What Are Fruit Machine Slots?

Video slots, 3D slots, pokies, slot machines… there are lots of terms bandied around that are used to describe slot machines. You might also see the term fruit machines used quite often nowadays, so we thought we would look at this term in more detail to figure out what it refers to.

The official definition of fruit machines

A fruit machine is a term commonly given to a slot machine that most closely resembles the early games developed in this market. It is called a fruit machine because most – if not all – the symbols on the reels depict fruit.

There might be a few other symbols as well – perhaps most notably bar symbols, with one, two, or three bars included – but fruit is the common denominator here.

Which fruits are most commonly seen in these games?

It would be rare to play a game of this type without seeing cherries popping up. They usually appear in a pair for some reason. Oftentimes, these machines will pay a prize whenever just one cherry symbol appears on the payline (or lines, in the rare cases there is more than one).

You might also see lemons and oranges, and berries crop up a lot too. Some games try to include different fruit to change things up a bit. We’ve seen a traditional fruit machine with tropical fruit packed onto the reels, for example, and an overall tropical theme too.

The modern fruit machine experience

While you can still play fruit machines in bars and in casinos, you will also find them cropping up quite frequently in online casinos. The virtual versions of these games are much like the originals, except you can play them on your computer or mobile device.

Here, a simple click of the mouse or tap of the screen gets the reels rolling. You might even see graphics that are designed to make it appear as if the machine has flashing lights on it. These slots are quite true to their origins, and it is nice to see the original theme has translated well onto the virtual reels offered at online casinos.

You can still play traditional fruit machines online, even though there are many more modern games to play as well. There seems to be no end date for these, and that is reassuring to see. Fruit machines are set to stay, both online and offline.