Like slots in general, progressive jackpot slots have started their life on classic slots featuring three reels and anywhere between one and three paylines. Back in the day, these jackpots weren't particularly big and games themselves weren't extremely exciting due to the limiting technology. However, with time, developers came up with video slots and, consequently, video slots progressive jackpots.
This was a big and important step towards making progressive slots more popular as video slots allowed developers to do much more. Now, they could make interesting features to accompany the jackpot games and new and improved gaming algorithms meant they could program these jackpots much more carefully. Eventually, this led to video slots progressive jackpots featuring multi-million wins.
As expected, big companies were the ones leading the way with video slots progressive jackpots. IGT may have started the craze with their Megabucks classic slot, but the likes of Microgaming and NetEnt took it upon them to take things to the next level.
First we had games like King Cashalot and Major Millions, which were rather simple without too many in-game features, but the shared progressive jackpot made them as attractive as any other slot out there, if not more. Then came Mega Moolah and Mega Moolah Isis, full-fledged video slots featuring progressive jackpots, good graphics, Free Spins, and quite a few paylines.
NetEnt introduced their video slots progressive jackpots a bit later, but with the same level of success. Slots such as Mega Fortune, Arabian Nights, and Hall of Gods quickly became popular with the players.
Of course, other developers followed the suite, so these days there are video slots featuring a progressive jackpot by nearly every significant game developer, including the likes of Playtech, Real time Gaming, and others. Video slots progressive jackpots are here to stay and, if anything, they’ll become richer and more entertaining as time goes by.