Patent ID: 7070506
Filing Date: 2006-07-04
Classification: A63F

Abstract:
1. A pinball machine, comprising: a downwardly sloping playfield; a mechanism for launching a ball from a lower portion of the playfield to an upper portion of the playfield along a side of the playfield; flipper mechanisms located at a lower end of the playfield for diverting the travel of the ball to prevent a ball from exiting the lower end of the playfield under the force of gravity where it is returned to the mechanism for launching a ball; a plurality of features on the playfield which, when interacted with by the ball, influence scoring during game play; a system for monitoring interaction between the ball and the plurality of features comprising a plurality of programming embodied on a computer readable medium having a first programming for determining game play scoring based upon the monitoring, a second programming to determine if one or more players are to be awarded a prize as a function of game play scoring, and a third programming for sensing a prize information display wherein the first programming remains operative while use of the second programming is inhibited if the third programming fails to sense the prize information display.