Game machine having play-by-play announcement

Claim 1

A game machine comprising: a monitor on which a game scene is displayed; a manipulator for generating an instructive signal in response to operation of the manipulator by a player; a storage means for storing a data set for each of a plurality of vocal sound groups and each of said data sets is subdivided into a plurality of data subsets; a controller means for producing successive game scenes on the monitor at predetermined intervals corresponding to a refresh rate of said monitor in accordance with a game program installed therein and said instructive signal generated by the manipulator, and for designating at least one of said data sets corresponding to one of said vocal sound groups associated with a selected series of said successive game scenes; a converter means for converting said at least one of said data sets at a rate for producing an audio signal; and said controller means including a data transfer means for transferring to said converter means said plurality of data subsets of said at least one of said data sets successively in subset groups, formed of at least one of said data subsets, per one of said predetermined intervals during a predetermined portion of said predetermined intervals wherein individual ones of said subset groups are converted to an audio signal of longer duration than each of said predetermined intervals until all data of said at least one of said data sets is transferred to said converter means and wherein a remaining portion of said predetermined intervals is sufficient for said controller to produce one of said successive games scenes.

Claim 7

An apparatus for displaying an event by driving a video display at a predetermined refresh rate and simultaneously driving a speaker with an audio signal corresponding to scenes on said video display, the event being displayed by a stored program, the apparatus comprising: a input device for a user to input control signals; means for accepting a program memory having said stored program for said displaying of said event in response to said control signals; said stored program including an audio memory containing audio segments stored as digital audio data sets divided into audio data subsets wherein said audio data subsets include audio data sufficient to reproduce audio sound longer in duration than a refresh period determined by said predetermined refresh rate; a controller means for producing successive video scenes for driving said video display in accordance with said stored program and said control signals, each of said video scenes being produced during a portion of said refresh period of said predetermined refresh rate; an audio generator for converting said digital audio data sets into an analog audio signal for driving said speaker; and said controller means further including means for selecting one of said audio segments corresponding to a series of video scenes and transferring at least one audio data subset during a remaining portion of said refresh period of said predetermined refresh rate to said audio generator for successive ones of said refresh periods until all of said audio data subsets of said one of said audio segments is transferred to said audio generator for conversion to said analog audio signal by said audio generator.

Claim 8

An apparatus for displaying an event by driving a video display at a predetermined refresh rate and simultaneously driving a speaker with an audio signal corresponding to scenes on said video display, the event being displayed by a stored program, the apparatus comprising: a input device for a user to input control signals; means for accepting a program memory having said stored program for said displaying of said event in response to said control signals; said stored program including an audio memory containing audio segments stored as digital audio data sets divided into audio data subsets wherein said audio data subsets include audio data sufficient to reproduce audio sound longer in duration than a refresh period determined by said predetermined refresh rate; a controller means for producing successive video scenes for driving said video display in accordance with said stored program and said control signals, each of said video scenes being produced during a portion of said refresh period of said predetermined refresh rate; an audio generator for converting said digital audio data sets into an analog audio signal for driving said speaker; and said controller means further including means for selecting one of said audio segments corresponding to a series of video scenes and transferring at least one audio data subset during a remaining portion of said refresh period of said predetermined refresh rate to said audio generator for successive ones of said refresh periods until all of said audio data subsets of said one of said audio segments is transferred to said audio generator for conversion to said analog audio signal by said audio generator.