When International Game Technology merged with Spielo International a few years ago, IGT already owned many of the most best-loved slot games around. Megabucks, Double Diamond, Wolf Run and the ever-popular Wheel of Fortune are just a few in IGT’s hit parade.
Spielo didn’t bring as many popular favorites to the merger, but it did bring Sphinx. The original Sphinx, an Egyptian-themed video slot with a free-spin bonus, has been a durable favorite that spawned several successor games. One is Sphinx 3D, one of the most popular games going today with amazing three-dimensional effects with no need for special glasses.
How could IGT top Sphinx 3D? With Sphinx 4D, which adds a dimension of touch to the experience.
“In Sphinx 3D, what would players what would they do when they were playing the game?” Michelle Schenk, IGT’s manager for corporate communications said as she showed me the game at Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. “They’d reach out and grab for the coins or the rainbows.
“Sphinx 4D introduces the fourth dimension. The game can track your hand movement and it will give some tactile feedback as well.”
Schenk demonstrated by launching a free spins bonus.
“Reach out to the screen,” she told me. “As you move your hand close, you should have some tactile feedback.”
I did just that, and it was as if I was launching an electrical discharge. Lightining-like lines appeared all around my hand, and I felt a small tingling sensation.
“Pull your hand in, draw it out,” I was told.
The energy discharge followed my hand, seeming to pull out toward me with the 3D effect as I drew my hand away from the screen, then contracting inward as I moved back.
A quick flick, and the electrical effect disappeared, and my bonus launched.
Sphinx 4D has a 32-inch curve display on its main screen, and a giant 50-inch top box display. There are both free spin and pick’em bonuses.
And aside from the new touch sensations, the three-dimensional effects are as realistic as ever. After a big win, I still wanted to reach out and grab the coins that seemed to fly off the screen.
