Boulderdash

Someone more nerdy can me can work out the odds of that, given you say it's 50/50 repeat chance. Quite long, I'd wager! As evidenced by the fact it's taken me 30 years to get it!

I only became aware of the CPCB invincible mode when I found the CMA guide. Previously I'd done my absolute buttons in one at the golf club, presumably after someone had done it. It got taken away shortly after and I never managed to do one myself

Autoplay. Don't talk to me about autoplay. Brain the size of a planet and all I do is put virtual coins in virtual slots and press virtual buttons...

JPMs were quite different to Barcrest in this respect. They were designed so many features could pay jackpot, so it paid to collect them, like Test Your Strength. Barcrest, particularly in the £15 era, were basic forces like current Betcoms, which will pay £100 and maybe go on for the £150. Even at £15 jackpot, you'd of course hope/expect the Barcrest would pay £60 because it had built up enough to repeat, or go invincible next board and repeat twice. Totally different strategies.

Yes, that's exactly that @edwardbconfirmed.

I just had Rollercoaster repeat five times for £59.60... I've never seen that in the emulator or in the wild! It's not like it was miles behind either - now it's up to 94% overall, compared to 92% it says it's set at in the config. Of course it stopped numbering after that and played like a dog!

...although the numbers on Crystal games like Bags of Cash were apparently random, and certainly irrelevant in terms of odds. You win or lose, whether the number is 2 or 7.

This was my expectation. Even if numbering weren't explicitly in the code, it could choose 1s and 12s because it can afford it, so it's an accidental tell.

Here's a question that maybe @Projectgildacan answer. What determines the number reel stops? Is it random or linked to the compensator?

Anyone doing the lines, or spot the ball, would usually try and take all the actual value from the game as the tubes got low so the next punter filled it up, so that's probably why @Chopaholictook so many beatings.

As with all these things, I'm sure it was both, and more besides. Jackpots too high Too many players Too many empties/manipulations The internet Beer getting too expensive so even if people did go to the pub they didn't throw their change in the bandit

Ah yes. Oxford graduate Alastair James Hay Murray, son of a lieutenant colonel in 131 (Parachute) Regiment, descendant of novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, and grandson of former British ambassador Sir Ralph Murray, from the Scottish aristocracy, made a great career pretending to be a xenophobic pub landlord, with a cut price Alexei Sayle persona. In reality he's a wet liberal and the joke is supposedly at the expense of people who think like the landlord. But he carries on with the facade, even though he's coining it in at their expense. A bit like Johnny Speight's Alf Garnet character. Gervais is the same with Derek.

Yeah, once they controlled the deal game it became just another way to win £15-£20 and rarely any more.

If only there was a way to track them down. I'd love to have a go on rollercoaster 2...

The later BFMs like Redial and Big Box also played like £25 jackpot. I guess the designers were trying to make something in the AWP spirit, and you could genuinely play those things for half an hour and only lose a tenner. Sure, you could try and force out a jackpot, but you wouldn't usually get it for less than you paid.

Anything over £200 seems too much for a compensated club machine. I think that's why the late 80s machines were so playable - the base games, if properly balanced, would be great fun for casuals. The profile on Barcrest blackjack, celebration, pontoon club etc was pretty flat, so if someone had lost a bit you could win a bit, but you'd never really get torn a new one.

Yeah, BFM Club Attraction and clones are still some of my favourite games to play in the emulator

Even on £200, Barcrest clubbers played a reasonable game, because they were essentially £40 jackpot machines. Only brave souls who gambled out huge wins, or those lucky enough to be playing when the pot rolled in, would win more. But that meant they got lots of casual action in golf clubs, so those big gambles were usually available to players.

I assume there's no roms for this available?!

I think we're all agreed that once the jackpot went over 40x stake, which would have been £10 all cash era and onwards, they ceased being AWPs and were purely for gambling.

Pubs these days unfortunately aren't going to waste a corner of the bar with a machine that makes almost no money and needs regular maintenance. Fortunately you can play games like this in the emulator.

I'd been kicking around on the digital slots for a couple of years, trying to quit as I could see I was always losing, but not really understanding why and kept going back. Thanks to @slotsmagic's recommendation of the Allen Carr method, I've not had more than the faintest interest in playing one since January, and I have no reason to suppose that'll change. I don't need to replace the 'buzz', because it was the machines that created the need. I don't play them so don't suffer the withdrawal. I'd recommend it to everyone

Where is the anger being directed at @Projectgilda? None of this is his fault, and no one has said it was!

At no point am I placing blame on @Projectgilda. Nothing I have said could even be construed as such.

I think this is a false equivalence. Yes, there are some issues similar to the above, but this is about developers deliberately adding nefarious code into their machine from which they would profit at the expense of children and gambling addicts. I see zero harm in the video game thing, but the latter is wholly different.