Barcrest is one of the game studios that have been gathered under the umbrella of SG Digital, along with names like Bally, WMS or Shuffle Master. This particular game studio has gotten a lot of appreciation from players that tried their titles in land-based locations, but the move to the online market was made as well, and right now there are dozens of Barcrest slots that you can try out at plenty of online casinos.
This is an older company, with a history that goes back in time to 50 years ago, being founded in 1968. They’re moving some of most successful offline titles to the online variant, and as you will see the graphics tend to remain the same ones, which isn’t a plus. However, Barcrest is a company that has innovated a lot over the years, and they deserve recognition for that. As of right now, they appear to have 60+ slot machines released online.
Barcrest also has managed to enter the mobile slots industry remastering some of their old slots on the modern platforms and creating new ones. We also give the possibility to play free Barcrest mobile slots to you, if you prefer to spin the reels from your mobile device. Barcrest Slots Features. Apart from the retro style design, Barcrest slot machines usually come with three bonus games. As the player continues to spin, he may notice an array of free spins or wild symbols making the gameplay more exciting. Some slots also offer multipliers and cash prizes in bonus games. Rainbow Riches slots are manufactured by Barcrest (owned by IGT) and licenced through Wagerworks to online casinos like Sky and Paddy Power Games. It has no less than 3 seperate bonus rounds which you can view by selecting the 'Paytable' link in the game above.
The history of Barcrest starts off in 1968, so the company already has half a century of history behind it. It’s been wildly successful at points in the past, particularly during the 70s to 90s period, when they were the biggest providers of slots for casinos and pubs from United Kingdom. They’ve created some hugely popular games in their days, and they innovated a lot as well. One innovation that they introduced among the first was the break out bonuses, along with rounds similar to board games, which allowed the player to accumulate additional prizes. They also made sure to replace many of the 3 reel slot machines from casinos with modern 5 reel titles, something that was needed at the time in UK.
They continue to innovate even today, with their games offering you the option to play as a high roller, where you go through a smaller number of spins, but with a bigger cost, which also brings you bigger payouts and additional features. Another one is called Try Again Free Spins, and you can use it to do just that with your feature, if the winnings were not to your liking.
The company was eventually bought up by IGT, back in 1998, and then in 2011 they’ve sold it to Scientific Games for $50 million, where they are present now as a subsidiary. The company might not be independent or as big as they once were, but they’re still here after half a century and the brand continues to grow.
As for Barcrest games, over 60 slot machines have been designed for use in online casinos, most of them being ported from the land-based variants. Some of the most recognizable titles in their portfolio are Ooh Aah Dracula, Monty’s Millions and Rainbow Riches.
Being ported from land-based machines, the slots that you will find in Barcrest’s online games collection tend to have the same themes, many of them not very interesting. That’s why you can see plenty of fruit machines in there, along with others based on jewels, gemstones, leprechauns, the ocean or wild animals. Among the more interesting themes that I’ve seen, meaning that they were fairly unique or at least rare, I would mention slots like Wipeout, Sheik Yer Money or Merry Money. They even have a couple of branded games, which are based on the Monopoly brand.
In terms of graphics, I’d say that this is an area where there is considerable room for improvement. Barcrest doesn’t excel when it comes to designing slot machines that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best that are being released right now. The problem might be simply that they’re converting land-based titles to online versions, rather than making them from scratch. They did slightly better in titles like Ooh Aah Dracula, but the majority of their games aren’t appealing. These slots are perfectly playable and they have other things to offer, but as I said they’re not going to be competitive against modern slot machines in terms of graphics.
The features of the slots that are offered by Barcrest will generally be interesting and will keep you playing, but once again you shouldn’t expect a lot of videos or decorations in the bonus games. You do get the usual wild symbols, plus free spins, bonus games and scatters, all the usual major features that slots tend to offer online. That, plus you also get the High Roller option in some titles, which will improve the game if you’re willing to wager extra for it.
A typical Barcrest slot machine is likely to offer a 500x reward to the player, so it’s not the kind of company that will dazzle you with huge jackpots. You can get a good average RTP generally by using the Big Bet option, which will give you extra features in exchange for a larger bet that will buy you a couple of spins. The RTP will be considerably lower for regular spins, and usually the game differentiates its prizes based on whether you’re using a small or large bet.