Cashapillar and Burning Desire Landmark Online Pokies

Microgaming is a leading software provider to Australian online casinos. It has more online pokies in its portfolio than any other software provider. Some of them fade away whereas others continue to draw traffic long after their launch. There are many reasons for the popularity of an online pokie. One of them is that the online pokie started a new trend. Cashapillar and Burning Desire are two such online pokies in the Microgaming portfolio and in both cases the trend has to do with the number of paylines.

Cashapillar was released in May 2008. It was the first online pokie to have 100 paylines and this was at a time when even 40 paylines pokies were uncommon. This new feature was presented as the 100th birthday party of the caterpillar. The reels are set amid the grass stalks. The higher paying symbols are the different insects attending the party. In order to accommodate the 100 paylines the online pokie has five rows of symbols across the reels. Another popular and trend setting feature in Cashapillar is stacked wilds. The stack can be five symbols high and this increases the frequency of payouts. Cashapillar has been conceived as a low rollers online pokie. The maximum coin denomination of AU$0.02 limits the total bet to only AU$20 and this keeps the high rollers away from Cashapillar.

Microgaming went a step further with the release of Burning Desire in February 2009. It was the first all ways to win online pokie in which every combination of left to right like symbols could result in a payout. With the standard five reels and three rows of symbols this gave 243 paylines. This resulted in even more frequent winning combinations than Cashapillar and lowered the variance in the online pokie. This means that the level of risk was lower. Another first in Burning Desire was the use of some typical classical slot symbols like diamond, seven, bell and bar in video pokies. This concept is now referred to as retro. Unlike Cashapillar, Burning Desire caters to high roller players with a maximum total bet of $250.

The Burning Desire structure has become extremely popular at Microgaming online casinos. The number of online pokies that now have the 243 ways to win feature is beyond count. Most high profile Microgaming pokies use this structure. Both Cashapillar and Burning Desire can be played at Australian online casinos such as Casino Mate, Royal Vegas and Jackpot City.