Slot Manager - January 2009 - (Page 23)

G2E have multiple games on the video,” said Greg Colella, Bally director of product management. “Now you take that concept with the Blazing 7s Multi-Slot to allow three different unique slot games with the same reels, same reel mix.” The Multi-Slot features three games: Blazing 7s Free Spin, Blazing 7s Scatter, and Blazing 7s Wild. What changes isn’t the reels, its the way the reel combinations are applied to your payoffs. Those incendiary 7s can bring you free spins on a separate set of reels in the top box, or can pay big as scatter pays in the main game, or act as wild symbols to create extra winning combinations. Another big innovation from Bally is DualVision, a new take on community gaming — what if your preferred community is two people? It comes with a bench wide enough for two, and two sets of video reels on the wide, Cine-Vision style screen. There’s just one bill validator, though. Spouses, friends or significant others play from the same pool of credits, though they can wager different amounts on each spin. Game play is independent — each player gets his or her own results. But when one triggers a bonus, both play a bonus round. Should both trigger a bonus at the same time, winnings are doubled. “Whoever you decide to play in the casino with, whether it’s your husband or wife, friend or what have you, you both can sit down and play the same slot machine,” Colella said. “You can really kind of have a unique experience and still have a cooperative element for both of you.” Bally also devoted attention to the player desire for “significant wins,” wins worth at least a minor celebration of the moment. Different games hold out the possibility of frequent significant wins in different ways – a four-level progressive in Goldbeard’s Treasure, and through free games in Jason, part of a family of Greek Heroes games. Power Strike, the first game in a new Power Platinum line, is designed for casinos that want to include a car or some other bigticket item in the jackpot. The math of the game includes the value of the item in the top jackpot, with the rest of the pay schedule allowing for the overall jackpot amount. And flexible graphics bring a picture of the prize right into the pay table. Colella said Bally also strived to bring a consistent look and feel to its games though its Easy View interface, making sure elements such as the bill validator, spin buttons and credit meter are in the same place on each game. In addition, Bally created a win profile to target a range of pays within its standard video product. “It moves our math model to a much more volatile math model, but it’s really an area where our product line had not been in the past. Many of our other products were really more of a time on device kind of game. These are much more volatile. And you’ll see that there’s a lot of consistency and standardization as far as the packages that we’ve done as far as common sounds and celebrations when they go to the bonuses.” SLOT REPORT Cadillac Jack: Cadillac Jack emphasized its Class III offerings at its booth. Those games included a number of 50-line games with themes including Tiger Magic and Wild Ninja. On each, a credit buys two lines, so a 25-credit wager can cover all pay lines. All are free-spin type games, with higher volatility than the second-screen bonus games in International Cadillac Jack’s portfolio. Game “They’re a little higher volatility than Technology: our standard games, with higher volatility IGT’s REELdepth math,” said director of game development product was a star Jared Torres. in the company’s Though the versions on the expo floor massive booth. were Class III, Torres noted that the themes A whole suite would also be available in Class II and of games demMexican bingo versions. onstrated the Alongside the 50-liners were 20-line freestriking threespin games, with $2 maximum bets on dimensional themes including Monkey in the Bank and effects with Winnicus Maximus. games that “What we’re really looking for is to hit mimic reel the sweet spot in the California marketplace, steppers, which is a key market for us, a growth marvideo-type slots and progressives. ket,” Torres said. “And if you max bet on these games at a penny, Entertainment and hospitality is your business; they’re a $2 bet. helping you make the right business decisions And what we’re seeing right now through superior market research is ours. in California is $2 to $3, somewhere around there are what they like to play for. These 20-line games, Find the clear answers what they have you need for success. are a scattered trigger and you can win up to 60 Contact free spins with that trigger. In John E. Thomas addition, there’s a Executive Director wild in the base Entertainment & Hospitality Division game that can 248.786.1659 increase your thomasj@clearseasresearch.com pay.” While the higher-volatilty games were points of emphasis, Cadillac Jack has new time-ondevice, secondscreen pick’em bonuses on themes including www.clearseasresearch.com Pirates Plunder and.Jazz Night. Cadillac Cash, the wide-area prowww.slotmanager.net ❘ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 ❘ SLOT MANAGER gaming-IGWB-quarter.indd 1 SM09084Clea.indd 1 gressive links for Native American and Mexican casinos, was shown in an updated version called Cadillac Cash Pump It Up. The original Cadillac Cash, in addition to a chance at a big wide area progressive, had a scatter reward and a free-spin bonus. Pump It Up adds a second-screen Pit Race and a High Octane Bonus with free spins and wild symbols that are locked on the middle reel, plus a multiplier. Torres says it can bring back 1,500 times the bet. “You only get this one in every 1,000 times, so we don’t trigger it very often,” he said. “You have two other bonuses that are both 1 in 100, so on average you get one or the other 1 in 50 times.” 23 2/12/08 10:13:24 AM 8/7/08 8:57:30 AM http://www.clearseasresearch.com http://www.clearseasresearch.com http://www.slotmanager.net

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Slot Manager - January 2009

Slot Manager - January 2009 Contents Editor's Note Quick Hits New Games Cover Story: Going Strong At 30 Game Changer: IGT's REELdepth Operations: Where There's a Will, There's a Way Games: G2E 2008 Slot Report Common Ground Marketing Inside Edge Advertiser Index Forum

Slot Manager - January 2009

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