Slot Machines Background and History

There are many different background aspects of slot machines all around the world. When slot machines were first emerging in the United States, they were all about fruit. Even to this day fruit machines still exist, but however they have begun to decline in many different parts of the world.

In the 2000s, online slots have been on the rise. There are many different types of slot machines available online. So many that if you are a slot machine fan, you will find one you like. Some of them have 3 reels and others have 5 reels. They are all very animated. Even online, the most popular slots are ones with fruits.

The first fruit machines started making their appearance in the early 20^th century in America. Trade Simulator was one of the original fruit machines. These machines gave out gum as winnings. If a person hit three cherries, they would receive cherry flavored gum. When a person hit three watermelons, they would receive watermelon flavored gum.

These winnings were used as rewards to avoid anti-gambling laws during that time in the U.S. O.D. Jennings was responsible for introducing the original fruit symbols. He called the machines a chewing gum dispenser.

The fruit slot machines are based on Charles Fey’s Liberty Bell slot machine. Charles Fey’s Liberty Bell slot made its appearance years earlier. Fey’s machine is considered to be the grandfather of modern slot machines. Fey introduced a machine that contained 3 reels, along with playing card symbols and the Liberty Bell Icon. Actually the golden bell still exists today in a lot of the fruit machines. The next machine Fey released was called the Operator Bell. The Operator Bell incorporated fruit symbols.

The fruit machines were able to find their way into convenience stores in America, even though there were machines with bright appearances, prize giveaways, and cartoonish graphics. Fruit machines did make the line between gambling and vending machines completely blur. After this development, other developers wanted in on the action. Once they did, the model got rejigged and improved. As technology started advance more and more, the payouts started to become bigger.

Bally and Williams were two of the biggest slot machine developers in the 20^th century. They went on to use the early models of the machines and expanded their appeal. Bally developed the first fruit machine that was electronic in the year 1963. The name of the machine was called Money Honey. Human attendants assisted the payouts.

Money Honey featured a lot of fruits like cherries, lemons, oranges, and watermelons. There were some uniqueness to this slot. It had an electric hopper. Electric hoppers were invented for coin counting in banks. They were able to hold more coins than their predecessors. This allowed the jackpots to grow exponentially. The machine was able to give out hundreds instead of a handful of coins that was able to given out in one go.

Big Bertha merged into in the scene in the 1960s. It needed a five horse power engine. The five house power engine was used to power the reels. This game introduced 160 reel symbols to make the degree of randomness increase. As time went on, the machine went have from having three reels to eight. Also, the jackpots were bigger.

New slots that were made kept attracting a lot of slot virgins. For the first time ever, slots had chairs to go along with them so that way two or more people could sit at them at the same time. The new electronic system made it harder for people to cheat on the machines. It was due to the fact that the new electronic system had revolutionary micropressors. This made them appeal more to the big casinos.

The machine sizes also became smaller. This allowed casinos to be able to put more of the machines on the floor and increase their profits. Later on Big Bertha ended up becoming a museum piece.

The first video slot was developed by the Fortune Coin Company in 1975. Micropressors became more advanced. It was a 4 reel, 3 payline slot. The slot had a screen that depicted the reels. There were a lot of fruit symbols. This machine still had a customary one arm mechanism.

In the 2000s, the digital age emerged. Some developers have produced conversions of the land-based slot games into online games. Online players are able to be presented with an image of a real fruit machine. Some of them have an arm on the side to provide an authentic one-armed bandit experience. Fruit club and Ballytech’s Quick Hit Platinum came from an online developer trying to make a classic slot machine gameplay on a 5 reel type of format. Some fruit slot machines are still made, but however the focus does not seem to be on them anymore.