Game quirks and tells

satchnz

Senior Member
MM
Joined
Apr 26, 2021
Location
Over here
So I think it is generally known that Money Train 2 has a big tell when you are about to land the bonus. Each scatter that lands makes a ching sound only when you are going to land three or more. Money Cart 2 does the same thing.

I’ve also noticed that with some (maybe all) Hacksaw games that when you are going to land a winning spin, the symbols drop slightly quicker than normal (try the Frutz slot for example). It’s subtle but noticeable if you look for it.

Finally, and this might just be my perception, but when playing video poker and holding 2-3 of one of the A,K,Q,J,10 cards (suit doesn’t matter) 95% of the time it draws one off a A/K/Q/J/10 straight.

What other quirks and tells have people noticed?
 
I think on some older WMS slots the reels would sort of shudder if triggering a feature/giving a big win.

Rhino and some other more modern WMS slots spin faster if awarding a feature on that spin.
 
What happened to the classic Rapist autoplay button greying out when you were going to trigger the feature on that spin? (apart from the fact we haven't go autoplay any more lol...)
Did that carry over to the crappy html5 version?
 
What happened to the classic Rapist autoplay button greying out when you were going to trigger the feature on that spin? (apart from the fact we haven't go autoplay any more lol...)
Did that carry over to the crappy html5 version?

It did sort of, but it didn't grey out until after the diamonds had crashed in! The "tell" now is the fast spin plus the balance going down by the stake plus the amount won on the triggering diamonds (gets added back on after). Complete shoddy shit show that game is now.
 
Also on a win. Atleast BOR and LLC do.
Some novos stutter more than others, atleast for me.
Captain venture, garden of riches, little dragons and a couple others gets a crazy big lag for me when a 4&5oak or a bonus is coming.

Only happens first time a certain win happens.
Kings,queens etc will only lag the first time i get a win with them, same with bonuses, only lags first time getting the bonus.
Little dragons gets especially big lag when you land both wilds in basegame or bonus.

Bonus tell: If you have played dead or alive alot you might know this one, but if you get 3 scatters theres like a 100% chance that you will get the bonus. Took me a couple years to notice, but once you see it you cant unsee it.
 
Gold digger - if you get a scatter on the first reel you are guaranteed a feature.

3 clown Monty - "dealers choice" will always be wilds unless there's no multi on the spin, then it will always be scatters.

Many games - seems to me that if your feature starts out terrible it either ends up terrible or you maybe get a decent spin on the very last spin, but if the feature starts out well then it keeps going well. This is one of those things it wouldn't surprise me either way- if it's purely selection bias or is "coded in".
 
3 clown Monty - "dealers choice" will always be wilds unless there's no multi on the spin, then it will always be scatters.
Yup...noticed that right off the bat.
Many games - seems to me that if your feature starts out terrible it either ends up terrible or you maybe get a decent spin on the very last spin, but if the feature starts out well then it keeps going well. This is one of those things it wouldn't surprise me either way- if it's purely selection bias or is "coded in".
THIS!

What I have found is there appears to be five "modes" when playing:

1: Base game starts out shite and remains shite, no matter what your bet size is. Absolutely zero chance of ever getting that bonus. Or even a semi-decent win.

2: Base game is shite, and you can't win a damned thing, but just when you are ready to do GBH to your device, in drops a reasonable sized win. BUT you need to take the money and run at that point, as the game immediately reverts to shite status.

3: Base game is giving out loads of good wins - sometimes even great wins - but not a chance in hell of ever triggering a bonus. It as if the game is saying - "Look sunshine, you are getting plenty of good wins. What else do you bleeding want?"

4: Base game is paying OK, but although there are lots of scatters dropping, the magic third (or whatever is required) is missing, and remains permanently missing. OR...if the scatters have to be left to right, they never are, even if you end up getting four of the blighters.

5: You don't really have time to find out what the base game is doing, as the scatters drop in almost immediately. And this can lead to the following situation:
a: You are on a roll and can do no wrong with this game.
b: You are lucky and get about two more bonus rounds before the game goes dead.
c: You were at the tail end of lucky, and this bonus drop was all you will get.
d: The bonus round is shite. And the base game then reverts to type of being shite as well.

Perhaps the above is too general for this specific thread, but it is what I have found to happen over nearly 20 years of online gaming. I will dig out examples relating to specific games which illustrate these "tells".
 
I think most of your examples of gameplay being shite is just the expected usual behavior of the slot - and occasionally you get lucky, and then sometimes lucky a few times in a row. Give it long enough though and it'll always 'revert' back to regular shite behavior.
I don't think this is anything that is 'coded in' so much as an emergent property of random distribution.
 
I think most of your examples of gameplay being shite is just the expected usual behavior of the slot ...
The whole point of playing slots is to expect the unexpected, which is what can make playing so much fun. I shouldn't immediately know if it is going to be a great or bad session on entering a game - or even a casino.

However, as I generally know within 2 minutes of playing a game which "mode" I am locked into, I am not sure this pattern can be lumped under an "expected usual behaviour" banner.

So unless I am in either Mode 3 or variants of Mode 5 (all my terminology BTW), I give up, unless my inner gambling demon takes over, which to my shame happens more often than not.
 
The whole point of playing slots is to expect the unexpected, which is what can make playing so much fun. I shouldn't immediately know if it is going to be a great or bad session on entering a game - or even a casino.

However, as I generally know within 2 minutes of playing a game which "mode" I am locked into, I am not sure this pattern can be lumped under an "expected usual behaviour" banner.

So unless I am in either Mode 3 or variants of Mode 5 (all my terminology BTW), I give up, unless my inner gambling demon takes over, which to my shame happens more often than not.
Your explanation highlights why no game developer would ever code in these modes though; if you can predict them then you can exploit them, that's a risk they do not need to take.
 
Pretty much most slots from most providers have jerk or quicker spins when the bonus is about to land or be triggered.

One that has not been mentioned yet is the Just 4 The Win slots. Some of their slots do a loading icon in the middle of the screen when you are about to get the feature just after you press the spin button. You know like the loading icon you get on youtube videos, a round circle shows up for a few seconds. The slots I noticed it on was: Silverback Multiplier Mountain and their newest release called: Kodiak Kingdom Multiplier Mountain. Because those 2 are pretty much clones and a reskin just slightly different during the free spins. A win does not give you an extra spin on this, only a scatter landing during spins does unlike the Silverback slot.

I have not noticed the loading icon on any of their older slots though.

I suspect they just copied the game mechanics for Silverback hence why the same thing happens on the new clone version of it.

Also on That Brides of dracula slot by Isoftbet which has been removed from Partycasino which I do not understand why. A lot of isoftbet slots have been removed from that casino. No idea why but you know you will NOT get a bonus if it does not land the cash scatter symbols in consecutive reels. It has to be 2 consecutive reels. So if you get 3 stacked on first reel. You then need 2 on the second reel to trigger the respins feature. But if they do not land on that second reel, then NO bonus... Isoftbet is just lame in the way they made triggering features limited to only 1 way. So it also applies to if you get the 3 land on reel 4 then you need the last 2 to land on reel 5.
 
Last edited:
@DreamRJ your comments on isoftbet slots reminded me of how lazy some developers are. I’m talking about slots where the reels slow down as they are about to stop, then magically the symbols that are about to land are suddenly changed to the combination the RNG has determined. This is just lazy coding and also feels a bit dodgy.
 
@DreamRJ your comments on isoftbet slots reminded me of how lazy some developers are. I’m talking about slots where the reels slow down as they are about to stop, then magically the symbols that are about to land are suddenly changed to the combination the RNG has determined. This is just lazy coding and also feels a bit dodgy.

Well I would not say they are dodgy for doing it but rather just lazy like you said. The thread title implies differently though. I only answered like others have done so. I am not the only one to mention Isoftbet slots.....
 
Yes not dodgy because the correct result lands. But it just “feels” dodgy seeing the symbols on the reels just suddenly change.
A lot of this probably has to do with dealing with latency, when people want results fast but it takes 3 seconds for a roundtrip communication to/from the client/casino/gamserver and back some hacks may be necessitated. They can be worked around well of course with efficient coding and well managed content distribution networks, but a lot of the time it's just 'eh.. good enough'
 
A couple on grosvenor/mecca
Bouncy balls 2 , with a couple of free spin symbols showing and a win,
if the 3rd free spin is about to cascade down , the bell rings before it
does.
Similar on playzido dond megaways,bonus symbols above the play field
ding and will drop down when the win cascades, both sloppy testing
 
Pretty much most slots from most providers have jerk or quicker spins when the bonus is about to land or be triggered
A notable exception to this is 'Bull in a China Shop' by Play 'n' Go.

When a reel lights up signalling the possible appearance of the Bull, if it is NOT going to appear, the reels speed up.

If however the Bull is going to land, the reels take their own sweet time until the Bull appears.
 
A notable exception to this is 'Bull in a China Shop' by Play 'n' Go.

When a reel lights up signalling the possible appearance of the Bull, if it is NOT going to appear, the reels speed up.

If however the Bull is going to land, the reels take their own sweet time until the Bull appears.

to be honest I think Play N Go slots might be the only provider where you just never know when a bonus is gonna land apart from instances like you said here! :) lol
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Meister Ratings

Back
Top