People of a young age won’t believe it, but there was once a time when slot machines were standard and certainly simple. All you had to do was pull the lever and hope the fruit symbols lined up on the payline.
Modern slot games are so far removed from their geriatric cousins that new players might be excused for having no clue where to start. There are thousands of different slots, different themes using many types of digital mechanics, with amazing features and bonus rounds, multiple paylines, and more.
With a bewildering choice, complete with dazzling graphics and fantastic sound effects, new players might be worried about trying a slot game. Or they might decide to go ahead but perhaps lose some money because they didn’t know what they were doing.
Happily, there are some excellent information sites available to offer valuable advice. You can find all the info you need here, which will answer any questions and guide you to some fun and hopefully valuable times on today’s slot machines.
So, what is it that makes today’s slot machines so advanced? The answer is in the extraordinary leaps we have made in digital technology. The smart software behind today’s best-known slot games produce exceptional effects.
Where once slot machines, including the first digitized ones, had static symbols that had to line up in one or only a few winning paylines, now we have video slots where symbols can expand, play a clip or move around the screen in incredible ways.
We have tumbling reels functionality, where symbols on a winning line disappear, causing those above to fall and fill the space – which might create another winning combination.
You can read more at the dedicated information sites, but modern slot machines tend to follow themes. Those old fruit machines are long gone, but they have been replaced by modern fruit variants, such as Fruit Shop or Grand Spinn. Other current favorites include themes surrounding Ancient Egypt, with hieroglyphic symbols and atmospheric music and sound effects. Other popular themes include dinosaurs, Irish leprechauns (try the awesome Finn’s Golden Tavern slot), and outer space.
The big film and TV franchises recognize the money to be made from licensing their titles to slot software companies. Visit any online casino, or walk into a real casino, and you’ll soon find slots with titles like Game of Thrones, Wheel of Fortune, and the Price is Right.
Even music is well represented in the slots world. One of the most recent and most successful releases was the Ozzy Osbourne slot, which fuses exceptional video graphics and gameplay against a backdrop of some of the heavy rock star’s biggest hits. Thankfully, you don’t get to see him biting the head off a bat.
Gameplay in the new generation of slots might seem confusing to new players, who might like to read up a little first before diving in. You have multiple paylines – sometimes over 30 – and then the addition of wild symbols, which can act as any other to form a winning line, and scatters, which can trigger a win from any position.
Look for the symbols that will prompt the bonus feature. Often this will require landing three or more of the bonus symbol. When it happens, you are transported into a new game that might feature free spins, win multipliers, and more. Before you know it, you might build up a big payday.
Jackpot slots are reserved for the biggest payouts of all. These slots can have huge jackpots, which build up over time until someone gets super lucky. Recently, the Mega Fortune Jackpot slot paid out an incredible €2.6 million (nearly $3 million) to one player. The slot has produced life-changing wins for players many times since it launched to an excited casino-playing public in 2012.
Of course, while these new slots are all the rage, some players still prefer classic slots. These games are often in the original three-reel format, and have familiar symbols like fruit, bells, the number 7, and bars. Try a slot game like Triple Diamond to find out what we mean.
The final consideration for new slot players is whether they fancy a high or low variance slot game. High variance slots do not pay out so often, but when they do, the prizes are generally higher. On the low variance games, you might make a winning line far more often, but you won’t win big so much.
