Patent ID: 8360889

Claim:
A game system having plural game terminals belonging to a network and a communication apparatus belonging to the network, each of the plural game terminals comprising: a play processor for performing a play of a computer game; an end notification transmitter for transmitting an end notification indicating an end and a state of the play when the play performed by the play processor ends; a terminal data storage unit for readably storing data written therein; a state request transmitter for transmitting, to the communication apparatus, a state request for requesting the communication apparatus to transmit a state data set, the state data set including a play data item and a time data item, with the play data item indicating a state of at least another play that has ended and the time data item indicating a point in time corresponding to a point in time at which the communication apparatus was notified of the end of the another play; a state receiver for receiving the state data set from the communication apparatus; a terminal state writer for, when the state data set is received by the state receiver, writing the received state data set into the terminal data storage unit; a delay reader for reading from the terminal data storage unit the play data item of the state data set when a first period equal to a designated delay period has passed since the point in time indicated by the time data item within the state data set, and reading from the terminal data storage unit another play data item of another state data set when a second period equal to the designated delay period has passed since another point in time indicated by the another time data item within the another state data set; and an information outputter for, when the play data item is read by the delay reader, outputting information corresponding to the state of the play indicated by the play data item, the communication apparatus comprising: an apparatus data storage unit for readably storing data written therein; an end notification receiver for receiving an end notification, from one of the plural game terminals, the end notification notifying an end and a state of a play; an apparatus state writer for, when the end notification is received by the end notification receiver, writing a state data set into the apparatus data storage unit, the state data set including a play data item and a time data item, with the play data item indicating a state of the play for which the end is indicated by the received end notification and the time data item indicating a point in time corresponding to a point in time at which the end notification was received; a state request receiver for receiving the state request from one of the plural game terminals; and a state transmitter for transmitting the state data set to the game terminal which has transmitted the state request, after reading the state data set from the apparatus data storage unit when the state request is received by the state request receiver.