Hand-held electronic game
Contents
1. As the state of the art progressed so did the sophisti cation of the penny arcade games With the advent of games using cathode ray tubes it became possible to have games which simulated among other things bat tles in space between different forces of miniature simu lated spaceships It became possible to manipulate and direct a spaceship around the face of the cathode ray tube Thus it became possible to create games wherein a pair of players each manipulating his own spaceship tried to destroy the other player s spaceship With the advent of micro processors it became possible for an individual player to play against the micro processor controlled enemy or invading spaceships This type of penny arcade game became extremely popular and was set up for either a pair of individuals playing each other or a single individual playing against the machine However the penny arcade type games using cath ode ray tube equipment are relatively heavy unwieldy and expensive Therefore such games are not amenable for home use Alternative games are available which require the use of the cathode ray tube of the television receiver Those games have the drawbacks of inactivat ing the television receivers damaging and wearing out the cathode ray tubes of the television receivers as well as having a lack of mobility Accordingly an object of the present invention is to provide new and unique hand held electronic games A r2. D4 06 D7 23 15 350 58 AC 96 AC 9D 8B AC 2B 4B 2C 4D 9D 76 AC 05 50 360 05 51 CC D4 05 55 D 3 B7 99 EC D4 23 3 21 6 370 82 68 E 23 28 OF 50 6 73 41 69 55 6 54 2D 4 380 6 59 70 AA 3 B 7A 3 86 8 03 CD DI 33 B8 8B 390 CI 38 TA 33 85 89 03 D AB 38 8B D3 AB 0 23 98 3A0 28 05 OE 50 2 18 SF 4 23 98 32 88 BS 88 0 n 3B0 0 Bl 6 A4 3 AF 0 5 63 BF 23 OA 53 5D 22 84 3C0 08 89 85 04 6 B 08 89 AA 58 44 23 B2 84 86 3D0 85 6B DA B2 3 B2 BF 8 48 A3 B2 BF 9B 3 2C 33 3E0 3A 5 3 3E 4 2 OA 58 40 40 23 A0 6 IE 00 3F0 TF BF DF EF F7 FB FD FE FF DF FF EF F7 FB FD FE said second electronically controlled lights compris What is claimed is 35 ing a single column of said lights mounted on a wand 5 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 4 wherein an extended aperture is provided in said first board below said array to provide visible access to said third electronically controlled lights 6 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 5 wherein said means for causing the players to see said first second and third electronically controlled lights on a single plane comprises two way mirror means angularly mounted between said first and second planes 7 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 6 including means for selectively moving the wand to the right or to the left to avoid being hit by bombs and to hit the invaders with the death rays 8 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 7 wherein the means for selectively movi
3. F9 8D F2 2D 46 9D 1A0 76 33 82 05 54 FO 07 AF 05 51 61 F8 9F 70 60 29 1B0 06 EA 2B 46 19 05 57 7E AS 13 61 E3 8D 61 C2 33 1C0 Al 83 23 21 51 CE 9B 7B 9B 93 80 6B 16 A8 51 D4 4 345 764 1 A hand held programmed electronic game for playing by individuals holding said electronic game said game comprising first electronically controlled lights for depicting invaders and bombs second electronically controlled lights for depicting o defenders and death rays third electronically controlled lights visually inter posed between said electronically controlled lights depicting said defenders and said electronically controlled lights depicting invaders for depicting 45 barriers impenetrable by said bombs and death rays said first and second electronically controlled lights affixed in first and second planes respectively and means for causing individuals to see said first second so and third electronically controlled lights in a single plane 2 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 1 wherein the first and second planes are at right angles to each other 55 3 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 2 wherein said first and third electronically con trolled lights are in substantially the same plane and spaced apart from each other 4 The hand held programmed electronic game of gp claim 3 wherein said first electronically controlled lights comprise an array of electronically controlled lights mounted
4. be understood that this description is made by way of example only and not as a limitation on the invention TABLE 1 ROM VALUES 000 00 OF 12 B2 04 C3 12 5D C2 9F 8B DF OF 70 77 78 010 74 72 9D 77 70 71 77 72 2C 43 68 SF E9 08 C3 OF 020 AF 33 81 77 78 05 52 04 DI 23 04 5F DD SF 61 80 030 SF 61 SF FB 4E 2C 13 68 3C 60 29 IF 06 00 5E 040 51 co 8B 60 3E 48 23 27 40 SF 6l FD 2C 13 Di 60 050 29 5F 63 B4 5F 62 40 SF 80 SF 63 27 63 84 33 060 83 83 05 23 B3 48 88 B5 88 48 96 48 19 60 99 AF 070 20 48 49 6B A4 ill 00 23 88 48 00 53 02 06 48 00 080 63 CA FA CE co CI D El Fi 60 66 60 6F 60 6A F9 090 00 58 F6 00 59 F6 09 33 93 00 F6 33 88 33 A8 33 0A0 84 33 A6 33 A7 33 97 48 61 00 OE 08 OF 60 35 00 OBO 22 F2 00 oF 48 12 51 CC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C0 4E 23 A3 12 23 98 48 23 23 50 23 18 12 48 32 05 obo SF 22 F4 33 97 15 33 3C 48 2B Ol 33 61 ir 33 69 0E0 48 2B 0l 33 65 1 33 6D 48 05 40 23 A3 05 59 44 OFO C4 05 30 44 06 48 21 48 49 00 21 49 48 00 00 00 100 2B 13 C6 03 68 7A A3 83 05 55 83 05 58 06 35 50 110 15 23 87 05 AS 73 33 87 6B A4 B5 4B 46 A3 00 120 5B 21 E9 2E 03 EB A5 4 FC 05 54 E8 5C 9D 21 F2 130 A5 43 5C 4 82 E6 Al 21 E8 2E 13 E6 86 OE 33 3E 140 33 57 33 85 33 2E 16 14 33 5B 33 2E 16 06 6B D9 150 68 D3 87 60 46 23 23 23 98 6B A4 9B Ol 49 48 8D 160 A8 6A 28 A8 2B 4B 39 79 78 78 78 78 79 lA 90 F5 170 04 EE 9F 71 A8 16 71 63 B4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 180 2C 13 C4 D8 B2 21 CF 2D 21 CF 00 56 68 3C AS 2B 190 43 2F 7C TF 19 78 2C 43 2D 03
5. lights depicting de fenders and death rays are aligned with said lights depicting invaders and bombs 14 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 12 including means for sensing when the electron ically lights depicting defenders and death rays are aligned with the lights depicting barriers 15 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 12 including means for sensing when said columns of said first electronically controlled lights depicting invaders are aligned with said third electronically con trolled lights depicting barriers 16 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 12 wherein contact material is mounted on said first board aligned with each of said columns invader column sensing contacts mounted on said wand for completing a circuit from said first board contact material to indicate alignment of said wand with said column contact material mounted on said second board aligned with each of said barrier lights barrier light sensing contacts mounted on said wand for completing a circuit from said second board contact material to indicate alignment of said wand with said barriers further contact material mounted on said second board and barrier sensing contacts mounted on said first board for completing a circuit through said further 20 25 30 45 50 55 60 65 16 contact material to indicate alignment of said col umns with said barriers f 17 The hand held program
6. pawl bar 29A is fixedly at tached to the vertical section 33 by any well known means such as fastener 36 The pawl bar 29A basically comprises main rod sec tion 37 terminating in the pawl point 38 The pawl point 38 is designed to mesh into the teeth 39 of the rack bar 28 Thus when the defending spaceship moving lever 17A is pressed point 38 moves upward to mesh with tack teeth 39 and forces the rack bar 28 and the wand coupled thereto to the right The operation of defending spaceship moving lever 17B forces the rack bar 28 and the wand coupled thereto to the left Thus the wand 27 is moved left or right responsive to pressure on the defending spaceship moving push button levers 17A and 17B Means are provided for normally maintaining the pawl bar 29A clear of the rack More particularly wish bone springs such as springs 41 are positioned at pivot point 34 The lever 17B and its associated paw rod 29B are mirror images of lever 17A and pawl rod 29A con sequently the description of the lever 17A and pawl rod 29A suffices for lever 17B and pawl rod 29B The location of the wand 27 is automatically electri cally tracked by means such as contact segments 42A and 42B shown on the back of board 19 aligned with columns 21A and 21B in conjunction with contact strip 43 A contact or brush 44 on the wand makes contact simultaneously with the conducting segments corre sponding to the appropriate column and the contact strip Thu
7. score is indicated by the array The enemy bombs drop one at a time from the first two arrays and two at a time from arrays 3 on A bomb and laser do not cancel when on the same path If no barrier separates the two then both the invader and the defender are vulnerable to weapons simultaneously fired on the same path The spaceship s laser always fires faster than the invaders bombs If a defender is hit it will beep one time per spaceship left When all the defenders are destroyed by the invad ers the surviving invaders are frozen on the array and the four left side barriers are lit to tell how many arrays are cleaned out From left to right numerical values fo the four barriers are 1 2 4 and 8 The number of arrays cleaned out is indicated by the sum of any of the four scoring barriers that are blinking The program was used to develop a program of ROM values for the micro processor using the COP 400 Product Development System User s Manual c 1978 and the addendum of 1979 National Semi Conductor Ser No 420305548 00 in conjunction with the COP 400 Micro controller Family Chips User s Manual N SEMICON Serial Number 420305785 001 dated Janu ary 1979 all available through National Semi Conduc tor Company Typical ROM values for a preferred embodiment are shown on the accompanying Table 1 While the principles of the invention have been de scribed above in connection with specific apparatus and applications it is to
8. such as in an eight by six matrix After a given number 15 of invading spaceships have been destroyed the tempo of the game is automatically increased by increasing the speed and the frequency of the bombs being dropped by the invaders In addition the tempo of the electronic shifting is also increased The increased tempo of the game is matched by the increased tempo of a background heartbeat sound that is continually emitted while the game is being played 4 345 764 3 Throughout the game the surviving invading space ships are automatically shifted to vacated LED posi tions in their own row If an entire grid of invaders is destroyed a duplicate array or grid of 30 invaders reap pears The tempo of the play of the second grid is faster than the first grid Similarly the tempo of play of the third grid is faster than that of the second grid The _ score is automatically computed after three defending spaceships have been destroyed and the total number of invaders destroyed is exhibited on the invader grid The barrier LED s start with a maximum brightness After being hit a programmed number of times i e 15 either by the invading spaceship bombs or the defend ing spaceship laser death ray the barrier is deenergized and from then on inactive as a barrier For the second and third grids the barriers are destroyed with fewer than the original number of hits i e 15 These and other objects and features of the prese
9. At the same time the spaceship invader matrix is moved right or left de pending on its previous position and the position of the ratchet wheeling crank The space invader matrix board 19 is attached to the ratchet wheel 68 freuen the off centered handle 74 and link 76 The showing of FIG 3 shows the means for depict ing the invading spaceship matrix the barrier strip and 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 the defending space ship all in the same plane More particularly a two way mirror 77 is shown mounted in the game 11 parallel to the viewing screen 14 The barrier board 47 is mounted toward the rear of cover 12 in any well known manner The barrier LED s such as LED 23D are shown extending through an extended aperture such as aperture 20 in matrix board 19 Column 21D of the matrix is shown mounted on board 19 in FIG 3 The wand 27 is hori zontally placed beneath the reflecting surface of two way mirror 77 Thus a player looking through the viewing screen 14 and hood section 13 sees the matrix of invading spaceships the barriers and the defending spaceship all in the same plane Means are provided for powering the system More particularly batteries such as battery 79 shown in a battery container 81 mounted on the base 83 of hood section 13 The base 83 of the hood section sets upon the base 84 of the hand held electronic game Mounted to the base are the pivot pedestals such as p
10. United States Patent 19 Barlow et al pp 4 345 764 45 Aug 24 1982 54 75 73 21 22 51 52 58 56 HAND HELD ELECTRONIC GAME Inventors Gordon A Barlow John R Krutsch both of Glenview Richard A Karlin Chicago all of Ill f Assignee Gordon Barlow Design Skokie Ill Appl No 116 835 Filed Jan 30 1980 Int C12 Di RR e te ene A63F 9 00 eg Oz PR SR MEGER EE FREE 273 313 Field of Search 273 313 1 E 85 G 273 310 311 312 314 315 316 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 2 467 180 4 1949 Anderson 273 313 3 790 172 2 1974 Nakamura 273 313 4 270 755 6 1981 Willhide et al 273 313 Primary Examiner William H Grieb Attorney Agent or Firm Alter and Weiss 57 I ABSTRACT A hand held electronic game which uses a two way mirror arrangement to simulate the battle between the player s rocket ship protected by barriers and a plethora of enemy rocket ships The enemy rocket ships and the barriers are affixed on two parallel spaced apart verti cal planes Apertures in the front plane give the impres sion in the two way mirror that the devices on the dif ferent planes are all in the same plane In addition the player s rocketship and death ray on a horizontal plane are also projected on the two way mirror so that it appears that all the devices are in
11. a single plane 22 Claims 8 Drawing Figures U S Patent Aug 24 1982 Sheet 1 of 4 4 345 764 r A TN 52B 298 52A 84 FIG 2 4 345 764 Sheet 2 of 4 U S Patent Aug 24 1982 913 L9 862826 6 U S Patent Aug 24 1982 Sheet 3 of 4 4 345 764 D 74 whe 72 waa elc o e r 224 U U UYDU UY U 23A 23C 23E 76 64 23B 23D 23F 73 STT ee N LD ML aaa iii i MEM e YTTYTI YY TET Ta ATTA ALC LP aber three ey ME MEL 6b tr ee U S Patent Aug 24 1982 Sheet 4 of 4 4 345 764 G GFS ies M D3 2 49 62 4 si O O O P O w 46 N4 p4 43 a Ji 44 ABI C DI E i FG H pom eee DO SE aa Pe o Stal GI RII A ase ee n aaaeease aes Ria Ripe Ric Ring Ries RLF Ries R un ss o e 99 LO LI L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 R3 7 ON Ej Be FIG 8 9V BAT SPACE SHIP DEATH ENEMY RAY 4 345 764 1 HAND HELD ELECTRONIC GAME This invention is concerned with hand held games and more particularly with such hand held games which simulate battles between the player s rocket ship and a plethora of death dealing space invaders The games in penny arcades at one time were either mechanical or electro mechanical In the electro mechanical arcade games when certain micro switch bumpers were hit by a projectile directed by the player relays would be operated to make noises light lights and add up scores
12. e invad ing spaceships the barriers and the defending spaceship all in a single plane Yet another object of the present invention is to pro vide mechanical means for moving the defending space ship so as to avoid the bombs of the invading spaceship The means for moving the defending spaceship also acting to move the invading spaceships thereby making it more difficult for the defending spaceship to shoot down the invading spaceships and to avoid the invad er s bombs Yet another object of the present invention is to pro vide sound effects based upon or concurrent with oc currences in the hand held electronic game A preferred embodiment of the present invention features a hand held box with a viewing screen at one end A motion controlling push button lever is mounted on each side of the hand held box along with a firing push button switch on at least one side of the box The viewing screen reveals a six by five matrix of LED s six columns and five rows representing the invading spaceships In addition there is a barrier LED for each column Another LED represents the defending space ship The invading LED s the barrier LED s and the defending LED s are different colors When the on off switch is turned to on the matrix of invading LED s the barrier LED s and the defend ing LED s are all energized Responsive to the position varying lever buttons the defending spaceship moves selectively ri
13. e shown particularly in FIG 4 As shown therein the pawl rods 29A and 29B have affixed thereto cones 51A and 51B respectively The cones abut the top surfaces of links 52A and 52B respectively to maintain those links in a relatively hori zontal plane The links as seen in FIG 2 are attached to the verti cal portion of the defending spaceship moving lever For example as shown in FIG 2 link 52A is attached by any well known means such as fastener 53 to por tion 33 of lever 17A The link 52A is shaped to avoid abutting rack sup porting standard 54A A second rack supporting stan dard 54B is shown spaced apart from standard 54A Another set of standards 56A and 56B are positioned opposite standards 54A and 54B respectively and closer to the front portion of the game The link 52B is shaped so that it does not abut standard 56B When the lever 17A is operated the link 52A moves laterally to the left causing a crank 57 comprising circu lar portion 58 and handles 59A and 59B in turn counter clockwise The movement of crank 57 counter clock wise causes pawl link 61 to move diagonally away from the front of the game or away from the viewing screen 14 The pawl link 61 has a cut away section 62 made particularly to avoid abutment with standard 54A The pawl link 61 is attached to crank 57 through crank han dle 63 The pawl link 61 terminates in a pawl 64 at its end away from the crank Lost motion means are provided to isolat
14. e the move ment of link 52A from the movement of link 52B and vice versa More particularly extended apertures in links 52A and 52B are provided at the crank handles 59A and 59B respectively Thus when the crank 57 is moved by link 52A then the crank handle 59B moves in extended aperture 66B without effecting link 52B Simi larly when crank 52 is rotated around pivot point 67 responsive to the actuation of link 52B crank handle 59A moves in extended aperture 66A with no effect on linkage 52A The diagonal movement of pawl link 61 causes ratchet wheel 68 to rotate in a clockwise direction Means such as resilient retainer 69 assures that pawl 64 meshes with the teeth of ratchet wheel 68 Ratchet lever 71 pivoted around pivot point 72 assures that the ratchet wheel 68 turning around pivot 73 can only ro tate in a counter clockwise direction Thus as pawl link 61 moves diagonally towards the front of the game resonsive to releasing lever 17A for example and the consequent movement of the lever to its normal position with the consequent movement of link 52A back to its normal position the crank 57 rotates counter clockwise moving pawl link 61 towards the front of the game Any force on the teeth of ratchet wheel 68 cannot move the ratchet wheel clockwise because of ratchet lever 7A Accordingly each time lever 17A or 17B is operated the wand 27 is moved either right or left relative to the stationary barrier strips for example
15. e wand overlap the aligned invading spaceships the first in vader overlapped LED is destroyed by the death ray Responsive to the destruction the micro controller sends a signal out through S0 to cause the loud speaker to broadcast a distinctive noise indicating the destruc tion of an invading spaceship The destruction of the invading spaceship is also recorded in the memory for compilation of the final score If a dropped bomb and death ray strike each other then the dropped bomb is not destroyed The de struction of an invading spaceship stops the death ray so that the death ray can destroy only one invading spaceship per firing If the death ray is activated when the defending spaceship and invaders are not aligned then the micro controller causes a distinctive noise to be broadcast indicating a miss When the barrier LED s are between the invaders and the defending spaceship neither the invaders nor the defending spaceship can destroy each other However the randomly strewn bombs of the invaders act to gradually destroy the barriers Similarly when the death ray of the defending spaceship hits the barrier it also partially destroys the barrier In a preferred embodiment the barrier is destroyed after being hit 15 times either by bombs or death ray shots As the barrier is destroyed its light becomes less intense Once the barrier is des
16. elated object of the present invention is to provide hand held electronic games wherein the player is matching his skill against programmed equipment Yet another object of the present invention is to pro vide hand held electronic games wherein the player manipulates defending spaceships armed with death rays to defend against a plethora of invading space ships A related object of the present invention is to provide hand held electronic games wherein the plethora of invading spaceships is above the defending spaceship dropping bombs which the defending spaceship must avoid to remain viable while using its death ray in an attempt to destroy the invading spaceships Still another and related object of the present inven tion is to automatically increase the tempo of the bomb dropping operation as the game progresses thereby making it more difficult for the defending spaceship to kill the enemy spaceships and avoid being destroyed Still another object of the present invention is to provide hand held electronic games wherein the invad ing spaceships are in one plane barriers which the defending spaceship can use to avoid the bombs are in a plane parallel to the one plane and wherein the de fending spaceship is in yet another plane all three planes being projected upon an angularly held two way 10 15 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 60 65 2 mirror so that the person using the game sees th
17. ept TASK 1 are omitted Obviously this shortens the large loop The sounds to be broadcast are inserted when the GAME block flips the speaker on and inserts variable delays in the large loop The burns are accomplished by turning on the LED s to be burnt and inserting delays in the energization of those LED s In the POSTGAME block the initiation array is centered so that all remaining enemy or invading space ships can be readily seen The background sound is on flag 33 is set to suppress all other activity such as laser and missile on The POSTGAME block monitors fire and if fire has been held on for a suitable length of time POSTGAME calls for a FRESH ARRAY Each FRESH ARRAY gives the player one defending space ship as a bonus Each FRESH ARRAY moves and drops bombs at a faster tempo Thus the player can force the game to a higher skill lever then he has actually achieved by wiping out all of the invaders However his activity at the higher skill level is limited to one spaceship This allows the player to observe the higher tempos and practice at them The unique feature can be used repetitively to get to higher and higher skill levels POSTGAME also indicates the number of arrays killed by the invading spaceships in code by blinking appropriate barrier lights FRESH ARRAY sets all RAM outputs to F except one corner containing the number of defending spaceships and the score The program then goes to OPENING Whe
18. ght or left Simultaneous thereto the ma trix of invading spaceships is first moved to one side limit for example the right side and then to the other side limit for example the left side regardless of whether the defending spaceship is being moved right or left Responsive to the operation of the firing switch the defending spaceship fires its death ray comprising a plurality of LED s in a straight line which are lit se quentially to simulate the firing If the defending space ship is aligned with an invading spaceship so that the death ray hits the invading spaceship the invading spaceship is destroyed The destruction is simulated by a distinctive explosive sound In the meantime the invading spaceships a are drop ping bombs responsive to a program set in a micro processor The dropping of the bombs are simulated by a burn or brightening or the LED s in the column drop ping the bombs If the defending spaceship is aligned with the column dropping the bombs at the time the bottommost LED of the column exhibits a brightened intensity the defending spaceship is destroyed The destruction is simulated by a burn of the defender and by another distinctive sound After the destruction of the defending spaceship it is sequentially replaced by two more defending spaceships In addition to the physical movement of the invading spaceships the six by five matrix is shifted electroni cally in a larger matrix
19. hree defending spaceships are destroyed then a whole new array of invaders is provided by the micro con troller along with a new defending spaceship Thus the player obtains a second game However the tempo of the second game is automatically greater than the tempo of the first game Here again after a given number of invaders are destroyed the tempo further increases and then con tinually increases throughout the remaining game mak ing it more difficult to destroy the entire array of invaders prior to the three defending spaceships being destroyed At the beginning of the program the power is turned on i e POWER UP The micro processor 91 has an automatic power up reset The power up reset clears the accumulator resets the E register of the micro proces sor and sets the RAM pointer B to 0 0 Then all RAM outputs are set to binary 1 s Hex F The pro gram is comprised of a large main loop Alternate paths are taken within the main loop depending on the status of different flags or outputs during the transversal of the loop A RAM cell herein called GAME STATUS selects one of the paths of the loop The loop paths comprise OPENING GAME POSTGAME and FRESH ARRAY Setting all of the RAM outputs to the binary Vs sets the GAME STATUS to F which consequently selects the OPENING block The OPENING program por tion bleeps and blinks for each of the defending space ships in the pla
20. hrough 22E Initially all 30 LED s are lit In a preferred em bodiment the invading spaceships comprise yellow LED s Barrier means are provided which may be aligned with each of the columns More particularly six LED s 23A through 23F are shown beneath each of the col umns 21A through 21F These LED s in a preferred embodiment are green Defending spaceship indicating means are provided More particularly a defending spaceship is indicated by an LED 24 seen for example in FIG 3 The spaceship LED 24 is aligned with a death or laser ray indicating means More particularly LED s 26A through 26G are shown aligned with spaceship LED 24 Both the space ship LED 24 and the death ray LED s 26A through 26G are mounted on a horizontally positioned wand assembly 27 20 30 35 45 60 65 4 The wand assembly 27 is coupled by any well known means to means for moving the wand assembly side ways relative to the invading spaceships and the barri ers More particularly the wand assembly 27 is shown coupled to ratchet bar 28 The defending spaceship s push button positioning levers 17A and 17B operate pawl means such as pawl bars 29A and 29B More particularly the levers as shown are angle units which include push buttons such as push button 31 integral to the horizontal section 32 that leads to the vertical section 33 A pivot pin 34 is located at the vertex or the juncture of the vertical and horizontal sections The
21. ivot pedestal 35 Also mounted to base 84 is a loud speaker 86 for providing the sound effects that go with the game For example throughout the game there is the heartbeat sound effect which varies in tempo increasing as the game progresses Means are provided for indicating to the electronic controls associated with game the relative position of the invading space ships and the barrier strips More particularly contact or brush means 87 mounted at the rear of board 19 individually connects conductive seg ments 88D 88E or 88F to conductive strip 89 when ever the invaders and the barrier LED s are aligned Thus if the matrix board has moved to its left limit then the brush 87 connects segment 88F to strip 89 When the board is moved to its right limit then brush 87 con nects segment 88D to conducting strip 89 As shown in the schematic of FIG 8 the electronic heart of the control of the hand held game is the micro processor or controller 91 In a preferred embodiment a National Semi Conductor COP 421 micro controller is used The micro controller 91 has a plurality of outputs LO through L7 which are used to control the energization of the LED s including the invaders the barriers the defending spaceships and the death ray by controlling the power to the cathodes of the columns of the LED s In addition the micro controller 91 includes D register outputs and G register outputs connected to the bases of transis
22. ker 86 is connected through conductor 103 to the collector of NPN transistor amplifier Q4 The base of transistor Q3 is connected through resis tor R3 to the sound output SO of the micro controller 91 The collector of transistor Q3 is connected through a voltage divider comprising resistors R4 and R6 in series The base of transistor Q4 is connected through conductor 106 to the ground bus 97 Thus sound signals from the controller activate the audio amplifier to cause the loud speaker to produce the required sounds When the game commences the processor is pro grammed to provide negative low signals to points DO D1 D2 D3 G0 G1 and G2 This causes transistors QA through QE to conduct responsive to low signals at points LO through L5 At this time there is no low signal at G2 Thus transistor Q2 does not conduct There is a low signal at G1 and transistor Q1 conducts causing the barrier LED s 23 to energize There also is a low signal at L2 causing the defending spaceship 24 to energize At the beginning of the game the barriers and col umns of invading spaceships may or may not be aligned Similarly the wand may be in a position where the spaceship is or is not aligned with the barrier The player of the game operates levers 17A and 17B to move the wand so as to cause the spaceship 24 to be positioned as desired The position of the spaceship relative to the barriers is indicated to the micro processor For example when the b
23. mbs then the light of LED AA will brighten followed sequentially by the lights of LEDs BA CA EA and DA This occurs when a low signal is 15 25 35 40 45 55 60 65 8 applied from the micro controller to the LO terminal and sequentially through the DO terminal D1 terminal D2 terminal D3 terminal GO or the terminal G1 If at this time the defending spaceship is aligned with column A and not behind a viable barrier then the spaceship will be hit and destroyed The micro controller knows the position of the spaceship at the time of dropping of the bomb and indicates the destruc tion of the spaceship by a burn and a distinctive noise transmitted through the loud speaker 86 The player still has two remaining defending spaceships If while the spaceship and the invaders are aligned the player presses the fire button 18 a low signal is transmitted from the G3 terminal of micro controlled 91 through diode D6 firing switch 18 conductor 116 to the G1 resistor R12 to the base of transistor Q2 This presents a low signal at the G2 terminal of the micro controller Responsive to that low signal a low signal is applied sequentially to the LO through L7 terminals of the mi cro controller The signals in conjunction with the low signal on the base of transistor Q2 cause LED s 26A through 26H to sequentially light up simulating the movement of the death ray Since at this time the death ray LED s of th
24. med electronic game of claim 16 including means for increasing the tempo of operation of the game to enable the game to be played at different skill levels 18 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 17 including means for automatically increasing the tempo of the game responsive to the destruction of complete arrays and means for enabling the increase of the tempo of the game independently of the destruction of complete arrays 19 A hand held programmed electronic game for playing by individual players holding said electronic game said game comprising a first set of LED s mounted on a first board said first set of LED s arranged in a matrix array of columns and rows and depicting invaders a second set of LED s mounted in a single column on a wand depicting a defending spaceship and its death ray said wand mounted at right angles to said first board and means for causing the players to see said first board and said wand on a single plane 20 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 19 wherein said first board has an extended aper ture therein second board means having an LED thereon for each of said columns and said extended aperture means in said first board en abling viewing of said second board LED s in said one plane 21 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 20 wherein said means for causing said players to see the LED s on a single plane comprises a two way mi
25. n going to OPENING from FRESH ARRAY the player gets one defending spaceship The large loop always flows through a block called MAIN LOOP MAIN LOOP broadcasts back ground sound if the control flag is on background sound MAIN LOOP also decrements display row pointer correcting it as required assembles the list out put word and stores it in the appropriate RAM cells MAIN LOOP turns the display off It reads the inputs fire button and three barrier switches read through L PORT and 2 reads of one byte each outputs new display to G and L PORTS and turns display back on TASKLIST follows MAIN LOOP and it directs the program through one of the six tasks based on the value of the display row pointer If flag 33 is active then all tasks except TASK 1 are omitted The tasks are fol lowed by the equalizing delays The DELAYS are followed by STATUS which tests GAME STATUS and directs the program accordingly The large loop is now closed 60 ship hit flag is up the defending spaceship is burnt the number of spaceships available to the defender is de creased and the spaceship hit sound is broadcast The burning of the defending spaceship is accomplished by a temporary high power transmitted to the spaceship to cause it to brighten If the three defending spaceships 65 TASK 1 provides background sound and advances all timers Some of the timers are fixed speed and ad vance with the number of frames displayed It m
26. ng the wand also moves the first board 9 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 8 wherein said means for moving the wand with said second electronically controlled lights also moves the first board with said first electronically controlled lights alternately as far as it will go from one side to the other side 10 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 9 including handle means on said game whereby said player can hold said game while manipulating the controls and looking into the viewing screen said means for selectively moving the wand com prises push button lever means mounted in said handle means pawl means attached to said push button lever means ratchet means moved by said pawl means and 4 345 764 15 means for attaching said wand to said ratchet means f 11 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 10 including lost motion linkage means coupling said push button lever means to said first board whereby said first board is moved alternately right and left responsive to the operation of said push button lever 12 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 11 wherein said third electronically controlled lights remain stationary during the movement of said first board and said wand and means for selectively firing said death ray 13 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 12 wherein said program is contained in a micro processor and means for sensing the when said
27. nt invention will be best understood by making reference to the accompanying drawings wherein FIG 1 is a pictorial view of the hand held electronic spaceship battle game FIG 2 is a front view of the hand held electronic game with the hood and viewing screen removed FIG 3 is a sectional side view of the hand held elec tronic game FIG 4 is a plan view of the mechanical linkage ar rangement used for moving various components of the hand held electronic game FIG 5 is a partial view of the front LED invader board FIG 6 is a partial view of the rear barrier board FIG 7 is a plan view of the defending spaceship wand including ratchet rack and FIG 8 is a schematic of the electronics used in con trolling and depicting the active elements of the hand held spaceship battle game In FIG 1 the pictorial view of the hand held elec tronic spaceship battle game 11 shows the outer cover 12 having a hood section 13 a viewing screen 14 and a pair of handle portions one of which is seen at 16 On the handle portion is seen a defending spaceship posi tioning push button lever switch 17A and the electrical firing switch 18 The view of the hand held game in FIG 2 is with the cover 12 removed Therein is shown means for depict ing a plethora of invading spaceships More particu larly a six by five matrix of LED s is shown on board 19 The matrix comprises six columns of LED s 21A through 21F Each column has five rows 22A t
28. on a first board said array comprising a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows 65 said third electronically controlled lights comprising a single light for each column of said array mounted on a second board and 13 14 TABLE continued 1DO 2B 42 6 BF 8D A8 GA 28 AB 2D 4B 33 83 99 F8 9F 1E0 73 6 29 2C O E 6B ES FA H F8 Al 93 EF F3 23 1F0 36 Al 80 2F 7E 6B 20 F8 2B 4B 2C 4B A8 2B 05 54 ROM VALUES 200 SC 68 7A 8B 6 amp 09 19 AF 97 DC 2 O 4 06 2 210 00 BO 20 DS 70 33 94 AF 2B 13 DE AC AF AC 2 14 220 12 12 5D E6 7D AC 7A AC 19 7C 3 B 99 Fl 2E 4 230 49 2B 03 F8 75 42 48 42 2E 4 3 B 83 48 00 240 23 28 51 CS AC 9 AC 33 94 99 D D9 OE 00 2A 29 250 6B 9D FA 23 58 AC 90 AC 2E Ol EA 1A 3 13 El 260 22 06 04 DE 2E 47 20 F8 4D 45 OA 3 0 EF 22 06 270 04 EC OE 4 20 F8 4C 45 28 7A 28 8B CC AA 00 00 280 Ai 07 16 07 04 16 99 F 23 00 SE CE D 0 0 290 AC 33 92 AF 0 DA 3 99 DC D B AF 0 33 B6 E6 2A0 33 B6 8B ES AA 05 56 E SA 06 6 E9 OE 68 73 69 2B0 55 EO Al 7F 2C 4 AA 3 23 36 21 6 C9 33 B8 8F 2C0 C6 05 50 05 51 Co 2E 4B CB 2 4 09 l AC 03 AC 2D0 Al 83 93 EE 3 95 03 EA B 36 3E 50 05 51 EO EA 2E0 06 Al 23 O 52 40 06 2C 47 AC 2E B AC El 00 5 2F0 21 AC 2E 13 F6 Ei 2D 43 68 SF El 2 46 1 6 5 300 2B 4B 2C 7 19 23 0 n 00 08 16 H2 16 89 2 15 310 58 8D A8 9F AF A8 2F 23 OA 50 05 23 AO DE 2B 46 320 2F 15 06 3F 8B E3 48 9D 05 58 58 63 3F 59 63 4E 330 2 15 58 63 3 77 AC 78 2C 4C 23 3 2 B7 AC 09 340 01 AC 9D 590 21 E 33 BB 99 DE
29. providing alternate output values of the bit controlling the barrier LED At 15 the barrier goes out In summary when the game is turned on the defend ing spaceship will signal on sound and one blip for each of the three ships with which the player starts The barriers then the array of 30 enemy invaders appears in view The enemy invaders drop bombs at the player s defending spaceship seeking to destroy the defending spaceship The player controls the move of the space ship and the firing of the laser gun attempting to destroy as many of the invaders as he can The invading spaceships are located on one plane The defending spaceships are located in a plane substan tially normal to the plane of the invaders Six barriers fixed to a plane parallel to and spaced apart from the invaders plane are used to help protect the defender from the dropping bombs As the invading arrays be come increasingly depleted the movement of the invad ers and the frequency of the bombs dropping increases 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 12 accompanied by an increase in the tempo of the back ground sound If an array is completely destroyed before the three defenders are destroyed a new array is provided and begins movement with the speed faster than that of the previous array An extra spaceship is awarded to the player when an array is successfully obliterated The game ends when all defending spaceships are destroyed At that time the
30. rror angularly mounted between said first board and said wand 22 The hand held programmed electronic game of claim 21 including means for selectively moving said wand to the right or to the left means responsive to the movement of said wand to the right or to the left for moving said first board alternately to the right limits and left limits said second board being stationary UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 4 345 764 DATED August 24 1982 INVENTOR S GORDON A BARLOW JOHN R KRUTSCH RICHARD A KARLIN It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below Col 5 line 24 in should be to Signed and Sealed this Twenty seventh D Ay of September 1983 SEAL Attest GERALD J MOSSINGHOFF Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
31. rush 49 abuts the contact segments 46A through 46F on the board a circuit is completed from G2 of micro controller 49 through conductor 111 diode D3 contact strip 48 brush 49 conducting segment 46 a vertical conductor on the matrix such as conductor 113 resistor R LA and back to the terminal LO of micro controller 91 The micro controller is apprised of the position of the defending spaceship relative to the barrier strips in this manner Similarly the position of the defending spaceship relative to the columns of invading spaceships is indi cated to the board when brush 44 abuts one of the con ducting segments 42 Contact of the brush segment and strip completes a circuit extending from terminal G3 to terminal LO through L5 of the micro controller 91 through conductor 114 diode D4 conductor 43 brush 44 segments 42A through 42F through conductors such as conductor 113 a resistor such as R LA and terminals such as LO The described circuit indicates to the micro controller that a defending spaceship and a column of invaders are aligned At this time the space ship is vulnerable to the bombing by the invading space ships and the invaders are vulnerable to the death ray of the defending spaceship The bombs are dropped randomly With the initiation of the micro controller a bomb occurs when the micro controller sends signals sequentially for example down a column At that time if for example A column is dropping the bo
32. s when the wand is located so that the defending spaceship is aligned with column 21A then contact 44 completes a circuit from segment 42A to strip 43 This indicates to the micro processor that the defending spaceship is in a position to fire its death ray at the invading spaceships of column 21A It also is in a posi tion of course to be destroyed by the bombs pro grammed to be dropped by the invading spaceships of column 21A Means are also provided to automatically indicate to the control means such as the micro processor when the defending spaceship is aligned with one of the barri ers 23A through 23F This means is shown for example in FIG 2 as conducting segments 46E and 46F on the board 47 which holds the barrier LED s 23A through 23F Spaced apart from conducting segments is con ducting strip 48 When the wand 27 is positioned in alignment with barrier LED 23E for example then a contact or brush 49 on wand 27 completes a circuit from segment 46E to strip 48 Linkage and mechanism means are provided for mov ing the board 19 containing the spaceship invaders re sponsive to the operation of either of the defending spaceship moving levers 17A or 17B The moving means causes the board to move in a first lateral direc tion regardless of whether 17A or 17B is activated and 4 345 764 5 in the opposite lateral direction after reaching the fur thest lateral point in the first direction The linkages and mechanism ar
33. tors QA QE and Q1 Q2 The collectors of the transistors are coupled to the anodes of the rows of LED s In addition the micro controller 91 also pro vides a serial 1 0 register which provides a serial output SO A double pole single throw on off switch 92 is shown When switch 92 is operated on battery is coupled through the switch conductor 93 diode D1 conductor 94 to the battery input 11 of the controller In addition the positive battery is supplied to the reset terminal 4 through conductor 96 to reset the registers and the like The timing is set where the clock input 3 of the controller is connected to the junction of timing resistor R1 and timing capacitor C1 which are serially connected from conductor 94 to the ground bus 97 A filter capacitor C2 is connected from conductor 94 to ground bus 97 Ground conductor 97 is also con nected to the ground input of controller 91 The operation of on off switch 92 to on also supplies positive voltage through conductor 98 diode 4 345 764 7 D2 and conductor 99 to the emitters of the series of PNP transistors 101 previously referred to enabling those transistors Another filter capacitor C3 is connected between ground bus 97 and the cathode of diode D2 The con ductor 99 is also coupled through conductor 102 to the emitter of PNP transistor Q3 Conductor 102 is con nected through resistor R2 conductor 104 to one side of loud speaker 86 The other side of loud spea
34. troyed it no longer protects the defending spaceship from the bombs of the invaders The alignment of the invaders and the barriers is indicated when the metallic strip 87 on the board 19 is in contact with the conducting element 89 on the board 47 The conducting element 89 is coupled to terminal G0 of micro controller 91 The metallic strip 87 is con nected from a low signal at terminal G1 of micro con troller 91 through conductor 117 diode D6 and con ductor 118 to metallic strip 87 The receipt of the low signal at terminal GO indicates to the controller that there is alignment between the invaders and the barrier When there is no low signal on G1 then the barriers have been destroyed The micro controller 91 may also be programmed to replace destroyed invaders by moving the surviving 4 345 764 9 Invaders into the closer position of the destroyed invader If a whole column of invaders is wiped out the surviving invaders may be randomly moved into that column I i As the game progresses and invaders are de stroyed the tempo is automatically increased both the background heart thumping sound and the drop ping of the random bombs increases in tempo In addi tion the surviving invaders may tend to move down to the rows closer to the defending spaceship thus giving the defending spaceship less time to dodge bombs If all of the invaders are destroyed before the t
35. ust be noted that while the array appears to be on continu ously it is actually blinking at a speed i e the number of frames per second sufficient to cause it to appear to the eye to be on continuously So some of the timers use the frame MUX rate as their base Other timers are variable and speed up as the score increases This is what causes the game to acceler 4 345 764 11 ate as the player goes through a single array and as he wipes out more and more arrays of invaders TASK 2 moves the array left and right The array moves eft until a live invader is sensed in the far left blind corner The array is then switched to move to the right and continuous until a live invader is sensed in the far right blind corner The motion speeds up as the score increases TASK 3 fires invader bombs down upon the defend ing spaceship TASK 4 fires a laser up at the invaders in response to the fire button TASK 5 translates the input information obtained during the MAIN LOOP into actual column numbers for use by other parts of the program TASK 6 assembles a barrier word for driving the barrier LED s from the barrier values There is one nibble for each barrier These are initiated at different strengths to adjust for edge effects by the OPENING Each hit upon a barrier increments the value by 2 with a cutoff value of 15 As the value approaches 15 the barrier is blinked the signal gets weak This is accom plished by
36. yer s possession The background hear beat sound is turned on The barriers are set up with all fresh values and then the invaders are set in the matrix GAME STATUS is then set to GAME and the path goes through the GAME block GAME is the block or path followed during the actual play The path continu ation during the play is controlled by flags There are flags for invader hit spaceship hit laser on and bombs on If any of these flags are tripped then initiation house keeping values will be set in the GAME block followed by the setting of flag 33 Flag 33 is the flag used to remember that one of the other flags is up and initiation housekeeping has been down Flag 33 also controls flow through the TASKLIST When it s an invader hit flag that is up the hit invader is turned off The score is incremented and the invader hit sound is broadcast If all the invaders are dead with this invader hit the GAME STATUS is changed to call for a FRESH ARRAY If the space 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 10 are wiped out then GAME STATUS is set to POST GAME If there are defending spaceships remaining the number of defending spacehips is beeped and blinked and play continues If the laser on flag is up the laser LED s are se quentially lit brightly and the laser sound is broadcast When the bombs on flag is up the LED s in that column sequentially burn If flag 33 is active all tasks exc
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