CA2460127C - Electronic gaming apparatus having authentication data sets - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention is an electronic gaming apparatus (10), including a cabinet (12) for housing video and sound generating electronics (8, 30, 32, 34, 36), coin handling (20), payout (26) mechanism, and a video display screen (16). The preferred display screen (16) is substantially taller than it is wide and has a touch screen. Although the displayed video presentation may take any form, the preferred slot machine display embodiment includes graphics replicating the standard play board at top (15), game board in the middle (17), and principal user input interface below (19).

Description

Specification IMPROVED ELECTRONIC GAMING APPARATUS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invgntion The present invention relates generally to electronic gaming appatatus, and more particularly to an improved gaming machine for improving the play and display of gaming graphics utilizing a vertically oriented video screen having touch screen input as a player interface to the device.
Relation to Other Applications This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent No. 6,287,202 filed June 28, 1996, entitled "Dynamic Tournament Gaming Method and System," and is related to,U.S. Patent No. 5,643,086 filed~June 29, 1995, entitled "Electronic Casino Gaming System with Improved Play Capacity, Authentication and Security."
Both applications are assigned to the Assignee of this present invention.
Brief Description of the Prior Art Electronic gaming devices have Tong been provided for playing gambling games such as roulette, poker, bingo, keno, lotto and various other games, and have historically been constructed in:a slot machine format typically including a pay board wherein the winning pay-out combinations are displayed; a play section in which electranic or mechanical reels, card-playing indicia or other gaming objects are displayed; and a third area in which a player interface is provided by means of an assortment of buttons, switches, etc. More modern gaming machines have included a video display screen (CRT tube) that is driven by an image generator coupled to a microprocessor that serves as the game controller, In such video implementations, standard television-style cathode ray tubes have normally been used, and electronically generated reels, cards and other objects have been depicted thereon for implemepting play of the game. In some embodiments, the pay board is also included as part of the video display, but because this limits the active display area available for gaming presentation, a different screen or type of screen separate and apart~from the video display is often utilized. Touch screen interfaces have also been used in gaming machines, but are often limited in their application because of the limited space available on the video screen.
Another limitation of the prior art devices using video display screens is that the display has been quite sterile in its 3 5 presentation, often comprising nothing.more than an attempt to electronically present a two-dimensional image replicating the functional display elements of the prior art mechanical gaming apparatus, There is thus a need for an improved gaming station or machine that uses modern video graphics and sound technology to provide a complete user interface that in at least one aspect conveniently integrates pay board, play screen, and player input interface in a single uniquely designed and oriented video screen format.

WO 98100207 PCT/US9~I12765 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a principal objective of the present invention to provide a gaming machine having an improved video display format and user interface which uses state-of the-art video technology to provide animated television-quality video and graphics displays.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an electronic gaming machine having an electronic .
interface.which is substantially 'larger than the standard television-type video screen typically used in present casino-type games.
Stil! another objective of the present invention is to provide an improved user interface for slot machine-type games that readily accommodates in well-known three-part format, but on a single screen, the pay board, play screen, and user interface commonly used in gaming. stations.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide an enlarged video display screen which provides a complete display of all gaming essentials, yet generally conforms to the familiar and more or less standard "slot machine" footprint and height-to-width ratio common in casinos throughout the world.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a gaming machine having both lifelike graphics and realistic high-quality sound generators.
Briefly, a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a cabinet for housing video and sound generating electronics, coin-handling and pay-out mechanisms, and a video display screen. The display screen is substantially taller than it is wide arid preferably has a touch screen associated therewith. Although the displayed video presentation may take any form, the preferred slot machine display embodiment includes graphics replicating the standard play board at top, game board in middle, and principal user input interface below.
An important advantage of the present invention is that since it 'uses a video screen that is substantially taller than it is wide, all familiar aspects of a standard slot machine can be dynamically and graphically presented on the video screen in their usual positional format.

2 $ Another advantage of the present invention is that a multitude of different types of games can be selectively displayed on a single gaming station.
Still-another advantage of the present invention is that unusual attract modes can be selectively displayed on the video screen to attract the attention of potential players.
A still further advantage of the present invention is that unusual video displays can be presented to communicate and perhaps hold the attention of players as well as observers.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that since a large part of the frontal surface area is occupied by the display screen, a plurality of adjacent machines can be eiectronicaliy linked together and driven in concert with complementary video to create a segmented "picture wall" effect when not in use by players. And even when in use, an integrated background display can be used to change environmental "mood" or "setting" of 3 5 the game room.

Another aspect of the invention is a slot machine, comprising: a cabinet having a front face that is configured to have a display section with a height and a width, said height of said display section being larger than said width of said display section; a video display unit associated with said cabinet, said video display unit having a video display screen having a height and a width, said height of said video display screen being larger than said width of said video display screen, said video display unit being disposed in a fixed position so that said height of said video display screen is parallel to said height of said display section of said front face of said cabinet and so that said width of said video display screen is parallel to said width of said display section of said front face of said cabinet, said height of said video display screen divided by said width of said video display screen forming a ratio having a magnitude greater than 4/3; .a value-receiving mechanism associated with said cabinet; a spin button; a coin hopper associated with said cabinet; a processor disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said value-receiving mechanism and said video display unit; a read-only memory disposed in said cabinet; a nonvolatile memory capable of storing critical system data; critical data storage software that causes critical system data to be stored in said nonvolatile memory; program memory disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said processor; and system software stored in said program memory, said system software comprising software representing a game that may be played by a player, said slot machine being operable in an attract mode and a play mode, said display screen being electronically subdivided into a plurality of different display regions when said slot machine is in said play mode, said display regions comprising an upper region, a middle region disposed below said upper region, and a lower region disposed below said middle region, one of said display regions displaying a plurality of user-input buttons and another of said display regions displaying a plurality of reels, said slot machine .
additionally comprising a touch screen associated with said display region displaying said plurality of user input buttons.
Another aspect of the invention is a gaming machine, comprising:
a cabinet; at least one user-interface button; a value-receiving mechanism associated with said cabinet; a value-dispensing mechanism associated with said cabinet; a video display unit associated with said cabinet; a touch-sensitive device associated with said video display unit; a processor disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said user-interface button, said value-receiving mechanism, said video display unit and said touch-sensitive device; a read-only memory disposed in said cabinet; basic input/output system (BIOS) software stored in said read-only memory; a nonvolatile memory capable of storing critical system data;
critical data storage software that causes critical system data to be stored in said nonvolatile memory; disk memory disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said processor; system software stored in said disk memory, said system software comprising: a first software portion representing a first game that may be played by a player; a second software portion representing a second game that may be played by a player; and a third software portion that causes a first icon representing said first game and a second icon representing said second game to be generated on said video display unit, said third software portion causing one of said first and second games to be initiated in response to a player touching one of said first and second icons; encoded data stored in said disk memory, said encoded data having been generated from at least one message digest that was generated based on using an encoding function with said system software; secure loading software stored in memory that loads system software from said disk memory into random-access memory and verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software, said secure loading software verifying correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated from said encoded data and data generated from said system software; and operating system (OS) software stored in memory, said operating system software comprising an application programming interface including a first application programming interface portion that provides a software interface to said video display unit and a second application programming interface portion that provides a software interface to said touch-sensitive device.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are illustrated in the several figures of the drawing.

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W0 98/00207 Pf,:T/US97/12765 IN THE DR~WINC
Fig. ! is a perspective view illustrating a gaming machine in accordance with the present invention;
Fig. 2 depicts a typical screen display in accordance with the present invention;
Fig. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating the principal functional components used in the gaming machine of the present invention.; and Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are diagrams generally illustrating software architecture and features of the preferred ' ' - embodiment.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is depicted at 10 in Fig. 1 and includes a more or less rectangularly configured cabinet 12 forming an enclosure for the various fttnctional mechanical, electrical and electronic components. Tho front face 14 of cabinet 12 is uniquely configured to include as the principal component thereof a video display screen 16 disposed in portrait format with its vertical dimension being substantially larger than its hot'lzontal dimension. As is apparent tom ;the illustration, the screen 16 occupies a substantial part of the front face of she device 10. Positioned to the right of screen 16 is a cutrenoy input section 18 1 S including a coin-receiving slot 20, a paper money-receiving slot 22, and a credit/debit card slot 24. A pair of buttons 23 and 25 may be provided for allowing the player to select a °cash" or "credit" mode for payout of W InnIngS.
Disposed beneath screen 16 and at the bottom of the-fhont face is a coin drop receptacle 26, immediately above the coin drop receptacle are a pair of high-quality audio speakers 28 and 30. Above screen 16 is an ennuneiator 32 including a third high-quality audio speaker or signal generator 34 and a mufti-colored, mufti-light display apparatus 36. Disposed immediately beneath screen 16 on a slightly protruding shelf 38 are a pluratify of user interface buttons 40 that arc ofconventionai configuration. Formed integral with the front faro of display screen 16 is a transparent couch screen that is dynamically configurable to allow manual user inputs at screen positions determined by the software associated with the particular game or attract mode being presented.
25 On the right aide of cabinet 12 is a conventional pull handle 39 that may be optionally used as a pan of the user interface to the gaming apparatus.
The cabinet 12 was designed to oolnclde with the overall dimensions of traditional slot machines so that the device can be placed in existing casino carousels without requiring reconfiguration of the stands or machine layouts.. The right side of the cabinet forms a compartment for containing currency input devices such as coin and 30 bill acceptors, a card reader, keypad, and perhaps a display for a player tracking network interface. A locked.
service door 41 forms the right side wall of the cabinet and allows access to the currency components In this section. 'fhe front 43 of the lower. section of the enclosure contains a coin hopper (a cache of coins that is used to pay out the player's winnings when playing in cash mode). ~'lte back of the lower section of the cabin6c (behind the hopper) contains a CpU box with all of the associated electronics and power supplies. A locked service door.
3 5 al lows access to the hopper in this section.
Player tracking network electronics are (orated in the top of the system and are accessed by rexrtoving a top cover (not shown).
The cabinet layout, which is more or less traditional for video-type riot machines, leaves a tall and narrow section at the upper left for the CRT that forms the display screen I G. To maximize the screen area in the available space, a 26", wide screen CRT display device rotated 90° into a "portrait mode" is used with the screen origin at the bottom left corner, and the image scanned from left to right. For purposes of this disclosure "portrait made" is defined as a display configuration in which a display screen has a height dimension that is substantially larser than its width dimension. The wide screen CRT has a 16x9 (height to width) aspect ratio and a 0.69mm dot pitch allowing for an 856x480 visible display area. Portrait mode configured display screens or CRTs having other aspect ratios may also be used. for example, although less desirable, a standard 4x3 CRT monitor rotated into a portrait mode could be used.
In accordance with one aspoct of the present invention, when operating in a game play mode, the display screen may be electronically subdivided into three arbitrarily sized regions.
an upper region 15 in which a pay ) 0 board will be displayed, setting forth the jackpot payouts as a function of the coins input; a mid region 1'7 in which a game board, play reels, card hands, or other game play indicia is displayed;
and a lower region 19 in which touch screen "buttons" are displayed for facilitating player selection of various input functions such as "hold", "bet I ", "draw", etc. One example of a "3-way" screen configuration is illustrated in Fig. 2. Dopending on the particular game being played, the dimensions of these regions may change. Furthermore, the configuration of the touch 1 S screen responsive areas within each region may likewise change to correspond to associated graphics displayed in one or more of the regions. Moreover, in "attract mode" the screen may be subdivided into a geometrical grid of regions, e.g., a 2x4 or Zx6 late.) grid in which passive or active game logos may be simultaneously displayed for selection by a player. In such mode the touch screen would typically be configured to call up the game corresponding to the logo touched by the player.
20 An integrated couch screen overlaying the display screen, along with the series of "hard" buttons 40 arrayed along the bottom edge of the display, provide the main player interface to the system.
In Fig. 3 of the drawing, a generalized block diagram depicts the principal functional components of the system and includes a central processing unit (CPU) 45, the CRT I6, a user interface 42 that includes the couch screen buttons 40 and pull handle 39, a video storage subsystem 44, an audio storage subsystem 46, a disk storage 25 subsystem 48, a peripheral memory subsystem S0, an annunciator and sound system 52, a network 1/0 54, a card reader 56, a coin handler 58, and a bill reader 60. In the preferred embodiment, CPU 45 is a 133MHz Pentium prooessor using a combination of the DUCK Video Codec for motion video, A-RL
(Alpha Run-Length) decoding of static graphics, and software compositing for the individual elements.
Although nor shown in detail herein, the CPU 45 includes a motherboard, a PCI-based vidoo board and 30 SCSI controller, a peripheral memory board, a QPIO board, a power transformer, a disk drive, and a CPU power supply. The peripheral memory board is installed on the mother board PCI bus and is used to replace the BIOS
ROMs of the standard PC architecture. Whereas on standard mother boards the PCl-to-ISA bridge (P1B) chip provides the interface to the system BIOS ROMs by subtractive decoding of PCl accesses in the normal PCl BIOS
range and its high-memory aliases, the peripheral memory board in the preferred embodiment responds to accesses 35 to the BIOS address range using positive decoding, responding to the requested cycles beforo the PIB chip responds. 'this allows the ROM-based BIOS and OS to reside at these locations without modifying the mother board.
In addition, the peripheral memory board provides a removable subsystem containing all of the machine states, thereby allowing secure system auditing. The peripheral memory board contains 1 M8 of );PROM to hold the BIOS and OS (including the secure; loader described below), 64KB of nonvolatile RAM.to implement a SafeStore system, and 128KB of electrically erasable PROM (BEPROM) to story the system configuration.
A peripheral memory controller performs byte-assembly and disassembly on memory reads/writes and.
parity generation on the PCI reads.
The preferred embodiment exhibits total immunity to Electric.Static Discharge (ESD) to a level of 27KV.
The requirement for this level of ESD immunity is an artifact of low humidity and prevalence of synthetic materials (carpeting, etc.) in Nevada casinos. All standard mother boards support an IEEE 1284 compatible parallel port, and such port provides the interface to the general purpose input/output (GP10) board. The GPIO board provides an electrically isolated interface to the external device ports and maps them to registers accessible through the mother board parallel port.
The system software is designed to address the' unique requirements of casino gaming machines, including high reliability .and security, fault detection and recovery, and responsive performance. The system software architecture is illustrated in Fig. 4.
A pSOS real-time operating system serves as the basis for the software platform of the preferred 1$ embodirfeent. This pSOS system Consists of a multi-tasking kernel, the pREPC, ANSI-C, tvn-time library functions, and a driver support library to access physical devices through a set of device drivers. The run-time Application Programmers Interface (APl) is a layer of system software providing a set of standard functions that application programmers develop to. Because the API provides a layer of abstraction between the applications and the hardware, the applications ace not affected if the hardware or lower level system software are modified. The API is divided into a series of managers, each of which provides either access to some physiea) device or provides some set of services for the programmer. Examples of these managers are shown in the table illustrated in Fig. 5.
The system applications include a Navigator, Play Stoppage, a suite of games, and the Machine Management System. The Navigator presents the player with an animated icon of each game. The animation describes the key features of the game; users enter a game by touching its icon. Each game is a custom application offering a specific set of propositions to the player. Each game is accompanied by. on-line help that describes the rules of play, general disclaimers for the game, and so on. Play Stoppage is an application that runs short animations or video segments that entertain the player if a system fault occurs, while communicating information ~' about why a game was interrupted and when it will be returned to play. The Machine Management System (MMS) provides a graphical interface to all .technical support functions of the slot machine. This includes player conflict resolution, accounting; product configuration, and machine diagnostics. "
As described in detail,in the above-referenced U.S. Patent No. 6,287,202, before . .
software can be loaded from the hard disk, it must be verified as being an authentic proprietary product. A' secure loader is the system software component that loads executable files from the disk subsystem into RAM, verifies that the contents are correct, and then executes the image. The secure loader is based on the use of two-key cryptographic authentication from RSA Data Security, Ine. of Redwood City, California.
When a software release is ready for shipment, a HASH function designed for cryptographic use generates a unique fixed-length string of I28 bits for the loadable; code image: This string, called a message digest, is then encrypted using RSA software and the proprietor's private key to produce a digital signature for the image. The signature is then written to disk with the loadable code image;. When the code image is loaded from the disk and is wo 98I002o7 PCTI(IS97nZ765 ready to be executed during the system boot sequence, the secure loader decrypts the digital signature using the public key stored in ROM. The secure loader verifies that the image is authentic by comparing the message digest computed for the loadable code image with the message digest decrypted from disk. The software can be authenticated at any time since the console diagnostics include tools that allow the operator to query all loadable _ S applications and run the RSA verification algorithm on theti~ on demand. The authentication process is not limited to just software images. Graphics files or any binary data set can be authenticated. Because the graphics images are so large, they are not verified every time a game is loaded. if needed, critical graphic images such as the faces of cards can be verified before initial use in a game.
A SafeStore application provides fault-tolerant storage for critical system data called safe objects stored in system nonvolatile SRAM. To facilitate recovery of information after a crash or system failure, state information about each safe object along with the object data is saved in an internal format known as a binary large object (BLOB). To protect against hardware or software faults corrupting SafeStore, alt safe objects are mirrored across two independent nonvolatile SRAMs. if corruption occurs by hard or soft failures fo indicate locations in SRAM, or if complete SRAM failures occur, SafeStore will detect this corruption and recover the data.
Fig. 6 depicts a BLOB in SafeStore with all of the important BLOB header fields. The data check sum fields 0 and l contain the check sums of the data in data areas 0 and 1, resp~etively. The active data area pointer field indicates that data area 0 contains the latest data written to SafeStore. The BLOB header check sum field contains a check sum of the BLOB header, including the data area check sums and the data area pointer. During a SafeStore update, the BLOB header is read into main memory where the header check sum is computed and checked against the value of the header check sum field. If the check sum does not match, the system will tilt.
Assuming it matches, the new data is copied into the inactive data area. The copy ofthe BLOB header in main memory is updated with the check sum of the new data; the active data area pointer is updated to point to the data area 1; and the new header check sum is computed and written to SafeStore.
Although the present invention has been described above in terms of specific embodiments, it is anticipated that alterations and modifications thereof will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art. For example; it is contemplated that video screens formed by other apparatus such' as liquid crystal displays, field emission displays, interference element displays, projection TV, and perhaps holographic and other display technology may be used in place of the CRT device presently used in the preferred embodiment. Furthermore, other cabinet configurations and designs may be used to support a large portrait-mode display screen, and whereas the preferred embodiment utilizes a single means to form the display screen, it is contemplated that a similar result may be achieved by using a plurality of contiguous display devices synchronously driven to display different portions of a common image. It is therefore intended that the following claims be interpreted as covering all such alterations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (27)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A gaming machine, comprising:
a cabinet;
at least one user-interface button;
a value-receiving mechanism associated with said cabinet;
a value-dispensing mechanism associated with said cabinet;
a video display unit associated with said cabinet;
a touch-sensitive device associated with said video display unit;
a processor disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said user-interface button, said value-receiving mechanism, said video display unit and said touch-sensitive device;
a read-only memory disposed in said cabinet;
basic input/output system (BIOS) software stored in said read-only memory;
a nonvolatile memory capable of storing critical system data;
critical data storage software that causes critical system data to be stored in said nonvolatile memory;
disk memory disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said processor;
system software stored in said disk memory, said system software comprising:
a first software portion representing a first game that may be played by a player;
a second software portion representing a second game that may be played by a player; and a third software portion that causes a first icon representing said first game and a second icon representing said second game to be generated on said video display unit, said third software portion causing one of said first and second games to be initiated in response to a player touching one of said first and second icons;
encoded data stored in said disk memory, said encoded data having been generated from at least one message digest that was generated based on using an encoding function with said system software;
secure loading software stored in memory that loads system software from said disk memory into random-access memory and verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software, said secure loading software verifying correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated from said encoded data and data generated from said system software;
and operating system (OS) software stored in memory, said operating system software comprising an application programming interface including a first application programming interface portion that provides a software interface to said video display unit and a second application programming interface portion that provides a software interface to said touch-sensitive device.

2. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said encoded data was generated from at least one message digest that was generated based on using a Hash function with said system software.

3. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said encoded data comprises data that was generated by encrypting at least one message digest that was generated based on using a Hash function on said system software.

4. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said secure loading software verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated by decoding said encoded data and at least one message digest generated from said system software.

5. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1, wherein said encoded data was generated by encrypting at least one message digest that was generated from said system software, and wherein said secure loading software verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated by decrypting said encoded data and at least one message digest generated from said system software.

6. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a coin-receiving slot.

7. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a paper money-receiving slot.

8. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a credit/debit card slot.

9. A gaming machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said value-dispensing mechanism comprises a coin hopper.

10. A gaming machine, comprising:
a cabinet;
at least one user-interface button;
a value-receiving mechanism associated with said cabinet;
a value-dispensing mechanism associated with said cabinet;
a video display unit associated with said cabinet;
a touch-sensitive device associated with said video display unit;
a processor disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said user-interface button, said value-receiving mechanism, said video display unit and said touch-sensitive device;
a read-only memory disposed in said cabinet;
basic input/output system (BIOS) software stored in said read-only memory;
a nonvolatile memory capable of storing critical system data;
critical data storage software that causes critical system data to be stored in said nonvolatile memory;
disk memory disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said processor;
system software stored in said disk memory, said system software comprising software representing a game that may be played by a player;
encoded data stored in said disk memory, said encoded data having been generated from at least one message digest that was generated based on using an encoding function with said system software;
secure loading software stored in memory that loads system software from said disk memory into random-access memory and verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software, said secure loading software verifying correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated from said encoded data and data generated from said system software;
and operating system (OS) software stored in memory, said operating system software comprising an application programming interface including a first application programming interface portion that provides a software interface to said video display unit and a second application programming interface portion that provides a software interface to said touch-sensitive device.

11. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10 wherein said encoded data was generated from at least one message digest that was generated based on using a Hash function with said system software.

12. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10 wherein said encoded data comprises data that was generated by encrypting at least one message digest that was generated based on using a Hash function on said system software.

13. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10 wherein said secure loading software verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated by decoding said encoded data and at least one message digest generated from said system software.

14. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10, wherein said encoded data was generated by encrypting at least one message digest that was generated from said system software, and wherein said secure loading software verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated by decrypting said encoded data and at least one message digest generated from said system software.

15. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a coin-receiving slot.

16. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a paper money-receiving slot.

17. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a credit/debit card slot.

18. A gaming machine as defined in claim 10 wherein said value-dispensing mechanism comprises a coin hopper.

19. A gaming machine, comprising:
a cabinet;
at least one user-interface button;
a value-receiving mechanism associated with said cabinet;
a value-dispensing mechanism associated with said cabinet;
a video display unit associated with said cabinet;
a processor disposed in said cabinet and operatively coupled to said user-interface button, said value-receiving mechanism and said video display unit;
a read-only memory disposed in said cabinet;
basic input/output system (BIOS) software stored in said read-only memory;
a nonvolatile memory capable of storing critical system data;
system software stored in memory, said system software comprising software representing a game that may be played by a player;
encoded data stored in memory, said encoded data having been generated from at least one message digest that was generated based on using an encoding function with said system software;
loading software stored in memory that loads system software into random-access memory and verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software, said loading software verifying correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated from said encoded data and data generated from said system software; and operating system (OS) software stored in memory, said operating system software comprising an application programming interface.

20. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19 wherein said encoded data was generated from at least one message digest that was generated based on using a Hash function with said system software.

21. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19 wherein said encoded data comprises data that was generated by encrypting at least one message digest that was generated based on using a hash function on said system software.

22. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19 wherein said loading software verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated by decoding said encoded data and at least one message digest generated from said system software.

23. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19, wherein said encoded data was generated by encrypting at least one message digest that was generated from said system software, and wherein said secure loading software verifies correctness and authenticity of said system software based on a comparison of data generated by decrypting said encoded data and at least one message digest generated from said system software.

24. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a coin-receiving slot.

25. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a paper money-receiving slot.

26. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19 wherein said value-receiving mechanism comprises a credit/debit card slot.

27. A gaming machine as defined in claim 19 wherein said value-dispensing mechanism comprises a coin hopper.