This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2-005-232257, filed on Aug. 10, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a game system, and more particularly, to a game system that sets a unit price schedule for a plurality of game terminals disposed in a plurality of parlors.
2. Description of the Related Art
As application and utilization of a network are developed, development and operation are started for a game system that manages a plurality of game terminals through a network in a centralized manner. Recently, a system is increasingly introduced which substitutes electronic money using various electronic media for actual money to settle counter value payment for commodities and services.
In these respects, the applicant previously proposed an invention about a game system using electronic money (International Public Presentation No. WO2005/025703A1). An object of the invention of International Public Presentation No. WO2005/025703A1 is to prevent games from starting despite the intention of players and to prevent procedures for starting games from being complicated when a plurality of the players has electronic money and plays the games.
A system is proposed for performing comprehensive central control of data such as operation time for each group in a system managing a plurality of game machines that is so-called pachinko machines in a centralized manner (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 1998-165609). That is, in the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 1998-165609, groups are made from a plurality of pachinko machines in one parlor, and operational condition and business status for one week are accurately comprehended for each group and are displayed on a display apparatus to perform comprehensive central control of data such as the number of playing customers and operation time of game machines.
In another technology, a method is proposed for setting a unit price when utilizing a plurality of gate devices in a ski site (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-11224). In the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-11224, each device has a calendar function to set a sales unit price in accordance with a day of the week, specified dates, and business hours, and active/inactive of the device for each device all through the season. That is, in the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-11224, each terminal device has a schedule function to set a unit price to a preset sales unit price in the device in accordance with a schedule.
With regard to a game system, generally, 200 to 300 game terminals are connected through a game parlor LAN in one parlor. A plurality of game parlors is connected through a network such as the Internet.
On the other hand, each game terminal must be linked to a settlement terminal that accepts actual money or electronic money to allow a player to play a game at a game terminal. Normally, a unit price is set to execution of one game (provision of service) at the game terminal.
Therefore, as described above, the large total number of the terminals exists in a game system and the game terminal may be temporarily disconnected from the LAN when devices are replaced to change game versions or due to failures, etc. In consideration of such a situation, it is difficult to perform the unit price changing setup easily even when each terminal device (game terminal) described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-11224 has a schedule function to set a selling unit price in the terminal in accordance with a preset schedule.
That is, it is difficult to change a unit price to enhance attraction for customers correspondingly to a customer operating status and to perform the unit price changing setup for a plurality of game terminals in a centralized manner.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a game system with a plurality of game terminals, which can easily set a unit price for each game terminal correspondingly to a time schedule.
A first aspect of the present invention solving the above problem provides a game system comprising a server system and a game parlor connected to the server system through a network; the server system forms and retains a unit price schedule data that set a unit price for a predetermined unit time; the game parlor includes a plurality of game terminals connected to a parlor LAN, and a parlor server; the game parlor retains corresponding unit price schedule data sent from the server system to the parlor server; and the plurality of game terminals accesses the parlor server at a time interval shorter than the predetermined unit time to acquire unit price information in accordance with the unit price schedule.
In one implementation of the first aspect, when a current unit price acquired by accessing the parlor server is different from a unit price scheduled for a next time period in accordance with the unit price schedule, the plurality of game terminals can change setting of the game unit price to the scheduled unit price.
In one implementation, the game system includes a parlor management terminal corresponding to a parlor and the parlor management terminal can perform an update process of the unit price schedule on an interface screen provided from the server system or created through image generation by the parlor management terminal itself.
The interface screen provided from the server system may be a web browser screen of the server system.
The interface screen created through image generation by the parlor management terminal itself may be created by the parlor management terminal itself with a Java (registered trademark) application provided from the server system.
In one implementation, the parlor management terminal registers a plurality of game terminals as a unit price group and applies a corresponding unit price schedule to the game terminals included in the unit price group on the interface screen.
In one implementation, each of the plurality of game terminals includes a game device and a settlement terminal linked to the game device; the store management terminal registers the game device and the settlement terminal linked to the game device on the interface screen; and the settlement terminal linked to the registered game device processes a unit price in accordance with the unit price schedule for a game executed on the game device.
In one implementation, when the parlor management terminal registers the game device and the settlement terminal linked to the game device, if a plurality of the settlement terminals is associated with one game terminal, registration can be performed to link the plurality of the settlement terminals to the game device constituting the game terminal.
A game terminal according to the present invention can be realized with a simple configuration without the need of a configuration including scheduling data, can constitute a game system inexpensively, and can change unit price setup easily.
Features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following embodiment described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
An embodiment of the present invention will hereinafter be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiment is for the purpose of understanding of the present invention and does not limit the technical scope of the present invention.
[Server System SV]
The server system SV has a database server 10 and an application server 11. These servers are connected to form a LAN within the server system SV and connected to the network NW such as the Internet through a switching hub 12 and a router 13.
The data server 10 retains unit price schedule data described in detail later. The application server 11 has a function of a web server as an application and provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to a parlor management terminal such that unit schedule data sent from the data server 10 can be browsed on a web browser screen in each game parlor described later. Using the web browser is advantageous in that (i) a dedicated browser does not have to be developed (development cost and time can be reduced) and (ii) everyone is familiar with and can easily use the GUI without additional learning.
In the following description of the embodiment, a desiccated browser may be used instead of a web browser screen of the application server 11 provided to the parlor management terminal from the application server 11.
The application server 11 may retain the unit price schedule data and the dedicated browser may be achieved on an interface screen generated by the parlor management terminal itself with a browser plug-in provided from the server system. By using the browser plug-in, (i) the interface screen function can be added to the web browser without a user of the parlor management terminal actively installing a program. (ii) Since the browser plug-in is executed on the parlor management terminal, the burden of the application server can be reduced.
The browser plug-in is a program executed so as to add a function to the web browser, such as the Java (registered trademark) applet (plug-in written in the Java (registered trademark) language) and the ActiveX control (plug-in constituted by object codes).
[Game Parlors ST1 to STn]
On the other hand, the plurality of the game terminals ST1 to STn has substantially the same configuration. For example, the game parlor ST1 includes a plurality of game terminals GT1 to GTn and a plurality of groups is formed from the game terminals GT1 to GTn based on game genres, categories, etc. The plurality of the game terminals GT1 to GTn is connected to a parlor server to form a LAN. The plurality of the game terminals GT1 to GTn is connected to the network NW through a switching hub 1 and a router 2.
The parlor LAN includes a parlor management terminal 4 corresponding to a parlor. The parlor management terminal 4 is connected to the network NW through the parlor LAN or through a router 21 independently from the parlor LAN as shown in the game parlor ST2 of
[Timing Setup]
In the game system according to the present invention, it is important to set a unit price in each game terminal correspondingly to a time schedule. Therefore, a timer in the data server 10 is set as a master clock. That is, the parlor server 3 in each game parlor ST1 to STn accesses the data server 10 periodically and is synchronized with the master clock of the data server 10.
The game terminals in the game parlor are powered on daily at the opening of business and powered off at the close of business. Therefore, when the game terminals are powered on at the opening of business, the power-on state is recognized by the corresponding parlor server 3; as a result, the timers in the game terminals are synchronized to the timer of the parlor server 3; and therefore, the timing of the overall game system is synchronized.
[Correlated Setup of Game Device and Settlement Terminal]
The game terminal GT1 to GTn includes a combination of the game device 100 and the settlement terminal 101 as described in
If the registered linking relationship of the game device 100 and the settlement terminal 101 is cancelled, the cancellation is performed on a web browser screen of
In
If a game is executed by putting in a predetermined medal in the game terminal GT1 to GTn, lending out of the medal must be performed. If the lending out of the medal is performed with the use of electronic money, a medal lending machine must be recognized in the same way as the game device to link the medal lending machine and the settlement terminal. In such a case, the web browser screen is also used as shown in
[Setup of Basic Unit Price]
That is, the game device numbers, names, and associated settlement terminal IDs (B of
In
[Setup of Unit Price Group]
When setting game unit prices of a plurality of the game terminals GT1 to GTn, a unit price changing schedule can be easily set by grouping the game terminals based on game genres, categories, etc.
If the same group is newly set among the displayed terminal devices, a new group name is entered (B of
[Setup of Unit Price Schedule]
For the unit price group set as described above, a special unit price can be set for a schedule period to be set. By defining the special unit price for the schedule period, the attraction for customers can be enhanced and the business effect can be improved.
The unit prices can be set to the same prices for all the game devices in the unit price group or can be set differently for each game device. That is,
In
In the example shown in
All the game devices have current unit prices (B of
The schedule unit price is set in each game parlor. Therefore, unit price schedule data are formed in the database server 10 for all the game parlors ST1 to STn belonging to the game system.
The 15-minute time period is an example and the unit time can be set to any predetermined time periods such as one hour, 10 minutes, or one minute, which are included in the concept of the present invention.
[Unit Price Setup for Game Terminal]
Description will be made of a procedure of setting a unit price for the game terminal in accordance with the unit price schedule formed and retained in the data server 10 as described above.
The data server 10 transmits the corresponding unit price schedule data to the parlor server 3 of each game parlor ST1 to STn (step S2). The price schedule data may be transmitted periodically at night when the game parlor is closed or may be transmitted in response to a transmission request sent from the parlor management terminal 4 to the data server 10.
Preferably, the unit price schedule data transmitted from the data server 10 to the parlor management terminal 4 are data of two days including the current day and the next day. This is because the game parlor may continue business across the border between the current day and the next day (after 24 o'clock).
The unit schedule is transmitted in this way from the data server 10 to each of the game parlors ST1 to STn and retained in the parlor server 3.
On the other hand, a plurality of the game terminals GT1 to GTn in the parlor accesses the corresponding parlor server 3 in each predetermined time interval shorter than a quarter of an hour (15 minutes) as described above, for example, every two minutes, to perform transmission request polling for the unit price data (step S3).
By accessing at a time interval shorter than the predetermined unit time, the unit price setup can be certainly changed in each predetermined unit time without an error. The settling process can be started with a shorter waiting time without waiting for the predetermined unit time.
That is, the game terminals GT1 to GTn access the parlor server 3 to acquire data of a unit price set for the current time and a unit price that should be set for the next 15-minute time period.
Since the time adjustment is performed basically by the previous terminal initialization (step S1), the unit price setup value at the current time should have no differences between the game terminal GT1 to GTn and the parlor server 3. However, if the unit price at the current time set in the game terminal GT1 to GTn is different from the unit price acquired from the parlor server 3 because, for example, the unit price information is not updated due to a communication failure, the unit price is corrected and changed to the current unit price acquired from the parlor server 3.
If the unit price to be set for the next 15-minute time period is different from the unit price setup value at the current time (Y at step S4), the game terminal GT1 to GTn changes the setting when the next time period starts (step S5).
The above process (step S2 to step S5) is continuously performed during business hours (N at step S6).
As set forth hereinabove, the present invention forms schedule data in a data server and the schedule data are acquired and retained in a corresponding parlor server. A plurality of game terminals inquires the corresponding parlor server for the schedule data at a predetermined timing to change unit price setup of the own terminal at any time.
Therefore, the game terminal can be realized with a simple configuration without the need of a configuration including the scheduling data, can constitute a game system inexpensively, and can change the unit price setup easily. This can enhance the attraction for customers and contributes greatly to the industry.
While the illustrative and presently preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be otherwise variously embodied and employed and that the appended claims are intended to be construed to include such variations except insofar as limited by the prior art.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2005-232257 | Aug 2005 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
6015344 | Kelly et al. | Jan 2000 | A |
7515718 | Nguyen et al. | Apr 2009 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
10-165609 | Jun 1998 | JP |
2000-011224 | Jan 2000 | JP |
2000-14930 | Jan 2000 | JP |
2005025703 | Mar 2005 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20070060370 A1 | Mar 2007 | US |