Control apparatus for a card game simulator

Claim 2

A card game simulator comprising a plurality of hand displays each of which has a plurality of light generating elements for representation of playing cards capable of being held by that hand, card assignment means for assigning playing cards to each such hand, a recirculating hand memory for storage of said card assignments, illumination control means responsive to said hand memory for periodically activating in each hand display the light generators representing cards assigned to that hand, a photosensitive detector for detecting illumination of any of said light generators when placed in close proximity thereto, a recirculating trick memory synchronized with said hand memory and actuated by an output from said detector for remembering the time period of said output, and gating means connected to said trick memory for preventing said illumination control means from activating a light generator during occurrence of time periods remembered by said trick memory; said trick memory comprising a trick code generator, means for loading codes from said trick code generator into the trick memory in response to output signals from said detector, output terminal means for reading out trick codes previously loaded into said trick code memory, and means connected to said output terminal means for generating control strobes for said gating means in response to trick codes read out from said output terminal means.

Claim 3

A card game simulator according to claim 1 wherein said card assignment means comprises means for loading said hand memory with hand codes uniquely representing different ones of the hand displays comprising said simulator and means for causing each unique hand code to be loaded into said hand memory the same number of times; said illumination control means being connected for sequential reading of the hand codes stored in said memory.

Claim 4

A card game simulator comprising a first recirculating memory for receiving, recirculating and reading out hand codes corresponding to hand assignments for a predetermined sequence of cards, a second recirculating memory operated in synchronism with said first recirculating memory for receiving, recirculating and reading out trick codes assigned during the course of play to the cards in said predetermined sequence, a plurality of hand displays responsive to card designation signals for simulating cards held by participating players, card designation means for generating said card designation signals in said predetermined sequence and in synchronism with the operation of said memories, steering means for steering said card designation signals to selected ones of said hand displays under control of the hand codes read out from said first memory, means for generating said hand codes and causing said hand codes to be loaded into said first memory, manually operated playing means for indicating the playing of cards simulated by said hand displays, a trick code generator responsive to said playing means for generating said trick codes and causing said trick codes to be loaded into said second memory in sequential positions for association with the cards being played, and gating means responsive to trick codes read out from said second memory for gating the simulation by said hand displays of cards corresponding to said trick codes.

Claim 5

A card game simulator comprising a first recirculating memory for receiving, recirculating and reading out hand codes corresponding to hand assignments for a predetermined sequence of cards, a second recirculating memory operated in synchronism with said first recirculating memory for receiving, recirculating and reading out trick codes assigned during the course of play to the cards in said predetermined sequence, a plurality of hand displays responsive to card designation signals for simulating cards held by participating players, card designation means for generating said card designation signals in said predetermined sequence and in synchronism with the operation of said memories, steering means for steering said card designation signals to selected ones of said hand displays under control of the hand codes read out from said first memory, means for generating said hand codes and causing said hand codes to be loaded into said first memory, manually operated playing means for indicating the playing of cards simulated by said hand displays, a trick code generator responsive to said playing means for generating said trick codes and causing said trick codes to be loaded into said second memory in sequential positions for association with the cards being played, and gating means responsive to trick codes read out from said second memory for gating the simulation by said hand displays of cards corresponding to said trick codes.

Claim 6

A card game simulator according to claim 3 wherein said hand displays comprise light emitting devices connected for control by said card designation signals, whereby cards assigned to said hand displays are simulated.

Claim 7

A card game simulator according to claim 4 wherein said playing means comprises a photosensing device for sensing illumination of one of said light emitting devices when placed in proximity therewith.

Claim 8

A card game simulator comprising a recirculating hand memory for sequentially and repetitively reading out a series of hand codes corresponding to hand assignments for each of a plurality of cards to be used in a card game being simulated by said simulator, a plurality of hand displays each including a separate light generating element for representation of each of said cards, decoding means for decoding said series of hand codes and generating hand enabling signals for the hand displays represented thereby, means for generating card designation signals is synchronism with the generation of said hand codes, means responsive to said hand enabling signals and said card designation signals for causing said light generating elements to indicate on a sequential basis all cards being simulated, each such indication being made in the hand to which the simulated card has been assigned, manually operable sensing means for sensing a selected card indication, and inhibiting means for inhibiting card indications after they have been sensed by said sensing means, said inhibiting means comprising a recirculating trick memory operated in synchronism with said hand memory and provided with output terminal means for reading out trick codes associated with the same cards for which said hand memory reads out hand codes, trick code generating means, means responsive to said sensing means for causing a trick code to be loaded from said trick code generating means into said trick memroy whenever said sensing means senses a card indication, logic means connected to said trick memory output terminal means for generating a hand strobe when the signal appearing at said terminal means indicates that the associated playing card has not yet been played, and means preventing card indications in said hand displays in the absence of a hand strobe.

Claim 9

A card game simulator comprising a recirculating hand memory for sequentially and repetitively reading out a series of hand codes corresponding to hand assignments for each of a plurality of cards to be used in a card game being simulated by said simulator, a plurality of hand displays each including a separate light generating element for representation of each of said cards, decoding means for decoding said series of hand codes and generating hand enabling signals for the hand displays represented thereby, means for generating card designation signals is synchronism with the generation of said hand codes, means responsive to said hand enabling signals and said card designation signals for causing said light generating elements to indicate on a sequential basis all cards being simulated, each such indication being made in the hand to which the simulated card has been assigned, manually operable sensing means for sensing a selected card indication, and inhibiting means for inhibiting card indications after they have been sensed by said sensing means, said inhibiting means comprising a recirculating trick memory operated in synchronism with said hand memory and provided with output terminal means for reading out trick codes associated with the same cards for which said hand memory reads out hand codes, trick code generating means, means responsive to said sensing means for causing a trick code to be loaded from said trick code generating means into said trick memroy whenever said sensing means senses a card indication, logic means connected to said trick memory output terminal means for generating a hand strobe when the signal appearing at said terminal means indicates that the associated playing card has not yet been played, and means preventing card indications in said hand displays in the absence of a hand strobe.

Claim 10

A card game simulator according to claim 6 wherein said trick code generating means comprises a counter for counting the output indications from said sensing means and producing trick codes corresponding to the number of the trick during which simulated cards are played.

Claim 11

A card game simulator according to claim 7 further comprising means to load an initializing trick code into all positions in said trick memory, said logic means being connected to said trick code generating means as well as to the output terminal means of said trick memory and configured for generating a hand strobe whenever the output code from said trick memory is equal to said initializing trick code or whenever the output code from said trick memory represents a higher trick number than the code generated by said trick code generating means.

Claim 12

A card game simulator according to claim 8 wherein said logic means produces play display strobes when identical trick codes are generated by said trick code generating means and the output terminal means of said trick memory and wherein said card game simulator further comprises play displays corresponding to said hand displays and positioned for viewing by all players, said play displays comprising means for indicating cards being played from the corresponding hands during the tricks being simulated and being connected for production of said card indications under control of said play display strobes, said hand codes and said card designation signals.

Claim 13

A card game simulator according to claim 9 further comprising card assignment means for generating each of the aforementioned hand codes an equal number of times and causing said hand codes to be stored in said hand memory.

Claim 14

A card game simulator according to claim 10 wherein said card assignment means comprises means for causing said hand codes to be stored in said hand memory in a random sequence.

Claim 15

A card game simulator according to claim 11 further comprising a manually operated same deal control, a manually operated new deal control, means responsive to operation of either of said deal controls for clearing said trick memory and resetting said trick code generator to generate said initializing trick code, and means responsive to operation of said new deal control for causing said card assignment means to load a new sequence of hand codes into said hand memory.

Claim 16

A card game simulator according to claim 12 further comprising a manually operated replay control means responsive to operation of said replay control for resetting said trick code generator to a game initiation condition, and manually operated means for advancing the count in said trick code generator to simulate a replay of the previous game.

Claim 17

A card game simulator according to claim 10 wherein said card assignment means comprises a programming unit for causing said hand codes to be stored in said hand memory in a predetermined sequence.

Claim 18

A card game simulator according to claim 6 wherein said light generating elements are light emitting diodes which are lighted to produce aforesaid card indications.

Claim 19

A card game simulator according to claim 15 wherein said hand codes are generated at a sufficiently high frequency to cause said card indications to appear continuous to the human eye.

Claim 20

A card game simulator according to claim 16 wherein there are four hand displays, four play displays, 52 light emitting diodes in each hand display, and means associated with said light emitting diodes for representing the 52 cards in a standard deck; said hand memory and said trick memory each being structured to read out 52 codes on a cyclic basis for simulating a game of bridge.

Claim 21

A card game simulator according to claim 17 further comprising manually actuated means for indicating which pair of the four simulated hands wins any given trick and means responsive to said indication for totaling and indicating the tricks won by each side.