Online Slots - Deconstructing reels

I was reading the article on how to decontruct Atkin's Diet slot machine, as well as the other Wizard of Odds site's examples, and I could apply this technique on just a few slots, but it turns out to be that in the majority of the games (ate least in Boss Media based casinos) it doesn't seem to be so straightforward. I recorded a video and started taking note of each symbol in the order they showed on the reels, and noticed that the sequence seem to be random, because I couldn't find a pattern to determine the whole reel stripe (an entire spin). I've read that some games can have up to 300 virtual stops, but I have already reached that quantity and even that way I couldn't find a repetition.
Can it be that symbols shows in a random way while the reel is spinning, or the slots hold hundreds of virtual stops for each reel?
For this cases, which is the best approach to determine how many symbols of each type are on the reels?
As a reference, the slots I am referring to are:
- Mobster Cash
- Supreme Football
- Sherlock Holmes
- Break the Bank
- Miner's Luck

Thanks

While in the actual spinning sequence, there is no guarantee they are displaying the the actual reel strip while the reels are in motion. It could be a canned animation, and then the real reels appear when the reel stops. Generally you have to wait until the reels stop and then record the results. It's possible there are more than 100 stops per reel, but many older games are in the forty to fifty stop range.

I tried to deconstruct a play money online slot that had fairly simplistic gameplay. "Cluedo" by IGT. A description can be found in many places including here:
http://www.gamingslots.com/slots/igt/cluedo-slot/?postTabs=0

I recorded the results for about 400 spins and analyzed the reel results. I found that each of the 5 reels had 42 stops. The fact that all five reels have the same amount of stops probably means I am likely correct, but note, that it's not always the case that all five reels will have the same amount of stops. From the line pays, the game returned 85.64%. For the bonus game, I made the assumption each choice was random (unweighted). If this was the case, the bonus game returned 11.69% with optimal strategy. This leads to a total return of 97.33%. But from online sites, they say the game pays closer to 96% back. :( It's possible the bonus game is weighted, I made a math error as deconstructing slot games isn't that easy, or the play money game pays a little more generously than real-money games.

Thanks, but I saw the Cluedo slot from your link, and the spinning sequence is very fast, like a predetermined animation (not related to the actual symbols). In Boss Media based casinos, there are several slots like the one you mention, but in my case I think is different. Let me explain why:
A few games (e.g. Alladin's Lamp, Jack in the Box, Haunted House) are old style slots where you can clearly see the symbol sequence while spinning. I took note and the three reels have 16 positions each. The sequence repeats again and again, and the stops have the expected three visible symbols through the window. Something interesting here is that the reels make several spins and the reduce the speed until they finally stop.
Taking these examples into account, I started looking for slots where the reels do show symbols spinning at acceptable speed, where you can see that when it stops, they effectively correspond to the symbols appearing in the animation (see for yourself atWith the "new style" games, I didn't have the same luck. Not only couldn't find the loop, but also noticed that after pressing the spin button, the stripe moves and stops from ten to thirty symbols after the current position. If the animation respects the sequence, then one could guess which can be the next symbols, right (strange)?.
So, supposing that even in that cases, animation doesn't correspond to the actual symbol order, your suggestion would be to take note only to the stops?

Quote: Trammel

Thanks, but I saw the Cluedo slot from your link, and the spinning sequence is very fast, like a predetermined animation (not related to the actual symbols). In Boss Media based casinos, there are several slots like the one you mention, but in my case I think is different. Let me explain why:
A few games (e.g. Alladin's Lamp, Jack in the Box, Haunted House) are old style slots where you can clearly see the symbol sequence while spinning. I took note and the three reels have 16 positions each. The sequence repeats again and again, and the stops have the expected three visible symbols through the window. Something interesting here is that the reels make several spins and the reduce the speed until they finally stop.
Taking these examples into account, I started looking for slots where the reels do show symbols spinning at acceptable speed, where you can see that when it stops, they effectively correspond to the symbols appearing in the animation (see for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVQ1_c0WmzE). With the "new style" games, I didn't have the same luck. Not only couldn't find the loop, but also noticed that after pressing the spin button, the stripe moves and stops from ten to thirty symbols after the current position. If the animation respects the sequence, then one could guess which can be the next symbols, right (strange)?.
So, supposing that even in that cases, animation doesn't correspond to the actual symbol order, your suggestion would be to take note only to the stops?

3 reels with 16 positions each? Those will be weighted reels for sure, so using the animations to help decode the reels is also useless.

Yeah, what you say makes sense, because Aladdin's Lamp has a huge jackpot (more than 900k euros). And now I understand why the other two slots with sixteen positions and same paytable have minor jackpots.