Slot machine
- Slot and Slots redirect here. These terms can also refer to positions in a player's party.
A slot machine (Japanese: スロット slots) is a standard game at Game Corners in the Pokémon games, having appeared in every generation up until Generation IV.
Slot symbols and their payouts tend to vary between generations, but the highest single payout is for three same-color sevens. In the first three generations, the maximum payout is 300 coins; in Generation IV, the payout is a progressive jackpot starting at 100 coins.
In the games
Generation I and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen
Slot machines in the Generation I games and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen consist simply of inserting coins and stopping the reels with the A button.
Slot machines can be played for 1, 2, or 3 coins. Playing slot machines for 1 coin allows payouts only on the center line. Playing for 2 coins allows payouts on all three horizontal lines. Playing for 3 coins allows payouts on all three horizontal lines as well as two diagonal lines.
Payouts
Generation I payouts:
In FireRed and LeafGreen, players can achieve the following payouts, which are calculated starting from the left reel:
| Series of icons | Payout |
|---|---|
 |
300 |
 |
100 |
 |
15 |
 FR or  LG |
15 |
 FR or  LG |
8 |
 FR or  LG |
8 |
 |
6 |
|
2 |
Payouts are cumulative, so if a player lined up three Psyduck in one row and one Berry in a different row, they would receive 17 coins. If a player had a Berry in the top left spot and a Berry right next to it, and they had paid three coins, they would get 8 coins (one Berry going diagonal and two Berries going horizontal).
In FireRed and LeafGreen payouts appear to be decided in a seemingly misleading order: by the time the slots start spinning, the game has already decided the percentage chance of the player winning, but it is only after the third slot is stopped that the game decides if the player is going to win and how much. If the player lines up two 7s but the game decided that the player would not win when the slots began spinning, no amount of replaying the situation out from a save state would have the player get a third 7. Conversely if the game had decided that the player would win with a high probability, returning to the original spinning-slot state would very frequently result in the player winning in most repeated trials, though the actual prize amount will differ.
Generation II
Slot machines in Generation II are similar to the ones from Generation I. One to three coins can be put in the slot machine each play. One coin will only count the center row across, two coins will count all three rows across, and three coins will count all three rows across as well as both diagonals. The reels stop spinning when the player presses the A button.
In the Generation II games, several things can happen when 7's appear on a reel:
- When one 7 displays on the reels, sometimes the second one will spin down to a 7 as well.
- Several Golem will drop when two 7's are lined up.
- The third reel will move by itself when two 7's are lined up. It will either line up and pay out the jackpot, or end up one space away from lining up to tease the player.
- Very rarely, a Chansey will appear and use Egg Bomb to spin the reels.
Payouts
| Series of icons | Payout |
|---|---|
 |
300 |
 |
50 |
 |
15 |
 |
10 |
 |
8 |
 |
6 |
Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald
The third generation is where slot machines began to become more complex. While fundamentally the same as in the first two generations, the third generation introduced bonus games to the slot machine experience. Bonus games in the third generation allow for better odds of landing big payouts during the duration of the bonus game. Getting the biggest payout in a bonus game in this generation immediately ends the bonus game. The speed of the machine is noticeably slower in Pokémon Emerald compared to Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
As the player gets more triple lightning bolts, he/she gets more opportunities to try the Reel Time. The player can earn four regular bonuses with the Reel Time, as well as a large bonus, totaling 660 coins.
Payouts
| Series of icons | Payout |
|---|---|
 |
300 |
 |
300 |
|
90 |
|
90 |
 |
12 |
 |
6 |
 |
4 |
|
2 |
 |
Replay |
 |
3 coins, power |
Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum
Starting in the fourth generation, slot machines can only be played for 3 coins at a time. However, bonus round spins only cost 1 coin.
Slot machines in the fourth generation control slightly differently than in the past three generations. Instead of simply stopping the reels from left to right with one button, reels are now stopped with their own buttons: the left reel uses the Y button, the center reel uses the B button, and the right reel uses the A button. The jackpot has been reduced from 300 coins to only 100, but winning a jackpot also triggers a bonus game. The bonus game in this generation involves trying to keep a Pokémon happy. The Pokémon can be a normal-colored Clefairy, an alternate-colored Clefairy, or a Ditto pretending to be a Clefairy. In the bonus game, each time the slots begin to spin, the Pokémon will point at a wheel. If the player stop the wheels in the order Clefairy points out, the player will land on three Replay symbols and automatically win fifteen coins. Keeping the bonus game going as long as possible involves strategy, and it ends when the Pokémon leaves the scene.
Payouts
| Series of icons | Payout |
|---|---|
 |
100 |
 |
100 |
 |
15 |
 |
10 |
 |
2 |
 |
Replay or 15 |
Korean Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum / European Platinum
Game machines replace the slot machines in the Korean versions of Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, due to the illegality of gambling in South Korea and the classifications standards of the Game Rating Board, removing all references to slot machine gameplay. Since the slot machines are integral to obtaining TM64 in all other versions, Korean versions of these games will occasionally reward the player with the TM while talking to the Game Corner's receptionist.
These changes were copied to European versions of Pokémon Platinum, including the UK release, as a result of changes in the classification standards at PEGI[1][2].
Game machines allow players to interact with the machine and find anywhere from 5 to 20 coins in a machine each day. This is the only extent of the interactivity with game machines; there is no real game to be played. However, NPCs seem to be able to play the game, as Looker protests when the machine he is at displays "Game over".
According to a notice on the wall in the Game Corner, Game Machines can be damaged by Lemonade and Soda Pop.
HeartGold and SoulSilver
|
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Only the Japanese version of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver has slot machines; in the Korean and Western releases, the Game Corner hosts a game called Voltorb Flip instead.
These slot machines play differently than in the Generation II games. Pressing A stops the reels from left to right; however, the Control Pad controls both coin insertion and reel starting. Additionally, slot machine payouts can actually vary per machine, and are typically more in line with the Sinnoh games as opposed to the original Generation II games.
As players use the slot machine, a Smeargle depicted on the top screen and seen painting can change the background of the top screen's monitor, and any change in background changes slot effects. A green background signals normal play, a red background signals that it's easier to obtain a 7 or Poké Ball, and a blue background signals that it's easier to obtain a Pikachu or Marill.
Smeargle has an 8-bit signed integer mood value, which starts at 0. When at 0 or lower, the mood value increases by 1 with each spin unless a winning combination occurs. When the mood value is positive, it will increase by a varying amount whenever two Poké Balls or two 7's line up on the first two reels, but the third reel stops in a way that results in a loss. Its mood value must be positive for a background change to occur; the higher its mood value, the more likely a background change will occur. After a background change, its mood value will reset to a random negative value, usually between -1 and -15. Smeargle will pop up thought balloons depending on its mood value after each spin, unless its mood value is 0.
| Mood value | Thought balloons |
|---|---|
| -13 or lower | 
|
| -12 to -10 |
|
| -9 to -7 |
|
| -6 to -4 |
|
| -3 to -1 |
|
| 0 | N/A |
| 1 to 3 | 
|
| 4 to 6 |
|
| 7 to 9 |
|
| 10 to 12 |
|
| 13 or higher |
|
The jackpot for three 7's is 100 + 2x, while the jackpot for three Poké Balls is 100 + x, where x starts at 0, may increase whenever a non-jackpot symbol is lined up, and resets to 0 after every bonus game.
A bonus game is started by winning a jackpot. Lining up three 7's starts a 15-round bonus game, while three Poké Balls will trigger an 8-round bonus. In this bonus game, players attempt to perfectly line up a randomly chosen one of Johto's starter Pokémon, and the machine may provide some assistance. Bonus game payouts vary depending on success, as well as the slot machine's speed during bonus games. At the end of a bonus game, the background automatically becomes red. This lets players "chain" together jackpots and bonus games; however, the bonus game difficulty increases (up to a maximum) with each chained jackpot.
The payout for each success in a bonus game is 20 + d * Floor(n / 2) coins, where n is the number of previous successes in the current game and d is 1, 2, or 3, based on the difficulty setting for the current bonus game (the harder, the higher the value). The maximum possible bonus win (not counting the 15 or 8 coins spent) is 447 coins for a 15-round bonus, or 196 for an 8-round bonus. At the end of the bonus game, Smeargle's mood value is set to -n.
Payouts
| Series of icons | Payout |
|---|---|
 |
100 |
 |
100 |
 |
15 |
 |
10 |
 |
2 |
 |
Replay |
Pokémon Colosseum and XD
Slot machines also appear in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness at Realgam Tower. However, these slot machines are merely decorative and cannot be interacted with.
In the anime
In the main series
Typical slot machines have only appeared in the backdrop of Neon Town in The Song of Jigglypuff. There, one slot machine was shown to stop on two Vulpix symbols and then a Psyduck symbol.
However, a slot machine of a different variety is an integral part of a standard Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture, displaying Pokémon silhouettes prior to the featured Pokémon being revealed.
In Pokémon Generations
Several slot machines were seen at the Celadon Game Corner in The Chase while the International Police raided the building and arrested the Team Rocket members running the place.
In the manga
In the Pokémon Adventures manga
Slot machines were first seen in the Rocket Game Corner in the Red, Green & Blue arc. In A Tale of Ninetales, Blue was seen exchanging a huge pile of Coins he had won at the slot machines for a Porygon.
A slot machine was seen in the Goldenrod Game Corner in Gligar Glide, where a man with a Wooper was seen getting a row of three 7 symbols.
More slot machines were seen in the Veilstone Game Corner in the Diamond & Pearl arc. Platinum, having accidentally mistaken the Game Corner for a hotel, had been introduced to the slot machines, and quickly became addicted to them, having to be dragged away by Diamond and Pearl when they found her. Diamond later exchanged the Coins Platinum had won for a Zoom Lens.
During her Veilstone Gym battle against Maylene in Magnificent Meditite & Really Riolu II, Platinum was having trouble striking Maylene's Riolu through the floating pieces of rubble it had broken off the floor with Rock Smash. She eventually managed to find a perfect opportunity for Chimler to strike through the rubble and take Riolu down, comparing finding the exactly right moment for her move to getting a row of three 7 symbols in a slot machine.
A slot machine appeared in Mr. Perfect, covering the secret entrance to the Magician's hideout in Aspertia City. Blake was able to make the slot machine move aside and reveal the entrance by inserting a Medal into a nearby jukebox. The same slot machine was briefly seen again in PS541.
In the TCG
The following is a list of cards named Arcade Game.
| Related cards Cards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format. Cards listed with a green background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card | Type | English Expansion |
Rarity | # | Japanese Expansion |
Rarity | # |
| Arcade Game | T | Neo Genesis | 
|
83/111 | Gold, Silver, to a New World... |
|
|
Trivia
- The reels do not always stop exactly when the player presses "A". Sometimes they will slip one or two symbols to either get another symbol to align with the first and second reels (therefore paying out a prize) or force the player to miss a prize, but following Japanese slot machine regulations, they will never slip for more than 0.19 seconds (four symbols).[3] They will also slip to avoid paying the Jackpot (and any other prizes) too often, but will also slip in favor of the Jackpot on certain spins. They appear to slip far less often in FireRed and LeafGreen.
- In Generation IV, the large bonus for the slot machines is lowered from 300 to 100, in favor of instead activating a bonus round afterward where the reward is 15 coins per spin. This brings the machines more into alignment with actual Japanese slot machine laws[3], where the maximum payout for a single spin is 15. Many real-life slot machines in Japan incorporate the laws in the same way, using bonus rounds after the large bonus has been activated to reward 15 coins at a time. The slot machines also follow with the custom of playing energizing music and special scenes on the LCD, payout after payout.
- Also, the reels in these games will slip for longer than 0.19 seconds in certain scenarios, such as the bonus round.
- The reel time featured in Generation III slot machines is also a real feature on Japanese slot machines. The maximum bonus is 660 coins, which falls in between the 400 to 711 coins mentioned in the Wikipedia article. However, unlike real Japanese slot machines, these payouts come all at once, instead of 15 coins at a time.[3]
- Like in real Japanese game parlours, some machines have much better odds than others.
- In Pokémon Yellow, the three Pokémon which appear on the reels (Arbok, Meowth, and Koffing) are used by Jessie and James and cannot be caught in the game.
In other languages
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