GAMING DEVICE ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED COMPONENTS

1 . A gaming platform for a gaming machine, comprising:

a game application having non-shared, executable game objects and game specific information, the game application comprising at least one game manager interface, at least one library routine for receiving commands from the game manager and sending commands to gaming machine drivers, and at least one I/O server comprising a plurality of gaming machine hardware drivers;

an operating system including an operating system application and data that are used to provide a plurality of general gaming features, wherein the operating system runs the game application and executes general gaming features in response to requests from the game application; and

a testing manager in communication with the game manager, wherein the testing manager communicates with an external test client to determine operability of one or more components within the gaming machine;

wherein the game manager interface receives an I/O stream to the game application and communicates with at least one of the library routine, the I/O server, and the operating system to facilitate game application functions.

2 . The gaming platform of claim 1 , further comprising a sound server having sound files that are in communication with the game manager interface, wherein the sound server receives requests for and sends sound files to the game manager interface for execution on the gaming machine.

3 . The gaming platform of claim 1 , further comprising a video server in communication with the game manager interface, wherein the video server receives requests for and sends graphic files and fonts to the game manager interface for execution on a gaming machine.

4 . The gaming platform of claim 1 , further comprising a multimedia server having multimedia applications, wherein the multimedia server is in communication with the game manager, and wherein the multimedia server provides multimedia capabilities to the game application or to the game manager.

5 . The gaming platform of claim 1 , wherein the one or more components are NVRAM, meters, bill acceptor, one or more deck buttons, or touch screen.

6 . A gaming platform for a gaming machine, comprising:

an operating system program including data for basic core functions of a gaming machine;

a game application program including game-specific non-shared executable objects, paytable data, graphics, and sounds, wherein the game application program is separate from the operating system program, and wherein the game application program drives the operation of a game;

a testing program in communication with the game manager, wherein the testing program communicates with an external test client to determine operability of one or more components within the gaming machine; and

a game manager interface in communication with the game application program and the operating system program, wherein the game manager interface facilitates the functions called by the game application program and carried out by the operating system program.

7 . The gaming platform of claim 6 , further comprising a sound server having sound files that are in communication with the game manager interface, wherein the sound server receives requests for and sends sound files to the game manager interface for execution on the gaming machine.

8 . The gaming platform of claim 6 , further comprising a video server in communication with the game manager interface, wherein the video server receives requests for and sends graphic files and fonts to the game manager interface for execution on the gaming machine.

9 . The gaming platform of claim 6 , wherein the one or more components are NVRAM, meters, bill acceptor, one or more deck buttons, or touch screen.