Patent ID: 8070592

Claim:
A gaming machine, comprising: one or more mechanical game reels, each game reel having a reel strip located thereon; a plurality of symbols located on each reel strip, each symbol and its symbol position being associated with one or more symbol subgroups, and each of a plurality of symbol subgroups being associated with a different starting position located on the reel strip; a reel controller for selecting a first symbol position on the reel strip as the starting position on the reel strip, wherein the symbol subgroup associated with the first starting position on the reel strip is selected for use in a first game having a first theme, and wherein the symbol positions in the symbol subgroup of the first game are the only symbol positions available during the first game; and wherein the reel controller selecting a second symbol position on the reel strip as the starting position on the reel strip, wherein the symbol subgroup associated with the second starting position on reel strip is selected for use in a second game having a second theme, wherein the symbol positions in the symbol subgroup of the second game are the only symbol positions available during the second game, and wherein the first symbol subgroup and the second symbol subgroup includes partially overlapped groups of reel symbols; and an encoder disk associated with each reel that positions the reel at the first starting position for use with the first symbol subgroup in the first game and positions the reel at the second starting position for use with the second symbol subgroup in the second.