Fruit Machines

Fruit machines is a term that is often used to describe all kinds of slot machines, including online slots and those offline. However, in its strictest sense the term fruit machine (or ‘pub fruity’) refers to a traditional type of British slots game that has a number of specific features.

The first feature is the use of fruit symbols on the reels. Cherries, melons, lemons and grapes are all very common, and the machine can show fruit symbols exclusively or in addition to other traditional symbols such as bells and BARs.

Next, fruit machines generally allow you to hold one or more reels from time to time. When you hold a reel, it will not spin the next time you press the play button. So, if you have cherries on the first two reels of a three reel fruit machine, you might be given the opportunity the hold them and hope for a cherry on the third reel the next time you spin.

Fruit machines usually have a Nudge feature. Each nudge allows you to shift one reel down (or up in some games) so that you can try and create a winning line. The more nudges you get, the more chance you will have of achieving a win - great news for those of us who play slots.

A particularly exciting feature of fruit machines is the Trail. This is a chain of images or boxes around the machine that you can light up when you get certain symbols on the reels. At certain points along the chain will be handy bonuses, such as extra nudges or a particular prize, and at the end of the chain is the jackpot. Illuminate the whole chain and you win the jackpot!

Fruit machine fans often say that these slots offer a more entertaining experience than the American “spin and hope’ games. We wouldn’t go that far, but there is definitely a market for fruit machines, and an increasing number of online casino software developers are creating games based on the traditional features we have outlined.

If you fancy playing online fruit machines, take a look at Microgaming’s Pub Fruity game at Ladbrokes Casino. It boasts many of the features discussed in this article and more besides.

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