Spin Fan are or were a developer of video slots. That much can be said for certain. Beyond that, information about the company is hazy, ranging from slim to non-existent. That Spin Fan existed at some point in time is undisputed.
That Spin Fan still exists is an enigma that no one seems able to resolve, though all evidence points to them having gone the way of the dinosaur. That’s not unusual of course; gaming companies come and go all the time, leaving only their games behind as proof that they ever walked the earth and troubled the digital domain.
If Spin Fan are now a relic of the past, it’s surely only a matter of time before their games go the same way. As it stands, however, a few Spin Fan titles persist and can be tracked down and played – for real money or for fun – at Golden Cave Casino. Golden Cave is the last outpost of all things Spin Fan. The software company appears to have only released 7 slots before slinking off into the night, but these 7 remain, because the internet never forgets.
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Given the extent to which video slots have evolved in the past 5 years, you may be wondering why anyone would even want to play Spin Fan’s badly dated games. Well, they do have one thing in their favour – scarcity. That alone makes them desirable to some, an elite coterie of hardcore gamers who make it their mission to track down the hard-to-find, whether it’s a hidden level in Mario World or a video slot that no one’s ever heard of.
Aside from winning real money, the greatest reason to play Spin Fan’s slots is so that you can say you have. Spin them now while you still have a chance, cos these babies surely won’t be around forever.
While Spin Fan’s origins are unclear, it seems fair to assume that the company hailed from Eastern Europe based on the quirky graphics and odd themes that surface in their slots. Most gaming companies indulge their love for a good pun when naming their slots but Spin Fan have kept things simple – real simple.
Each of their slots has but a single word to differentiate it from the company’s other titles. They are as follows: Aero, Auto, Butterfly, Lion, Snake Sea World and Nixterida. The last one is something of an anomaly insofar as it actually has a proprietary title. Based on the game’s Batman-esque logo, it seems fair to assume that Nixterida is some sort of demonic bat, its wings spread and its belly swollen. It could almost pass as a tubbier version of the phoenix logo favoured by glam-punk band AFI.
The Nixterida online slot is a 3-reel machine just like all of Spin Fan’s games. It seems fair to assume that 3 reels was the industry standard when these games were released. If you’ve been accustomed to playing 5-reel 3D slots, going back to a minimalist 3-reel layout can come as a shock to the system. Where is everything? This is it: just a 3x3 grid and a start button. 1 credit works out at 0.01, a figure that doesn’t appear to be adjustable. What you can control is the number of active paylines. Click on the plus and minus buttons and this figure will go from 64 all the way up to 320.
The game uses a narrow, square layout that occupies the centre of the screen, leaving lots of black space to the left and right of the reels. On the top left of the screen are currency controls, while to the top right there’s a menu button. Clicking on this will give you a few additional options including mute and full screen. Activate full screen and unfortunately the aspect ratio distorts. If Nixterida looks bad on desktop, how does it look on mobile? Don’t even bother. This game’s heyday – assuming it ever saw one – came long before playing games on real money slots apps was a thing.
Spin the reels and the game will chirp and bleep like an 8-bit arcade game. The sound may be low-key simple, but in truth it’s no worse than that of many more contemporary slots. Nixterida has two jackpots, a maxi and a mini. In this respect, Spin Fan’s approach is reminiscent of NuWorks slots, which can also feature multiple jackpots. The game symbols are an eclectic bunch; on the one hand there’s a cartoon bat in keeping with the theme. On the other hand, there’s an extremely friendly looking lion, a pink kangaroo and an elephant that’s reminiscent of Disney’s Dumbo, none of whom have any obvious connection with a presumable vampire bat.
Winning in Nixterida is done by notching line wines and scatter wins; there is no feature game. The bat serves as the scatter symbol, applying a multiplier of anywhere from 2x to 200x depending on whether you’ve notched 2-9 bats in view. There are no text instructions for playing Nixterida so you’ll have to figure out the rest for yourself; the payable guide is less than clear. Nixterida will almost certainly be the most basic slot you’ve ever played, but in fairness the reels are animated smoothly and thanks to its minimalist layout, the game loads quickly.
Next up from Spin Fan is Aero, a 3-reel online slot game that’s all about aeroplanes. At least that’s what you’d think, given that the backdrop for the game is a photograph of a jumbo jet waiting on the tarmac. The plane’s nose is all you’re able to make out; the rest is obscured behind the reels. While planes certainly appear in the game – there’s a fighter jet, a bi-plane and also a blimp, a space shuttle and a parachute – there are other methods of transport that have nothing to do with air travel. These include a gondola-style boat and a lightweight yacht.
The game operates in an identical fashion to Nixterida: no bonus game, just line wins and scatter wins, with a bet multiplier of up to 200x available. The sound, what there is of it, appears to mirror that of Spin Fan’s bat game.
Spin Fan’s transport series continues with Auto. This game must be all about automobiles, right? Sort of. Once again, Spin Fan have taken some liberties, sprinkling the reels with a selection of cars as well as other forms of transport including a submarine and a cruiser battleship. The cars are rendered as classic motors such as a Model T and Phantom Rolls Royce, with an original Mini Cooper also appearing. Once again, it’s a case of spinning the reels to secure line wins, scatter wins and chase down the mini and maxi jackpots.
You should now be starting to get a feel for Spin Fan’s modus operandi. To complete the Spin Fan experience, try Snake, Sea World, Lion and Butterfly for more 3-reel fun. For curiosity value, Spin Fan’s slots might just deserve a look. For storytelling, immersive fun and all-out entertainment, choose anything else from anyone else.
These slots might – might – have cut it back in the day but now they’re hopelessly outdated and it shows. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing but it can only get you so far., so we recommended cutting edge games, such as Skywind slots, or the Nolimit City range.