...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7001280 | Method of switching background images in accordance with movement of characters, storage medium for storing programs, and video game device On displaying, in a video game device, an image of a player character and images of non-player characters, together with one type of background image from at least two or more switchable types of background images, the background images are changed from one to anoth... | 02/21/2006 |
| 6769689 | Turn-table adapter capable of being attached to a game device and portable game device using the same A game device is a turn-table adapter having a clip mountable on a case, a shaft passing through one arm of the clip, an operation disk coaxially provided to the shaft at one end thereof, and a press-in disk coaxially provided to the shaft at another end thereof. An... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6758753 | Input apparatus for game systems There is provided an input apparatus for game systems, which are simplified in construction. The input apparatus has a base (21) having a plurality of panel-attaching sections (26), a plurality of foot panels (50) arranged respectively at a plur... | 07/06/2004 |
| 6702676 | Message-creating game machine and message-creating method therefor A message-creating game machine includes at least one storage unit among a first storage unit for storing a plurality of images displaying character strings constituting sentences, a second storage unit for storing a plurality of images displaying charact... | 03/09/2004 |
| 6676514 | Game system A game system which is capable of ensuring continuity of a game is provided. A game system for paying for recreation value according to progress of a game, has a magnetic information reading device for reading information in an attachable/detachable recor... | 01/13/2004 |
| 6676523 | Control method of video game, video game apparatus, and computer readable medium with video game program recorded A video game with a main game process and a subsequent ending process including, if an interrupt request of a game character calling to a player character occurs, acquiring a progress of game at that time, and acquiring the voice message data of calling i... | 01/13/2004 |
| 6666764 | Method of controlling a character in a video game A method and a video game device are provided which are capable of controlling enemy characters who are originally programmed to attack a main character, to injure each other for a predetermined time period when a user instructs a predetermined action to ... | 12/23/2003 |
| 6659873 | Game system, game device capable of being used in the game system, and computer-readable memory medium Data link-up between multiple game devices can be more flexibly achieved. A game system (1) comprises a game device for business (2) and a game device for use at home (3), which execute games in accordance with predetermined programs, it being possible to... | 12/09/2003 |
| 6645067 | Music staging device apparatus, music staging game method, and readable storage medium A CPU controls a graphic controller based on control programs within a main RAM to extract a series of rhythm sound data for each of multiple mimic percussion instruments from a graphic RAM and correlates these in a time-axial direction for display on a m... | 11/11/2003 |
| 6607446 | Music game system, game control method for the game system, and computer-readable memory medium Disclosed is a music game system in which the attraction of a game is increased by effectively using limited music data. The music game system comprises an input device 4 for outputting signals in correspondence with the operation states of push-switches ... | 08/19/2003 |
| 6606104 | Video game device, guide display method for video game and readable storage medium storing guide display program A video game device in which a competition is developed between a main character and an enemy character by giving instructions to move the main character operated by an operation unit in a game space displayed on a display screen. The video game device co... | 08/12/2003 |
| 6585600 | Competitive video game device, a competition video game executing method and a readable storage medium in which a video game program is stored A competition video game device for displaying a plurality of simulated games played between an own team and an enemy team on a display means by causing n (ࣙ1) player characters to participate and play in the games, comprises a first storage means for s... | 07/01/2003 |
| 6554711 | Music game machine with interactive second game device In a musical game system, there is a corresponding relationship between a game executed in a main body game device and a game executed in a portable game device functioning as an auxiliary memory apparatus of the main body game device. Data for music repr... | 04/29/2003 |
| 6539266 | Computer system, method of executing computer program, and computer program storage medium A computer system for detecting alteration of programs in which a plurality of check program portions are read from a storage medium which carries computer programs including the check program portions. Each check program portion is executed to detect alt... | 03/25/2003 |
| 6500065 | Image displaying method, device, storage medium, and game machine for basketball based game with variable shot success feature In a game device for use in displaying an image on a display device to play a video basketball game in response to an operation of a user, a shot image which takes a shot at a goal by a character is displayed on the display device while manipulation timin... | 12/31/2002 |
| 6483520 | Image creating method and apparatus, recording medium for recording image creating program, and video game machine In an image creating apparatus, a liquid-object model is realistically represented by using a simple liquid-object model consisting of a plurality of polygons. A ROM stores wave-swell polygon data and texture data representing the swell of waves. The swel... | 11/19/2002 |
| 6450888 | Game system and program Disclosed is a game system which matches a player's tastes. In a game system operating in time with music, it is possible to select an edit mode for editing timing data which define timings of operations. In the edit mode, an edit window having a predeter... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6450886 | Foot switcher, foot switch sheet and mat for use in the same A foot switcher includes: a foot switch sheet having a plurality of pressure switches for detecting steps; and a mat placed under the foot switch sheet, and including a mat body having a plurality of divisions, one division being different from another di... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6406370 | Method for controlling character behavior in video games, video game machine, and computer-readable recording medium on which video game program is recorded A highly entertaining video game machine that allows a character to appear in a game space is provided. The video game machine includes a storage medium for storing a plurality of preset behavior patterns. A behavior-pattern selection unit selects one of ... | 06/18/2002 |
| 6402619 | Method for displaying a shoot of a character in a video game, storage medium for storing a video game program, and video game device When judging the results of the action of a game character in accordance with the skill of the input technique of a player, operations that are to be input by the player are specified as a task operation, which is displayed on a screen for a prescribed pe... | 06/11/2002 |
| 6398651 | Game device and method for implementing a screen-displayed card game In a storage medium storing a program, a storage device and a game device, a card game having rich variety can be implemented by determining win or loss on the basis of various judgement criteria. The cards used in the card game are divided into a plurali... | 06/04/2002 |
| 6379253 | Game device and computer-readable storage medium A game device which plays a game in which a player manipulates a character compelled to live in an uninhibited island alone, and through the game, the player experiences virtual actions relating to a matter of life and death to acquire knowledge to surviv... | 04/30/2002 |
| 6375192 | Moving object restorer A moving object restorer is provided with a connecting cord having one end held at a fixed position and the other end connected with a moving object, a guiding member fixedly provided between the moving object and the fixed position for guiding the connec... | 04/23/2002 |
| 6347998 | Game system and computer-readable recording medium In a game system, performance data which stipulates sequences of manipulations and allocation of sound effects for the manipulations can be set practically. The game system has memory device which stores performance data stipulating manipulations of a con... | 02/19/2002 |
| 6347993 | Video game device, character growth control method for video game and readable storage medium storing growth control program A video game device of this invention comprises a speech/action storage device for storing contents of various speeches and actions of a leader character to be given to a main character as an ability growth object; an ability value updating device for suc... | 02/19/2002 |
| 6342665 | Music game system, staging instructions synchronizing control method for same, and readable recording medium recorded with staging instructions synchronizing control program for same A drum rhythm game apparatus and a guitar rhythm game apparatus each includes a staging operating unit. Playing progression information, which includes sector numbers, is transferred between the drum rhythm game apparatus and the guitar rhythm game appara... | 01/29/2002 |
| 6329620 | Flat foot switch unit with non-slippage structure A flat foot switch unit has a surface has a slippage-preventing measure. In this, a foot switch section has a four-sided surface shape and step-motion-detectable foot switches internally formed in nine regions by dividing the surface shape in 3×3. Furthe... | 12/11/2001 |
| 6177623 | Music reproducing system, rhythm analyzing method and storage medium In a music reproducing system, each of characters is allocated in advance a favorite rhythm component and a peculiar figure expressing ability. A sound pressure data producing section produces sound pressure data for each of a pluralty of frequency bands ... | 01/23/2001 |