Game apparatus, recording medium having game program recorded thereon, and game system

41 Pages·2015·2.31 MB·English

US008979650B2
(12) United States Patent (10) Patent N0.: US 8,979,650 B2
Miyamoto et a]. (45) Date of Patent: Mar. 17, 2015
(54) GAME APPARATUS, RECORDING MEDIUM USPC ............................................. .. 463/31; 463/43
HAVING GAME PROGRAM RECORDED (58) Field of Classi?cation Search
THEREON, AND GAME SYSTEM USPC .................................................... .. 463/31, 43
See application ?le for complete search history.
(71) Applicant: Nintendo Co., Ltd., Kyoto (JP)
(56) References Cited
(72) Inventors: Shigeru Miyamoto, Kyoto (JP); Hiroki
Sotoike, Kyoto (JP) U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
(73) Assignee: Nintendo Co., Ltd., Kyoto (JP) 4,504,729 A * 3/1985 Asano ..................... .. 2l9/l37R
5,393,073 A 2/1995 Best
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this (Continued)
patent is extended or adjusted under 35
U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
(21) Appl.No.: 13/743,785 JP 11-267359 10/1999
JP 2000-334170 12/2000
(22) Filed: Jan. 17, 2013 OTHER PUBLICATIONS
(65) Prior Publication Data Madden 2000 Instruction Book Released Jul. 31, 1999, retrieved on
Aug. 2, 2007, from http://downloads.planetmirror.com/pub/
US 2013/0172082 A1 Jul. 4, 2013 repl ac ementdoc s/Maddeni2000i-iManuali-iPSX .pdf.
Related US. Application Data Primary Examiner * Pierre E Elisca
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm * Nixon & Vanderhye, PC.
(60) Continuation of application No. 12/ 816,823, ?led on
Jun. 16, 2010, noW Pat. No. 8,419,537, Which is a
(57) ABSTRACT
division of application No. 10/715,415, ?led on Nov.
19, 2003, noW Pat. No. 7,762,891. A game system is composed of a TV, a hand-held game
machine, and a game apparatus, for example. A hand-held
(30) Foreign Application Priority Data game machine and a plurality of controllers are connected to
the game apparatus, for example. The hand-held game
May 12, 2003 (JP) ............................... .. 2003-132839 machine displays a ?rst game screen Which indicates the
positions of ?rst to fourth characters in a game space. The TV
(51) Int. Cl. displays second game screens Which respectively correspond
A63F 13/10 (2006.01) to second to fourth characters, each of the second game
A63F13/00 (2014.01) screens displaying only a limited extent of the game space.
A63F13/40 (2014.01) When a predetermined condition is satis?ed, an operable
(52) US. Cl. character for a player is switched from a ?rst character to a
CPC ............... .. A63F 13/00 (2013.01); A63F 13/10 second character. Since different extents of game space are
(2013.01); A63F 2300/204 (2013.01); A63F displayed for different characters, an interesting game can be
2300/303 (2013.01); A63F 2300/307 (2013.01); provided.
A63F 2300/403 (2013.01); A63F 2300/8088
(2013.01) 15 Claims, 26 Drawing Sheets
US 8,979,650 B2
Page 2
(56) References Cited 6,817,947 B2 11/2004 Tanskanen
7,115,031 B2 10/2006 Miyamoto 6161.
US PATENT DOCUMENTS 7,762,891 B2 7/2010 Miyamoto et a1.
2002/0013172 A1 1/2002 Kaku 6161.
5,863,248 A 1/1999 Min- e et 61. ii: 30uZ1 11l1 1. 4. . 8. . 1. . 4.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~.~.
255333; $1 “$88? etal 2007/0191096 A1* 8/2007 Tanaka ....... .. .. 463/31
’ ’ J ' 2007/0238529 A1* 10/2007 Iwamoto 6161. .. 463/42
6,431,982 B2 8/2002 KObaYashl 2009/0036220 A1* 2/2009 Nagashima .463/43
6,489,946 B1 12/2002 Takeda et al. * '
6,497,618 B1 12/2002 Nishiumiet 31‘ 2012/0264517 A1 10/2012 Iwamoto et al. .............. .. 463/37
6,500,070 B1 12/2002 Tomizawa et al. * cited by examiner
US. Patent
h1ar.17,2015 Sheet170f26 US 8,979,650 B2
F'I C5. 1
US. Patent Mar. 17, 2015 Sheet 2 0f 26 US 8,979,650 B2
F I G. 2
31
CPU f
32 I ‘r 34a 5
5 S 5
WORK :2 @ CONTRULLER :3 HAND-"HELD
MEMORY l/F GAME MACHINE
33 34b
EXTERNAL : (2::3 CONTROLLER A— FIRST
MEMORY I/F l/F \l—L CONTROLLER
340
H 5 7
9 /£’/’
<:> CONTROLLER /'-— SECOND
' /F “'- CONTROLLER
BACKUP 4d
MEMORY 53 8
MEMORY CARD 37 VF ‘1'- CONTROLLER
S
OPHCAL DISK I35
DRIVE t3 VRAM
36 $2
(1:) GPU :> TV
OPncAL DISK ’ ‘
US. Patent Mar. 17, 2015 Sheet 3 0f 26 US 8,979,650 B2
F 1 G. 3
52
CPU f
53 K ‘h
5
ss
WORK f
MEMORY :9 Q:> VRAM
s4 ' 56 s1
r f 5
CWAR TRIDGE 1:) {2:1} GPU 1:) LCD
57
5
59
________ ____/‘ t3 OPERAHON
sermon
; , PROGRAM . : 58
I ROM ' 5
i -'-1---'-1-- ' commumcmous
I BACKUP \r/‘l—DPORT
l_.._.._| ! 1 I
: mamon -
CARTRIDGE \/
GAME 1' 3
APPARATUS
US. Patent Mar. 17, 2015 Sheet 4 0f 26 US 8,979,650 B2
FIG. 4
4
GAME PROGRAM 040
T ' _ _ 552i}?! 5N“ BEEETTIIG' PROGRAM - _ Q _I\ f\ 4i
7 CHARACTER swncnme PROGRAM I\/\42
I CHARACTER OPERATION PROGRAM E\_/\43
I
: GAME SCREEN OUTPUT PROGRAM l‘\_f\44
s- RESIDUAL IMAGE DISPLAYING PROGRAM Rf“
[- DISPLAY REGION CHANGING PROGRAM I\__/\46
5— SCORE PROCESSING PROGRAM I\ /\47
{' RADAR SCREEN DISPLAYING PROGRAM {\f\49
MAP DATA \_/\ 61
US. Patent Mar. 17, 2015 Sheet 5 0f 26 US 8,979,650 B2
FIG. 5A
M2
/////////I//
FIG. 5C
é???
US. Patent Mar. 17, 2015 Sheet 6 0f 26 US 8,979,650 B2
FIG. 6A
FIG. GB
W
Y > w
Lx 02

US. Patent Mar. 17, 2015 Sheet 8 0f 26 US 8,979,650 B2
F I G. 8 A 32
GAME PROGRAM ~/\40
————————————————— -- STORAGE
32 AREA T0
a\/7 1P 0 POINTS 4---WHICH
POINTS ARE
32b\/~ 2P 0 POINTS ADDED
320\/\ 3P 0 POINTS
32d\/- 4P 0 P01NTS
F I ca. 8 B [32
GAME PROGRAM _/\40
328\/\ IP 70 POiNTS STORAGE
AREA T0
32b\/\ 2P 0 POiNTS <——WH|cH
POINTS ARE
320\/\ 3P 0 POINTS ADDED
32d\/\ 4P 0 POINTS