Summing up Trustly Casino Sites with Barcrest Games by Trustly Casinos
A Review of Barcrest Casinos
Barcrest is one of the many examples of a smart, innovative and pioneering technology company which is now under the wing of an overseas based conglomerate. Whether you see this as a success or a failure depends very much on your point of view.
The company was founded more than half a century ago. It remains located in the Manchester area, where it was born back in 1968. It remains a small, tight knit organisation. The majority of its employees continue to live in the north west of England.
Its early history was built on its success as manufacturers of traditional amusement machines – the type still found in seaside arcades to this day. Chances are a good few of the one armed bandit and fruit machines to be found on the sea fronts of Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton amongst the kiss me quick hats and candy floss are manufactured by Barcrest.
In the 1980s, the company moved more toward the new electronic consoles which began to take hold in the early days of video games and increasing computerisation. Players of a certain vintage will remember the Space Invaders and Super Mario machines of the early 1980s – the big cabinet versions of the early Atari and Nintendo console games.
Barcrest was at the forefront of these new technological developments. This success soon caught the eye of bigger corporations who wanted a slice of the action. As ever with these massive behemoths of industry, the best way for them to earn a slice of the new pie is to buy in the expertise. Barcrest therefore became hot property.
In the end, it was the worldwide gaming industry giant International Gaming Technology (IGT) which won the race, acquiring the company for a cool £40 million in 1998. Since IGT wished to expand its European market share, and operated both in the real world gaming industry and online, Barcrest represented a prize worth paying for.
The success of the Barcrest brand continued unabated. So much so that by 2011, IGT felt that the best thing to do was to realise its investment by selling it on. Therefore, in 2011, the enormous American conglomerate Scientific Games stepped in to become the new owners, paying around $60 million for the privilege. The company remains under the ownership of this Las Vegas based giant to this day, continuing to come up with superb games designed for both land based and online casinos.
Many see this as a regretful situation. If only small but innovative technology companies like Barcrest could ‘make it on their own’, building up so that they themselves become a future behemoth of the industry. Others see that the financial backing, protective wing and market influence of a major player in the industry enables the company to develop and grow, albeit under a larger corporate umbrella.
In reality, despite all the considerable corporate upheaval, Barcrest does indeed continue to operate largely as before, with a high degree of autonomy and independence, Its employees have not been made redundant, nor have they been forced to relocate from their Mancunian homelands to swish London offices. Its functions have not been outsourced and nor have any of its software designer roles been transferred across the Atlantic to giant premises in Las Vegas.
Barcrest Games
Barcrest have certainly created some classic games over the years. Some of their slots have achieved almost iconic status amongst players, critics and industry insiders. Foremost amongst these must be Rainbow Riches. This classic of the Irish Luck genre is now available in several different formats, but it is the original which continues to catch the eye. It remains a firm player favourite almost a decade on from its 2013 release.
At the time of writing, around a dozen different sequels and alternative formats abound of this classic creation. Leprechauns, rainbows and pots of gold galore are the constant theme. Rainbow Riches: Cluster Magic, Home Sweet Home and Reels of Gold are just a trio of the variants available, but the original surely remains the best.
There are around a hundred different slots in total, and it is fair to say that the great majority of these tend toward the classic, vintage end of the spectrum rather than any new modern day smashes. Titles like Action Bank, Jewel in the Crown and Wipeout remain the core of the company’s online output.
Nevertheless, they do have other strengths. Their games frequently have a unique playfulness and humour about them. Titles like Call of Fruity, Ooh Aah Dracula and Money Mad Martians! are quirky gems. The company are also masters at officially licenced conversions too. Their slot version of the Beetlejuice movie is excellent, and their variety of formats of the board game Monopoly are also well realised.
Barcrest in Summary
So, all is not lost. Barcrest continues to operate pretty much as it always has, remaining close to its roots in the north west of England. It seems to be focused more on its original land-based operations at present, producing more excellent real world casino games. The online gaming design function seems to have been passed on to sister companies also under the Scientific Games Group umbrella.
Nevertheless, Barcrest remains a name to look out for online. Players can still find many of the company’s classic games, along with some exciting newer designs, at many online casinos licenced and registered for the UK market.
