David Newstead takes a look at some of the current fashions within the slot machine industry. He investigates some of the most popular mechanisms players can find on these games via worked examples featuring some of the top slot machine titles of the moment.
Slot machines have been around for well over 100 years. Even though much has changed behind the reels, they are still essentially the same game that Charles Fey, engineer at the famous Pittman and Sitt company in San Francisco, first created in the late 1880s.
The advent of the microprocessor brought a number of changes to the medium, including progressive jackpots, multi-line games and second screen bonuses, but you're essentially looking at the same reel-based action where players have to make combinations to win prizes.
However, developers are always looking to add new fun bonuses and features to lure players to their games. Usually these follow fashions – once one manufacturer has come up with an ingenious new playing system, then you'll often see it copied by others, under a different name.
With the explosion of online casino gaming, there is an unlimited space in which manufacturers can try out their newfangled innovations. In this article we take a look at some of the most popular slot machine mechanisms of the moment.
Unlockable content
One new slot machine mechanism we're starting to see more of is unlockable content. This is where players have to achieve certain goals within the game to access bigger and better bonus features. One example of this is IGT's Monopoly Plus. This uses a board game based feature round that will be familiar to anyone who's played the classic property trading game.
Completing certain actions within the Monopoly Plus bonus wins you Monopoly Money, which is distinct from the cash that can also be won from this feature and the slot machine's reels. You can accrue Monopoly Money to move up levels, which are named after different types of business person, including entreprenuer and tycoon.
Each level also brings new rewards - you can fast track to the richer properties on the board using railway stations, unlock different movers and increase the payout potential of the whole bonus round. The best thing about it is that once you've unlocked this content, it'll be there when you return to the game, providing you don't clear out your browser's cookies.
Episodic machines
This is the idea of unlockable content taken to the next level. Episodic machines are slot games that are all linked to one another. You have to play through a certain number of challenges in the first slot machine to get to play on the second and so on.
The most famous and well known of this type of game are the Star Trek slots from WMS. These fall back on the old Star Trek TV show from the 1960s for their theme, with reel graphics and sound effects from the likes of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Here players have to collect a set number of medals from feature-based game play to unlock the next machine in the series. The incentive is getting a new, exclusive slot machine to play, which has richer bonuses than the previous slot in the series.
Sticky reels
Players love mechanisms that allow them to get extra spins and wins out of just one play. The popularity of the cascading systems employed by hugely successful slots like Da Vinci Diamonds and Gonzo's Quest proves this to be true. WMS' Spinning Streak games, like Reel Rich Devil, and Net Entertainment’s Jack Hammer 2: Fishy Business employ an even more advanced technique of giving players more action from a single spin.
Net Entertainment calls this mechanism sticky reels. Imagine that every stop space on a slot machine's base game grid is actually an independent reel. Then when you hit any combination win on the grid, the reels that show the winning symbols hold in place.
Following this the remaining reels respin, giving you a chance to add further symbols to your combination. Usually games of this type offer quite low prizes as there's a lot of potential to hit big combinations, so the payouts have to be dulled down in order to make the slot economically viable.
Mystery symbols
There seems to be a vogue within the slot machine industry for mystery symbols. These special icons stop in on the reels in the normal fashion, then after a fancy animation reveal themselves to actually be another symbol from the game. Purists may argue that this is actually no different from the revealed symbol appearing on the reels in the first place.
However, what this mechanism does do is add to the excitement offered in the slot machine's base game. There is a certain anticipation created by mystery symbols while players wait to see whether or not these special icons will help them complete their big prize paying combinations.
Persistent equity
Some slot machines allow players to accrue rewards from their reels that pay out a prize or bonus when a certain level is hit. The original persistent equity machine is IGT's Monopoly Here and Now, which allows players to collect property deeds from the standard reel game. These increase the amount of money on offer from the slot's board game bonus round.
However, my favourite persistent equity game of the moment is Net Entertainment’s Robin Hood: Shifting Riches. This allows players to collect money bag symbols from the reels, which are stored in five individual chests, one for each reel. If a player fills any chest with four money bags then they enter into the free spin round. If the player leaves the game, then the money bags they've accrued stay in place for up to 12 months. This allows players to build up a store of persistent equity, so there should come a point where they're likely to hit a number of bonus free spin rounds in quick succession.
Mega reels
One of the newest trends in the online slot machine industry is for games that pack in huge sets of reels, such as WMS' Kiss slot machine. This has two sets of reels – a standard five by three set of casino reels and then an extra set of reels, known as colossal reels, which are around triple the size of the standard reel set. These give players even more pay lines and payouts in a format that land-based casinos would be pushed to offer due to the restrictive size of the cabinets required to display such mechanisms.
Conclusion
In my opinion we're only just starting to see the real potential of online slot machines. Although many developers such as Zynga and IGT seem to be trying to harness the social media market with standard slots, others including Ash Gaming and Gamesys are trying to come up with new game concepts to wow punters. As online casinos offer unlimited virtual floor space there is a tremendous opportunity for the developers to create new mechanisms and features to pull in new players.
There are now moves within the US to allow internet gambling. Currently licences are becoming available in New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada. If the whole of the US is opened up to the online casinos, then we can expect the competition for a land grab in this new territory to be fierce. One of the things that is likely to endear any developer's slot machines to this new audience will be the ingenuity of their gaming concepts.
Hopefully, we will see an explosion in original mechanisms and clever innovations as a new breed of operators attempt to win the hearts and minds of US gamblers, which will appear in new slot machines on the global stage.
David Newstead's love of journalism is second only to his love for slot machines and online casino games. He combines both these passions by regularly contributing articles to many leading gambling industry journals and his own site, www.slotsonline.co.uk
