The story of the slot machine stretches from rattling cabinets to the invention of touchscreen gameplay. Today’s lobbies combine retro fruit machines with themed video titles, so whether you find yourself looking to play Big Bass Bonanza slot or one of those cherry-inspired traditional releases, the fact is that modern titles continue to sit on the same reels-and-rows foundation that began more than a century ago.
From the Liberty Bell to Fruit Machines
The earliest widely credited design appeared in the late 1800s, with three mechanical reels, simple symbols, and a single payline. Outcomes were shown physically through bells, bars, and card suits, so results could be read quickly.
As rules around cash payouts slowly tightened in various places, non-cash rewards were used. Machines dispensed sweets, and the reels adopted the flavours as artwork: introducing the now-famous lemons, plums, cherries, and oranges.
Little-Known Fact: The BAR icon is often linked to a gum company logo, simplified for clarity on small reel strips.
These cabinets were dubbed ‘fruit machines’ in the UK, a term that has persisted and is still used with vintage games today. Fruit symbols worked well in crowded arcades and bars because they were bright, high-contrast, and simple to print. Additionally, because of their clarity, players could quickly identify reel strips without having to read extensive instructions.
Expectations were shaped by this early jargon of lemons and cherries, even after technology progressed, and we still see them in use today.
Electromechanical to Video: Lights, Sounds & Features
Mid-twentieth-century machines shifted from purely mechanical parts to electromechanical builds. Motors and circuit boards allowed illuminated panels, coin hoppers, and more reliable handling. The fundamental idea of spinning reels and matching symbols remained, but cabinets gained a livelier look and feel.
By the 1970s and 1980s, video slots replaced physical reels with screens, opening the door to animated symbols, themed backgrounds, and layered sound.
Video formats also made it easier to include features such as wilds, scatters, free spins, and multipliers. Paylines could expand from a handful to dozens or be replaced by ways-to-win systems that count adjacent matches. Visual variety increased tenfold, while the core interaction and gameplay stayed familiar.
Online and Mobile: Same Core, New Wrapping
From the 1990s onwards, online lobbies carried the genre onto desktop browsers, and the smartphone era put it in our pockets. Themes now range from classic fruit to fishing, mythology, and beyond, yet the essentials are recognisable: reels, rows, and symbol matching.
Modern releases might pair retro icons with contemporary extras like Megaways, cascading reels, interactive features, or progressive prizes, so a traditional look could sit alongside current mechanics without conflict.
What endures is the language established in the early decades. Fruit remains a visual shorthand for ‘classic’, while digital screens enable richer art and audio. Across mechanical, electromechanical, video, online, and mobile formats, the same foundation can be seen. That continuity explains why a cabinet from the past and a feature-packed release today feel related: different surfaces, similar core, and a history that keeps spinning forward.
