Bonanza Slot by Big Time Gaming

This is the game that introduced Megaways. Big Time Gaming built the six-reel cascading Megaways engine here first, and nearly every reacting slot that came after borrowed it. The setting is an open-cast gold mine: six reels dropped into a rocky quarry pit, a wooden prospector's shack with a lit lantern off to the left, grassy ledges and a waterfall running down the right side. Paying symbols are cut gems, a purple diamond at the top of the table with red, blue and green jewels below it, then a row of neon card royals. The fiery logo has a stick of dynamite jammed into it.

The mechanic doing the work is the Carts, a minecart rail that runs along the top of reels 2 through 5. Each cart drops an extra symbol onto the reel beneath it, and that is half the reason the ways count swings so wildly between spins. Every win then triggers a reaction: winning symbols clear out, and new ones fall in from above on the reels and slide in from the right along the carts. Reactions keep chaining while fresh wins land, and each one can change how many symbols sit on a reel, which is how the total climbs toward its 117,649 peak.

The free spins are the part worth chasing. GOLD scatters only ever show up in the carts, and you spell G-O-L-D across them to get in. Three scatters award five spins, four award ten, and every scatter beyond that adds another five. Once inside, a win multiplier starts at x1 and climbs by one after every reaction. It never resets for the rest of the feature. So a long reaction chain keeps stacking that multiplier against wins that are already cascading on their own, and that is where the heavy payouts come from. No jackpots in this original, though. The four progressive Megapays prizes some players go hunting for belong to the separate Bonanza Megapays release.

Full Reel Wilds cover a whole reel and stand in for everything except the scatters. If you would rather not grind for GOLD, the feature is buyable, and Feature Drop symbols landing in the base game knock the purchase price down. Buying in also carries a chance at an enhanced version of the round.