History of Microgaming Casino Slots

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Microgaming is a pioneer in online casino games. Some of the most innovative slots in the industry today have come from Microgaming. Also many of the features prevalent in contemporary slots games were introduced by Microgaming. This article takes a look at the history of Microgaming slots and highlights some of its landmark achievements.

Microgaming launched its first online casino in 1995. By 1997 one of its 3 reel online slots had achieved widespread popularity. This was Fantastic Sevens, which was modeled on the land-based slot games. In 1998 Microgaming launched Cash Splash, the Internet’s first wide area progressive jackpot slot. Players at different online casinos could now vie for the same progressive jackpot. In 2000 Microgaming launched its instant play software, wherein players did not have to download the software. The inaugural version of the instant play software had three popular Microgaming online slots - Double Magic, Fantastic Sevens and Jurassic Jackpot.

The year 2002 was a landmark year for Microgaming. Its progressive jackpot online slots Major Millions set world record for the largest online jackpot win of over $1.5 million. This was the trigger for more innovative developments. One of the most popular Microgaming slots today is Thunderstruck with its vibrant graphics and animations. It is based on the Norse God of Thunder and is extremely popular in slots tournaments. Thunderstruck was launched in 2003 when Microgaming upgraded its software to Viper. The same year Microgaming introduced its Mega Spin slots. These slots, akin to multi hand video poker, allow players to spin a number of sets of reels simultaneously. In 2004 Microgaming introduced mobile gaming with its Double Magic slot game developed for mobile phones.

In 2005 Microgaming launched the first branded online slot game in the industry. This was Tomb Raider, which was developed in the junction with the video game manufacturers Eidos Interactive. With high quality videos and action from the video game Tomb Raider was an instant success. Tomb Raider was launched in the instant play and mobile versions simultaneously. In 2006 the total cumulative payouts on all the Microgaming progressive slots games exceeded $200 million with payouts being made to more than 5,700 players. The second branded slot game Hitman was released in 2007. The sequel to Tomb Raider, Secret of the Sword was released in 2008. In 2008 Microgaming released one of the most innovative slots games ever. This was MySlot. MySlot allows players to upload their own images as symbols on the reels and therefore personalize slots games. They can create slots games with their own holidays as themes or with pictures of friends and family.

2009 was another landmark year for Microgaming. It released its 400th online casino game in the form of The Great Galaxy Grab, which had interactive bonus rounds. In April 2009 the progressive jackpot slot Mega Moolah hit for over $6 million recording the highest individual payout in the history of online slots. In 2009 Microgaming introduced a new feature in a slot game, one that found widespread acceptance in the industry. This was the All Pays feature introduced in Burning Desire. The slot game did not have defined paylines but all possible 243 combinations could result in payouts.

Microgaming always provided slots tournaments at its online casinos. In 2009 it launched the Grand Slam of Slots tournament that allowed participation from all Microgaming casinos. This was the first tournament in the history of online gaming that has a $1 million prize for the first place winner.

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