Iconic slot machines: eight games that shaped slots, 1895 to 2016

Eight machines and games explain how slots got from a three-reel bell machine in 1890s San Francisco to the video slots on your phone today: the Liberty Bell (1895), Bally's Money Honey (1963), Fortune Coin's first video slot (1976), IGT's Megabucks (1986), Mega Moolah (2006), Gonzo's Quest (2010), Starburst (2012) and Book of Dead (2016). Each one added something that slots still use: automatic payouts, electronic hoppers, screens instead of reels, linked jackpots, cascading wins and expanding symbols.

Below is the timeline with the verified dates, what each game changed, and which of those ideas you can still find in the slots we list.

The timeline: eight slots that changed the game

Some names you may expect here, such as land-based titles from the 1990s and 2000s, are left out because we could not confirm their release dates from the maker. The list sticks to games whose dates and features check out.

The mechanical era: Liberty Bell to Money Honey

Charles August Fey built the Liberty Bell in San Francisco in 1895. It had three reels showing horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell, which gave the machine its name. Fey made the machines in a workshop at 406 Market Street until the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed it. The site is now a California Historical Landmark (No. 937).

The three-reel layout outlived its inventor by a century. In our catalogue, 90 of the 911 slots with a recorded reel count still use three reels, mostly classic slots with bells, fruit and sevens. The bell, fruit and sevens themes are tagged on 120 slots between them; browse the fruit slots for the closest descendants.

Bally's Money Honey arrived in 1963. Electric motors drove the reels, and a bottomless hopper paid up to 500 coins without an attendant. Before that, a big win meant waiting for staff to verify it and pay out by hand, which slowed play.

Screens and linked jackpots: Fortune Coin and Megabucks

In 1976 the Las Vegas based Fortune Coin Co. built the first video slot, using a modified 19-inch Sony Trinitron colour set for the display. It went on trial at the Las Vegas Hilton and, after changes to stop cheating, was approved by Nevada's gaming regulators. IGT bought Fortune Coin and its video-slot technology in 1978. Every video slot you play online, with its animations and bonus screens, descends from that move from metal reels to a screen.

IGT launched Megabucks in Nevada in March 1986 as the first wide-area linked progressive: machines in many casinos fed one jackpot, which started at USD 1 million. Linking was what made eight-figure prizes possible, and Megabucks went on to pay the largest land-based slot win on record. The record jackpots guide covers those wins and their sources.

The online era: Mega Moolah, Gonzo's Quest, Starburst and Book of Dead

Mega Moolah (2006)

Microgaming released Mega Moolah, a five-reel, 25-line safari slot, in 2006. It took Megabucks' idea online: four jackpot tiers (Mini, Minor, Major and Mega) funded by stakes across many casinos. In 2015 a Mega Moolah jackpot of EUR 17,879,645 was listed by Guinness World Records as the largest jackpot paid by an online slot. The family still grows; our catalogue lists Absolootly Mad: Mega Moolah, a later game on the same network. See progressive slots for how the jackpot share lowers the base-game RTP.

Gonzo's Quest (2010)

NetEnt released Gonzo's Quest on 15 March 2010. Its Avalanche feature replaced spinning reels with falling blocks: winning symbols disappear and new ones drop into the gaps, so one paid bet can produce a chain of wins, with a multiplier that rises along the chain. NetEnt lists it at 95.97% RTP. The mechanic is now standard under names such as tumbling or cascading reels.

Starburst (2012)

NetEnt released Starburst on 23 January 2012: five reels, ten lines paid both ways, and a wild that expands over the whole reel and holds it for a re-spin. NetEnt's game page gives 96.08% RTP, a 23% hit frequency and a top win of 800 times the bet. That low ceiling and high hit frequency point to small, frequent wins; big hits are rare.

Book of Dead (2016)

Play'n GO released Book of Dead on 14 January 2016. In free spins one symbol is picked at random and expands to fill whole reels, which can turn a few symbols into a full-screen win. The format spread across studios; our catalogue has 30 slots with "Book of" in the name, and the Book of feature page lists them.

What the history means when you pick a slot today

Each of these ideas changes the maths you play against, so knowing where a slot comes from tells you what to expect from it.

• Three-reel classics follow the Liberty Bell: few symbols, few features, small and frequent wins on many titles. Our three-reel slots have a median RTP of 96%.
• Linked progressives follow Megabucks and Mega Moolah: part of each stake funds a jackpot that one player wins, so the return to everyone else is lower.
• Cascades and expanding symbols follow Gonzo's Quest and Book of Dead: wins cluster in features, which usually means higher volatility.

None of these features changes the house edge on its own. A slot's RTP sets the average cost: at 96%, KSh 1,000 staked returns KSh 960 on average, whatever the year of the design. Check the RTP in the game's info screen at your casino before you play.