Fruit Machine Chat

This one seems to be cropping up quite a lot. You go to collect your winnings and the correct amount * is paid out but the splash screen on the box remains on display for a minute or two before an error screen comes up to say that there is a hopper error and the amount unpaid is exactly that which you have just collected.

Obviously this is not the worst error in the world, as at least you get paid the right amount, but it has two annoying implications:

- if you want to keep playing you have to restart the box by unplugging it, which, even if you have access to the socket, can often mean a 10-15 minute wait

- it can draw obvious attention to what can seem to landlords and bar staff to be an unusual win, even if their definition of 'unusual' can start at £5 and upwards! For this reason, if I can do so discreetly, I will often restart the box before leaving the venue in question, just to remove the error screen.

Any idea what this one is about? And before the discussion descends into other areas, can I just be clear that this involves a genuine machine error that appears when collecting legitimately acquired winnings (but then y'all knew that anyway!).



* conditional of course on the other great ItBox issue, namely coins getting stuck in the badly-designed payout chute...

I played an Itbox last night that stitched me up with an error, I won £2 from the new cash smash game (The shield eliminator game). I then had a go of Crystal maze which froze once my time run out in the dome, the barstaff then switched it off and on for me, which as you say took a good 10mins to load up, only to find my remaining £1 was now in the credits not bank so I was unable to collect it :x
Thankfully someone was waiting to go on it so they gave me their pound and had the credit

Itboxes have always seemed riddled with problems.

I will point it out to landlords when it happens to me as I dont want brainless scumbags claiming money they havent won

Not to be guilty of sidling this onto other topics, but it does relate to an error on a quiz machine - however it was a Paragon. The magic rainbow-screen of death?! I think I also saw a photo of it posted on here recently.

I'd just taken some 'vertically-deficient fructose-based edibles' from Bully and on return to the main menu screen was presented with something that looked like Joseph falling from the sky in his technicolor dreamcoat - of which I did get a snap.

I was cheerfully handed my £7 by the barman - who left the machine in the state it was. I did notice that after about 10 minutes or so, it had reverted to the usual game screen, but there was no record of my bank / remaining credit...

agree very much with Cool. the barstaff often sneer and just think you're arrogant but it is the right thing to do.

re the paragon rainbow. when i had that, it rebooted to a normal screen so a glitch rather than anything sinister.

My local's paragon used to have an error where the screen would switch off as follows:

Main menu - select a game - say Nuts

Screen would go totally blank but IF the pub was quiet enough you could hear the sound effects playing.

Option 1 - if you knew where the exit / return to menu area of the screen was - generally bottom left - and pressed it - bingo you were back to a working main menu.

Option 2 - let the game time out and a minute or so later you were back on a working main menu.

You could then press the game again and it would either do the same, or work fine eventually. Strange one as obviously the touch screen element is working fine, just not the display.

The changed it for a megatouch anyway and I only play them when Im in Spain / Portugal / etc.