A patron plays the penny "Star Wars" slot machine May 13 at Santa Fe Station. Makers of slot machines are using recognizable themes to attract business. Photo by Jane Kalinowsky.

Fruit symbols aren't entirely pass , but the visuals of today's slot machines are magnitudes greater than the generic slots of yesteryear.

Besides exciting colors, video imagery and wisecrack comments spoken by video characters on the slot machine's screen, new-generation machines can incorporate advanced sound and smell features.

For example, one video slot model by International Gaming Technology, which is themed after the "I Love Lucy" television show, used to spritz a whiff of chocolate scent when a player reached the bonus round inspired by the famous TV comedy's episode involving actress Lucille Ball at work on an assembly line in a chocolate factory.

The company later removed the aroma option. "The game still is (around). The scent machine just did OK, it wasn't overwhelming," IGT spokesman Ed Rogich explains. He is vice president of marketing.

Illinois-based slot maker WMS Gaming has a strategic alliance with Bose Corp. to produce specialized sound effects in its machines to produce what Rob Bone, vice president of marketing, calls "psychographic sounds," to evoke specific emotions in line with a game's mood.

Most Las Vegas slot machines are at least themed -- with the machine's name, look and game mechanics all united to convey a specific image. The idea is to set one bank of machines apart from the sea of other machines that cover the typical Las Vegas casino floor.

"Slot machines until the early '80s were less than 50 percent of the revenue of the casino. That's when they became more than 50 percent," says Mick Roemer, senior vice president of products and marketing for Bally Gaming and Systems. As machines proliferate, makers want a product that "breaks out of the clutter, and people can associate with emotionally."

Anthony Curtis of Huntington Press has studied Las Vegas gaming since he moved here in 1979 at age 21 in order to gamble. His publishing house, and its Las Vegas Advisor, a periodical, track casino trends. He describes the recent proliferation of elaborately themed slot machines as a "line (being) drawn between old-style mom and pop games and new games for kids that grew up with (video game) joysticks."

Today, video slots that are themed to well-known television shows, movies or celebrities abound.

"It just turns out that TV is one of the most tremendous breeders of brands," Curtis says.

In the WMS corner are licenses for machines that depict Clint Eastwood, "Men in Black" and "Hollywood Squares."

In the IGT corner are machines based on "Family Feud," "Jeopardy!," "Austin Powers" and "Star Wars."

And in the corner for Bally Gaming Systems are such heavy-hitting slot themes as Pamela Anderson, Playboy and "Saturday Night Live."

But slot makers don't like the pricey license fees they pay to use someone else's name or likeness. More and more makers are coming up with in-house themes that don't carry license fees, but still make their machines unique, say representatives from the three manufacturers interviewed.

The proliferation of themed slots became possible when makers branched out from slot machines with mechanical reels into "virtual" video reels created by computer number combinations that are then portrayed by video footage as spinning, and then coming to a halt. Both types of slots are found on many casino floors.

A mechanical reel can hold 22 number or symbol "positions." But with video technology, a slot can handle almost limitless positions. That makes for more lines to play, more bet combinations. Plus, the video capability has enabled machine makers to insert entertaining video footage that either introduces a game or enables the player to go off into bonus rounds that may involve puzzles and other secondary games of chance.

Two new nonpremium IGT video slot games -- that is, games for which IGT does not have to pay an outsider for permission to use -- are "Lucky Larry's LobsterMania" and "Easel Money." "LobsterMania" entails lining up lobster symbols. When enough lobsters line up, the player gets to pick buoys that are tied to lobster traps. The player receives bonus points according to the contents of the traps he or she picks and springs open. In "Easel Money," which has an art theme, the player gets to squeeze tubes of paint to see what piece of art will form on the screen, and whether it will be filled in or left incomplete.

Whether a slot theme is concocted in-house or borrowed for a fee, slot makers are going for a specific player demographic when they dream up a new game.

"There is no dead-on template, such as 'only recognized stars' " make a viable slot theme, Bone says. He notes that his company's "target market is basically a 55-year-old woman with a certain level of disposable income." For that reason, he says, WMS has not done many games themed to male-oriented interests such as sports. Competitors have, however. One maker, Aristocrat, has a game based on Brazilian soccer superstar Pele.

Generally, slot makers seek a theme that will cut them a wide slice of the market pie. "We use a recognized brand or mark or show ... that has some established familiarity, that can add an additional level of entertainment to a game," Rogich explains. "It brings instant recognizability and a fan base."

IGT's "Wheel of Fortune" was the first premium themed slot that made it big, according to Rogich. A five-reel game, it came out in 1986.

Some of the latest video slots have as many as 100 pay lines. Some machines are so versatile a player can bet anything from one cent per spin to a maximum bet of $3 or $5.

Locals who live in gambling centers tend to be the most ardent fans of complicated video slots. For the occasional gambler, mechanical reels will always be a mainstay.

Slot machines with mechanical "reels (still) account for over 55 percent of the machines in North America," Roemer says. That includes all gaming venues, including riverboats and Indian casinos.