Game Device Association Storage on Nonvolatile Media
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Solution Overview
Problem
Portable game devices often lack locally-resident rewritable nonvolatile memory, making it cumbersome to manage and reestablish associations between users, as they rely on manual tracking or game medium-based storage, which is unreliable.
Innovation Solution
Storing association information on nonvolatile memories of game media communicatively coupled with game devices and using association notifications to reestablish connections when the game medium is swapped or memory is corrupted, allowing automatic reconnection of user associations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If association information is stored in locally-resident rewritable nonvolatile memory, then associations can be automatically maintained, but device cost, power consumption, and form factor increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the association information storage function from the game device itself and relocates it to the game medium (cartridge/memory card). This allows portable devices to maintain automatic association capabilities without requiring expensive or power-hungry nonvolatile memory in the device, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The game medium acts as an intermediary between the user and the association information. Instead of the device directly storing and managing associations, the medium serves as a portable repository that the device can read from and write to, enabling automatic association maintenance while keeping the device simple and portable
2Device complexity
If association information is stored on game medium, then device complexity is reduced, but associations cannot be reestablished when medium is swapped or memory is erased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the game device periodically checks the game medium for association information and automatically updates its internal state based on what is found. This allows the system to maintain reliable association persistence through the medium while keeping the device simple, as the medium serves as a reliable external storage that the device can query
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-storing association information on the game medium before any potential medium swap or erasure occurs. This preparatory storage ensures that when the medium is replaced or memory is cleared, the association data is already preserved externally and can be readily retrieved, maintaining reliability without increasing device complexity
3Device complexity
If user manually tracks association information, then device complexity is minimized, but user effort and time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the system to serve itself by automatically reading, storing, and managing association information from the game medium without requiring user intervention. The device autonomously handles the complexity of association tracking while maintaining simplicity in its core design, eliminating the need for users to manually track associations and significantly reducing the time they would need to spend on this task
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for establishing and reestablishing associations between users of game devices. In one embodiment, information about an association between a user of a first game device and a user of a second game device is stored in the nonvolatile memories of first and second game media, the first and second game media being communicatively coupled with the first and second game devices respectively. If the first game device loses track of the association (e.g., the user of the first game devices swaps out the first game medium for another one, or the memory resident on the first game medium is corrupted/erased), an association notification received at the first game device from the second game device may be used to reestablish the association at the first game device. In this manner, previously established associations between users of game devices may be automatically established/reestablished.