Normal vs. Fast Dipswitch

[Yoeddy1]

I toggled this switch on my S board but I can't really tell any difference.  What is this supposed to do?

[stayouttadabunker]

Supposed to slow down or speed up the stopping of the reels.

Say the 3 reels should stop at 10_5_0...
The 1st reel stops at the 10th spot on the strip,
the 2nd reel stops at the 5th spot on the strip and
the 3rd reel stops at the "zero" spot on the strip (or the seam).

Check out these two scenarios, let's make pretend each reel has 20 stops on their strip.
(Some have 64, or 128 or more!)
But this is purely hypothetical and to try to make the explanation of this easier>>>

Now, say the 3rd reel is at 10th spot okay?, with the switch set for"Normal Cycle",
the reel would spin completely around once then stop on the seam. (1 and 1/2 turns)

If the switch was set for "Fast Cycle",
the reel  is at the 10th spot when you hit the "spin" button,
the reel would turn and stop on the seam sooner.
(1/2 a turn)

Get it?


Why is this happening only when you hit the "Spin" button?

The RNG is always churning, picking reel strip numbers.
The very instant you hit the spin button,
it locks down three numbers for the reels and
starts spinning to their predetermined stops.

ADD>>>
Also,I'm NOT a lawyer,so I'm pretty sure I've just opened up another bag of worms...

[brichter]

I'm pretty sure that's not how it works, but my mind can be changed with documentation... 

[knagl]

I'm pretty sure that's not how it works, but my mind can be changed with documentation... 

Which part are you disagreeing with?

I think Mark's on the right track, however the reels will always stop in order from 1 to 3 (or 1 to 4, or 1 to 5 depending on the number of reels involved), which means that the third reel is going to spin past its stop point a couple of times (or at least once) over the course of the spin. 

Mark is correct about the RNG.  Assuming a 3-reel game from this point on, when the spin button is pressed, the machine determines the three virtual stops that are selected and then starts spinning the reels.  It stops them, in order from 1 to 3, on the physical stop that corresponds with the virtual stop selected for each reel.

My understanding (from what I've read here in the past) is that in the "fast" mode the machine will stop the reels, in order, in the fewest rotations possible, while in the "normal" mode it may spin past the point where it's supposed to stop an extra revolution.  As such, if the first reel needs to spin 9/10ths of the way around to reach its stop, the other two reels are going to have to spin past their stop at least once if not more.  The reels do not physically spin faster or slower, and I don't think the change is very easy to notice.  In addition (although this wouldn't apply to Yoeddy's machine), the dip switch selection of "fast" and "normal" only applies to mainly older SP chips -- it's ignored on newer chips.

This was previously discussed (although not too much in-depth) back in April (here).

[StatFreak]

The difference is subtle and works in the casino's favor in the long-term just as the payout percentage does.

I'm not sure how the IGT spin program is implemented, but I can tell you that in the computer game slot program that I wrote I did exactly what Bunker and Knagl describe.

The virtual stops and the corresponding "physical" stops were selected before the spinning began. I then started the reels spinning and looked for the selected "physical" stop to have reached the payline i times before stopping the first reel. The program would not check the second reel position until the first reel had stopped. It would then count j passes and stop the second reel. This would be repeated for the third reel as well (k times). Each variable could be adjusted to vary the overall stop speed and the rhythm of the machine. I found values of 2,1,1 through 3,2,1 for i, j, and k respectively to be the most effective.

Delaying the check of the next reel until the previous one had stopped ensured that they would always stop in order. However, the actual time that it would take each reel to stop on a particular spin depended largely on the random juxtapositions of the three reels' stopping points on that spin. From what I've seen, the IGT S+ probably uses values similar to mine. With values of 2,1,1, or 3,1,1^* the second and third reels can end up stopping at almost the same instant as the first reel on some spins, and yet still draw out for almost two more complete spins on others. (Technically, the second reel spins almost one revolution and the third spins almost two revolutions after the first reel stops.)

The difference between the fast and slow spin setting would be more subtle than the spin-to-spin differences that depend simply on the random relative positions of the stopping points of the three reels. However, if one were to play as fast as possible for, say, an hour or two (allowing for the delays caused by larger wins) one should notice a difference in the number of spins per hour.

Just my 2 cents.


^* 1,1,1 would not be desirable on a physical three-reel game, but is used for the player-selectable fast-stop setting on 5-reel videos all the time as 1,1,1,1,1. With the first reel set to stop the first time that the selected symbol appears, it is possible for the reel to stop after moving just ONE symbol !

[stayouttadabunker]

I understand what you're saying Stat...
I played a video tape I made with a high speed camera while the dipswitch was placed in "Fast" mode.
The game was with a 64-stop reel chip paytable...

What I saw was amazing really....especially when the tape was reviewed in slow motion....
I made note of the positions of each reel before I depressed the "Spin" button and
watched the video in super slow motion on my television screen...
I made notes of all this with both dipswitch settings but they got thrown out sometime.
I should of saved them (The video and the notes) for this topic of discussion....

Try it at home! 

[brichter]

Ok, maybe it's because I've not had an SP chip that uses the function, but I've never seen a difference in spin time controlled by that switch, and I've done some considerable testing to that end. Which chips use this setting?

[stayouttadabunker]

Here's a short list...
I am very sure there's many more programs that have
the "Fast" or "Normal" dual in-line package switch selection options but this should help you!>>>

SP050 
SP574 
SP611 
SP650 
SP654 
SP709 
SP731 
SP733 
SP790 
SP804 (Does NOT have a "Speed selection")
SP805 (Does NOT have a "Speed selection")
SP809 
SP810 
SP872 (Does NOT have a "Speed selection")
SP873 (Does NOT have a "Speed selection")
SP922 (Does NOT have a "Speed selection")
SP944 (Specifically states that the speed selection is "removed")
SP968 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP978 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1004 
SP1019 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1048 (Does NOT have a "Speed selection")
SP1137 
SP1145 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1146 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1160 (Specifically states "*New: Now set in set chip or self test") 
SP1227 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1271 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1272 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1274 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")
SP1309 ("This version is not affected by dip switch selections")

That's it for now....I may try to update this later...
The pattern for IGT programming seems to be that early on,
they wanted to set the reel cycles but
kinda dropped that option altogether on the newer programs,
although there's no way I can confirm that assumption unless I gave IGT a phonecall...  

I wish Cactus Jack was still around...