Patent ID: 6500070
Filing Date: 2002-12-31
Classification: A63F

Abstract:
A combined game system for playing a multiplayer interactive game, the combined game system including a video game machine providing a common display and connected through at least one communications link with a plurality of portable game machines each having a discrete display,each said portable game machine comprising: an operating device for outputting an operation signal depending upon an operation for a game; a first game program storage for storing a portable game program for execution on said portable game machine; a first processor that generates first display data to be displayed on said portable game machine discrete display based on an output of said operating device and the portable game program, and processes information corresponding to units used in the multiplayer interactive game for interacting with said video game machine; and a data transceiver for transmitting said information corresponding to said units to and receiving said information corresponding to said units from said video game machine via said communications link; said video game machine comprising: a second game program storage for storing an operation program for said video game machine and a program for an interactive game; a temporary storage for temporarily storing information corresponding to said units transmitted to said plural portable game machines through said communications link and said data transceiver and temporarily storing information corresponding to said units received from said portable game machine through said communications link and said data transceiver, and also for temporarily storing an output of said operating device; and a second processor that generates second display data to be displayed on said common display based on the program stored in said second game program storage, and generates display data for the multiplayer interactive game to be displayed on said common display, in response to the information corresponding to said units stored in said temporary storage and received from said portable game machines and outputs of said operating devices of said portable game machines, wherein said first processor changes an image displayed on said discrete display in response to an operation of the operating device of a corresponding one of said plurality of portable game machines, and said second processor changes an image displayed on said common display in accordance with operations of said plurality of portable game machines, whereby said video game machine and said plurality of portable game machines interact at the substantially same time to execute the multiplayer interactive game, wherein said second processor performs arithmetic operations for all the information corresponding to said units to display on said common display a map having a wider range including units of all of the plurality of portable game machines and calculates display ranges of map portions to be displayed on respective portable game machines on the basis of coordinates information associated with the units respectively corresponding to player objects of the respective portable game machines, each said first processor receives from said video game machine the display range for a corresponding one of the plurality of portable game machines and the information of the units for display by the one portable game machine, and displays the map portion for the one portable game machine based on the received display range and the unit information, and said map is displayed on said common display and said map portions are respectively displayed on the respective discrete displays, and said display ranges of said map portions are changed in response to movements of the player objects for the respective portable game machines.