Devices which allow a user to select menu choices from a video display are well-known in the art. For example, FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,787 shows a touch screen display for making a game selection from a menu of games. U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,047 discloses a video lottery terminal with a touch screen user interface. The terminal permits a number of different games to be played on the same machine. The desired game is selected from a menu. One problem with such devices is that a game operator cannot quickly and easily change the menu. Such menus are typically preset in software and thus require advanced programming skills to modify.
Devices which allow a user to select one game from a menu of several games available for play often employ complex hardware and wiring and require insertion of a game cartridge into the device for each game available for selection. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,516,777, 4,922,420 and 5,114,157. If the game operator wishes to change one of the games available for play (and the menu of games available for play), the operator must physically access a bank of cartridges to change the cartridge in the slot.
Gaming devices which operate upon input of currency (either coin, token or paper money) typically track machine usage in a meter. In one technique, each currency input creates a pulse which sequentially advances the meter. In another technique, each currency input grants a predetermined number of game play credits and the meter is advanced by the granted number of play credits. Neither of these techniques are completely satisfactory for a game operator because the game operator is mainly interested in knowing the total value of currency in the currency receptacle before it is emptied and counted. The first technique does not discriminate between types of currencies and only provides an indication of the total number of currency units (e.g., coins) in the receptacle. The second technique may not give an accurate accounting of the total value of currency because currency inputs do not always exactly correlate with play credits. Some gaming devices are capable of being set to provide bonus credits for additional currency inputs. For example, a gaming machine may be set to grant one game per quarter, but will grant five games per dollar (a bonus credit of one game). However, gaming devices which accept plural currency types (e.g., nickels, quarters, dollars) are relatively inflexible in setting currency/credit ratios. While the ratios for the total currency input may be adjusted, the ratios cannot be individually adjusted for inputs of each currency type.
Despite the existing systems for selecting menu items and modifying game selections, there is still a need for a simple, economical system for creating menus of selectable choices. The present invention fills this need by providing an apparatus and method which creates a video screen of menu choices from a simultaneously displayed group of menu options. In this manner, the game operator can be provided with a single cartridge or software program containing a large number of games, and can employ the menu creation feature to easily and quickly provide a subset of games which are selectable for play on a particular game machine. No cartridge switching or software reprogramming is required to change the game choices.
There is also still a need for controlling a gaming machine meter which advances the meter in accordance with the actual total value of currency entered into the gaming machine and which allows currency inserted/credits given ratios to be flexibly adjustable. The present invention fills these needs by providing an apparatus and method which allows the game operator to program the meter to advance in accordance with the exact value of the entered currency and to allow such ratios to be individually adjusted.