Pinball machines of the commercial, e.g., revenue generating, and non-commercial, e.g., home entertainment, type are well known in the art. By way of example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,814,966, 5,338,031, 6,158,737, and U.S. Published Application No. 2007/0026918, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, illustrate and describe pinball machines of the type having a cabinet which houses a playfield.
The following describes a system and method for allowing a user to modify a pinball machine. In particular, the following describes a system and method for allowing a user to modify the music, e.g., songs, that will be played by the pinball machine. To this end, a modifiable pinball machine includes a processing device, a memory storing instructions executable by the processing device, a communications interface coupled to the processing device for receiving new music data from a source external to the pinball machine for storage in the memory, and one or more speakers coupled to the processing device for playing music data retrieved from the memory when the pinball machine is operating in a predetermined state of the pinball machine. The new music data is provided to the pinball machine with data useable by the instructions executable by the processing device to cause the processing device to automatically associate the new music data with the predetermined operating state of the pinball machine such that the processing device will retrieve from the memory, when the pinball machine is caused to operate in the predetermined state, the new music data, for playing via use of the one or more speakers, in lieu of original music data that was provisioned on the pinball machine and associated with the predetermined operating state of the pinball machine when the pinball machine was manufactured.
A better understanding of the objects, advantages, features, properties and relationships of the subject pinball machine will be obtained from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings which set forth illustrative embodiments which are indicative of the various ways in which the principles of the invention hereinafter claimed may be employed.
For a better understanding of the subject system and method for allowing a user to modify a pinball machine reference may be had to the following drawings in which:
With reference to the figures, a system and method for modifying an amusement game device, in the exemplary form of a pinball machine 10, is now described. It is to be appreciated, however, that this exemplary form for the amusement game device 10 is not intended to be limiting. Rather, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciated that the system and method described hereinafter can be utilized in any type of amusement game device of the commercial and non-commercial type.
In keeping with the example of an amusement game device of the pinball machine type, the pinball machine 10 illustrated in
While not intended to be limiting, the playfield accessories or input devices 16 may include elements such as bumpers, ramps, and/or targets as well as one or more rollover switches 22. The playfield 14 may be covered by a transparent or glass sheet cover 25 to permit viewing of the playfield 14. In addition to the foregoing, the playfield 14 includes a plunger element 32 which shoots the ball up an alley 34 onto the playfield 14. The playfield 14 may also include lighting elements and/or other features as desired. Other player-activated input elements, typically in the form of push-buttons on the sides of the cabinet 12, are usually provided for controlling operation of the flippers 18. In some circumstances, particularly where the pinball machine 10 is to be utilized to communicate via a network with a vendor system as described below, the input elements may further include a microphone by which sound input/voice commands may be processed either locally and/or via a cloud based voice processing system. The pinball machine 10 may also include a backbox 26 which is mounted to overlay a top rear portion of the cabinet 12 and which contains a game display 28, such as a dot matrix display, CRT, LED, LCD, or plasma display, or the like. The backbox 26 may also support speakers, associated with the game sound system, for use in playing sounds and music, particularly songs, during game play. Within the backbox 26 may be located various ones of the electronic devices/circuits, e.g., processor 42, for controlling the operation of the playfield, the display, general illumination, and the sound system. Such electronic devices/circuits could also, in whole or in part, be carried within the game cabinet 12.
For controlling the various devices that form the amusement game 10, the amusement game 10 is provided with one or more processing devices (individually and collectively referred to hereinafter as a processing device 42) which processing device 42 is, in turn, coupled to game input devices 44, such as switches associated with the cabinet 12, playfield 14, etc., and game output devices 46, such as lights, flippers 18, display 28, game sound system including one or more speakers, etc. via one or more bus systems as shown in
As further shown in
As noted, via the communications interface 50, the pinball machine 10 is intended to receive data from an external source of data. In the description that follows, such data is intended to be digital music. The received, new digital music is intended to be stored in the memory 48 in lieu of or in addition to original digital music that is provisioned on the pinball machine 10 when it is manufactured/sold. In this manner, the received, new digital music may be played via the speaker(s) depending upon the operating state of the pinball machine 10, e.g., a state of current game play, an attraction mode of the device, etc., in lieu of or in addition to the music/sounds that were originally provisioned on the pinball machine 10. To this end, any received digital music may be accompanied by data that allows the pinball machine 10 to automatically access the received digital music during operation of the pinball machine 10. Thus, the digital music may be accompanied by data that allows the processor of the pinball machine 10 to automatically store the received digital music in a location in memory that is predetermined to be accessed by the pinball machine 10 during operation of the pinball machine 10 when operating in a given state, may be accompanied by information that allows any pointers to memory locations or the like within the instructions executable by the processor to be automatically modified so that the processor of the pinball machine 10 will access the stored, received digital music as appropriate depending upon the operating state of the pinball machine 10, etc. In some instances, the pinball machine 10 data may also provide for a user interface to be displayed, for example via the display 28, whereby a user may be allowed to select and reprogram the pinball machine 10, for example via use of the flippers, via voice input, or via other input means, such that any desired one or more of the stored, received digital music is played during any desired one or more of the operating states of the pinball machine.
As further illustrated in
In a further example, geographic location information may be utilized to prevent a user from retrieving/downloading music that would otherwise be downloadable into and usable with a pinball machine 10. The geographic information may be provided to the vendor server 60 from a GPS device resident on an accessing device, e.g., computing device 66 or pinball machine 10, using WiFi positioning information, using positioning information obtained from an ISP, or the like. In addition, the geographic information may simply be obtained from billing information provided by the user. In this manner, the distribution of music to commercial pinball machines 10, for example, may be inhibited.
In a further example, when new music data is downloaded onto a pinball machine 10, the pinball machine 10 may be programmed to still use the original music when operating as a revenue generating device thus allowing the new music to be played only when the pinball machine 10 is operating as a free play device.
While specific embodiments of the subject system and method have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those details could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, the particular arrangement disclosed is meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/918,564, filed on Mar. 12, 2018, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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5338031 | Patla, Sr. et al. | Aug 1994 | A |
6158737 | Cornell et al. | Dec 2000 | A |
9814966 | Gomez et al. | Nov 2017 | B2 |
10463950 | Gomez | Nov 2019 | B2 |
20060150804 | Hiratsuka | Jul 2006 | A1 |
20070026918 | Sheats | Feb 2007 | A1 |
20190275416 | Gomez | Sep 2019 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15918564 | Mar 2018 | US |
Child | 16531452 | US |