One of the most entertaining aspects of pokie in the nearly 50 years it has been around is that apart from the usual varieties of slot machine some of them also offer unique themes with a focus on different themes like nature, surf and seas life.
One of the most entertaining aspects of pokie in the nearly 50 years it has been around is that apart from the usual varieties of slot machine some of them also offer unique themes with a focus on different themes like nature, surf and seas life.
A case in point is the latest slot machine craze which has seen the old fashioned slot machines turned into digital images and placed on the internet. This slot machine includes a huge surfing sea monster on the front as well as aces spinning from the tails. At the very bottom is a cash bar with a poker hand and coins slot to let the player pay in the denomination of their choice. The bar is actually a Shark, played by the famous casino TV game show host, Mikey Whinerd.
Mikey, (a man who may or may not be a shark expert) has been hosting the show since the very first episode in the very first season. Apart from his passion for the games he holds as a hold’em expert, he is also a keen advocate for nature, the ocean and the surfing industry.
The slot machine inside this box is a little bit different from the ones we are used to. It is not electronic like the ones you see on casinos, nor is it a slot machine as it uses coins instead of the currency options that we are more used to. No, this unique slot machine pays out the exact amount of money that it takes in, it does not allow the player to vary the amount of money raised in the standard fashion.
This may somewhat seem out of place in a world where casinos and slot machines are one of the most highly regulated industries in the world, however it is meant to be a fun activity for people to do together with their friends. Who would actually believe that a slot machine may allow the player to decide on how much they choose to spend on their hobby?
The history of pokies and slots started in the small island of Malta in the early 1950s. An American company called Sizzling Craps came up with the invention of a new slot machine which took the simplest approach in being a slot machine, it was only a table with a lever on one side and a passing line on the other. This line would spin and stop on different symbols, the idea was to get the symbols to line up in a specific order and then the player would line up the correct symbols to win some money.
A casino in Netherlands developed the slot machine version of the game and named it ‘Toastmasters’. The company created over fifty different machine types that are very popular among slot machine users. A Dutch company is also credited with the lit firewall slot that is extremely popular in Las Vegas where there are 3000 different slot machines!
The company that developed the slots in Holland was IGT. The name of the company is actually derived from the name of the slot machine we could find in their Tommy’s Island amusement complex which was called ‘IGT’. Tommy’s Island was actually sold to the IGT company for $17 million in 2002 for the privilege of developing the slot machine.
The first ever version of a slot machine was created inells, by Elwood T. Baker in inventions. This version did not use diamonds, dice or poker chips but instead it used dried beans. Baker, a machine engineer, was attempting to find a device that would determine the outcome of rolling a pair of dice. He was attempting to do this by using a wheel.
However, this version of the slot machine was rejected by the American manufacturers who polishes and fixes the flaws in these machines. The outcomes were not pre determined and the symbols could appear at the same time as the wheel stopped at different angles or locations. Therefore, something small like a marker could catch the wheel and roll it end over end, in theory, spoiling the Twelve ball game for the player.
Many years pass before the first video version of the slot machine appears. In 1994, MicroGaming, an American company that competes with IGT released the first video variant, the ‘ Argentinian’ line of slot machines. These machines allowed for up to three coins to be played per spin, as well as a single win of 250 coins. To promote the product, a second screen would show a picture of Argentine president, George W. Bush, during his visit to the United States.
These machines provided customers with many options of games, from the standard ‘3 reels, 3 sounds’ to the more sophisticated Video Slots. Most of the video slots maintained the basic play of the ‘3 reels, 3 sounds’ system.