Mechanical drawing machine and game apparatus including the same

A mechanical drawing machine which performs a drawing by moving a drawing object and depending on which of a plurality of drawing pockets the drawing object enters into, comprising:

• a stationary base;
• a drawing pocket forming member which forms the drawing pockets, and can hold a drawing object having entered into each drawing pocket inside of the drawing pocket while rotationally moving so as to pass through a site adjacent to the stationary base;
• a driving unit which drives the drawing pocket forming member so as to rotationally move;
• an object detecting unit which is provided on the stationary base, and detects that the drawing object which is held inside of the drawing pocket has passed through an object detecting site on an orbit of the drawing pockets;
• a mark forming and moving member which rotationally moves one or two or more marks in synchronization with rotational movement of the drawing pocket forming member;
• a mark detecting unit which is provided on the stationary base, and detects that the one or two or more marks have passed through a mark detecting site on an orbit of the mark or marks;
• and
• a pocket identifying unit which, based on a timing at which the object detecting unit detected passage of a drawing object or a timing at which the mark detecting unit detected passage of a mark, identifies a drawing pocket into which the drawing object has entered.

A game apparatus comprising:

• a mechanical drawing machine which performs a drawing by moving a drawing object and depending on which of a plurality of drawing pockets the drawing object enters into;
• and
• a game progress control unit which performs control of game progress by use of a result of a mechanical drawing using the mechanical drawing machine by executing a predetermined game program, or controls game progress by executing a predetermined game program and performs control to start a mechanical drawing using the mechanical drawing machine according to a result of the game progress,
• wherein the mechanical drawing machine includes:
• a stationary base;
• a drawing pocket forming member which forms the drawing pockets, and can hold a drawing object having entered into each drawing pocket inside of the drawing pocket while rotationally moving so as to pass through a site adjacent to the stationary base;
• a driving unit which drives the drawing pocket forming member so as to rotationally move;
• an object detecting unit which is provided on the stationary base, and detects that a drawing object which is held inside of the drawing pocket has passed through an object detecting site on an orbit of the drawing pockets;
• a mark forming and moving member which forms a plurality of mutually different marks corresponding to the drawing pockets, respectively, and rotationally moves the marks in synchronization with rotational movement of the drawing pocket forming member;
• a mark content reading unit which is provided on the stationary base, and reads a mark content when each mark passes through a mark detecting site on an orbit of the marks;
• and
• a pocket identifying unit which, based on a timing at which the object detecting unit detected passage of a drawing object or a mark content read by the mark content reading unit, identifies a drawing pocket into which the drawing object has entered.

A game apparatus comprising:

• a mechanical drawing machine which performs a drawing by moving a drawing object and depending on which of a plurality of drawing pockets the drawing object enters into;
• and
• a game progress control unit which performs control of game progress by use of a result of a mechanical drawing using the mechanical drawing machine by executing a predetermined game program, or controls game progress by executing a predetermined game program and performs control to start a mechanical drawing using the mechanical drawing machine according to a result of the game progress,
• wherein the mechanical drawing machine includes:
• a stationary base;
• a drawing pocket forming member which forms the drawing pockets, and can hold a drawing object having entered into each drawing pocket inside of the drawing pocket while rotationally moving so as to pass through a site adjacent to the stationary base;
• a driving unit which drives the drawing pocket forming member so as to rotationally move;
• an object detecting unit which is provided on the stationary base, and detects that a drawing object which is held inside of the drawing pocket has passed through an object detecting site on an orbit of the drawing pockets;
• a mark forming and moving member which rotationally moves one or two or more marks in synchronization with rotational movement of the drawing pocket forming member;
• a mark detecting unit which is provided on the stationary base, and detects that the one or two or more marks have passed through a mark detecting site on an orbit of the mark or marks;
• and
• a pocket identifying unit which, based on a timing at which the object detecting unit detected passage of a drawing object or a timing at which the mark detecting unit detected passage of a mark, identifies a drawing pocket into which the drawing object has entered.