Site News  |   Monitor Keywords  |   Monitor Archive  |   Organizer  |   Account Info  |

Sudoku-type gaming activity

This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/877,759, filed on Dec. 29, 2006, to which priority is claimed pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e), and which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

This invention relates in general to games, and more particularly to apparatuses and methods for Sudoku-type wagering games.

Casino games such as poker, slots, and craps have long been enjoyed as a means of entertainment. Almost any game of chance that can be played using traditional apparatus (e.g., cards, dice) can be simulated on a computer. The popularity of casino gambling with wagering continues to increase, as does recreational gambling such as non-wagering computer game gambling. It is also likely that most new games will be implemented, at least in part, using computerized apparatus.

One reason that casino games are widely implemented on computerized apparatus is that computerized games are highly adaptable, easily configurable and re-configurable, and require minimal supervision to operate. For example, the graphics and sounds included in such games can be easily modified to reflect popular subjects, such as movies and television shows.

Computer gaming devices can also be easily adapted to provide entirely new games of chance that might be difficult to implement using mechanical or discrete electronic circuits. Because of the ubiquity of computerized gaming machines, players have come to expect the availability of an ever wider selection of new games when visiting casinos and other gaming venues. Playing new games adds to the excitement of “gaming.” As is well known in the art and as used herein, the term “gaming” and “gaming devices” generally involves some form of wagering, and that players make wagers of value, whether actual currency or some equivalent of value, e.g., token or credit. Wagering type games usually provide rewards based on random chance as opposed to skill. In some jurisdictions, the absence of skill when determining awards during game play is a requirement.

Most wagering games require that rewards be based on chance instead of skill. Nonetheless, games of chance may be able to adapt thematic and game play elements from games of skill and thereby retain some of the features that make the underlying game of skill so popular. The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and apparatus that provide for new and interesting gaming experiences, and that provide other advantages over the prior art.

To overcome limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses apparatuses and methods for providing secondary gaming experiences to a player. In one embodiment, a method of providing a gaming experience to a player involves presenting a playing field having a plurality of geometrically linked cells. The playing field has one or more predefined pay regions each including two or more cells of the plurality of cells. Within each of the cells a symbol selected from a plurality of symbols is presented, and a monetary award is provided to the player based on at least one of the pay regions having no two cells with the same symbol.

In more particular embodiments, the method involves generating a known solution where no two cells within any of the regions have the same symbol. In such a case, presenting the symbols within each of the cells involves presenting within a subset of the cells the symbols corresponding to the known solution, and presenting the symbols within each of the cells may also involve randomly assigning the symbols to cells of the plurality of cells that are not contained in the subset.

In more particular embodiments, the playing field includes a rectangular grid, and the plurality of cells include squares within the rectangular grid. In such a case, the playing field may include a nine-by-nine grid of squares. In this arrangement, the predefined pay regions may include any combination of lines formed by the squares and square regions formed by the squares. In another particular embodiment, one of the plurality of symbols is a wild symbol that results in the monetary award being provided to the player regardless of whether the at least one of the pay regions has two or more of the wild symbols.

In another embodiment of the invention, a casino gaming apparatus includes a processor and a human input and output coupled to the processor. A gaming program has instructions that that cause the processor to present, via the human input and output, a playing field having a plurality of geometrically linked cells. The playing field has one or more predefined pay regions, each region including two or more cells of the plurality of cells. The instructions further cause the processor, for each of the cells, select a symbol from a plurality of symbols and present the selected symbol within the cell via the human input and output. The instructions further cause the processor to provide, via the human input and output, a monetary award to the player based on at least one of the pay regions having no two cells with the same symbol.

The invention is described in connection with the embodiments illustrated in the following diagrams.

FIG. 1. is a block diagram of a gaming machine according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram illustrating Sudoku-type game play according to an embodiment of the invention;