BONANZA - Post-colonial brutal slaughter, in the best possible taste.

Bonanza is the first JPeMu release for quite a while, and as such it's even more welcome than it ordinarily would be. The machine was released in the wake of the huge success of Indiana Jones (it seemed that every pub had one in 1994), and Bonanza is a clear attempt to deliver more of the same. It isn't as entertaining as Indy, either emulated or in the real world, but it ain't half bad....

To kick things off I'm delighted to report that the version emulated here is one of the early £6 chips (either that or it's one of the late chips set to a £6 jackpot and 20p play), the £8 "upgrade" had the same devastating effect on Bonanza as it did on Indy, and the £10 all cash version was (and is) a nightmare disaster of a travesty of decency (™ Stuart Campbell).

Game structure is nothing out of the ordinary, overlaid numbers fill the (pleasantly short) feature entry trail, wins can be gambled and exchanged for the feature, three holds and let 'em spins are all present and correct, and there's a special "?" symbol on the middle reel which awards one of a number of bonuses. Nudges in normal play can vary from 1 to 99 (courtesy of a couple of oversized LEDs), and the bonuses make good use of this novelty. This is particularly true of the "Super Nudges" bonus, which is a skill stop on the nudge LEDs, you should get enough to bag the JP repeater, but it's irritatingly easy to fuck up and end up with four..... (you'll see what I mean when you get it).

The feature is a long and involved trail, with plenty of opportunities for the use of both skill and tactics. You play the part of a cowboy, who's pursued relentlessly by scalping-happy Apache Indians. As with all chase features, the trick is to stay one step ahead of your pursuers, and assisting you in this endeavour are weapons (bullets and TNT), skill stops (war dance), boosts and bridges (which you can destroy with TNT once you're past them).

You start the feature with one bullet only, but extra ammo can be awarded from the hi/lo reel, the ammo box squares and the mystery squares, or bought using gold nuggets (which you receive by landing on the relevant space or exchanging wins to the feature, the higher the win the more nuggets you're blessed with). Also, three nuggets buys you a repeat chance, and four buys you a win series, which can go for delightfully large amounts.

The Apaches only start chasing you once you pass the 80p square, after which point you take it in turns to move. After every move you make an extra Apache joins the chase, so even after you've killed the Apache closest to you there'll probably be another two or three not far behind. Strategic use of TNT to blow bridges can stop a whole army of Apaches in their tracks, at least for one move. (See how much thought used to go into making fruit machines fun?.....).

There are bags of features to collect, War Party is a true skill advance to the jackpot (sort of, by the time you get to about £3 it's usually too fast to see), Bonanza is a traditional skill stop (rather like Leap Of Faith) which should be a JP, Round Em Up is a tricky three-reel-match for a JP, and Miner 49er gives forty nine nudges, try getting that from the war dance close by for an easy JP (unless you lose your concentration and bring in cherries by accident).

Bringing all of these elements together into a wonderfully entertaining game are high win and feature frequency, a fair hi/lo gamble, marvellously balanced mystery/chase deaths (neither is overly psychotic), and a tremendous sound package. You'll soon learn the tricks and tactics you can employ to maximise fun and profit (try getting Magnificent Sevens set up for a three red sevens win.....), and, most likely, be wondering where the fuck it all started to go wrong for JPM.

From the magnificence and entertainment of machines such as Bonanza to the pocket-raping hell of £25 jackpot Casino 5-Liners in just a few short years - how did that happen then?

13th July 2002