iDecks Are Introduced to Video Slots and Video Poker Casino Games

By John Grochowski on Monday December 13, 2010

gaming, new-gaming-technology, tunica

Touch-screen technology has been with us for some time, enabling players to touch the screen to spin reels or get the help menu on video slots, or to hold cards or draw in video poker.

Bally Technologies has turned the traditional button panel into an extra touch screen with its new iDeck, which was on display at the recent Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. Only one physical button remains on the iDeck. Bally’s game developers figured players would still like to have one button to spin the reels.

Everything else is done with virtual buttons. Instead of physical buttons, you’ll see the image of buttons when you choose how many paylines to bet, or how many credits per line, or go to cash out.

If that was all there was to the iDeck, it would be no great shakes. But Bally has given the iDeck a whole suite of randomly occurring bonus events with a package called U-Win. Separately from the base game, you’ll see the buttons disappear and be replaced by an image of a wheel to spin or a magic lamp to rub for bonus credits.

The iDeck also can be integrated with bonus events on the main game. I tested game called Betty Boop’s Love Meter.  In the game’s main bonus event, the iDeck panel displays the outlines of two hands. You place your hands on panel, and the iDeck hands change colors, a la the mood rings that were a fad in the 1970s. At the same time, in the top box, the Love Meter starts to rise, from lovable to romantic to sexy to wild to smokin’ and beyond. The higher it rises, the hotter your bonus.

I’ll give the iDeck a thumbs up as a tool that gives game designers one more opportunity to build extra fun into the games.