Already had suppressed the memory but after reading up on the forums and reading this thread, your posts, i remember havingf the exact same run basically...
At one point i really was like, are they serious? Of course i 'justified' my extremely poor session to bad luck, but it completely turned me off from playing it again. That said, i did like the concept, although it's not exactly new..
Edit for clarity: i had about 150 balance, which i worked up to from 25,- on other slots, and it took about 95,- of that on 10 cent bets, to get my first bonus, which was then max stage, but awarded something like 15x6 iirc, and paid 20x-ish..
All i know is i expected to be guaranteed the minimum upgrade of the last city, but i'm sure i didn't get that, which to me defeats the purpose of 'leveling up'..