In the early days of slot machines, the payout mechanics were simple – a single pay line was normally used, located directly across the middle of the reel windows. Symbols would often land above or below the pay line, resulting in no win.
The first major innovation was the addition of two extra pay lines, usually arranged in a cross shape with one line paying out for matching symbols arranged top-left to bottom-right, and another that paid for matching symbols arranged bottom-left to top-right.
With the launch of the modern video game in the 1970s, the creators of slot machines initially continued to use a maximum of five pay lines, as had been the standard for mechanical slot machines during the years prior. It wasn’t long before slot developers realized the enormous potential that a fully video-based slot machine could have.
Multi-Payline Slot Machines
Soon enough, the common 5×3 playfield that is still used by a majority of video slots today started to appear on casino floors. Early video slots would include nine or ten pay lines, but with no mechanical parts to worry about, it wasn’t long before real money slots in New Jersey began to feature fifteen pay lines, twenty pay lines, and even as many as one hundred unique pay lines.
In the early days, it was common for slot machines to allow players to choose how many lines they wanted to play. This was seen as particularly desirable by some players, who didn’t like the fact they were unable to remember the locations of so many different pay lines. Over the years, this ability to choose the number of pay lines you wish to play has slowly disappeared from most slot machines, including both online games and those intended for the casino floor.
However, many pay lines a game used, the machines usually all worked in the same way – payouts would be awarded for lining up at least two or three matching symbols from left to right along one of the predetermined pay lines. Slot machines had come a long way from the days of a single pay line, but a new innovation was right around the corner.
Payways Based Slot Machines
Searching online for the first game to use pay ways rather than traditional pay lines yields several different answers – it appears as if the first game to use this type of payout mechanic may well be lost to time. A payways-based slot machine will award a win for any line of matching symbols arranged consecutively from left-to-right in any position.
On the common 5×3 playfield, this results in 243 payways – a number you have probably seen written at the side of dozens of online slot machines. Effectively, 243 pay ways works no differently to having 243 individual pay lines in every possible configuration across the reels. Average payouts for five-of-a-kind symbol combinations are usually much less on a payways-based slot machine, but wins tend to occur more frequently, balancing things out.
Payways based slots have proven to be very popular with fans of slot machines. Most of the big wins in these games will usually be hidden away inside the bonus rounds, although this is also true of many games which use traditional pay lines as well. It’s hard to argue with the increased excitement created by the extremely high frequency of smaller wins on a payways-based slot machine.
Megaways Slot Machines
The latest development in payout mechanics has been the Megaways system, first created by Big Time Gaming for their smash-hit online slot machine Bonanza. Bonanza was so popular it was eventually turned into a land-based slot – a process which usually works the other way around – and of course, it also led to a sequel named Extra Chili a couple of years later.
The Megaways system works by dividing each reel into a different number of sections on each individual spin. Most Megaways games use six individual reels, and each reel will normally divide into anywhere from two to seven individual sections. This results in between 324 and 117,649 pay ways, but the actual number changes on a per-spin basis.
Big Time Gaming took the unusual step of patenting their Megaways payout mechanic, meaning that other slot developers have to pay BTG a licensing fee if they want to use the system in their own slot machines. The fact that almost every major developer of online slot machines has now released at least one or two Megaways games highlights just how popular these games must be –the situation is quite simply unprecedented in the history of slot machine development.
We don’t yet know what the future holds for slot machine payout mechanics – grid slots are gaining popularity quickly and tend to use a cluster pays system rather than traditional pay lines or pay ways. Big Time Gaming has continued creating and patenting new payout mechanics but has yet to find another system with the same popularity as Megaways. Sooner or later, however, another new payout paradigm will be found that resonates with players in the same way that Megaways has. We can’t wait to find out what it will be!