Slot machines have a number of basic elements that players interact with all the time, but may not necessarily know the terms behind them. One of them is the concept of reel strips.
Reel strips go back to the days of mechanical reel slots, and served as the physical object that conveyed to players what landed on each reel. They were generally plastic pieces affixed to the slot machine reels, and had printed on them the various symbols that could land. By attaching them in the right way, the slot machine reel can come to a stop at the right location, and the reel strip will convey which space landed.
One important element about reel strips is the fact they can be switched out, allowing a slot machine title to be replaced with a different one at the casino’s discretion. In the earlier days that might mean updating the slot machine glass, software and reel strips. Today with the use of transmissive glass to project images on the glass, the reel strip is the only remaining physical item potentially needing replacement. (In some slots the reels can also have the slot symbol images projected onto them, eliminating any physical reel strip requirement at all.
Although there is a physical limit to the number of reel stops a physical reel can have, illustrated by the reel strips, that doesn’t convey the overall odds of a symbol landing on them. That’s because reel stops can be weighted, meaning some can land more often than others. Reel weighting is what allows larger top prizes to be eligible than would otherwise be available with reel stops with equal weight.
Of course, most slots nowadays don’t have mechanical reels, and instead feature computer-generated spinning reels. That said, reel strips still exist in this virtual form, but can be much longer and feature many more combinations than their physical counterparts.
