US 12,014,603 B2
Gaming device with symbol merge functionality
Jennifer Mizzi, Round Rock, TX (US); Blake Davis, Macquarie Park (AU); Igor Suslik, St. Ives (AU); Xin Liu, Denistone West (AU); James Loader, Springfield (AU); Rahul Ahuja, Ryde (AU); Luke Ireland, Denistone (AU); and Matthew Chan, East Killara (AU)
Assigned to Aristocrat Technologies, Inc., North Ryde (AU)
Filed by Aristocrat Technologies, Inc., Las Vegas, NV (US)
Filed on Dec. 12, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/079,752.
Application 18/079,752 is a continuation of application No. 17/401,247, filed on Aug. 12, 2021, granted, now 11,545,004.
Claims priority of application No. 2020902881 (AU), filed on Aug. 13, 2020; and application No. 2020244402 (AU), filed on Sep. 28, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0115923 A1, Apr. 13, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G07F 17/32 (2006.01); G07F 17/34 (2006.01)
CPC G07F 17/3267 (2013.01) [G07F 17/3213 (2013.01); G07F 17/3244 (2013.01); G07F 17/34 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system, comprising:
a display;
a processor communicably connected to the display; and
a memory connected to the processor, and storing:
reel strip data defining a set of reel strips, each reel strip of the set of reel strips comprising special symbols and regular symbols; and
instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to, in a series of game instances:
display, on the display, a playing field comprising an array of positions;
display portions of each reel strip of the set of reel strips in the array of positions retrieved by using a random number generator to generate numbers and creating a mapping of the numbers to reel strip positions;
when a first special symbol is adjacent on the playing field to an identical matching special symbol based on the mapping, animate the playing field on the display to merge the first special symbol and the identical matching special symbol to create a first higher-value merge capable symbol wherein merging the first special symbol and the identical matching special symbol replaces one of the first special symbol or the identical matching special symbol with the first higher-value merge capable symbol and removes the other of the first special symbol or the identical matching special symbol; and
when the first higher-value merge capable symbol is adjacent on the playing field to an identical matching higher-value merge capable symbol, animate the playing field on the display to merge the first higher-value merge capable symbol and the identical matching higher-value merge capable symbol to create a second higher-value merge capable symbol.