IGT Harley Davidson

Born to Ride

An American icon comes to the slot floor with IGT's "Harley Davidson" video slot

To any American whose character includes even a hint of a wild streak, the images and sounds will be instantly recognizable from across a slot floor: The familiar orange-and-black "bar and shield" logo, designed in 1910 by "Aunt Janet" Davidson, back-lit and perched atop a tall video slot machine.

The image of the main product bearing that logo - a Harley-Davidson motorcycle - seeming to come right at you, its front tire sticking out of the slot machine's top box.

The unmistakable sound of the Harley V-twin engine, first heard in 1909 and never duplicated by another motorcycle in the world, coming out of the machine's stereo speakers.

It is a compelling image, and Harley-Davidson fans would accept nothing less. When slot leader International Game Technology signed on to design a video slot game based on the legendary motorcycle, it was not signing on to re-create a simple vehicle; it was signing on to re-create an American icon. There is arguably no other product in the U.S. marketplace that has created a longer-lasting subculture than the Harley.

It is a culture that has transcended generations since the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle was made available to the public in 1903 by two whiz kids, 21-year-old William S. Harley and 20-year-old Arthur Davidson. Their Milwaukee "factory" was a 10-by-15-foot wooden shed with the words "Harley-Davidson Motor Company" scrawled on the door. The first Harley-Davidson dealership was set up in Chicago later that year.

The first H-D motorcycle was a racing bike, and by the time the company was incorporated in 1907, it already had a reputation for toughness and speed. Within a few years, the Harley bike was setting endurance and mileage records (it got 188.234 miles per gallon), and it began to be used by police departments. The V-twin engine, and its enduring image of two cylinders positioned at 45-degree angles, sent the Harley on its way to being the stuff of legend.

Everyone knows the legend - Harleys were workhorses for American forces in World War II, and many who rode them overseas came home to form the postwar motorcycle clubs that survive to this day - and still promote the freewheeling, renegade "born-to-ride" lifestyle that has become a culture unto itself.

Modern fans of the Harley-Davidson number as many MBAs and bankers as stereotypical leather-jacketed, tattooed bikers - just about anyone who has a wild side can be included in this subculture.

The Harley Slot

The task of boiling this century-long history and the culture surrounding Harley-Davidson down to the confines of a video slot game would fall on a design team headed by Anthony Baerlocher, IGT's game design manager, and product specialist Tonya Peterson.

"This is one of the most widely popular licensing marks in the world", says Baerlocher. "There was a lot to do, and we had to focus on who our players were and what they liked. We spent a lot of time talking to people at Harley-Davidson to find out what would be acceptable to them. We tried to stay true to Harley-Davidson, and what the riders like - and yet make it into an entertaining slot machine, which is always the big challenge".

Baerlocher says the first step after talking to people at Harley-Davidson was to pore over reference materials - including a Sega home video game created by Baerlocher's boss, Engineering and Design VP Joe Kaminkow, when he worked for the amusement game company. "That game involved a road rally, which is an activity popular with Harley riders", Baerlocher says. "The goal was to depict the activity of traveling around the country, going to different rallies".

This concept was wrapped into a main second-screen bonus game that combines images on the video screen with the physical reel protruding from the top box. "The concept is that you have a set amount of gasoline, which we translate into numbers of spins on the reel in the top box", Baerlocher explains. "We took the giant reel from the 'Price Is Right' game and made it look like a motorcycle tire. Silkscreen art on the glass shows the rider and the motorcycle, and the fender comes over the top of the reel".

Of course, depicting a spinning tire on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle would be nothing without hearing that V-twin roar. "Harley-Davidson is very particular about the sound", Baerlocher says. "Not just any old motorcycle sound would satisfy the Harley licensers".

Someone from IGT would have to secure a recording of a real Harley-Davidson bike revving up and going through the gears. The only way to do that was to record while actually riding one of the motorcycles. "We had our sound engineer Matt Lucchesi sitting on the back of a Harley with his microphone, hanging on for dear life as it rode along", says Baerlocher. "We stop at nothing!"

The Harley-Davidson game is a 12-line nickel video slot, with bets of up to five-coins per line for a 60-coin ($3) maximum. It is a MegaJackpots game, with a multisite progressive jackpot that resets at $50,000 in most jurisdictions. In addition to the money, paid in a lump sum, the top progressive jackpot includes a limited-edition 2002 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle. It has a custom gas tank, with IGT's name added to the Harley shield logo in artwork by Willie Davidson. "He's the only one allowed to do the gas tanks", says Baerlocher". IGT has 100 of the Fat Boy motorcycles - one of Harley's most popular models - stored at the motorcycle company's warehouse to give to progressive winners. "Hopefully, there will be a lot more", Baerlocher says.

The progressive is won by lining up five Harley-Davidson logos on the first payline with maximum coins wagered. Otherwise, the primary game is typically high-hitting (the 12-line hit frequency is 48 percent, or a hit of some kind every other spin), with reel symbols and sound effects depicting all the icons of the Harley culture.

There are two separate bonus events. A quick on-screen bonus occurs every 65 spins on average, when three or more "Eagle" symbols appear scattered anywhere on the reels. The player is prompted to select one of the eagles for a random bonus credit amount, which racks up to the sound of the Harley engine.

The main "Great American Rally" bonus is triggered by three or more Road Rally symbols on an active payline, which occurs an average of every 133 spins. To the roar of the V-twin, the reels disappear to be replaced by a scene depicting the rider's perspective on a moving Harley-Davidson bike. A horizon is depicted at the top of the screen, and the bottom shows the handlebars and a dashboard underneath containing various gauges. The gauges display various aspects of the bonus game, which involves spins on the top-box reel in a progression of road rallies.

The number of bonus spins depends on the number of triggering symbols that initiated the round. If three symbols initiate the round, three bonus spins appear on the gas gauge of the video screen picture. Another gauge logs the credits accumulated by each bonus spin. The Harley roars as the "tire" begins to spin, landing on a credit amount.

You have three spins in which to "travel 55 miles" - meaning to accumulate 55 credits from the bonus reel. (The odometer on the video screen tallies the "miles".) If you accomplish that, you have successfully completed the first "rally". An icon showing a Harley T-shirt appears on the screen to indicate your completion of the first bonus level, and the gauges reset for four spins. If the second "rally" is won, it goes to a third level with five bonus spins. (It gets progressively easier to reach the 55-credit goal with more spins, and the total bonus amounts typically accumulate to much more than 55 coins.)

If all three rallies are successfully completed, the three T-shirt icons move to the center of the video screen for the "Great American Rally". The player is prompted to pick one of the three shirts to reveal either additional bonus credits or a multiplier amount from 2X to 5X, which is multiplied by the entire accumulated "miles" for the bonus award.

If four triggering symbols initiate the bonus round, the player gets four spins of the tire for the first rally; five for the second; six for the third. If five symbols trigger the bonus, the numbers of spins are five, six and seven, respectively. According to Baerlocher, with three triggering symbols, players get through all three rallies around 15 percent of the time on average. But with five symbols, you'll reach the Great American Bonus 90 percent of the time.

The Harley-Davidson slot was launched in Missouri at the Ameristar casino in late March. By this month, the game was expected to be approved in Nevada, Mississippi and the Native American jurisdictions as well.

Before long, this game will be found everywhere in America. Just like the Harley.