Patent ID: 7985128

Claim:
A method of providing a competitive bonus game on gaming apparatus that includes plurality of linked gaming machines, the method including: operating each of the plurality of linked gaming machines to provide game play of a game in which a player places a wager on the occurrence of a winning combination as an outcome of the game and the representations of one or more said outcomes are presented on one or more displays of the gaming machine, the gaming machine awarding an award if a winning combination occurs; monitoring for occurrence of a first outcome during play of the game on each of the gaming machines, the first outcome occurring with substantially equal probability on each of the gaming machines, the representations of the first outcome being either the same or different between the gaming machines; storing an electronic record of the occurrence of the first outcome on each of the gaming machines and displaying representations of the occurrences of the first outcome on one or more displays of the gaming apparatus, the representations being persistent across separate game plays of the game; when a trigger event occurs, operating the gaming apparatus in a competition mode in which one or more of the gaming machines enter into a competition; wherein when the gaming apparatus is in the competition mode, the method further includes: identifying from the electronic record on which gaming machines the first outcome has occurred; completing a first round of the competition by determining one or more scores for each of the identified gaming machines, wherein the value of a said score or the number of said scores for a said gaming machine is dependent on the number of occurrences of the first outcome on that gaming machine, as recorded in the electronic record, wherein progression by a gaming machine in the competition is dependent on the score or scores determined for that gaming machine; completing at least one further round of the competition by determining one or more scores for each gaming machine that has progressed in the competition past the first round, each round designed to eliminate gaming machines from the competition; awarding an award to a said gaming machine that progresses through all of the rounds of the competition; and displaying representations on one or more displays of the gaming apparatus of the competition.