Bonus Bonanza was the official state lottery game show of Massachusetts, running from 1995 to 1998. It was hosted by Brian Tracey and Dawn Hayes. The show was produced at WCVB-TV by Mark Goodson Productions, later Jonathan Goodson Productions, and all of its games and its theme were virtually identical to the Illinois state lottery game show Illinois Instant Riches (later Illinois Luckiest).
Summary of Rules[edit]
Bonanza Slot Big Wins To hit a winning combination while playing the slot Bonanza, you have to land three or more matching symbols on adjacent paylines. This differs from payline-based games, as if offers up more winning potential overall. The top prize available in Bonanza is worth 50x your stake, and it's awarded by the diamond symbol. After so many times of being surprised upon loading a new slot machine, you’d think we’d be prepared for anything, but then we opened Bonanza and was amazed all over again. The title fits, but only after you’ve tried out the madness that is the various ways in which you can play and win. Bonanza Blast delivers theoretical returns that average out at 95.97 per cent. This is a reassuring figure for any slots player, as it keeps the house edge hovering just around the four per cent marker; however, it is a highly volatile game, which may not be such good news for low-risk players.
All audience members wore name tags (a la The Price Is Right) but only those that earned their way on to the show by means of a Massachusetts lottery ticket were chosen to be in the contestant's pool. Hayes would spin a wheel that was hooked to a randomizer. When the wheel stopped, whoever's face the spotlight shined on got to play a mini-game, in addition to winning a set of lottery tickets. There were a total of five mini-games available, but only three of the mini-games were played on a given show, and all three contestants involved got to play the bonus game for a possible $200,000 (as opposed to $100,000 from Illinois Instant Riches; the prize doubled to $200,000 when the bonus game Pot O' Gold was introduced).
Mini-Games[edit]
Vortex[edit]
Contestants were shown 7 balls, 5 yellow and 2 red, arranged in a line. When released, the balls so that the balls spun around a funnel-like table and ended up in the center in a daisy-like pattern (one ball surrounded by the other six). The object was to have a yellow ball in the center.
The contestant was originally spotted $5,000 - later reduced to $3,000 - and asked to pull a lever that released the balls down the table and into the daisy pattern. For the first pull, their money doubled if the center ball was yellow. For the second pull, one of the yellow balls was replaced with a red ball, and their money tripled if the center ball was yellow. They didn't lose anything if a red ball came up in the center for these first two pulls.
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The contestant could then stop with their winnings, or opt for a third pull after another yellow ball was replaced by a red ball. For this final pull, they quadrupled their money if the center ball came up yellow, but lost half their money if the center ball came up red. Maximum payout is $72,000 (or $120,000 under the original payoff system).
Vortex debuted on this show before it carried over to Illinois Instant Riches; on IIR, the payoff was originally the same as the reduced values; it later was increased to a start of $4,000, for a possible $96,000.
Danger Ball[edit]
The contestant was given $5,000 to start and shown a container with three balls concealed - red, yellow, and green. The contestant picked one of the ball to establish as the 'Danger Ball.' The contestant was then asked to pull a ball out of the container. If it was any color other than the Danger Ball color, they earned another $5,000. After each pull, the balls were spun around in the container again. After three pulls, a second ball with the Danger Ball color was added, and the contestant had the option to quit with their winnings or gamble. If they chose to gamble, they tripled their money by pulling out a colored ball other than the Danger Ball color, but pulling out the Danger Ball cost the contestant half their money. Maximum payout is $60,000.
Freefall[edit]
The contestant launched a ping pong ball into a contraption that resembled the Plinko board from The Price Is Right. For the first empty slot they landed in, they were credited with $5,000. Landing in each empty slot was worth an additional $5,000. Landing in a slot with an occupied ball earned a strike. After two strikes, the contestant could stop with their winnings, or opt for another pull. If the contestant chose to gamble, they doubled their money by landing in an empty slot or lost half for accumulating their third strike. Play continued until all 8 slots were filled, all three strikes were accumulated, or the contestant chose to quit.
Force Field[edit]
The contestant released a pendulum over a table, which contained 10 magnets of equal strength. By each magnet was a varying amount of money, ranging from $1,000 to $20,000. After the contestant's first launch of the pendulum, they would win whatever amount of money the pendulum landed on. Before the contestant's second launch, Dawn would replace the dollar amount on the pendulum's current location with a 'Lose Half' sign. If the contestant landed on that spot on the second or third launch, they would lose half of their current winnings. After the second launch, Dawn would replace the dollar amount sign on the pendulum's location with another 'Lose Half' sign, then the highest dollar amount remaining on the table would be tripled and the lowest dollar amount remaining would be replaced with a red 'Wipe Out' sign. The contestant was then given the choice to quit with their current winnings or take the third launch. If the contestant landed on anything other than 'Lose Half' or 'Wipe Out', that amount would be added to their total winnings. Landing on 'Lose Half' would cost them half of their winnings, landing on 'Wipe Out' would eliminate all of the contestant's winnings. The maximum payout was $85,000.
Odd Money Wins[edit]
This was a rarely played game in which three contestants were chosen from the audience pool. Each contestant was given a choice of two dollar amounts, which in the beginning were either $10,000 or $50,000, later changed to either $10,000 or $30,000. The object was to be the only contestant who chose that amount of money. After the contestants secretly chose their dollar amounts, each one would be revealed, one at a time. The contestant who was the only one out of the three to choose the dollar amount they chose would win that amount of money and advance to play the Bonus Game. If all contestants chose the same dollar amount, they would vote again until there was a winner.
Bonus Game[edit]
The one bonus game used on the show was Knockout, the original bonus game from IIR, but with $200,000 as its top prize instead of $100,000. Like IIR, the three contestants chosen to play the mini-games were involved, and each drew lots backstage to determine where their colored cylinder would go. In the center of the ring was the infamous cube. 30 seconds were put on the clock, and Hayes would release the cube, which bounced around in a random manner, potentially knocking down the cylinders. If a player's cylinder was still standing at the end of 30 seconds, they won the cash prize hidden under their number where their marker was standing, which ranged from $7,500 to $200,000. The $200,000 was won at least once.
Stations[edit]
- Boston - WCVB
- New Bedford/Fall River - WLNE
- Springfield - WGGB
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MORE ABOUT BONANAZA SLOT
This game was a Christmas present for high-volatility slot fans in December 2016. It followed on from Starquest and is part of a trio of games that includes White Rabbit and Danger High Voltage that nails the BTG colors to the mast – Kings of the high volatility joy-ride!
Bonanza is available to play at all Big Time Gaming Casinos.
Bonanza is set in a gold mine with dixie-town music, but it’s the MegaWays™ reel set up that is eye-catching – the middle four of six reels have one extra symbol, and each of the six reels can have anything between two and seven symbols on it.
The number of ways to win changes accordingly and can reach as high as 117,649!
You will definitely find that this is a high volatility number, so be warned – the bonus round is where you need to head if you want to win big here.
Some Key Facts About Bonanza Slot
- Bonanza pays out left to right on adjacent symbols to the tune of 117,649 winning combinations.
- The game comes with four high paying gemstone symbols from the emerald green (2x for six in a payline) to the round purple stone (50x for six in a payline).
- The lower value symbols are the cards 9 through to Ace.
- Watch out for the mine carts at the top of the reels – they move left to right and add an extra symbol to each reel.
- The game uses Rolling (dropping, avalanche, cascading) Reels. With each winning spin the winning symbols explode and are removed to be replaced with new ones. This continues until no winning lines are visible.
- The Wild is a stick of dynamite – it replaces all others except the scatter.
- The scatters are gold boxes with letters G, O, L and D on top. Four are needed to trigger the bonus round.
- Bonanza can be played from 20p up to £500 per spin.
Bonanza – How It Works
Bonanza MegaWays™ bears all the classic hallmarks of the best Big Time Gaming slots – great graphics and animations and big, big volatility.
The mine backdrop is a cool setting for this slot, and you’ll enjoy watching the little cart move around the top of the reels and deliver extra symbols with each spin.
In the base game, just look out for extra wilds that can build decent wins for you, and also of course the Rolling Reels feature that keeps rolling on for consecutive wins.
Of course, like other BGT games, the big treasures are kept locked away in the bonus round.
Here’s what you need to do to access them.
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You’ll need to land four of the scatters (gold boxes) to set off Free Spins, starting with 12. Every extra scatter above your base four gets you an EXTRA FIVE FREE SPINS.
So before you even start the bonus round you can notch up a nice Free Spins bank.
The Rolling Reels Feature remain active during the bonus, but this time a multiplier is applied after each successive win. It starts at 1x and goes up by 1 with each new spin – and there is NO MAXIMUM.
Gold Bars Add More Free Spins – During the bonus round the carts above the reels might just stop with gold bars in them. When they do, add another 5 FREE SPINS for three in a cart, and 10 FREE SPINS for four in a cart.
So there you have it – a bonus round that can delivers big, big riches when the free spins and multipliers start adding up.
How To Win At Bonanza Slot!
Alright, so we can’t sit here and tell you how to make those Free Spins come around and how to land a top jackpot on Bonanza slot. But we can at least point out what to look out for when you’re in the thick of the action. Here’s five pointers to help you get the best out of this game.
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- Base Game Thrills – the real big wins of course are saved for the bonus round, but that doesn’t mean you can’t land a win or two in the base game. The Rolling Reels feature drives things along nicely, and watch out for the Wilds too.
- Bonus Round FREE SPINS Fun – the trick here is to keep stacking up those Free Spins. The advantage you have is that you can land at least 12 before you’ve started, PLUS the extras you get from scatters during the round.
- Multiply Those Wins – check out those multipliers that come with the Rolling Reels – the more wins you get, the bigger they get. This is the secret to pushing MASSIVE jackpots in this game. Keep your fingers crossed the wins keep coming.
- Play It Cool – Don’t let Bonanza get the better of you – if the wins aren’t coming, lay it to rest for a while and come back to it later. This one can burn your cash!
- Try our recommended sites – Our list of the best Big Time Gaming slot sites is a great place to start when choosing somewhere to play Bonanza MegaWays™ Slot.
THE SLOT BUZZ VERDICT
It’s no surprise that this game is a big favourite in certain circles. Those who love chasing big payouts and can live through a dry spell or two absolutely love Bonanza MegaWays™. For our money it’s the best of the high volatility games from Big Time Gaming.
If you like this one you should definitely check out Danger High Voltage, or if you fancy something a little different, go for a Thunderkick title like Luchadora or The Falcon Huntress.