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Actually having played around some more, the super hold is very unreliable on the £25 version of Hi Spirits. It can give two steps but often gives one, I think it's a two step super hold only if there's nothing in view AND you have a symbol on the number, or something like that. And making it go red this way is much rarer than on the £15; it can still happen but it's just as likely to go red on a normal entry if it's happy enough.

Now Hi Spirits on the other hand... That's a truly great Global from that era. Even when upgraded to £25 the super hold trick still worked up to a point - if there was a big win within 2 steps and it didn't want to give it, it could give only one step after the £25 upgrade. I was originally told you couldn't make it go red via the super hold feature any more but that's false. It just needs more value with the jackpot being higher, but if you force it for a bit to buzz it up and simulate muppets losing, you'll find it works like a charm. Generally they wouldn't be happy enough in the wild, which is why everyone thought it didn't work any more on £25.

We know Globals from this era (e.g. Cannonball Run and similar) are not stupid when it comes to nudges on the board. (Well, except for the invincible trap on A Knight's Trail, but that plays differently and has different base code.) For example, put Cannonball Run in demo and use the cheats to get 10 nudges on the board with a shield on the number, and shuffle to hold two pots on or above the line. Use demo cheats to give yourself more nudges and watch the shuffle avoid putting the third in range - even in demo! (It can shuffle closer when you're low on nudges so it's there if you replenish them, but that doesn't count as during play you can't make it give extra nudges. It can avoid it and give bonuses and change colour etc.) Well, I just forced D&DQ round from a reset. £33 in and it played like a dog. I know you're not meant to force these, and it did swap holds for £4 a couple of times, but for the most part it was abysmal. Boards offering very little then dead. After £33 in, it just hit +3 nudges on the super board while I had a load already, best win £25, one repeat. So if I walked then I'd be £17 up. But the way it played... Utterly appalling. Never any sign of life other than swapping holds for £4 twice. When it potted it knew exactly what it was doing. It just wanted to pot having shown zero signs. By the way, here's a cheat for this and Cannonball Run: Get 2+ blasts, take them and when you have 2 left, blast and shuffle. Now it says 0 blasts and the next blast collects, but due to the glitch it can hit anything including jackpot symbols. A semi-useful thing while scabbing if there's nothing better.

And the answer is, if you manage to get a win above the block, it tries to pay it out anyway. I tested this by enabling the checkboxes, getting a set of blue bars, disabling the checkboxes and it successfully paying the win out. As I thought, it's a different part of the code that tries to block the high wins.

I've managed to do it with it set to 20p / £8 by disabling the hoppers and checkboxes 65, 66, 68 and 69 for the two token tubes. I'm sure it was a 25p one that I played with the glitch, though. Setting this one to 25p / £10 with empty token tubes doesn't replicate the glitch so maybe it was a very early £10 chip.

Ah ok thanks.

Hmm. I seem to remember it saying 4 and 10 but always giving the 4. Strange. I wasn't the only one to play a Snakes like this; I read about it online so it must have been a common problem. I can't set this Snakes to £8 jackpot though, it won't let me even on the earliest chip we have. Coin test doesn't mention tokens, just £1 and 20p. Disabling switch 65 makes it think the 20p tube is empty. It still wins for Reel Cobra though so it's not put it in that mode. I'll play around some more.

OK thanks, I'll give it a go. Seems strange though with it being a £10 cash machine that it should do this, but maybe it was residual code they hadn't removed from the £8 days.

Many years ago I played a Snakes & Ladders in a little hotel bar, 25p/£10 but it was glitchy. It would not offer wins above £4 or £5, as if it thought higher wins were still paid out in tokens and it was out of tokens. It never won a hi/lo gamble for Reel Cobra, Sidewinder never went straight across the top stopping you getting more than £4ish and it never hit any of the features near the top (except perhaps Lucky Ladders). If you got all five dice you got £4 (and it didn't repeat for me), and the top feature also only did £4 for me the one time I got it. One time it did hit The Rattler with a jackpot in view but unfortunately I missed it as I wasn't paying attention. I'd love to know what it would have done in that situation! I assume it would have worked correctly as it was probably only part of the machine's code causing the glitch. Another one appeared in another pub near me but this one played much better and offered all the good features. One time I turned down the top feature from a skill stop and took the jackpot instead because I was worried about the same thing happening, but my fear was misplaced as I got a £40 top some time later. I downloaded an earlier program ROM for Snakes & Ladders (I think version 8 or something), but I can't replicate the glitch. Is there a certain dip switch setting or something I can change in the configuration? I'd like to experiment with it if possible. Thanks!

Here's another one to add to the database if you don't have it already: Impulse - Dambuster: Chris Norton & Frank Mizen - Chase Me! Where is your database? It'd be interesting to look at.

Thanks!

Another thing I worked out years ago about Cash Explosion and clones: The board will usually allow no more than two Big Money icons if it wants to open the super board. If you have 3+ symbols and super active, it's a jackpot board. On the same token, you're normally safe in assuming that if you have 3+ symbols, super isn't opening (unless it's pot happy), but it can still offer around £10 cash sometimes if it wants to. I think the super board is a separate pot from the cash and nudges, as I recycled several sets of hiddens and got several jackpots without once opening super. So it was probably possible to pot it off super AND hiddens if both pots had value in. I don't know how the IM works and I don't know whether it makes any difference how you pot it. If I had a choice I'd probably take Big Money from icons as it doesn't come from the super board. Maybe that way the jackpot will come out of the current pot and you can still play for the super board pot afterwards, which is easier to get. Or maybe it doesn't matter how you get it on an IM - maybe it's a separate pot completely? I hardly ever got IMs on the real machines. You can nudge hiddens through and take them any time afterwards with Exchange, even on a ?. Having been given Skill Spins from hiddens in the past, I try to put the right pot on the line if I do it this way, though sometimes it isn't an option as you hit a ? and have to take the nudge pot. And Roll Even and Yes/No Continue are true skill.

Emmerdale has an interesting mechanic where the logo flashes just for a moment at the start of the board if it's a jackpot board, but it doesn't mean you're invincible! Oh, when I said before "On Cash On The Lash, the IM is slightly better hidden - instead of a flashing name, one bulb lights up that's named as "Woman" in test mode", the bulb isn't assigned in the layouts we have. I found it in the lamp matrix.

It wedges 8 places, so it's the melon after that cherry. Try it. I just did it twice in demo mode and it stuck this time. Maybe the wedge does work if the machine has enough value in it, or maybe something went wrong the first time? The left reel can be wedged 4 places, so from the melon before the red 7. The slow reel doesn't appear to time out (but if it eventually does, I assume it times back out to where it starts, because the fast reel does time out back to where it starts). I don't know why you would, but if you went for hiddens on Skill Spins, it won't keep the third reel there if it's lined up so that could be a use for the timeout. Yes, hitting it on the 4 does finish it for you. One of the more interesting machines that I never saw in the wild (The Trident) had "Super" hidden features with a different-coloured bar behind the middle fruit (gold or silver I think, it's only a classic layout so I have no idea if it's accurate to the real thing), and on that machine, only "Super" Skill 7 lets you hit the 4 to skip the donkey work. Top Loader is another one I never saw with a similar setup but it doesn't have a Skill 7. But Top Loader is glitchy - one of the hiddens (Two Towers) is like 11th Heaven on both pots at the same time, and if you hit a 12 it correctly offers you a quid on the cash side, but collecting the feature causes the machine to reset. The lights glitch out too - the name and the buttons flash weirdly. It's like the wraparound on the feature pot just didn't work properly or something. On Cash Explosion, Cash On The Lash, Bedazzled and clones, you can hold cancel in demo mode when starting feature for IM. On Cash On The Lash, the IM is slightly better hidden - instead of a flashing name, one bulb lights up that's named as "Woman" in test mode. The woman is on the left of the reels, quite big so that lighting up in full would have been quite blatant. Was it maybe just the eyes or something? I also only just realised how many clones of Big Blaster there were. Often the shots were in a different arrangement but there were LOADS. Barcode feature 123 was nice, Blast Off / The Rocket (depending on machine) shooting up the cash ladder for a true skill shot at the jackpot if you wait too long it gives you three chances.

Oh yeah, Cash Explosion's Hit The Top also times out from 10 to 12.

Ah yes, it was Cash On The Lash that said Clever Clogs. That and Cash Explosion I used to play for hiddens as it would often give Hit The Top / Biff The Bouncer even when not that happy (it wedges from the 7 to the 12 I think, so if you can exchange to hiddens on a 7 it helps). If it opens the super board you could play for Skill Spins / Firkin Hot, but the third reel slips so you need a pot on the line (I tried wedging it and it definitely slips). It tends not to give nudges once you have the feature lit so the best thing is to either get enough shots to guarantee it and get the nudges, or be on nudges on a good number and take shots, then hilo to put the pot on the line for the feature.

Also, Crossfire on Trail Blazer's hiddens appears to have a pattern whereby if you hit it as it's going left around the 3rd or 4th column from the right, it stops around the left and lets you get Mega Streak or Jackpot quite easily. Every "cheat" on the reels has a different bit of text associated with it, for wins on the bottom or top line, "hold left reel", let 'em spin, 3 holds, "here come 3 numbers" etc. An interesting one is if you deliberately do the opposite of what it tells you when it says to hold a specific reel. Hold the other two and it says "You tryin' to be a hero?" and matches the pair instead. Useful if the pair is higher than the single fruit it told you to hold!

Any player worth his salt knows Mazooma made some fantastic machines towards the end. Gettin' Ziggy With It was the original version of Cabin Fever, which itself spawned several clones including Cluedo The Usual Suspects and Pink Panther (QPS). Grand Blaster Cash and clones had the "Vivid-style" method of guaranteeing two jackpots with the Super Skill Stop, although this didn't work too well on Ziggy and clones because it was better to just trap them (multiple times if they had value). £70 Cluedo TUS was slightly different - they moved a few features around to catch players out - but they were still really, really good. The Super 7 is the key to potting it off two of the features! The £70 Electrocoins in pubs were also based on this Mazooma code. Still, I remember when Mazooma were first starting out and their first few machines were pretty terrible. But they actually sought player feedback on the original fruit machine message boards including Arcadia back in the day... Their website actually had some really good tips for their machines, when they started to become good. I've been going over some of their machines in MFME and wow, are they player friendly! Trail Blazer is amazing for players. So many cheats, see if you can find them all! You can step off a ?, you can trap it with steps, if it says "Yeah!" and holds, keep a close eye on what lights up when you press the holds because it may be hinting at something... Let 'em spins don't tell you until AFTER you hit Start... You can swap holds, like a JPM or Red (and I think you can hold pairs of crap; it doesn't have to be an actual pair like it does on some machines with swap holds). It has a Number Runner on the bonus (which is not just for show: it does give it, and works like a Red!) And the hiddens have some interesting quirks too: Try hitting Skill 7 on the 4 instead of the 7! That trick was on the website. It works on Mazooma's Coronation Street and a couple of others with the Skill 7 feature too like Cash Explosion, Adrenalin etc. One more major tip I didn't know until recently for Trail Blazer and Corrie: There is a Hi/Lo Invincible board. If you get on the board and there are no ?s at the start (without using a Skill Shuffle - but if you do use a Skill Shuffle, you may find it hardly ever offers any ?s), you MAY have a secret Hi/Lo IM. That means you CANNOT lose on the Hi/Lo. BUT you CAN lose if you hit a ?, which can happen if you shuffle one on to the board. So if that situation arises, try bashing a 2 or 11 the wrong way early on if you want to be sure, because it usually won't matter and it will give you the icon back anyway. A lot of their games around that time had little secrets that made them really great for players. Rise To The Top was another one. I only ever saw one of them, in a pub in Manchester, but I remember it being pretty sweet and easy to read too. Mazooma's take on the Spartacash / Beer Guide style of game, and it's really good! Unfortunately, up until Ziggy and Cabin Fever, I never saw many Mazoomas out and about, except one of the bad ones from near the start (Pac-Man Plus). I had one Trail Blazer, one Rise To The top and that was about it. It's a shame there weren't more of them about, because they were really profitable if you knew what you were doing. A lot of players didn't bother with them because they just assumed they weren't any good based on Mazooma's older games, and not knowing their unique cheats. Well, back to Trail Blazer!

I did them off Reel Skill as well, but that eventually got chipped. I think the rechip would let you hit the first one but jump the third reel. I'm sure red Reel Skill was still OK but it's hard to get so I never checked. (I don't remember but was there a chip that didn't make you hit the third reel if it was already on the line? Because the one in the emulator still makes you hit it.) There was another, much rarer chip that tried to stop you playing for traps: it didn't actually stop the trap gamble winning, but it wouldn't let you hold off the board for symbols above, as you would when playing for the trap. When it's due to give a board, it will slow spin three symbols on to the bottom line. You can still trap it if you get enough nudges to bring two or three of the symbols round. That chip was very rare and I only saw a couple, just before the machine disappeared completely. I have no idea why they went with that method to chip it rather than just block the gamble for the invincible... Maybe they didn't want to lead players on, especially if it took the piss to get a trap, and they wanted it to still be possible and be obvious that it was a different program?

I know I've heard it on something else. It's bugging me! Maybe someone can help? Thanks! If the audio doesn't play, I've attached it as a zip as well. Sample40.wav Sample40.zip

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I didn't really play these in the wild as I didn't like them very much. Too unpredictable and could cost far too much to force. But that was before learning about trapping A Knight's Trail, and looking at the way this plays in the emulator, they're clearly based on the same code, which is different from other Globals of the era like the Beaver and Millionhare series, Hi Spirits, Cannonball Run etc. So I decided to find out if they can be trapped for invincible the same way. You have a much easier job with A Knight's Trail because of the bonuses that you can use any time on the board. The trap is simple: while it won't naturally give you an invincible board and won't naturally land on nudges for the red icons, it will win a gamble on a 3 or 10 or better for the last nudges you need. And bonuses make it much easier to get in situations where you can do it. Without those bonuses, I knew Reel Good Time would be much, MUCH harder. Another problem with Reel Good Time is all the nudge squares can give just 1 nudge if they want to. And once you have the last couple of keys you need for the red board above the line, good luck landing on nudges on a good number (or at all sometimes)! But finally I got the trap, getting into the super board with one red key and two above the line and rolling a 3 to the nudge square, and of course it won as it's based on the same code as A Knight's Trail. But it was a bloody nightmare and cost over £40. It was £15-£20 happy, so I really didn't save much. (No, it wasn't ready naturally. It didn't want to do it and it carried on avoiding nudges for the rest of the board.) Thankfully the top went for £55 so it wasn't a loss, but having done this there's no way it would have been worth doing in the wild. Worth testing though.