Fruit Machine Chat

I wonder what the cashbox performance is of these? Am I the only one who thinks they might still not have made back the money lost ~2 years back when they were plugged to pieces?

Have never seen anyone play one. I think they might lose money week on week in electricity costs. I'll take the risk that someone is making huge amounts on these and I know nothing about it, as the recovery time would probably stretch to decades.

The interface and games themselves are awful, I think I could probably do a better job myself in a weekend.

There is nothing remotely endearing about any machines you are likely to see in arcades etc these days. All the games are just tighter re-hashes of previous incarnations,with dull, rigid gameplay.

The main problem, in all honesty, is that there is little room (or money) in the industry for a company to take a risk with a brand new game format, and even if they did, the new game would be hosted on a terminal along with many other games, and not as a stand-alone unit, so this new game will end up buried amongst a steaming pile of shit.

Anyway it's all fucked now, the whole Amusement With Prizes concept is now a myth.

I went to an unspecified seaside resort recently and was dismayed by what I saw, every arcade was nearly empty, no variety whatsoever, and nobody appeared to be enjoying themselves, despite the fact it was mid way through the summer holidays. People merely going through the motions playing £5 jp games, even kids playing the redemption machines looked like they'd rather just open their wrists up and be done with it all. Not like those 80's funfair youtube videos that's for sure. There was also an abundance of males in their 40's riding around on push-bikes whilst drinking from a can of fortified lager.

The industry is killing itself. Good.

I love the lack of forethought.

"Hey... Lets up the Jackpot again! "

Well... We could do sir, but a £100 Jp is gonna be pretty difficult to squeeze into a playable game.

18 months later... We are back to Deals with boxes spanning from 1p to £25. Back where we started. Oh sure the big box js there! Why not go for it?

Or we leave the profile the same and end up with Powerplay. How any of us could justify such a ludicrous game just shows how deluded we have all become. How could any normal punter ever get addicted to this shit? Are we forgetting that the whole economic model relies upon a big % of people enjoying the games and wanting to go back and play them?

If they must stick with such a high JP. I would suggest slanting the profile to playable games with achievable wins of £10-50. You would still get your "forcers", the same as you'd get the odd few forcing JPM's. You could create some gameplay. And just sack the whole Deal thing... It's SO long in the tooth.

Ok now the box is disappearing it's a case of "no bid, scrap it!"? I agree lol

Stubble wrote:If they must stick with such a high JP. I would suggest slanting the profile to playable games with achievable wins of £10-50. You would still get your "forcers", the same as you'd get the odd few forcing JPM's. You could create some gameplay. And just sack the whole Deal thing... It's SO long in the tooth.

I remember JPM Club Red Alert, Roller Coaster and Gladiator had a profile that could be easily replicated to make better games of today. Safe enough to force for a top that went from anything between £25 and £75, and once it had taken enough it would do £250. Plenty of little wins to go for, plenty of features and enough to amuse a casual punter.

The JP value today isn't the problem, it's the stake. £1 a play is a fucking ridiculous sum of money to pay to watch 3 reels go round, and with board costs regularly over £15 it's no wonder people are reluctant to play machines. BFM are churning out such shit machines these days, they've gone for a neon overload to send you into a dazed stupor and then when you play the machine you realise that the gameplay is dreadful, like pulling a bird with a beautiful body only to find out she is totally unimaginative when it comes to ragging her later on.

Bad analogy there I think Oscar - you'd still spend 10 minutes on it every day, even if that meant paying fifty quid?! lol

Different people like different gambles. I think what Oscar is getting at is a popular choice for most of the readership on here. If we wanted a wild gamble we'd go for roulette or Blackjack but most like a safety net or bail points. The flip side is games like Joker Poker and variants which have such light compensation and are effectively unforceable. They're popular though as well with the general gambling populous.
It must be hard for manufacturers to get the balance right but I do know that forced pay offs and gaudy childish graphics alienate the majority of casuals and keen enthusiasts alike. For the hi tech aficionados though, you could do worse than listen to Oscar's post if you were designing a cat c/b4 game.

Surely redlinesman still cleaning up on machine x? Oh and y as well!!

surprised we never heard a tale involving Redlinesman or The Chief pulling any decent birds?! there must have been many....come on JG!