Fruit Machine Chat

two immediately spring to mind:

number one is a casino table which is also a piano.
well, it used to be a piano then it was gutted and the keyboard was replaced by a synthesizer. a bored man in a tux was playing it while a bored woman in evening gown and pearls was sat on the same piano/card table crooning. meanwhile you can play poker on video screens embedded into the piano.
there was also a middle-aged man in plus-fours doing the sort of self-conscious jerking you see in jazz clubs: like a spastic demonstrating a dance step. it wasn't immediately clear whether he was part of the installation but he seemed to be having a rare old time.

number two is GWHL/paragon's advertising in coinslot.
for reasons best known to themselves, they have booked a prominent dps where marketing has decided to put a giant picture of the cabinet (fine) and a supposed interview where the machine speaks openly about its favourite films (weird). it appears that the paragon's social life is filled with going to the flicks and then reading literature about how much each film has grossed and how many people are in the closing credits.
(the following is a direct quote, straight from the paragon's lips): "size isn't everything and the 1922 the [sic] vampire classic Nosferatu credited a mere 16 people. By contrast, in 2003, The Matrix Revolutions thanked 701."

nowhere in the interview is there any description of new content, terms of sale, specifications, technical information, engineering or the product itself; it just makes clumsy analogies about popular films.

then (and equally unfathomable) the advertorial ends with a question and answer in garbled latin.

Enjoying your work here Istenem. Did you spot any real boys down at ATEI?

tbh i wouldn't recognise the real boys of SWP unless they court publicity like mr de mooi et al. also i'd imagine they try to keep a low profile in obviously specific events. i did see quite a few chavs with unconvincing disguises playing on the bandits, including a bloke i remember from last year who has the most pronounced underbite i've ever seen. the only people i really saw playing any of the SWP games were promotional tarts and bored reps from other stands.
none of the high-score tables i saw had anything remotely impressive on them. whereas for me things like prize animations, sfx and bonus games have relevance, i guess the real boys are more interested in how much? how quickly? and how difficult? all the machines there were set to baby level by default so there was not much to discover in terms of how games will play in the wild, but it is interesting to preview what is on the menu for forthcoming releases.

I did note two SWPs on display at the front of the Barcrest/Cyberview stand - both were displaying high scores from a football-related game that someone must've been playing - but the cabinet looked none-too-shabby. I didn't get to look at the front page - it could've been for a foreign market I suppose.

I wasn't aware that this was Barcrest's market, but who knows - maybe we'll see a new cabinet in pubs sooner rather than later.

Talking of Latin nonsense, this is the offending part of the bizarre advert in CoinSlot, if anyone would care to translate it:

GamesWarehouse advert in CoinSlot wrote:Question a justo id arcu blandit in gravida.

Paragon: At nibh non libero scelerisque iaculis. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus.

The new Barcrest SWP terminal is called DICE. It has the Fatspanner/Open interface and games pack but apparently updated without the invisible/disappearing games and the ludicrous player login facility. Looks pretty good.

Games Media had new terminal also. Games Warehouse/Paragon just had a reworking of the TT cabinet with a set of buttons along the front which were sometimes usable as an alternative to the touch screen.

There were a few new games that may bear further investigation. They seem easier running in demo mode. Another highlight though was helping one of the promo girls hit a JP on a very well know game. She nearly wet her knickers as she had never got past a quid before. At least I made someone happy

The other interesting exhibit was Big Tony PokerKard. Which is an up to four player "amusement only" video poker table similar to what has been mentioned previously. The guy from Nova assured me that it is 100% legal to site anywhere and doesn't require any licence.

http://www.pokerkard.com

Sure to be a few side bets on that poker simulator. Might just be what pubs need to kick start it's finances.

GamesWarehouse advert in CoinSlot wrote:Question a justo id arcu blandit in gravida.

Paragon: At nibh non libero scelerisque iaculis. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus.

well that is the thing, it just doesn't translate. some of the words might plausibly be sense but as a whole it is a mess. looks like whatever it was supposed to say has been through one of those online translators six or seven times.

Istenem wrote:

GamesWarehouse advert in CoinSlot wrote:Question a justo id arcu blandit in gravida.

Paragon: At nibh non libero scelerisque iaculis. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus.

well that is the thing, it just doesn't translate. some of the words might plausibly be sense but as a whole it is a mess. looks like whatever it was supposed to say has been through one of those online translators six or seven times.

It's most likely something called lorem ipsum - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum . It's a sort of cod-Latin that gets used by graphic designers when they want to fill up a page with text to see what it looks like, but haven't written the text yet. I presume someone at Paragon designed an advert and filled it with lorem ipsum, and then forgot to replace the lorem ipsum with a proper question.

aha, good spot Grecian, despite being in publishing and having a latin degree (albeit a lower third from the university of disneyland) i've never come across lorem ipsum. my bad ops:.

You probably studied Latin America.



(with apologies to J Danforth Quayle)

More info on the Barcrest machine.........

Fatspanner and Barcrest Group have entered into an agreement to jointly develop products for the SWP market.

Barcrest Group, with over 40 years in the gaming and amusement business, will team up with Fatspanner, a leading independent designer and manufacturer with a strong track record of success with SWP products. The combined attributes of leading systems, robust technology and high quality manufacturing, access to a large number of the best games and highly recognisable licensed brands will revitalise and reshape the SWP sector.

Tim Kennedy, Sales & Commercial Director for Barcrest Group explained: “Barcrest Group and Fatspanner will be working together to capitalise on opportunities in the SWP market. We believe that the combined strengths of the two companies and our shared passion for delivering great games will be a recipe for success in this market sector. We are looking forward to unveiling the first joint developments at the IGE in January 2009.”

Alfio Monterosso, Sales Director of FatSpanner added: “We have worked with some of the industry’s biggest names over the years and achieved significant success in the SWP sector. Together with Barcrest Group we are aiming to take this success to a new level by providing our customers with the ultimate entertainment solution”.


Dave

Istenem wrote:aha, good spot Grecian, despite being in publishing and having a latin degree (albeit a lower third from the university of disneyland) i've never come across lorem ipsum. my bad ops:.

Geeks and perverts ( ) might have noticed that upon achieving GAME OVER in the Nuts game, you get shown the Nut magazine lying open at a page of some siliconed bird. They didn't feel the need to put any real text to complement her, so they just added the standard lorem ipsum fayre.

Cardinal Sin wrote:they just added the standard lorem ipsum fayre.

Damn! That was going to be my bonus question to get you all thinking over the weekend - Where on a quiz machine will you see lorem ipsum?

I'll guess I'll have to settle for the supplementary bonus question - Where can you see the word QUIM prominently displayed? (and No, it's not a rude answer!). The clue is - I bet nearly everyone on here has got one...

It's a not uncommon name in Portugal !

Nil Satis wrote:I'll guess I'll have to settle for the supplementary bonus question - Where can you see the word QUIM prominently displayed? (and No, it's not a rude answer!). The clue is - I bet nearly everyone on here has got one... Wink

You did that one a year back Nil, so I'll Pass the opPortunity to someone else.