Sunday, April 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

THE TECHNOLOGY OF GAMBLING: Now you're talking

Garrulous gadgets and interactive glitz give slot play showbiz sheen

PHOTOS by SAMANTHA CLEMENS/ SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL Slot-machines-in-progress cover the floor of International Game Technology's production plant in Reno. Last year, slot-making titan IGT spent $80.2 million on research and development, producing new games and building a Hollywood-style production studio. Assembly employee Ofelia Barrera works on a slot machine at IGT's Reno plant. For better entertainment value, the company's newest machines combine interactive video and sound. IGT game designer Anthony Baerlocher discusses an upcoming game during a recent trade show in Las Vegas.

It's easy to imagine Rodney Dangerfield tugging nervously on his tie before he delivers his one-liner.

"Thanks a lot," he cracks. "Your kids didn't need college anyhow."

The "frau" character in Austin Powers screeches at passers-by, "Play Austin Powers, won't you?"

And Elvira is quick to admonish customers who touch her chest.

"I'm cheap, but not easy," she says.

It may sound like a reunion of stand-up comics, supporting actresses and late-night movie hostesses. But in reality, the quips and retorts are coming from International Game Technology's latest slot machines.

Once relatively simple mechanical devices, slot machines now have a lot more in common with major motion pictures. They employ actors, soundtracks and state-of-the-art technology to entice casino customers to continue feeding them cash. And they are also relying on a rich variety of sounds supplied by the real-life characters.

Making these new slots has required slot makers to change their business in many ways.

Reno-based International Game Technology, the leading manufacturer of slot machines with 70 percent of the U.S. market, for instance, recently completed its own modern production studio.

The new studio compares in size to a small Hollywood television or motion picture studio and includes motion picture capture and blue screening.

"It's state of the art. It has everything you'd get out of a major motion picture company," said Joe Kaminkow, vice president of game design. "We have all the latest technology, making it easy to use material from Hollywood and other media."

The multimillion-dollar production studio will play a big role in the company's development of what it calls the MOAS -- the Mother of All Slots.

The company's creative staff won't say much more about the project other than that the new machines should come out by year's end. But the company expects it to take the industry where it's never been before.

Still, getting there won't come cheap. Last year, IGT spent $80.2 million on research and development, producing new games and building its production studio.

The cost is worthwhile, however, because slots have become very big business, accounting for more than half of the gaming money bet on the Strip.

Bear, Stearns & Co. analysts say customers spent nearly $40 million on Strip slots alone in 2002.

The large outlays are allowing IGT's game development professionals to take slot machines to new heights, largely through the use of multimedia entertainment technology.

Players want more to be entertained than to win, Kaminkow said.

"They have their entertainment budgets and we want to have good feedback from our products," he said.

Using digital videos, stereo speaker systems and touch-screen technology, IGT slots are giving players a level of comfort and familiarity never known before.

Wheel of Fortune, the industry's first talking slot, for instance, has been IGT's most popular slot machine because it gives players a visceral experience, Kaminkow said.

"It makes you feel (like) you're on the show," he said.

The new Wheel of Fortune game, due to be released later this year, will even have Pat Sajak and Vanna White acting as virtual hosts.

Kaminkow said it is important for the games on slot machines to give people the feeling they expect.

"(And) there's nothing better. It's like being the director of a good movie. It's an incredible rush," he said.

As with making movies, the creative staff at IGT has had its flops, Kaminkow said.

"Failures are important. Without valleys, you never hit any peaks. The important thing is to go into a postmortem to see why some (games) fail," he said.

Game design manager Anthony Baerlocher said constant cross-functional meetings monitor each project and review the reasons for each success or failure.

He said his primary responsibility is doing the math of the games to make sure they make money for the casinos, but let customers win enough to keep them coming back. He coordinates all elements of each game including the concepts, math, video presentation and sound effects.

Talking slots are the current craze, and casino operators like them because they improve the entertainment value of the slot machines themselves, IGT Marketing Vice President Ed Rogich said.

And the newest trend is combining interactive video and sound, he said.

"The new platforms enable us to do that. They take the machines to the next degree utilizing video as well as audio," Rogich said.

And IGT also makes the slots with enough firepower that the games, including the interactive videos and sound, are instantaneous.

"Players aren't going to wait like they may have to at home. The success of the new games is all about technology and necessary space. Our technology parallels advancements in computer technology," Rogich said.

Beyond entertainment and winning, the new slots have to educate players, or at least teach them how to play the slot machines themselves.

With the introduction of second-screen bonuses, players have to understand the interactive operations of the slot machines.

Rogich said IGT does this with flashing lights on the buttons they need to push and on-screen touch buttons.

"Today's machines offer intricate help screens that are familiar to people who use computers. Now, we're trying to bridge generations so the newest slots will offer instructional material even for people who are not familiar with computer operations," he said.

To maximize the quality of sound, many IGT slot machines are built with two speakers and a subwoofer, compared with the single sound of dropping change found in slots of days-gone-by, he said.

"And now the speakers are positioned at ear level so players can enjoy the real pleasures of the machines," Rogich said.

To illustrate, Kaminkow said that in 1999, slot machines had an average of 15 sound effects or calls. Today, they have an average of 500 to 700 sound effects.

"People react well to the density of sound effects. It's a universal," he said, adding that players can continue playing the newer games for hours without discovering all their twists and turns.

The virtual reality of Pat and Vanna and the rest of the talent appearing on IGT slot machines obviously can't ad lib; their appearances have to be scripted.

That is where Lance Peterson comes in. A media designer, Peterson writes the scripts.

"Some can be pretty lengthy. It's not a major motion picture, but there are a lot of facets to the game the players can't see in one sitting," Peterson said.

The goal is to add personality to the games, to make them fit with the players as if the character is actually talking to them, he said.

Among the favorites he has helped develop are Regis' Cash Club, a new Rodney Dangerfield game coming out later this year and the new Family Feud.

It's Peterson who is responsible for Dangerfield quipping to slot players, "Thanks, now I have some drinking money."

That requires researching the characters and figuring out what they will and won't say.

The talent itself, Dangerfield, Regis Philbin or whomever, actually delivers the scripts in the new IGT production studio in Reno, he said. The company has also taken quotes out of movies when the celebrity has not been available, either because of scheduling conflicts or because he or she was deceased, Peterson said.

The stars appear before the blue screens in the Reno production studio.

"This is new for us. I will write the scripts and I direct the motion of the actors and actresses such as Pat and Vanna," Peterson said.

Peterson is producing four new Wheel of Fortune games on IGT's new advanced video platform, all of which will be interactive with Pat and Vanna, Peterson said.

The first will debut in August, the others will be rolled out periodically, every four to six months, "so we can keep the game fresh," he said.

In the first version to be released, players will actually solve puzzles with the co-stars and at the end take their turn spinning the wheel.

"Plus lots and lots of winning," Peterson said.

And for those who have little luck the first time?

There is always Gene Wilder as Young Frankenstein inviting players back: "Yes, drop by anytime. We're always open."