Originally Posted by
mickeycrimm
I tracked IGT Vision Series meters for years. Games like Wild Cherry Pie, Diamond Mine, Fishing For Cash, etc. On machines made before 2000 you could look in the window just past the third reel and see the meters. When the Visions first came out in 97 the meters all started at 000000 so it was easy before the machines got more than 1,000, 000 in action. The machines that were manufactured after 1999 didn't have the meters where you could see them.
If the top meter is at 90,000 coin in and the bottom meter is at 78,000 coin out then divide 78,000 by 90,000 and the game is about 87% plus the handpays.
How the handpay frequencies were figured out is tracking the amount of action you run with your card which will tell you how many spins you made. If you know how much action it takes to get 1 point and how many points it takes to get a dollar (or comp dollar) then it easy to figure out how many spins you made.
Then I would take a pocket sized notebook and create columns for each reel. Every time the main symbol lands on the line you record it in its respective column. A 1000 spin sample space is kind of small for the game in question but it will give you a ballpark idea of the odds. But you keep adding to the sample space every time you play.
You divide the number of times the symbol landed on the line by the total number of spins you made to get the tentative frequency. So let's say the main symbol landed on the line of the first reel 28 times, it landed on the line of the second reel 27 times, and it landed on the third reel 29 times. You divide 1000 by all three numbers.
1000/28 = 35.71
1000/27 = 37.04
1000/29 = 34.48
35.71 X 37.04 X34.08 = 45,607
That's your tentative estimate of the frequency of the top line hit. Just keep adding to your sample space as you play. This works very well for low jackpot amounts because the frequencies aren't so long. A case in point is the Bally Blazing 7's where in the $1 game the frequency of the top line hit is 16 X 16 X 16 = 4096.
I've been deconstructing games like this for years and it also works very well with video line games. Michael Shackleford confirmed for me that I was doing it right when he went into MGM and tracked the Lions Share main symbols the same way I did it.
I'm sure you've all heard that clicking sound in the machine when you hit something. That's the coin out meter racking up the number of credits you hit.