Cartridge, game machine and bi-directional communication type game system

Abstract

A game which two or more players can play, such as cards and mahjong, is played by connecting a home TV game machine with portable game machines having displays, where images for a common field are displayed on the TV, and private hands of a player, which should be concealed from the other players, are displayed only on a display of the player's local machine so that strategies an actual game is enjoyed. A plurality of portable game machines with displays are connected via a cartridge to a home TV game machine to which a ROM cassette is inserted for playing a game. The cartridge of which one end is inserted to the portable game machine for connection has a connection terminal on the other end, and the connection terminal and a controller connection terminal of the home TV game machine are connected with a communication cable. The cartridge houses a ROM having built-in software, and an interface to enable bi-directional communication of data and S-RAM for storing data so that bi-directional communication between the home TV game machine and the portable game machine is possible. The ROM cassette has a built-in master software for displaying images which all players can see, and the cartridge has a built-in slave software for displaying a player's private hand only on the display of the local machine.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.