Mills Novelty Co. Released 671 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1896. The 5 most common machines by Mills Novelty Co. Owned by VAPS members are (in order): Hi Top, Do-Re-Mi, Vest Pocket, Black Cherry Bell, and Bursting Cherry.

1. Regis Column Of Cash Slot Machines

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I used to call them bonus machines. Then I ran across the term 'advantage slots.' I think the term may have been coined by Stanford Wong. I don't think the term is descriptive to the uninitiated. Then in a post right here on WoV, MathExtremist used the term 'accumulator slots.' He specifically said that he and his company had quit designing accumulator type games because of guys like me. I think this is a great term and more descriptive than any other.
But the golden age of accumulator slots is long gone. At one time there were some casinos that 20% or 25% of their inventory was accumultor slots. When Bellagio opened there were accumulator slots galore. But there was some bad press over these games. He didn't do the same thing at Wynn. I got to Wynn about 8 hours after they opened the doors. I walked the whole casino floor and found not one accumulator slot.
But even though the golden age is over these type games still keep popping up. The person with the knowledge and experience has a big leg up on everyone else when it comes to analyzing these games. Every time a new game hits the casino floor its gonna get at least a cursory examination by me. With 95% of the new games it only takes me a few seconds to determine that there is nothing there. But if I see progressive meters or banking features then then I'm gonna give the game a full examination for potential exploitablity.
This is a list of games from back in the day.
WILLIAMS:
Piggy Bankin'
Shopping Spree
X-Factor
Safecracker
Vacation
Silicon Gaming's Oddyssey Machines:
Fort Knox
Lady of Fortune
Riddle of the Sphinx
Buccaneer Gold
Bonus Playoff (an accumulator video poker game.)
IGT VISION SERIES:

Regis Column Of Cash Slot Machines

Double Diamond Mine
Triple Diamond Mine
Fishin' For Cash
Baseball
Slot Bingo
Money Factory
Wild Cherry Pie
Wild Cherry Bonus Pie
Diamond Thief
Jewel In The Crown
Good Times
Racing 7's
Balloon Bars
Mystery Bonus
Times Pay
Five Card Instant Bingo (not Vision Series)
Kool Kat
Green Stamps (not Vision Series)
Red Hot Jackpots (not Vision Series)
Temperature's Rising.
I'm sure there are a few games that I've forgotten about and if my memory gets jogged I'll add them to the list. Or if you think of any let me know.
There were also accumulator video poker games. Obviously, any progressive vp game is accumulator. But Sigma had accumulator vp games that were easily exploitable. Games like:
Flush Attack
House a' Rockin'
The Maxx
Jackpot Card
I've found pictures of a lot of these games online. I'll post pictures where I can....and give you my take on the game.mickeycrimm

In your opinion, was the demise of these types of games inevitable? Could the APs exploiting those games at say the Bellagio have done so in a way that would have preserved their longevity?

Some people got really stupid in Bellagio. Charles Lund was the first culprit. You know, the author of 'Robbing The One-Armed Bandits.' No one ever like Lund. He was a cheap dirty B******. Axel can tell you some stories. Lund and his old lady were working the Money Maze at Bellagio. According to him they were knocking down $1000 a day. They were slant tops and the lids had a habit of popping open when a floor person closed the machine. One day Lund pointed out to a floor person that one of the lids was opened. The floor person thanked him and gave him and his old lady buffet comps. The next time Lund seen a lid open he called the floor person over, told them, then demanded two more buffet comps. He made the biggest mistake in the book. He brought attention to himself. They got to scrutinizing him. They seen him and his old lady in there everyday and cashing out lots of buckets of coins. They 86'd him.
Lund also got 86'd from the Tropicana. I had a friend in there, Tony, who was working the dollar Piggy Bankin'. Tony was pretty slick. He tipped off the cocktail waitresses bigtime and glad handed the security guards. He was a favorite in the casino. Lund was his competition. Lund was so cheap he wouldn't even tip a dime for a cup of coffee. To which the cocktail waitresses told security about a guy who was in there every day winning money and not tipping a dime. One day Tony was sweating a tourist playing a Pig. When the tourist got up Lund came flying from behind a bank of machines and plopped down in the chair before Tony could. Tony let it go. But then Lund did it again. Tony got pissed. He told security what happened. Lund got 86'd.
Lund was the editor of a retirement rag. I think it was called the Vegas Valley News. Lund started writing derogatory articles about Bellagio and Tropicana over the accumulator slots. The story got big enough to make the Las Vegas Review Journal. I'm sure it caught the attention of casino execs all up and down the strip. To end the controversy Tropicana removed the Pigs.
Then there was a knife fight in Bellagio between a Vietnamese and a Chinese over a dollar Wild Cherry Bonus Pie. One guy went to the hospital and the other guy went to jail. I suppose Wynn got pissed about it. When Wynn Las Vegas opened there wasn't one accumulator slot to be found.Rich, Slot Bingo is a different game than Bingo. If I put Bingo in a wrong list then that was a mistake. I remember the Safebuster game now. I think I got the Williams game, which may have been called Safecracker, mixed up with it. The only places I ever seen Baseball was a $25 Baseball at Chinook Winds in Oregon, and I also seen them in Wisconsin. I could have sworn they were IGT Vision Series.I just remembered another Vision Series game called Termperature's Rising. I'll add it to the list.DOUBLE DIAMOND MINE
I'll start with a simple one.
http://toplineslotmachines.com/?attachment_id=599
In the picture you will see the LED screen up top with three colums or 'mine shafts.' The left hand column has two diamonds in it. The center column has two diamonds in it. And the right column has 4 diamonds in it. And you will see that in the screen there is a diamond symbol in the upper left corner and a diamond symbol in the lower right corner.
If you are betting one coin and the diamond symbol lands on the line of the first reel one more diamond will be added to the 1st column. If you are betting two coins it will drop two diamonds into the column. The second and third reels and columns work the same way. When you collect ten diamonds in a column you recieve a ten coin bonus and the column will empty out.
I did a 2000 spin empirical on how often the diamonds land on the line. Basically counting spins and the number of times the diamonds land on the line. I put the frequency for the first reel at 19, second reel 13, third reel 12.
I took the ballpark number of 90% for the overall payback of the game. I could be off a few points either way but in the end it wouldn't matter.
So with the first reel it takes an average of 190 coin in to get the ten coin bonus....10/190 = 5.26%
With the second rell it takes 130 coin in to get the ten coin bonus....10/130 = 7.7%
With the third reel it takes 120 coin in to get the ten coin bonus....10/120 = 8.33%
So the diamonds represent 21.3% of the payback. That means the line pays are worth 68.7% of the payback.
There were several different configurations one could find in the columns on the LED screen to play. But I'll do the easy one here. What if you walk up to this machine and find 9 diamonds in the third column?
An average of 12 coin in will get you a ten coin bonus. 10/12 = 83.33%
83.33% plus 68.7% means you have a 152% play. On a dollar machine you are not talking about a big win here, about $6. But what if you are getting a dozen plays a day on this game? The money adds up.
The math is not perfect here. Its an approximation. But who cares if you are off a couple of points when you are working such a big edge?KOOL KAT
This game was a damn good money maker on dollars.
http://laslots.com/details.php?model=Vision-Series&game=Kool-Kat
I can't get this link to work so google Kool Kat Slot Game and take a look at the picture.
Anyways, this game was a money maker. You might have to download the picture to get a better view of the game. Up on the LED screen you should be able to see a cat sitting there with a crown on his head. And to his left you will see three columns of hats. In the picture the game is in bonus mode because the cat has a crown on his head. In non-bonus mode the cat has a hat on his head. Down on the reels you will see the Kool Kat symbol on the second reel just above the line. This symbol is on all three reels.
This game in the picture is what we called a 'thirty spinner.' There were other versions like 'sixty spinners' and 'one-twemty spinners.'
In the picture you will see that there are several hats and 45 coins in the first column. This is a play on a thirty spinner. In non-bonus mode when you catch the Kool Kat symbol on the line betting one coin it will put 3 coins in the corresponding column. If betting two coins it will put 6 coins in the corresponding column. Betting 3 coins it will put 9 coins in the corresponding columns.
So the tourist ploppies usually bet three coins and drove the number of coins in the columns way up. And when they would walk away I would come in behind them if at least one column had 36 coins in it. And I would only bet one coin at a time.
Every 36 coin in the game would go into bonus mode. The cat would pull his hat off and put on a crown. The next Kool Kat symbol that landed on a line you got the coins in the corresponding column. And that column would start back over at zero. So it would take an average of 3 times through to get the column with the most coins in it.
In the case in the picture I'm going to play until I take down the 45 coin column. Then I would quit the play unless another column developed to at least 36 coins.
The great thing about this play was the 7's hits came in. From the blue sevens all the way up through the red sevens.