's input operation, thereby enabling the player to demonstrate the acting performance.
It is possible to record a program to make a computer system execute the above-described image display method on a computer-readable recording medium. Examples of such computer-readable recording medium include: an optical recording medium (optically data readable recording medium such as CD-RAM, CD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, PD disc, MD disc, and MO disc); a magnetic recording medium (magnetically data readable recording medium such as a flexible disc, magnetic card, and magnetic tape); and a portable recording medium such as a memory cartridge having a memory device (a semiconductor memory device such as DRAM, or a ferroelectric memory device such as FRAM).
Moreover, the above-described program can be distributed on an on-demand basis from a network server, such as a Web server, in response to a request from a client device (a personal computer, a game device, a cellular telephone with a Web browser mounted thereon, or a portable information terminal such as PDA) which is connected with an open network such as the Internet network or a packet telecommunication network.
Embodiments of the present invention are now explained with reference to the relevant drawings.
In this specification, the term “dance battle” is used to refer to a game in which the player character traces the enemy character's dance motions, and the accuracy of the player's input operation is judged. Moreover, in the following explanations, the term “score” refers to the marks obtained by the player and shown in the “highly fragmented display,” and “points” means the marks obtained by the player in the “roughly fragmented display.”
The details of the game are now explained.
Moreover, in some game scenes, it is possible to employ a structure in which the player character 50, instead of the enemy character 40, dances. In this case, the player character 50 is operated by the key operation of the button B 15.
The processing steps in the dance match scene D are now explained with reference to
At this point, if the number of the points is determined to be zero (A12: YES), an image of the player character 50 leaving from the screen is displayed (A14), thereby ending the dance match scene D. If the number of points is a positive number (a natural number of 1 or more) (A12: NO), the score 52 is subtracted (A13). If the value of the score 52 is a positive number (A7: YES), and if all matches have not been finished (A8: NO), the processing steps from step A3 to step A7 are repeated. On the other hand, if the value of the score 52 is zero (A7: NO), the game is over (A15). If all matches have not been finished (A8: YES), the remaining points 51 are added to the score 52 (A9). When one point of the points 51 is worth “8 marks,” and if two points 51 remain, 8 marks×2=16 marks are added to the score 52. The ending performance is then executed (A10), thereby ending the dance match.
As mentioned above, in the dance match scene D, the marks obtained by the player are displayed as the score 52 in the “highly fragmented display.” Even if the player makes one mistake, only a highly fragmented unit change amount (in the above example, 4 marks) decreases. Accordingly, the damage that the player suffers is not so serious, and it is possible to provide a game environment in which the player can comfortably play the game. The player is able to grasp, in an analogue manner, the marks obtained by him or herself by visually identifying the score 52.
Next, the respective processing steps in the final dance match scene FD are now explained with reference to
If the key input of the player is correct (B5: YES), the number of the points 53 increases by one (B6). On the other hand, if the key input of the player is incorrect (B5: NO), the number of the points 53 decreases by one (B10). If the number of the points 53 becomes zero (B11: YES), the game is over (B12). When the value of the points 53 is a positive number (B11: NO), and if all of the matches have not been finished (B7: NO), the processing steps from step B3 to step B7 are repeated. If all of the matches have finished (B7: YES), the points 53 are converted into the score 52 (B8). For example, if the player makes two mistakes and the number of the points 53 decreases to 4, the resultant number of marks will be: 10 marks×2+2 marks=42 marks (the 2 marks are the marks left over from the conversion processing of step B3). Finally, an ending performance is conducted (B9), thereby concluding the dance match.
As mentioned above, in the final dance match scene FD, the marks obtained by the player are displayed as the points 53 in the “roughly fragmented display.” When the player makes one mistake, the points 53 decrease by one, and the roughly fragmented unit change amount (in the above example, 10 marks) is lost. Therefore, the damage that the player suffers is serious, and it is possible to provide a tense game environment. Moreover, the player can always keep track of the number of mistakes which he or she makes, by referring to the number of the points 53.
In the above explanation, when the marks obtained by the player are displayed in the “highly fragmented display,” “numeric characters” such as the score 52 are used. However, anything that can display the marks in an analogue form, such as a bar graph 54 of
As a variation of the above embodiment, it is possible to employ a structure in which the enemy character 40 sets a quiz question in the question turn Q of the dance matches, and the player character answers the quiz question in the answer turn A.
The answer can be decided by inputting either of the decision buttons. However, in the present embodiment, when the player answers a quiz question, the motion of the character which answers the quiz question is changed according to the key type of the decision button selected by the player. For example, when the player answers with confidence, he/she inputs the button A 14, thereby displaying an image of the player character 50 cheerfully answering the quiz question with confidence. When the player answers without confidence, he/she inputs the button B 15, thereby displaying an image of the player character 50 answering the quiz question without confidence.
The key type determining means 27, determines the key type of the input decision button. In the event of operation signals of the button A 14, the key type determining means 27 reads the image data A from the video memory 28. In the event of operation signals of the button B 15, the key type determining means 27 reads the image data B and outputs it to the video signal generating means 29. The video signal generating means 29 generates NTSC system video signals from the image data output from the video memory 28, and then outputs the video signals to a TV monitor.
As mentioned above, according to this embodiment, even when the same quiz question answering action is intended, it is possible to change the motion of the player character according to the key input selected by the player, thereby making it possible to create a more amusing and enjoyable game environment.
According to the present invention, in order to continue playing the game, by changing the display state of the player's variable which changes in a large or small amount according to the extent of the advantageous/disadvantageous state for the game player, it is possible to realize game scenes that can be comfortably enjoyed and game scenes with a tense atmosphere and to create a more amusing game environment. Moreover, since the motion state of the character can be changed through the player's input operation, it is possible to demonstrate the performance effect selected by the player.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US5137277 *||Jan 26, 1990||Aug 11, 1992||Konami Co., Ltd.||Hand held video game with simulated air battle|
|US5935004 *||Aug 28, 1995||Aug 10, 1999||Mediaone Group, Inc.||System and method for scheduled delivery of a software program over a cable network|
|US6093105 *||Aug 11, 1997||Jul 25, 2000||Konami Co., Ltd.||Fighting-type television game machine and a storage medium for storing a program of such a game|
|US6146269 *||Aug 4, 1997||Nov 14, 2000||Konami Corporation||Apparatus for and method of determining win for competitive video game, and recording medium storing win determining program|
|US6390922 *||Feb 23, 2000||May 21, 2002||Circadence Corporation||Initiating and scaling massive concurrent data transactions|
|US6425827 *||Apr 23, 1999||Jul 30, 2002||Namco Ltd.||Game machine and information storage medium|
|US6461239 *||Nov 8, 2000||Oct 8, 2002||Konami Co., Ltd.||Music action game machine, performance operation instructing system for music action game and storage device readable by computer|
|US6488586 *||Apr 15, 1999||Dec 3, 2002||Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.||Recording medium and entertainment system|
|US6554711 *||Jun 27, 2000||Apr 29, 2003||Konami Co., Ltd.||Music game machine with interactive second game device|
|US6620042 *||Jun 9, 2000||Sep 16, 2003||Konami Co., Ltd.||Target-game execution method, game machine, and recording medium|
|US6729966 *||Mar 16, 2000||May 4, 2004||Pete Barelli||Golf practice aid|
|US6878058 *||May 10, 1996||Apr 12, 2005||Sega Enterprises, Ltd.||Image processor and game device with image processor|
|EP0972550A2||Jun 11, 1999||Jan 19, 2000||Konami Co., Ltd.||Game system and computer-readable recording medium|
|JP2000218046A||Title not available|
|JP2000262738A||Title not available|
|JP2000300840A||Title not available|
|JP2001038055A||Title not available|
|JP2001070653A||Title not available|
|WO1996036016A1 *||May 10, 1996||Nov 14, 1996||Sega Enterprises, Ltd.||Image processor and game apparatus equipped with the same|
|1||"NINTENDO 64 Winning Strategy Special-Star Fox 64 First Edition," Kabushikikaisha Keibunsha, Jul. 16, 1997, First Edition, pp. 16-17.|
|2||"NINTENDO 64 Winning Strategy Special—Star Fox 64 First Edition," Kabushikikaisha Keibunsha, Jul. 16, 1997, First Edition, pp. 16-17.|
|3||"Notice of Reasons for Refusal," Japanese Patent Office, Aug. 26, 2005.|
|4||"Notification of Reasons for Refusal," Japanese Patent Office, Dec. 12, 2005.|
|5||"Weekly Famitsu, Nov. 28, 1997 Issue (Bust A Move)," Nov. 28, 1997 by ASCII Corporation, vol. 12, No. 48, pp. 212-213.|
|6||English language translation of JP 2000-218046 (56 pages).|
|7||Japanese Patent Office Notice of Reasons for Rejection, Application No. JP-2001-314410, mailed Nov. 26, 2007.|
|8||Midway, "Pac-Man," http://www.klov.com/p/pac-man.html.|
|9||*||Robert Brady "Doom" Totally Unauthorized Tips and Secrets, Brady Games, see all pages, Dec. 1994.|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US20100227685 *||Feb 15, 2007||Sep 9, 2010||Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.||Game server device, game service method, information recording medium, and program|
|International Classification||A63F13/12, A63F13/10, A63F13/00|
|Cooperative Classification||A63F13/537, A63F13/10, A63F13/46|
|Feb 11, 2003||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: KABUSHIKI KAISHA SEGA, JAPAN
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:YOSHINAGA, TAKUMI;NAKANISHI, HITOSHI;REEL/FRAME:013752/0371
Effective date: 20021028
Owner name: KABUSHIKI KAISHA SEGA,JAPAN
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:YOSHINAGA, TAKUMI;NAKANISHI, HITOSHI;REEL/FRAME:013752/0371
Effective date: 20021028
|Mar 14, 2013||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4