Machines & Gaming: The machine age

Pub gaming is on the brink of a digital revolution. For almost 1,000 years, maybe longer, there has been a tradition of game playing and gambling in public houses. Whenever people come together in an adult environment they will inevitably socialise, eat, drink and participate in varied forms of entertainment.

Games such as cards, dominoes and darts, as different as they are from one another, are all activities that allow people to pit their wits, skill and ingenuity against one another and, of course, enjoy the fortune that Lady Luck dispenses.From the early part of the last century, games and gambling became automated, first mechanically and latterly electronically. Automatic amusement machines allowed players to enjoy more interesting games and play them alone or together, by pooling a collective stake and sharing the winnings.

The origin of Amusement With Prizes (AWP) machines - AKA fruit machines - was America. Its sister product, the Skill With Prizes (SWP) machine, better known as a trivia quiz machine, was also born in the US, but some 50 years later.As the current millennium began, we witnessed the successful evolution of SWP generic machines into wide-area networked multi-game digital terminals. This new breed of digital terminals - which includes IND:E, Gamesnet and itbox - offers players home computer standard games and a wide range of game choice.

Giving players choice and high-quality games is now at the centre of efforts to evolve fruit machines from their historic generic format into a digital multi-game gambling platform.

In addition to the essential play appeal of games in pubs and the attractiveness of the hardware the games come in, the internet has given us connectivity.

The opportunities generated by digitally connecting terminals to one another and to a central server are numerous and very exciting. Connectivity makes possible better games, increased playing time, performance monitoring and the opportunity to segment the market, targeting different games at different players.

All these opportunities make use of the very latest in technical innovations. But it is still, of course, essential that these technologies deliver games that are exciting in the eyes of the people who will play them.

If players are satisfied, it follows that the rest of us will enjoy the spoils.

Steve Murray is chief strategic development officer of games company Games Media​