My online slots videos (plus UK AWPs)

What people don't often know is that on the old MPU3 boards like here, you would 'block' certain progress in a different place on the feature board or gamble ladder depending on which of the top dip-switches you had on, i.e. 72-88%.

I recall this lad who lived downstairs from me in flats years back who was nearly in tears, told me just done his bollocks, over £180 quid, trying to win a £5 jackpot on a 10p machine. Turns out he was gambling a 4 quid win for the top Melons and it simply wouldn't win, whether on number 2 or 11, it would be 1 or 12 every time. I spent a few minutes explaining it was impossible on the 72% they had it on, he could put the US national debt through it and it still wouldn't win.

That brings us to the points @ChopleyIOM raises in his video, the morality or even legality of the old AWP's and the useless twats called BACTA (Bent Amateurish Conning Thieving Arseholes) who administered the industry. Basically, certain settings would make some of the things displayed on the glass impossible therefore it was false advertising to the player. This still hasn't changed to this day, except after that geezer went to the press when the programme code was revealed which proved pre-decided gambles and then stickers were added which warned players the gamble may not be true odds or whatever.

I owned a couple of Cub Machines from this era, used them as money boxes and had the bottom open with the dip switch taped down so I could re-play the 'backing' coins. I spent hours doing stuff like @ChopleyIOM in this video, getting the things so 'happy' they were even chucking 4OAK wins in every 20 spins.

There was one £150 JP machine I had that when on the top 88% setting would ALWAYS drop the 3 Cashpot symbols in between 80.10 and 81.00 and then let your next gamble go to £50 for afters, yet you couldn't get past Win Series EVER on the feature ladder which paid £30 - £40 (or £50 if you took it after the Cashpot). The next one above it was Bar Win, then 'match stoppa' (which would mean jackpot if you were good at it) and finally Jackpot. You could get these on some lower percentages setting though, but the cashpot would always fill to 150 and not come in at 80-81 quid.

The whole Club Machine thing was a huge con IMO, and unless you were like Smedley and his mates you never had a chance.
 
Ahhh yes you are thinking of the 'Fair Play' campaign there dunover. It was handled in the UK by a chap called Stuart Campbell, (who did very well getting coverage in the press and on the telly), and I lodged the complaints here on the IOM with our Gambling Commission.

We got a lot of shit from some quarters because we 'only got a sticker' out of it, but at least for the first time ever, and indeed a change that remains in place to this day, all compensated machines have to display the warning.

'THIS MACHINE IS COMPENSATED AND MAY BE INFLUENCED BY PREVIOUS PLAY.

THIS MACHINE MAY AT TIMES OFFER THE PLAYER A CHOICE WHERE THERE IS LITTLE CHANCE OF SUCCESS.'

A mate of mine called Ian made a video about it:

 
A couple of folks ran with Super Blackjack Club over at a UK Fruit Machine Emulation forum I'm a member of.

They eventually managed to get it to hit percentage (88%), but both discovered the same thing.

In essence, quite a large portion of the RTP is committed to the main gamble ladder up to the block point of three single bars, which pay £50 (the block is at £50).

Without taking wins from that pool, the machine will consistently run around 20% behind percentage and never, ever, pay out its advertised percentage.

As such, by taking loads of value out of the gamble ladder below the block, the machine slowly paid out way over percentage to eventually hit its target of 88%.

I've highlighted the bit in the image below, unless you're taking features in that range, the machine just permanently sits some 20% behind percentage, which is seriously, seriously dodgy.

Also, the gamble from HI LO NOTE CLIMB to the FOUR SINGLE BARS is near enough permanently blocked, even when the machine is way behind percentage and owes the player a fortune, 99/100 gambles will lose at this point.

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That Super Blackjack was a bastard of a clubber. The only way to win more than £49.80 was to gamble like you say. The feature ladder was capped at the Hi Low Note climber. There was a sister machine ( Think called Club Blackjack which was better to play) but that basically was also capped in a similar way

I heard there were a few people who could empty them, but I never did find out how, and for over a year that machine was in my snooker club and the cashpot didnt pay once.

It had an empty pre v3.1 as far as i remember but it was still a good slot if you knew the best way to gamble it out. Also it would let you get the gamble to the top of the ladder, once you got past the block.

Its typical of a lot of clubbers that have blocks, many can be taken off playing a certain way, likewise play it wrong eg a brute force tends to put block flags well and truely on lol

BFM were very good in the block flags department too.
 
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Can you remember the empty reels? That'd be a fun one to try as well if there's something we can work with information wise!

On a wider note this anti-force or 'block flag' stuff is seriously scummy IMO, yes I get the machine is compensated so certain things won't be possible at certain times, but to PERMANENTLY stay under RTP and to do so DELIBERATELY as a result of coding if a machine is played a certain way should be bloody well criminal.
 
Can you remember the empty reels? That'd be a fun one to try as well if there's something we can work with information wise!

On a wider note this anti-force or 'block flag' stuff is seriously scummy IMO, yes I get the machine is compensated so certain things won't be possible at certain times, but to PERMANENTLY stay under RTP and to do so DELIBERATELY as a result of coding if a machine is played a certain way should be bloody well criminal.

Hi, sorry I cant remember as I only was told it after the event, but i made quite a good living from these back in the day even on what is as far as i know the v3.1 I was just curious so fired mine up for a little play and the drift was 100+ so i have just played it and sorted that out. Somehow my meters are slightly off in the emu but the in built ones show target 88% and actual is at 91.5% and is now dead as fuck which tbf is where i used to leave em lol Even George wont be able to help you from there its not really even putting the odd cherry in on £10 in

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Can you remember the empty reels? That'd be a fun one to try as well if there's something we can work with information wise!

On a wider note this anti-force or 'block flag' stuff is seriously scummy IMO, yes I get the machine is compensated so certain things won't be possible at certain times, but to PERMANENTLY stay under RTP and to do so DELIBERATELY as a result of coding if a machine is played a certain way should be bloody well criminal.

As for the anti block stuff, BFM machines can be way more brutal, if you really want to see one in action try brute forcing "club money to burn"

Remember these were in the days that people made a real living from club machines and the only way to stop the professionals was to put stuff like anti force code / flags in, but even that didnt always work as once you sussed their method you would mostly crack them all due to them being lazy and using the same methods from game to game :)

The trick was to work out what switched the flag off eg it was ready either naturally or soft force, but you also had to work out how to avoid it putting the flag on eg trying to brute force it.

Most games had a fail safe at a certain point that will give you a jackpot still but by that time you either have lost all your money in which case the following normal players will have a great time at your expense or you will need way more than one jackpot to show a profit and the cycle starts over, and in all that time your still eating RTP for every £1 you play.
 
I was more of a clubber player, rather than AWP So no I didn't do that one knew there was a cheat on it tho as my mate at the time was doing them.

I only did a few AWPs, in the 90's the seven heavens, party time(BFM) which didnt last long at all and a couple of others i have long forgotten lol Then I was just milking the others just with skill play, eg the JPMs were great in the 90's if you knew how to play them. Not touched an AWP in about 20 years now.
 
It's probably skirting very close to the BACTA regulations. (If not breaching them.)

It says on the display 'AVOID THE STOP' and invites the player to make a choice, the clear implication being that it is possible to choose correctly, when in actual fact there is no winning choice.

Moreover, once the player makes his choice, the machine switches the contents of the box they didn't choose, then reveals that box, to make it look like the player only lost because he chose incorrectly.

Pretty scummy.
 
It's probably skirting very close to the BACTA regulations. (If not breaching them.)

It says on the display 'AVOID THE STOP' and invites the player to make a choice, the clear implication being that it is possible to choose correctly, when in actual fact there is no winning choice.

Moreover, once the player makes his choice, the machine switches the contents of the box they didn't choose, then reveals that box, to make it look like the player only lost because he chose incorrectly.

Pretty scummy.
No different to the principle of the unwinnable hi-lo gamble though.
 
Yes I'd agree, both are scummy practices.

Compensated machines are just a bad idea IMO, the 'industry' has demonstrated time and time again, over decades, that it's completely incapable of designing them without them being bent and/or open to abuse and/or cheating and/or vulnerable to 'player advantage' play etc.

It's good that they're finally dying off to be replaced by random machines.

(EDIT - And that last sentence there is my honest sentiment, even though I've personally been making money out of them since around 2001.)
 
It's probably skirting very close to the BACTA regulations. (If not breaching them.)

It says on the display 'AVOID THE STOP' and invites the player to make a choice, the clear implication being that it is possible to choose correctly, when in actual fact there is no winning choice.

Moreover, once the player makes his choice, the machine switches the contents of the box they didn't choose, then reveals that box, to make it look like the player only lost because he chose incorrectly.

Pretty scummy.

I always said to my friends when these sort of machines first appeared in the pubs arcades etc, that there is NO WAY it is a genuine choice.

Can't recall my exact words but "Anything could be going on behind that mirror" rings a bell. We/they didn't understand RTP fully back then but we discussed how 10 players 'fluking' the right choice continually would end up the machine possibly making a loss!

Scummy indeed!
 
Interestingly (sort of..... :) ) there was a fruit machine that made a big deal out of the fact that it featured a 'FAIR PLAY' hi/lo reel that didn't cheat.

I tested it to destruction in the emulator :)

 
I’ve just read an interesting patent from 1987 submitted by JPM regarding SWP skill with prizes machines , patent no GB2185612A , available to read on google patent search.

In a nutshell, it basically covers the compensation in difficulty in skill machines (quiz or others) that increases the difficulty to keep the balance between machine income and payouts ....
 
An old compensated UK club machine for this video, some folks made a lot of money out of this one back in the day.....

The machine was originally released in 1993.

 
Latest addition to the channel (as already linked in the Gonzo's Quest Megaways) is my rather unfortunate interaction with this wonderful game....

 
I remember playing Pool Play, and also fixing them at a later point :)
JPM were massive and were streets ahead of anything else at the time. Bell Fruit too.
Also used to work on Jukeboxes, pinballs etc but the bandits were the easiest.

Theres also a Nudge Double Up Deluxe and Lite a Nudge in my local seaside arcade :)
They are the version shown in your video, from memory the very first NDU had big round buttons, unless I'm thinking of a similar one.
 

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