22 replies to this topic

[banditboy2006]

got partyzone working brilliant thanks reels of fun

[Nudgeman]

A few days ago I received a free key to use the 'Slots of Cash' game on Reels of Fun. For those who don't know, it's essentially a simulation of that Astra s16 ginat, Party Time Slotto.

The game itself was well laid out. Everything I would need was all on one screen and it didn't look clutterred. I had guides to the twenty winlines, the five reels, the feature, buttons and note/coin insert, other game graphics and Total cash in/Total Cash out/Running %.

The machine feels very realistic. If you've ever played Slotto in an arcade, this feels just like the real thing. It is 10p/line, up to 20 lines as Slotto used to be, before the B3 conversions. Many people say the s16 version of Slotto was much more fun to play, so this is not a bad choice on the designer's part.

I'm always very sceptical of new simulations. I play machines a lot and can usually feel if something is different. This however didn't disappoint. It's all here. The regular dropping of sevens (jackpots) on the last few reels, but not the second and maybe the first. The useless 50p wins, it's all here.

It took me £2500ish for my first £500 jackpot. Yes, the music is there. Bizarrely it clocked up £375 in the wins paid, but credit did reflect a full £500 had been paid.

The greatest thing about this simulation is that it feels like it is weighted well. The only place it noticeably strays from the original Slotto, is the feature. Here it shows the cash value you selected and the other cash values (I don't think Slotto does this, I may be wrong). Anyhow, I like that better, knowing what I COULD HAVE WON. 3 Cowboys = £3,£5 or £10 depending on how lucky you are. 4 cowboys = £5,£15,£25. 5 cowboys = £15,£20,£25. I guess this is so the designer could assign values of £6,£15,£20 respectively to each type of feature. Again slightly different from Slotto but it shows that this is definitely working to a paytable and not just a poorly compensated game that'll pay way over percentage and be unlike the real thing.

Anyway I digress, what I meant to say was that the greatest thing about this sim is that it shows the 'CON' of s16. All these titchy wins SCREW YOU TO PERCENTAGE. So all you addicts out there....stop it! I cycled through £2500 to get my jackpot and that boosted the actual % to 88. I was still a few hundred down. The target is 94%.

As for improvements. I'd like an 'autoplay'. You can whack start repeatedly, but if a feature drops in, you have to do it again AND you must keep the window active. So no chatting on here whilst you let the machine play itself. Also I could only find a keyboard shortcut for insert £20 (spacebar). A shortcut for start would be nice to save my left mouse button dying an early death.

Suggestions for future projects, well, maybe allowing the user to alter the profile, that'd be fun. Or a superfast setting, play at light speed to next jackpot. Something to keep the mathematician's (or wanabee fruit machine designers) within us happy I guess.

All in all a fantastic attempt that pleasantly surprised me. Ok it's not JPM's Arcadia, you don't need skill or judgement particularly, it's purely a simulation of a game of luck BUT it is very well presented and feals realistic and worth a play if you're into your s16s or B3s.

Good work!

All the best,

Nudgeman

[fruitman69]

Thanks,
Im glad you appreciate the effort that went into it.

Yes as you say the feature does show you what you could have won which on the original it did not. This is true "skill / luck" as what it shows really was there.

The fact that each 3 values for any given feature was purely so over a long period i knew what % i would lose on the features eg £3 £5 £10 = ave £6 using this method it can control the % very effectively and still be totally random without the need for any compensation in gameplay.

Originally this game did have a "autoplay" on but it was causing lock ups on some computers so i decided best to not have it. I am still looking into it.

As for the £375 clockup that still worked for £500 thats when you have repeatedly "queued" up games or press start while its doing the count if you play it game by game this dont happen. Its the way VB processes the code that causes it and theres no real fix other than play one game at a time.

On a lot of the other games there is a turbo play button that takes 95% of the spin out so they all stop together instead of one at a time ( same as what would have come in tho ) - my testers prefered this method, as it allows you to "rocket" their word not mine through the games. lol


And finally the "shortcut" you found generally only works for the last button you pressed i think so if you press start then the space it would start again.
Again there was shortcut keys in the early version but was causing problems so it was removed to keep the games bug free as you can get.


Thanks for your honest and constructive feedback and hope you continue to enjoy it.

Steve