Evolution Of Slots – Loyalty Bonus Pro

We look at the technological advancements that bought the turned the original one armed bandits into the slot games we love today.
Slots have changed a lot since their first tentative steps, but the format we know today (insert coin, reels spin, you win or lose) hasn’t changed since it was set up by famous San Francisco mechanic Charles Fey. If you haven’t heard of the ‘Liberty Bell’, invented in the late part of the 19th century, you’d probably recognise it as a three reel one arm bandit. The machine was hugely popular and we can wonder if Fey had any inkling of exactly how popular his idea would grow.

If you look at the numerous online articles that talk about the history of slots then one machine that is commonly omitted from the list is the Big Bertha machine. This machine was a casino staple up until the invention of the RNG (random number generator).  The machine was borne out of the casino’s desire for more returns from the machine and the player’s desire for bigger jackpots. At the time the biggest slots were 3 slot machines with 15 stops per reel limiting jackpots to a few hundred dollars at best. It wasn’t long however before some bright spark worked out that more stops on the reel together with more reels gives more combinations which in turn means that the casino can set higher jackpots. This idea was taken to the extreme with Big Bertha. The machine was an electromagnetic affair which removed the need for the side arm crank. Big Bertha’s successor was a massive 8 reel affair with 20 stops per reel that needed a 5 horsepower engine to keep the reels spinning. The machine was limited slightly by its extravagant price tag ($150K) and the fact that the designers had made the jackpot a little too hard to hit (the amount of combinations on the reels is astronomical).

In the 1960’s Video Poker was introduced to gaming houses and to the surprise of many it was a massive hit. Slot companies then quickly began to look at how they could completely automate a game and the first completely automated slot to hit the casinos was Bally’s ‘Money Honey’. The game was a simple 3 reel affair and featured the first ‘bottomless hopper’ and could pay out up to 500 coins without the need for an attendant.

The biggest change in the last few decades has been the introduction of the RNG which is now used to control where the reel stops on modern slots. The RNG was developed by Inge Telnaus. This created a slot machine revolution as it allowed for the introduction of virtual reels which had many more stops on them than were possible on physical reels. As the Big Bertha developers discovered, more stops on a reel means that slots can pay higher jackpots. The age of the big money slot had been born.

Finally, in the since the mid-nineties we’ve seen the explosion of the internet. As all slots now are run on RNGs and most have video interfaces it’s not too much of a challenge for slot developers to create online versions of slots for players. This final evolution of slots has done away with the need for players to visit casinos, as slot jockeys everywhere should now be enjoying the thrills and spills of the game from the comfort of their own homes.

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