Online casino games, particularly slots, are among the most popular forms of gambling. Perhaps the reason for this is because there are thousands of different games out there with varied themes to attract a wide demographic of players. Common subject matter includes comic books like the Avengers and well-known musicians like Michael Jackson. According to the Guardian, the largest proportion of gamblers are between the ages of 35 and 64, so slot game developers are also using nostalgic elements to entice players. Here we take a look at some classic games that have inspired the casino machines of today.

Gamers who are older than 35 will certainly remember when the only way to play games was to go down to the local arcade, shove coins into huge machines, and press a few simple buttons to shoot aliens and suchlike. Gaming has come a long way since the days of adventures like Space Invaders and Pac-Man, but this type of game is still much-loved due to simplicity and nostalgia. Google highlighted this fact when they released their own version of the dot-munching classic, and over 4 million hours of time worldwide was consumed on the game in one day.

Slot machines are also a retro product that has evolved and survived into the modern era. They began as “one-armed bandits” and would sit in the corner of saloons in the Wild West. They later went electronic and began to offer features. When the internet came about, the scope for improvement was astonishing, and now there are more reels, cut scenes, and side games.

With slot games and retro classics going strong for all these years, it stands to reason that the two things should be combined. Invaders from the Planet Moolah, one of the slot games available to play at Mr Smith casino, is a game that was inspired by the Alien Cow Invasion arcade epic. It features a lot of the same graphics as the bovine-based game but it also brings with it new levels of excitement. It features cascading reels with at least four activating the free spins bonus. Arcade fans will appreciate the interesting details such as the mixed payline which requires grandpa, dog, cowgirl, grandma, and man symbols in a row to form a winning combination. In addition to this alien-filled romp, there are also games such as Arcader and Starquest that hark back to the classic machines of old.

It’s not just arcade games that are getting interesting reboots in slot format. Retro board games like Monopoly have also been reimagined on the rolling reels. It seems that anything that has been popular in the past will eventually get a modern makeover.

Feature image credit – “Space Invaders Wallpaper” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by ēst smiltis no ausīm

Carl Williams

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