THE PIG PAYS
AGS continues to grow its franchise Rakin’ Bacon! game family, now at 15 games and counting
By Frank Legato
The year 2018 was pivotal for Las Vegas- based gaming supplier AGS. It was on Jan. 28 of that year that AGS officials rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate its listing as a public company, kicking off seven years on the NYSE that would culminate in last year’s private-equity acquisition of the company.
But 2018 was pivotal for AGS in another development, one that has delivered continued success from that year right through to its current status as a private company. It was the year the company introduced a video slot called “Rakin’ Bacon!”
The new game was launched on the Orion Portrait cabinet, which was itself the state-of-the-art hardware platform of the day. At its heart was an animated character, a golden piggy bank. Wearing a purple top hat and sitting on a pile of gold coins above the reels, the piggy character would wink and oink as the reels spun, and would serve as the highest-paying reel symbol.
Scatter symbols would trigger a choice of free game volatility—itself a novel feature at the time, from 15 spins on a normal array with 243 ways to win on each spin to an expanded screen offering five spins with 3,125 ways to win.
But the feature that really got players’ attention was the winking, oinking gold piggy bank. Each time a gold coin wild symbol landed, the coin would fly up and into the piggy bank on the top screen, making the piggy fatter. Anticipation would build as the piggy bank grew to hilarious proportions, until finally bursting to trigger a jackpot picking bonus. The player would pick gold coins until matching three gems to win one of five jack- pots, including a Grand resetting at $10,000.
The game was a smash hit. Players flocked to it, and soon flocked to sequel after sequel, until Rakin’ Bacon was a franchise in itself. The core of the game’s appeal has been that piggy-bank character, so much so that AGS quickly gave the character a name: “Cornsquealius.” (He’s “90% charm, 10% chaos, 100% trouble.”)
At press time, there were a total of 15 Rakin’ Bacon! titles in casinos everywhere— with more than 20,000 games shipped. Cornsquealius dictates the theme of each game, dressed up to fit whatever the theme of the game is—always with a comedic flair.
In Rakin’ Bacon! Pirate Plunder, he sports a pirate hat. In Rakin’ Bacon! Sahara, he’s a pharaoh with appropriate crown and a tubular beard like the carvings on a sarcophagus.
In Rakin’ Bacon! Triple Oink Soda Fountain Fortunes, there are three collection pots, marked with Cornsquealius in a cook hat with a spatula, with a soda jerk hat, and Cornsquealius Elvis. In Rakin’ Bacon! Odyssey, he’s “Julius Cornsquealius,” clad in a toga with laurel wreaths on his head.(He’s headed for “Mount Oinklympus.”) And then there’s Rakin’ Bacon! Hogtoberfest and Hogger Lager, which have the piggy dressed up in lederhosen in a hilarious October-fest theme. Every year, the getups on the piggy seem to get more creative, and the pig character gets more involved in the unique bonus elements of each game.
“The Rakin’ Bacon! story is a good one,” comments Loren Rosenberg, AGS vice president, commercial strategy & operations. “It came out in 2018, and since that time, it’s become one of the most iconic examples of IP in our industry. It is the pig that resonates. Cornsquealius has just been a symbol of the casino floor.”
Steve Walther, AGS senior vice president of game development, joined the company at the time the second game in the series, Rakin’ Bacon! Deluxe, was under development. That title would add the game family’s first hold-and- spin bonus event.
He says he knew at the outset this was a game theme that was going to have a long life-span. “We knew the family of games developed around Rakin’ Bacon! were very high-performing games, but there was something about our cute little pig that grabbed people’s attention,” Walther says. “The idea of having a piggy bank that expand and exploded and left coins for you really took advantage of the wave of pseudo-persist states that had started to develop in the mid-2010s, all the way up to the present day.
“He exploded and gave you coins—that was a core idea. Then, we added the free game mechanics, and the expanding reels to give you more opportunities to land wild symbols that would feed the pig even further.
It was really something that worked, and people still gravitate to it today. We still have original Rakin’ Bacon! games out on the floors on the Orion Portrait cabinets that are still performing quite well, because there’s just an endearment to that cute little pig that got very large and explodes to reward you.”
MANY FORMS, MANY PIGGIES
One of the advantages of having a slot brand carry on for eight years is that the theme grows as advances in technology improvements as new game mechanics become popular.
AGS has used the Rakin’ Bacon! theme to launch several new cabinets over the years, and in many cases, the new game will be developed right along with the cabinet, to take advantage of the new video displays, with Cornsquealius hosting an increasing number of popular game features, from collection pots to hold-and-spin features.
The newest versions have features within the hold-and-spin feature, a smaller grid, potentially awarding the player a secondary jackpot for filling the grid before returning to the main feature.
Later this year,AGS will launch Rakin’ Bacon! Ultra on the new Gl cabinet, with two titles, Squeallionaire and Bankrollers. At the heart of the games are four collection pots that are different-sized “family members” of Cornsquealius, with the largest one on the top.
As cash-on-reels symbols send coins to the pigs, they squish together, with the largest one weighing down the smaller pigs, who react with grunts and sweat in funny animation.
Walther says to watch out for Rakin’ Bacon! Squeal & Deal, coming soon with base games Cowabunga Cash and Raiding Riches.
“We’ve got a snorkeling pig in Cowabunga Cash,” he says. “We have a pig with sunblock on his nose, and we have a pig with sunglasses and a hat. These pigs lead a great life!”
Walther says everything comes back to the fun of the theme, and finding fun ways to work Cornsquealius into the latest popular game feature. “We have upgrading frame features in one game, multi-pot features in another; the excitement takes a variety of forms.
“When we got to the launch of the Spectra cabinets in 2022, as the thing that we found was that players love the pig. Our competitors have industry was shifting, we really wanted to test the versatility of the brand, we came out with Rakin’ Bacon! Link,” says Rosenberg.
“We came out with Rakin’ Bacon! Jackpots, which was a three-reel, high-denomination game. And then, we leaned into the three-pot collection feature, and things really started going from there. And the one Bacon, and the unique connection we’ve created with the player.”
THE STORY CONTINUES
That connection is bound to continue as AGS expands the Rakin’ Bacon! brand even further.
Rosenberg and Walther say new versions will expand the game styles and game mechanics to send Cornsquealius on new adventures— hosting bonus rounds, popping up to award wild symbols or trigger bonuses, performing a parade of hilarious new grunts or giggles. (Hint: Touch the pig on the screen. He’ll likely make a sound or expression that makes you laugh.)
As new versions of Rakin’ Bacon! come out in different formats, Cornsquealius will follow the theme. “We have pigs at a soda fountain,” says Walther. “We have pirate pigs. We have pigs in lederhosen. Coming up, we’ve got pigs at the beach, high roller pigs, and more to come.
“The characters are easily identifiable. Everybody can recognize the idea of putting money in a piggy bank. In this case, this pig is a smiling, happy creature.”
“I don’t know a lot of brands like this in the gaming industry,” says Rosenberg. “Most brands are usually associated with a fixed mechanic. Rakin’ Bacon has really transformed that to show the versatility of the brand. I love how creative our development teams are as we push the brand forward. Rakin’ Bacon! can be anything.”
