Fruit Machine Chat

I'm not about to explain why I was on this site, but it seems a quiz machiner of some repute has died:

http://www.planettrevormontague.blogspot.com/

Anyone heard of the guy?

I know a couple of people who knew him. Good player back in the day apparently, although from reading that blog he didn't tell his pal the real Concentration trick.

QM

A "Concentration" in the Romford Odeon paying out £80 pound coins? Anyone want to confirm the liklihood or possibility of this?

(I'll choose to ignore the inconsistencies between this tribute and the interview on his official site)

It just annoys me when people choose to embellish a story with something that is clearly wrong, because it leads me to the assumption that the rest of it is probably similarly embellished.

Obviously, apologies to Trevor for casting aspersions on his character if someone is able to confirm that this is definitely possible. Otherwise, mmmmmmm.

David Healy wrote:It just annoys me when people choose to embellish a story with something that is clearly wrong, because it leads me to the assumption that the rest of it is probably similarly embellished.

Amen.

If he spent all his winnings from the machine in the pub he won them, and he was that good at playing, it's no surprise he's dead then.

QuizMaster wrote:If he spent all his winnings from the machine in the pub he won them, and he was that good at playing, it's no surprise he's dead then.

Oh, I don't know: it would be quite possible to drink £20-worth in the time required to do Treble Top on 201, all x 501 - indeed you might need to in order to retain any sanity.

He sounds more like a good dabbler rather than a hard-core pro.

At that time I was making so much money I hardly ever took a day off. You were mining a bottomless pit of money so any time you weren't working you felt you were throwing money away. Since there was no guarantee it would last forever you certainly didn't have the time or motivation to spend any more time in target pubs than you needed to, or to spend any more money than was necessary.

I have never met Eric but Trevor Montague wrote the Quiz Machine players bibles "The Daily Telegraph A-Z of just about everything". He is also one of the organisers of the British Quiz Championships.


I can categorically assure you that it was possible to win £80.00 out of a Concentration over time.

tonkarentino wrote:I can categorically assure you that it was possible to win £80.00 out of a Concentration over time.

I have no doubt that a bank of £80.00 could be built up. That wasnt my problem - it is the "80 pound coins" element of the story that I was seeking confirmation on.

David Healy wrote:

tonkarentino wrote:I can categorically assure you that it was possible to win £80.00 out of a Concentration over time.

I have no doubt that a bank of £80.00 could be built up. That wasnt my problem - it is the "80 pound coins" element of the story that I was seeking confirmation on.

Apologies if my reply sounded brusque. Do you mean they couldn't hold £80.00? My book of tricks says that the tubes held £110.00 full.
:
I'd forgotten all about Concentration. Great while it lasted.

tonkarentino wrote:Apologies if my reply sounded brusque. Do you mean they couldn't hold £80.00? My book of tricks says that the tubes held £110.00 full.

No problem with reply. I genuinely don't know what the tubes held, hence my doubt. What I do know is that I never played one with that much money in it. I'm also fairly sure they started paying out 20p's once the pounds were exhausted. Does your book of tricks tell you the denominations that the tubes held?

I must admit that I am surprised, as later machines (ones I do know what they held) held less.

David Healy wrote:

tonkarentino wrote:Apologies if my reply sounded brusque. Do you mean they couldn't hold £80.00? My book of tricks says that the tubes held £110.00 full.

No problem with reply. I genuinely don't know what the tubes held, hence my doubt. What I do know is that I never played one with that much money in it. I'm also fairly sure they started paying out 20p's once the pounds were exhausted. Does your book of tricks tell you the denominations that the tubes held?

I must admit that I am surprised, as later machines (ones I do know what they held) held less.

You sure it was 20s after the £ tube was emptied? My memory is that it was 10s on Concentration, Total Recall etc, and the 20s were on Question of Sport, Quizvaders and the like. I could be wrong of course; after all it was rather a long time ago. I don't have any recollection of any of these machines having a 50p tube, unlike the classic JPM and Barcrest games.