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In Memory of the Great Wizard


Reg
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48 minutes ago, char042102 said:

Fantastic Tributes , very touching 😿.

I'll never forget the day , a Thursday it was . I was at a mansion where the guy ran an internet cafe and I hired a PC for a couple of hours and downloaded a few layouts and ROMs from the web hovel . Now this was before usb memory sticks so the only way to transport the files were by burning a cd. So imagine my anguish when I went to pay and take the cd home only to be told there was trouble with the burning software and to come back and collect it on the Saturday.

You can imagine how hard that wait would be. Somehow I made it to Saturday and my excitement was off the chart. I made my way to collect the cd, constantly worrying if it had been successfully burned or not.

When I got there the guy was holding up the cd in one of those clear plastic numbers and said "this is for you" 

I said thanks and never so fast have I rushed home with something before.

I turned the pc on and transferred the files from cd to a folder , still to this day, I named "Fruitz" 

I extracted Andy capp classic and fired up the emu for the first time. I'll never ever forget the SHEER JOY I felt, tinged with simple disbelief that Andy capp was ACTUALLY running on my pc in front of me. It was simply a DREAM COME TRUE , next I quickly tried Viva Espana DX and Wowwwww !!!! was just simply in Dreamland . The graphics , the sound, the reels spinning , the hold buttons flashing, Awh man it was bliss.

I still can't believe it to this day and It's all thanks to Chris "Utter Genius" Wizard , Our so greatly missed friend and exceptional coder and Dream Maker. Chris if you're watching , Thank You So So Much for all that you've given us. 😿

This was the same for me yes I bought a dvd on fleabay in 2010(before I knew about fruit-emu and it’s related sites) as I heard from a relative you could play real machines on pcs.  anyways I got the dvd three days later costing a couple of quid, it only had around 100 layouts on it but that didn’t matter 

could I extract them could I f&@k I didn’t know how to work a computer let alone extracting things lol. So I took this dvd to the relatives and he extracted them for me. He fired up mfme 3.2 I think it was and loaded eastenders full screen by smithy ok it wasn’t the best but that didn’t matter 

it was a real machine on my lappy then came monopoly £5 in the machine cab again the excitement was too much, was I dreaming 

eventually I found fme online and never looked back

as for wizard yes I knew he was the creator of the fme emulator but at the time he wasn’t online due to certain reasons at the time. 
 It wasn’t till early 2016 when he came online and what a great man he was, he rarely said a bad word even though you asked him many questions about his “new” emulator if you had a problem he was there with a solution, if you asked for an improvement or something to add to mfme he made it happen if possible 

to me he was a generous and kind man where nothing was to much trouble 

Again Thankyou to the  wizard Chris for making these lights flash brightly on my lappy everyday 

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Very disappointed in the lack of activity on the part of the police, from personal experience they are normally pretty good with welfare checks (not on myself but on others). It's probably the usual thing, service varies depending on your local force - it shouldn't, but it does. Bit of a random tangent, and not directly related, but I live equidistant between two hospitals, in two counties. I always choose the decent one. They should all be decent, everyone should be treated the same, but alas the one north of me is shocking and the one south of me is exceptional.

Regarding FME,  I was actually staying with my late dad down in London when I first stumbled upon FME. I was very much into SNES / Gameboy emulation, and would sometimes type 'fruit machine emulator' into WebFerret, or whatever search software I used at the time (the days before the almighty Google). Knew before I'd even typed it that there wouldn't be any results, because I couldn't imagine someone writing an emulator for fruit machines. Nintendo, absolutely - there was international demand for that, ROMs generally fitted on floppy discs... but never dreamed someone would spend time and effort making an emulator so we could play fruit machines which - and lets be truthful here - don't offer a massive amount of gameplay in general, certainly when compared to other 'amusement' machines.

Typed in my usual search, expecting the usual result (seem to recall it was something that would give results, but only the 'wouldn't it be nice if we had fruit machine emulation' type posts on forums / bulletin boards - nothing more). Until that is the day I got a result, which took me to Maroney's Web Hovel. Couldn't believe it at all. Not only the fact that it existed (we tend to take for granted that things exist these days), but the fact someone had actually made an emulator which specifically focused on fruit machines.

Just realised I'm waffling on. Does make me realise it's now 20 years or so at least since I first stumbled upon FME. Thanks to @Wizardfor the last 20 years. Thanks to @Reg for making this such a nice environment for him too - in life, and such a nice tribute to him now.

 

 

 

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Currently owned digitals : T7 Encore, T7 Original, Astra iPub and Storm Street Casino.

MFME cabinets : Genesis cab DIY by No1Stoney, Interplay conversion and Vegas Strip conversion (both are works in progress!)

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A great deal of heart and soul has gone into your post Reg. Very moving indeed.That must have taken hours to compile. Like others here, that post touched me too. I had a lump in my throat reading it. A year on, one word still runs through my head. And that is 'WHY?'

I've said before and I'll say it again. Chris saved me. His creation saved me. And I still look at his creation in awe and wonder how a human could create such a wonderful piece of software. My partner and step son tell me that they have a great life here with me. They upped and moved from Roundhay, Leeds to be here in Hull with me. God knows why.... None of that would have ever happened if I hadn't come across MFME and broke the addiction that drugs and meetings and financial difficulties couldn't do. I'll be having one for Chris this evening. I think he knew what his creation did for me. I suspect that him knowing how his MFME software helped me, and other people trapped in a cycle of addiction gave him the motivation to push on and on. I own him so much.

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Thanks Reg for the heartfelt post and Choppers for the equally caring YouTube video. I cannot believe a year has gone by already. Amazing that the FME community reached out to the family and gave them an appreciation for what Chris provided to us all. The world is full of ego, confidence and extroversion exhibited by so many who for all their vocal qualities actually do nothing. It’s the introverts who really provide, the quiet and considered ones who spend hours on the detail and pursue perfection. I’m so glad that Chris’s genius and individual pursuit of perfection did not go unnoticed, and that he was able to perfect what he started all those years ago. 

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“Everybody that never knew him – look around you – this site, this membership and everything that is done here is because of that one great man, Chris Wren” - reg 
 

as one who never knew him yet had been helped more than words can say I’m thankful to be one of the lucky ones who will enjoy mfme above many things always! 
 

i joined fruit emu nearly 20 years ago and to see how far things have come is nothing short of miraculous, unfortunately I can’t thank wizard directly but I will happily add what I can to the cats protection pot as that’s a beautiful idea. 
 

thanks wizard. i hope your heaven has a laptop.

Edited by woodsybaby
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living the dream

 

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Of course I always knew of Wizard but don't ever remember a PM or other direct message with him

Always thought he did a great thing bringing it back in 2017, think that his kindness was validate by what has emerged to a much nicer and calmer scene since.

On that topic I've been around since more or less the start, maybe a year or two later than Chopaholic and others, was never a big contributer adside from the forum fighting in the Fruit Forum days

Watched Chopaholic's video tonight and also remembered the first time I loaded the emulator and played club blackjack. Can still remember the joy of playing a "real" machine on my PC, the memory is is very clear.to this day.

Would never say the emulator cured me, but its a brilliant bit of work, endless hours of fun.

I would say the the scene Chris created has helped cure me though,all the "method" videos and emptiers we see via the MFME show that it was a mugs game 30 years ago and still is today for those without tricks.

Last bit of my redemption was lockdown which broke what had become a rather bad FOBT habbit, never bother with slots now aside from MFME.

So many thanks to all you did Wizard as its helped and entertained me over the last 20 years

 

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Great words Reg ❤️

Wow a year already - doesn't time fly. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were discussing this. I found out late at night and was straight out of bed and back on the PC.

They say time is a great healer and for me that's more about remembering the incredible achievements Chris made. As time passes it becomes more about the joy the emulator brings than the sadness of passing. I know Chris wouldn't see any sense in staring into space when there is work to be done, Edit mode is after all just a click away.

Hope all is well up there Chris.

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@Chopaholic watched your video now and is truly amazing how even though Chris is not with us in body his soul is still keeping that ugly monster "addiction" at bay for many across FME land, I don't blame you for asking him about future prospects of his even though you knew it might get you into hot water with him as been on that side of the fence too at one point a bit like pushing your luck with another quid in a fruit machine to see if it drops a streak or a load of repeats even if it means a long walk home at night. 

One man, one purpose, many accomplishments, am proud to of been part of his world.

In my thoughts still and much love!!

Jason

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  • 2 months later...

Good Afternoon All.

Today I paid what I believe to be the last bill of 2021 for this site costs.

I have brought this forward a little earlier then planned but am delighted to pay the surplus money towards the Cats Protection League in memory of Chris Wren as per this chain.

Thank you to everybody that specifically supported the Cats Protection League and this charity for Chris Wren's memory directly and also everybody that has supported the site that created some additional excess money that could also be donated.

The Cats Protection League is the official charity of this site from now on and I hope we can do the same in the future.

The second post has been edited to show the donation, but I also share this here again.

Thank you.

 

Twitter Link

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30 minutes ago, Reg said:

Good Afternoon All.

Today I paid what I believe to be the last bill of 2021 for this site costs.

I have brought this forward a little earlier then planned but am delighted to pay the surplus money towards the Cats Protection League in memory of Chris Wren as per this chain.

Thank you to everybody that specifically supported the Cats Protection League and this charity for Chris Wren's memory directly and also everybody that has supported the site that created some additional excess money that could also be donated.

The Cats Protection League is the official charity of this site from now on and I hope we can do the same in the future.

The second post has been edited to show the donation, but I also share this here again.

Thank you.

 

Twitter Link

Great stuff Reg. Well done to you for organising this, and to everyone who donated. I'm sure Chris would be delighted.

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  • 9 months later...
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