Patent ID: 7147561

Claim:
A game system having a data reading apparatus and a plurality of game machines which are communicably connected to each other through a communication cable, comprising: a master/slave setting mechanism which sets, among the plurality of game machines, a game machine with authority to start communication as a master machine and sets the other game machines as slave machines, wherein the plurality of game machines each comprise: an operation input mechanism which inputs operation data in response to an operation by a player; a communicator which sends and receives data to and from other game machines and the data reading apparatus through the communication cable; and a game processor which processes a game in accordance with the operation data input from the operation input mechanism, and wherein the game machine set as the master machine comprises: a read data acquisition mechanism which acquires, through the communicator, data read into the data reading apparatus, the master machine being the only game machine from among the master and slave machines which acquires the data read into the data reading apparatus prior to start of the game; a game start instructor which instructs the other game machines to start the game, through the communicator; a determination mechanism which determines a game machine from among the master and slave machines to which the read data acquired by the read data acquisition mechanism is to be sent, based on processing results of the game processed by each game processor; and a data transmitter which sends the read data acquired by the read data acquisition mechanism to the game machine determined by the determination mechanism through the communicator.