Back to results
US 6,120,379 AGranted
Portable game machine and portable game machine cartridge
AssigneeNintendo Co., Ltd.
InventorsHirokazu Tanaka, Takashi Ohno, Satoru Okada, Masahiko Ota, Masato Kuwahara
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a portable game machine 10, formed on the upper portion of a body portion 20 is a camera portion 30. An image display device 22 is arranged on one main surpace of the body portion 20, and operating switches 23, 24, etc., are arranged on other areas. The camera portion 30 is rotatably supported to the body portion 20, and a user can shoot images in both forward and backward directions when viewed from the user. Preferably, the camera portion 30 is supported having a prescribed angle to the body portion 20 so that its focal axis tilts with respect to main surfaces of the body portion 20.
Claims17
A portable game machine with an external storage cartridge storing at least a game program removably attached thereto, comprising:
- a housing having a size capable of being held by both hands, when held by a user for operation, one main surface thereof opposing to a user and another main surface thereof pointing ahead of the user;
- an image display portion formed on the one main surface of said housing;
- first operating control mechanism arranged on an area other than said image display portion on the one main surface of said housing and in the vicinity of one side surface of the housing and used for instructing a moving direction of a character of a game;
- second operating control mechanism arranged on an area other than said image display portion on the one main surface of said housing and in the vicinity of another side surface and used for instructing a motion other than instructing the moving direction of the character of the game;
- a connecting portion for removably connecting said external cartridge to said housing;
- said external cartridge further including:
- a camera portion for shooting surrounding images in a pointing direction;
- a supporting portion holding said camera portion at an upper position of said image display portion of said housing and supporting said camera portion rotatably in a lateral direction with respect to the housing;
- a temporary storage for temporarily storing image data of a shot image with said camera portion, said temporary storage including storage areas for storing image data for a plurality of frames;
- and
- write/read control circuitry for writing said image data in said temporary storage and reading the image data stored in the temporary storage to display the image data on said image display portion, said write/read control circuitry including a processor and a control program storage storing a program for writing and reading of image data by under control of the processor, wherein the program writes the image data for the plurality of frames shot with the camera portion in each storage area of the temporary storage based on at least one of said first or second operating control mechanism, and reading prescribed image data stored in any one of the storage areas to display the image data on said image display device.
8 more elements
A removable portable game machine cartridge for use with a portable game machine body comprising:
- a housing having a size capable of being held by both hands, when held by a user for operation, one main surface thereof opposing to a user and another main surface thereof pointing ahead of the user;
- an image display portion formed on the one surface of said housing;
- a first operating control mechanism arranged on an area other than said image display portion on the one main surface of said housing and in the vicinity of one side surface of the housing and used for instructing a moving direction of a character of a game;
- a second operating control mechanism arranged on an area other than said image display portion on the one main surface of said housing and in the vicinity of another side surface and used for instructing a motion other than instructing the moving direction of the character of the game;
- and a processor for performing processing based on a program, the removable game machine cartridge comprising:
- a cartridge case;
- a camera portion for shooting an image in a prescribed range in a pointing direction;
- a supporting portion for holding said camera portion on an upper edge of said cartridge case and supporting said camera portion rotatably in a lateral direction with respect to said housing;
- a temporary storage accommodated in said cartridge case and storing a write/read control program for writing said image data in said temporary storage and reading the image data stored in the temporary storage to display the image data on said image display portion by being executed by said processor.
6 more elements
A removable game machine cartridge, comprising:
- a connector for connecting the game machine cartridge to a game machine;
- a camera for capturing images;
- a memory for storing images captured by said camera;
- and
- a read/write controller for writing image data in the memory and reading the image data stored in the memory to display the image data on an image display portion of the game machine, the read/write controller including a processor and a control program storage for storing a control program that controls the reading and writing of image data being processed by the processor.
2 more elements
A removable game machine cartridge, comprising:
- a program memory storing a program for execution by a game machine;
- a camera for capturing images for use by the game machine;
- a memory for storing image data captured by said camera;
- a controller for controlling the reading and writing of the image data from and to the memory, the controller including a control program memory that stores a program for controlling the reading and writing of the image data .
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.