CompostCORNER
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Posts posted by CompostCORNER
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I don't know what to say....
Came home from an evening out on call, winding down before bed (2.30am), put the TV on and opened YouTUBE and saw then played Degsy's video. It doesn't compute. It doesn't seem real. What on earth is going on when someone so talented, a star shining so brightly, just unexpectantly goes out? And at 55? Thats so cruel....
Like many others here, I've never met Chris, I never knew anything about him except for what he has made for this scene. The emulators that dragged me from the brink of my self destructing fruit machine addiction. I didn't know where he lived, what music he listened to, what his favourite films are or even his none MFME hobbies were. Infact, my mental image of Chris was of someone maybe slightly eccentric, a bit like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, but also a down to earth chap who cares about what people think. Regardless of my mental image of Chris, and the fact that our only conversing was in threads where he'd answer my niggles or I'd get a nice comment for a release I made, I feel like I've lost a very close and dear friend. And i feel a great emptiness growing inside...
I will always be indebted to Chris for all he has brought us, or brought me if I was to show a bit of selfishness... Absolutely devastated he has passed on. And still trying to work out why this is happening?
I think Chris knew what his software did for helping people like me. A true fruit machine addict. I hope he left this world sooo happy knowing what he had achieved and how many people he had helped. Or should I say SAVED...
I was saved...
I was saved by Chris Wren.
I owe you more than you'll ever know....
Rest in peace pal.
Tony...
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5 hours ago, wearecity said:
Not seen that before love the new 2p entry notice. Like the separate up and down nudge buttons.
Always found holding cancel a bit of a time waster if you need to nudge up quick and it's on a machine where nudges suddenly occur.
There was no 'nudge quick' on this game. during play, there were 2 flashing button sequences that could occur. The first, you could just get the HOLD buttons light up. Just standard holds mind.... The CANCEL button was for resetting your choice if you held the wrong reel. The second flashing buttons sequence, all the buttons the 3 HOLDs, the 3 NUDGE UP buttons and the 3 NUDGE DOWN buttons would light up. During this play, you could choose any combination of HOLDs, NUDGE UP and NUDGE DOWN but you could only select one of each, for each reel. You were pre-selecting what you wanted to do. The nudge was a single nudge either up, or down depending on which button you pressed.... There was no time limit for you to choose your selection. You simply decided which buttons to press, if any, to try and bring in a win. Once you'd decided, you'd press START and your selection would happen. You could of course hold nothing, and all reels would spin normally.
In the pic above, if this feature occurred, you could select NUDGE UP on reel 1, NUDGE DOWN on reel 2 (to bring the grapes onto the winline), and just let reel 3 spin and hope for the grapes on reel 3. When you press START, you'd see quite a clever thing. In my example, Reel 1 would jump 1 position up, Reel 2 would then jump 1 position down, and reel 3 would spin. Simple but effective. It was the main way to get the SUPER SPIN symbols into view.
Hope my explanation makes sense. The NUDGE buttons gave you a single nudge in the direction of your selection that you chose BEFORE you pressed START
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More of a request really...
I'm presuming this game is maybe MPU1 or MPU2. I seem to also think that I have seen this game in an older 'mech' cabinet. I suspect it was out there in the very late 70's or very early 80's... For me' it was highly addictive to play. If anyone knows Grimsby, (not that Sasha Baron Cohen movie...), but on Cleethorpes Road in Grimsby, a few yards from the junction with Freeman Street, was an arcade called 'Caesars Palace'. It's still got the sign up outside but it's been boarded up for more than 15 years... I've always wondered if the actual game I played and got sooo much fun out of, is sat in there, rusting away...
DAD talked about 'Pool Play' as his fave machine. 'Spin-A-Win' was mine. For its time, it was quite advanced. A setup where if you got the random NUDGE feature, all the buttons flashing and that common 'bruup bruup - bruup bruup' sound panicking you into doing something, you could do one of the following on each reel by pressing the corresponding button... 3 rows of buttones for each reel...The top row was NUDGE UP, the middle row was HOLD, and the bottom row was NUDGE DOWN... You could HOLD the reel, NUDGE UP the reel, or NUDGE DOWN the reel. Watching the machine NUDGE reel 1 UP, HOLD reel 2, and NUDGE reel 3 down was quite awesome to see.
The object of the game was to get 3 'SPIN a WIN' symbols anywhere in the window. It was one of those 27 way things like the old JPM symbols from years gone by. This started the SPIN a WIN feature. Up to 7 SPIN a WIN's coud be had, You'd hit the START button to determine how many win spins you got. Then when all the spins were finished, there was a 50/50 chance of being awarded the featue again.
For such a machine of its time, it was quite an entertaining game to play.
Anyone remember it?
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That total is quite impressive. It's certainly well deserved too. For me, MFME is priceless and I'm thankful I get to use it whenever I want.
A thought.....
I see content providers on YouTUBE have 'Patreon' to aquire a bit of pocket money. Is that something that could be done? Even if people give just £1 a month, and say a few hundred or even a thousand people give just a quid, even 50p, thats some decent reward for the tireless work Wizard does for our pleasure. I'd be up for that. As long as Chris doesn't blow it on women and cars. Unless you have no choice of course lol....
Anyway, congrats pal. This is well earned.
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2 minutes ago, JRSC01 said:
Just reading the 20 years ago letter, strange how far we have come, from the then new £25 jackpots, and the doubtful 50p stakes of bigger machines, to the vast amount of bookies stakes to then setlle back at £2 max, and with some non club machines now having jackpots of £25-£35-£50-£100-£200 (now some are up to £400 at £2 stake), not including the already in place £500 jackpot machines.
What will we see in another few years? £1000 Jackpots?
I'm not bothered about jackpot size but I am bothered about quality of gameplay. If I lost every time but had some cracking gameplay along the way, I'd not be so dejected. Yeah i'd still be miffed but if there was some entertainment, I'd not cry as much when my wallet was stripped bare lol. But today's games are 'all or nothing'. Manufactures don't give a toss for the end user. They only want to devise more streamlined and efficient ways to get our money from our pockets, to please the operators...Thank god... actually, strip that. God has nothing to do with this. Thank WIZARD for MFME to help me break the cycle of self destructive gambling that was absolutely no fun at all.
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Theres a 'remastered' BluRAY boxset of 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Centrury' thats out there. I bought it and it's unbelievably clear. I had Gil Gerard (BUCK) on my Facebook before i deleted Facebook and had a rather heated debate about Donald Trump. He's not a fan of his.... Erin Gray (Wilma) actually contacted me to tell me the benifits of Pilates for a bloke in his late 40's... With the exception of Nigella Lawson telling me that a bacon sandwich MUST have brown sauce on it, thats about all the conversing I've done with famous people...
Battlestar Galactica is also out there remastered on BluRAY. Again on Facebook, I had a few (just 1) conversations with the late Richard Hatch (Apollo). He's now passed on but his legacy lives on.
I've now got a 4k OLED Tv and 4k BluRAY player. I'm waiting for the 4k 'Flash Gordon' to be released in early August. On back order, the woman has already called me a sad bastard and has guaranteed that she won't be here to watch it when it comes.... I hope I haven't snuffed her off lol...
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I've seen Bob Ross on BBC4 this last week. I had to turn it off though to avoid a short hard punch to the upper arm area from the woman.
With the exception of Jeff Lynne (from ELO), I've never seen anyone with hair like Bob.
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How come I didn't find this thread earlier!!
Thanks guys for these conversions. My weekend is gonna be a little brighter. (when I'm back from being on callout duty)..
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3 hours ago, Reg said:
Ok, that's enough now - we got the main players and so many in between including @Ginge.
Spellingwise.... I think Fishta is 'Fishsta'... I have a feeling that Hurtland165 maybe 'Hurtand165'.
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So if the final total is nice and big, will we be seeing 'Rehab for Wizard' from say August?
LOL
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I'm sure 'Echo' did some legacy layouts. I do remember him spending a hell of a lot of time making animated mini-fruitmachine Avatar's that loads of people used for their avatar.
On 02/06/2020 at 15:01, Pook said:Few more, some are obvious, others a bit obscure...
RB
Pembo
Stiffy
Spanner
BennyBoy
Strider
Jamie
Moe
Hurtand165
Dreamer
BarcrestChamp
Steveir
BarXQueenAnd @Reg why would you not be on the list, you've released more that most. If you're not on it or Digital Fruit at the very least then you can take me off please.
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57 minutes ago, vectra666 said:
I’d say dx wise you have one from 1981/2 you now need the following
1990-94- something token era say AE,s 777 heaven
or a pook dx95-2000 - classic jpm roller coaster by tommy c
2000-2005 a barcrest machine of this era
2006-2016 - dond or clone pick one of my donds maybe, or Astra machine
right time right deal £100 or a reflex machine?
problem is there’s so many to choose from and so many excellent creators
that way you’re showcasing not just the dxs but the manufactures that define those eras of emulation
I'd second the 1990-94 suggestion.... 777-HEAVEN would be recognisable for the standard member of public in both the amusement arcade (seaside or city) and in the pubs at that time. If you've never seen a 777 HEAVEN, then you're either very young, or Stevie Wonder. CrazyPAYS and Sevens&MELONS are up there too.... ACE's 'PLAY IT AGAIN' would be a back-up choice.
2000 to 2005 I think 'Psycho Cash Beast' was the game to play. I'm sure someone will slap me down if I'm wrong about the year...
2010 original 'Deal or no Deal' Edmonds has to appear. If you look on YouTUBE, theres a couple of decent episodes of 'Noels House Party' to watch.
Useful if we are pushing for recognisable games..
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On 13/05/2020 at 13:16, Wizard said:
Wine is no use to me tbh, I don't drink the stuff lol
Ha ha.. Thats ace...
I was gonna ask for a review on the best wines out there. And wether I should move my drinking habit from White Lightening to Labrini. The other half's folks live about 40 miles from Saint Emilion near Bordeaux, France. I kid you not, we went to a place that sold red wine by the glass with 1 glass of the most expensive stuff being 125Euro , their cheapest just 5Euro. Both tasted the same. But they were convincing the American tourists it was genuine classic French wine. I'm sure they see people who have no idea about wine coming, and charge them a fortune for cheap red wine. The same place had vintage bottles of red wine in excess of £30k
Why? Why would you buy that unless you have money to burn!!
If you do like a good craft beer mind, I'd recommend BrewDOG's 'Elvis Juice'. Tesco are doing 2 x 4 Can boxes for £9
I got a feeling that Wizard is actually tee-total and is actually saving for a nice motorhome for holidaying..... tut
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'Wine for Wizard'? Does that mean 'Kebab for Compost' is out the window then? CHEERS PAL!! I was looking forward to my 'Kebab for Compost' badge too.
Seriously, I'm honoured to have been part of this scene and have so much respect for the chaps still pushing forward. I, just like others here, were consumed by fruit machines. If i don't say I was addicted, I'd be lying and still in denial. As Reg said earlier, and I can genuinely relate to this, him punting a full wage packet into a fruit machine, well that was the norm for me 20 years ago. And lots of chaps I've chatted with on the scene over the years have similar stories. Thankfully, those dark days for me are long gone. Now, I've a mortgage, a woman who came with a blinking Labrador called Dudley that if I were to be honest, 'and this is from a bloke who thinks dogs are stupid ball licking creatures sent to shit all over my perfectly lawned garden', I don't do dogs. Or cats... is a smart animal that at times, I think has a human spirit in that head of his.
I know thats a bold paragraph up there and heres something even more bold. MFME isn't just a piece of code. For me, it was the beginning of the end of my addiction. Just like a nicotine patch weened me off the dreaded smokes, MFME weened me of the fruit machines. It's a very powerful medicine indeed.
That alone deserves a contribution from me. Stay off the Prosecco, Pinot Grigio is ok, but if you can find it, Grand Sud, a genuine French wine makes all the stuff in UK stores taste like White Lightening.
To Wizard
Cheers pal.
Tony
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20 hours ago, A:E said:
The ST didn’t have any music capabilities, the sound processor onboard was the extremely weak Yamaha sound chip . It was just that musicians adopted the Atari as it had built in midi port and some excellent software like Cubase, Steinberg. The ST was widely used by professional musicians.
J
Yeah of course. I do remember now.
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Over a year since last post so sorry in advance....
I regularly boot up the Amiga emulator. Theres still some addictive games out there. Zeewolf for one, although graphically inferior to anythine even the 1st Playstation ran, gameplay was pretty top notch. I bought my first A500 based on a sound sample. My choices between the A500 or the Atari ST 520. The original game Lemmings, when the door in the ceiling opened, on the A500 a sample played 'Lets Go!'.... Nothing on the Atari 520. The irony, I bought the A500 because of a sound sample, but the Atari ST520 was used throughout the music industry for its sound capabilities....
I remember my days contributing stupid letters, Hot Topic stories and other experiences to the old Digitizer on ITV Teletext and C4 Teletext, earning myself a full 6 years of continuous subscription to Amiga Format (winning the star letter on the Hot Topic) many many times. Back then, the whole world blamed the demise of the Amiga on software privacy. But I remember picking up a few 'pirate' games of titles before the original game was even released. It was rumoured that the software houses themselves released 'unofficial' copies of their games, just like 'pirate' copies, pre-release for publicity. I think Amiga Format once mentioned in the dying months of the Amiga, for every full price purchased game, there were 40 pirated copies...
Nothing will ever beat the Spectrum for piracy. A few versions of 'The Key' or 'Tape 2 Tape', then the Jet Set Will 2 bug where a few 'POKE's prior to loading, would allow the game to not only be fixed, but saved entirely onto a blank casette tape. That seriously upped my street cred at Hull Grammar School back in the early 1980s...
lol, i'm still mentioned under 'BONES' on the Digitiser hommage site 'SuperPage58' http://www.superpage58.com/do-you-see-digitiser-a-to-z.htm
Bring back the AMIGA!!!!!
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Didn't ACE bring out a version of 'Play It Again' on System1? I seem to recall a 10p £4 Jackpot variant that even still had the REEL/BAND AID match on it. Shame Blue Chip didn't have the same REEL AID feature.
You're right about Blue Chip though. They were everywhere. They were like the Campri ski jacket of the fruit machine world. You saw them everywhere. Infact, I was probably wearing my Campri ski jacket, in Hull city centre, middle of athe red hot summer playing Blue Chip down the old SUNSPOT arcade...
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That looks awesome. Had to look twice to see which was the real deal.
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Anyone come across one of these Famicom units? I think they are some sort of Chinese rip-off of the old Nintendo Family Computer. Like an original Japanese NES unit. They come with 2 reasonable joypads, plus a cartridge with hundreds of games on. Ironically, the bloody thing doesnt run with the cart in but runs fine with it removed. You need to have a TV capable of recieving RCA composite video (you know, those 3 jack connectors comprising of a yellow video jack and a red jack and white jack for audio). My SONY Bravia KD55 OLED UHD TV won't accept the video signal without a RCA to HDMI converter. My LG HDTV works fine provided you don't plug the cartridge in whilst the console is switched on. There must be some RAM on the Famicom unit as all the games on the cart are accessible on the console without the cart plugged in. I suspect that if you power up the unit with the cart in, the games are transferred to the console. But it seems you have to remove the cart to play the games. Theres plenty of original NES games on this unit, but the weird thing, theres Galaga, Space Invaders and other MAME games in the list leading me to believe theres some sort of MAME emulator on board. I'm pretty sure that this alone proves that this is some sort of Chinese rip-off.
I bought 2 of em for christmas presents from Cash Converters in sunny Scunny (Scunthorpe) for £40 each. Pretty good value if I'm honest.
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13 hours ago, Wizard said:
Just knocked up a classic of Apache based on @Reg Big Chief layout. Similar game but different features and also a hi-lo gamble.
Thanks for the download.
Hard to believe that Barcrest created this tech and only did like 3 games. That it appears in the emulator, time and effort to create by your good self, I'm certainly glad you took the time when it could have been deemed too much effort for so little return. (BFM Winfall on the cards? LOL).
Gamewise, they are quite enjoyable. Feature exchange can be brutal. I did play for the 'reel aid/band' on this type of game. I'm having a bit of an MFME renaissance right now visiting games of the past.....
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18 hours ago, Chopaholic said:
Hey there Compost, I've uploaded quite a few early ROMs and the layouts for them to this sub-forum here, just look for threads started by me
Basically anything that you see on the channel running previously unavailable ROMs, will have been uploaded by me to here.
http://www.desertislandfruits.com/forum/index.php?/forum/19-layout-ramgam-files/
Thats fantastic pal. Thanks for that. Much appreciated.
Early roms do have an enormous sentimental value for me. See back in Hull, in the late 1980's and well in to the mid 90's, there was a place called 'Sunspot'. At the time i just thought it was a run of the mill, high street amusement arcade but it held a sinister secret. All the machines in the arcade were on test from new. one of the lads working there said that they were subsidised in some way to cover any losses.
Thing is, back then, i was on shitty YTS money. £27.30 was a weeks wage. My mum would take almost half of it for board and lodgings, which wasn't all that bad considering she made 'out of this world' Yorkshire puds from scratch, and even though I was pretty much grown up, i'd regularly get Birds Eye waffles, Bernard Matthews turkey twizzlers and proper HP baked beans for tea. Anyway, enough of that... So, I'd have about £15 left. Any night out with the lads had to involve a visit to Sunspot to hopefully boost the cash pot. I didn't always improve my financial situation but strangely, and this is something of a big deal for me where fruit machines are concerned, and may well have contributed to my addiction to the things back then, I'd have something like a 80% chance of winning some money. It was very rare I left the place with less money than I went in. Sure enought though, equally, there were machines that were awful and took your money. I stayed well clear of those.
In Sunspot, they had a fruit machine based SWP called Hang Man, prize Space Invaders and the new ACE SpACE machines were in evident. Grand Prix was my new payday. Once I mastered the 'Nudge Quick' on those machines, I was in the money. Now from what I remember, Ace's Grand Prix must have had a free win for the Nudge Quick feature on early roms as I kid you not, no matter what win I took, providing it was from the Nudge Quick feature, the game just got happier and happier. Many many times I maxed the bank out at £50. I'd have to play the tokens on something else but my nights around Hull City Centre sometime around 1990 or so were paid for by Grand Prix. I never had time to try to empty the machine as my skint friends were nagging me to get off...
Ironically, that machine was replaced after 6 months and I never did see it anywhere in the wild. Open the Box was the next time I saw anything like it.
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14 hours ago, Big J said:
Glad to know the ball and chain is working out for you
Alex has much better videos than me(clarity wise) but if you head over to my channel too I have a few emptiers along with other tricks that you should enjoy. Also, Pay Rise had more than one emptier!
I'll check it out pal. Not sure what the woman will say as her brand spanking new ipad already gets what she deems as 'weird' YouTUBE notification beeps from such things as BeardvFood, Mystic7's Pokemon channel and Sandwell Mobiles Scratchcard Sunday
This YouTUBE stuff is gonna be my undoing....
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Oh no... I've just stumbled on Choppers you tube channel. 'Oh no' as in i had a fully booked up weekend of appeasing the woman and doing stuff that looks like we both agreed to do, but was actually her idea and forced upon me where I said YES just to keep the peace. All that and I aint even married..... Anyway, checking out your channel, looks like I've a fair few videos to watch. I can't believe the 'Find the Pea' feature on ACE's Pay Rise was a free win... Did the scene ever have any success in finding many 1st revision roms for any games? And if so, where can i find them?
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For those a lot younger than me.....
Bet you've never seen Phil Collins dressed as a sunflower before ha ha.
Oh, Pork and Windy..... there was a show in the very early 80's that was massive at the time with the late great Robin Williams called 'Mork and Mindy'.....
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Wizard - A Virtual Wake
in Wizard's Rest
Posted
A double for Chris.
Rest in peace old boy.