STATE OF THE ART Gaming or poker machines have been well known in the State of New South Wales for many years and have more recently gained considerable popularity throughout Australia, with quite substantial amounts of money being wagered on these machines. There is a growing tendency for State governments to legalise the use of gaming machines by licensing operators, with resulting revenue gains through licence fees and taxation of monies invested.

The licensed operation of gaming machines is often the subject of State legislation and regulation. This regulation almost invariably dictates a minimum percentage pay-out for a gaming machine. For example, a minimum of 85% of monies invested must be returned as winnings, and manufacturers of gaming machines must therefore design their machines around these regulatory controls.

With the growth that has occurred in the gaming machine market there is intense competition between manufacturers to supply the various existing and new venues. When selecting a supplier of gaming machines, the operator of a venue will often pay close attention to the popularity of various games with their patrons. Therefore, gaming machine manufacturers are keen to devise games which are popular with players, as a mechanism for improving sales.

Prior art gaming machines have been devised for playing the game of roulette, wherein the roulette wheel has been represented in the centre of the screen with the betting table located around the edges of the roulette wheel representation. Such an arrangement necessitates the use of very small symbols on the roulette wheel, making it difficult to read and unattractive to the player.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION An object of the invention is to provide an improved video gaming machine.

THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention a video game includes a video screen for displaying centrally an image of a betting table divided up into betting areas, and an image of a track surrounding the betting table and divided up into segments identified with respective indicia which correlate the indicia with different betting areas of the table; first means operable by a player to commence a game after he has signified his bet or bets on chosen areas of the betting table; second means operated by said first means to produce relative movement between an indicator associated with the track, and the track itself, in a direction lengthwise of the track; third means exercising control over said relative movement and incorporating fourth means which randomly selects the track segment which is to coincide with the position of the indicator at the end of said relative movement; and fifth means for indicating to the player that the game has ended and any winnings due to him from his bet.

PREFERRED FEATURES OF THE INVENTION Preferably, the indicia on the track will carry the numbers 0 to 36 and the betting table centrally located in the display will also carry the indicia 0 to 36.

Preferably also, the centrally located betting table will carry indicia representing subset combinations of the indicia on the track.

In a first embodiment the track is stationary and the indicator is a device representing a ball which is super-imposed over a portion of the track and travels around it while the game is in progress.

In a second embodiment, the track moves in the direction of its length around the screen and the indicator is a stationary marker such as an arrow or ball symbol.

In a third embodiment, the track moves around the periphery of the screen and the indicator also moves relative to the screen and the track. Preferably, the movement of the track and the indicator will slow down during the progress of a game and the relative movement of the indicator with the track will start off being greater than the speed of the track but will slow more rapidly than the speed of the strip causing the direction of motion of the indicator to reverse relative to the screen during the progress of a game.

The track may have a circular shape or a rectangular shape, or any other shape.

Preferably, however, it occupies the peripheral zone of the screen so that there is a clear space between the track and the outside of the betting table.

INTRODUCTION TO THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic and schematic drawings, in which: IN THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 shows a video gaming machine incorporating a roulette game; FIGURE 2 depicts the screen of a gaming machine of the type illustrated in figure 1; and, FIGURE 3 is a block schematic flow diagram to aid understanding of the working of the machine.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to Figure 1, a video gaming machine 50 is illustrated in which a video display 41 is mounted in a cabinet 45 and a game displayed on the video display 41 and shown in more detail in figure 2, is controlled by first means provided by a series of operator buttons 47 and 44 located on a ledge beneath the video screen.

A coin insertion slot 43 is provided to enable the player of the machine to insert coins to buy games on the machine and buttons 47 enable the player to control the number and size of bets that he wishes to place as well as the indicia on which those bets are to be placed.

The image displayed on display 41 is a pseudo roulette game and is illustrated in figure 2.

The roulette display comprises a rectangular strip or track 46 occupying the peripheral boarder zone of the screen 41 and divided into thirty-seven indicia segments 42 carrying the numerals 0 to 36. Displayed centrally within the screen 41 and spaced within the track 46 is the image of a betting table 48, which reproduces all of the indicia of the track 46 as well as providing indicia representing subset combinations of the indicia of the peripheral strip.

The betting table 48 enables a player to see the bets he places before the game commence.

The block schematic flow diagram of figure 3 should be understood as depicting a virtual circuit of the machine rather than the actual circuit layout used. The actual circuit would use modern software and pre-programmed components to achieve the operational performance of the virtual machine circuit illustrated. The use of pre-programmed components and software as modern alternatives to individual circuit components is well- known to the man skilled-in-the art. However the advantage of using a virtual machine

representation over a description of a modern working machine circuit, is that it simplifies the explanation of the operation of the machine for the reader who is less conversant with modern technical components than the man skilled-in-the-art.

The picture on the video display 41 of figure 3 is controlled by a ram-access memory 50 whose memory elements map the pixels of the screen on a one-for-one basis to provide an instantaneous record of the picture which is to be displayed. This record may, for ease of explanation, be considered as being retained partially in a dynamic image sub-store 51, which controls the movement around the track 46 of a white indicator disc simulating the ball of a roulette wheel, and partially in a static image sub-store 52 controlling the image of the betting table 48 displayed in the centre of the display screen 46. The table 48 allows the player or players to see the bets which are being placed on the table , by imposing a picture of a token on the appropriate area or square of the table 48 which has been selected by the player. Provision is made for more than one token to be displayed on any chosen playing square.

The static sub-store 52 is controlled by the player's selection of the press-buttons 47, by way of the illustrated signal path 53. This enables the player to see on the display 41 the positions on which he is betting the ball will stop, the size of the bet placed, and the odds chosen. The path 53 and other paths referred to later by the numerals 56 and 57, are in practice provided by software and are not, in practice, discrete electrical connections. The information relating to the player's bet, is also supplied by a path 56 to a pay-out calculator 54 which prepares pay-out circuitry 55 so that it operates if the player's choice of the ball-stopping position is correct. The chosen ball-stopping position is also fed through a path 57 to a "stop" number store 58.

The dynamic sub-store 51 controls the representation of the track 46 around which the ball travels while the game is being played. The sub-store 51 receives ball-depiction and movement signals through a path 60 from a ball-movement simulator circuit 61. This contains eight relatively displaced images of the ball. The eight ball images are superimposed rapidly in turn on, and in alternation with, the track image to create the visual illusion of the ball travelling around the track 46.

The movement of the ball around the track is controlled by a stream of hardware-generated pulses supplied from an OR-gate 62 by way of a path 63. In practice, the OR-gate 62 exists in the form of software rather than as the separate circuit component illustrated, and is supplied with the pulses either from a software algorithm providing a fixed revolution

counter 64 which operates during the initial phase of the game, or from a ball-deceleration software algorithm 65 which operates during the final phase of the game. The counter 64 has an associated controller 66 which instructs it to permit a pre-determined number of complete revolutions of the ball around the track 46, for example three, before the deceleration phase commences. The ball deceleration algorithm 65 operates to deliver to the OR-gate 62 a stream of pulses generated at progressively increasing intervals of time, to represent an exponential slowing down of the ball velocity as it approaches its "stop" position. The "stop" position of the ball is determined by the number of pulses received by the ball-deceleration algorithm 65 and this, in turn, is determined by a pseudo-random number selector 67 provided with pulses through a path 68 from a pulse generator 69 which operates when the start button 44 is depressed. The pulses from the generator 69 are also supplied to the counter 64. A "stop" position calculator algorithm 70 is set at the beginning of each game by the random number selector 67 to ensure that the ball- deceleration algorithm 65 stops the movement of the ball on the track 46 at the position denoted by the pseudo-random number selector 67.

The number of pulses fed to the ball-deceleration algorithm 65 is also fed to software providing an AND-gate 71. This receives a second input via a path 72 from the stop number store 58. When both inputs are present, the player scores a 'win' and a corresponding signal is fed through the path 73 to the pay-out calculator 54. This operates the pay-out circuitry 55 to reward the player with his 'winnings'. When the pay-out sequence is completed, the circuitry 55 provides a reset signal through the path 74 to a reset algorithm 75 which restores the random access memory 50 to its initial setting in readiness for the next game. The reset algorithm 75 also receives a second signal from the ball-deceleration algorithm 65 if the stream of pulses representing the movement of the ball around the track 46 ceases. This, of course, occurs irrespective of whether the player has scored a 'win' and ensures that the memory 50 returns to its quiescent 'start' condition as soon as one game is completed so that the next game can immediately commence.

OPERATION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Once a player has purchased games by inserting coins into the coin slot 43 and has selected the bets that he wishes to make, using the buttons 47, he initiates the games by pressing the button 44. This causing the simulated roulette ball 49 to move onto the track 46 and to travel relative to the track passing over each of the track segments in turn until it reaches a stopping position. This has been randomly determined by the selector 67.

As previousiy described, if the random stopping position coincides with a segment on which a player has placed his bet, the machine operates by switching into a pay-out mode and discharges into a pay-out trough 51 the player's winning as calculated by the pay-out circuit 55. The machine then reverts to its initial quiescent condition in readiness for the next game.