Mikohn Gaming was a slot machine and casino table game manufacturer that enjoyed considerable success in the offline gaming industry until it was purchased by Progressive Gaming International.
The operations of Mikohn Gaming spanned right from development, through manufacturing to branding and marketing. Products within the Mikohn Gaming repertoire included branded table games, slot machines, and other gaming machines, as well as progressive jackpot systems and signage.
After the PGI Takeover
As mentioned, Mikohn Gaming was purchased by competitor, Progressive Gaming International. Shortly thereafter, however, Progressive Gaming International filed for bankruptcy and was forced to terminate its operations in the offline gaming sector in 2009.
At this point, all of Progressive Gaming International’s assets – including its Mikohn Gaming products – were sold to well-known online and offline online pokies developer, Interactive Gaming Technology.
Support for Mikohn Gaming Products
As a result of the fact that the original Mikohn Gaming Company is now defunct, several compatibility and tech support issues have arisen over the years. The fact that many Mikohn Gaming products are still immensely useful to casino operators, despite these issues, has prompted several companies to develop support systems to bridge this technology gap.
For example, the Mikohn Jackpot Super Controller – the best-known product developed by Mikohn Gaming – has begun to become obsolete in some respects, despite its robustness and overall reliability. Specifically, the Mikohn Gaming display nodes, owing to their age, are becoming ever-more unreliable. The dearth of Mikohn Gaming tech support availability has further exacerbated this problem.
In 2014, a New-Zealand-based casino gaming enterprise called Advance Gaming Ltd developed a cutting-edge jackpot display controller to replace the Mikohn Gaming display whilst still utilising the original Mikohn Gaming controller. This display is intended for use with the Mikohn Gaming Super Controller CON2.
The Fortune Technology Corporation is another industry player that has taken advantage of the unusual opportunity created by the demise of the former Mikohn Gaming Company. This includes the development of a set of solutions enabling custom upgrades to the Mikohn Gaming Super Controller. This technology facilitates, among other things, display upgrades to present higher-quality graphics on new or existing LCD and plasma screens in offline casinos.
Notable Mikohn Gaming Products and Games
As mentioned, the Mikohn Jackpot Super Controller was the best-known Mikohn Gaming product and was one of the most popular devices of its kind worldwide at the time. Originally, these Mikohn Gaming controllers featured LED panel units, with rudimentary visual capacity. They displayed only the game’s prize levels and its jackpot value. Later on, basic animated sequences were added to newer Mikohn Gaming models.
Mikohn Gaming was known for its adaptations of traditional family board games for the casino machine format. In each game, the bonus round incorporated a certain element of skill to games otherwise based purely on luck. The most popular shot machine games developed by Mikohn Gaming include the following:
- Trivial Pursuit, with the bonus game testing players’ general knowledge and exposure to pop culture to add to their winnings;
- Cluedo, with players having to solve a murder mystery in the game’s bonus round
- Yahtzee, with players rolling the virtual dice in the bonus round to multiply their wins.