MAGNIFICENT 7's - "Spittoons and whorehouses at the ready"

Ever wanted to be a part of the Wild West? Ever wanted to chew that strange tobacco stuff that the bad guys in Westerns seem to be so keen on? Ever wanted to do that horrible thing where they spit it out on the good guy's boots? Ever wanted to know what it's like to be five hundred miles from a nice hot bath? No? Well I can't say that I blame you, and fortunately, none of these things are required to play Magnificent 7's, so that's all worked out quite nicely, hasn't it? 

M7's theme is the wild west (just as well really, or that intro would have made precious little sense), and it's one of the few trail based games implemented in MPU3/4. It's a clone of "Las Vegas Strip" (at least I think it is, I'm not entirely sure which came first), and a quality machine to (cowboy) boot. (Ouch - that was poor, even for me). 

So then, basics are largely as you'd expect, fill in the MAGNIFICENT7'S letters to enter the feature, bonus is at four, overlaid numbers advance the letters, any three numbers on the winline awards the feature. There are also a few overlaid "Bonus" symbols on the reels, which can help you to get the feature. The bonuses are the usual bunch, although the boost and stoppa are amongst the worst examples of "ha ha you've just got a boost/stoppa, so you're not going to get the feature" genre.

Three holds and flashholds are present and correct, M7's was one of the first Barcrest machines to offer you a choice of feature or win if you get a flashhold for like symbols and numbers. So spin for the win, hold the numbers for the feature. One successful gamble on any win offers a feature exchange, the higher the win, the further along the trail your start point. Cancel slows the odd thing down, so give it a speculative press from time to time.

The real meat of this machine is the feature trail, and it's a pleasantly enjoyable affair. (Note that %ages make a big difference here, 78% or less and you're in for a bit of a rough ride, 80% or above and it gets better, but 84% and above is really the preferred option). As you progress along the trail, higher cash values and better features are offered, including the individual casinos (did they have casinos in the times of the Wild West? I'm not sure that they did, maybe it's a leftover from the Las Vegas Strip original), which give a sequence of wins in the form of one of; a dice game, wheel of fortune, blackjack, or a slot machine. There's also the "Riverboat Gambler" feature, this appears at several points along the trail, and awards a value from £1 to £8, with a repeat chance. This was often a good way to steal a bit of extra profit on the real machine.

If you make it to the end of the trail you get to "Hit The Town", I maintain to this day that this is one of the best end features on a fruit machine, ever. You take a turn or two at each of the casinos, the wins being added to the bank as you go, everything is done automatically and there's no YES-NO repeat. Wins keep getting added, credits are taken when necessary, all you have to do is stand back and watch. On a bad day you'll only get £8 or £9, which is a bit annoying, especially if you've turned down the easy-JP Roller Coaster feature and/or the Jackpot award square to get there. The average is twice that, nearly £20. However, it's the times when it chucks a total mental that makes it all worthwhile, it can, on occasion, go for £50 or £60; and with all those £1-£4 being added up that takes a long time. 

Having said that, I've never seen the revision of the software emulated in MPU3/4 do that, the most I've been able to squeeze from its tight plums is £30 on a single Hit The Town. There have certainly been several versions of the software floating around at one time or another, I remember a, thankfully rare, version that could give just £4 from Hit The Town (it was always a pleasure to have that happen). 

M7's is one of the most entertaining games currently implemented in MPU3/4, trail based games almost always offer more in the way of a fun game than reel win/hi-lo gamble machines, and this is no exception. It, and Las Vegas Strip, were machines that I used to enjoy playing in the pub. Feature frequency is high (although on those lower %ages it can be quite brutal), and there's usually the opportunity to collect something worth a few quid. There's not a huge amount of skill involved (if playing the real thing you'd just force for Hit The Town and hope for the streak), but the entertainment factor makes up for that, and with a bit of sensible play it was usually possible to make most of your money back, if not see a profit.

Keep an eye out for the the in-feature bonuses being offered, Hit The Top is a tricky, but very quick route to Hit The Town (and a clear sign that the machine is jackpot happy). The Mystery squares tend to be a little bit on the nasty side, and there are lots of them; a favourite trick is to award you the "I'll protect ya" Marshall on one mystery, and then kill you off with a "Caught Cheating" on the next mystery. The Marshall only protects you from a violent ambush by hardened bandits, apparently he shits himself and fucks off if some old rheumy catches you with a extra couple of Aces up your sleeve.

Good sound, engaging gameplay, lots to do, and that great end feature. Magnificent 7's could almost be described as magnificent, but that would be lazy writing of the highest order. So it'll do for me. Goodnight.

28th August 2001