Slot machines are very popular nowadays as is the whole casino industry and new casino sites is launched each and every day. It wasn’t that long time ago, however, that slots only consisted of bleeps and bloops. It is actually pretty amazing that we have what we have today.

Before we turn our eyes to the newest and most modern slot machines, let us take a short journey back in time. After all, it was in 1996 that the first online casino debuted—over 20 years ago. Fans of video games will probably remember this time as the time that 32-bit consoles like PlayStation and Sega Saturn were slowly taking over after a successful run from 16-bit consoles before them. The graphics of that era hardly compare to the life-like and photorealistic graphics of today. Still, we should note that online slots of that time were even less visually appealing than video games, as the online component really required the games to be low-resolution and overall low-quality. The computers back then couldn’t really handle a lot more and neither could Internet connections, which were still very new and downright primitive.

Enough of the trip down the memory lane now. Reading that, however, perhaps you found a new-found respect and appreciation towards what we have at your disposal today. Online casinos are better than they’ve ever been.

Modern Slots – How Do They Differ From The Ones of Yesteryear

Slot machines of 2017 and beyond are very different from the ones we saw 20 years or even 5 years ago. Technology has taken huge steps forward in the past few years, and, as a result, games have also grown by leaps and bounds. At first, traditional slots used to be nothing but one-armed bandits so it’s only natural that online slots also started as such. You only had three reels with a few fruit symbols, bells, bars, horseshoes and lucky sevens. There wasn’t a lot of variation, music, sound effects or anything like that. You just pressed “SPIN” and the game would deliver a result in the most mundane way possible. In fact, playing these games now might even end up boring you a little bit.

Slots have never really been only about winning money. When you play, you want to be entertained and to enjoy your life. Thus, even if you have some money at stake, the oldest slot machines might really have a hard time making you feel excited with what they have to offer on an audiovisual level.

The slot machines of today are just that—they offer you audiovisual adventures. It feels a lot like if you were watching a movie or even starring in your own action flick. However, the emotions that these games will give you are something that you cannot really get from anywhere else. It is very powerful stuff—even too powerful for some of us to handle. When taking part in these games, you become totally invested with every fiber of your being. You are entertained, you become angry, you become sad, you become elated. Sometimes your casino journey takes you to places where you don’t want to go, whereas other times you will feel a payoff like nowhere else.

Just keep in mind that slot machines and online casinos are meant to be fun. As Billy Joel sang in his killer song called Matter of Trust, “the closer you get to the fire, the more you get burned.” As entertaining and exciting as modern slots can be, you have to keep your head straight. Only cooler heads will prevail here.

Wilds, Scatters, Free Spins and Bonus Features

To cap things off, a few more words about some of the great things that only the most modern online slots are offering you to keep you invested. These include wilds, free spins and bonus features.

Wilds are basically like the joker in a card game—they can substitute any symbol to make way for bigger wins during your game. Free spins and other bonus features, on the other hand, are something that you normally get when you manage to spin at least 3 of the so-called ‘Scatter’ symbols onto your screen. This, in turn, will trigger a free spins feature or some other bonus game.

Free spins are just what it says on the bill: spins that won’t cost you anything. With other bonus features, though, the sky is the limit. We’ve seen bonuses where you are opening gifts, shooting penalties in football, or even trying to find hippies hiding in the bushes (yes, that last example was from a South Park slot). These bonus games will reward you in ways that will make you wish that you would get to see those scatters on your screen again and again and again. It other words, all of these great features will keep you hooked for a long time to come. And that, our friends, is truly a sign of a great slot machine.