Venco Business Solutions has a wireless router that transmits a signal up to 300 feet from an internet connection that is high speed and secure. This simple router (cost $149) eliminates the need to run wires to an internet jukebox or an ATM. To receive the signal, a Verizon Wireless Stick is available for $29.95/month that connects to their 4G LTE network.
What this could mean? This is a fantastic installation and service labor savings for jukebox and ATM operators and can easily be adopted for other games and related equipment such as bill changers and debit card kiosks. In the near future, many games will need to be connected to the internet because the players will expect it as ‘normal’.
Team Play’s ‘Fishbowl Frenzy’ (winner of IAAPA Brass Ring Award for Best New Coin-Op Product) is the first video-redemption game to use augmented reality technology. Their 65” transmissive LCD screen creates the realistic 3D computer-generated animated fish that appear to be swimming inside real fishbowls.
What this could mean? TRR has been testing Fishbowl Frenzy for the past 8 months and it has consistently been in the Top 10 Overall out of 82 games. For Nov/Dec it ranked #7. Videmption is the category that TRR predicted years ago would be the next growth category where video technologies could be integrated with simple redemption style play. Videmption games like Harpoon Lagoon and Pirates Hook are still captivating players. TRR will soon be testing Ocean Pearls (Jennison), another augmented reality videmption game. This is a great new technology, well adapted to our industry.
Ticket Circus (Elaut) is a token pusher that has different colored and valued token chips throughout the playfield whose values are read by RFID technology. All the regular tokens and chip tokens are kept internal to the game and recycled. When a 25 ticket valued chip goes over the edge, the player is awarded 25 additional tickets.
What this could mean? Although RFID is an old technology, this is a great adaption for our industry. The ability to read the different valued tokens adds a great dimension to the pusher game category. Having everything internal makes it easier for the game technician who no longer needs to worry about replacing the token chips. This next step may be to add another available technology for players to keep track of the different token chips as they collect sets (like they do with the Wizard of Oz tokens and cards) but without ever receiving them. This could be done through their smartphones.
Andamiro has Smart Cube with Smart Monitoring that is compatible with your smartphone. The different models of I-Cube will send messages to your phone when a prize is won and for other programmable options including earnings report, error reports, and security status. A standard SIM card is installed in the game and transmits the data through a wireless provider.
What this could mean? This is another example to show that game manufactures are seeing the value of enhancing communications between games and related utility equipment and smartphones. Soon every new game will have these capabilities, with upgrades available to many others.
American Changer’s AC6007 Cash or Credit Card Changer now has web server capabilities. You can watch in real time from your computer, laptop, ipad or smartphone the cash received and credit card transactions, reprogram the changer remotely, and also give refunds directly to the customer. You will know if the bill acceptor is not working, the credit card reader is not working, or the token hoppers are malfunctioning or are out of tokens. American Changer will have this upgrade available on all of their changers in the near future.
What this could mean? This is a very valuable tool to have for bill changers and it is available at a very reasonable price. The industry is moving forward one step at a time, but still moving forward.
