Fruit Machine Chat

If a multigame quiz machine had six games, which titles would represent your dream lineup and which your nightmare lineup?

Here are mine:

DREAM

- Pub Quiz
- Caveman Capers
- WWTBAM
- Deal Or No Deal
- Bedazzled
- Risk

All of these games are based on sensible formats with just a scintilla of gimmickry. The prize structure is clear. There is little scope for the machine to fcuk you over with pre-programmed dice-rolls and stupid 'game over' bonus cards.

NIGHTMARE

- Snakes and Ladders
- Total Film Quiz
- Goldenballs
- Nuts
- Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
- Poker Quiz

I'm not talking about 'Red Hot Poker Quiz' which is actually quite good.

QT

These would be my choices. I have taken them all from the era of the multi-game cabinets, i.e. nothing from the standalone days:

DREAM

- Millionaire (old version)
- Pepsi Chart Music Quiz
- Top of the Pops 2
- Weakest Link
- Big Match World Cup
- Deal or No Deal

NIGHTMARE

There are hundreds to choose from but this time I'll go for:

- Crazy Golf 2
- Roulette Quiz
- Golden Boot 2
- Cops and Robbers
- Mike Read's Pop Quiz
- Hex Appeal

D'oh - I can't believe I left out The Great Escape from the Nightmare list, but then as far as I am concerned that is basically a fruit machine with questions so probably doesn't even count.

Dream:
Sum Up
Bullseye (old version)
DOND
crystal maze
WWTBAM
Strike it rich

Death to:
Spot the difference
I spy(think that's the name)
crazy money
Bullseye current
snakes & ladders
battleships

It seems we share a hatred for games dominated by ridiculous sideshows (e.g. golf shots, locating ships) and also those which are 'flexible' to say the least when it comes to rewarding a good player.

Has anyone managed to access IMDB with a WAP phone during a game of the Film Quiz and does it work?

QT.

Dream line-up:
Deal Or No Deal
Totp 2
Tetris
Allstars Quiz
Bullseye
Pepsi Chart

Nightmares:
ELW
Pub Cricket
100-1 (though actually won £4 yesterday with a mate's help!)
WWTBAM
Pints Make Prizes
Great Escape

Nuts on the nightmare list???

It's one of the few SWP games i actually like playing and win a decent amount off!

Dream:

Word Up
Sum Up
Monkey Business
Word Wall
Boggle
Countdown

Nightmare: any trivia games

DREAM:
Word Wall
Itbox Soccer
Brainteaser
Boggle
Shoot For the Stars (yes, really)
Countdown

NIGHTMARE:
what he said

in terms of potential winnability:

dream
WU (not GM)
golden showers
spelvin
S&D (original)
PMP
WC

(but in terms of enjoyment give me a paragon and a pint and i'm happy enough)

nightmare (i can win from some of these but they are chosen for being unutterably dreary)
wwtbam (any version)
dond
STD
triple towers
hangman
pub quiz

Hmm, quite a hard one, especially given we're disregarding the pre-multiplay era. I expect there are a fair few classic but short-lived games that I've totally forgotten about but the following come to mind. I've tried to avoid packing it with similar games.

* Big Match (over BMWC because it was more widespread and less people could JP it (although I can't nowadays as I got too complacent on the slowed-down BMWC...)
* The Weakest Link (decided to opt for only one of this, old WWTBAM and DOND, and I think this edges it: quite how it afforded to pay out both regular small change and regular JPs, I'm not sure - I guess it must have been very well played. Unlike DOND, which seems to have become much harder to win cash on recently, TWL never got harder. It was a terrific game.)
* Trivia for Dummies (to my mind this is one of the best of all time, I cannot understand why it's never mentioned on here unless you're all winning enormous amounts and don't want to talk about it)
* Every Loser Wins (possibly a modern bias including this and TFD but they're both top quality games)
* Caveman Capers (hardly beats something from the pre-multiplay era but it does offer the thrill of potential JPage tolerably regularly, and doesn't kipper players with unfairness)
* Top Of The Pops 2 (I think NS is right - my heart always lifts when I see an old Fatbox containing this. I seemed to win £6-£7 more often than not on it.)

As for nightmares, there have just been so many forgettable games offering roughly zero per cent chance of a prize. I've tried to think about games which annoy me in a variety of different ways and this is what I've come up with.

* The Great Escape (a uniquely bad game, I think)
* Hangman 3 (a sad end to what was one of the great games)
* Word Up (because I'm rubbish at it and fed up of hearing how many exceptionally clever people have won so much on it!)
* Monopoly (because from scoreboards I can tell a lot of players can and have JPed this whereas I seem never to be able to score much above 4000!)
* Bullseye (yeah, you get £1 most games, but it's so boring - be more ambitious than this, manufacturers!)
* Trivia Whiz Bar Quiz (there are just so many poor games out there. I feel unfair picking this one from many but it strikes me as the archetype game which introduces spoiler questions so early that even a decent player could consider £1 a good win. As NS says, there are hundreds which could be named but I'll put this to represent Very Bad Games Which Aren't Quite As Bad As The Great Escape).

Bit puzzled as to some of the above choices, Nuts and Ant and Dec are both top games (I considered including the latter but rejected it as the big wins have become too few and far between, plus I've never JPed it). By Poker Quiz surely q-time doesn't mean the wonderful old Maygay stand-alone but the more recent Texas Hold 'Em game on Fatboxes? NS is too harsh too on C&R (discussed ad nauseam before) and Mike Read - sure, Mike Read rarely pays out more than about £3 but it was quite fun and relatively easy to get a small prize. I suspect NS is comparing it unfairly with Dr Fox! Matt's write-off of 1 vs 100 is really harsh as well - this is a good mid-rank game. And I'm amazed someone likes Crystal Maze!

If I could choose again I'd put Roulette Quiz in my worst games category. I fondly remember the standalone Poker Quiz. I used to play that one for hours trying to set up a Straight Flush.

I don't think I've played Great Escape - why is it so bad?

As for Trivia for Dummies - I can't seem to do the bonus round where you have to pick the odd one out. Does anyone have any tips on where to look for the differences?

QT.

PS The most memotable thing about the old standalone Crystal Maze was that tacky bubble on the corner of the unit filled with gold and silver paper, rather amateurishly replicating the Crystal Dome off the telly.

The Great Escape is, by general consent, the first SWP to feature AWP-style stopper features. Whilst it's not exactly as bad as a 'Game Over' feature it can and does land you on squares which will undo a lot of the progress you're making. There was a thread on it which I now can't find. Play it on ItBoxes (second screen) to see what I mean - but don't put too much in as we don't want to encourage manufacturers to turn out such rubbish.

On TFD it basically comes down to 'is it paying?'. If so, the endgame will be do-able even for a spot the difference klutz such as I (e.g. one cover is all wiggly, or reversed, or the word 'Dummies' is missing); if not I think you'd frankly be very lucky to spot it (I only ever get tough non-paying endgames on a 1/12 chance basis...) I think some of the harder but gettable differences concern the wording on the covers and the time on the dummy's wristwatch. Basically, the trick is to learn the indicators of whether it's paying, of which the difficulty of the first endgame reached is the main one. But generally if there are four prize rounds, it has some money in. If it wants to give a tenner, each spot the difference will be straightforward.

DREAM

S and D (original)
TOTP 2
Golddigga
'the one with the bees' that wasnt on ITBOX. It disappeared quite quickly and with good reason!!
Pepsi Chart Quiz

NIGHTMARE

STD
All star quiz
Q the Music 3
Treasure Island
Hangman 3

to be honest the nightmare category could go on and on- lost count of the number of games that have been played once or twice and then adios. hi-Spy springs to mind even as I type this- there are hundreds!

What's the big problem with Hangman 3? Does it not pay out much?

I think quiz machine companies will be the big losers if they continue to pump out sludge like Roulette Quiz. Punters of all sorts, not just keen players, will rrealise that the games just won't pay. - and so won't play them.

QT