Fruit Machine Chat

I.e. ones that are switched off/broken, rather than ones that just behave badly...

Am I getting paranoid in my old age or are more and more machines being found in a unplayable state? On the occasions when I get to see plenty in a day or two, such as this weekend, I'm finding around a third of the machines I want to play (Gamesnets and ItBoxes in the main) are unusable for one reason or another. Is anyone else finding this? It has always been one of the worst of the possible SWP states *, and I wonder if it's related to the general malaise in the pub trade in that pubs and pub companies are unwilling to pay anything towards the routine maintenance of their machines.


* Since the dawn of time, this has been:

1 - Pub closed (temporarily or permanently) or machine removed and not replaced
2 - Machine out of order
3 - Machine available but found to be faulty (crashing, not paying out winnings)
4 - Machine being played by drippy couple
5 - Machine being played by group of students, especially if more than one of them are playing while sitting down on bar stools
6 - Machine available but all decent games as tight as a gnat's whatsit
7 - Machine available and several games are at least worth a look
8 - Machine available and several games are begging to pay, either due to it having been installed in pay mode or it having been filled up by punters

The 8th level is of course a very rare beast but it sure is a wonderful thing when you realise you've found a machine in that state.

I like the eight-fold path you have proposed. I'm not sure I'd agree with you - I think broken SWPs are just as common / rare as they have always been.

I spent a full day in a reasonably large city (which I had never previously visited) playing SWPs last week and found only a couple in category 2 (i.e. out of order) and one more in category 3. That Category 3 was annoying though - an ItBox which paid out no more than about £15 of a £35 total win. I think I found one in category 5 and only one in category 6, which was odd as I'd been reliably told before that a very high-level pro operated in the broad geographic area in which the city was located - I think he must have avoided the city I was in for a fair while although I did espy some reasonable (albeit substantially sub-INCA) scores on FFQ. The vast majority were squarely in category 7.

I'm with Nil on this. Recent forays out into the field would seem to indicate that somebody is cutting back on service costs somewhere. In my experience not just limited to Itbox, Gamesnet but Paragons too.

I suppose I could just be unlucky, but generally my gut feel is right on these things.

Having said that, I once travelled 60 miles to play a 'John Virgo's Snooker Challenge' only to find it switched off. Players don't know they're born these days.

QuizMaster wrote:Having said that, I once travelled 60 miles to play a 'John Virgo's Snooker Challenge' only to find it switched off. Players don't know they're born these days.

Did you not try switching it back on, or was it not that sort of establishment?

main problem is with gamestec taking over l/link,,all g/tec staff need training on itbox.so if one ooo for anything more than an easy fix it gets left!!

QuizMaster wrote:
I suppose I could just be unlucky, but generally my gut feel is right on these things.

Having said that, I once travelled 60 miles to play a 'John Virgo's Snooker Challenge' only to find it switched off. Players don't know they're born these days.

do i sense humility? can QM ever be unlucky?
heaven forfend.

David Healy wrote:

QuizMaster wrote:Having said that, I once travelled 60 miles to play a 'John Virgo's Snooker Challenge' only to find it switched off. Players don't know they're born these days.

Did you not try switching it back on, or was it not that sort of establishment?

There was no need. A chat with the barman revealed that somebody else had travelled further that very afternoon which was why the machine was switched off. Those were the days!

Ten Quid Grid, btw.

games were emptiable even those I thought werent.I watched in awe at the Bournemouth International Centre where what looked like a 14yr old got to the top of a cash grid time after time.

Machines have definitely gotten harder due to enlarged databases etc.

I'm 25 now and in my lifetime I reckon I've won approximately 20 jackpots. At least 17 of these were before I turned 16 on machines such as Top of the Pops.

David Healy wrote:Did you not try switching it back on, or was it not that sort of establishment?

I know this comment wasn't directed to me, and that QM has already explained the different circumstances in the case he mentioned, but two obvious points that are worth noting:

- sometimes the plug socket is physically inaccessible, no doubt deliberately in many cases

- sometimes the machine is switched off because it genuinely is broken, rather than simply having been switched off because someone complained about having been underpaid a couple of quid - more common in the past but still possible nowadays

One of my unplayable machines at the weekend was an example of the latter - an ItBox in a Wetherspoon's in Milton Keynes where it would start up after being switched off and on again but the start-up routine would last only about 5 seconds before reporting a 'check sum' error. I tried this a couple of times to see if it would work but it wouldn't.

The point I'm making is that there are lots of different problems I'm encountering with machines being unavailable and it just feels like it's part of the wider issue of the general downturn in the pub business.

Nil Satis wrote:

David Healy wrote:Did you not try switching it back on, or was it not that sort of establishment?

I know this comment wasn't directed to me, and that QM has already explained the different circumstances in the case he mentioned, but two obvious points that are worth noting:

- sometimes the plug socket is physically inaccessible, no doubt deliberately in many cases

- sometimes the machine is switched off because it genuinely is broken, rather than simply having been switched off because someone complained about having been underpaid a couple of quid - more common in the past but still possible nowadays

I recall one case where the machine was off and it would not have been possible to switch it on - because the engineer had cut the plug off! I like to think that I was the cause of this, as suffice it to say I knew him and we were (invariably) on very bad terms. Mind you, he was a total crook (would fill up £ tubes with 20p pieces, etc, etc).

I find that some machines seem to be permanently broken these days. I know of a few itboxes and one Paragon which have been not accepting coins for probably about the last 2 months. Chronic misalignment of touchscreens is obviously another serious issue - it seems that engineers don't understand that what constitutes acceptably accurate screen alignment in one game does not necessarily constitute acceptable accuracy in another game.

speaking as an operator i have to say the reason why more quiz machines are being see ooo is more down to ppl like gwh who make the paragon harder to obtain parts for at times, in a bigger run company the engineer would have very little imput to getting a part ordered for that machine.

if a paragon goes wrong there a only about 3 parts held in stock by myself, all other parts for a small company have to be ordered with full machine and part numbers given, then you have to wait for the part to turn up, next day if your lucky, then hoping you have time to return to the site asap.

back in the day of the megatouches and gameboxes most engineers would carry most part and fix on site, this also applys for digital juke boxes too, but they get fixed quicker coz a pub without music gets you a very moody landlord were as the quiz is not as important to them.

just my 2 penneths worth

Of five machines I visited last night three were Out of Order and a fourth was to punters' eyes Out of Order - the ItBox in the Wetherspoons in Oxford has had a faulty coin acceptor for at least 2 weeks and rather than get it fixed, thereby reopening the revenue stream which is presumably the whole point of having it there in the first place , they have placed a 'Machine Temporarily Out of Order' sticker on it which deters anyone from playing unless they realise that the note slot and payout mechanism are still working. The fact that no money from punters is going in made virtually all the games tricky but it's getting to the stage where you are relieved simply to find a machine in working order! The other three machines were all Gamesnets and all were in the same state, one which is becoming annoyingly common - clearly switched on with the red light behind the coinslot illuminated but with the screen blank.

Can someone please SORT IT OUT!!!!

There, I feel much better now...

xyz

It's a fuckin joke everywhere you go MACHINE OUT OF ORDER what
kind of company will survive acting like this,MADNESS