Vegas Game Pak published by Novasoft (a Tom Mix subsidiary, and not to be confused with a mostly low resolution game of the same name published a couple of years earlier by Nelson Software Systems) is a high resolution graphics collection of 6 games based on Las Vegas style casino games, written by the brother team of Douglas and Kevin Leany who happened to live in the Las Vegas area at the time. They would, some years later, make a much graphically improved Coco 3 version as part of an entire casino spawning multiple disks as well. They also sold this through Tom Mix Software, and later through Microdeal. Novasoft was the subsidiary of Tom Mix that sold games for cheaper than most companies did back in the, generally under $30.00 USD (and sometimes under $20.00). As one can see from the screenshots above, the games were developed over a 3 year period from 1982 until 1984, which is when it went on sale through Novasoft.
There is 6 games total in the package; 3 different variations of slot machines (regular fruit type, a Bar-Bar 5-Seven-Blank type, and a multi-line type), Blackjack, Keno and Poker. All programs ran in PMODE 4 artifacted graphics, and included instructions (both for Coco game play and how to play the actual games themselves) viewable within each game. They all also included a list of payouts possible for each game. Each game would be loaded separately from tape or disk, and the money would not carry over between them. The non-slot machine games could be played by keyboard, while the slot machine games used the joystick to simulate pulling the lever on a real slot machine, a nice touch. A brief description of each game follows:
SLOT MACHINE GAMES - Each of the 3 included are similar, except with some different graphics and different scoring rules (the multi-line one, for example, lets you bet multiple coins which enables more lines of symbols that can be matched to win). It mostly uses the joystick to play (the button enters coins, and pulling the joystick handle rolls the reels. The three versions included are Bar5, Right-Left / Left-right and 3 Line.
BLACKJACK - The card game where you try to get as close to 21 without going over, and played against the computerized dealer. It allows splits and doubling down, as well stand, hit and surrender moves.
KENO - The player bets on between 3 and 9 spots (numbers from 01 to 80), depending on how many coins you bet. The computer then randomly draws numbers, and if you match enough of them, you win coins.
POKER - Video Poker games where the player bets 1-5 coins (the more coins, the more winnings multiply) and then plays a hand of 5 cards, and is allowed to draw replacement cards in an effort to score at least a pair of jacks or better (including 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, straights, flushes and royal flushes).
Title: Vegas Game Pak (Novasoft)
Author: Douglas and Kevin Leany
Publisher: Novasoft (subsidiary of Tom Mix Software)
Released: 1984 (programmed 1982-1984)
Requires: Color Computer 1,2,3, 16K RAM, tape or disk, joystick for the slot machine games.