|
|
 |
|
Parts of this mechanical
Pace slot machine from Harolds Club are over 50 years old. It originally came in a
wooden case but was "remodeled" in the 60's, wired for
lights in a metal case with an automatic hopper to pay the $37.50
jackpot in coins. The coins are quarters and it has a tube with
slides that drop the small pays. The maximum amount of coins from
the tube is 20 at a time and the machine was originally
configured to drop the $5 in coins and the attendant would pay
the balance on the two larger pays. There are 25 stops on each
reel so the cycle is 25x25x25 or 15,625 combinations and it's a
single-coin machine so the cycle is 15,625 coins. Pay particular
note to the picture of the "award glass" below. I'll go
through the steps to create a "par sheet" on this
machine showing the percentage paid out and the percentage the
house keeps. |
 
 
This chart shows the reel strips:
 |
|
The chart below shows the odds and 93.47% payback on
this machine. The first column shows the pay combination then the
number of those symbols on each reel. Next are the odds of that
configuration happening (multiplying the number of symbols on
each reel) times the number of coins paid for that combination.
The first line of the chart is the one cherry pay. There are 3
cherries on the first reel, 19 symbols that are NOT cherries on
the second reel, and 25 any stops on the third reel. Only those
combinations are going to hit the one cherry pay for 3 coins. On
the second reel you've got to exclude all the cherries (there are
6) because if the second reel hits a cherry it would be a 2
cherry pay. The other pays are pretty straightforward, the 3 bars
for instance are 6 bars on the first reel, 3 bars on the second
reel and one bar on the third reel or 6x3x1=18 times 150 coins
each time=2700 coins paid in the cycle. |
|
This is an easy par sheet. Multiple-coin
machines, bonus pays, pays in any position in the window, etc.,
make this process much more complicated. I'll give you an easy
example changing this 25-stop physical reel to a virtual
reel. Let's make it 27 stops and add 2 more bells to each "reel"
in the computer's memory. We don't need to change the physical
reel at all, it just displays a bell (any bell) when that symbol
is selected. We only need one bell, actually, on the physical
reel no matter how many bells are in the computer's reel strip--it
just displays the same bell over and over. How does this change
the pays? First of all it's 27x27x27 or 19,683 for a cycle. The 3
bells pay (including 2 bells and a bar, see award glass) would be
7x3x11=231 x 18 coins paid each time=4,158. The odds on the
one and two cherry pays would change too, to 5,103 and 1,800
total coins, because we have raised the "any" number by
2 positions on the strip that are NOT cherries. That would make
total pays 18,961 out of the new 27 position cycle of 19,683 and
we have raised the payout to 96.33%. And, of course, on a "virtual
reel" machine you change these odds just by plugging in a
new chip, you don't need to change the physical reel or the award
glass. |
For more slot machine information see Slot Percents
|
 |
 |
|
