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Like the subject says. I have these old Jennings machines that were de-comissioned from a casino years ago. Took them apart and found the stop slots blocked on the high payout positions, only one reel, but still, those machines would NEVER pay on the high jackpots. So I thought, suppose I block off some of the no-payout slots? Wouldn't that make the machine pay out much higher odds - and make it more fun to play for a home machine?

Home slots played by friends and family tend to get boring unless they pay frequently. But if they pay better, I'd think it keeps the interest flowing longer. At least, this my logic.

If reel stop blockers worked in the older machines, would they apply to the newer, program-controlled machines? When I say "newer", I'm thinking the E2000 Bally's (stupid state-required minimum age). At some point, I assume blocking losing symbols would kick an error code.

Turning to you experts out there....

Here's the old-school method the casino used to increase profit - and decrease big jackpot wins. Notice it's the triple-bar stop:
(http://www.ramegoom.com/john/jennings400/reel_symbol_blocker-800.jpg)

I modified my EM JPO to pay out when it hits a blank on the 3rd reel.  Wired it up to a cherry pay.
I can change % back by pushing the change button to normal percentage which is about 80% or so.
When it's in loose mode I can drain the hopper starting with about 10 coins.
Only works on EM's, as far as I know, and you are probably right, on the newer stuff it will probably give an error code and tilt.

Don't the IGT's or Bally's have a "test chip" that you can use to test the payout, so it pays on every pull, or something like that? I have an old Summit and got a test chip that pays cherries on the first reel every pull - so I thought I could put that program along with the standard slot program on a larger PROM chip, and use some sort of switching device to toggle between the programs. Maybe an automotive remote control. Then every time you'd hit the remote and play the game, you'd win something.

Just thinking about how to make the games more interesting to play vs. the usual casino cash-drain routine.

I have not come across such a chip....the closest you will get with an IGT is a tournament chip.
You can set these up to play a set number of spins or by time.
The payback on these things are like 1002%
There are limited themes.

If you check out the IGT game bible you can see what tournament chips are available.
The game bible is under RICKS FaQs.

There you have it, a challenge for the programmers out there who may be dabbling in code. Now the question is, who out there writes code and is not under contract with the game producers? Looks like it's a hacker project that would benefit home-users in a big way.

The car guys have been doing this sort of thing for years. Where are the slot hackers?

That's a horse of a different color.

Legit high percentage or test chip (non existant) vs a modified reel chip.

I would make a WTB modified reel chip IGT in the classified section for the theme you have.
Make sure your profile is up to date with a current email address.

Assuming such a chip exists the poster may not feel comfortable announcing this to the world and will probably prefer to respond to you by email.

I can just see a fellow spending a whole lot of hours hacking and testing a chip that will be worth maybe 10 bucks when he's done.

Definitely would not be worth the time spent in programming, but rather, a challenge for someone in the know. Especially with software, seems nothing is sacred, data easily cloned, and so on, so no, I wouldn't think someone would be in it for the money. More for the "I just invented something new" claim...

On a few of the car computer forums, some of the program-savvy guys get on there and post their handy work, kind of open-source, so others that get into that sort of stuff will experiment. The Arduino sites come to mind; everyone shares what they know to the rest of the hacker community. Imagine if this sort of sharing could be applied to the private-owned slot community, to better the personal-use machines. Special screen messages, custom symbols, special payouts, higher odds, etc. - the list would go on and on.

My <new> involvement to slots is with early to mid 80's machines, thanks to the state of IL and their view on evil gambling devices, so I'm pretty much in the ice ages here. But, it appears there are quite a few of you guys out there who are involved with the higher-tech machines, so there would be a place for the true-blood hackers on these complex programmed wonders.

Just thinking out loud. I'm not actually looking for this stuff, but thought others would be. Hey, why do people invent viruses for computers? Claim to infamy I guess since there is really no financial gain in it.