Patent ID: 8512121
Filing Date: 2013-08-20
Classification: G07F

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a gaming system including a plurality of gaming machines, each gaming machine having a primary game, and a multi-component game display configured to display components of a multi-component game, each said component displayable in association with one, but not all, of the gaming machines associated with said multi-component game display, said method comprising: (i) upon an occurrence of a designated component triggering event, causing a random generation of at least one of the components, each random generation being in addition to any primary game random generation, and causing the randomly generated component to be displayed on the multi-component display in association with one of the gaming machines regardless of whether said gaming machine is being played by any player, said randomly generated component displayed independently of any of the components displayed in association with any of the other gaming machines; and (ii) after displaying said at least one randomly generated component, and upon an occurrence of an evaluation triggering event that is in addition to and independent of the display of said at least one randomly generated component, evaluating a combination of a plurality of displayed components being simultaneously displayed in association with at least two of the gaming machines in a predetermined arrangement, the designated component triggering event and the evaluation triggering event being independent separately triggered events, and causing at least one of the gaming machines to provide an award if the evaluated combination is a winning combination.