Slot spotlight by Frank Legato

The Arcade Factor
The Barcrest line of bonus games gives new life to classic IGT slots

It was not that long ago that the outward appearance of a slot machine-any slot machine-was painfully predictable. All of them had spinning reels, backlighting and bells. Players simply looked at the pay tables and top jackpot before deciding which one to play.

Of course, that was back when everyone thought of slots as gambling devices and nothing more. In this, the age of "gaming entertainment," players have a virtual supermarket of choices for their gambling dollars. A good chance of winning is only one concern-the games need to entertain as well.

Leading slot manufacturer International Game Technology had for years spearheaded the effort to make slots more entertaining. There was the Vision Series with its LCD bonus screen, the variety of "MegaJackpots" bonus slots, and partnership slots like "Wheel Of Fortune." By the late 1990s, manufacturers like Aristocrat and Williams had brought multiline video slots into the mix. Silicon Gaming, Atronic, CDS, and Bally had all introduced multimedia slots with 3-D graphics and high-speed computers running the game functions.

In the middle of all this, IGT officials were searching for a product line that would offer a different kind of appeal. While traveling in Europe, one of the company's product development executives noticed the popularity of slot-like games in amusement arcades. Several European countries permit games that are identical to slots but award tokens or tickets for prizes instead of cash jackpots-the so-called "AWP" market (for Amusement With Prizes).

The AWP machines from one manufacturer in particular-Barcrest, Ltd. Of Manchester, England-caught the eyes of IGT officials. They were standard reel-spinning slot machines, but the top box of each had an arcade-style, mechanical amusement game. There was an extensive line of Barcrest games, sporting a variety of unique bonus games, all of which, the executives thought, would fit right into the States' new bonus slots craze.

In 1998, IGT purchased Barcrest and its library of bonus games. The slot manufacturer quickly set out to release this ready-made game library as bonus slots for the American casino market.

The first IGT/Barcrest slots were exact duplications of the European AWP machines. IGT base slots were equipped with top-box bonus games such as "Top Dollar" and "Run For Your Money." The mechanical bonus games operated just like their AWP counterparts, but the top-box art, designed for the amusement arcade, fell short of IGT's standard casino presentation.

By the time IGT released the same games in the "Party Time" series of MegaJackpots multisite progressive slots, the top-box games had been spruced up, the mechanics had been modernized, and the presentation had been modified for the casino audience.

While the variety of bonus games were still pouring from the Barcrest subsidiary, and the Party Time series is still popular, IGT's glut of multisite progressive games in its own formats-Elvis, Megabucks, Wheel of Fortune, etc.-led the manufacturer to a new strategy.

Last year, IGT called on Anchor Games, its frequent business partner and bonus-game collaborator, to market and distribute the Barcrest line as stand-alone units under the Anchor brand.

New Life
A year ago, Anchor Games began distributing Barcrest bonus games as conversion kits for IGT reel-spinning slot machines in the S-Plus series. This strategy assured that the wealth of new game ideas coming from the British IGT subsidiary would reach the casino market.

The kits breathe new life into the traditional IGT reel-spinning slots. Slot traditionalists could now enjoy the best of both worlds-their longtime favorite IGT reel- spinners, with the types of secondary bonus games that have become a standard feature of newer slots.

This year, Anchor began its marketing and distribution of the Barcrest games as stand-alone slots, matching the variety of the traditional reel-spinners in the IGT S-Plus line.

One of the first to be released was Cash Box. The base game is IGT's "Double Five Times Pay," housed in a colorful Anchor cabinet. Three backlit outlines of "keyholes" in the top box serve for the bonus round.

Double Five Times Pay has two multiplying wild symbols, 2X and 5X. The 2X symbol doubles the jackpot in winning combinations and quadruples the jackpot when two land in a win. The 5X symbol multiplies pays by five and 25, respectively. The symbols also work together, multiplying the jackpot by ten if the 2X and 5X symbol both land on the payline with a jackpot symbol.

The key outlines in the top box are marked "1 Key," "2 Keys" and "3 Keys." Within each keyhole are 11 scattered bonus value amounts. There is an extra "Cash Box" key symbol on each reel. Every time a key lands on a reel, an LED meter in the top box increments by one. After each spin, the player has the option of "spending" up to three keys for a bonus payout.

One key activates the first keyhole, and bonus amounts ranging from five coins to 100 coins flash until stopping on one for the bonus payoff. Two keys gets you a bonus amount ranging from 10 coins to 250 coins; three gets you from 30 coins to 1,000 coins.

You can allow up to 99 keys to accumulate on the meter if you like, using from one to three of them after any spin for a bonus. Here's a hint, though-always wait until you have three keys accumulated and go for the top bonus amounts. The average bonus win for three keys is 83 coins. For two keys, it's only 54 coins, and for one, just 27 coins.

Full House features an accumulating bonus game with a two-coin "Five Times Pay" slot as its base. Five Times Pay is one of IGT's most popular multiplying-wild-symbol games, with one wild symbol multiplying jackpots by five and two in a winning combination multiplying the jackpot by 25. The base game, available initially only as a two-coin "buy-a-pay" game (you must play two coins to activate the wild symbols and bonus game), also includes three separate "7" combinations in an ample pay schedule.

The top box displays a backlit pay table. It mirrors seven winning combinations from the base game, though the payouts are different from the primary table: 10 coins for three cherries; 20 for single bars; double bars, 30; triple bars, 50 coins; "bar" 7s, 75 coins; red 7s, 100 coins; and three wild symbols pays 1,000 coins.

Any time one of the above symbols lands on the payline during the primary game, its corresponding symbol on the bonus game board lights up. When all three symbols on any combination in the top box are lit, the bonus amount is paid, and the bonus board reverts to the starting point (the lights behind all the top-box symbols dark).

Hot Rod is being initially marketed with IGT's "Three Times Pay" as the base game. That slot is buy-a-pay game. Wild symbols multiply the jackpot by three if one lands in a winning combination and by nine if two land in a win.

The top box displays two interlocking circles, forming a "figure 8" racetrack. Ringing the right-hand circle are bonus amounts ranging from 20 to 350 coins. On the left-hand side are bonus amounts from 40 to 500 coins. At the center of the interlocking point is the top 1,000-coin bonus amount. An extra "Hot Rod" symbol on the third reel initiates the bonus round.

To the sounds of revving engines, honking horns and screeching tires, the bonus amounts flash rapidly in sequence around the track. The player is prompted to press a button to "stop" the car on a bonus amount. He can either accept the lit amount or gamble it for a different number-it could be larger; it could be smaller. There is only one chance to gamble the bonus amount; at the end of the second bonus "race," the amount is non-negotiable.

All three of these games have strong benefits for the player. The bonus in Hot Rod is a true bonus-the extra reel symbol takes virtually nothing away from the hit frequency or payback percentage of the primary game because it results in extra money every time it lands. (The gamble feature is a great addition, as well.) While the other two are "accumulating" bonuses, they accumulate quite rapidly-especially in Full House-and the bonus amounts are usually quite generous.

These three games are all available now in Nevada (final approval for Hot Rod was expected by the end of August). However, these just scrape the surface.

At press time, several other Barcrest/IGT/Anchor games were nearing the end of the approval process. Anchor Games intends to display an entire new lineup of the bonus slots at this month's big trade show in Las Vegas.

It just goes to show you traditional reel-spinners never die-they just become arcade-style bonus slots. Â