Patent ID: 8123605

Claim:
In a gaming machine comprising a processor, a method of operating a game controlled by the processor comprising: accepting a wager from a player; presenting a primary game by the processor; awarding any primary game awards to the player; upon a triggering event, presenting a feature game by the processor, the feature game comprising: performing a first portion of the feature game during which a set of bonus slots is accumulated the first portion of the feature game comprising: at least a predetermined number of free games during which icons representing bonus slots may appear; and the number of bonus slot representative icons appearing during the predetermined number of free games is accumulated as the set of bonus slots; performing a second portion of the feature game comprising: selecting at least one set of a predetermined number of target symbols, associated with a bonus award, from among a pool of bonus symbols during which selected bonus symbols are not removed from the pool; selecting a set of match symbols, equal in number to the accumulated number of bonus slots, from among the pool of bonus symbols during which selected bonus symbols are removed from the pool; comparing the match symbols to the at least one set of target symbols; if all the symbols in the at least one set of target symbols correspond to match symbols, awarding the bonus award associated with the at least one set of bonus symbols to the player.