SCIENTIFIC GAMES DUALOS – READY TO ROAD TEST
Scientific Games launched their new dual screen Dualos at the AGE Show in August featuring a stylish, simple and classy machine design. This machine fills the dual screen market for SG and will eventually replace the current Equinox. The new machine has integrated light and sound in the software, which match the onscreen graphics as they change between different game features. The extra graphic capability and power means really clear art and graphics making it much easier for the player to stay at the machine for longer.
The buttons are LCD buttons, but this is the only new machine release that doesn’t include a button “deck”, choosing to maintain the single LCD buttons. There is a positive to that for the player, with the physical act of pushing a button (right down to the subtle electronic “click” sound), allowing the player to feel like they have control of the game.
And of course there are a new range of games coming through for this machine, with the first of these ‘Blazing Dragons’, ‘Frozen North’ and ‘Southern Magic’ all looking good. ‘Blazing Dragons’ has a symbol that is in fact a mini reel (a set of 3 reels by 3 symbols – a mini poker machine screen) that gives you an opportunity to win bonus prizes, free games and jackpots which is quite new and unique in the market. One industry game benchmark has placed its early performance at only a couple of venues as one of the top 10 new games for the week which is a solid performance at this time of the year when so many new games are released.
Even though it’s very early days the other new dual screen game currently released, ‘Dancing in Rio’ is even further up that Top 10 new games list. This game also has a feature new to the industry with normal game play overlaid on coloured background reels that also pay as a second game. This provides the player with another focus and more wins to chase, and gives the player the feeling that they have two chances in separate games each spin. In testing the game I discovered how easy it was to start watching for the background reels, forgetting the main game and the money spent. I believe the same will happen to most players and already strong performances for this game confirm the perception.
These two new games alone confirm the advantage for the SHFL, Bally, Williams, and Scientific Games combination giving them more access to unique international game patents they didn’t have before.
