On the final day of Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, my final tour of slot manufacturers' booths sent me searching for folks who know more about ships than I do. On its new Titanic slots, Bally Technologies kicks off bonus events with a U Spin turn. By now, you know how U Spin works. You touch the screen to move a wheel back and forth, and let fly to give it a spin.
On Titanic, a key U Spin is on the ship's control that's marked off into segments including slow, full half and stop, both for ahead and astern. That seemed like a lot of words, so I wanted to know what the device was called. For a quick answer, I turned to an online community, a message board consisting mainly of University of Illinois sports fans.
I got my answer within four minutes of asking. It's the engine order telegraph.
The engine order telegraph is important in Titanic, a feature-rich games filled with movie clips and iconic symbols. The celebration for big wins includes the famous moment in the movie when Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson stands on the prow and shouts for the planet to hear, "I'm king of the world!" Slot playing kings and queens also see coins flying across the screen during the classic scene.
On the Titanic game, the engine order telegraph segments are for bonus event launches and other awards. When Bally's Mike Trask showed the game features, a U Spin of the engine order telegraph took us to the segment marked Safe.
In the Safe feature, it was time to U Spin again, this time on the ship's safe's combination lock. A single spin brought a credit award, opened the door and took us into a finely appointed ship's room. There, we got to pick icons --- a vase, a table, a woman standing in the room --- to collect bonuses.
Another event plays off Dawson's sketching skills. A drawing scene plays, and three sketches are displayed. A match game follows, with players doing a little virtual scratch off until they select three copies of the same drawing. That determines bet size on free spins to come.
Slot players who loved the movie will find plenty to like, regardless of whether they've ever heard of an engine order telegraph.
Showing posts with label Global Gaming Expo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Gaming Expo. Show all posts
Friday, September 27, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013
G2E, day 2, Aristocrat, Spielo, Konami
A few notes from Global Gaming Expo, Day 2:
**After two days of being accosted by zombies near the exhibit hall --- they growled at me, but ultimately parted enough that I could get through without turning undead --- I got my chance to see Aristocrat's The Walking Dead game through its license with AMC. It's feature rich, with Reel Growth extending reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 up an extra 1 to 3 spaces for added potential wins. In The Horde bonus, the Horde invades the screen and leaves wild symbols behind. As Aristocrat's Dallas Orchard demoed the game, a zombie took a shot in the head, splattering blood --- and wild symbols --- across the reels. When the blood starts flowing, it's good for the players.
**Spielo's Sphinx 3D is spectacular. Sphinx has been a great title for Spielo (formerly Atronic) for a long time, and in the new version, the 3-D effects are spectacular. As Mike Brennan, who was showing me the game watched, the coins from a big win seemed to jump right off the screen, and right at me. I reach out and grasped, and told him I'd like to take some of those coins right now.
Stacked wilds here are really stacked wilds. Coin-shaped discs depicting a scarab stack up on the same reel position. As the stack grows, it increases the number of times a winner is collected. At one point, I had a winner that included a stack of five scarabs. I collected the 250 credit win once, and a scarab disk was taken away. That was repeated, repeated, repeated and repeated again, until the last scarab had been used, I got the 250-coin win five times. It's a new way of stacking wilds that would work effectively only with great 3D.
**One of the pleasures of G2E is experiencing game features without investing any money. At the Konami booth, I sampled The Force of Legend, an Xtra Reward Game featuring Action Stacked Symbols The lion was a wild symbol, and each lion expanded into a stack to fill a three-symbol column. I triggered a bonus event, and had to choose credits or 45 spins under Konami's Balance of Fortune mechanic. I choose spins, and on No. 44 triggered 150 more. The total for 195 spins: $1,524.50 in imaginary money for a $4.50 imaginary bet.
**After two days of being accosted by zombies near the exhibit hall --- they growled at me, but ultimately parted enough that I could get through without turning undead --- I got my chance to see Aristocrat's The Walking Dead game through its license with AMC. It's feature rich, with Reel Growth extending reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 up an extra 1 to 3 spaces for added potential wins. In The Horde bonus, the Horde invades the screen and leaves wild symbols behind. As Aristocrat's Dallas Orchard demoed the game, a zombie took a shot in the head, splattering blood --- and wild symbols --- across the reels. When the blood starts flowing, it's good for the players.
**Spielo's Sphinx 3D is spectacular. Sphinx has been a great title for Spielo (formerly Atronic) for a long time, and in the new version, the 3-D effects are spectacular. As Mike Brennan, who was showing me the game watched, the coins from a big win seemed to jump right off the screen, and right at me. I reach out and grasped, and told him I'd like to take some of those coins right now.
Stacked wilds here are really stacked wilds. Coin-shaped discs depicting a scarab stack up on the same reel position. As the stack grows, it increases the number of times a winner is collected. At one point, I had a winner that included a stack of five scarabs. I collected the 250 credit win once, and a scarab disk was taken away. That was repeated, repeated, repeated and repeated again, until the last scarab had been used, I got the 250-coin win five times. It's a new way of stacking wilds that would work effectively only with great 3D.
**One of the pleasures of G2E is experiencing game features without investing any money. At the Konami booth, I sampled The Force of Legend, an Xtra Reward Game featuring Action Stacked Symbols The lion was a wild symbol, and each lion expanded into a stack to fill a three-symbol column. I triggered a bonus event, and had to choose credits or 45 spins under Konami's Balance of Fortune mechanic. I choose spins, and on No. 44 triggered 150 more. The total for 195 spins: $1,524.50 in imaginary money for a $4.50 imaginary bet.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Full-pay Deuces Wild at Sam's Town
I'm in Las Vegas for Global Gaming Expo, which opens Tuesday. Soon, I'll be posting details of some new games at the show.
Sunday was more or less a play day for me. I had dinner with several other writers, including Henry Tamburin, Linda Boyd and Steve Bourie, who publishes the annual American Casino Guide. Steve was our host, and Henry, Linda and I all recorded videos for him that will be posted on YouTube in the coming months.
We were at Sam's Town, and Sam's has what has become a rare treat --- full-pay Deuces Wild. With expert play, it's a 100.8 percent return. For many years, it was my standby when the Tropicana was giving me room and meal comps, and sending a limo to get me at the airport. On one memorable session, I drew four 2s, and 1,000 quarters poured into the tray. Ten minutes later, I did it again. Sweet!
Alas, no more. Hardly anyone has it anymore.
I didn't get the four-deuce, 1,000-quarter bonanza this time, but had a fun session nonetheless. I started with a ticket for $52.50 from a previous session. The deuces were not kind for my first 20 minutes. I was down to my last $1.25, when I drew five of a kind for a nice 75-coin pay. Two hand later, I held once 2, and drew another 2 and three high clubs for a wild royal. Another 125 quarters, and I was in business.
The four of a kinds I wasn't getting early started to roll in. Soon I was up to $60, and settled into a little equilibrium. There were little cold streaks where I dipped below $50, and little hot streaks where I sneaked past $70. Finally, an hour and a half after my session-saving five of a kind, I cashed out for $80.
Not the biggest win in history, but a good time.
Sunday was more or less a play day for me. I had dinner with several other writers, including Henry Tamburin, Linda Boyd and Steve Bourie, who publishes the annual American Casino Guide. Steve was our host, and Henry, Linda and I all recorded videos for him that will be posted on YouTube in the coming months.
We were at Sam's Town, and Sam's has what has become a rare treat --- full-pay Deuces Wild. With expert play, it's a 100.8 percent return. For many years, it was my standby when the Tropicana was giving me room and meal comps, and sending a limo to get me at the airport. On one memorable session, I drew four 2s, and 1,000 quarters poured into the tray. Ten minutes later, I did it again. Sweet!
Alas, no more. Hardly anyone has it anymore.
I didn't get the four-deuce, 1,000-quarter bonanza this time, but had a fun session nonetheless. I started with a ticket for $52.50 from a previous session. The deuces were not kind for my first 20 minutes. I was down to my last $1.25, when I drew five of a kind for a nice 75-coin pay. Two hand later, I held once 2, and drew another 2 and three high clubs for a wild royal. Another 125 quarters, and I was in business.
The four of a kinds I wasn't getting early started to roll in. Soon I was up to $60, and settled into a little equilibrium. There were little cold streaks where I dipped below $50, and little hot streaks where I sneaked past $70. Finally, an hour and a half after my session-saving five of a kind, I cashed out for $80.
Not the biggest win in history, but a good time.
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