Fruit Machine Chat

Ok i will start with a few

Hangman of Sherwood
Bookworm
Im a celeb get me out of here
and i still cant stand Pub Quiz

Treasure Island (Paragon version)
Pot the Lot
The Grid
Top Secret
Megabucks Coffee
Cueball Casino

If only I had thought to start writing games down back in the day I would now have a list of hundreds but I would certainly agree with QuizMaster's selection and add a few more recent horrors:

- Toss the Monkey

- Spend It Like Beckham

- The Lyrics Quiz

- Blockbusters - the first two or three incarnations, not the recent ones

- Monkey Business? - I don't think this is the right name but it's the Snakes and Ladders variant on the older Paragons where you have to collect bananas

Well, there's many very bad ones isn't there. But I agree with QM that Paragon's Treasure Island is the very worst - by some way, IMHO. It managed to combine appallingly clunky and outdated graphics, a completely misjudged question gradient (five or six easy ones then straight into the hardest sorts of spoilers) and nil realistic possibility of prizes (I think Cool has confirmed that from his perspective before). It has also possessed baffling longevity.

Did anyone else ever play 'Word Flipper'?

Only found it once - on a Gamesnet - and it appeared to promise an infinite supply of cash for minimal effort.

BRING BACK WORD FLIPPER

Nil mate im confused, what is to like about the new version to blockbusters it has nothing to do with the concept of the show apart from going left to right.

Some more gems I had managed to block from memory, but this thread has brought the horrors back:

Shooting Stars
Quest for Nefertiti
I Love Trivia
The Daily Mirror Quiz
Castle Dracula
Connect Up
Memorize
Copy Cat
Donkey Kong Quiz
The Cash Machine
Pieces of Eight
I Love Lucy Pinder

Lest we forget: Dirty Dozen. I'll also chuck in the Italian Job. And Lord of Da Bling because it was such an insultingly pitched game. Do developers really think I want to be told that I have da bling bling when I get an answer right?

I'm inclined to agree on Italian Job.

However, by dissing Dirty Dozen and Lord of the Bling it becomes apparent that you are not a serious player. Themes aside, there was plenty to commend these games.

Dirty Dozen pops up quite commonly on the Opens I have seen if anyone is missing it.

I've forgotten one real horror - the first time I think that a quiz game stepped blatantly into AWP-style 'guaranteed lose' pseudo-gambles, namely:

The Great Escape




(I'm ignoring the fixed gamble on the Caesar's Palace end game, as you always have the awarded prize to collect, and the impossible bonuses on Pints Make Prizes when the beer mats spin off the screen as that doesn't count as a quiz game and those are the ones I know and play - I'm sure there are also some shockers in the Spot the Difference/Pyramids/Pool/Poker variants).

QuizMaster wrote: However, by dissing Dirty Dozen and Lord of the Bling it becomes apparent that you are not a serious player. Themes aside, there was plenty to commend these games.

Can someone remind this non-serious player about Dirty Dozen? Can't for the life of me remember anything about this game.

You had 12 True or False statements to answer. There were different WWII-themed picture backgrounds to go with each winplan, which I think went from £3 top prize to £20 JP (where the picture was some sort of fortified sand dune). The only bonuses/variations were an animated general who would 'cough' to indicate the right answer (between one and three per game) and a 'red mode' where you got to keep any prize you won even if you lost the next question - this wasn't the case in normal mode. Well worth a look if you can catch it in the right mood.

Christ, don't reckon I've *ever* played that, how bizarre. What era does is date from? Will have to waddle down to my local Open tonight to have a go - sounds good.

I'm hopeless at remembering machine eras/dates but I'd guess at about 5 or 6 years ago for this one.

(In-joke alert - we need a TravisP for quiz machines! )

Yep, I actually meant The Great Escape. How beautifully ironic that I should put 'lest we forget' in front of Dirty Dozen, which I also have never played. On the other hand, Lord of Da Bling could offer me a tenner just for accessing the game and I still wouldn't go near it. Even its colour scheme brings me out in hives.