internationalcasinoreview G2e10 REPORT
International effort applied to new Suzo Happ products
Working across time zones, international components manufacturer Suzo Happ has invested 24-hour research and development to come up with a range of innovative products across the spectrum of OEM requirements.
newstyle SUZO HAPP
Perhaps unsurprisingly given its long history, one of the sources of inspiration for machine and game design- ers at OEMs is what latest innovations Suzo Happ has come up with. In the last three years or so, by its own admission, only a few ideas have made it into produc- tion. As that has coincided with the difficult sales envi- ronment, it reinforces perhaps Suzo Happ’s posi- tion as a barometer of the industry’s fortunes, which comes from its position in the supply chain. This year it’s different. Colin Crossman, director of global engineering, said: “This year we decided to bring five new products to G2E. We consolidated our design and engineering resources located in Las Vegas, Chicago, Holland and China, and pulled it together into a 24-hour operation. It was a lot of hard work but
we got there.” The Compact RGB Handle
Mechanism devised by the team is an entirely externally mounted unit with a very slender profile. Because the mechanism is outside, it allows increased space on the inside of the cabinet. The ball on the handle is illumi- nated with two multi-colour LEDs that flash, glow or make patterns. When the handle is pulled, an LED panel on the durable plastic mount lights up with different colours on each of the six clicks in the pull.
“This can really add to the
attract mode of a machine,” said Crossman, “and it’s quick and easy to retrofit.”
The team also looked at an older product, a Flip Card Unit, and decided to update it. This mechanical game device provides a full deck of playing cards, including face cards and jokers, or alpha-numeric or custom, driven either from the host board or a separate driver board. Available in two sizes
and in multiple configura- tions and featuring RGB LED illumination, it can be used in bonus games or used in displays or advertising. The Intelligent Reel Drive is designed to relieve OEMs of unnecessary work. “They don’t have to write any soft- ware; all the control systems for stops, speed, rotation and illumination are all integral,” said Crossman. “The software package will control up to
Borden offers strong themes to world markets
visioninvideo BORDEN
Taiwanese firm Borden came to G2E with a full range of its games, including two new titles, Jungle Island and Ancient Egypt.
Jungle Island is a 25-line
15-reel game video slot with double-up options and two bonus games. “It’s designed for the US market,” said sales manager Claire Yang, “but we think the jungle theme will also appeal very much to the taste of Central and South American markets, where they like the graphics very much.” Ancient Egypt, mainly for
the European market, is a five-reel 15 line game with winning lines from both left to right and right to left. There are two jackpots and the two bonus games. Three or more scatter symbols will award up to 50 free games with 20 winning lines. Three or more bonus symbols awards access to the other Scarab bonus, where players choose from seven scarab- shaped jewels to uncover a
16 reels and offers 3,200 microsteps per revolution so it’s very smooth. All the peripherals can also be driven off the same board.” The company has come out with a new range of Casino Chrome-Lumines- cent Pushbuttons in six sizes. The polished chrome-plated bezel mounted on a translu- cent colour washer to give an edge-luminescent effect. The bezel is earthed straight
to the button panel, taking all the static. At the back, the units have a locking nut that fits over a snap-tab, making them easy to fit but extremely secure. For machines that still
operate with coins or tokens, a new flow hopper has been designed with a payout speed of seven coins per second. Available with three bowl sizes, it is compatible with other popular hopper
devices. Importantly, it has a clean design with no exter- nal wires or level sensors. “The development of these products in a short period has really brought the company together as a group,” said Crossman. “The response we’ve had to these products has been terrific, so we’ll take this way of working forward to launch even more innovations in the next year.”
New technology leads to new Advance for MEI
futuretech MEI
Visitors to the MEI stand had the chance to see the next generation of the company’s Cashflow SC bill acceptor. The SC
Advance, which is
expected to go into produc- tion around the middle of 2011, see improvements to the acceptor head that use the latest technology to improve the acceptance rate, security and reliability,
says the
company. “We still believe that the
Claire Yang, sales manager, with the Royal Champion game, currently on test in Europe
bet multiplier of up to 100x. “At the end of the year we
are also releasing Royal Club Roulette,” said Yang. “This video roulette game has very beautiful graphics and is a high class machine. Its rules run exactly according to tra- ditional roulette but one motherboard can link up to 15 terminals, so it’s like a roulette multiplayer.”
54 January 2011 •G2ereport
The company was also showing its latest video horseracing game, Royal Champion, which can run up to eight terminals. “We are now testing it in
the European market,” said Yang. “The operator has told us that players like the very strong graphics and the probabilities and that the income is good.”
Cashflow SC is the best bill acceptor out there,” said mar- keting director Andy Reichlin. “We talked to our customers, who told us not to mess it up. So we’re using technology that wasn’t available when we developed the original product. So now it’s faster, with a 23 per cent uplift in bill- to-bill speed. It has an expanded memory with 100 notes stored up from 46. In response to requests from Asian markets, its barcode recognition facility is now four-way.” There is also an improved recognition system that the
company says provides proac- tive security by using trans- missive sensors that see all the way through notes in six or seven light wavelengths. Its connection has also been upgraded to USB 2.0, which will help to expand the unit’s functionality in the future. All the improvements are located in the head section of the acceptor, which means that the SC Advance can be easily retrofitted and also that it is possible to upgrade gradu- ally, the new version working alongside the original. MEI also showed the one
millionth Cashflow SC to come off the production line: to commemorate the mile- stone, the unit has been chrome plated and the company is using it in its mar- keting effort, giving it the ‘rock star treatment’. The unit is on tour to all the industry trade shows; T-shirts with a list of its ‘appearances’ have been printed and customers have the chance to be pho- tographed with it and a celebrity - at G2E actress, model and TV star Holly Madison attracted a good deal of people to the MEI stand.
Suzo Happ’s Colin Crossman with the handle mech and an array of the Flip Card units
MEI’s casino sales manager Europe Alan Humble (r) with Andy Cotterell European technical support manager
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