A couple years back, what can only be described as a 'disgruntled Aristocrat employee' smuggled out the MKVI Emulator from Aristocrat along with 4 ROM dumps of their more popular games. Now you can get your own copy of this leak right here.
The download contains 4 folders, each containing the emulator they use for testing and a copy of each game rom itself - that being Indian Dreaming, Atlantis, 50 Lions and Orchid.
You see right away that the style of games in Australia are similar to the S16 and are very well done. They have the potential to pay out big money (I'm talking thousands of dollars here) and are pretty simple and straight forward to play.
A typical Australian Poker Machine looks like this :
In fact, this very machine is one of the ones in the emulated pack!
Bear in mind, the download is rather like MAME - it's an actual ROM dump with a hardware emulation to run it on your PC. You're playing what the people in the pubs and clubs here play. For those searching for the holy grail in S16 ROM dumps playable on the PC, here's the Australian equivalent!
On the left you have the 'Collect/take win' button. Take win is obvious and collect is basically the same, allows you to collect a win (great if it's taking ages to count up your credits in a big win)
Top left is the 'reserve/gamble' button which is used when people need to step away from the machine briefly (ie to get a drink or more change) or to gamble a win once you get one (it's just a simple card game generally and you pick black/red or suit). You can double up any win you get.
The 5 buttons across the middle top are for the number of Credits you wish to bet per line in credits. Pretty simple to understand. Bear in mind although it lists from 1-10 that's just the default for the emulator. It can be different from game to game although the the buttons are incremental. So 'max bet' will always be the 'Bet 10 Credits' button.
Under those 5 buttons is the number of 'lines' you wish to play. It lists 1-9, but that's just a throw back of the older Aristocrat games that had only a max of 9 lines. In fact, all the games in the pack have more than 9 lines
But you're essentially going to bet max lines 99% of the time anyway, so just select the 'Play 9 Lines BLACK' button all the time.On the right you'll see the 'feature' button which is just used to start a feature game when you spin one up on the machine. Some Aussie pokies will auto start feature games, for the ones that don't this is the button you hit.
The 'Spin' button can be used on some machines to spin the reels, with a bet amount the same as your last bet.
The Coins button allows you to put in coins (although notes go the same way). The rest of the little boxes on the right are diagnostic dip switches, and you need to use those for certain things. You cannot change the coin/note value here, only in the Audit panel.
RUNNING THE GAMES
Run the game name link in the respective folder. It's generally just a shortcut to mainsys with a few command line options to make the game run. It uses a glide driver to run the game, so make sure your PC has a glide driver!
Once you run the shortcut, 2 windows open. One is the main game screen itself, the other is the Game Emulator v6.0 control Panel. The buttons are described as above.
When the machines start, they make a racket. This is because by default the dip switches have the machine door in 'open' status. It's easy to fix, just uncheck the 'Belly Panel' tick box and you're in business.
Insert coins by hitting the Coins button and then select the number of credits you want to bet per line, followed by the number of lines to play.
Tip - to 'max bet' just select the Bet 10 Credits on the Top row and then Play 9 Lines Black on the bottom row. This works the same on all machines.
Tip 2 - Space bar will allow you to select the last button so you can just use the space bar to play max bet over and over once you've done it once with the mouse. Great for the lazy (like me!)
Further General Tips :
To Clear Credits - After you have taken a win, select the 'Collect Take Win' button on the left and then check and uncheck the 'Jackpot' tickbox on the right. Sometimes if you try and clear credits after a start of the machine it doesn't work properly (you just get the coins floating up like a fountain). I found to get around this you have a couple spins and insert a coin or two, seems to do the trick.
To Enable the Touch Screen Option (used to select the chests in the Atlantis feature) - Select the 'details' button right below the Coins button and the panel expands. Use your mouse cursor on the big black box that appears and it will correspond to a cursor on the main game screen. You can disable the Touch option for 50 lions and Indian if you so choose and neither game uses it. Orchid doesn't either, but for some reason it throws a wobbly if you turn it off.
Game Specific Tips
Indian Dreaming
This game has '243' paylines. Basically it means that all wins are paid scattered in any formation from left to right. Pretty easy once you see it in action. If you bet less lines than max, you'll notice some boxes are greyed out and it doesn't pay anything appearing in those boxes.
The feature game is triggered by any 3 or more dream catchers appearing left to right. 3 will give 10 games, 4 gives 15 and 5 will give 20.
The Tee Pee appears on reels 2 and 4 only and substitutes for all symbols.
During the Feature, the Tee Pee on reel 2 will multiply any win it's part of by 3, the one on reel 4 by 5. These can pair up as well to give you a total of x3 and x5 for a total of x15 win. This is how the big wins occur!
You can get the feature within the feature!
Indian also is programmed to be part of a hyper link. Basically there's another feature game where a bunch of machines that are tied together just randomly trigger. it's basically a bunch of trains and you select them to try and score points which convert to jackpot wins. Don't bother trying to time the trains either, it's all completely random - it's only designed to make you think there's skill involved when there really is not. The games on Indian serve no purpose (ie you won't win credits) because it's not actually hooked up to a link. So when it goes, just play it through and once you're back to the main game screen, check and uncheck the jackpot button and you can play on. No, I don't know how to turn this off, the option for it under the Audit menu for some reason cannot be changed.
50 Lions
This game has a total of 50 (yes 50!) paylines. It does not scatter all wins left to right like indian - there's actual paylines and lots of them!
The feature is triggered by 3 red flowers on the first 3 reels. It gives you 10 free games during which the Diamonds appear more regularly (you can actually get all the last 4 reels FULL of diamonds, I've done it myself!)
The Diamond symbol substitutes for all symbols except the red flowers and only appears on reels 2-5
You can get the feature within the feature although a retrigger only give 5 extra games from memory.
Orchid
Orchid is unusual in that it has a different reel setup and only has 10 paylines, but you only pay for 9.
The feature is triggered by 4 ladies appearing anywhere in the game window at once. It will trigger 3 free games, during which you get paid for the number of ladies on screen. Anytime a lady appears during the feature, it will add another 3 spins and she'll convert to a flower. All ladies (once appeared) are held during the feature until you either run out of spins or the screen is full of flowers!
The dragon substitutes for all symbols except the ladies.
Atlantis
Atlantis is similar to Indian Dreaming in that it pays scatters, left to right.
The feature is triggered by 3 or more pearls anywhere on the game screen on one spin.
The feature will ask you to select 5 different chests (use the touch screen option for this, although if you just wait it will auto select as well) and each chest has a number of free games. The feature then runs, during which all wins are doubled/tripled (don't remember exactly) and any lady appearing will change into a random number of credits x your bet.
The lady substitutes for all symbols except pearls.
Advanced
You can change settings on your machines by using the Audit checkbox which opens up a diagnostic window.
Follow the onscreen instructions for navigating the screen.
Go to Option 5 (operator setup/selections)
Under there you can change a number of options to your liking.
To save, the last option on the right column. Before you save though, check ALL the boxes on the panel on the left. The machine will beep like mad, but you can then select save and it will save your settings.
Be careful in here, you save settings that stay on the machine even if you restart it, so it's not a bad idea to back up your copy of the game. Think of this area as the BIOS settings of the machine itself.
There's rumours afloat that there's another leak out there with a game called 'Queen of the Nile' which is actually the most played machine in Australia.
This is considered the 'holy grail' at the moment and ANYONE who has a copy I'd be extremely interested in getting it. In fact, I'd be delighted to get ANY other Aussie pokies that are like the ones posted here. Not remakes or emulators, but the real ROM dumps with a front end emulator like you see here.
Enjoy
