Chopaholic

Your backup strategy (or lack thereof....) would like a word Only DX I seem to have for this is the old @wayfinder DX which in fairness still looks and plays fine. Attached below. Can't say for sure it's never been supplanted by a better one as MPU3 machines aren't really at the top of my most desirable list September 2003, bloody hell. Big Shot.zip

Ta-daaa!

I found it got more challenging in some regards but never in an unfair fashion, as you get more powers for your characters and new abilities to use and whatnot. You do need to work on your base as well though for the benefits it confers, so it's very much a game of two halves.

Loved this game Got a solid 30 hours out of it and basically maxed it all out, highly enjoyable. Had every building in the game in my base (whether I needed/wanted it or not), and effectively infinite resources too as my industries were so well organised (I don't have much gold in this screenshot because I'd just been splashing it around on anything and everything, but I could make thousands of gold from my mines whenever I wanted to.)

If you mean this one then no it was a different machine, but also had its own clones and semi-clones.

I covered this in a video on my channel a few years ago, as MFME emulates it. From a factory reset it wanted £124 before it finally offered a £20 jackpot board.

They do keep to percentage, the problem is with 'standard' percentages of the day they'll just grind you out against that 74% or whatever it is and make it borderline impossible to ever win. @Boulderdash has put some serious play into Top Tenner and outside of the (very!) rare big(ish) repeater on the £2, they're death by a thousand cuts. Well, probably not even that many cuts. Low RTPs and low volatility are a pretty toxic combination.

Aye that's the fella. Very boring game to play, but it looked splendid in a dark pub, that picture really doesn't do it justice. Like basically all late era Barcrests it was very flat profile and had nothing interesting or appealing about it as a game, take away the method and there was nothing there.

Red did a few half interesting machines on MPU6, that HOT HOT HOT and clones for example which had an actual sort of cashpot mechanic to them and a true skill feature that could pay £50 even on a mostly dead machine. In the Barcrest space they did a lovely looking Star Wars game with loads of super colourful LED lights and stuff that was marvellous to look at but basically just a TIOLI clone with non-upgradable boxes.

It's listed in the MAME build I use from 2015 as Top Of The Pops Cobra 3. Also has Maygay in the title

Yes you're quite right, the emulator has gone from the original location now. Would be interesting to know the reason why, did they remove it or did the author remove it? Hopefully nothing sinister going on.

The Phrase That Pays is a strange one, it hardly uses the FMV side of things at all. The CHD file is only 55MB and all it uses that for is the transition sequences between the rounds and stuff. It could pretty much just be a traditional SWP like anyone else made, except with all the added complication and cost of the CD-ROM hardware and associated gubbins. Very much a poor relation to the other games that are emulated.