For decades, slot machines went mostly unchanged. The physical restrictions of the standing machines meant that there could only be so many reels, rows, paylines, symbols, and payout sizes. Even for a decent amount of time after moving online, slots maintained much of what made them successful, but also limited them, in their physical forms in casinos and arcades.
Gradually, developers began to toy with the core systems. They’d expand the reel set to five reels and four rows, and grow the payline count from three to five, up to ten, to over 200, and to over 1,000. Then, in 2016, along came Bonanza. Created by Big Time Gaming, some five years after the studio started up, Bonanza proved an instant hit and a proof of concept for the game-changing Megaways mechanic. Now, it’s a dominant force in online slots.
Founding a Vast Library of Megaways Games
As you can see in the image above, slot games traditionally have a very straightforward aesthetic and gameplay mechanic. You bet, pull the arm, spin the reels, and see if you get matching symbols along the middle. If you do, you win a prize that’s multiplied by your bet size. On the face of it, Megaways is quite complex.
The mechanic made popular by Bonanza – even though it’s one of the very few Megaways games without the mechanic in its title – often uses six reels, one horizontal reel, and varied symbol sizes. All possible paylines are available on every spin. Due to the symbol mixes, this can make tens or hundreds of thousands of paylines.
Bonanza kicked off with 117,649 paylines. However, the vast collection of Megaways slots that you can find online today toy with the mechanic further. Some have around 40,000 potential paylines, while others have grown beyond the 117,649 of Bonanza. It’s a huge range that likely wouldn’t be possible on physical machines.
The Floodgates Have Been Opened
Megaways proved the near-limitless potential of developing an online slot. While others had become very creative with different features, be it unlocking them or the feature presentations, it was BTG that showed that the slot mechanic itself can be stretched much, much further.
Now, it’s a major brand in its own right. When pairing it with another well-known slot series or even a major IP, like with one of the greatest films ever made, The Godfather, you get a double hit of massive appeal. Important to this rise to prominence was BTG’s decision to freely license out its grand idea.
The Megaways selection is now loaded with games from a whole host of the world’s best slot developers, as well as up-and-comers looking to make names for themselves. A prime example of this is with Poseidon: Ancient Fortunes Megaways.
Using the mighty character of an Ancient Greek myth who commanded the seas, the original game won over a strong fan base for its initial eye-catching theme and then its engaging mechanics. Even with this being the case for Triple Edge Studios, they still wanted to add another layer of appeal with the Megaways mechanic.
What started as an inventive take on the slot gaming formula became a global sensation. In part, it’s because of how innovative the Megaways mechanic truly is. Of course, it’s BTG letting others play with their creation that’s enabled so many different games to be released and massively increased its broad appeal and reach.
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