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Europa,schesP_ MM M II II INI II 1 1 IMM MM Ml J European Patent Office n » © Publication number: 0 338 768 B1 Office europeen* des.. brevets , © EUROPEAN PATENT SPECIFICATION © Date of publication of patent specification: 12.04.95 © Int. CI.6: A63D 1/00, A63D 5/08, A63D 5/04 © Application number: 89303815.8 @ Date of filing: 18.04.89 Divisional application 93200123.3 filed on 18/04/89. © Automatic bowling lane system. ® Priority: 18.04.88 US 182977 Bowling & Billiards Corporation @ Date of publication of application: 525 West Laketon Avenue 25.10.89 Bulletin 89/43 Muskegon Michigan 49443 (US) © Publication of the grant of the patent: Inventor: Lamantla, Santo A. 12.04.95 Bulletin 95/15 c/o Nuvatec, Inc. 3110 Woodcreek Drive © Designated Contracting States: Downers Grove DE ES GB SE Illinois 60515 (US) Inventor: Mueller, David J. © References cited: 1100 N. Wright Street DE-A- 1 453 054 Naperville DE-A- 2 732 771 Illinois 60540 (US) US-A- 3 138 378 Inventor: Alleshouse, Bruce N. c/o Nuvatec, Inc. COMPUTER DESIGN, vol. 15, no. 9, Septem- 3110 Woodcreek Drive ber 1976, pages 50-66; "Microprocessors and Downers Grove LSI devices are prime contributors to design Illinois 60515 (US) of automatic bowling scorer Inventor: Barczyk, Victor S. 1543 Bridget Court © Proprietor: BRUNSWICK BOWLING & BIL- Upland LIARDS CORPORATION California 91786 (US) 00 525 West Laketon Avenue 00 Muskegon CO Michigan 49443 (US) IV 00 @ Inventor: Mowers, David L. c/o Brunswick 00 00 Note: Within nine months from the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent, any person may give notice to the European Patent Office of opposition to the European patent granted. Notice of opposition shall be filed in a written reasoned statement. It shall not be deemed to have been filed until the opposition fee has been paid (Art. 99(1) European patent convention). Rank Xerox (UK) Business Services (3. 10/3.09/3.3.3) EP 0 338 768 B1 Inventor: Pierce, Gerald A. c/o SRI International 333 Ravenswood Avenue Menlo Park California 94025 (US) Inventor: Wyland, David C. 4804 Tonlno Drive Redwood City California 95136 (US) Inventor: Demar, Lawrence E. 1660 North LaSalle Street Chicago Illinois 60614 (US) Inventor: Dussault, Paul G. c/o Nuvatec, Inc. 3110 Woodcreek Drive Downers Grove Illinois 60515 (US) 0 Representative: Crawford, Andrew Blrkby et al A.A. THORNTON & CO. Northumberland House 303-306 High Holborn London WC1V 7LE (GB) 2 EP 0 338 768 B1 Description Field of the Invention 5 This invention relates generally to a bowling center system, and more particularly to an automated bowling center system operable to automatically control the operation of a pinsetter under control of a bowling game program, to play a plurality of different bowling games and to provide bowling game instructional facilities. io Background of the Invention Bowling centers have evolved from systems which required the manual setting of ten pins on the lane and manual scoring during game play, to systems which utilize automatic pinsetting devices, such as described in Huck, et al U.S. Patent No. 2,949,300, and ultimately to systems which utilize automatic 75 bowling scoring systems, such as described in Grosvenor et al U.S. Patent No. 3,582,071. Such prior bowling center systems often included a plurality of pairs of bowling lanes, with each lane including an automatic pinsetter. The automatic pinsetter was operable to automatically control pinsetter cycles within a bowling game. Particularly, under automatic control, the pinsetter at the beginning of each frame would set ten pins on the deck. The player would be permitted to roll a maximum of two balls to 20 knock down all of the pins. The frame ended after all of the pins were knocked down or after two balls were thrown, whichever occurred first. The game consisted of ten such frames. Prior automatic score consoles were coupled to both pinsetters in the lane pair for automatically processing pin fall information for the two lanes and displaying bowler's scores on score console monitors and on overhead CRT displays. Suitable interconnections were provided between the score console and 25 pinsetter so that pin fall information could be transmitted from sensing devices associated with the pinsetter to the scoring console. In order for such prior automatic pinsetters to be utilized in a practice bowling mode, a selective pinsetting control mechanism, such as described in Rogers, U.S. Patent No. 3,219,345, permitted a bowler to manually select which pins would be set on the deck for practice bowling. With such a mechanism, the 30 bowler could selectively play a single ball, or two balls, in order to try and knock down all of the selected pins. Such a mechanism is operable to set a selected array of pins only responsive to a manual request from the bowler. Certain known automatic pinsetters include hard wired control circuits designed to implement the operation of the conventional ten pin bowling game, or provide for practice bowling. These control circuits 35 are not operable to selectively set different arrays of pins during the playing of a bowling game. Therefore, such automatic pinsetters are limited in their ability to provide variation in the method of operation of a particular bowling game. DE-A-2732771 describes a control arrangement for bowling lanes or the like with a device for selection of different games and an inbuilt scoring system which can calculate and display different scores according 40 to the game being played. DE-A-1 453054 describes an arrangement for manually setting a plurality of sets of switches to determine a plurality of bowling pin arrays. A pinsetter sets up the pin arrays in turn. A manually-selectable number of bowls are allowed towards each of the arrays before the next array is set up. Before each repeated bowl at any array, fallen pins are reset. 45 Prior bowling center systems also included a manager's control console in electrical communication with the score consoles. The primary function of the manager's control console was to provide administra- tive control over the operation of the automatic pinsetters and the score consoles. For example, the prior manager's control console was utilized to provide lane status report information, to upload the video score display from any score console and to provide score correction for a particular score console. Such score 50 correction necessitated that bowling at the particular lane be halted until the score correction was complete and sent back to the score console. The manager's control console also included provision for displaying messages at a preselected score console, to transfer lane scoring information from one score console to another, and provide for tournament display as by displaying a pair of lane scores on any selected number of overhead CRT's throughout the system. Additionally, the manager's score console provided for activity 55 and error logging related to system operation. 3 EP 0 338 768 B1 Summary of the Invention In accordance with the present invention, a bowling lane system is operable to automatically control the operation of a pinsetter during game play to automatically set a preselected array of bowling pins which 5 may comprise any number less than a predetermined number of bowling pins. The present invention provides a bowling lane system operable to automatically implement a bowling game, comprising: a pinsetting apparatus operable to set up to a predetermined number of bowling pins (P) on a bowling lane; io pinsetter control means coupled to said pinsetting apparatus for operating said pinsetting apparatus to set preselected arrays of bowling pins wherein said preselected arrays may comprise less than said predetermined number of bowling pins and to set further arrays comprising a number of bowling pins determined by the number of pins in the respective preselected array and the number of pins knocked down by previous bowls; and is a game control means coupled to and controlling the operation of said pinsetter control means for implementing said bowling game, said game control means including means for automatically periodically preselecting said preselected arrays of pins to be set by said pinsetting apparatus, a sequence of preselected arrays being automatically preselected by said preselecting means in order to implement said bowling game being determined by a stored game program. 20 Utilizing preferable embodiments of the invention, a bowling center system is provided which is operable to download any one of a plurality of different bowling game programs from a manager's control terminal to a game control unit. More specifically, the bowling center system includes a plurality of bowling lanes and an electrically controlled pinsetting device for each lane. A plurality of game control units are provided, each electrically connected to one or more of the pinsetting devices. Each game control unit 25 includes a central processing unit, a display device, an operator input station and a memory for storing a game control program. A manager's control terminal unit includes a programmed central processing unit connected to a memory, the memory storing one or more game control programs. Communication means are provided for electrically connecting the processing unit of the manager's control terminal with the processing units for each of the game control units. Means are included electrically connected to the 30 communication means for requesting the manager's terminal processing unit to transfer one of the game control programs stored in the memory thereof over the communication means to the memory coupled to one of the game control units so that the game control unit operates the pinsetter connected thereto to play the one game.