Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and apparatus in which a player plays one of a plurality of networked gaming devices. Game awards below a predefined level are tracked and stored on the network. If the game awards are less than a predefined criterion, a pay command is sent over the network to the player's gaming device, which may be used for a free game. Implementation in a single gaming device is also disclosed.

A game apparatus is configured to acquire a movement image of an operation result generation device that generates a physical operation result of selecting one or more physical regions from among a plurality of physical regions; display a moving image based on the acquired movement image; receive an operation input, from a player, of assigning one or more symbols on one or more physical regions among the plurality of physical regions; set a symbol in accordance with the operation input by the player, in one or more of the physical regions that are displayed in the acquired movement image; acquire information indicative of the operation result of selecting the physical region; and generate a game result for the player based on the acquired information and setting content.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and apparatus in which a player plays one of a plurality of networked gaming devices. Game awards below a predefined level are tracked and stored on the network. If the game awards are less than a predefined criterion, a pay command is sent over the network to the player's gaming device, which may be used for a free game. Implementation in a single gaming device is also disclosed.

Embodiments of the present application relate to a method and system for managing invitations to participate in an application program. The method includes acquiring, at an application service device, application program information associated with an application program executed by the application service device, determining, based at least in part on the application program information, whether the application program supports participation by another application service device, and in the event that the application program supports participation by another application service device, sending invitation information associated with the application program to a client device that is connected to the application service device.

A gaming system includes a central server or controller operable to communicate a plurality of different commands to a plurality of gaming machines to provide non-tournament game play and to provide tournament game play on the same gaming machines.

A gaming system comprising: a display comprising a plurality of display portions associated with respective ones of a plurality of gaming devices; and a group game controller arranged to: control the display to display an object as moving between the display portions by displaying the object in individual ones of the display portions; determine display portions at which to display the object in each of a plurality of stopped display states, at least some of which correspond to respective ones a plurality of prizes; control the display to display the object in each stopped display state in the respective determined display portion; and award any prize associated with each stopped display state to a player of the respective gaming device upon at least one eligibility criteria being met in respect of the gaming device.

A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In some examples, the operations can include presenting, via an electronic display device of the wagering gaming system, a configuration interface capable of presenting options to configure a wagering game machine. The operations can further include automatically detecting, via user input from the configuration interface, an electronic request to configure the wagering game machine for presentation of a wagering game effect (effect). The effect has a presentation limit for the presentation amongst a plurality of wagering game machines. The operations can further include electronically modifying, via an electronic processing unit of the gaming system, an availability of at least one of the options in response to determining, based on electronic evaluation of the electronic request against the presentation limit, whether the presentation of the effect via the wagering game machine complies with the presentation limit.

A game apparatus is configured to acquire a movement image of an operation result generation device that generates a physical operation result of selecting one or more physical regions from among a plurality of physical regions; display a moving image based on the acquired movement image; receive an operation input, from a player, of assigning one or more symbols on one or more physical regions among the plurality of physical regions; set a symbol in accordance with the operation input by the player, in one or more of the physical regions that are displayed in the acquired movement image; acquire information indicative of the operation result of selecting the physical region; and generate a game result for the player based on the acquired information and setting content.

The gaming machine (1) includes a processor (4) with associated memory (5) implementing one of the games, a communications bus (6), a game display (7) for displaying information related to the progress of the game, a game identification display (8) for displaying an imageforming part of the game's resource data setto allow a potential user to identify the game presently being provided as well as game specific information such as payouts, rules and so on, and a user interface device (9) as user-operable buttons. An output device (10) outputs to the central controller (2) machine performance messages (11) containing machine performance information as time since last play, total drop, total drop over a period of time, total return to player, return to player over a period of time, technical aspects of the gaming machine, and the like.

A community gaming system including a central controller and a plurality of gaming terminals each with a graphical user interface operating. The system determines that a bonus event is triggered and which of the terminals qualify. The central controller transmits a trigger signal to each of the qualified gaming terminals in the sequence in turn, in response to which each qualified gaming terminal initiates scrolling of a bonus event graphic across its respective graphical user interface such that as the bonus event graphic scrolls across the graphical user interface of one of the qualified gaming terminals to reach an edge of that graphical user interface a next one of the qualified gaming terminals in the sequence then initiates scrolling of that bonus event graphic across its graphical user interface. The bonus event graphic appears to scroll across successive graphical user interfaces of the sequence of terminals.