Gaming machine and control method for operating gaming machines to display computer animated reel games

A gaming machine, comprising:

• a cabinet;
• a display device mounted to the cabinet;
• and
• a control unit operably coupled to the display device, the control unit including a processor programmed to execute an algorithm to render an animated sequence of computer-generated images on the display device including the steps of:
• rendering a denomination configuration screen on the display device including a plurality of selectable denominations;
• receiving an operator's selections of the selectable denominations and determining a Multi-denomination tokenization (MDT) multiplier based on an operator selected denomination;
• determining an MDT denomination for each operator selected denomination based on the MDT multiplier;
• and
• initiating a reel game by:
• rendering a game screen on the display device including a plurality of virtual reels, a selectable denomination icon indicating a current game denomination value and a progressive prize icon indicating a current progressive award value associated with the current game denomination value;
• receiving a player's selection of the selectable denomination icon and rendering a game denomination selection screen on the game screen including a plurality of player selectable game denomination icons associated with game denomination values corresponding to each operator selected denomination;
• receiving a player's selection of a player selectable game denomination icon indicating a selected game denomination value;
• determining a corresponding MDT denomination associated with the selected game denomination value;
• determining a corresponding progressive award value associated with the selected game denomination value based on the corresponding MDT denomination and a base progressive award value;
• and
• animating the progressive prize icon to transform the current progressive award value to the corresponding progressive award value associated with the selected game denomination.