Fruit Machine Chat

Breezed into a pub this evening expecting a tasty pint and an hour of Gamesnet-based fun and slightly-profitable frolics.

Sadly, neither was to be forthcoming. The Heineken was off, so I had to make do with a pint of howfing Tennents.

The Gamesnet machine was even worse. I could have had more fun counting beermats. I did earn a quid for a clearance on W* and enjoyed a game of DOND No Questions Asked which presented me a "Congratulations. You've Got to the End Game" at the exact same time as the time ran out. You can imagine my surprise when it awarded me a "Game Over". DOND.... No Questions .... except one ... Why do I always have a shot of this game even though I would never touch the Bingo game, which is pretty much the same?

Whats more, DOND (50p or £1) questions and Bullseye (50p) were both absent. The £1 version was the only £1 game on offer, but that received the most derisory of glances before I checked out the "New Games" section and had a couple of shots on Pub Quiz. I won a pound, despite being assured that the Empress State Building is in New York.

A shot of that All-Star quiz got very hard very quickly, but at least it's something a bit different. The same can't be said for that News Quiz effort. Still, I learned this - don't choose the Quirky Stories category, or whatever it is called, unless you're an avid reader of every local newspaper in the country.

A 50p donated to Message in a Bottle at least whiled away a good ten minutes or so. They're certainly recouping their losses from the initial fiver that I first got out of it. I can't think of a greater waste of time, except perhaps going to the effort of collating all the answers from the different categories.


Golden Boot 2 or Great Escape were also presenting themselves to me. However, thanks to you chaps sacrificing your 50p's fruitlessly, I've never bothered with them.

Sadly, the same can not be said for Take Your Pick and that similar one that's even worse. Both games should be commended for asking you the grid locations of African cities / Hungarian shot-putters' star-signs - and when you have the audacity to guess the TRUE / FALSE question correctly - go in a huff and offer you a deal of less money than the rest of the prizes on the board.

So to sum up, utter pish. I don't mind being robbed of a few quid if I've had a bit of fun doing so, but this was as much fun as getting teeth pulled.

This sounds like the final step down into complete unplayability for the Gamesnets. The last main release with the Roulette Quiz, Crazy Golf 2 and Take It Or Leave It was bad enough but at least that still had four decent games (Deal Or No Deal, Caveman Capers, Big Match World Cup and Ant and Dec) plus Word Up for the aficionados (and for the keen amateurs like me!). It sounds like they have now completely given up the ghost.

It's unbelievable to think that even 12 months ago a decent Gamesnet could easily have 8-10 good, playable games to suit most tastes and to offer very decent rewards to the better player. Now it seems like there won't be a single worthwhile reason to even walk from one side of a pub to the other to play one. If anyone out there still doesn't believe the end is nigh, I'd definitely like a pint or two of what you are drinking!

The GamesNet has really declined lately. I'm not sure I've seen the release that CR describes but it sounds awful. The current London standard, where the highlights are typically DOND, Tetris and Ant and Dec is bad enough. It's a bit baffling given it's not exactly that GamesNet lacks for rivals. Is it correct that GamesNet and ItBox are owned by the same people? Maybe they are winding down the former in an effort to boost the latter. One positive appears to be that Allstar Quiz has made its way to the GamesNet.

Nope, GamesNet are owned by GamesTech, who are owned by Denoptra (I think that's the name), who also own Bellfruit. Itbox are owned by Leisure Link / Inspired.

...I think.

Gamestec and Leisure Link are separate companies Gamestec based in Leeds and Leisure Link based in Staffs. Gamesnet predates Itbox. They are definately competing against each other and not colloborating as itbox deprived gamesnet of millionaire for ages by getting the sole contract.They probably collaborate with fraud and with dicks who 'only' take out £80 on a single game per machine. Fat Spanner is odd as they are a game developer and terminal developer.

Cheers chaps.

Maybe since Brewis gave them such a public kicking their new policy is never put a game on that actually pays out?

A sure fire way to go into terminal decline.

wasn't the publicity about Brewis and BM on the titbox though?
afaik the only public stuff about BMWC was on here which is hardly the sun.

I suspect Gamesnet had the biggest kicking from him.

Big Match World Cup only appeared on the Gamesnets and that was the version that had the realistic capacity for multiple wins - the original Big Match (on the ItBoxes and some Gamesnets) could make the scoring part well nigh impossible if someone had already won the Jackpot. As QuizMaster says, the blatant way David chose to 'attack' the Gamesnets at the end, including contacting Gamestech directly, may have scared them off. In doing so he may not only have killed both his own Golden Goose (which I accept would have soon disappeared anyway) but also it seems any prospect of Gamesnets ever containing a decent game again.

The problem for Gamestech is however that they are heading for oblivion if they fill their machines with the sort of dross we are seeing now. I always credit punters with some taste and if there isn't ever the chance to win even a few quid from an enjoyable quiz game, they are simply not going to keep piling in the cash that keeps the wheel turning. Every single game I have ever loved playing for its profit potential has also been a popular one for punters to play - it's hardly rocket science is it?

As NS says, Big Match itself was on the ItBoxes and BMWC on the GamesNets. Brewis probably took similar amounts from each, but for BM he had to visit lots more ItBoxes as he was limited to £20 from each one. Therefore this probably really slipped under the radar of ItBox - £20 from any one machine is nothing really. By contrast for BMWC he could repeat JP BMWC and therefore took £80 a time from a limited number of venues, most of which he visited more than once. So it would be far more obvious to GamesNet what had happened, as a goodly number of their London machines would have had much less cash in them than they should. I agree this may be a response by GamesNet and agree that if so, it is misguided - your average punter would not want to play much on the average GamesNet at the moment, DOND aside, and when I play on GamesNets the lack of winnings suggest to me they're not taking very much. I think they're in danger of becoming an ex-cabinet if they don't raise their game - they're relatively rare as it is.

Whats the deal with Big Match World Cup then? Theres a gamesnet near my work that still had it the last time I went in. Is this the emptyable version? And what s the trick to it? Is it just a matter of learning the questions or is there a specific technique?

dangerous wrote:Whats the deal with Big Match World Cup then? Theres a gamesnet near my work that still had it the last time I went in. Is this the emptyable version? And what s the trick to it? Is it just a matter of learning the questions or is there a specific technique?

If you put in a hell of a lot of work, then yes it is emptyable. You'll have to learn a serious amount of the questions and all the skill games but other than it's perfectly do-able. If no-one's ever JPed it with a bit of practice you might be able to take a decent prize without too much hard work.

Perhaps the solution to crap lineups is to set up a Quiz Machiners' Union (perhaps known humorously as QUIM). We could turn the machines off at the wall and paste 'OUT OF ORDER' signs on there like Delboy once did to a car park ticket machine.

Until they bring back some bread and butter payers.

QT

Recently I have seen loads more Gamesnet machines around. All have a really poor selection of games on them, including only being able to play Bullseye Star Prize for £1! No 50p a go version, so that wont be getting any play from me.

every DOND is hammered.

WU is only playable for fun and not profit (and yes I STILL hate it).

Other games are p**s poor, including trivia Roulette which is about as cack as it gets.

My question is this; as IMHO s**tbox are far better to play, so why are there so many more Gamesnet machines around at the moment?