The first-ever slot machine was introduced in 1895 and was invented by Charles Fey. This early effort had three spinning reels that contained 5 symbols that included horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell. Its very framework is still the basic principle of today’s more sophisticated machines and bells are still used as valuable symbols on many of today's only the best games.
In 1907 a slot called Operator Bell that focused on fruit symbols hit the country. It proved highly popular and was introduced into saloons and barber’s shops. However, a traditional slot machine that comes the closest to what we have now can be traced back to 1891, when Sittman and Pitt developed a gambling machine that used 5 drums. This held a total of 50 card faces and was based on Poker. This slot proved popular and paved the way for further development until technological advances offered the world the first electrical slot aptly named Money Honey. This was introduced to the public back in 1963. The game opened the door to further advancements in the 1970’s. This included the first crude version of the video slot, it not only introduced a new style of slot game, but it also introduced some new symbols into the slots arena. By 1996, video slots began to appear and with the invention of the internet came the creation of online casinos. These proved popular and once they began to fill with new digital video slots, they became even popular still, with the gambling public.
The Modern Slot
Slots today are an incredible achievement in technology. Your average digital video slot, boast some impressive computer graphics, animation and superior sound quality. Some are continuing to push the boundaries with the introduction of 3D animation. However, there is a new craze currently hitting the slots world and it isn’t so much in the superiority of the look of the slot, the change is in the game play itself.
Megaways Slots
A common factor in most video slots is that they have 5 reels and a certain number of paylines. Megaways is a new invention by Big Time Gaming and with these slots your paylines are subject to change. Each reel can have anything from 2 to 8 symbols on them and what this does is it increases the amounts of different combinations that can expand into hundreds of thousands of different ways to win. The maximum ways to win on Megaways Slots is 117,649. Most of these slots contain 6 reels and a common feature is a reel running across the main reel grid, this spins from right to left instead of the traditional way.
Final Thoughts
Megaways slots take some getting used to, but they do offer a twist on normal video slots. The main differences are the large amounts of ways to win per spin and the fact that these numbers are constantly changing. There is also no set number of symbols per reel. Most Megaways slots use cascading reels that continue to fall until a winning sequence is broken.
Back to top
|