Warner Cockerille

Dwayne R Nelson

Robert E Breckner

Steven G LeMay

William Brosnan

Christopher D Carlisle

Andrew Kertesz

Suzanne O'Rourke

Jonathan Quitt

Steven G Lemay

Paul Hunt

Larry House

Xuedong Chen

Paul W Bolton

William R Brosnan

The gaming system disclosed herein changes the focal point of a display device at different points in time to assist the player in focusing on different simultaneously or concurrently played games at different points in time. Specifically, the gaming system displays a plurality of simultaneously or concurrently played games on a display device. In response to a designated event occurring in association with a specific one of the plurality of simultaneously or concurrently played games, the gaming system changes the focal point of the display device to draw the player's focus or attention to that specific one of the simultaneously or concurrently played games. Put differently, the gaming system dynamically allocates and/or indicates different portions of a display device to different simultaneously or concurrently played games at different points in time to account for different events occurring in such simultaneously or concurrently played games.

Gaming system, gaming device and method for displaying multiple concurrent games using dynamic focal points

Various techniques are disclosed for operating a gaming device of a casino gaming network. In at least one embodiment, the gaming device includes a tournament manager and a first meter. In at least one embodiment, the first meter is operable to: receive a first meter update request for changing meter state information and/or meter data associated with the first meter; determine whether at least one condition exists for denying the first meter update request; and/or prevent execution of the first meter update request in response to a determination that at least one condition exists for denying the first meter update request. In at least one embodiment, the gaming device is operable to: receive a request from an entity for initiating start of a first game at the gaming device; obtain approval from the tournament manager for starting the first game at the gaming device; and/or prevent the first game from starting at the gaming device in response to detecting that the tournament manager has not approved start of the first game at the gaming device.

Tournament manager for use in casino gaming system

Open architecture communication systems and methods are provided that allow flexible data transmission between gaming machines and other devices and nodes within a gaming machine network. The gaming machine and other devices employ a communication interface that sends and receives data via a common communication protocol and via common communication hardware. The communication interface and common communication protocol allow data transfer between gaming machines and other network nodes such as gaming service servers, despite the presence of different proprietary gaming machine functions and proprietary communication protocols and despite the presence of various proprietary hardware and proprietary communication protocols relied on by the servers.

Open architecture communications in a gaming network

Various techniques are disclosed for operating a gaming device of a casino gaming network. In at least one embodiment, the gaming device includes a tournament manager and a first meter. In at least one embodiment, the first meter is operable to perform one or more of the following (or combinations thereof): receive a first meter update request for changing meter state information and/or meter data associated with the first meter; determine whether at least one condition exists for denying the first meter update request; and/or prevent execution of the first meter update request in response to a determination that at least one condition exists for denying the first meter update request. Additionally, in at least one embodiment, the gaming device is operable to: receive a request from an entity for initiating start of a first game at the gaming device; obtain approval from the tournament manager for starting the first game at the gaming device; and/or prevent the first game from starting at the gaming device in response to detecting that the tournament manager has not approved start of the first game at the gaming device.

Different mechanisms are provided to enable a gaming machine to download files/images, move/copy the files/images from one folder to another without breaking authentication, and resume interrupted file manipulation operations such as move/copy operations and/or download operations which have been interrupted by a power hit. In this way, the technique of the present invention is able to provide a self-diagnostic system for ensuring authenticated, atomic transactions, and for automatically handling detected error conditions. Additionally the technique of the present invention is able to provide a mechanism for seamlessly updating gaming machine components at runtime. This may include, for example, the automatic mounting and/or unmounting of selected games to/from the gaming machine memory during runtime.

Gaming machine update and mass storage management

A disclosed gaming machine provides methods and apparatus of verifying the authenticity of gaming software stored in and executed from RAM on the gaming machine. When presenting a game on the gaming machine, a master gaming controller may dynamically load gaming software applications into RAM and dynamically unload gaming software applications from RAM. The authenticity of the gaming software applications temporarily stored in RAM may be verified by using methods to compare it with certified gaming software stored on one or more local or remote file storage devices accessible to the master gaming controller on the gaming machine. The verification process may be used to satisfy gaming regulatory entities within various gaming jurisdictions that require certified gaming software to be operating on the gaming machine at all times as well as to prevent tampering with the gaming machine.

Growing community of inventors

Sparks, NV, United States of America

Warner Cockerille