Vegas Jackpot

The Good
Jackpot Vegas is a fruit machine simulation from Mastertronic, who has delivered some great games back in the day. The great thing about these fruit machine simulations is the way you can gamble from your own home; you don’t have to go out to a casino to do it. The only disadvantage to that is that you don’t get paid for winnings.

Players start the game with £50, and the idea is to earn massive jackpots through luck. Each spin costs 10P. You cannot control what is displayed on the lines, but you often have the opportunity to hold one or more lines if two of the same fruit is displayed on the winning line. Various other features allow you to nudge, gamble, and spin.

Initially released as Jackpot by Mr. Chip Software, the game is beautifully presented with the three rows of lines laid out nicely. The winning line is clearly visible, and you can tell the different fruit apart. The red background blends in with everything, including the white boxes that hold certain types of information. There is music during the game, with the ones I recognize including the same type of music you hear from Carnival, as well as the start of the French national anthem.

The Bad
Some instructions in the game would have been nice. Also, if you nudge the wrong lines by accident, you can’t go back and correct it.

The Bottom Line
This is an excellent fruit machine simulation where the aim is to win jackpots. For machine that boasts only 3.5K of RAM, the VIC-20 version of Vegas Jackpot is still able to display all the hallmarks of a real fruit machine. The graphics are crisp, and there are some tunes players are able to recognize. If you are fan of fruit machine simulations