New Trivia Slots
Sometimes, you just can’t keep a good idea down. And blending slot machine excitement with tests of knowledge plays right to my taste.
Sometimes, you just can’t keep a good idea down. And blending slot machine excitement with tests of knowledge plays right to my taste.
If you’re in a casino that has slot games on the Pro Wave cabinet from the Bally Technologies division of Scientific Games, you can’t miss it. The Pro Wave is a eye-catcher, with a giant 40-inch, curved main screen for high-resolution graphics.
Video poker games are designed to be as random as humans can program a computer to be. The odds of drawing winning hands are the same as cards were dealt from a real deck.
Still, when odd streaks happen, players can’t help but wonder if something more is going on.
When you’re a smaller slot manufacturer trying to compete with the likes of IGT, Bally, WMS and Aristocrat, you need to be nimble, creative and innovative.
Multimedia Games has been all of that, and expects to keep bringing the innovation now that it has been acquired by Global Cash Access. The new company is in the process of rebranding, and will reveal a new name in late August.
When video slots first came out, it took only a single bonus event to entrance players. Neighbors would stop their play to watch whenever someone went fishing in Reel ’Em In or chose their Chinese foods from the menu in Fortune Cookie.
For gamemakers, attracting slot players is all about offering different play experiences to different segments of players. There are big jackpot games, high volatility games, second-screen bonus games, free-spin bonus games and more.
The video age has enabled game designers to get creative in any number of ways, and that includes the way they use reels and symbols. One of the latest wrinkles is Cluster Power, a new way to play you’ll be seeing in the coming year on Aristocrat Technologies’ Sons of Anarchy slot machine.
Gaming expert John Grochowski discusses the upcoming slot technologies of skill-based and perceived-skill games.
The biggest name in new table games for the casino industry is also a new name. SHFL Entertainment changed its name from Shuffle Master this fall. By any name, it always has new poker-based games in its mix.
When the Global Gaming Expo rolls around every fall, the display floor is dominated by major slot manufacturers. You could spend days just trying new slot games — and I do spend most of two days doing just that.
But I like to reserve one day seeking out new table games. There are nowhere near as many new table games as there are slot games, and many of the table games designers have small booths on the back rows of the floor, far from the main action. But walking the floor sometimes allows you to uncover a gem.
You always can count on International Game Technology for an interesting twist on video poker. In the coming year, the twists will include games with new Ace-based multipliers and a marriage of poker and keno.
WMS Gaming has long been an innovator in slot machines, with games such as Jackpot Party and Reel ’Em In becoming casino standards, and Lord of the Rings, the Monopoly series and others taking gaming in new directions. But WMS has not been a major player in video poker, a field dominated by International Gaming Technology. WMS is trying to change that with a couple of new products, and one I find particularly intriguing is Winning Streak Poker.
Who’s it to be, Superman or Spider-Man? The Man of Steel from the planet Krypton, or the angsty young man with the radioactive spider bite? As a comic-book loving kid, it was Superman for me, but that was before Spidey really hit his stride.
When it comes to slot-playing time, either one can save your bonus in new games of heroic proportions.
I love a little skill in my games. That doesn’t mean I’m particularly good at applying the skill, but I love the feeling that I have an impact on whether I win or lose. International Game Technology has taken its popular Little Green Men theme and added a test of skill in a bonus event on Little Green Men: Cosmic Blaster.
The last time I saw Betty Boop, the iconic cartoon flapper was the center of attention of Betty Boop’s Love Meter. That was one of the first Bally Technologies slot machines to incorporate its iDeck touch-screen technology where the button panel is on most machines. In one bonus event, you’d touch a hand outline on the panel, and the Love Meter would rise in the top box. The meter would rise from lovable to romantic to sexy to wild to smokin’ and beyond — the higher your Love Meter score, the bigger your bonus.
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