Brunswick Bowling & Billiards Corporation

Santo A Lamantia

David C Wyland

Gerald A Pierce

David L Mowers

Bruce N Alleshouse

Victor S Barczyk

David J Mueller

Lawrence E Demar

Paul G Dussault

A bowling center system includes a plurality of lane pair control systems each including a pinsetting device for each lane, a pinsetter control unit, a game control unit, a bowler input station and a pair of overhead display monitors. The game control unit is operable under the control of a game control program stored in a memory for automatically operating the pinsetter control units during game play to selectively set a sequence of pin patterns on the lane, which patterns may comprise any array of pins. The game control unit responsive to pin fall data received from the gamesetter generates scoring information which is displayed using video graphic displays on the overhead monitors. The game control program can be any one of a plurality of different game programs which may be downloaded to the memory from a memory associated with the manager's control terminal. According to the particular game program, the number of bowling frames the game may vary as well as the number of balls and pins utilized in each frame. The manager's control system provides accounting control over the bowling center system and is operable to override operation of a selected game control unit as necessary. A plurality of remote terminals are provided associated with selected ones of said lane pair control systems. Each remote terminal system includes a keyboard and a display monitor. The remote terminal operates under the control of the game control unit to allow a user thereof to enter requests for video displays. The video displays include, for example, ball trajectory displays which illustrate the path of the ball on the bowling lane, or dynamic displays, such as for training, generated by video source devices associated with the manager's control system.

Automatic bowling center system

A bowling center system includes a plurality of bowling lanes and a plurality of bowling scoring systems each connected to a manager's control system. A video distribution system includes a memory device for storing data representing a plurality of video segments and generating video signals. A plurality of video display terminals are remotely located from the manager's control system and are operable to display video information responsive to a received video signal. A video communication network connects to the memory device and the display terminals. The manager's control system responds to a selection for a particular video segment to transmit a video signal to convey video segment information responsive to data read from the memory device to a selected one of the video display terminals.

A bowling center system includes a plurality of lane pair control systems each including a pin setting device for each lane, a pin setter control unit, a game scoring control unit, a bowler input station and a pair of overhead display monitors. A manager's control system provides accounting control over the bowling center system and is operable to communicate with a selected game control unit as necessary. A plurality of remote terminals are provided associated with selected ones of the lane pair control systems. Each remote terminal system includes a keyboard and a display monitor. The remote terminal operates under the control of the game unit to allow a user thereof to enter requests for video displays. The video displays include, the example, ball trajectory displays which illustrate the path of the ball in the bowling lane, or dynamic displays, such as for training, generated by video source devices associated with the manager's control system.

Bowling center video display system

A bowling center system includes a plurality of lane pair control systems each including a pin setting device for each lane, a pin setter control unit, a game control unit, a bowler input station and a pair of overhead display monitors. The game control unit is operable under the control of a game control program stored in a memory for automatically operating the pin setter control units during game play to selectively set a sequence of pin patterns on the lane. A manager's control system is coupled to each of the lane pair control systems and includes a bowler input station similar to the game control unit bowler input station. The manager's control system is electrically connected for communication with the game scoring unit, and switching circuitry is provided for selectively coupling the manager's control system bowler input station to a select one of the game score control units so that the manager's control system bowler input station interfaces with the operation of the bowling game for the selected game control unit.

Growing community of inventors

Woodridge, IL, United States of America

Santo A Lamantia