Cavey

What a great BFM clubber that machine was.

Ah no worries at all mate, thanks very much for going to all that trouble regardless, much appreciated Ploggy.

Yay!!! Awesome news mate!

Crikey, yes, that's it Ploggy! Wow. It was a nasty piece of work in my experience, seemed to take take take (teasing for the 2 x Joker cashpot), and both the cash and nudge gambles were brutal. (The nudge gamble was one up or down, but it would let you carry on, so you could eventually lose your entire nudges, which I think accumulated as a nudgepot?) I must've been 18 when I last played one of these in the wild The clubber was a much better machine (IMO) but even more brutal. BFMs of this era didn't muck about. EDIT: Shame it doesn't work though (I wonder if the ROMs would work in the BFMulator? Long shot I guess lol)

Yeah, Jokers Wild was another one - and its grown up clubber variant which was Queen of Clubs. I remember the latter well; it had various "player advantage" pre-spin bonuses like "double next win" (up to JP), and like all great clubbers, it had a proper shit-or-bust gamble all the way to the JP, from any reel win. £50 double/nothing in 1985, anyone...? (Ouch... I was earning £35/week in 1985!)

Awesome flyer, cheers Ploggy! I guess it's possible one of these could turn up one day... It was a very entertaining machine for its day, and like you say, the Big Money feature was a massive big deal which could repeat on and on and pay out massively (and a great rarity, which added to its appeal, a bit like 5-5-5 on Razzle Dazzle/Strike-A-Light etc.)

Hi all, not sure if this is the right thread etc., but does anyone happen to know if an old BFM AWP called Superpots (or its later update Hyperpots) from circa 1985 or 1986-ish have ever been emulated please? System 85 I think (possibly System 83). They had a "sudden impact", randomly given BIG MONEY feature which either gave £3JP or £1 cash out of nowhere, which could then repeat quite a few times. The usual feature involved a number trail and various nudge pots etc., it's been a very long time though lol. These were good, hard-edged AWPs to play, especially in their original £3JP guise. Any info appreciated.

Stake Up is actually a very early MPU4 game I believe (not MPU3). But anyway, yes, early Barcrest clubbers would not permit gambling past £10 on 10p play or £5 on 5p play (unlike similar vintage BFMs or JPMs). IIRC there is a dipswitch setting on MPU3 roulette wheel gamble games which doubles the gamble limit (£20 on 10p and £10 on 5p).

Pfft. “Thank you” costs nothing mate. Bloody entitled snowflakes these days, can’t stand ‘em.

Meh. I reckon that flat battery was left like that "by accident" lol. Perpetually RAM resetting machine always in start up suck mode, day in and day out (complete with "80% payout or greater" sticker?) Sounds like a very easy way to site a de facto very low % machine to me. Surely not.

Awesome thanks Andy, that worked a treat! Gotta love those Roy Walker samples... "Riiiiiiiiight!!"

Hmm, this layout appears to be mute for me. Am I doing something wrong?

Awesome, cheers guys Sorry for the late reply, well laid up with man flu. Is there anyone who hasn't got this fecking cough?

Ah, sorry @SocialDragon368 I didn’t even realise we had a legacy section…: … silly old fool that I am, I mean I’ve only been around 20 years Many thanks

Hi guys, does anyone know if BFM’s Gameshow AWP and/or 4-reel clubber of the early to mid 90s has ever been released for MFME please? (I seem to recall the clubber was done way back for the BFMulator)

Ah Club Six Five Special. My favourite club machine of all time, bar none. I never (formally) knew the emptier, but I knew enough to time between jackpots at our local social club (one JP every 5 days or so), 20p stake force, as soon as the win appeared up top (must be at least 3 lines), press 50p top stake next spin (win after a win). Various other cues; watch where lemons fall on consecutive spins; if these make up a “win”’ then that’s a good sign. Bells “showing” is especially auspicious etc…. Love the nuances of this Gambler’s heaven game (plenty of lo tech charms, setups and cheats on the base game too). 5p play,£75JP. Awesome on 1992, potted the JP 15 times on the bounce without even knowing the actual emptier lol. A true gambler’s machine, must’ve been amazing on 20p stake and the same chip.

Heh! You and me both mate.... although I still to this day remember the resident MPU3 Strike-a-Light giving me the 555 £3 repeat hold four times for a princely £15 in tokens, which left the punters queuing for their chippy tea stunned (and me too for that matter). Gah, must've been around 1984, not far shy of 40 bloody years ago. Funny how you remember shite like this.

"But in the end, did the compensated AWP die out because of emptiers? And if so when? I’d be interested in your thoughts." This is a subject that I've endlessly posted about before, including way, way back in the day. Some 20 years or so back over at the now long-defunct Fruit Forums, I was laughed at when I said that one day soon enough, all - or most - fruit machines would be random, not compensated, and they would still have plenty of features, bonus rounds and all the rest, much in the same vein as the stuff we were all playing back then. Well, that certainly doesn't look so far fetched now, eh chaps? The principal reason underpinning my reasoning at that time was (and still is) the inherently flawed model of compensated games. If games are *not* truly random, this surely calls into question the whole mechanism that is used in lieu; when a game is deemed to be required to pay out by the code and under what specific set of circumstances that this occurs. Potentially, a whole big can of worms is opened regarding the "fairness" of this; whether Player A is conferred a (possibly unfair) advantage over Player B becuase he's awesome at skill stops, has a detailed knowledge of how each feature behaves and under what circumstances (e.g. the number showing on the hi-lo reel or whatever other setup) - or is using an entirely counter-intuitive illicit "cheat" built into the code that he has exclusive knowledge of; something that could never be reasonably discovered during normal play. No-one would ever suggest that a slot in Vegas could be programmed in such a manner; the very thought of a machine with a progressive jackpot of tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars being at the whim of a select few bent players with "good connections" would be risible, most would agree. (In fact, the RNG powering slots in Vegas has to be rigorously tested, certified and licensed for this very reason). For some reason, though, no-one in the UK was that bothered about having similar concerns for hapless fruit machine players here, presumably on the premise along the lines of the games are not true gambling but "amusement with prizes", with supposedly inconsequentially low jackpots or whatever, no different in principle to a bent toy -grabbing crane machine on a fairground that everyone is supposed to "know" is bent? (How all this is supposed to work with club machines having exactly the same problems/exploits having jackpots of £200-£400 is anyone's guess). Let's be honest; if Fair Play taught us anything at all, it told us that fruit machine players were generally regarded as pond scum unworthy of even basic protection from being taken for an absolute ride, and we basically deserved all we got for being stupid enough to play "one armed bandits". I remember with wry amusement my unshakable belief that fruit machines simply *had* to be fair - because "mumble, mumble, computers innit" - and thinking that people would be up in arms were this not the case? To say that the advent of the internet, the FME Scene and the emulators has been illuminating in this respect would be an understatement. I think, to answer the question, the compensated AWP began to die at the £8-£10JP era, went into further decline by £15JP and was dead as a dodo at £25JP. This was likely due to a number of factors; the increasing JP to stake ratio meant that JPs had to be harder to get (increasing the importance of emptiers, illicit cheats to do so); the presumed sharing of such illicit info among "pro" players, making the likelihood of casual players "not in the know" encountering more and more dead, raped machines; the catastrophic loss of credibility of fruit machines amongst the playing public. Who sees the once ubiquitous fruit machine in pubs and cafes now? As to who came out on top and who lost because of emptiers and the like, well, I've had a couple of decades to reconsider my answer on that score. I used to look on in envy at pro players who had "the knowledge"; who were always able to reliably return a good profit (at others' expense) by playing the machines. Not any more though, as I have come to realise that they were still paying a heavy price for those perks. How many of them are still, even now, shovelling thousands into machines - or more likely FOBTs at bookies, online slots or whatever - still scratching the itch? Even playing fruit machines that you know you're going to win on still feeds the gambling monster. Back in 2003, I left fruit machines in disgust; one dead JPM too many, a severe beating at a casino. I'll be honest and say that in the last 20-odd years I've had perhaps 3-5 "relapses", a dabble at an online casino here or there, but essentially been gambling free apart from a daft bet on the National or the Lottery etc. My life has been transformed beyond any recognition between then and now; I've been able to get my shit together well and truly, and never looked back. For me, the people who (ironically) came out on top from emptiers are those casual players who finally got *so* pissed off, that even they realised they were literally burning fivers in the street and would never, ever win - ever - and finally got the impetus they needed to fuck fruit machines off forever. That's my take on it anyhow lol.

Belated sympathy and commiserations, Chopley, for your deciding to pull your YouTube channel. Totally understand your reasons. I decided many years ago that any kind of social media wasn't for me; my days of daily interactions on forums etc. are well behind me. I think for me, my naivety about what I thought the internet and "online communities" were, say, back in the early noughties - and what they have evolved into - was brought into sharp focus a number of times. Bottom line, there are just too many creepy, ne'er do well obsessives out there who'll resent you for any number of reasons, and it's just not worth it IMO. The likes of Twitter etc. sends a shiver down my spine tbh. Happy to keep my head down and enjoy RL, well away from prying eyes.

I'll just add my voice to the many here who are stunned at this loss. It's very difficult to know what to say; we each of us here owe Chris a very large debt for his genius, tenacity, dedication and above all, generosity. Where would half or more of us be, were it not for him? I do know that in my own case, his emulators did something truly magical: they turned a dark, dangerous, destructive habit threatening the very core of my family, into something harmless, fun and enjoyable. I seriously doubt that anyone outside of our circle here could even comprehend what I'm talking about, but I do know fine well that this amazing transfiguration of a terrible demon into happy, harmless fun will resonate with many. And all down to the genius of one man. Like many others here, I'm sad to say that I never met Chris in person, but I very much enjoyed the odd chat with him over the years - his enthusiasm for the cause was undimmed in 20 years, it seemed to me - and his achievements and legacy will stand for all time. Just remains to say: what a total legend, Chris. You were, and very much remain, a true inspiration to us all. I salute you. RIP Chris. Simon (Cavey)

Ah! Allow me to briefly chip in at this juncture, just to say it’s bloody good to see you again Retrofruit - legend mate.