Acres Gaming, Inc. July 1997 - June
1999 Senior Software Systems Engineer
Bonus Games (Plasma Display based)
Developer
of the GameSDK used by other department members in the construction of
animation computers controlling large RGB Plasma Displays installed in Casino
Progressive Gaming Systems. This
entailed the writing of all the on-line manuals and the coding of graphics,
sprite, file, sound, communications, and control modules using 'C/C++' and PII
with optimized MMX assembly. Graphics
modules encapsulated the DirectX libraries and the custom AGA codec library of
my design. The really neat thing about
this product is that it used a minimum of a Pentium II – 266MHz which I later
increased to a 400MHz processor. We
also used the same brand graphics card running at a resolution of 852x480x32bit
which made for a fabulous product.
I was also the
original developer of the “Super Reels” bonus game, which won one of the top 20
casino games in 1999. Because I had my
fingers in everyone’s game code due to the libraries that they were using and
that I was constantly updating this project was handed off to someone else to
finish. Because I actually had three
plasma displays, spinning reels that were responding to spin sequences I still
feel attached to this project and proud of it.
The
actual display is monster sized. Each
of the reels visible above is a 42” Plasma Display mounted vertically where the
bottom is above the players head. The
links below give more information and pictures.
http://www.rgtonline.com/h-articles/newspage2/A2741.html
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1998/Aug-17-Mon-1998/business/8036567.html
There
are other Bonus games that I find to be pretty cool and were in a variety of
casinos at the time I was laid off and still are as I type this. I did NOT
write the game but they were using my graphics and sound engines that I had
written.
http://www.thegamblermagazine.com/gamblermagazine/pub/article.asp?section=12&article=290
Elite Displays
Designed
and wrote modular 486 based embedded system using pSOS to control Led Display
(Progressive Meter). These were a
variety of L.E.D. panel configurations that displayed graphics and text. They had alpha numeric text and (static/animated)
graphics, as well as download capability.
The stored their code, data, and configuration information on PCMCIA
cards with integrity checks.
I
made sure that a technician wouldn’t have to drag a ladder through the casino,
open the sign up, just to get at the program cards, because someone did a bad
download.
The
company moved the bulk of their operations to the Las Vegas office and since
they had been trying for the previous year to get me to relocate there from the
Oregon office and I prefer green hillsides to brown desert, I was laid off with
the others.
These
products are used around the world. I
have several custom versions running down in Australia.
For
more information follow the Acres Gaming
link, select products and either Bonus Games and/or Displays.