Hi
My OPEN started playing silly buggers last week and only booted into a windows screen when powered up...
So today I took it back to Fatspanner for them to sort out.
They swapped it for a new pc base unit for a minimal fee (I had no warranty on the machine as I had it for 18 months) - I was extremely impressed with their help and service.
The new Pc has the Menu 8 on it which hasn't been released yet along with some new games.........
The new menu is brilliant......much better than the old one.
Basicaly theres a front screen with the most popular (they call em Premier ) games on it - and bottom right theres a button that says 50p games which takes you to a second screen which is full of 50p games.
So you have approximately 50-60 games to choose from! Brillliant !
Theres a few new games...........
A PoP Quiz one thats brilliant where you have to collect discs to win cash prizes.
Battle Of Britain 2 - not too shabby at all - you eliminate planes by answering questions.
Theres a brilliant update on Battleships game.
Blockbusters is now called Gridrunner.........
There's a new spot the difference.
Family Guy is now 50p !
Imsure there's more but I will check tomorrow.
Because its a new pc all my top 10's are gone etc.............so will start with a new one in a few weeks.
Good Update Fatspanner - especially the menu.
BTW In reception I saw an OPEN BLACK and a DICE Cabinet - very nice looking but not worth updating my existing cabinet yet!
Dave
New OPEN MENU 8 ! Plus my trip to Fatspanner....
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QuizMaster
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Matt Vinyl
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QuizMaster
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Re: New OPEN MENU 8 ! Plus my trip to Fatspanner....
This sounds a lot like the DICE menu, Dave - presumably that simplified menu system will now become the standard installation for all their machines. And that, in comparison to the current dog's dinner of a menu system, is br...whiteswan wrote:Basicaly theres a front screen with the most popular (they call em Premier ) games on it - and bottom right theres a button that says 50p games which takes you to a second screen which is full of 50p games.
So you have approximately 50-60 games to choose from! Brillliant !
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Matt Vinyl
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Can someone explain the thought process behind 'that' menu system? I'll admit I only ever encountered one box, but I played a game and it dissappeared after one go. Then some others were present - some worked, some didn't. I gave up and went and had a go on the karaoke!
"And do you ever contradict yourself, Minister?" "Well, yes and no..."
personal message sent sept16 2009
Dave
had the pleasure of playing a DICE this week- stylish,games simply arranged in two screens premium & 50p.Not a 100 games but a lot,hopefully will make the OPEN redundant.I would reccomend it to you,I bet youd make more money!
Regards,
Cool
'The D.I.C.E. Cabinet has been developed to deliver quality SWP content from Barcrest Group and partner Fatspanner. The stylish cabinet features a 22" high resolution LCD screen delivering superb game presentation. Using reliable, proven Barcrest Group PC system and MPU technology, the D.I.C.E. cabinet benefits from industry standard peripherals including the SR5i coin mechanism, compact hopper and serial meter.
The games library offers over 100 premium titles including Star Wars, the latest top performing game 'True Skill Bingo' and further branded titles from Barcrest Group's extensive portfolio. The £1 play games are displayed on an attractive, simple-to-use game menu screen. The games are controlled via a unique site profiling system, which automatically updates the games offered to match the players' preferences. Regular game updates with new titles are delivered three times per year, on time and fully performance tested'
whilst you havent invested in a DICE its effectively the same machine!
Dave
had the pleasure of playing a DICE this week- stylish,games simply arranged in two screens premium & 50p.Not a 100 games but a lot,hopefully will make the OPEN redundant.I would reccomend it to you,I bet youd make more money!
Regards,
Cool
'The D.I.C.E. Cabinet has been developed to deliver quality SWP content from Barcrest Group and partner Fatspanner. The stylish cabinet features a 22" high resolution LCD screen delivering superb game presentation. Using reliable, proven Barcrest Group PC system and MPU technology, the D.I.C.E. cabinet benefits from industry standard peripherals including the SR5i coin mechanism, compact hopper and serial meter.
The games library offers over 100 premium titles including Star Wars, the latest top performing game 'True Skill Bingo' and further branded titles from Barcrest Group's extensive portfolio. The £1 play games are displayed on an attractive, simple-to-use game menu screen. The games are controlled via a unique site profiling system, which automatically updates the games offered to match the players' preferences. Regular game updates with new titles are delivered three times per year, on time and fully performance tested'
whilst you havent invested in a DICE its effectively the same machine!
I think the theory was that once you had played one game (say Deal or No Deal) it would suggest other similar games that you might not have played before (say Millionaire). You might then like the 'new' game and play on it more than would otherwise have been the case.Matt Vinyl wrote:Can someone explain the thought process behind 'that' menu system?
That was a nice idea but where they screwed up was in only making a small subset of games available at any one time. Take that above scenario - maybe the player has won £2 on Millionaire and thinks 'Right, I can now have a few more goes back on my favourite game Deal or No Deal'. However the menu system meant there was no guarantee that Deal or No Deal would be available! They did develop a variation which I saw in a few places where the last 6 or so games you played were remembered, but even that was 6 credits and not 6 different games so if you played 6 games in a row of one game it defeated the object anyway. In any case this variation seems to have been abandoned.
The real problem is that when Joe Public (or John TopPro) arrives at the pub and decides to play the games he likes, there is no guarantee that they will be available. They did try to get around this by allowing you to 'save' a list of your favourite games but as this meant that you had to create a user account and password, and it also still relied on the games you wanted to save being available, it was not much of an incentive, particularly as (presumably because they aren't networked) the accounts only applied to an individual machine.
Overall it was a classic case of an idea that might have sounded OK in theory but in practice turned out to be absolutely useless.
Fully performance tested? You're having a laugh aren't you?cool wrote: The games library offers over 100 premium titles ..
.. Regular game updates with new titles are delivered three times per year, on time and fully performance tested'
I thought that Tony Blur and crew were good at spin, but this takes 'spin' to a new level!
For example,
http://www.barcrestgroup.com/game/?id=261
What this really means:Mr Barcrest wrote: We fully performance tested this game.
Mr truth wrote: We fully performance tested this game, and found it to be a pile of poo, but we still included it to make up the numbers as no one would notice, as no one would play it anyway.
Oh, I'm so scared.