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15 New Slots
You Must Play
The innovations keep coming from gaming's slot manufacturers. Here, listed alphabetically, are 15
new machines you won't want to miss By Frank Legato
 1. BINGO BONUS SLOTS Casino Data Systems
"Bingo Bonus Slots" is the first release in CDS' "Bandit Series" line of multimedia slots. It is also the first game to offer all of the entertainment appeal, incredible graphics and feature-richness formerly available only from Silicon Gaming's "Odyssey."
Like Odyssey, the CDS Bingo game has the picture, sound and animation quality of the most powerful home computer game, on a rectangular, 19-inch monitor. The monitor is split into two areas, the top occupied by five video reels and the bottom by a giant video bingo card. The primary game is a five-line slot with bets of up to 25 coins (five per line). Extra symbols on the reels are 3-D, numbered bingo balls.
At the beginning of play, the player chooses a winning bingo configuration for his card. The easiest to achieve is five numbers in any straight or diagonal line. The harder configurations result in higher bonuses÷numbers on four corners of the card (the center "star" is wild, just as in real bingo) or the entire bingo card.
Every time a bingo ball lands on a lit pay line, the 3-D image of the ball spins to reveal a number and leaps off the reel, flying to the corresponding number on the card to "daub" the number. When the player completes his selected configuration, you hear a shout of "Bingo!" and the screen transforms into bouncing bingo balls, until a random bonus amount appears, anywhere from a single coin to 4,000 coins.
The bingo bonus game is streamlined if five bingo balls land on a lit pay line. That's an "instant bingo," and the player is prompted to choose the bonus from five spinning balls on the second screen.
The electronics of Bingo Bonus Slots makes the game every bit as visually entertaining as Silicon's Odyssey. The talents of the software engineers at CDS, though, have assured that the technology is exploited for all of its entertainment value.
2. CHICKEN Aristocrat, Inc.
With this multiline video game, Australian manufacturer Aristocrat gives you a good dose of Aussie humor. The primary game is improved by both sharp new graphics and a "hold and spin" feature.
When one or more "chicken" wild scatter symbols land, they stay in place for three free spins. All jackpots are accumulated from the free spins into a bonus. But the humor kicks in when you line up five chickens÷either on a normal spin or as part of the three free spins. That triggers the second screen.
The second-screen bonus game incorporates an Australian brand of humor in a "chickens crossing the road" sequence. A cartoon scene shows chickens bunched up on one side of a road. The chickens, one at a time, attempt to cross the road without getting run over by a truck that speeds into view. They assume various characters as they try÷one is on a skateboard, another is a "Super Chicken" character÷for a comical bonus sequence. If they get hit by the truck, they pop up and spin around with stars in their eyes and plenty of cartoony shtick. A bonus coin amount is awarded for each chicken that crosses without getting flattened.
3. DESPERADO Atronic Casino Technologies
Atronic was the first slot manufacturer to offer breathtaking 3-D video graphics, and was the first to combine such graphics with the Australian, multiline game format, with its "Volcano Island" slot. Ever since that release, the company has been refining its bonus games. One of the highlights of that effort was "Sphinx," the Egypt-themed game with a "two-tiered" bonus game÷a second-screen bonus which, if the player makes the right selection, leads to a third video screen with higher bonus amounts.
"Desperado" is Atronic's second game to feature a two-tiered bonus. It is a five-reel, five-line video slot, commonly available with bets of up to five coins per line. It carries an Old West theme, with line-pay symbols such as a cactus, a sheriff's badge and a sack of gold nuggets. Line pays range from two coins to 5,000 coins, times the coins bet per line for a top jackpot of 25,000 coins.
Three bonus coins on a lit pay line trigger the second screen, a Western town with target crosshairs placed in various locations. The player chooses one to "shoot" for the bonus. Four of the targets hide bonus coin amounts of five, 20, 100 and 250 coins, but one hides the word "bank." If the player selects that one, it triggers the third screen÷the bank's interior, a room with a vault and dynamite ready to blow it. The player chooses one of five "fuses" to blow up the vault for a high-level bonus of 100, 200, 250, 1,000 or 2,500 coins.
The hit frequency of 28.9 percent is average for Australian-style slots, but the bonus game is much better than average÷and fair, too. The bonus amounts are weighted equally, so the player has just as good a chance of getting the top bonuses as the lower ones.
 4. ELVIS International Game Technology
IGT scored something of a coup when officials of the Elvis Presley estate, including widow Priscilla Presley, agreed to the first gambling-related use of Presley's image. But it was then up to IGT's game designers to make the most of the rights to Presley's concert footage in an entertaining slot game.
IGT has done a masterful job. Like "Slotopoly," the "Elvis" slot uses the most popular IGT reel-spinners in the Vision Series format, incorporating both a unique bonus game and a mega-money progressive jackpot. Lining up three "Elvis" wild symbols on the pay line nets the progressive prize, which starts at $100,000 on the initial quarter version of the slot.
The game program is similar to that used in Slotopoly, in that it features an extra wild symbol in the primary game÷the "Elvis" symbol÷that multiplies jackpots in the same manner as the primary wild symbol. The bonus round occurs when the player lines up a "Play Elvis" symbol on the third reel. The symbol pays ten coins and activates the bonus game in the machine's top box.
The top box displays a color photo of Elvis surrounded by 14 gold records. Each record bears the name of a hit and a bonus coin amount ranging from 20 to 1,000 coins. When the reel trigger is hit, the records flash in sequence until one is selected. A 30-second video clip of Presley singing the song in concert then plays out on the LCD screen, after which the player is awarded the bonus amount. The top 1,000-coin bonus is the "Greatest Hits" record. If the player lands that amount, the LCD screen displays a video medley of hits being performed by Presley.
The bonus round occurs much more frequently than most similar slots. Elvis fans will love the video clips, which are from some of Presley's best performances. And all slot fans will love the feature-packed game.
 5. EMPIRE DELUXE
A.C. Coin and Slot Co.
A.C. Coin's "Empire" slot was one of the big hits last year. This year, the company has released a new and improved version.
The basic game is the same. (Who'd want to change it, anyway?) It is themed to look like the Empire State Building, with a mini-King Kong character climbing up the side. The primary three-reel slot includes nine pay table combinations and an "Empire" symbol that is wild anywhere within one space of the pay line. Three wild symbols in any position score a secondary jackpot of 1,000 coins; three on the pay line win the top 10,000-coin jackpot.
And, of course, the monkey's the same, too÷a miniature gorilla that races a clock up the building, climbing so many "floors" each time a "climb" symbol lands on the reels÷to a backdrop of funny jungle music and conga drums. What's different in this version are the bonus amounts.
If climb symbols land on the reels often enough to get the little monkey to the "70th floor" before the one minute, 40-second timer expires, the player gets one of three bonus payments, equal to one of the three tiers of the "bonus zone." On the original game, the bonus amounts were small at 10 coins, 15 coins and 25 coins. On "Empire Deluxe," getting the gorilla to the 70th floor wins 25 coins; reaching the 90th floor yields 40 coins; reaching the 100th floor wins the top bonus of 100 coins.
One great aspect of this is that the meatier bonuses don't take anything away from the primary game, which has always been entertaining enough in its own right to make the bonus payments and afterthought. The overall hit frequency is still 35.7 percent (a hit every three spins)÷or about twice that of most single-line, reel-spinning slots. And the sound effects are a hoot.
Bottom line: "Empire Deluxe" is an improvement on a slot that was already great.
6. GREAT WHITES VLC
VLC turned a lot of heads when it came out with the "Power Series" version of its "Winning Touch" multigame slot, featuring intricate graphics and multiple bonus features that the original version did not have.
One of the manufacturer's best moves, however, was keeping the best games from the original Winning Touch, using the new computerized graphics and extra storage capacity to enhance games that were already good.
One such game is "Great Whites," a nine-line video slot packed with special features. The primary game has three different pay tables for poker symbols (10, J, Q, K and A). The symbols are either red or blue, and the pays are higher for lining up three or more in the same color. There is a third pay table for forming straights and royal flushes with the poker symbols.
The "shark" symbol is wild for all except the scatter symbols, and has its own pay table as well÷250 coins for three on a lit pay line, 1,000 coins for four and 10,000 coins for five. Line pays are multiplied by the per-line bet (for a top potential jackpot of 50,000 coins), and scatter pays÷for the "fishing lure" symbol÷pay from one to 500 coins, times the total bet.
All of the features of the primary game are augmented by a "Mystery Bonus Feature" that appears when a shell symbol lands anywhere on all five reels. The player touches the screen to select one of several shells for a bonus of five to 25 coins, times the total bet.
All of the ways to win in this game add up to one of the best hit frequencies available in any slot÷55 percent, or a hit every other spin. If you find one of the higher-percentage versions (the game is available in payback up to 97 percent), this can be a lucrative proposition.
7. JACKPOT PARTY Williams/WMS Gaming
This is one of the newest Williams slots using the "Dotmation" L.E.D. bonus screen÷and one of the best. It carries a Î70s disco theme, with a pay table consisting of fruit symbols, bell symbols and three separate "7" combinations (mixed 7s, blue 7s and "Jackpot 7s").
The primary reel game is a five-line, five-coin slot. There is one jackpot amount for each symbol on the lower tier of the pay table; the number of coins bet relates only to the number of pay lines activated (five coins to activate all five lines). Jackpots on separate pay lines are added together for accumulated payouts.
The five top jackpots in the primary game are for lining up three "Jackpot 7s" on an active pay line. There is a separate amount for each pay line÷100 coins, 200 coins, 300 coins, 400 coins, and the game's top jackpot of 1,000 coins for lining the symbols up on the diagonal fifth pay line.
Three "party horn" symbols anywhere on the reels (they don't have to be on the same pay line) activate the Dotmation bonus game. You hear campy Î70s disco music like "Macho Man" by the Village People, and the Dotmation screen transforms into a grid of tiles. An arrow on the screen can be manipulated with the buttons to choose one of the tiles. Behind the tiles are bonus coin amounts or a "party pooper," one of six animated characters who signal the end of the bonus game. The player accumulates bonus amounts until he hits a party pooper. Bonuses range from five coins to 1,000 coins.
A recently-released video version is even more fun. This time, players touch bonus packages to reveal payouts in the bonus screen, until one of the poopers shows up.
8. MONOPOLY Williams/WMS Gaming
After securing the rights to develop this game with Hasbro, the owner of the legendary Atlantic City-themed board game "Monopoly," Williams designed four different machines for the slot version of the game, covering several popular genres of slot machine.
Each of the four versions of Monopoly has a primary bonus game featuring the famous "Monopoly" board. A reel trigger sends the player around the board, collecting bonus amounts for landing on various properties, railroads or utilities.
Each version has its own bonus feature to augment the main board game. Reel-spinner "Roll and Win" has large dice in the top box which roll, multiplying the jackpot by the dice total. "Advance to Boardwalk," the other reel-spinning Monopoly game, uses the Williams "Dotmation" L.E.D. bonus screen to display animated reels, in a bonus game incorporating the "Chance" and "Community Chest" features of the board game.
The two video versions of Monopoly are multiline, Australian-style video games. "Reel Estate" includes scatter-pay symbols that trigger a bonus game with the object of lighting up all of the same-colored properties on the Monopoly board for a bonus prize. On "Once Around," the bonus game sends the player around the board in an attempt to accumulate houses and hotels for bonus awards.
All of the versions of Monopoly maintain player interest not only because of the familiar theme, but because they are loaded with features, multiple bonus events and bonuses that offer the player a vastly more entertaining play experience than simply watching reels spin. |
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