Slot Machines and Player’s Memories
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combines images o f a scarab, the Sphinx, a feather quill, and a tablet of
hieroglyphics with a desert palette; the queen herseif greets the player as
she opens a gaming session. Atronic’s Sphinx includes images o f coins, a
jackal, the crossed Symbols o f kingship, and o f course, a pyramid.
W M S’s Zeus iconic imagery includes a laurel wreath, a chariot, and a
white bearded, elderly Zeus himself. These games have staying power, as
they have been in play since around 2003, and a number o f copycat
versions, as well as sequels, have appeared through the years.
These games and their descendants are notable because the
images are devoid o f the more complex ideas introduced to us in high
school and beyond. Cleopatra has no political existence, nor any
connection with Marc Antony; the Sphinx is never shown as a camivore;
there are no images which reflect, for example, the single-branched trees
o f some royal families, or the fact that mummies are preserved human
remains. The images seen are those which first captivated the player’s
imagination, the ones in his coloring books and in World Book, and they
are meant to appeal to one’s inner child.
More interesting, for purposes o f this discussion, are games
which originally spoke to complex themes, but which manufacturers
updated to reflect kinder, gentler themes, as if controversy or critical
thinking simply did not belong on the slots floor. One such example is
Atronic’s Mayan Magic, a disturbing yet highly entertaining game which
first emerged around 2006, and frightened gamers until it was replaced in
2010 with a bright, bold, simply drawn version tam er than most G-rated
games created for Xbox. Mayan Magic appealed directly to the
Viewmaster-txamed imagination o f the typical Baby Boomer, presenting
a mysterious atmosphere through its palette and use o f mythological
icons. Steeped in deep greens, blues, and maroons, a player “met” snakes
and lizards, and “read” runic Symbols which took him back in time,
immersing him in a lost world. However, the horrors o f the game were
true horrors indeed: themes o f conjuring and human sacrifice pervaded
the bonus rounds, and the player was treated to the sights o f a hellish
heart bound in thomy vines and a desiccated shrunken head. There was
also a literal ghost in the machine, a spirit who appeared like a wisp o f
smoke and then disappeared. Mayan Magic provided answers to the
questions o f what exactly happened in the great, ruined pyramids choked
by lush foliage in the Mexican jungle. It was also a game one did not
play in the middle o f the night, after a few drinks, when one had to retire
to one’s room later, down a quiet, deserted hallway.