Cavalcade of Awesome

I mentioned last week that I was going to Vegas with my wife to renew our vows with Elvis. While there, we spent some time in a few casinos. I’m not a big gambler but I love walking casino floors and checking out the other gamblers and the various themed slot machines.

Casinos are awesome. It’s like walking into an arcade back in the 80s. Lots of lights and noise. People hunched over lighted consoles hoping to get high scores. I love going to casinos. Like I said, I’m not a huge gambler, but I love looking at slot machines. They are the modern equivalent of upright arcade games. I’ve talked about my love for slot machines before and their taking the torch of the arcade machine.

Anyway, here are 18 slot machines I found that are based on movies or TV shows. You can click any of these images to see them bigger.

The Hangover – I’ll start with this one because it’s the most obvious.  Expect to see images of tigers and babies on the reels.  “Tootle-loo, mutha-f**kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Alien – As you can see, there are two versions of the Ridley Scott Alien slot machine. One slot machine has the picture of the egg from the theatrical one-sheet and the other has a picture of the alien xenomorph and includes a special Alien Hunt bonus.

Alien vs Predator – You got an alien slot machine, you also get an Alien vs Predator. Unfortunately, there isn’t a standalone Predator machine.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail – One of my favorite movies of all time. This slot was great because it had a ton of quotes from the movie, as well as clips and a special bonus round where you fought the black knight. There were even “hot spots” on the screen you could touch to generate a random quote or sound from the movie.

Star Wars Droid Hunt – This slot machine was pretty awesome. Lots of images and sounds from the original trilogy. Back in the late 90s, there was another Star Wars slot machine called Death Star Escape. It was cool because there was a bonus round that activated a model Death Star built into the housing that started spinning. Funny, I’ve never found a Star Wars slot machine based on the prequel movies.

Star Trek – I found two Star Trek slots.  On the left is Star Trek Battlestations.  On the right is a slot based on the original series with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.  I only played the latter, so I don’t know the difference between the two. It looks like Battlestations is more of a space battle type game with the ships of Star Trek like the Enterprise, Klingon Bird of Prey and a Romulan Warbird.

Airplane! – What an odd movie choice on which to base a slot machine, but I love it. Several movie quotes and video clips made it lots of fun. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit gambling.

American Idol – An appropriately large video display for the hugely popular reality show. This is a bank of about 4 slot machines that feature images and logos from the show.  The big screen in the middle played video clips from the show.  The video clips mostly featured Ryan Seacrest but there were some clips from Simon, Kara and Ellen who aren’t even on the show anymore.

The Amazing Race – Here’s a group of four slots based on the show Amazing Race.  I don’t watch the show, but I know it’s got a pretty big following.

Deal or No Deal – Game shows are a perfect fit for turning into slot machines. This one has pretty girls, suitcases and an occasional appearance by “The Banker”.

Press Your Luck – Speaking of game shows, here’s a slot based on the awesome 80s game show, Press Your Luck.  This show was revived a few years ago with a digital whammy board simply named Whammy!  If they are going to start making game shows as slots, I want to see Tic Tac Dough or The Joker’s Wild.  Seriously, how perfect would The Joker’s Wild be as a slot machine?

Dirty Dancing – Don’t put Baby in a corner and strive to get Johnny’s Mambo Bonus. I wonder if there’s a Bonus Round where you avoid getting an abortion in an alley.

The Wizard of Oz – One of my favorite movies gets an awesomely colorful and musical slot machine. These were everywhere and there were always tons of people playing them.

Dick Clark’s Bloopers – Loosely based on the TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes show that Clark hosted with Ed McMahon. However, McMahon may not have wanted any of that “casino money” because neither his name nor his likeness are anywhere on this machine. Or Clark just cut his ass out.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Surprisingly, I could only find the middle Rings movie as a slot machine. I never saw either Fellowship or Return anywhere. Sad they only made a slot machine out of my least favorite Rings movie. The reels for the slots are filled with pictures of Hobbit feet. Cause pretty much the only thing that happens in this movie is walking. And Gollum. Gollum and walking. And trees. Walking.

The Monkees – I really liked this slot machine. It was fun and the music was great. There were also some Elvis slots, as there always are. I’m really surprised I didn’t find a Beatles slot machine.

King Kong – Based on the 2006 Peter Jackson remake. Featured music and video clips from the movie.

Sex and the City – …and this exists.  Regardless of how I feel about it.

So, there is one slot machine that is like my Moby Dick. My Bigfoot. It came out back in 2006 and in all my trips to Vegas I’ve never spotted it, I’ve only ever seen it in a picture. I’ve talked about it on this blog before. It’s the Back to the Future slot machine.  I really don’t think it’s out any more, but I still look for it.

This entry was posted on September 8, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under casinos, movies, slot machines, technology, TV shows, video games with tags casinos, movies, pop culture, slot machines, technology, TV shows, video games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.