Considering how popular games like Mega Moolah are, it is understandable why so many people believe that slot machines, particularly online slot machines, are a relatively new phenomenon. Although the truth behind their story is far more interesting than just what has occurred in the past since the first slot machine games originated more than a century ago.
Initially released back in 2006, Mega Moolah came from Microgaming, which traces its roots back to the very beginnings of the Internet, offering slots at leading Microgaming online casinos over a decade. The origins of Mega Moolah, however, go back even further, to the end of the 19th century.
Modern Slots Games Coming into Being
There have been many forms of gambling throughout history. Many different people around the world have engaged in games of chance throughout history, dating back to even the earliest civilizations. The love of humanity for upsetting the odds has remained constant over the years, albeit how we have chosen to play has changed over time.
Charles Fey is sometimes credited with inventing the modern slot machine. However, it was Sittman and Pitt who developed the first machine resembling a slot machine in New York in 1891. There were five drums on the machine, and each drum had ten poker cards. A ten of spades and a jack of hearts were removed from the pack in order to give the house an advantage. Since the machine did not payout automatically, if players won a prize, the winning player would receive a drink or tobacco product from the bar.
Fey designed his slot machine to payout automatically using gears and cranks, and it proved to be a huge success when it was released sometime around 1891. In spite of Fey not patenting the idea, other companies began to copy it, although Fey’s company also experienced a huge number of orders coming his way, which at first caused him to have trouble keeping up with demand.
Liberty Bell, Fey’s first slot machine, became a classic within a few years. During the prohibition era in 1902, slot machines were banned, but enterprising individuals realized that they could keep slot games popular by offering prizes in chewing gum or sweets instead of cash.
It wasn’t until 1907 that the first fruit machine became the most popular game, called so both for the fruit-flavored sweets it dispensed and the fruit symbols on its reels. Fruit symbols and the bar symbol were used for the first time in a slot machine, and both would become hugely popular around the world in years to come.
Introducing the Microchip and Electronics
Until the mid-1960s, slot games functioned largely mechanically, by which we mean that they were completely mechanical up until that point. During this period, slot machines became hugely popular in casinos and bars, as there were a growing number of games available. By 1964, a new type of slot machine was introduced.
With Bally’s Money Honey, the first electro-mechanical slot game, you had more winning combinations than with a normal slot machine, and also had the ability to win 500 coins. A decade later, a new technological breakthrough was to change the face of slot games forever and that was the invention of the microchip.
The slot proved to be a huge success and paved the way for mechanical slot machines. However, the mechanical slot era only lasted a relatively short time as by the mid-70s and early-80s, a new technological breakthrough ushered in a new era of slot games.
Chips allowed designers to create slots with a much wider range of possible outcomes, resulting in higher jackpots. Additionally, slots now include additional features like Nudges and side games that can be triggered by landing on certain features on the reels. As a result of this technology, slot games were able to be daisy-chained together, making it possible for the first progressive jackpot slots in casinos.
Slots producers were gradually moving away from electromechanical machines and instead focusing on the power of the microchip, but a much bigger technological advancement would change the slot landscape yet again.
The Interplay of the Internet
With the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, a growing number of people began going online and utilizing the services it offered. It took companies not long to realize that this was an excellent new avenue to pursue, and Microgaming was among the first to start offering online versions of slots through its casinos. Slot machines were completely software based and could be played online without a physical machine.
There were few features in the games at first, but soon Wild symbols, Scatter symbols, and Free Spin games appeared. The very first progressive slot game, Cash Splash, was released by one of the best software developers during this time as well. However, the company’s real success was the launch of Mega Moolah, an advanced jackpot game with a jackpot certain to be at least one million dollars, which would make a lot of millionaires.
Conclusion
Well, this is how Mega Moolah came into being and gradually, thereafter, took a significant share of the world economy.
