Method and apparatus for multi-player gaming over a network

Claim 2

A gaming apparatus in which each player is interconnected with plural other players over a communications network, comprising at each player's location: (a) means for measuring round trip delay times required to communicate between players over said network, respectively; (b) means for determining which player will serve as a master station based on said round trip delay times; and (c) means for equalizing communication delays so that any command sent by any player to the master station is transmitted to all players and received at all player locations substantially simultaneously.

Claim 3

The apparatus of claim 1 in which the network is a digital network.

Claim 4

The apparatus of claim 2 in which the network is an X.25 digital network.

Claim 5

The apparatus of claim 2 including dial up communication links interconnecting the players to the network.

Claim 6

The apparatus of claim 2 in which the network establishes virtual circuits between players.

Claim 7

The apparatus of claim 1 in which the means for measuring the round trip delay times required for any player to communicate with each other player over said network includes (a) means for sending a timing signal from a player to each other player and for receiving back from said other player an echoed version of said timing signal, and (b) means for calculating differences between a time when each timing signal is sent and times corresponding echoed versions of the timing signal are received back.

Claim 8

The apparatus of claim 6 in which the timing signal is a digital packet.

Claim 9

The apparatus of claim 1 in which the means for measuring the round trip delay times required to communicate between a player and each other player over said network includes (a) means for sending a plurality of timing signals from each player to each other player and for receiving back from said each other player an echoed version of each said timing signal, (b) means for calculating a difference between a time when each timing signal is sent and a time an echoed version of the timing signal is received back, and (c) means for averaging calculated differences to obtain an average value for measured round trip delays.

Claim 10

The apparatus of claim 1 in which the means for determining which player will serve as a master station based on said round trip delay times comprises: (a) means for calculating an average delay time from measured delay times between pairs of players, and (b) means for designating as a master station a player with a delay value closest matching the average delay time.

Claim 11

The apparatus of claim 9 in which the average delay time is calculated from a matrix of delay times.

Claim 12

The apparatus of claim 10 in which the matrix is upper triangular or lower triangular.

Claim 13

The apparatus of claim 10, in which the matrix is symmetrical.

Claim 14

The apparatus of claim 1, in which the means for equalizing communication delays comprises at the master station: (a) means for receiving a game command; and (b) means for sending said command to each player delayed by an amount inversely proportional to an amount of measured delay between the master station and the player to which the command is sent.

Claim 15

The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising: (a) means for periodically redetermining round trip delay between the master station and each other player and updating an amount by which commands are delayed prior to being sent to players to reflect most recent measured values.

Claim 16

The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for receiving game commands only from the master station for execution by a player's game software.