Casino Player October 2022

PLAYING THE MACHINES

REEL DEAL

Not Your Normal Slot Slot manufacturers keep expanding the definition of a slot, with some radical results

➤ by Frank Legato

O ver the years, the basic format of the slot machine has remained unchanged—spinning reels. From three-reel, tradi tional games with a single payline to five-reel,multi-line games with expanding reels and free-spin rounds, the basic mechanic has remained.Push a button,and the reels spin vertically,stop ping on a result. But as this basic format has remained constant over the years, slot manufacturers have regularly tested the limits of the slot floor with a variety of novelty games. Back in the 1980s, it was the“Flip-It”machine, a big,mechanical contraption that displayed several shelves bearing piles of quarters.At the back of each shelf was a line of mechanical pushers— moving arms behind flat surfaces that would push the big pile of coins. The idea was you would bet a quarter, which would go flying into the pile of coins and cause some of them to spill over the edge. I remember that game; it was a

unit would wager on a field of horses,and everyone would cheer as the little metal horses went around the miniature track. More recently, the non-traditional games have come in the form of slot games that feature absolutely no reel-spinning. Everi’s Crush displays an ancient scene—a sculptedAztec head that the player sends flying down to crush boulders that roll underneath.Each crush yields a credit score.That game’s been enormously popular, as have other Everi entries without traditional reel-spinning. But even more recently, there has been a resurgence of the big, arcade-style novelty games on the slot floor.The D in Downtown Las Vegas, for instance, has refurbished and maintained its Sigma Derby game, and has showcased it for more than 10 years. Konami has had success with its own version of the mechanical horse-race game, Fortune Cup, a modern version of the automated race that includes many wagering options the old game didn’t offer. Meanwhile, there are at least two video slots being launched later this year that re-create the coin-pushing sequence of the old Flip-It machine.GamingArts’ Flip Mania uses a 3D engine to replicate the coin-flipping sequence,and Eclipse Gaming’s Big Shake series uses perceived skill in a great presentation of the classic coin-flip game. Elsewhere, Everi is launching new casino slots that don’t feature reels in the base game.Cha-Ching! displays a field of gift boxes that essentially is a pick bonus used as the primary game. Money Line features cash-on-reels symbols, multipliers and free-spin symbols on an otherwise blank game field. Incredible Technologies chimes in with Wheel Force Double Supreme Hypersonic. Instead of displaying reels,the base game consists completely of bonus wheels. For each wager, two wheels spin side-by-side to deter mine the award.One wheel holds credit prizes;the other has multipliers up to 5X, bonuses and a re-spin feature.A dual-sided window between the wheels indicates the prizes won on both wheels. The wheels don’t necessarily yield one award per spin during paid games. On free spins or re-spins, up to five arrows can be triggered on various wheel slices to award multiple prizes. As far as the larger arcade-style games, there’s a new series from Aruze Gaming called theActiv-Play series, including replications of some

fun novelty. I even remember the manufacturer: Games of Nevada. (That will tell you how long I’ve been writing about this stuff.) Less of a novelty and more of a popular attraction in the ’80s was the Sigma Derby, a multi-player mechani cal horse race. Ten players around the large, arcade-style

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