In the beginning, slots were mechanical. You pulled the metal handle and that turned the metal wheels. We’re talking about 19th Century technology — for the youngsters and history-flunkers out there, that was after they discovered fire but before anything got plugged in.
Around about the same time that Sean Connery first said “Shaken, not stirred”, a company called Ballys made the first electromechanical slot machine. Among other things, this made the handle more or less optional — most slots could now be operated by a simple button (players still liked the handle, so — useful or not — it remains on the majority of slot machines to this day). This may not have made its way into the history books alongside penicillin and men on the moon, but it revolutionized casino gaming forever…or at least, until the day when video slots came to town.
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At some point between Space Invaders and Sony Playstations, video slots became the major slot player. They worked like slot machines — you put your money in and a bunch of symbols lined up (or not) and money came pouring out (or not). But believe me, they were not like any slot machine that came before.
Just browse through the selection of video slots at any one of our recommended online slots casinos — compare the virtual “classic” slot machines to one of the video slot machines. You’ll start to notice telling differences right away. And since all of them let you play all of thgeir games completely for free, you’ll be able to notice as much as you want!
For one thing, video slots didn’t need wheels or reels. As a matter of fact, they didn’t really need much of anything except for a video screen, a computer chip, and a button to make them do their thing. Well, I suppose they also needed a way to take the money (and give it back, when necessary). But pretty much everything that made a slot machine became optional. You were basically now playing a video game — the only difference being that Pac-Man only ate your quarters; he never even once spit them back out at you.
However, people didn’t go to a casino to play Pac-Man, they went to play slot machines. So just like the handle on the old electromechanical slots, casino games makers designed new slots knowing full well that people still liked the form and operation of the classic slot machines. However, the video versions gave certain major advantages for both the casino and the player.
For the casino, they were cheaper to buy and maintain, and much lighter and more portable to move around. They also happened to be programmable, so they could be altered and updated more or less whenever the casino wanted.
For the player, they were able to feature several marvelous new options, such as multi-line slots (you weren’t limited to just one row of cherries anymore) and progressive slots (you weren’t limited to whatever could fit in the belly of your particular machine anymore). The video screens meant that the symbols could sing and dance in ways that made the old reels look positively, well, 19th Century in comparison.
Check out some of the ways that the state-of-the-art slots sing and dance at our favorite online slots casinos (and yes, all of them offer these slots for free play!):
Video slots also paved the way for all sorts of multimedia additions to the old slots format. Actual video clips and movie clips could be incorporated into the slot machine, and such things as bonus spins, debit and membership cards, and many more special functions became business-as-usual on the newest models of slots.
One thing that the “real” brick-and-mortar casinos could not do is offer free slots on a regular basis. And as you know by now, online slots casinos offer free play to all of their online casino games all of the time. So I guess that the history of slots just keeps getting better and better!
