A portable, handheld game console includes a main body incorporating a touch-sensitive display screen and a variety of input devices. The input devices can include shoulder buttons located on a peripheral side surface of the main body, as well as input devices located on the main body adjacent the touch-sensitive display screen.

The game system includes a processor including hardware. The processor performs a reception process of receiving coordinates of a touching operation in a touch screen as touching operation coordinates when the touching operation is performed by a player with respect to the touch screen; a virtual touch area process of associating the touching operation coordinates in the virtual touch area set in the touch screen as an area smaller than the touch screen with mapping coordinates on the touch screen; when the touching operation is performed with respect to the virtual touch area, an input process of setting the mapping coordinates as input coordinates, assuming that the touching operation is performed with respect to the mapping coordinates associated with the touching operation coordinates in the virtual touch area in which the touching operation is performed; and a game process based on the input coordinates.

A method of estimating a time to complete a task for a user of a computer comprises: identifying a target task for which a time is to be estimated for completing the task, determining as a start point the completion of the last task completed by the user on the computer, obtaining, from data relating to a corpus of users, data for at least a subset of those users who completed the last task completed by the user before also completing the target task wherein the obtained data comprises timing data, calculating a representative time from the start point to the completion of the target task, based upon the obtained data, and implementing a predetermined action responsive to the calculated representative time.

A use start time of a game application is stored in advance. When a predetermined event is executed, a waiting time is determined on the basis of the use start time and a reference waiting time associated with the predetermined event, such that the waiting time is made shorter when the start time is earlier. Then, a reward related to the event is given to a user after elapse of the waiting time.

An item can be provided to a user by a lottery and the item odds can be changed in accordance with a prescribed condition. A control method, performed by a server device connected via a communication line to a terminal device operated by a user, can be initiated by selecting a lottery mode from among a plurality of lottery modes. Following the selection of the lottery mode, the system may hold a drawing from among a plurality of types of items on the basis of the selected lottery mode, and, following the holding of the drawing, may ensure that the won item is provided to the user via the terminal device.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for altering display of selectable objects having multiple matchable ends in a computer game, comprising displaying a plurality of selectable objects of a computer game displayed by a client device, each of the plurality of selectable objects initially has a plurality of separable ends, each of the plurality of separable ends of each of the plurality of selectable objects is marked with one of a plurality of patterns, receiving user input comprising a match indication of one or more matches between separable ends of at least two of the selectable objects marked with a common pattern, and altering the display of one or more of the at least two selectable objects by breaking away and removing the matched separable end in case the match(s) indicated by the match indication is correct.

An item can be provided to a user by a lottery and the item odds can be changed in accordance with a prescribed condition. A control method, performed by a server device connected via a communication line to a terminal device operated by a user, can be initiated by selecting a lottery mode from among a plurality of lottery modes. Following the selection of the lottery mode, the system may hold a drawing from among a plurality of types of items on the basis of the selected lottery mode, and, following the holding of the drawing, may ensure that the won item is provided to the user via the terminal device.

A portable, handheld game console includes a main body incorporating a touch-sensitive display screen and a variety of input devices. The input devices can include shoulder buttons located on a peripheral side surface of the main body, as well as input devices located on the main body adjacent the touch-sensitive display screen.

Systems and methods for providing an interactive augmented experience using prerecorded video include: creating a scene model based on an image of a physical environment; generating a fantasy object; integrating a position of the fantasy object onto the scene model; determining a state of the fantasy object; selecting, using a type of meta data, one or more frames of a pre-recorded video of the physical environment associated with a desired physical camera, such that each of the frames is associated with a frame number and acquired with a physical camera; synchronizing a virtual camera with the desired physical camera; and projecting, using a first video player or a second video player, the one or more frames onto the scene model to position the scene model relative to the fantasy object, such that the projecting alternates between the first video player and the second video player.

A portable, handheld game console includes a main body incorporating a touch-sensitive display screen and a variety of input devices. The input devices can include shoulder buttons located on a peripheral side surface of the main body, as well as input devices located on the main body adjacent the touch-sensitive display screen.