History of Universal Slots

The Rise
Universal of Japan got it's start in the 1970's developing and selling arcade games and pachinko slots. One of their most famous early arcade games was called "Mr. Do". In 1983 Universal opened an office in Las Vegas called Universal Distributing of Nevada. Owned by wealthy businessman Kazuo Okada and his bothers, Universal wanted to sell slots in Nevada and set their sights on being the largest distributor within 10 years.
In May of 1984 Inge Telnaes, an engineer for Ballys, received a patent for the computerized virtual slot mapping. At Universal, Randy Adams and Gary Harris perfected using the Telnaes virtual slot mapping with stepper reels. Stepper reels have pulse driven motors that have the ability to stop the reels exactly at a precise location. Universal had received their license to distribute slots and had the technologically advanced slot machine of the time. Gary Harris presented the company with a strategy that concluded players wanted smaller and more frequent jackpots and along with more medium range hits rather than just one hard to win large jackpot.
In late 1984 and through 1985 Universal began selling their low jackpot machines and they were a huge success. So much so that by the end of 1986 it was estimated 75% of slots being sold in Nevada were Universal. In just three years Universal had accomplished what it had originally set out to do in ten years.
In 1985 Universal presented the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) documentation of a change made to an existing approved slot program. It was the famous "Near-Miss" feature. The NGC approved this change and Universal began installing it in all new games sold.
The Near-Miss feature would take the Telneas patent one step further. When a losing combination was delivered by the Random Number Generator (RNG), the program would redirect the losing outcome to one of six tables loaded to produce random near miss outcomes. So instead of a losing outcome being, let's say, Blank-Blank-Bar, it would be something like Bar-Bar-Blank. The idea was to keep the player in the game longer and giving them more entertainment for their play. Winning combinations were not altered.
The Near-Miss feature appeared to be a hit as Universal slot machines were receiving most of the play.
Beginning of the end
In 1988 IGT complained to the NGC and said they too had the Near-Miss technology, but chose not to use it. But if the NGC didn't stop Universal, they would use it in their machines. It was also suggested it would be used in video poker too. The NGC ordered Universal to stop sales of their slots in April 1988 until the NGC amended Regulation 14. The NGC conducted two lengthy hearings in 1988 and took input from all manufactures. In the end, in September of 1988, Universal was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine for not disclosing enough information in their 1985 document of change and replace all Near-Miss programs in use in the State of Nevada. That was about 11,000 machines and would cost Universal just under $1,000,000 to complete.
Also in 1988, IGT purchased all rights to the Telnaes patent requiring all other manufactures to pay them a royalty for every machine produced.
more to come...
I don't have much info on Universal from 1989 to now. But I did make some observations. All Universal game chips are numbered by the year developed. There were no new chips from 1988. So that year had to have hurt them. Rather then develop a new slot platform, Universal chose to modify their existing 1984 platform by switching MPU's from the 8116 to the 8800. The 8800 was designed to have DBV's (Dollar Bill Validators) and could have respin and nudge programs. The 8116 could not do any of these. Universal chose to retrofit DBV's into the bottom glass area. Yuck!
In the early 90's several new game themes appeared. I would personally rate these new games as ugly! They chose to use the color red excessively. Designs were poor. Meanwhile IGT had upgraded from the S to the S+. They also invested in graphic designs and came out with eye pleasing designs like Double Diamond.
Finally in 1994, it appears, Universal decided to create a new platform. It was called the Ultra Series. All reel strips would be backlit. Reel strips were made much wider (3-3/4") than the competition and symbols were big. Stereo sound was added. The reel glass area was as large as the top glass at 12-3/4" high.
The Ultra Series MPU is the 94014. It has four eproms. They are; Game, System, Support, and Sound. All game themes had the same System, Support, and Sound programs. Only the Game chip needs to be changed to change themes on the board.
It appears Universal rushed this machine into production. Maybe they were cash strapped. What makes this appear so is the lack of lights on the right side of the reel glass and no denomination sticker light. Also, the cash can handle interfered with the belly glass light box and a small rectangular hole was cut in each light box to accommodate the cash box handle. The Ultras were short lived and I've seen only machines made in 1996, no other year.
While Universal was developing the Ultra, another unseen problem was about to strike them. Randy Harris, computer slot tech for the Nevada Gaming Commission, figured out how to alter an Universal eprom while they were being spot-checked by Gaming personal. When spot-checked the gaming personal would read the eproms in a machine and verify they were approved programs. Unknown to them, an additional set of commands was added to the program after it was read. This program allowed Harris and his friends to play a certain sequence of coins, after which a jackpot would be hit. Harris got caught trying to win a $100,000 keno jackpot in New Jersey and then confessed to the Universal eprom altering. The reason he could do this altering was because Universal left all unused code at FFh. (All binary ones) This allows additional code to be added. Setting unused code to zero's would have prevented this. Also, Universal's security on the chips was lacking. So Universal had the near-miss problem in 1988 and then the eprom hacking in 1994. This had to kill their credibilty! To top it off, the Ultra programs still had their unused code at FFh. Leaving it open to hacking. Although they did use a much better security routine. (CRC)
I see two different versions of System chips with the second version setting all unused code to zero's. Too little, too late. IMO.
So Universal faded away in the U.S. And in 2001 they were purchased by Aruze gaming.