HobbitLovr writes: I’m forwarding you a message I sent to our Mooter Group, which by the way was formed 15 years ago, and we just celebrated our 15-year Mootiversary at Mootstock, in June 2010) – I sent the following message to the Mooters today, after trying out the new LOTR slot machine at a local casino last night.
Last night I went to Spirit Mountain Casino and found the new Lord of the Rings slot machine! I had heard about this new game from Mooter KittyMom in Las Vegas, who said the LOTR game was a real hoot, so I was determined to see if there was one at our casino here in Oregon.
Hoping but doubtful, I went to Spirit Mountain, and searched through the rows and rows of machines until Yé! utúvienyes! I found it back in a corner! Two Lord of the Rings machines…. but they were in use!
I sat at a machine next to the two who were hogging the LOTR machines, and told them I was interested in playing next, if one of them finished. Trying not to seem like a vulture, I sat there for over and hour playing a boring Time Machine game, while the people using the two LOTR slots showed no signs of tiring. What’s worse, I had to listen to their comments! They had no idea what LOTR was, who Aragorn or Bilbo were… finally after about an hour I gave up waiting and went to the buffet and drowned my sorrows in food. After filling up the corners on seedcake and cheese, I returned an hour later to find the same couple STILL hogging the LOTR machines! But one of them was just finishing and Hooray! I got my turn to play!
It it THE BEST GAME EVER!!! You can create a login name on the machine, so it remembers you and you can level up on subsequent visit and earn ongoing rewards. The machine is one of the big new ones, with a large video screen on top, where the bonus round activity appears, but even while you’re spinning your reels down below, the big screen continuously plays video clips and shows images from the movie in awesome high definition. The game is a little more complex than other slots, with some unusual Middle Earthy features. Not a game for block-headed Bracegirdles from Hard Bottle, like the two were were playing before me. They had no clue, and it made me knuckle-biting crazy to hear them saying things like “Who’s that?” “I dunno, I think it’s Harry Potter.” I told them it was actually Frodo Baggins. “What’s with the ring anyways?” “It’s magic.” Oh. And on the Prancing Pony Bonus Round she asked me why those ghostly figures were stabbing at the beds. I couldn’t really explain it. She said “I guess I’ll have to watch the movie now, so I’ll understand this!” “Yes, you should!” I replied, knowing it was pointless to suggest actually reading the books. She asked if the “book” had just recently come out. I asked her if she wanted to switch machines with me. I mean, the Time Machine game I was on would have probably suited her fine, but she said no, I like this one, it’s kinda fun. (obviously… she had been on it she said for over 3 hours!) But once I got my turn, I was able to tune her out and immerse myself in the adventure! I slipped into the high back chair and the built-in speakers behind me played the familiar LOTR movie music. Whenever something exciting happened, like when 3 RINGS appeared, the whole seat vibrated, the music changed, the big screen goes into action and it’s all very exciting! It’s a 1 cent game, but the minimum spin is 40 cents, but it pays off pretty well, so you can play a long time on $20. I played it for about 45 minutes, won enough money to keep playing, and finally cashed out with a $2.50 loss, but it was well worth it for the entertainment. (compared to the $30 I lost on on the Time Machine game I was playing just so I could be next to the the Bracegirdles, and not to lose my place in line.) The annoying thing was, the Bracegirdles would have been just as happy playing Mystical Mermaid, they wouldn’t know the difference between a fish and a Wraith, they were pretty drunk too… and they had never even heard of JRR Tolkien! When I started spinning the reels, all the familiar LOTR images flying by on my reels was enough to mesmerize me, but then suddenly I heard the voice of Legolas yelling something in Elvish and arrows came flying and hit my screen with realistic thuds and twangs, the sounds coming from the speakers behind my head… and all the ones he hit turned to Wild Cards! Woo hoo! And other things like that happen, like Gollum will suddenly appeared on your screen, climbing around maniacally, making random items into wild cards. There are many cool features, like the Garden Bonus round, where you try to steal veggies from the garden without farmer Maggott seeing you. When I got up to leave the game, a very grateful Tolkien fan was waiting to play, and I was glad to hand it off to him and wished him luck! I couldn’t find any good articles about this game, that showed any detail, just this one that mentions it and shows a picture of the machine. More..
