Summary:

The ‘192 patent describes a shooting game system for shooting targets. The system uses a controller for shooting which features a scope and a trigger. A photoelectric converter converts light which shot an electric signal towards the television, thus allowing a player to shoot a target on the screen. Whenever a player hits a target, the target is changed and reacted in whatever way it was designed to do after being struck.  This is one of the older "light gun" patents around.

Abstract:

A video game set (1) displays a sighting mark on a television receiver (4). A player shoots this sighting mark by a shooting scope (5). At this time, the shift between a coordinate position of the sighting mark and a coordinate position which is shot is operated by the video game set (1) and is stored as a correction value. When the player shoots a target in a game mode, the coordinate position which is shot is corrected on the basis of the correction value stored in the video game set (1).

Illustrative Claim:

1. A shooting game system for shooting a target displayed on a raster scan type display in a position spaced apart from the display to play a shooting game, comprising:

game processing apparatus being connected to said display for performing processing for the shooting game;

a shooting scope, having a light receiving axis, used in a position spaced apart from said display for shooting the target displayed on said display; and

a sight attached on said shooting scope and defining a sighting axis having a predetermined angle with respect to the light receiving axis of said shooting scope, whereby said sighting axis intersects the light receiving axis of said shooting scope on said display when the distance between said shooting scope and said display is a predetermined distance;

said shooting scope comprising;

a trigger signal generator for generating a trigger signal in response to an operation performed by a player,

a photoelectric converter for converting light from a position which is shot on said display into an electric signal which is synchronized with raster scanning of said display, and

a control signal transmitter for transmitting by optical space communication a control signal based on the electric signal outputted from said photoelectric converting means to said game processing apparatus in response to said trigger signal from said trigger signal generator,

said game processing apparatus comprising

a control signal receiver for receiving the control signal transmitted from said control signal transmitter,

shot coordinate position determining means for detecting a coordinate position which is shot by said shooting scope on said display on the basis of a raster coordinate position on said display at the time of receiving of said control signal by said control signal receiver,

reference mark display controlling means for displaying a reference mark in a predetermined fixed position on said display before starting the game,

an error detector for operating, when said reference mark is shot by said shooting scope, to detect an error between the coordinate position detected by said shot coordinate position detecting means and a coordinate position of said reference mark,

an error storing device for storing the error detected by said error detector,

a target display controller for displaying the target on said display while the game is played,

correcting means for correcting, when the target on said display is shot by said shooting scope, the relative positional relationship between a coordinate position of the target and the coordinate position detected by said shot coordinate position detecting means on the basis of the error stored in said error storing device, and

hit judging means for making a hit determination in a case where said target is shot by said shooting scope on the basis of said relative positional relationship after being corrected by said correcting means.