Patent ID: 8021232

Claim:
A game apparatus that generates a background image larger than a display screen for display on the display screen by scrolling, comprising: an input device operated by a player; a background image generator which generates a displayed background image based on the background image; a player object generator which generates a player object movable on the basis of an input to the input device; a contact object generator which generates a contact object to be contacted by the player object; a scroll object generator which generates a scroll control object associated with the contact object and arranged in a manner that the scroll control object is not seen by the player; at least one scroll control object information storage area which stores scroll control information associated with the scroll control object; a position detector which detects a position of the player object; an existence determiner which determines whether or not the contact object associated with the scroll control object exists; a first scroller which generates a first scroll, when it is detected by the position detector that the player object exists at a predetermined position with respect to the scroll control object and it is determined by said existence determiner that the contact object associated with the scroll control object exists, wherein the first scroll is operable to scroll the display screen to a scroll target determinable based at least in part on the scroll control information at a predetermined position on the background image and does not generate the first scroll when it is not detected by the position detector that the player object exists at the predetermined position with respect to the scroll control object or when it is not determined by said existence determiner that the contact object associated with the scroll control object exists; and a display data generator which generates display data for the display screen including the player object that is generated by the player object generator and exists within a display range scrolled by the first scroller and the displayed background image generated by the background image generator, wherein the display range includes a target exposed to view when said first scroll occurs.