Television display control apparatus

Display control apparatus for use with a television receiver including video signal input terminals, a display tube, and means for scanning said display tube at a predetermined rate, comprising

• a random access memory having a multiplicity of discrete digital storage positions, each of said storage positions corresponding to a preselected image area of said display tube,
• data processor means including storage means for storing a plurality of prescribed image devices, at least one of said image devices comprising a player movable under the control of a user,
• game control means having first manually actuable means for moving said player image device horizontally and vertically,
• means responsive to said game control means and said data processor means for selectively writing one of said preselected image devices into selected ones of said storage positions, said storage positions being selected to correspond to a predetermined image to be displayed on said display tube,
• said data processing means including means responsive to said first manually actuable means for erasing the player image device stored in said random access memory, and means for writing said player image device at a new address in said random access memory corresponding to a predetermined new address,
• means for sequentially reading stored data from said memory positions at said predetermined scanning rate, with each storage position being read essentially as the predetermined image area of the display tube corresponding to that storage position is being scanned, and
• means responsive to said means for sequentially reading for generating a video signal adapted to be coupled to the video signal input terminals of a television receiver.

Apparatus for playing games by displaying and manipulating player and ball image devices on the screen of a display tube, comprising

• first means for generating a video signal representing a linear player image device aligned in a first direction,
• second means for generating a video signal representing a ball image device,
• manually operable game control means, and
• means responsive to said manually operable game control means for causing said first means to generate a video signal representing the player image device rotated so that it is aligned in a second direction different from said first direction.

Apparatus for playing games by displaying and manipulating player and ball image devices on the screen of a display tube, wherein the player image device is manually controlled and the ball image device moves continuously and is deflected from said player image device, the improvement comprising:

• first means for generating a video signal representing a player image device;
• second means for generating a video signal representing a ball image device;
• manually operable game control means for moving said player image device linearly and for rotating said player image device;
• and
• means responsive to said manually operable game control means for causing said second means to generate a video signal representing the ball image device deflected in one of a plurality of preselected directions.