The 'split-flip' slot display

Here’s a term you’ll not often hear applied to slot machines: “split-flip display.”

In the reel symbols on its hit game Money Rain, Incredible Technologies uses a video representation of a split-flip display. The reels don’t spin. Instead, on each new play, each of the 15 symbols on the video reel display split and flip.

It’s a fun, eye-catching effect on a game with loads of differences from more conventional video slots.

Why split-flip? Because as a boy, Incredible Technologies co-founder and executive vice president Richard Ditton was fascinated to watch the numbers flip on clocks at Chicago’s Union Station. It’s a technology long used at railway stations and other transportation venues.

On a split-flip clock, the top half of the old number swings down, showing the top half of a new image underneath. The reverse side of the former top half then becomes the bottom half of a new symbol.

Money Rain has five video reels, each three symbols deep, just like most video slot machines. The symbols are stylized, color-coded pastiches on U.S. currency – the $1 bill features George Washington and has a green border, the $2 bill has Thomas Jefferson and a blue border and so on.

That’s a take on an earlier Incredible favorite, Crazy Money, which has proved a durable hit in its original and sequel versions. Just as in Crazy Money, you want to see lots of higher-denomination currencies on the screen. A winning set of $100 Ben Franklins will bring a greater return than the same number of $5 Abraham Lincolns.

In a fun little extra, the presidents – plus non-presidents Franklin and Alexander Hamilton – are wearing their usual serious looks as each flip starts. But when you win, you’ll see them turn those frowns upside down.

Another huge difference from standard video slots: All pays are scattered pays. Your collection of winning symbols don’t have to form a payline across the screen. If you have enough three $20 Andrew Jacksons on the fourth reel and two on the fifth, they pay just as much as one on each reel in a line all the way across the screen.

One thing that means for players is that if there are no matching symbols on the first two reels, that doesn’t mean there’ll be no winning payline. After all, there are no paylines. You’re just looking to see if there are enough matches anywhere on the screen.

Then there are the special features that add to the fun. Off to the right of the main display, there’s a bonus reel. When dollar sign symbols appear on the main reels, the side reel spins and lights up from one to four currency symbols, which then fly over to the main screen. If the side reel lands on the $100, then you’ll see some extra Benjies float onto the main game, creating extra big winners.

Three or more storm clouds symbols launch the Money Rain free spins bonus. Values are increased for winners, bills and gold coins rain down the screen, and you just might find yourself singing along with the catchy theme – “Money rain, money rain, money rain.”

Incredible Technologies has shown an eagerness to step outside the box in its short time in the casino industry, with a diagonal symbols creating new paylines in Crazy Money, traffic moving in a left-to-right pattern instead of top over bottom reel spins in Cars, and now a game full of scatter pays in its biggest hit yet, Money Rain. It’s a game that’s play players flip, right along with the symbols.


Look for John Grochowski at www.casinoanswerman.com, on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44) and Twitter (@GrochowskiJ).