Slots Adventures

i did stop in at english harbour today and noticed that the player in the top spot of the big november tourney took their $400 in starting credits and turned it into well over $100,000.  something like $116,000, which boggled my mind a little.  that’s a heck of a win in my book.

i dabbled on the wheel of chance game (not a tourney, just playing) and decided to surf around the net a bit before heading out to start the day.  i went through my usual list of slots sites (like Slots Hero.com), and eventually wound up at a page that lists a ton of slots websites.  looking through the list of sites there, i think that it might be the best list of slot machine-oriented sites on the net. 

not bad for surfing, i’ll tell you that. 

looks like nobody hit that massive progressive jackpot at intercasino yet, it’s up to $4.7 million. i thought it would have hit by now.

well, i must be off.  things to do, yadda, yadda, yadda.  i do want to say hi to the webmaster behind Video Poker 365.com.  i’m not exactly the video poker player, but if you’re interested in that game he’s got some good info up on his site.  worth a visit for sure.  i’m kindof sticking to slots for a while myself  

well, today is the day.  i’ll be taking my spins in the big November tournament at EH on the Reel Deal slot machine.  i’ve been kindof saving this up for a while, so today is a big day, kindof.

the way the tournament stands right now is:

9,888 players in the event to date

pays 288 places: $5888 in cash :: $10,000 in bonus money

we start with $400 in slots credits, and first place has $62k.  10th place has a little over $7k.

i’ve played this machine before, so you can read over my reel deal slot review.

Qualifying Spins:

after getting in my 10 qualifying spins, i’m down $60 - but i’m in 220th place.  not bad, i guess.

WOO-HOO.  i hit the bonus round, at $10 a spin.  that’s the YES! part of the story.  the way it ended was less romantic.  i kept going until the last suitcase was out there, and it has $20 in it.  or, 2 spins worth of credits.  i had dreamed that it was my ticket into the money in this tourney, but i guess i’m a bad “suitcase chooser”, heh.

since that was such a crappy payout, i’m hoping to hit another bonus round before i burn up all my credits, as sort of a “here, try again” prize. lol.

oh duh, i am in the money.  but i couldn’t help myself, i played on and went from a high of 197th place down into the mid 200’s.  so, i’ll have to check back at the end of the month and see if i’ve been knocked out of the running.  i expect that i will be.  goofy me.

still, i’m packing it in for the day before i knock myself out of the event!

if you haven’t signed up for this tourney yet, there’s two weeks left.

logging in to english harbour today i noticed the weekend slot tournamnet open on the Fat Cat slot machine, so i signed up.  in order to “qualify” for the rankings in the tournament, you need to take 20 spins on the machine.

after my 20 spins, i found out that i’m near 170th place.  starting with $300 in credits, i moved up slightly to a total of $317 at the moment. 

 there’s a good deal of prize money in this tourney - $250 in bonus money and nearly $600 in cash - but, the payouts don’t come far down the line.  the top 10 finishers look to be taking all of the cash, so it’s a go big or go home kindof event.

i may have made a bit of a mistake coming out playing just $5 a spin.  i’m not sure, but with the leaders having credit totals of upwards of $91,000 (that’s right, starting with $300.  WOW), i might have to crank it up a notch and hope for a quick visit from lady luck. 

the slot itself is a 20 line video slot.  it’s fun that these tournaments are taking place on the new video slots at EH now, although i did come to like several of the old standard three reels they have. 

i wasn’t able to do much with my high price spins.  not a lot of winners came my way, but i decided to go for a place in the tournament instead of just enjoying my time at the reels.  perhaps on a different day i would have just pecked away playing for as long as i could.

here’s a shot of the paytable, which i didn’t get to put to use very much

i got an email, that i promptly forgot about, about the weekend bonus going on at All Jackpots.  truth is, i already have money in my AJ account, and i’m not planning on doing a lot of playing over the weekend.  so, no real need for me to redeposit.  but, it’s nice to get little mailers like that from time to time.

 then, this morning i logged into the casino, and once again got a pop up about the offer.  still, i’m going to pass on this one.

i did make my way over to the Flying Circus machine to give it a bit of a test drive.  there’s a short clip that plays before the game actually comes up.  to be honest, that happens with most of the new microgaming slots, i just don’t think i’ve mentioned it before.  heck, you can skip over it if you’re not in the mood for it with a simply mouse-click.  but, sometimes i think they’re entertaining.

the ringmaster is WILD, and he does this little tip of the cap when you put him to use inside of a winning combination.   

the clown is the scatter symbol, and he’s a wicked looking thing.  the scatter is what unlocks the bonus round, which is a string of free spins.  and, the “suspense” mode starts after you land two clown symbols.  the music heightens, and the reels spin a little longer, building as you wait for that third clown to land and unlock the feature.

the slot does have the autoplay feature as well, and i used it trying to make it to a set of free spins, but luck was not on my side this morning.  oh well, maybe during the next session.

the second of the new video slot games coming from microgaming at the end of the month is the Twin Samurai slot.

this machine has 20 paylines as well, so it’s a double dose of 20-payliners this month.  the coin sizes go all the way down to a penny, which is something i like. 

i’m not always a penny player, by any stretch, but playing slots like this is all about having fun.  and at a penny a line, you can get a lot of fun out of a couple of bucks.  and why not?  it’s an online casino, so it’s not like they’re bringing you mixed drinks and such.

here’s the paytables for the game . . .

the twin samurai symbol is a special symbol, here’s how they describe it in the press release . . .

“The Twin Samurai Special Substitute occurs when Samurai appears anywhere on Reels 2 and/or 4. 

The Samurai symbol expands to cover all 3 positions on the reel it appeared on.  Pays are now calculated with the Twin Samurai substitution”

all three positions on the reel.  hmmm, that’s interesting.  so, if you land one wild, you actually get three wilds covering that whole column?  this, i’ll have to see. 

there’s also a free spins feature.  land three or more of the geisha, and you’ll trigger a round of 10 free spins where the winners are doubled.  you can retrigger more free spins during a free spins, which sounds like a very nice situation.

the twin samurai expand a bonus symbol feature won’t occur during your free spin cycle, but that’s not anything that seems worth complaining about.  looks like there’s enough winning possibility built into the slot as it.

i’ll be certain to put this slot through a test drive when it goes live.  that special WILD symbol feature has me curious.

this slot machine is a 20 payline video slot due for release at the end of this month.  with gladiators, regal lions, roman citizens and numerals, and the WILD emporer symbol, the slot’s theme is wrapped around the city of Rome in its ancient heyday.

One of the symbols on the reels represents the Vestal Virgins.  i’ll leave that alone, ahem, here’s a shot of the game itself.

with 20 paylines, and coin sizes that range from a penny up to $10 there is a wide range of monies players can wager on each spin. 

the glaidators are the scatter symbol, and landing three or moe of them unlocks the pick’em bonus game.

out of the nine shields, you get to choose four.  to me that sounds more than fair.  the shilds cover credit amounts or a reward of 10 Free Spins.  and on those free spins, winning combinations are doubled in value. 

here’s a shot of the paytables for the Glory of Rom slot game

getting ahead of myself, i wonder what the animations will be like on this game.  there’s certainly enough characters that can spring to life on the reels to toss in some interesting action when someone lands a winner. 

another screenshot i have is of the Free Spins section of the Glory of Rome.  it looks as though they’ve built in some new backgrounds (and who knows, maybe some fresh music?) for the Free Spins session.  that’s a great idea in my eyes.  i wonder how it will all come together in the actual slot, but the idea that the Free Spins session ought to feel special is something i agree with.  after all, i’m one of those players that keeps at it until i unlock the bonus screen, and when i finally do hit the dang thing, i want to feel special about it!

when the slot goes live i’m sure to pull up roxy palace on the ‘puter and have a couple of spins on it, and put it through what’s becoming my patented, monthly “test drive” of the new slots that come out.

good morning.  the grapvine opened up overnight, and a little birdie told me about the games that microgaming will be releasing at the end of the month.  and i haven’t gotten through the last crop of new releases!  i do like testing out the new slots though, so this is definitely good news.

seems like, in addition to a set of blackjack variations and a multihand video poker machine, there are some more slots coming our way.  the thing about microgaming is that they keep growing their lineup of games.  for some time it’s been pretty reliable, you can expect new machines at the end of the month.  i appreciate that.

on the list of upcoming games is the Mega Moolah Progressive Slot.  this isn’t the first time on the upcoming games list for the mega moolah, it’s released had been planned earlier, but delayed.  now, that it looks like they’re ready to launch the machine, i’m pretty excited. 

it’s a four tier progressive slot, and i’m expecting it to get a lot of action when it comes online.  hopefully that’ll mean a good deal of winners, but i guess we’ll see.

the slot machine itself is loaded with features: a multipllying WILD, free spins feature, bonus game, scatter symbols, 25 paylines.  lots of action can be built around all of that.

the other games due to go live in the upcoming weeks are both Video Slots that have 20 paylines each.  i have some screenshots and i’ll post up quick overviews of both the Twin Samurai and the Glory of Rome games shortly.

the pharaoh’s tomb slot machine is now live at many of the microgaming casinos online.  i decided to take some spins on this machine this morning over at All Jackpots Casino.  there is an overreview of Pharaoh’s Tomb game that i wrote when the game release was announced.

the machine is another 20 payline game that can be played for as little as a penny a line, or as much as $1 a line.  you can also wager up to 20 coins per line, so you’re looking at a lot of different ways to wager on a spin with this game.

in testing the slot i’m playing at $.02 a coin, one coin per line.  the machine is advanced enough to let me just click on the line number up by the reels to select the number of lines i want to activate.  this means i don’t have to push the “select lines” button 20 times.  yay.

there is a scatter symbol, the scarab, that comes to life when you land aenough of them to qualify for a winner.  and, since landing three or more scarabs unlocks the bonus screen, the slot makers have thrown in a bit of extra suspense.  after landing two scarabs, the machine goes into suspense mode with leading tone music and extended spin time on the remaining reels.  it’s as thought the machine is presenting a drum roll, and you’re waiting for the big crash.  i really like it, it’s a great touch.

microgaming is getting sooo good at making slots.  these new games like pharaoh’s tomb are sooo much better than most of the old machines.

another of the special symbols is the golden pharoah’s headcover, which i’m sure there’s a more poetic name for.  it looks like the King Tut mask of gold.  and it’s WILD. and it too comes to life when part of a winning combination. 

there’s an “expert mode” on the slot, a feature i probably should have noted on many of my recent slot machine test drive posts.  i’m hanging in there waiting to unlock the bonus screen, and in exert mode i can just hit the spin 10x button and sit back and watch, so i’m happy they have things like uatoplay built into the pharaoh’s tomb slot.

woo-hoo!  finally!  i hit the three scarabs

i had the chance to choose one of the three coffins, and found the key, which gave me a pass to the next level.  on that level i found the key as well, so i moved on to level three.  and that’s where my bonus game came to an end.  i did get a couple hundred in credits though for the effort.

the new microgaming slot machines went live, i think at the end of last week.  i was gone for the weekend, so this morning is the first chance i got to test drive the new games. 

the first of the new slots i sat down to play is the dogfather slot game.  this slot is a 20 line video slot that i’m testing out at All Jackpots Casino.  the coin size goes down to a penny at All Jackpots, so you can get full payline spins in for $.20 a spin.  it also goes up to $.50 a payline, so you can wager quite a bit more if you’d like, and of course you can stop anywhere in between if that’s your comfort zone.

the thing i noticed in playing the game is that the graphics are remarkably crisp.  i don’t know exactly why the symbols on this particular machine catch my eye, but they do.  and, like the most recent slots from microgaming, several of the symbols spring to life when you land them.

in fact, on my very first spin on the slot, i landed that fire hydrant bonus, and they spring to life spewing out geysers of cash.  here’s a screenshot of the event . . .

the slot tells you what you have left in “coins” as opposed to real money totals, which is fine.  it kindof helps when you’re running your bankroll down because you can easily see that you don’t have much in the line of coins left if you keep the current size.  lower the coin size, see the credits rise.  it’s just a little tweak from the older microgaming slots, but it’s a recent enough tweak that when i see it, it makes me do a quick double-take.

the sounds of this slot are right to my liking.  the background music is this “Jazz club” diddy, and when you land certain symbols they’ll have certain sounds associated with them.  when i hit the fire hydrants a little burst of sound came out at me, in stereo.  it was enough, along with the cash gushing out of the symbols on the screen, to make me go “whoa”.  it was cool. 

they took enough time to tweak the little things and make for a neat little, remarkable, experience.  i loved it. two thumbs up.

as for the play of the slot.  i’m finding myself holding on, waiting for the bonus screens/free spins (where the winners are tripled, by the way) in order to get my credits up.  the regular winners on the screen just haven’t been large enough to keep the credits up there.  instead, it’s like i’m holding on until i hit the bonus screen, and that’s where i’ll find the big rewards.

i did hit both the bonus screens in my session, the extra spins released by “itchy da flea” character, and the fire hydrant “pick’em game”. 

overall, it gets a thumbs up.  if you’re into the pick’em bonus games or free spin cycles, then this slot is worth a test drive of your own. 

ahhh, this was a pleasant surprise.  there is a new tournament starting up on the Wheel of Chance slot game that runs from the 3rd to the 7th of November at English Harbour. 

 it’s free to enter, like a LOT of the english harbour events.  the prizes are a combination of bonus money and cash.  the bonus money awards go to the top 10 finishers, so there is certianly a premium being placed on doing wayyyy above average here.

the cash goes to the top 3 spots.  right now there’s $147.50 in the cash pool and $250 in the bonus money pool, so the stakes are way down from last month’s mega-tourney, but hey, it’s spins on a great machine, with prize money for those who do well.  this is some honest fun for the daily player.

you start out the tourney with $300 in tournament credits.  right now the leaders have $34,000 (that’s right, well $33,900, but what’s $100 when you get it that high!) and $13,000.  so, there’s a lot of catching up to do.

i’m going to start off with  $.50 coins, so that’s $10 a spin.  no sense in burning off all my credits right away, but what use is pecking away with small winners by playing nickels?  this is a tourney where i think you should go relatively big, or just skip it, hehe.

so, with 30 spins to start out with . . . i manage to hit a set of free spins by landing three scatter symbols.  and i have to say, it was looking pretty bleak before i did that.  i thought for sure i’d be writing that i pissed almost all my credits right down the drain.  whew, now things aren’t looking so bleak

i’m sitting in 88th place though, with a little more than what i started with.  there’s $386 in credits to work with.  as for as much as i’d like to just stop and save it for another session, i’m going away this weekend so i won’t be able to get back to playing.  so, here’s goes nothing . . .

well, after $1780 in $10 wagers, plus 20 free spins, my experience in the Wheel of Chance tournament came to an end.  i never did get up to $400, but a couple of times i hit the free spins cycle to keep from going broke.

i guess it just wasn’t in the cards for this one.