Cavey

Brilliant! Cheers lads "Your backup strategy (or lack thereof....) would like a word" Ain't that the bloody truth.... "disorganised knobhead" doesn't even scratch the surface

Hi guys, I'd like to do a piece on the old classic 'Crest Big Shot, but what with numerous laptop changes/crashes and so on over the years, I no longer have a layout for it. I've checked the legacy section and can't find it there either (although it could be there lol, knowing my IT skills). If any kind soul could help an old man out, would be much appreciated.

Many thanks pbb. My memory fails me again lol.

Wasn't it LOTR? Suffice to say, I wasn't in on it at the time lol.

I think they were all early MPU4 'Crests? (Not a fan, personally. I preferred JPMs of a similar vintage like Moneybelt etc. Castles as well).

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Ah ok Chopley, fair enough, thanks for the definitive info mate My shitty, fading memory seems to recall that the related clubbers like Club Action Cash did not necessarily make RTP though - or perhaps it was just such an unbearably shit, teasing game that was the issue. Did I mention these were SHITE?

The very first one - "All Cash Advance" I think (when on initial release chip at least) - was a great game. The alpha even said "you have a fair chance to go all the way" [to the tenner in cash after the maximum allowed 4 repeats], and it usually repeated at least once or twice. This was also the first time "action nudges" made their appearance IIRC, but these weren't quite the number taunting shitbags as per the later games. Barcrest obviously realised they were onto a winner with this mechanic, which among other things enabled them to (legitimately) plaster images of £5 and £10 notes all over the glasses of their machines (in stark contrast to what Bacta permitted previous to that AFAIK/IIRC), and also hooked players into the "sunken cost fallacy" of Action Nudges - no one (mistakenly in many cases) left a machine with any nudges lit for the next player. The later machines were REALLY brutal. Did anyone (apart from pluggers) ever make a bean on them, ever? Tight as a duck's arse, and awful forced-collect small wins gameplay so typical of Barcrests of the era. Real spawn of the devil type stuff. These must've made operators a bloody fortune back in the day. Wouldn't be surprised if the twats never made RTP, neither. Brrr.

Slightly O/T, but is there anywhere JPM's old "Give Us A Break" SWP is/can be emulated? That was a fun game in the late 80s. I always remember the "Black Ball Challenge" which was a but nail-biting at the end. Got the £10JP once via this route (got lucky with the questions, I was/am usually shite).

I base my choices on numbers and colours. I frequently don't even know the odds of the horses I'm betting on, never back the favourite, always bet on the nose, always ignore the "helpful" form guide left on all the terrace tables. Needless to say, I'm more successful than most of the self-proclaimed "experts". With the horses it's best to know everything or nothing (I'm the latter). Anything in between is very dangerous. "Golden Ferrari" was irresistible last meet; the favourite "Herschel" was 4/6 (hardly worth the risk, surely), whereas it was a 25/1 no hoper. It romped home, which made for a rather excellent late afternoon courtesy of Perrier-Jouet.

Well, I never play any form of fruit machine or slot, don't do casinos or bookies. I do like a punt on the Lottery (without much success, but it's just a few quid), and love the horses - I have a terrace "medal" for Chester Racecourse and am taking the missus and daughter #2 to Ladies Day tomorrow, as it goes. When I'm there, I do like to have a blast with the Totes etc., it's all part of the spice. I take £300 for gambling money and when it's gone it's gone, albeit I won £800 last visit and £1250 the one before that. I walked away cash in pockets both times (or more accurately, gave the lot to Mrs Caveman for a nice treat, it's the least she deserves for all the shit she went through with fruities). EDIT to add - I genuinely never notice fruities in pubs or anywhere else anymore.

Ah ok, cheers. I used to know a guy Fruitsim on the forums years back who had worked there (who was instrumental for their MPU5 Line Up IIRC, among others), and I remember him mentioning their autonomy now you mention it.

Weren't Red Gaming part of Barcrest though? If Barcrest didn't do it, is that literally just Barcrest - or all of their (contemporary) group companies of the time like Red, BWB, Vivid (and even Maygay in the end)?

Joking aside though, do we know if club machines were affected by this?

Sorry, twas a lamely unhelpful, comedic reference to clueless "neds" interjecting on every thread and nagging for CF c.2003 on FF etc., oh well if you have to explain an (extremely crap) joke etc.

But what happens if holds flash after a nudge and has Crazy Fruits been emulated? /fetches coat

Surely there's a way of empirically determining whether or not this is "a thing". Set up autoplay to use only £1 coins on a couple of Red Gaming offerings and off we go. Then "manually" interrupt and play for a bit and see what the gameplay is like.

Chopley will be the first to say we don't see eye to eye on many things and have had a right load of ding dongs in the past, but FWIW I'm totally with him on this one. If "the industry" didn't want their competitors dissecting their machines, then they should've gone about it in a way that did not - however rarely - give rise to normal punters being adversely affected by invisible "Stat Play" code or whatever.

Yeah it would be good to have the definitive answer from one of the coders.

As a matter of interest, did this "Stats Play" ever apply to - and affect - clubbers? (Or casino machines, come to that; say £500-£1000JP) It would be particularly concerning in their case, since many consecutive players would be pumping pound coins (exclusively) into them, not the increasingly apocryphal and so called "change from a round" player.

Yeah, that's what I did, essentially. Got a (sole) joint account with the missus, she knew exactly what was going in and out each month, with nowhere to hide. It worked.

For me, fruit machines got in the way of friends & great nights out, they didn't help. Most of my mates openly called me out (quite rightly) for ignoring them and being antisocial, whilst they all enjoyed a night out of beers/japes/pulling the lasses or whatever else. My choice & my bad, no one was forcing me to shovel pound after pound into a box of flashing lights - whilst in my prime, with no responsibilities, and during the early 90s, a great time to be alive. In retrospect, "great times" involved awesome carefree camaraderie with mates, various gorgeous girls, gigs, raves, great music, carefree times. Not being *that guy* changing up yet another tenner behind the bar and going home skint. What a dick.

Well, yeah. This. Even £20 in cash > £6 in tokens, especially as we now know the machines' %RTP was nerfed if you tried to play 'em (which let's face it you were always going to do in 95% of cases - the odd pub would exchange a limited amount of tokens for 50p's and 20p's "for the fag machine" but not many).

Very far from an expert (lulz at the very thought of it, I was crap), but even 'Crest clubbers varied quote significantly. With the really early MPU3 stuff, the roulette gamble was key, you could force out a sub £20-odd win (1984 money remember) just by gambling low orange wins or whatever, and there was always the off fiver or tenner off the nudges. (Super Series were usually rubbish). The JP would be thrown at you (once every 2-3 months or even less, of very heavy play - unlike today's bereft, unloved machines). Early 90s MPU4s were glorified AWPs (Jackpot Jump et al) but even then, machines like Sold Silver - which played like a total woffer most of the time - had an interesting uncapped double/nothing gamble, as did stuff like Crackpot's gamble ladder, and Stake Up could also be forced into, say, £12-£16 nudge wins (again, 1980s money). Club Hyper Viper/Adders did like to give flash holds for both the cashpot (had to be full, preferably with full reserve too) and the full £200 JP (all in open play of course - the frequently-awarded board was an "AWP plus" with £20 cash JP, usually £10 or £16 off nudgepot). Club Psycho Cash was an all-out forcer, and Club Blackjack (both former and later variants) had forceable gambles - like many Crystals. Club 999 also liked a force IIRC. I reckon the worst clubbers were Maygays. Absolute crap IMO.

Awesome J, cheers for the update! I remember Play It Again AWP (basically another ACE "reelband" affair that I didn't know the emptier for lol, and consequently always played like boring shite for me), but not the clubber variant. Would be great to see it in MFME (especially in the form of one of your DXes... if you don't ask you don't get etc ), do we have the resources do you know? Quite a few clubbers of that era were too easy to read like a book, even the old duffers would get wise to it in the end. Not seen many ACE clubbers either, mainly 'Crests and especially BFMs, the odd (rare) JPM or Maygay thrown in for good measure. BFM always made belting clubbers from late 80s System 85s through to Scorp 1 and 2s, but rather losing the plot thereafter (which was at the end of my playing days anyway, just as £25 AWPs were appearing). The last AWP I ever played was £25JP JPM Tomb Raider which gave me an unannounced IM first board (but was obviously an IM play-wise), which went for a flat £25 then dead, I pocketed twenty. Not a bad way to bow out I suppose.