• Barcrest Slots

Barcrest Slots

Barcrest was founded in the late sixties in Manchester, United Kingdom. The company specialized in bingo, pub and arcade games. Barcrest also developed a number of traditional slot machines.

The company was purchased by IGT in the late nineties, which allowed Barcrest products to reach the wider audience in continental Europe, Asia and the United States. It was at that time that Barcrest started working on its own online slot games.

The number of slots released by Barcrest so far isn’t all that impressive – and since the company has been recently acquired by Scientific Games and integrated into the new owner’s system it’s fairly difficult to determine what the future will bring.

Barcrest Online and Land-based Slots

Land-based Barcrest slots were fairly popular in the UK, so finding one of their vintage machines shouldn’t be much of an issue for someone that enjoys old-school slots.

The online versions of these games are 100% browser-based, which makes them compatible with a wide range of hardware platforms, including Windows PC, Linux and Mac OSX.

Barcrest Slot Game Reviews

Most Barcrest slots were designed quite a long time ago and their production values simply fail to impress in this day and age. Nevertheless, if you can force yourself to look past the outdated visuals, you might discover a surprising amount of exciting games with smooth games and several unique features that will make you wonder why nobody bothered with copying them throughout all those years.

For example, unlike modern slot machines, Barcrest slots are quiet between the spins – the music and sound effects are muted whenever the reels aren’t spinning. The bonuses aren’t all that innovative, but they aren’t intrusive either, which makes for smooth, fast-paced gameplay.

[subpages]

Reception by Players

The days when Barcrest used to be a major slot game manufacturer and distributor are long gone, so in the end most of the slots designed by this company will appeal exclusively to nostalgic veteran gamblers and casino history buffs.

Most of the high-profile casino sites that used to host those games are currently in the process of replacing them with modern titles.

Nevertheless, if you’re determined to find some old-school Barcrest action, finding a medium-sized, reliable site that would allow you to play those games shouldn’t be much of an issue.

Most Popular Barcrest Slot Machines

Ooh Aah Dracula used to be one of the most popular land-based Barcrest slots to be ported to an online casino platform. As you’ve probably already guessed, the game attracted crowds in brick and mortar gambling establishments, but didn’t do all that well on iGaming sites.

It’s obvious that the slot doesn’t treat its theme seriously – the visuals are clearly supposed to make the players laugh and simply don’t have a lot in common with the timeless horror classic. Ooh Aah Dracula comes with a free spin bonus game with a “try again” option that allows you reroll the number of free games you received if you don’t like that total, as well as a high-roller bet setting.

Please note that the game is 100% playable and enjoyable even when you place the lowest possible bets. Elvis Top 20 is the second Barcrest slot that might somehow appeal to the tastes of modern casino enthusiasts – the visuals are obviously retro in more than one way, but the soundtrack is still excellent and does an amazing job when it comes to matching the action on the screen.

Company History

As briefly touched on above, Barcrest was founded in Manchester in 1968. The company focused on producing pub, arcade and bingo hall equipment for several decades, but throughout the seventies and eighties Barcred also made a large number of classic fruit machines.

By the early nineties, Barcrest games were becoming increasingly common in Europe. In 1998, Barcrest was acquired by IGT, which allowed the company to enter the online gambling market and produce several fairly successful internet slots.

In 2013, Scientific Games purchased Barcrest from IGT. By that time, Barcrest had a revenue of roughly £40 million. By then, Barcrest had more than 5,000 terminals generating money on land-based casino floors.

After becoming a part of the massive Scientific Games network, Barcrest had a total of 30,000 terminals on land and a large share in the online casino industry.

Outlook and Latest Developments

While there’s no denying the fact that Barcrest is an important asset to Scientific Games, the company has been fully integrated into the Scientific Games system. This means that the company has stopped producing cabinets and terminals under its own brand.

Whether Barcrest will ever return to the industry under its own name or not remains to be seen, but for now you shouldn’t expect any new slots or other games released under the Barcrest logo – even when they are made by the same people that fueled this company’s growth over the past 50 years.