Hey, slot players, here are two new online slot games to try: the popular progressive Quick Strike, from Konami Gaming, and Zoltar Speaks, the online version of an Everi classic.

Quick Strike

Fans of Konami Gaming’s classic Quick Strike progressive will be happy to know it’s now available online, combined with a mix of popular base games, including China Mystery, China Shores, Gypsy Fire and Jumpin’ Jalapenos.

Similar to the original, this main feature is a two-level, “must-hit-by” progressive. The progressives are won through a mystery progressive bonus, and because the levels of those prizes are relatively modest, progressives happen a lot.

The progressive bonus returns either one of the two progressives—a “Mini” resetting at $25 or a “Major” resetting at $250, in the penny version—or a bonus prize. The chance of hitting a progressive is proportional to the amount wagered.

Randomly during any purchased spin, a prize is awarded to the player and celebrated with a fanfare of fireworks. Since the maximum “must-hit-by” levels are displayed on the screen, an air of anticipation and “jackpot fever” are evident as the meters near their required hit level. In the penny version of the game, the Mini must hit by $50, and the Major must hit by $500.

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Quick Strike: Five-reel slot; payline configurations vary with base game; two-level mystery progressive jackpot
Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10, .25, .50, 1.00, 2.00, 5.00
Max Bet: Various
Payback Percentage: 94% – 96%
Hit Frequency: Various
Top Jackpot: 50,000 times denomination

Zoltar Speaks

This is the online version of one of Everi’s most popular mechanical reel-spinning games. Zoltar Speaks is a three-reel, five-line game carrying the theme of the amusement park fortune-telling booths, with the host, a creepy turbaned mannequin.

The base five-line game is enhanced with primary game bonus features. Certain winning reel combinations trigger the Respin Bonus, in which the reels can spin up to five times, paying accumulating bonus prizes. During the re-spin, the Zoltar symbol is wild, paying out 15X on winning reel combinations.

The Zoltar game shares a basic game program with Everi’s “Meltdown” series of games. Both are designed for high-denomination play, with a volatile program that may not return a lot of small wins, but definitely returns huge wins periodically. It’s a gambler’s game.

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Zoltar Speaks: Three-reel, five-line slot with wild symbols and re-spin bonus
Denomination: .25, .50, 1.00, 2.00, 5.00, 10.00, 25.00, 50.00
Max Bet: 25
Payback Percentage: 85% – 98%
Hit Frequency: 30.23% – 32.6%
Top Jackpot: 7,528 credits

What’s It Mean?

Here’s a glossary of slot terms to help make you a better player:

• “Payback percentage”—also known as return to player or RTP—refers to the percentage of wagers that are returned to all players over the active life of a game. A 94 percent payback percentage does not mean you will get 94 percent of your money returned to you every time. It means there is a 6 percent house edge on the game. (Even a 100 percent payback doesn’t guarantee you’ll win—it means there’s no house edge. It’s like the flip of a coin.) Manufacturers offer operators a range of percentages, and it’s up to the operator to pick which to offer players.
• “Hit frequency” refers to the percentage of all spins that will result in a win of some kind. Remember that these wins can often be less than your bet. (If that happens too often, you should find another game!) Some manufacturers don’t provide this statistic; in this case, we estimate based on the volatility of the game program.
• “Volatility” refers to the manner in which wins are distributed on a slot machine. Low volatility means there will be lots of little hits, with wins of some kind very frequently (again, watch for too many wins less than your bet). High volatility means the hits are fewer and farther between, but there are many more huge wins—the kind that can turn a losing session into a winning session.
• “Ways to Win” refers to a game in which there are no paylines. In this style of game, adjacent like symbols on the screen register wins, and the number of spots on the entire reel set determines how many ways the player can possibly win on each spin.
• “Cost to cover” refers to the level of wager required to activate all the paylines on a screen. The good advice was always to wager enough to activate all the paylines, but these days, most games use this figure as a minimum bet. (Too many people were betting a penny on a penny game in the past.)