DEAN MARTIN’S WILD PARTY:
Sinatra’s Rat Pack crony has had a long run with this game, which still is played in casinos a decade after its release.

WMS Gaming went to video on this one, with a reel configuration that was revolutionary at the time and since has been used in other games. Instead of having five reels, each three symbols deep, Dean Martin’s Wild Party has five reels, but the first two are only two symbols deep, and the last three are four deep, like so:

CLINT EASTWOOD:
WMS Gaming based a series of video slots on Eastwood and his movie characters. The first Eastwood games, A Fistful of Dollars: Wanted, and A Fistful of Dollars: Wild Shot, had Clint shooting straight in the Old West. Later, Eastwood featured in the 15-line Dirty Harry slots.

ELVIS PRESLEY:
The Elvis theme has resonated with casino players for more than a decade. The King of Rock ’n’ Roll was also Las Vegas royalty with a record 636 consecutive sold-out shows at the Landmark and Las Vegas Hilton. IGT’s first Elvis slot, released in 2002, was a Megajackpots game that featured his music while you played. It was a success in its own right, but spawned a line of successor games that has carried the King’s legacy right up to the present.

The game that best blends the sights and sounds of the Presley era with a slot game that’s fun to play is the Elvis progressive released on 2012. Reel symbols depict Elvis at different stages of his career. And there’s Elvis music. LOTS of Elvis music. There are four progressive jackpot levels, each named for an Elvis hit –

MICHAEL JACKSON: KING OF POP:
Bally Technologies was a little later than some other gamemakers in getting to the celebrity party, but has scored big with Jackson slots. The first Jackson release was King of Pop, and Bally went all out to create a mega-hit.

The game was designed with a big-money wide-area progressive jackpot, but there was plenty to play for even leaving the jackpot aside. King of Pop was topped with a bonus wheel, and any time you won a spin of the wheel you could advance to one of six bonus events spotlighting Jackson and his music. Video, graphics and songs including “Beat It,” “Bad,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Billie Jean” and “Dirty Diana” made the game and its bonuses come to life.

The original version of<igt-casinos/”> IGT’s Wheel of Fortune, with a bonus wheel atop a three-reel slot, is the most successful slot machine in history. It’s been a player favorite for two decades.
It incorporates the graphics and sounds of the TV show. The lettering is in the same font as the TV logo. When you win a wheel spin, there’s a clicking sound that’s the same as on the TV show. What the original doesn’t have is a puzzle-solving bonus, or the images of U.S. TV hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White. But the original Wheel has inspired more than a dozen successor games, each with its own take on the long-running game show.

One that does incorporate a puzzle-solving bonus is the Wheel of Fortune Experience. It has a community-style bonus where three players are randomly selected to play. Video of Vanna White invites players to choose letters from among those displayed at the individual machine. All the letters are part of the puzzle – there are no misses. There will be more games in a very successful series of slot machines, but this is as close to the TV experience as IGT has come so far.

HOLLYWOOD SQUARES:

Another popular TV game show is the theme for a long line of successful slot machines for WMS Gaming. The Hollywood Squares slots incorporate the TV show’s tic- tac-toe board, with a celebrity sitting in every square, in a bonus event. In the original, Whoopi Goldberg sits at center square as you choose stars to answer trivia questions. If the stars get the answers right, your bonus builds. One of the successor games was Hollywood Squares Premiere Night. This time, a bonus took you to a Hollywood premiere with Joan Rivers announcing as a limousine pulled to the curb.
It was up to the player to touch car windows and choose a celebrity to award a bonus.

THE WIZARD OF OZ:

One key in turning a successful slot machine into a successful series is having a source filled with elements game designers can use.
The Wizard of Oz has memorable characters, flying monkeys and memorable moments galore.
WMS Gaming has been turning them into bonus entertainment ever since its first game as a hit in 2007. In live casinos, Wizard of Oz games feature Sensory Immersion chairs for 3-D sound and motion effects.

The original Wizard of Oz game has players collecting characters in a journey down the yellow brick road toward the Emerald City.
Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow are all there to witness a little witchcraft and monkeys flying across the screen.
In a later Wizard of Oz game, called Ruby Slippers, each of the four main characters triggers a different bonus event.

Aristocrat Technologies used this game, based on the FX television drama about an outlaw motorcycle club, their lives and challenges, to introduce a new way to play called Cluster Power.
With Cluster Power, any three or more adjacent symbols can form a paying combination. Matching symbols can be touching vertically, horizontally, in a line, on the first three reels, in a stack on the last reel alone – as long as you have three or more adjacent, that’s a winner.Having no matching symbols on the leftmost reels doesn’t eliminate your chances at a winner. With Cluster Power, you still have a chance right to the end.

When first shown to the casino industry in sneak previews at the 2006 Global Gaming Expo, Top Gun had as much pre-release buzz as any slot ever made. Based on the 1986 Tom Cruise film about a hot-shot pilot sent to U.S. Navy elite flying school, Top Gun the slot put the player in the pilot’s seat. Top Gun introduced WMS Gaming’s Sensory Immersion series, with speakers in the chair for 3-D sound and motion effects that made you feel the soars and dips. In the main bonus event, you are the Top Gun, targeting bonus awards as they fly through the air. My first attempt, I tried to zero in on the big bonuses, zooming up, veering hard left, hard right. On a barrel roll, I FELT it, and exclaimed, “Whoa!”

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly lights up the slot video screen just as surely as she lit up the silver screen in the 1961 comedy that co-starred George Peppard. The IGT slot machine version is chock full of video, and those who love the movie will have a great time at the game. Holly’s cat – just called “Cat” – walks across the screen from time to time. Pet the cat to earn bonus credits.

There are two sets of five video reels, so you basically play two games at a time. On the left is Holly’s Game, and on the right is Paul’s game, themed for Peppard’s character, Paul Varjak. They lead to five bonus events and four multi- tiered jackpots: the Gold and Silver progressives, Holly’s Party Progressive and the Five & Dime Progressive.

But when the video rolls, all eyes are on Audrey.

Atronic Gaming spotted this game show franchise when it was first a hit in Europe, and signed a licensing deal before the show ever hit U.S. screens.
Atronic is no more – a series of mergers has brought the company under the IGT umbrella. But Deal or No Deal lives on. There have been several successful games in the slot machine series, but the Suitcase Bonus is a vital part of each.
Just as on the TV show, there are a number of suitcases holding rewards big and small.
The player chooses one suitcase, then must decide whether to hold on as other suitcases are opened to reveal the prizes the player could have won. Along the way, a banker character offers compromise credit awards that grow if small-reward cases or opened and shrinks if the big payers are eliminated.

The Star Trek universe has become embedded in our pop consciousness starting with a 1960s TV show, then continuing through movies and TV sequels. WMS Gaming wanted to do something special with the franchise, and used to launch a line it calls Adaptive Gaming. When you play Star Trek in a live casino, you create an identity, just as you would on a computer game. On later visits, you can log in with this identity, even if you’re at a different casino.

That’s important, because Star Trek features unlockable games. The initial release was three games in one. You collect medals during bonus rounds to unlock new game themes.
The starting point was Star Trek: Explore New Worlds.

MONOPOLY:

Monopoly slots have been player favorites ever since their introduction by WMS Gaming in 1998. It’s been the most popular board game-theme on the slots. There have been nearly 50 games in the series, and there’s no sign of the success stopping. Monopoly themes have been used on five-reel video slots, three-reel games, wide-area progressives and community-style slots.

One of the first games that included a test of skill was released in 2001 from Mikohn Gaming. Mikohn since has left the slot machine business, but a niche of players remembers Battleship fondly. In the bonus event, the player would see a 36-square grid, six squares wide and six squares deep. On the grid were hidden four ships: a carrier that took up five squares, a four-square battleship, a three-square submarine and a three-square destroyer.

The player’s job was to touch squares on the grid to fire up to eight missiles. Each time you hit a ship, it is revealed on the screen and you’d collect a bonus. There was an extra bonus for hitting all four ships. There was an optimal pattern for seeking out ships. It was best to start on one of the four center squares, then slowly extend the range outward.

This dice game has had two casino lives so far. Today, it’s available as both a live slot and as on online slot from WMS Gaming. Yahtzee’s big bonus is the Yahtzee Party, where you get three dice rolls to try for a Yahtzee – landing five dice on the same number.
During regular reel play, you collect bonus triggers. You can play a bonus after each trigger, but if you save five triggers, you’re also eligible for one of eight progressive jackpots.
In the early 200s, Mikohn’s take on Yahtzee included an element of skill.

In the main bonus event, five dice would roll, just like in the home game. You could choose which dice to hold and which to re-roll up to two more times. The object was to make the highest possible combo, such as Yahtzee, four of a kind, full house, large straight, small straight or three of a kind. There was skill in knowing which dice to hold, when to go for a big hand and when to settle for a lesser one. Game developer Olaf Vancura even wrote a booklet on the strategy.

CLUE:

Players get their chance to solve a murder mystery in another board game favorite. Did Col. Mustard commit the dastardly deed in the library with a candlestick? Was it Mrs. Peacock in the kitchen with a rope? Clue is not a community-style win-together game, but your actions do affect others.

In a bonus event played on big screens overhead, you choose a room to play, and at the end take a guess solving the murderer, room and weapon mystery. Wrong guesses are X’d out. That narrows down the possibilities for the next player to reach the bonus, and takes everyone a little closer to solving the mystery.

THE GAME OF LIFE:

Here’s another that’s such a good concept with so many potential bonus elements that it’s had two lives. The latest version, from WMS Gaming, is a community-style slot filled with shared bonus features. One of them is Speed Spins, a quick spin bonus where everyone moves together along the board, but there’s also an individual pursuit element. You pick your career – do you want to be a doctor, an athlete, a lawyer? Then in the big event, if the lawyer gets called, the ones who picked lawyer get an enhanced payoff.

The first Game of Life slot was from Atronic, and it had a fivelevel progressive jackpot. The bonus round was a trip around a Game of Life board. Progressive award levels were placed throughout your trip on the board – the farther you went, the bigger the progressive you could win.