Global Gaming Business Magazine

AC Coin & Slot - All About The Win

Communal play and innovative bonuses mark a strong game lineup

AC Coin & Slot long ago established its reputation as one of the top producers of slot bonus games in the industry. For the past few years, though, the Pleasantville, N.J.-based company has been building on that reputation in a big way.

AC Coin celebrates its 30^th anniversary next year—it was founded by Mac Seelig in 1978 to serve the nascent Atlantic City casino industry—by rolling out new products in what is now a huge library of bonus games under the product brand “Mega Bonus Slots.”

The new brand name was revealed earlier this year, placing all games under a banner that reflects what the company is now all about—innovative bonus games—as opposed to what the company originally was, a supplier and partner solely to Atlantic City casinos. AC Coin originally provided everything from slot stands and table-game furniture to slot signage for the young Atlantic City casino market, as well as select machines. The company originally distributed slot machines for the old Jennings company, but in 1982, Mac Seelig forged a deal with Si Redd to become the exclusive Atlantic City distributor for what was then an unknown slot-maker, International Game Technology.

The IGT distributorship, eventually to include Caribbean casinos, remains lucrative to this day. However, for the past decade, AC Coin has moved way beyond the shadow of its famous partner to forge its own identity as a game developer. That identity began in 1996 with “Bonus Road Rally,” an arcade-style race of miniature cars on top of IGT dollar slots in Atlantic City. AC Coin took off nationally two years after that with “Empire,” the company’s first big hit, which featured a miniature gorilla climbing up a slot top box fashioned into a replica of the Empire State Building.

Its biggest hit, of course, came in 2000 with “Slotto,” the bonus game conceived by AC Coin Executive Vice President Jerry Seelig that features a Plexiglas sphere in a slot top box that is a replica of the apparatus used to draw the balls in televised lottery drawings.

Slotto has been a smash hit for AC Coin, and the company has spent its positive capital from the game on a host of sequels using the bonus-ball concept.

This year, AC Coin again capitalizes on the popularity of Slotto and its other greatest games with new versions, as well as launching totally new game concepts and improved versions of the new play concepts the company has introduced during the past few years.

One of those is the “communal play” concept, first seen earlier this year when the company released “Super Slotto Celebration,” an eight-player carousel of individual Slotto games surrounding a giant version of the patented Slotto sphere.

According to Jerry Seelig, that game, launched in June at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, is spreading as quickly as the company’s New Jersey facility can crank the behemoth units out. He says there will be perhaps a dozen in the field in various jurisdictions around the country by the time the Global Gaming Expo begins.

The company is wasting no time in applying the communal play concept to both current themes and innovative new games, which will be well-represented at AC Coin’s G2E booth.

Seelig says the company will launch no less than seven new communal play concepts at the show, but that’s only part of what’s in store as AC Coin celebrates 30 years in the slot business. The company is using the show to launch new games in every one of its successful genres, from mechanical top-box bonus games using the Slotto concept in a variety of ways to new versions of its unique hybrid video slots.

Winning Concepts - Seelig says AC Coin’s slogan for this year’s G2E show is “It’s all about the win,” a credo directed both at casino operators and players. The specific products being launched, he says, are the results of the company’s research and feedback from operators on ways to achieve higher win and make the games more popular.

A good result of this is the collection of communal slot game presentations, which are all smaller setups than the eight-machine Super Slotto Celebration that is still spreading across the industry. “The seven communal games we’re bringing to the show are mainly in four-game configurations,” Seelig explains. “These are nice, manageable events that operators are going to be able to give players, including several different experiences from AC Coin. Each experience will be unique.”

He adds that Super Slotto Celebration taught the company’s game developers how to refine the communal experience. “It showed us what people like and don’t like, and what operators like and don’t like,” he says. “We found ourselves shrinking the communal experience a bit so it will fit on casino floors without displacing so many slots.” While the eight-player giant is popular, the smaller version allows for multiple purchases by one casino, he says.

Players will find some of the multi-player setups familiar. There is a four-player bank of the popular “Bankroll” bonus slot, which in its stand-alone version features a scrolling top-box display representing a continuous sheet of cash in various bill denominations. The display scrolls until stopping with an indicator arrow pointing to the player’s bonus award.

The new version of the game, called “Bankroll Bonus Reserve,” positions individual video-slot player stations around a giant cylinder. During the bonus round, a continuous sheet of bills scrolls horizontally around the giant display until landing in front of arrows in front of each player’s machine. The math is timed so several players can be entering the bonus at a time—bonus rounds are triggered on various machines during 15-second activation periods. Bills on the horizontal display indicate either bills or multipliers. If a player’s arrow lines up with a multiplier, the big display scrolls again for an amount to multiply. If two multipliers land, the player gets the combined multipliers times 200 credits.

Several of the other communal-style games employ methods such as these, which allow players to, as Seelig notes, “share the experience of the bonus without having to share the jackpot.” Beyond that, AC Coin has rolled out the Slotto bonus-ball concept in a variety of creative and entertaining new ways.

In “Pirate’s Cove,” the giant central sphere in the middle of the four player stations contains a ring of pirate-ship cannons, which shoot bonus “cannonballs” until each player in the bonus has two, one representing a credit amount and the other a multiplier. In “Sparky’s Smokin’ Hot Jackpots,” the bonus balls spew into the chamber from a fireplug—if the “Smokin’ Hot” ball lands twice in front of the player, the award is 10,000 credits. In “Mushroom Mojo,” the bonus balls fall from a mushroom umbrella; in “Slotto Volcano,” they spew from a simulated volcanic mountain, sculpted with AC Coin’s typical artistic flair. (“It’s nice to have your own sculpting shop,” says Seelig.)

Other communal games revive tried-and-true concepts in a new format. The scrolling Bankroll concept is revived with “Carousel Cash.” Instead of dollar bills, the scrolling horizontal display depicts horses in a carousel in an entertaining presentation of the same kind of bonus concept. “Super Big game Show Bonus” reprises AC Coin’s “Big Game Show” stand-alone slot in a three-game unit with a common central bonus display. Players in the bonus round get up to three chances at bonus awards—as lights flash around the display, the player presses a button to stop it on credit wins, multipliers or a devil character that ends the bonus.

Finally, AC Coin’s big news in communal play this year is the return of the game which arguably started it all—Empire. The new, communal version of Empire positions four individual slots around a four-sided replica of the Empire State building, each with a miniature gorilla climbing toward multiple bonus zones. As with the other communal games, one or several players can enter the bonus at the same time, although each bonus is awarded individually.

The company’s lineup of communal-style games is sometimes accompanied by some unique hardware other than the big sphere—namely, two-player loveseats instead of the standard slot stool.

Stand-Alone Strength - AC Coin’s new emphasis on communal play certainly does not mean the slot-maker has abandoned stand-alone slots. The manufacturer is launching new stand-alone games in all of its popular genres.

“Diamond Time” extends the theme of IGT’s five-reel, 20-line Double Diamond base game to a vertically scrolling, Bankroll-style bonus game with credit and multiplier awards

There are several new versions of the Slotto concept, each with its own unique way of displaying the swirling bonus balls. In “Great Goldfish Giveaway,” the bonus balls appear as “bubbles” inside the sphere, which is done up as an aquarium. In “Chef’s Daily Special Bonus” the bonus balls are presented as bubbling out of a steaming soup pot.

“Four Corners Bingo” is a clever extension of AC Coin’s bingo-style Slotto games. This one features four partially completed bingo cards, with the simulated bingo tumbler rolling to drop balls to accumulate bonus credits until one of the four cards is completed.

The company also is launching a great follow-up to its hybrid video game “Sparky’s Red Hot Jackpots.” The new game extends the series begun with that game, featuring a five-reel base game and a bonus game that combines one of the company’s signature physical figurines with a 3-D video bonus event on a giant color LCD screen.

This one’s called “The Masked Seven: Casino Hero.” The idea is that the mild-mannered casino employee transforms into the proverbial hero—with a slot-style “7” on his chest—when he sees casino thieves. Three bonus symbols on the base five-reel game trigger a sequence in which the video screen depicts the hero going into a change booth, a phone booth or another location on the casino floor—it changes every time—to change into his costume and save the day through one of four separate, random bonus sequences. Each sequence ends with the physical figurine of the masked hero blasting a villain to reveal a bonus amount.

“Sparky’s Red Hot Jackpots taught us a lot about doing video,” says Seelig, whose game developers traditionally dealt only in mechanical top-box bonuses. “It taught us how you need a solid storyboard before you start development of a video bonus sequence. Our video bonus genre has now reached its maturity.”

Other aspects of game development at AC Coin have reached maturity as well, including a Mac-configurable pay table from IGT that allows much more flexibility in the design of pay schedules. “It lets us get more creative,” says Seelig.

Expect to see a lot more games in the market from AC Coin in the coming year. “We’ve had great success this year,” Seelig says. “With growth comes challenges, and we’re rising to meet those challenges with lots of new games and lots of new platforms. We’re excited.”

The company’s expanding markets go beyond the nascent Pennsylvania market. AC Coin, which is licensed in all North American jurisdictions and all provinces in Canada, is currently examining several international markets for expansion of its products and its operations.

As the company expands further, Seelig says its credo remains the same: “It’s all about the win,” he says. “It’s what our customers expect of us. We’re committed to making as much money for our customers as we can.”

Aristocrat Technologies - Power and Performance

Aristocrat augments its slot library with ever-more innovative game styles

Aristocrat Technologies, the Las Vegas-based arm of Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure Industries, has been a clear leader in technological advances in the area of slot machines during this decade.

In rapid succession during the first half of the decade, we saw product introductions like Hyperlink multiple progressives, Bonus Bank ante-driven bonus games, the Reel Power scatter-pay configuration, 50-line and 100-line video slots—all groundbreaking game styles, and all much-copied within the slot manufacturing sector.

For the past couple of years, Aristocrat has been capitalizing on those innovations, augmenting its ever-growing game library by mixing and matching the various unique play methods and bonus features. The company also has positioned itself as a much more complete supplier to casinos, with efforts ranging from an alliance with North Carolina’s PokerTek to distribute the PokerPro electronic poker tables outside the U.S. (and purchase of a substantial stake in that company) to the acquisition of a 50 percent interest in Electroncek, the prominent Slovenian manufacturer of multi-player electronic table games carrying the famous Interblock brand.

Aristocrat also has made a point of improving its readiness for the coming age of digital slot floors, refining its systems for both server-based and server-supported slot gaming, and refining its “Gen 7” content delivery technology for those coming systems.

At this year’s G2E, Aristocrat has even more new game styles to unveil, as well as a blitz of new products and technological improvements in all of its existing genres of product.
“Our message this year is power and performance,” says Sean Evans, Aristocrat’s vice president of sales. “We’re taking our products to the next level.”

Slants and Steppers - Aristocrat is augmenting its improvements on the successes of the early decade with completely new product categories.

One is Aristocrat’s first slant-top offering, called Crown. Introduced last year, the new slant-top series offers the option of dual monitors—a giant color screen in the top box in addition to the one in front of the player.

“The second LCD in the top box was an addition we made over the past year,” says Evans. “In all, the slant-top has accounted for 15-20 percent of our total sales over the past few months.”

The Crown slant-top is available in three different finishes, including a sleek, 100 percent chrome version.

Another new series is the MAV Stepper series. While Aristocrat introduced its first steppers three years ago, Evans notes that the company’s engineers have since been making refinements and improvements to its nascent reel-spinning series.

This year, games in the MAV Stepper series are available in both standard-size and slim-cabinet reel-spinners, mostly in the low-denomination, five-reel, multi-line setup that Aristocrat made famous—but not forgetting the traditional player either. Titles such as Pompeii, Liberty 777 and Razzle Dazzle are available in denominations up to $5. They are traditional reel-spinners, with multiple paylines and free-spin bonus features bringing them into the 21^st century.

“We’re happy with all the upgrades we’ve made to the MAV Stepper series, and all the trials are over,” Evans explains. “We’re in full selling mode now, and customers have commented that we got it right.” He says officials at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun, which bought hundreds of the Aristocrat stepper games, say “ours are the best steppers they have in terms of reliability.”

The first suite of games for the MAV Stepper series are stepper versions of some of Aristocrat’s most popular MKVI video slots, including Big Ben, Queen of the Nile, K.G. Bird and Inca Sun, as well as new titles like Peacock Magic and Flame of Olympics.

Progressive Progression - While the hardware improvements have definitely boosted sales, Aristocrat’s content—in particular, more new game styles—is what has been driving new sales and increases in market share.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the manufacturer’s various progressive game groups, from the well-established Hyperlink four-level progressive series to the newest progressive group, called “Xtreme Mystery.”

The new Xtreme Mystery series, which is being launched officially at the G2E show, adds a three-level mystery progressive jackpot to any bank of video slots in the MKVI series—Aristocrat’s most familiar games. According to Evans, the operator can pick between three programs when deciding how quickly the progressive should increment—operators can choose to devote 2.1 percent, 2.5 percent or 3 percent of coin-in to the mystery jackpots. Once that’s set, the jackpot controller will use coin-in triggers to send a random jackpot to any of the linked machines.

“In Macau, 70 percent of our product is under this link,” Evans says. “You can use your whole library and interchange these mystery jackpot themes. With the mystery jackpot added, a new graphics package is loaded in that changes some graphics on the machines, and offers a unique way to display the jackpot in the top box.”

Other new progressive game groups for Aristocrat include the follow-up to last year’s Jackpot Deluxe series, called “Bank Buster.”

The Bank Buster series combines the Hyperlink multi-level progressive concept with an ante bet-and-bonus setup made popular by the “Bonus Bank” series. Like Jackpot Deluxe, Bank Buster offers the player the option to cover all the paylines and make a 25-cent ante bet to activate all the features. In Jackpot Deluxe, the ante qualifies the player for a free-spin bonus in which you can win up to all four levels of progressive bonus.

In Bank Buster, the ante qualities the player for entry into any of six separate Bonus Bank-style bonus features, each of which can lead to one of the four progressive jackpots. The bonus games are all simple pick-a-tile games or straight awards with no action required by the player. Two of the six games, “Hot Cash” an “Money Grab,” can lead to more than one jackpot being won multiple times.

“A four-level progressive with six bonus features represents a unique math structure for us,” says Doug Fallon, Aristocrat’s director of marketing. “In two of the bonus features, you can win all of the jackpots multiple times. In all of them, you can win up to all four jackpots. The second-screen feature is interactive, and it will keep the player on the product forever. It’s the most feature-rich game we’ve ever done.”

The “Mini” jackpot starts at $20, as opposed to $5 in most Hyperlink games. The top “Grand” jackpot resets at either $10,000 or $20,000. Familiar Aristocrat penny multi-line video slots K.G. Bird, Sun & Moon and Treasure King serve as the base games for the initial Bank Buster link.

In other progressive offerings, the penny Millioni$er multiple-progressive game makes its debut as a wide-area progressive, with a big-money top jackpot on games like Cash Express, Zorro, Loco Loot and Scorchin’ Fortune.

Cash Express, which was the first Hyperlink multi-progressive title, is being offered this year as a multi-game unit—players will be able to pick the base game they want to play under the common Hyperlink progressive bonus round.

Power Pay and More - Another new brand being applied to all of Aristocrat’s standard MKVI video slots is called “Power Pay.” This mode of play enables an ante wager to be made that switches a game from normal line configuration to the “Reel Power” mode, in which reels are purchased instead of paylines and all wins are paid as scatters.

The games are all 25-line video slots, so the minimum bet to activate the Power Pay mode in the penny denomination is a 25-cent wager to activate all the paylines, and another 25 cents for the ante.

Initial games being displayed in the Power Pay format include Wild Cougar, Tahiti Magic, Wicked Winnings II and Cho Sun Returns. However, Evans notes that any of Aristocrat’s games that employ an ante bet can be converted to the new format. “The ante bet allows us to be pretty flexible with our product categories,” he says. “The key thing we want to communicate bout this product category is that once the player makes that ante wager of five to 20 coins, it increases their overall return by anywhere from .5 percent to 3 percent.”

Other new game groups being launched by Aristocrat at G2E are improvements on popular existing setups. “Xtra Reel Power” adds an extra row of symbols to the Reel Power pay window—there are four symbols on each of the five reels instead of the normal three. That increases the ways to win from 247 to 1,024 possible winning combinations on each spin.

In the Bonus Bank series, Aristocrat’s new offering is called “Banana King.” According to Fallon, any MKVI base video slot can be converted to this theme and package, which adds five random bonus events with an extra ante wager.

Mobbed Up - New game groups for Aristocrat always mean new ways to mix and match the new game styles to create unique packages. One such game that will dominate Aristocrat’s booth this year is “The Sopranos,” a beautifully designed game depicting the hit HBO mob series. It combines the three-level mystery progressive concept from Xtreme Mystery with the new MAV Stepper reel-spinning series.

There are two initial base games—Top Boss and Welcome to the Family. Both are five-reel, 20-line games on the sleek new reel-spinning cabinet. On the top of each game is a large color LCD video screen, and banks of the machine are linked together under a giant video display showing scenes from the series. One unique feature that is a result of linking the games to a computer controller is that the title of the series runs across the video screens of all four games in a bank in a continuous motion, depicting the opening sequence from the show.

Both games have free-spin bonus rounds. On Top Boss, from five to 50 free games are awarded depending on how many triggering symbols hit, and all wins during the free games are doubled. On Welcome to the Family, eight free games are awarded with symbols depicting characters from the show becoming wild in free spins.

At any time, coin-in levels on the bank can trigger a random award of one of the three progressive jackpots, “Soldier” (starting at $10), “Capo” ($100) or “Boss” (starting at $500 or $5,000). When that happens, the overhead screen and the top screens of each game launch into a video sequence from the show as the jackpot is awarded.

A third Sopranos title, Play to Get Made, will be released in December. This will be the first reel-spinning slot to use Aristocrat’s “Reel Power” configuration, in which the player purchases reels instead of paylines and all wins are paid as scatters.

“We’re going to be the first company with a Reel Power-style game on a stepper slot,” says Mitchell Bowen, Aristocrat’s regional marketing manager in Nevada. “This is one of our games that will target the three-to-five-line, higher-denomination market.”

In fact, the new Sopranos offering will be joined by other Aristocrat slots in all categories that are designed for higher denominations, in a section of Aristocrat’s booth called “Player’s World.”

“This is a segment of the market we feel has been neglected,” says Fallon. “Moving the dollar segment from a three-reel world to a five-reel world certainly makes sense.”

All of the new and improved game groups will be accompanied by new titles in stand-alone form, in the Double Standalone Progressive series, and in every other category. In all, there will be 192 games in 10 different product categories, in a G2E booth that looks more like a casino than a show display.

Into the Future - One section of Aristocrat’s G2E booth will be devoted to the coming world of server-based and server-supported gaming. Aristocrat is launching several products, and an entire new platform, designed for the coming digital age of slots.

The company’s system division will be showing both of its server-based solutions, the “DL” series for server-supported gaming and “ACE Interactive” (for “Aristocrat Contact Exchange,” a result of the company’s purchase two years ago of the Swedish system company Essnet) for full-blown server-based gaming. “Our DL system is thick-client, and still very proprietary,” says Evans, “with all the intelligence residing in the machine. We see the world going to thin-client, with the RNG residing at the server.”

Both systems will use Aristocrat’s new “Viridian” cabinet, a thin-profile cabinet with two large LCD screens—the top screen substituting for slot glass to enable quick game change-outs.

In line with the preparations for networked gaming, Aristocrat will use G2E to launch what will be the basic slot format that will succeed the MKVI platform that it has used for several years.

Called “Gen 7,” the technology employs compact flash content instead of the EPROM-based motherboard used in MKVI. According to Evans, it is a technology that can be introduced now, in current slot floor configurations, and move seamlessly into server-based and server-supported applications. Moreover, all MKVI games produced from 2005 on will be upgradeable to Gen 7.

“The Gen 7 platform can drive MKVI-generated content, so we will be carrying our entire game library forward,” Evans says. “It is a platform for today, tomorrow and the future.”

Atronic Group - Harmony and Passion

Atronic gives its innovative game groups new looks and classic style

The Atronic Group of Companies is undergoing yet another transformation in a history that has crammed great success and monumental change into a couple of brief decades.

It was, after all, only 14 years ago that Germany’s Gauselmann Group bought what was then a small Austrian producer of video slots, at the time a pioneer in the use of 3-D animation in gaming applications. Today, the Atronic Group consists of three major divisions—Atronic Americas in Arizona; and Atronic International and Atronic Systems, both in Austria—and is one of the most highly regarded slot manufacturers both in Europe and the U.S.

Next year, there will be another major change for Atronic. GTECH Holdings Corporation, the Rhode Island-based lottery giant which entered the casino business a few years ago with the acquisition of Canada’s Spielo, will, in 2008, complete its acquisition of a 50 percent controlling interest in the Atronic Group.

With the acquisition, the Gauselmann Group will return its management attention to the amusement-with-prizes game business on which its fortune was built, and Atronic will gain a partner with extensive footholds in lottery markets and in central system technology, which will lead the slot-maker into the future with server-based gaming applications.

These changes, however, will not change what Atronic is today. Instead, the developments stand to augment Atronic’s position as a force to be reckoned with in slot game and system development, and the combined resources of Gauselmann and GTECH will mean that all three of Atronic’s international R&D groups will continue to crank out innovation after innovation.

These in-house groups will be aided by some outside developers—most notably Games 4 You, formed last year by former Atronic game development manager Jason Stage, with an equity stake by none other than Gauselmann Group CEO Michael Gauselmann. Games 4 You has gotten off to a big start, developing new slots exclusively for Atronic at the outset.

For the past few years, Atronic has introduced groundbreaking new game groups, from its innovative “e-motion” series to multiple progressive games like “Cash Fever” to “eMillions,” the clever multi-site progressive system that pays off a top prize resetting at $1 million at max-coin or a million credits with less than a maximum bet.

Atronic also has broken into the branded slot market with some carefully chosen and masterfully executed brands—most notably Deal Or No Deal, The Game of Life and the newest, released last summer, “King Kong Cash.”

This year, Atronic uses the G2E show to showcase expansions and improvements in all its existing game groups, as well as a few brand-new game groups that stand to break even more ground.

“We’ve spent the year expanding our product line and providing depth to our product groups,” says Krista Colonna, senior marketing manager. “Our goal has been to provide a better product not only for players, but to casino operators.”

New Looks - Many of Atronic’s product line improvements and additions are revealing some decidedly new looks to the company’s strongest games.

For instance, the Harmony Slant Top, the manufacturer’s first slant-top offering, is a radically designed game offering with an ergonomic cabinet and a sleek, space-age look. Atronic has done more than provide new hardware for existing game content, though. The Harmony Slant Top comes to casinos ready-made with an entirely new game library.

“We have created titles for Harmony that have not been introduced in the North American market,” says Stage. “It has its own library of games separate from e-motion and Atronic’s other existing game groups.”

Among the new games loaded into the Harmony Slant Top is Mystical Journey, a game marked by beautiful artwork and a lot of innovative features. There are several wild symbols in the base game, and the player gets a choice between two bonus rounds—free games with all jackpots tripled, or Atronic’s special “Spin As Long As You Win” bonus. In the latter, the player continues to spin free games as long as he achieves at least one winning combination. Joker symbols extend the bonus if no wins are achieved.

Another emerging game group for Atronic is the manufacturer’s first stepper series, known as “Passion Slots.” According to Ken Bossingham, Atronic’s chief operating officer, the reel-spinning series, launched at G2E last year, is ready for widespread release. “We’ve now had some placement in the market, and we have a complete range of approvals,” he says. “So, we’re taking it to the next level with more depth in game performance and product offerings.”

“We had a core series of games for the series,” adds Stage, “and now, with our Deluxe Top series, we have a premium line that constitutes the next evolution of our stepper.”

The Deluxe Top series adds an interactive touch-screen LCD monitor in the top box, taking the series beyond the traditional reel-spinners to create stepper versions of Atronic’s top video slots.

Among the first two Passion Slots entries in the Deluxe Top version will be the first reel-spinning versions of Atronic’s strongest branded video slots, Deal Or No Deal and The Game of Life.

Branding Success - Speaking of the company’s big brands, Atronic is releasing new versions this year of “Deal” and “Life,” as well as new titles for its King Kong Cash video series.

“We have two new Deal Or No Deal links, and we’re expanding our base game library for King Kong Cash and Game of Life,” says Colonna. “Also, we have four new stand-alone titles for Game of Life. It all fits our overall theme of expansion and product depth. We’ve been seeing tremendous success with all three of our big licenses, so we’re expanding the product depth in all three series.”

“Deal or No Deal: The Experience” will be a linked bank of video slots featuring three interactive bonus rounds and a multi-level progressive. “Deal or No Deal: Mega Deal” is a is a multi-site progressive with two levels of progressive jackpot. According to Colonna, both levels of jackpot are set to hit at least once a month, on average.

Both new versions of Deal Or No Deal feature the original game’s re-creation of the “briefcase round” from the popular TV game show as the central bonus feature. The “Briefcase Bonus” is a pure gambler’s feature, giving players the chance to pick a briefcase and decide whether or not to take successive offers from the “bank”—whether to take a risk on whether the hidden bonus amounts left are larger or smaller than the offer.

The “Mega Deal” version of the game is the first to carry the brand to the eMillion$ wide-area progressive link. “We’re keeping the rapid hit of the local-area progressive on the game, and adding a second, big-money progressive, also rapid-hitting,” says Bossingham.

“The Game of Life: Career Choices” is one of the most feature-rich games Atronic has ever produced. Several wild symbols spice up the base game, and the bonus board game on the top video screen in the e-motion setup contains a remarkable collection of side bonuses as the player spins to different spaces on the board. Credits and free spins surround special spaces like “Choose Your Job” and “Business Trip” on the video replica of the classic game boar. Those special spaces trigger secondary screens as the player picks a profession or location to reveal hidden prizes.

Other progressive offerings from Atronic will include more new games in the eMillions wide-area progressive link, in both penny and nickel denominations. New game titles for the link include Himalayan Gold, Money Magnet and Moonlight Mansion. The eMillions link is slated to launch in Nevada this year, with top jackpots resetting at $1 million or 1 million credits—the prize with less than a max bet—in the nickel denomination, and $250,000 or a million credits in pennies.

“The eMillions product is entering its third year of operation,” notes Sean Knight, product marketing manager. “We’ve added the penny denomination to it, and of course, we’ve supplemented the link with new titles. We’ve maintained our ability to keep the link fresh by bringing in new games.”

Atronic also will show extensive additions to its “e-motion” game library, including games designed to go with both of the slot-maker’s special rapid-hit progressive jackpots, “Mystery Magic” and Hot Link.”

“Last year, we brought forth titles that could be linked together either to Hot Link, where a winning combination is required to hit the progressive jackpot, or Mystery Magic, where no winning combination is required,” explains Bossingham. “Every game going forward will now be capable of linking to either Hot Link or Mystery Magic. It provides an opportunity for our customers to have a value-added concept in addition to the core link.”

One unique aspect of Atronic’s two progressive controller products is that they can link slots with different titles and multiple pay tables to the same jackpot. “You can take any bank of Atronic games and put one of these progressives on all the games,” Stage says.

Classics - Also expect more versions of its classic brand Sphinx, the game that put Atronic on the map in the U.S. a decade ago. The company already has introduced “Super Sphinx,” a new version of the game, and “Sphinx Classic,” which replicates the groundbreaking 3-D animation of the original game, which was Atronic’s first international franchise brand. “We’re really excited to bring Sphinx back, as the original game but in our e-motion platform,” says Colonna.

In addition to classic Atronic, the manufacturer is dabbling in some classic denominations this year—mainly, quarters, dollars and higher.

“The low-denomination market is mature and healthy, but it hasn’t taken over the entire floor,” says Stage. “Now, we’re ready to fulfill areas that we feel are under-served.” That means more quarter and dollar denominations will share space with Atronic’s more common penny and nickel offerings.

Finally, the manufacturer will, for the first time, show a multi-player roulette game carrying the brand of Slovenia’s Alfastreet, but manufactured in the U.S. by Atronic. Atronic’s first Alfastreet game, the R8 model that is the Slovenian manufacturer’s top European product, has just been installed at the Mystic Lake casino in Minnesota.

“There’s been a maturation of the gaming player in America, and the big buzzword these days is community gaming—the social gaming concept,” says Bossingham. “This is another concept that can satisfy that trend. We’re placing it in Minnesota first, and after testing it in that market, we will roll it out based on market acceptance. It’s very important that the Alfastreet name is there as a manufacturer reference, but Atronic is becoming the manufacturer of this product line in North America.”

The electronic table games round out an Atronic product line that is increasingly divers. “We’ve worked really hard to diversify our product line, and we’re willing to look outside of the company to widen and diversify that product line,” Bossingham says.

Once GTECH and Spielo are added into the mix next year, look for the company to grow to new heights.

Bally Technologies - Alpha Wave

 Bally rides the popularity wave of its new platform with a product showcase

Bally Technologies has been celebrating all year.

Most of the celebrations have marked the 75-year history of the Bally brand, created in 1932 for a pinball game in Chicago before going on to become the most well-known icon in the world of slot machines.

Even more significant than those anniversary parties, though, has been an ongoing celebration of the brand’s rebirth over the past two years. It began with last year’s launch of “Alpha Elite,” the new operating system for both video and stepper offerings in Bally’s product line. Alpha Elite was the culmination of two years of work by Bally engineers, who merged the technology inherited with the 2004 acquisition of Sierra Design Group with Bally’s own ongoing development efforts into a platform that would first replace the old, ineffective “EVO” video platform, but would ultimately drive all Bally game products.

Last year, the manufacturer introduced several new game styles, placing the powerful new game content into several interchangeable, wide-screen formats. The development of the wide M9000 cabinet permitted strikingly wide reels in stepper games, and three different video formats—CineVision, the movie-style wide video screen in the recessed cabinet that offers a movie-theater effect; the “V20” with its wide, 20-inch LCD monitor; and the “V20/20,” with dual 20-inch monitors offering a wealth of game possibilities.

In addition to the wide-body cabinets, Bally has achieved great success with the “V32” cabinet. With its long, vertical screen, it was originally intended for Europe. However, the company’s video roulette and keno games have taken off in North America.

Bally also has introduced products that portend the digital, server-based era—in particular, its “System Games,” offering players bonuses and secondary games beamed through player tracking systems to its “iVIEW” screen, a small, interactive monitor that mounts on the face of a slot. Bally has sold thousands of iVIEW units across the industry, and sales of the interactive screen are still rising.

“iVIEW is the cornerstone of what we’re doing with the networked slot floor,” says Mike Mitchell, Bally’s vice president of game development. “Whether it’s a Bally, WMS or IGT game, this is the one component that will be on every game. We’re going to do tournaments on this device; we’re going to do bonusing. We’re doing some of that already. Because it’s being installed on every game, it’s a way to touch the player today, versus further down the road with the open-architecture, fully networked floor that some are touting.”

Bally’s new games on the Alpha Elite platform are universally praised by slot operators across the industry, and combined with the fact that Bally still practically owns the system side of the slot manufacturing sector, the company is currently one of the hottest commodities in the casino business.

Most importantly for the company, the years of accounting woes in which earnings had to be restated for 2005 and 2006 are behind it, and investor confidence and, consequently, the price of the company’s shares, are soaring again.

This month, Bally reveals more of what it has done to earn that investor confidence, drawing on all of its new technology and recently introduced game styles to create a powerhouse collection of new products for the G2E show.

Playing the Strengths - Bally is using its interchangeable cabinets and strong game styles to capitalize on some of its most successful game innovations of recent years.

Quite possibly the most successful of those innovations has been the Hot Shot Progressive series, begun with a five-reel video version of the classic Blazing 7s game. Hot Shot burst on the scene two years ago with an innovative progressive bonus round—five progressive jackpots tide to bonus spins on miniature reproductions of classic Bally reel-spinners. The player gets a spin on one of the tiny, sharply animated slots for each bonus trigger symbol he lands, and depending on the results on the tiny reels, gets either a bonus award or the corresponding progressive prize for the top jackpot of the classic slot.

Hot Shot has been a runaway hit for Bally, and according to Mitchell, it’s time to capitalize on that success.

Bally will this year begin to introduce sequels to Hot Shot. “Three new Hot Shot game tiles have been developed, submitted and approved, and we’re rolling them out as needed.” Mitchell says. He says “as needed” simply because it is not yet “needed”—the original Hot Shot has shown no signs of slowing down. “Our order backlog and sales performance have been very strong on that product,” he says. “There are over 3,000 in the field that use the ‘7’ themes.”

The original Hot Shot has a Blazing 7s base game with the miniature slots in the progressive round all variations on the multiple-7-combination theme—miniatures of Diamond Line and similar Blazing 7s variations. The next three versions will emulate other successful Bally legacy themes.

There is a “Times” version of Hot Shot approved, using games like Bonus Times, Wild Times and Hot Times. There is Hot Shot Frenzy, in which the five progressive miniatures are variations of the game genre that uses the extra “bonus reel”—Bonus Frenzy, Fireball Frenzy, etc. A third variation will use the “Money” theme—In the Money, Money Bars, and so forth.

“All of our really popular Bally games will be brought over to the Hot Shot series,” says Mitchell. “It is a popular brand, and we are still building on it.” That includes a reel-spinning version introduced six months after the original Hot Shot video was launched, he says. Those versions, of course, include the 20-inch LCD video monitor in the top box, on which the miniature slots play out the progressive bonus round.

New twists to the progressive rounds in the Hot Shot genre include expanded pay schedules on the miniature slots—Mitchell says they’re very similar to the stand-alone games they represent, offering players more bonus options outside the progressives—and inclusion of video slots in the progressive rounds in addition to classic reel-spinners.

The Hot Shot concept is being parlayed into other new games, including a multiple-progressive version of the game Reel Money, which includes a Monte Carlo-style roulette bonus feature and guaranteed wins on each of the miniature slots.

Repeat Performances - Other solid performers Bally is offering in various styles and cabinets include Golden Monkey, with its unique random progressive bonus round utilizing a “ladder”-style top box display. Players go into free spins, and each time a monkey symbol lands on the reels, the option is offered to take a guaranteed bonus award or to “store” the monkey symbol for use in a bonus round. When the progressive bonus round is triggered, the number of monkey symbols determines the level of progressive the player chases.

There also will be a complete lineup of games featuring Bally’s “Instant Spin” mode, first introduced last year with the game “Reel Winners.” The Instant-Spin mode (the technology is patent-pending) is added to games with the Monte Carlo-style bonus roulette wheel in the top box. “With each spin, the computer randomly decides whether the customer will spin the reels or play the top-box bonus,” Mitchell explains. He notes that at fairly frequent intervals, the ball will simply start rolling around the top-box roulette wheel when the player hits the spin button.

At G2E, Bally will show three new versions of the Reel Winners-style game, called Ultimate Diamonds & Sevens, Ultimate Party Spin and Ultimate Dragon Spin.

There also will be a new version of what has been one of Bally’s highest earners of the year, a video blackjack game with seven video play stations, each taking a dollar wager. At G2E, Bally is launching a version that takes an eighth credit, which qualifies the player for bonus jackpots for two or more dealt blackjacks. With eight coins wagered, two dealt blackjacks doubles the payoffs on all hands. Three dealt blackjacks multiply all winners by 10; and if you get four dealt blackjacks out of the seven hands, you take home a bonus of $10,000.

“The issue has been that blackjack by itself does not offer a lot of volatility,” Mitchell explains. “Players loved the original game, but the feedback we got was that it was not volatile enough. So we’ve added that extra dollar wager to add some volatility.”

The new blackjack game also is an example of what Mitchell says is a resurgence in higher-denomination games. He says in the slot area, this will mean more traditional styles than players have seen in recent years. “You’re seeing a lot more traditional formats in three-reel, four-reel, and even five-reel configurations,” he says. “We will have a lot of games truly designed for quarter, 50-cent, dollar, $2 and $5 customers.”

Bally also is launching new versions of popular game styles such as Power Progressives, a line of multi-level progressive slots including classic Bally titles; and a new version of what has been its most successful proprietary video poker game, Pick ‘Em Poker.

The wide-screen adaptation of Pick ‘Em is a 10-hand version of Bally’s classic stud poker game, in which the player is shown two cards and picks one of two groups of remaining hands by looking at one card. The player ends up with 10 hands per pick, using the same strategy as the original Pick ‘Em Poker.

Rounding out the games in which Bally capitalizes on previous innovations are improved versions of Pong and S&H Greenstamps, both in the CineVision cabinet.

Pong allows the player to play the classic Atari table-tennis game against the computer for jackpots. The bonus round is a classic game of Pong, with a minimum guaranteed jackpot but with higher awards according to your skill level on the classic arcade game. It is the first game anywhere in which physical dexterity can be used to gain a higher award, although Mitchell notes it is only a small portion of the total payback of the game—7 percent is guaranteed if you do nothing in the Pong bonus game, which is one reason the game got through regulatory scrutiny.

“We had to do some heavy lifting to get Pong through all the regulatory feats,” Mitchell says. “It’s now approved in GLI and Nevada, and the games have been out for a few months now. We’re starting to see good earnings from it.” The original Pong is a video slot, but Mitchell says it soon will be released in a reel-spinning version, with the same skill-based bonus round on the top-box LCD screen.

At G2E, Bally will reveal the second game in its skill series, with another replication of an Atari skill-based arcade game—“Breakout.”

Finally, a new version of the S&H Greenstamps game is being introduced. In this game, players accumulate “stamps” during free spins that can translate into one of five progressive jackpot levels.

CineReels and Game Maker - Bally is further rounding out its product library this year by translating the CineVision concept, with its wide, recessed screen replicating a movie theater in video slots, into the reel-spinning area with a new game style called “CineReels.”

All of Bally’s top games in reels, including classic three-reel, single-line game, the “Frenzy” four-reel games using the extra bonus reel, five-reel multi-line games and the seven-reel “Two-Way Frenzy” setups, are being launched in the unique format.

(The seven-reel setup consists of two three-reel games with an extra reel in the middle spinning to bonus events applying to results on the two other reel sets.)

“CineReels is really the combination of our mechanical reel-spinning slot machines with our CineVision cabinet,” says Mitchell. “The game series will be fully populated at the start with all of our top S9000 reel-spinning programs, including Quick Hits Progressives, Hot Shot and a number of different styles.

CineReels also includes a couple of innovative new games, each providing a glimpse of the kinds of developments to expect from Bally in server-supported and server-based gaming setups.

“Breeders’ Cup” links six CineReels slots to a common bonus round of a horse race, played out on the top-box video screen and a giant overhead plasma display. Players place quinella bets on a six-horse race, and when one player triggers the bonus round, all qualified players enter the overhead race.

“Super Tournament Progressives” is another six-game CineReels link. In this setup, a random “Instant Win” feature initiates an instant slot tournament among the linked games. Players compete for one of five levels of progressive jackpot by playing free games for points instead of jackpots. The top three point-scorers are eligible for progressive jackpots with resets ranging from $10 to $1,000.

Finally, one of the biggest pieces of news for Bally this year is the return of its classic multi-game lineup using today’s technology.

Game Maker HD brings back the Game Maker multi-game format in Bally’s advanced Alpha Elite video platform, and in any of three upright cabinets, with available themes ranging from the Hot Shot video slot to Pick ‘Em Poker, blackjack and keno games.

Game Maker HD and Multi-Poker HD, the multi-game video poker version of Game Maker, are both available now in a new bar-top setup called “CineBar.” This takes the wider 20-inch monitor and places it in a bar-top mode for a more clear, wider-screen version of bar-top slots than has ever been seen.

“We’ll have several suites of Game Maker software,” Mitchell says. “We’ll add more as time goes on. We’ll customize it, tweak it—we don’t’ have limitations as far as space, so we can customize the software and pick the very best games to suit each customer.”

In all, it’s part of a Bally G2E booth that will feature more than 100 unique game titles in nearly 11,000 square feet of space, which will also display Bally’s vision of the “Networked Floor of the Future” in a showcase of server-based gaming applications.

With the anniversary celebrations complete, G2E for Bally celebrates the launch of the company’s next 75 years.

Casino Technology - Banking on Creativity

 Casino Technology launches new titles ahead of a completely new video slot platform

Casino Technology has been in an expansion mode since its inception.
Incorporated in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1999, the company immediately set its sights on supplying video slots and progressive systems not only in Eastern Europe, but in several continents.

With products approved and certified in 16 countries, Casino Technology has established offices in Africa, Central Asia and Latin America in addition to its key markets of Central and Eastern Europe. The young company has more than 50,000 games installed in multiple international jurisdictions.

The company’s focus this year has been on a corporate commitment to innovation and quality. At G2E, Casino Technology will showcase a complete lineup of new slot titles, plus a few groundbreaking new products.

The company is using the G2E show to showcase additions to what is an increasingly extensive library of games with innovative concepts and new presentations.

According to Rossi McKee, the company’s vice president, Casino Technology’s new suite of games features enhanced graphic capabilities. “The product must inspire and addict the player, touching his feelings and inner nature,” McKee says. “Emotion and passion presented through cutting-edge technology solutions is what we believe as being the right formula.”

New game titles include several multiple-progressive games, a format made popular by the Casino Technology hit “Quatro Cash Mania,” a four-level mystery jackpot progressive system featuring multi-media animation and additional bonus events beyond the progressive. The progressive system is compatible with more than 40 of Casino Technology’s slot titles.

Periodically, the jackpot controller randomly chooses one of the slots on a linked bank for a jackpot sequence that begins with a bonus screen. There is a story line to the common bonus round, communicated in multi-media animation on the jackpot display.

At G2E, the company will display three initial themes of the common progressive bonus round in Quatro Cash Mania, “Alchemic Joy,” “Zeppelin Respin” and “Columbus Treasure.” The latter, which is the newest sequence, presents the story of Christopher Columbus in rich, multi-media animation on the jackpot display.

“In terms of game titles, we’ve developed a completely new and extensive library, and a series of multi-games with a new look and a new interface that enhances the player’s experience,” McKee says. “Each has five to six titles, including not only video reels but video poker. The majority of the new titles maintain progressive features and a collection of themes and concepts.” She adds that the company is creating a variety of jackpot setups to augment the original four-jackpot configuration.

G2E Focus - According to McKee, the main focus of Casino Technology at G2E is to showcase the company’s creativity in a lineup of new titles. One product that certainly achieves that goal is “PlayMe,” a four-player roulette game built into a grand piano. An automated roulette wheel is embedded in the top of the piano, and four player stations surround the the outside, resembling a piano bar including a roulette game.

McKee says the product operates not only as an auto-roulette game, but also as a manually operated reoulette game. New bonus features are being developed to create a more interactive environment among players, the piano and the music.

The product was first unveiled in September in Kiev, and McKee says it already is enjoying great popularity with several installations in Eastern Europe.

Further expansion is in the works for Casino Technology. The company is working on entering Asian and South American markets, and next year, it will contemplate entry into North America.

For now, though, McKee says the company will focus on the relationships it has built in Europe, where Casino Technology is well-known to operators in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria.

Cadillac Jack  -  Complete Solutions

One of the top Class II suppliers aims to go mainstream

For a dozen years, Georgia-based Cadillac Jack has been establishing itself as one of the premier suppliers of electronic bingo game content and systems to Class II Indian gaming markets in the U.S. The company’s system and games also provide some of the only gaming in Mexico, still a bingo-only market.

For the past few years, though, the company, founded by Class II pioneer Mike Macke in 1995, has been making steady progress toward success in Class III markets. The company already has placed product in Oklahoma, and has achieved GLI certification for many of its games for placement in Native American Class III markets.

“We are finding higher and higher levels of success in the Oklahoma market with our Class III product,” says Kunal Mishra, vice president of product management and marketing for Cadillac Jack. “Our coal is to place Class III games wherever Class III is available. We have applied in Mississippi—our strategy is to secure approval there first, and then to follow up in Nevada and New Jersey.”

At this years’ G2E show, Mishra says, the company’s goal is to “show ourselves as a complete gaming solutions provider.”

Aside from its games and progressive systems, the company will be showcasing its server-based system, borne of Class II necessity but perfect for Class III server-supported and server-based applications as well. The server-based system includes a full suite of player tracking tools and a wireless POS station as well as capability for downloading of game content and interactive play features.

Progressive Prowess - The company’s showcase product at G2E will be “Cadillac Cash,” a wide-area progressive system with a complete suite of various base games (including a game called Cadillac Cash) that has shown itself to be highly adaptable to various markets.

“Presently, it is being run as a wide-area progressive in Class II markets and in Mexico,” Mishra explains. “It has been running since October of last year, and the international rollout began in April. Part of our focus at the show is to demonstrate that Cadillac Cash is a niche product that fits into a Class II space where there are not a lot of WAP products, as well as in Mexico, where we are the only provider of a WAP system.”

The link is already popular in several international markets. Cadillac Cash features several different base games linked to a common jackpot, and features the company’s “SpeedPLAY” and “PlusPLAY” technologies, which provide faster game play and multiple bonus features including free spins, multipliers and the company’s “Anticipation Spin,” which draws out the final reel result in winning combinations to create some extra excitement.

The game uses a two-tier bonus play in which the player is awarded both a multiplier award and a random number of free spins.

One key to Cadillac jack’s success has been its ability to adapt and customize product specifically to each market it serves. For instance, one of the company’s most successful products has been its Latin Bingo Suite, a group of bingo games designed for Latin American markets that offer players the opportunity to buy additional bingo balls to complete winning patterns. Premium Bingo, Bingo 9, Galactic Bingo and Turbo Max Bingo are among the first game titles popularized by the series.

In addition to showing that suite of products at G2E, the company will highlight a complete lineup of new stand-alone games for both Class II and Class III applications, all featuring multi-denomination wagering and improved graphics and sound. Among Cadillac Jack’s newest games to be exhibited are So Hot, Crazy Clowns, Viking Loot, Jazz Nights, Forgotten Fortunes, Seven Heaven, Pirates Plunder, Special Delivery and Bayou Band.

“Our strategy is simple,” says Mishra. “We don’t aim to be the biggest, but we pride ourselves in the agility of our processes and the speed of our development. We go out with our base product and commit to each casino to localize our product for their market. We go into a new market, search out strategic customers, and place our product, always tailored to the local market, whether by using regional celebrity themes or by providing the most popular game styles for that market. “We believe we have a track record that will serve us well.”

Cyberview Technology - The Next Generation

Cyberview’s system addresses new generations of games—and customers

Three years ago, Cyberview Technology broke new ground in the industry when it became the first supplier to achieve regulatory certification for a downloadable, server-based gaming system.

Server-based and server-supported gaming, of course, have become the new buzzwords of the industry, and most of the major slot manufacturers are working on ways to create, operate or supply a networked, digital slot system.

Cyberview, while certainly putting its downloadable gaming system through rigorous testing in various jurisdictions, has never stopped developing ideas and new technology for the coming digital age of slots.

The Cyberview server-based platform itself has been lauded for its security model, which the company is refining under an initiative it calls “Trustworthy Gaming Systems.” According to a white-paper document the company released in September, “Trustworthy Gaming Systems is Cyberview’s initiative and long-term effort to create and deliver a secure, agile, future-proof and profitable computing platform to game operators.”

Security has been the company’s credo since its founding, and has been essential for its creation and operation of systems running thousands of fixed-odds betting terminals in Great Britain. The company has devoted the past few years to developing and perfecting a system with the same level of security for slot machines in North American commercial casinos.

“Trust in the computing platform and related procedures is critical for Cyberview to deliver on its promise to provide advanced, end-to-end secure distributed gaming solutions,” the white paper says.

Trusted Agility - Cyberview has taken a lead in refining server-based and server-supported technology over the past three years, and the company often is called upon by other suppliers who are developing their own downloadable systems. WMS Gaming is one company that has purchased technology from Cyberview, and the company has maintained that it will license its technology to any supplier wishing to use it.

Along the way, though, Cyberview has remained open to using game content from a variety of outside sources in developing new capabilities for its system. According to Thierry Brunet, Cyberview’s chief system architect, the ability for the system to adapt and augment its capabilities has been given an official name by the company: “Trusted Agility.”

“Trusted agility encompasses all the things we’d like to see happen with server-based gaming in the future,” Brunet says. “In the future, we will operate in more of a PC environment, while further hardening security through advanced system architecture. For example, Intel has worked for many years and spent hundreds of millions on hardening security. We leverage fully on that.”

In addition to security, “trusted agility” means the Intel system architecture can be used to leverage off-the-shelf software and hardware to create play experiences within the Cyberview system that slot players have never encountered. “When something doesn’t exist, we create it,” says Brunet.

What Cyberview is creating, and will be showing at the G2E show, is a system that will cater not only to traditional casino customers, but to the video game generation.

Brunet says Cyberview’s system will be able to offer young “gamers” the opportunity to put their money in a slot and play Xbox-style games—against other players in the casino, much like they do at home on their video entertainment systems. “In a pure server-based environment, you could choose from hundreds of games,” Brunet says. “You could even have a ‘wish list,’ and if the operator sees demand for certain games, he could provide them.”

After that, he says, Cyberview can work with the operator to craft a system with on-demand content. “What do you want?” he asks. “Do you want arcade games? A live feed? We have access to the most advanced 3D graphics, hardware and software. We’re taking mainstream IT technology and seeing what it takes to bring it into regulated gaming.”

Time Gaming - Along with the new approach to game delivery will come a new approach to how time on those devices is sold. At G2E, the company will demonstrate what Brunet calls “our alternative to Guaranteed Play by Walker Digital.” The company has developed three variants of what it calls “time gaming”—different ways to buy play on video poker, traditional slots and “console gaming” such as the famous arcade and home video games.

Where Walker’s system, currently in use on IGT poker machines at Station Casinos, offers players a set number of video poker hands for a fixed price, Cyberview’s system will actually sell time on the device—20 minutes, half an hour, etc. Unlike the Walker system, players’ credit meters will never go into the negative. Once the time is purchased, the credit meter remains at zero until a winning spin or hand.

“Since this will be on a downloadable system, players will have an immense choice of games,” says Brunet. “They will be able to shop around, among different games in different denominations. On the panel, you will have denominations, and you will have a “time” button.” He adds that a service window will allow players to go to an extended menu and search for the game they want.

“What is going to sell time gaming is the console gaming concept,” he says. “It will be an advertisement that will promote awareness that slots, poker and other games are available on another paradigm.”

According to Brunet, while Cyberview has been developing downloadable gaming systems for years, the technology is still in its infancy as far as what can be offered through server-based and server-supported systems.

“Downloadable is not an end; it’s just a means, to grant access to all the content that will increase revenue for the operator,” he says.

At G2E, Cyberview will have a first mainstream Xbox 360 game up and running in a gaming machine format. This game is a full 3-D pinball from Zen Studios adapted for time gaming.

A second pinball game from Technetium Games is also being adapted to time gaming. While the concept has been a long time in the making, Brunet says the technological development tools to make it happen only became available very recently.

“Starting with pinball games makes a lot of sense, because only two of the traditional player buttons need to be used for player interactivity, and a wide collection of dazzling pinball tables may be periodically downloaded as the studio creates new ones,” Brunet says. “In the future, it is clear that suitable interactivity controls such as joysticks will have to be fitted to the gaming machines. In the meantime, Cyberview experiments with new interactivity paradigms that may be obtained directly via the touchscreen, such as a transpose of the iPod jog wheel.”

For the operator, managing games like these, along with traditional casino games within the Cyberview system will be “no more difficult than operating iTunes or a Microsoft Media Player,” Brunet says, noting a simple operator interface for download scheduling and management of download content to the floor. (There will be a “Playlist,” just like on one of those familiar software setups.) “Some of these tools will have the shape of a dashboard, tailored in a very visual, easy-to-use format,” says Brunet.

Beyond Xbox games, Brunet predicts even more amazing developments down the road—for instance, Microsoft Surface Computing on a gaming machine screen, or in a table or on a wall, which the operator can use to manage the entire server-based system.

The possibilities are practically endless, and from here, server-based gaming is bound to be a fun ride.

Konami Gaming - Stepping Up

Konami’s multi-line stepper series breaks new ground

Konami Gaming this year steps up to a new level.  The Las Vegas-based subsidiary of amusement-game conglomerate Konami of Japan reached its last milestone in 2005, when, after five years in the North American market, it consolidated operations in a massive new headquarters and plant in Las Vegas.

Since then, the company has been refining its highly regarded K2V video platform with new progressive additions such as Mystical Temple and Quick Strike, both mystery progressive products built into K2V games that can be activated without a separate jackpot controller. Other K2V games were augmented with CashWay, a two-level, stand-alone progressive option.

Meanwhile, two years ago, Konami displayed its first traditional-style stepper games at the G2E show. The company’s engineers have been working on refining the stepper product ever since, releasing a series of three-reel, single-line games with fourth bonus LCD reels, and three-reel, multi-line steppers in the MS series. The bonus reels in these games permitted the reel-spinners to employ many video-style features.

This year, all those efforts come to fruition with a bold new series of five-reel, multi-line steppers called Advantage 5 that breaks molds for design and functionality.

“Our big picture for the coming year is an effort to get our percentage of the slot floor up while keeping product in the field we’ve introduced in the past couple of years,” says Charlie Thornton, Konami’s director of game sales for the Western region. “A lot of our products have had real staying power, so we’re not doing many conversions of products we’ve offered in the past. In the meantime, we’ve increased our overall library of video and reel content by 60 percent.”

 Radical Design - Advantage 5 provides a new palette for Konami’s development efforts, with a beautiful, radical new design. The top box is transparent, with cantilevered lights on the interior giving the presentation a decidedly elegant effect.

The games are visually striking. Though they are five-reel games, the reels are standard size—as large as in traditional three-reel games. The five reels on the games are all back-lit, and the lighting changes colors according to different events in the primary game. Even the colors in the belly glass change according to different jackpot events in the game.

“This is the first five-reel stepper we’ve created, and we decided to distinguish our games by using normal-sized reels,” says Thornton, “where a lot of our competitors reduce the size of the reels when doing five-reel configurations. The Infinity top-box lighting, etched belly glass that changes colors and an enhanced sound package all add to the effect. I think it’s the most attractive game out there in the five-reel format. It will catch customers’ eyes.”

Thornton says Konami used the same operating system for Advantage 5 as the K2V video slots.

Five new titles in this series are being launched this fall, all expected to be approved by the G2E show. Among the strongest is Vibrant 7s, a traditional-style game with multiple “7” combinations in a nine-line configuration, with a four-level, stand-alone progressive jackpot on top.

There is a free-spin bonus round; bonus symbols trigger up to 15 free games. Five green 7s on the reels trigger the “Numbers Bonus,” a progressive bonus round that awards one of the four progressives. The reels spin to match up different-colored numbers on the reels, which each correspond to a payline. Each payline corresponds to one of the jackpot levels.

More Mystery - Another new Konami series is called Diamond Point. It is a three-level mystery progressive slot series, with the base game as a complete scatter-pay game. In other words, there are no paylines; symbols left-to-right on adjacent reels register pays.

The mystery progressive sequence is totally random. A game on the bank will periodically go into celebration mode as one of the two progressives are awarded, with no line combination or bonus round needed.

According to Thornton, several of Konami’s base game styles can be placed into the Diamond Point mystery-progressive mode. That includes KonXion, the games with the radical hexagon-shaped reels, and ScatteReels, the new successor to that series. “We can also take any K2V base game and place it on this product,” he says. “No matter the base game, the Diamond Point progressive is a completely random event. The game simply goes into celebration mode and downloads the credit award.”

In other developments for G2E, Konami has upgraded its MS multi-line stepper series into a new format it calls “Advantage Plus.” The new format includes a 19-inch LCD in the top box for video-style bonus events, and an upgraded computer platform that speeds up the spinning of the reels and the credit award displays.

The Advantage Plus format also allows the Mystical Temple, Quick Strike and CashWay progressive options to be added to reel-spinners, with the same video displays as are used on the iK2V versions.

The new game groups are accompanied by a complete lineup of new stand-alone K2V video slots. Among the highlights are Chip City, one of the first titles in Konami’s new high-denomination library. The game, to be offered in $1, $2 and $5 denominations, will be available in configurations ranging form 10 to 30 paylines. It includes a free-spin bonus in which all pays are doubled.

New games are being introduced in both of Konami’s scatter-pay formats as well. Spanish Rose is a new title in the KonXion series. It features a high-volatility program and a free-spin bonus feature. In the ScatteReels series, Konami is featuring Arabian Magic, with a screen configuration that offers 432 possible ways to win on each spin. It also employs a free-spin bonus feature.

All of the new games from Konami can be linked to one of the manufacturer’s several progressive options.

In all, Konami’s lineup of games is sure to give the slot-maker the boost in market share it has been looking for.

International Game Technology - Leading Vision

IGT maintains its leading marketing position with a vision for the future

Market leaders don’t just look around them; they look behind and ahead.  International Game Technology has stayed on top of the slot market for a decade and a half by living in the moment, gauging what their customers want and what their competitors are doing. It also looks to the future, positioning itself for where the market is going, while reaching back into its own past to find the classics that are still relevant.

IGT, which always rolls out a new slogan along with its new games, is calling its G2E 2007 collection “The Right Vision, Right Now and For The Future.” What it means is that the company’s usual collection of innovative products—and there are some groundbreaking ones this year—is accompanied by systems and games that form the slot leader’s vision of what the networked floor of the future will offer players and operators.

“We have an impressive lineup of MegaJackpots products, and we are showing game play dynamics and hardware features we’ve never used, and possibly that the industry’s never seen before,” says Jean Venneman, IGT’s senior vice president of product development. “But our sb (for server-based) system and the applications associated with it will also be a large area of focus. We will also be dedicating space to our new table segment initiative, and as last year, we will be showcasing some of our international product as well.”

IGT is covering all bases in its typically massive G2E space this year. New MegaJackpots progressives are displaying technology that is truly remarkable. Video slots are featuring everything from multiple stand-alone progressives to “MultiWay” scatter-pay operation to new high-volatility, low-denomination games.

The company’s “MP” series of multi-player game setups will be well-represented, as will the new table game segment, thanks to a significant investment in electronic table-game producer DigiDeal Corporation and to a purchase of technology from Austria’s Novomatic Group.

The company’s industry-leading video poker division also will be showcased, thanks to its alliance this year with Walker Digital, through which it already has begun offering “Guaranteed Play,” an option allowing the player to purchase a set number of hands for a set stake. That same option will be displayed at G2E on video slots.

Finally, this year will see a return to basics, as IGT re-emphasizes the traditional reel-spinners that propelled the company to the top of the slot market.

Back to Basics - Venneman notes a vacuum in the slot market that needs to be filled—that of the traditional, reel-spinning slot player, a segment she says has not been served with new innovation for the past few years.

“This year, we are going to again show an array of stepper product,” she says. “We are showcasing a number of three-reel, single-line themes, targeted to that quarter and dollar player who is still alive and well in the market. We also have an assortment of three-reel, multi-line, multi-coin slots for those who have graduated to multiple lines.”

One strong new game in this category is Super Times Pay/Free Games, which combines the multiplying wild symbols of traditional steppers with a free spin bonus more similar to those common in multi-line video slots.

She adds that steppers will be well-represented this year in four-reel and five-reel formats as well. In the four-reel mode, one of the highlights is Double 3X 4X 5X Pay, which takes the multiplying-wild-symbol feature to new levels. There are three separate wild symbols, which by themselves, as the name indicates, multiply jackpots in winning combinations by three, four or five. However, together in winning combinations, the wild symbols combine to multiply jackpots to incredible levels.

“We also have almost a dozen five-reel games we’re showing for the first time,” says Venneman, adding that the five-reel stepper lineup includes several dual stand-alone progressive offerings.

On the video side, IGT also is building on its tradition, adding new features and wagering options to strong existing game series along with a strong continent of new game themes.

All of IGT’s new video slots will have two wagering setups available to the operator. Casinos can opt for traditional betting options—one coin for one credit, and up—or for what the company calls “committal betting.” This is IGT’s version of what several manufacturers are doing—placing simplified wagering buttons that assure players will at least cover the paylines to activate all possible features of a game. “It simplifies the player’s choice, but assures that everyone at least covers the paylines,” Venneman says.

Topping the list of games are IGT’s first two dual-level stand-alone progressive video slots, the Asian-themed Golden Tiger Eternal Dragon and Fame & Fortune. Both games employ progressive free-spin bonus rounds, and the level of winnings on the free spins determines which of the two progressive jackpot levels is won. Thus, since winnings in the free spins are at the wagering level of the triggering spin, the more the average bet, the better the chances at the higher progressive. It is one of many features on this year’s IGT games designed to promote higher average wagers.

There also is an extensive lineup of stand-alone video slots, including a new entry in the highly successful “Wolf Run” series and several additional new themes, including the latest entry in IGT’s “MultiWay” series of games. Games in this series have no paylines; the player pays to activate reels and all wins are paid in scatters.

The newest MultiWay game is Golden Gate, which features, for the first time, a horizontal expanding wild symbol. Where normal expanding wild features will make all symbols on one reel wild, when the wild feature is triggered in this game, the middle horizontal row of symbols becomes wild and turns into an image of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The higher-denomination category also extends to the video slot lineup, with Diamond Jackpots, a three-reel, multi-level progressive for players wagering quarters, dollars and above.

Both reel-spinning and video stand-alone games will be displayed in new formats and cabinet styles this year. IGT will launch the “AVP Stepper” series, applying the advanced computing power to the AVP video format to the stepper side.

Also, many games will be shown in the new ergonomic G20 cabinet, which includes the “Digital Roundtop” LCD monitor in the top box. “All of our cabinets support a square-top monitor, but we wanted to offer some variety, and round-top games have been successful in the past,” Venneman says. “Our arrangement with the vendor is exclusive.”

Finally, IGT will be showing a new bar-top unite, in which the monitor rises to an elevated position, giving the player a better viewing angle. This will be in a wide-screen configuration, including a 20.1-inch LCD monitor.

Amazing Progressives - The most amazing games in IGT’s lineup this year in terms of innovation may be three new MegaJackpots wide-area progressive products, each with multiple progressives, each taking slot technology into uncharted territory.

The Star Wars Multi-Level Progressive is a visual feast—the banks themselves look like something from outer space. The base game, “Jabba’s Palace,” is on the bottom, and the top box is shaped like the “R2D2” robot from the films—it’s the robot with five branded jackpot levels in his belly, including the top progressive prize, which resets at $1 million.

It all sits under a giant display with the five jackpots and the big prize displayed on an overhead video screen flanked by two plasma displays on which clips from the films can be seen.

The game itself is a “group play” game. Players make a side bet in the primary game that lets them accumulate points with certain symbols, and then everyone goes into the progressive bonus game at once—it happens every 10 minutes. Eligible players are each assigned a racing hover craft similar to the one in the films, and they race on the overhead screen (and on each individual video screen) for one of the various jackpot levels.

Also new in the MegaJackpots series is eBay, a game carrying a theme based on the famous auction website. The Bay culture provides many icons and ideas for bonus sequences. According to Venneman, while the theming is the main nod to the auction website for now, the rights to the eBay name could mean some great possibilities in the networked floor of the future.

The eBay game is another group-play experience. The base games is a MultiWay scatter-game. Five machines are linked to a large, overhead unit that contains five 42-inch LCD video screens. Those big screens actually double as giant reels in the bonus round. As with Star Wars, all eligible players on the bank go into the bonus round at the same time for 10 free spins on the big reels (and on each screen). Different players go in with different multiplier amounts, earned through features in the primary game.

The eBay game also debuts IGT’s new wide-screen slant-top, featuring a 22-inch LCD monitor in a newly designed cabinet.

Also new in the MegaJackpots series is Diamond Jackpots, a three-reel, multi-level progressive game geared toward the quarter and dollar stepper player. “It’s a bit of a follow-up to our Red Hot Jackpots, which has done very well,” Venneman says. “It has a four-level progressive, and what’s unique about it is that the progressive amounts change as the player increases his bet.” The base game is three-reel, but a fourth bonus reel is activated when the bonus round is initiated.

However, perhaps the most remarkable game in IGT’s new lineup of MegaJackpots games is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The game itself a five-reel, 20-line, 200-credit video slot, but what’s really remarkable is the video display which faces the player. IGT licensed a technology known as “PureDepth” to create this. Basically, it is two LCD video displays, one overlapping the other. In normal game play, you’ll swear you’re looking at physical reels, but it is really two video screens giving the impression of depth in what is called a multi-level display, or MLD.

The effect is really mind-boggling during bonus events, though, consisting of animation and live-action clips from the Indiana Jones film. Two layers of LCD panels sharing a common back-lighting source creates a 3-D effect that is almost like a stereoscope. After bonus sequences end, a 20-stop wheel in the top box multiplies the awards.

IGT has taken full advantage of the new technology with 88 movie clips that play consecutively after each win, so players can actually see most of the movie in sequence.

The other big MegaJackpots launch for IGT is a five-player version of Wheel of Fortune Super Spin. As with the nine-player version introduced last year, the wheel-spinning bonus round is frequent enough so multiple players are spinning the wheel at once, but on this version, the five play stations are in a line in front of a giant vertical wheel—the top half of the wheel can be seen over the bank, and each player’s terminal is assigned a color corresponding to an arrow on the wheel.

Poker and Tables - In addition to the amazing lineup of slot games, IGT’s lineup this year pays homage to the poker room and the pit.

In addition to displaying the Guaranteed Play option on all of its standard video poker games, IGT will be officially launching the World Poker Tour multi-level progressive game.

The game, which is already in the field, is a five-reel S2000 stepper slot with a wide-area progressive as the top award. Triggering symbols on the reels activate a progressive bonus round called “Heads Up Hold ‘Em Bonus,” in which the player is pitted against his favorite poker star—he picks from several well-known players displayed on the screen, with the prize of one of seven progressive jackpots.

From there, it’s a game of Texas Hold ‘em against the computer (in the guise of the poker star), with each successive hand won earning a higher progressive award.

From the poker room to the pit, IGT is offering a complete line of electronic table games in what it calls the “MP Series” (for “multi-player”). Last year, the company purchased technology from the Austrian Gaming Industries subsidiary of Austria’s Novomatic Group, which it used to create multi-player electronic baccarat and roulette games. The first of those games is being released in the field around the time of the G2E show.

The roulette games use either a physical automated roulette wheel with a camera trained on it—and its image beamed to up to hundreds of individual game stations—or a virtual wheel. The same setup is available with baccarat. The individual play stations have touch-screen wagering interfaces, and can be set up in a stadium-like environment with action displayed on an overhead screen.

This April, IGT made a strategic investment in DigiDeal Corporation, a leading supplier of electronic table games, in exchange for access to all of DigiDeal’s intellectual property and five-year exclusive manufacturing and distribution rights for DigiDeal products. After five years, IGT has the option to acquire DigiDeal outright.

Among the DigiDeal products IGT will display at the G2E show are a host-assisted poker game, with digital displays of cards but with a host assisting players on wagering and other aspects. Other DigiDeal electronic table games, including several versions of blackjack, dice, baccarat and poker, will be displayed.

In all, it is one of the most remarkable collections of new products in years from the slot market leader, and it will be accompanies by a complete demonstration of IGT’s vision for an open-network, server-based gaming floor. “IGT is setting the groundwork for the open-network revolution,” said IGT Chief Operating Officer Steve Morro in a statement on the G2E lineup, “but our emphasis at G2E 2007 will be products available right now for our casino customers.

“We’re focused on how we can maximize their return on investment right now.”

Rocket Gaming - Head of the Class

Rocket brings an established server-based system to the Class III market

For more than a decade, Rocket Gaming Systems has sold what is considered one of the best server-based gaming systems in the Class II electronic bingo market. For the past two years, as its Class II business has continued to soar, the Oklahoma-based company has focused on rebuilding its system architecture for server-based use in Class III markets.

“Rocket is unwavering in its commitment to achieving excellence in technology, customer service, and game variety and performance,” says Terry Daly, vice president of game design. “To ensure our journey into Class III Indian Country is as successful as our Class II offerings have been, Rocket established a Las Vegas office and has begun hiring key personnel with strong levels of experience in Class III gaming.”

Among the new executives joining the company is Robert DelRossi, formerly global vice president of Systems R&D at Aristocrat. He joined Rocket earlier this year as chief operations officer. Deron Hunsberger, formerly director of sales at Konami, is now Rocket’s vice president of business development. Finally, Erica Frohm, who held senior positions in gaming and systems at WMS, joined Rocket this year to help focus the company’s strategic direction for products and services.

On the technology front, new systems development begun in 2006 will continue to fuel the company’s growth. I “Improvements to our systems infrastructure make it possible to support even greater levels of handle,” Daly says. “Annual handle on the Rocket network has grown nearly 78 percent each year on average since 2002. We also have improved diagnostics at the machine level so small problems never have the chance to become larger ones.”

Market Focus - While the company is tailoring its system for all Class III markets, Daly says the primary focus will remain on the Native American markets.

“Rocket’s primary market focus will remain on its to be squarely on our customers throughout Indian Country,” he says. “Our wide-area progressive system remains among the most recognized in the market. In 2008, we will continue to provide our customers with innovative new game concepts and titles while extending our leadership position in advanced systems technology and best of breed customer support.”

In addition to products for traditional Class II markets, Rocket products for compacted Class III jurisdictions debuted in 2007. Daly says this trend will continue in 2008 with further support for our customers in Class III Native American casinos.

G2E Lineup  - Rocket will have its largest-ever presence at G2E. The company is launching two new game concepts, called “Jackpot Jubilee” and “Diamond Drop.”

The Jackpot Jubilee series consists of five-reel, 20-line video titles featuring a multi-denomination format and a variety of pay percentages.The first new titles in the series are Whopper and Great White Diamond. Each has unique base game math and special game-specific bonus features, and all games link to a common Jackpot Jubilee bonus feature that can occur at any time.

In the Jackpot Jubilee bonus, a secondary screen appears with only gems on the reels: rubies, diamonds, emeralds, and special Jackpot Jubilee gems. Each gem is associated with its own progressive jackpot. Players accumulate enough gems to win one of the corresponding jackpots. (If they don’t, a consolation prize is awarded.)

The jackpot values all vary and hit frequently. The frequency of hitting the jackpots increase as the player’s bet increases. All four progressives are displayed on the base game screen so players don’t have to look up at a sign to see the current jackpot values. Early previews of Jackpot Jubilee in some key markets around the country have garnered much success, says Daly.

Diamond Drop is a new five-reel video slot series available in a variety of math models for both high-coin/low-denomination players and more traditional lower-bet/higher-denomination player, says Daly. The series is available in a wide range of percentages and in both local-area and wide-area progressive versions.

Rocket will also introduce five additional titles in the Mr. Cashman series—licensed from Aristocrat Technologies—as well as new Rocket titles including Safe Escape, Bursting Balloons, Lady Bug, Sneaky Pete and Big Rig.

Spielo - New Era

Spielo prepares to combine with future sister company Atronic with new games and systems

Only a few years ago, Spielo was a small Canadian slot-maker supplying video lottery terminals to Canadian provincial lotteries and a few state lotteries in the U.S.

That all changed in 2004, when the New Brunswick-based company was snatched up by GTECH Holdings Corporation, one of the largest suppliers of tickets and computer systems to the North American lottery industry.

That acquisition was part of GTECH’s plan to broaden its gaming horizons to include casino slot markets across the U.S. That strategy will be complete by early next year, when GTECH finalizes its purchase of a 50 percent controlling interest in the Atronic Group—giving Spielo a new sister company and a new combined slot development strategy.

“GTECH’s core business is still lottery, so we’ve operated at arm’s length from that portion of the business,” explains Robin Drummond, Spielo’s vice president of sales. “However, GTECH had a portion of its business in the gaming space—central-server, significant business in Rhode Island’s racinos—so their gaming business and Spielo’s has been rolled into won as the GTECH Gaming Solutions business.”

When Atronic comes on board, he says, the new sister companies will operate as independent legal entities, but over time, officials of both companies “will contemplate how we can leverage the strengths of both companies.”
According to Drummond, the marketing efforts of Atronic and Spielo may combine as early as January’s International Casino Exposition in January, when it is expected that there will be one booth for the products of both slot-makers. As far as the new company infrastructure, those issues have yet to be decided. “There are areas where you can never have enough, such as game development centers,” he says, noting that Spielo’s Canadian R&D center and Atronic’s three international game development centers are likely to remain intact.

Spielo at G2E - Meanwhile, Spielo has one last showcase of slots solely from its Canadian R&D headquarters to unveil for attendees at the Global Gaming Expo.

Among the new games being launched at the G2E show are titles in Spielo’s Reel Pay series, a suite of video slots without paylines, in which all wins are paid as scatters. The player simply decides how many credits to wager. New titles include Treasures of Olympus, Silver Lake, Vegas Reel Pay and Spanish Gold.

Naturally, since the pay table is “non-linear,” the higher the wager, the greater the return, Drummond notes. “We feel it’s easier for players when they’re not betting on paylines,” he says. “Wins just have to be on adjacent reels. The buttons will ask you how much you want to wager, and casinos can adjust those bet levels. The different levels are graphically displayed on the game screen, to show the player at which wager level he is playing. The graphic indicators are color-coded to match the bet buttons, to make this even easier for the player to understand.”

He adds that it is just as easy to understand how a player has won when a winning combination lands.

Spielo also has a video slot series based on The Dog, the licensed brand that has appeared on playing cards, plush toys, greeting cards and elsewhere across the world. New video slots in this brand include Paw Prints, Pick of the Litter and Best in Show.

The brand is well-known in Europe, and is currently sweeping North America,” says Drummond. “The brand is quickly becoming ubiquitous in the marketplace.”

Spielo also is launching a new multi-level linked random progressive game series, called “Fortune Frenzy.” Second-screen monitors and a 42-inch overhead LCD sign combine with high-fidelity audio to call attention to the link during celebrations.

Fortune Frenzy is a four-level mystery progressive jackpot that hits very frequently, with celebrations employing what Spielo calls a “moving sound” feature. “When a Frenzy strikes, pre-celebration sound ‘moves’ along the bank from machine to machine, giving players the feeling they are in a swarm of activity,” Drummond says.

Other new offerings include a series of 40-line and 50-line video slots with high-resolution graphics enhanced by a new platform, called “Sensys,” that Drummond says is “server-based, download-ready” for the digital slot floors that will soon begin to appear. “These games have higher resolution and better audio than our other games,” Drummond says. “

Finally, in addition to all the new game launches, Spielo is introducing a linked slot tournament offering called TournaMaster. In a preview of capabilities that will be commonplace with central server-based gaming, banks of slots are linked to a tournament controller, and those games can be switched instantly between regular play and high-hitting tournament mode, from a remote location.

“Spielo has taken its successful slot tournament software, introduced at last year’s show, a few steps further,” Drummond says. “Entire banks of Spielo machines can now be used for slot tournaments that are controlled and conducted from an easy-to-use console. Dual second-screen monitors and overhead signage with large LCD monitors track the action. When the tournament ends, the entire bank of machines can be switched back to live play from the control console in only a few seconds.”

In all, Spielo’s G2E lineup proves that the company is far more than just a video lottery supplier. After next year’s merger with Atronic, Spielo’s transformation into a premier slot and system manufacturer for the casino industry will be complete.

WMS Gaming - Into the Future

WMS launches play experiences taking slots to the next level

At last year’s G2E show, WMS Gaming dazzled the industry with the launch of three new game styles that were like nothing anyone had seen on a slot floor.

First, there was Monopoly Big Event, which linked banks of Monopoly games to a common bonus round that everyone entered at once, kicking off a new series called “Community Gaming.” Then, Top Gun introduced “Sensory Immersion Gaming,” an experience of sights and sound that created a virtual-reality ride disguised as a slot machine, as players shot at enemy airplanes in a simulated dogfight for bonus awards.

Finally, there was “Transmissive Reels Gaming,” a new technology that placed mechanical reels inside a slot that had a video screen as the face of the game and as a transparent film over the reels themselves, for a hybrid game experience the likes of nothing else in the industry.

It was a landmark year for WMS Gaming, and next year will be another one. Not only is the company introducing new games in all of these category-killing series; the company is launching yet more new game groups.

One common thread in all of these new offerings is that they provide the first glimpse of the kinds of new play experiences that will be possible with a fully networked, server-based or server-supported slot floor. Many of the games use smaller controllers to drive game functions where larger servers may reside in the future. Others simply represent the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that promises to bring the new generation of gamers—those who don’t particularly think spinning reels are interesting—into the casino, and keep them there.

“At this year’s G2E show, we are demonstrating answers to an important question: How is server-based gaming going to affect my floor?” says Rob Bone, vice president of marketing for WMS. “This year, we’re showing that, in addition to how we see the casino evolving over the next few years, and how we’re going to supply it. We’re giving customers a technology roadmap.”

“We’re trying to communicate to customers that it’s all about technology and intellectual property—IP first and foremost,” adds Larry Pacey, senior vice president of product development. “We’re a good technology company, but we’re a great game company. In packaging those games for the players, we focus on player-driven innovation.

“It is the player who will decide how the slot business goes forward. Only when there is a player benefit does technology take off.”

Bone notes that players already feel casinos have a “big brother” mentality, and that they are only there to take the player’s hard-earned money. “S, if we communicate to the player, and serve the player, they’ll already be on board,” he says. “Players are looking for something new, and they want personal attention. We believe the opportunity exists to make their player system personal and intimate. That’s how we want to use player driven innovation—to create an intimate experience for our players.”

That intimate experience will be coming to players through a completely amazing collection of games in a wealth of different categories. For the second year in a row, WMS has more variety in its collection of new product than any of the other slot-makers.

“We are taking a dedicated approach,” Pacey says. “There are no grocery-store aisles on a casino floor When players look at one of our games, they will understand exactly how that game functions. Players choose a game first and foremost from merchandising. What keeps them there is the math and the mechanics.”

Not in Kansas Anymore - And what mechanics. Heading up WMS’ player lineup this year is the next game in the Sensory Immersion series, “The Wizard of Oz.”

The company has taken the Sensory Immersion setup, with its vibrating chair, high-resolution animation and live-action video, and surround-sound Bose speakers and used it all to transport the player into one of the most beloved films of all time.

If you want to know the types of experiences are re-created with this game, just think of the classic movie. It’s all in there, from the noise and vibrations as Oz appears to the flying monkeys (they turn reel symbols into wild symbols), and all the familiar lines from the Wicked Witch, the Scarecrow, Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the rest. You hear the actual audio from the film, but you hear it like you’ve probably never heard it before.

There are more features in this game than can be described. Glenda the Good Witch expands wild symbols in the primary game. You pick emeralds to go to the Road to Emerald City Bonus or the Flying Monkey Bonus. There are multiple bonus opportunities along the way.

WMS also is introducing a second game in another groundbreaking series, the Transmissive Reels series, which launched last year with Monopoly Super Money Grab. (This is the series in which a transparent video screen overlays on top of spinning reels.) WMS is launching a new Transmissive Reels game called John Wayne, which uses the technology to display the Duke in all his glory.

There is a free-spin round in which the Duke guides the player to a shot at one of three progressive awards, along with scenes from the star’s most famous movies appearing on the face of the slot and over the reels.

In the Community Gaming category, the follow-up to Monopoly Big Event is a new game based on the legendary TV game show Press Your Luck.

Press Your Luck Big Event places links several slots to an overhead re-creation of the main event from the game show, in which lights flash around prize amounts until stopped by the player on either an award or the “Wammy” character. “This is not just a theme; it re-creates the game show experience,” says Pacey.

New Game Groups - WMS will officially launch two new game groups at G2E. The first, called the “Innovation Series,” features completely new ways to configure paylines.

“Wrap Around Pays” is a series of games that actually debuted in September with a game called Whipping Wild. This format actually simulates a three-dimensional, cylindrical reel strip. On the first game, there are 100 paylines, split up into sets of 20, with 20 paylines beginning at the first reel, and 20 more paylines following the same patterns, only beginning from each of the other four reels—as if the paylines were “wrapping around.”

The other payline configuration is called “Money Burst.” In this setup, pays are made through a matrix, with common symbols clumped on the first two reels. Hits occur on multiple paylines, one after the other, on every spin, and winning symbols cascade down to be replaced by new symbols.

The first game in this series conjures up the image of a legendary Vegas icon, one Dean Martin.

“Dean Martin’s Wild Party” kicks off the Innovation Series with a fun game that is classic Vegas. In the bonus round, you hear Dino singing “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head” (which you may remember from the iconic Vegas film Ocean’s Eleven) while bonus credits rack up.

Another new game group is called “Rotating Wild.” There are 14 individual reels—positioned as if you were looking at them from the top. Wild symbols in the middle rotate six times, moving 360 degrees and racking up bonus credits with each stop. The first game in this series, Houdini, is themed on the life of the legendary magician.

Other new game groups include “Spinning Streak,” in which games hold all winning combinations and re-spin the remaining symbols. This happens on every spin, and continues as long as the re-spins result in at least one winning combination.

Another new group is “Bonus Bank,” which employs an extra 10-credit ante wager to activate a bonus game that occurs randomly every 30 spins. What makes this different than other ante-based bonuses is that the bonus round occurs independent of any result on the reels. It can even happen in the middle of a spin.

Perhaps the greatest of WMS’ new games, though, is the first in another new series called “Adaptive Gaming.” This is a combination of the Sensory Immersion concept with a networked approach that allows players to use their club cards to continue games that they began another day.

The first game using this technology is one you have got to see—Star Trek. This is an incredible game, using the most advanced visuals and sound you’ve ever seen to put you inside of classic Star Trek TV episodes. In fact, the first suite of games contains three complete episodes from the original 1960s television series. After playing one of the “episode”—like, for instance, The Trouble With Tribbles—the ticket printer prints out a code. The next time the player comes to the casino, he can enter the code to pick up the game in the episode where they left off the last time they played.

And yes—William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takai and other surviving members of the original cast provided voice-overs for the game.

“What’s really nice about an Adaptive Series game like Star Trek is that the player has a chance to progress through the game, and they can save where they are, come back and pick it up,” says Pacey. “They don’t feel like their time on the machine is lost, and it gives them another goal—not only winning, but progressing through the events.”

Return of the Classics - In addition to all the new game styles, WMS Gaming is reaching into the past in a number of ways to bring back legendary slot experiences.

For example, one of the most popular three-reel stepper games of the 1990s from the company then called Williams was “Jackpot Stampede.” Basically, a bonus symbol on the reels would cause a cowboy voice to shout, “Stampede!,” followed by the sound of stampeding cattle as the reels spun wildly to successive winning combinations.

This year, Jackpot Stampede comes back in the form of “Super Jackpot Stampede,” in WMS’ 3RM (for three-reel mechanical) series. Super Jackpot Stampede has the same kind of feature, but with a large LCD video screen depicting the stampede, with a four-level random mystery progressive jackpot on top.

During the free-spin “Stampede” round, every time a cow symbol lands on the reels, a cow is added to one of four “corrals,” on the video screen near each progressive jackpot. When one of the corrals fills with cows, the player wins that progressive prize.

The classic is destined to be the latest hit in what has been a hot game group for WMS. “Both mechanical reel and video players are playing the 3RM games,” says Pacey. “No one has been providing product in this reel-spinning space, so we’re bombarding the market with games for the real traditionalist, to juice up the experience of the classic mechanical slot.”

One more classic WMS is brining back was one of the most popular reel-spinners of the 1990s, and one of the games that put Williams on the map—Piggy Bankin.’ The classic game was the first in the Williams “Dotmation” series. Coin symbols on the reels would increment coins inside a dot-matrix display of a piggy bank. When a “Break the Bank” symbol landed on the reels, the player would collect the bonus. A sequel was called “Big Bang Piggy Bankin.’”

Next year, WMS will release “Bigger Bang Piggy Bankin.’” It will be a communal-play game with a Transmissive Reels base game.

Encore Performances - All the new game styles, of course, will be accompanied at WMS’ booth at the trade show by additions to the company’s standard game library in all styles.

In the standard CPU-NXT 2 video slot group, one of the strongest games is “Lucky Meerkats,” a hilarious follow-up to “Lucky Lemmings,” the game in which lemmings jump off a cliff into bonus “holes” in a hill. In this version, meerkats jump into holes to throw the screen into completely new bonus sequences, no two alike.

Nineteen new titles are being launched over the next six months in the “G+” series, the line of basic, volatile video slots with consistent graphics and simple free-spin bonuses. “The G+ series has proven itself,” says Bone. “It’s all about the excitement of the win, but it’s also about the consistency of the game features. We recognize the need in the market for volatile, free-spin games, and we are expanding our product library.”

Meanwhile, Pacey says the games with interactive bonuses have been the best-performing WMS games on the floor. “Everybody thought we were kind of crazy when we came out with Top Gun,” he says. “Many manufacturers had made 3-D games in the past, but none performed in the marketplace. It’s because they were 3-D for the sake of being 3-D., They didn’t leverage that 3-D to create a new play experience. That’s what Top Gun did, and it’s earning big numbers. We’ve had venues tell us it’s the best-performing product they’ve had on their floor, ever. On the Strip, you can’t get on one. We have wives holding the games for their husbands to come over.”

WMS officials hope to create the same kind of excitement with The Wizard of Oz, Star Trek and the other interactive games being launched over the coming year.

“This is what we think networked gaming will be like,” says Bone. “This is the kind of thing we’re most excited about. We couldn’t be happier that all these server-based initiatives are coming about, because they will create these play experiences that people have never had before.”