Slot Stories of Yesteryear

Yeah brilliant fruits from the 80's and early 90's! There's an arcade full of these classics.
Bet some of you know where the arcade is!
 
Yeah brilliant fruits from the 80's and early 90's! There's an arcade full of these classics.
Bet some of you know where the arcade is!

The best arcade in Wolverhampton for those machines was 'PlayLand' in Darlington Street, they had 3x Jackpot 7's, 3x 777heaven and for some reason staff that seemed oblivious to what we were doing!

Until the one day when too many customers had 'cottoned on' and all 6 were 'clinking' of everyone pressing 'collect' to return their 10p part credit until the 'magic moment' - The manager shouted 'Will every one stop f*cking collecting the 10p back' or words to that effect - same week they were chipped up.

We were lucky in Wolves as there were also 4! Quicksilver's, a 'Slotz' and 2 'Cashcades' and a combined total of roughly another 30 machines all for the taking for a good 4-5 months before either too many people knew the 'tactic' or they were 'chipped' (The cashcade owner was a right tight rob dog and simply took the bulbs out the hold buttons)

I've said to my mate more than once just to have an arcade (even if it was the chipped versions) of these any many other classics would be fantastic! - So it's good to know such a place exists but I'm betting its no where near Wolverhampton :eek:

You do find some of these in Coral Island in Blackpool but they're the crappy £5 versions.

What I'd want to see are the original token versions and some of the earlier £10 All Cash JP's, few examples from memory below..

Road Hog(Barcrest), Blue Moon(Barcrest), Fireball(JPM?), Hi Point (BFM), Barcode(BFM), Sunset Boulevard(Barcrest) Hit the Six (Project Coin), Double Up (Project Coin)

Better stop now could go on for ages :p
 
Last edited:
Very interesting read!
You can still play token jackpots (original roms) and some on £10 cash jackpots today!
Down in Maidstone. (I have not visited yet...)

Haven Devon cliffs (I was one of the locals then)
My best win has to be ace's grand national £6 token jackpot, I had a tenner in pound coins
Won £1.20 (mixed 7's) hi lo all the way to £3 + enclosure
Repeated like crazy, ended up with £60 tokens plus £30 in cash! Ran the token tubes empty so (then rank owned) quicksilver staff refilled it and switched it off!
That was in 1994.
About a year later Bfm's Surprise surprize had been upgraded to £8 token, took a hammering off holiday makers,
I put about £20 in then it went on a mental streak, £48 tokens then £4 repeater straight after for a nice long 20 times!
Good memories!
 
Jpm's fireball!

I loved that machine! £4.80 repeat spinner , best I had is 24.00!
Some one else managed £48!
 
I loved that machine! £4.80 repeat spinner , best I had is 24.00!
Some one else managed £48!

There were 2 of these in Quicksilver, Queen Street that were basically played all day, every day. An arcade and youth club all in one. Whether you're a smoker or not you were the minute you walked in :p

My personal best was 'topping the bank' (Which was £33.60) almost twice from the Triple red Bars with the flames around them. Arcade had just opened at 9am, (I was first in and on my way to work for a 10am start in Dudley)

Had to collect at £33.60 then repeated to £28.80 and went empty upon collecting that.

There was also a little trick around at this time whereas the very first 'credit' of the day on Electrocoin's Bar-X (the £2/£6 one) would 7/10 result in a win of either X's or Bar's (once common knowledge people were turning these on n off all day when they got chance!)

I thought as I was alone 2-3 tokens in all 4 of these Bar-X then off to work, play the Fireball winnings after work. I almost fell over when 3 out of the 4 dropped 3 Bars in, 2 of which went onto hold (never saw this again ever)

At this point I had just under £100 in 20p tokens and made a very important decision.....

'Back in a bit' I shouted to the arcade staff (who I knew well and trusted, they'd offered to put my tokens in the safe till I returned after my shift)

A very convenient phone box was directly (and still is!) opposite the arcade. 10p and 2 minutes later a 'sickie' was pulled.

Winning start continued and together with this, a lot of patient and plenty of clueless players lead to to almost £250 in cash by the end of the day, more than I earnt in a week so a very profitable day off work!
 
Heres a day out than :)

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.



This is the FIRST OFFICIAL video of the Reel Fruits Classic Amusement arcade located in Maidstone, Kent. With OVER 130 classic fruit machines, Reel Fruits has some of the RAREST and most ICONIC fruit machines from the 1980's and 1990's. Take a step back in time, even bring the family. You wont get big jackpots with us, but you will get value for money AMUSEMENTS! Visit us online
 
Heres a day out than :)

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.



This is the FIRST OFFICIAL video of the Reel Fruits Classic Amusement arcade located in Maidstone, Kent. With OVER 130 classic fruit machines, Reel Fruits has some of the RAREST and most ICONIC fruit machines from the 1980's and 1990's. Take a step back in time, even bring the family. You wont get big jackpots with us, but you will get value for money AMUSEMENTS! Visit us online

This is like grade A porn for JM and VWM, time for kleenex for them!!!
 
Heres a day out than :)

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.



This is the FIRST OFFICIAL video of the Reel Fruits Classic Amusement arcade located in Maidstone, Kent. With OVER 130 classic fruit machines, Reel Fruits has some of the RAREST and most ICONIC fruit machines from the 1980's and 1990's. Take a step back in time, even bring the family. You wont get big jackpots with us, but you will get value for money AMUSEMENTS! Visit us online

Great stuff! Even got the old BWB Red Hot Poker my all-time favourite! No emptier for it but loved playing any profits through it. The old EastEnders and flash Bar-X's. Even a Donkey Kong and if that ain't chipped I'm a donkey too......
 
There were 2 of these in Quicksilver, Queen Street that were basically played all day, every day. An arcade and youth club all in one. Whether you're a smoker or not you were the minute you walked in :p

My personal best was 'topping the bank' (Which was £33.60) almost twice from the Triple red Bars with the flames around them. Arcade had just opened at 9am, (I was first in and on my way to work for a 10am start in Dudley)

Had to collect at £33.60 then repeated to £28.80 and went empty upon collecting that.

There was also a little trick around at this time whereas the very first 'credit' of the day on Electrocoin's Bar-X (the £2/£6 one) would 7/10 result in a win of either X's or Bar's (once common knowledge people were turning these on n off all day when they got chance!)


I thought as I was alone 2-3 tokens in all 4 of these Bar-X then off to work, play the Fireball winnings after work. I almost fell over when 3 out of the 4 dropped 3 Bars in, 2 of which went onto hold (never saw this again ever)

At this point I had just under £100 in 20p tokens and made a very important decision.....

'Back in a bit' I shouted to the arcade staff (who I knew well and trusted, they'd offered to put my tokens in the safe till I returned after my shift)

A very convenient phone box was directly (and still is!) opposite the arcade. 10p and 2 minutes later a 'sickie' was pulled.

Winning start continued and together with this, a lot of patient and plenty of clueless players lead to to almost £250 in cash by the end of the day, more than I earnt in a week so a very profitable day off work!

That would only happen if the game had no back-up battery on the circuit board, the gold anode or it had gone bad. So the machine lost its memory every time you unplugged it.
 
Yup! The owner is a great guy!
There are some pics of my old amusement arcade on his forums.
Been trying to persuade the wife and kids for a weekend down to reel fruits!
I want to hammer all the lovely project pc90's!
And my beloved ace coin grand national an play it again on the original £4.80 roms hopefully!

Thinking about machines with batteries that went dud, one day a customer emptied Bfm's hyperactive 10p play £8 cash.. I went WTF!
So checked it over then wheeled it out the back and stripped it then got the hammer treatment!

Had a mab super bar x on 20p play £10 jackpot. Bloody popular with the grannies!
 
Yup! The owner is a great guy!
There are some pics of my old amusement arcade on his forums.
Been trying to persuade the wife and kids for a weekend down to reel fruits!
I want to hammer all the lovely project pc90's!
And my beloved ace coin grand national an play it again on the original £4.80 roms hopefully!

Thinking about machines with batteries that went dud, one day a customer emptied Bfm's hyperactive 10p play £8 cash.. I went WTF!
So checked it over then wheeled it out the back and stripped it then got the hammer treatment!

Had a mab super bar x on 20p play £10 jackpot. Bloody popular with the grannies!


It'll be the original CHIPPED ROMs no doubt:( Not quite reliving the old days.
 
There were 2 of these in Quicksilver, Queen Street that were basically played all day, every day. An arcade and youth club all in one. Whether you're a smoker or not you were the minute you walked in :p

My personal best was 'topping the bank' (Which was £33.60) almost twice from the Triple red Bars with the flames around them. Arcade had just opened at 9am, (I was first in and on my way to work for a 10am start in Dudley)

Had to collect at £33.60 then repeated to £28.80 and went empty upon collecting that.

There was also a little trick around at this time whereas the very first 'credit' of the day on Electrocoin's Bar-X (the £2/£6 one) would 7/10 result in a win of either X's or Bar's (once common knowledge people were turning these on n off all day when they got chance!)

I thought as I was alone 2-3 tokens in all 4 of these Bar-X then off to work, play the Fireball winnings after work. I almost fell over when 3 out of the 4 dropped 3 Bars in, 2 of which went onto hold (never saw this again ever)

At this point I had just under £100 in 20p tokens and made a very important decision.....

'Back in a bit' I shouted to the arcade staff (who I knew well and trusted, they'd offered to put my tokens in the safe till I returned after my shift)

A very convenient phone box was directly (and still is!) opposite the arcade. 10p and 2 minutes later a 'sickie' was pulled.

Winning start continued and together with this, a lot of patient and plenty of clueless players lead to to almost £250 in cash by the end of the day, more than I earnt in a week so a very profitable day off work!

For a while in the 1990's, after a new centre "the Point" opened right here, I would go there after work and at the weekends. For over a year my salary went in the bank and just stayed there. All bills were paid by cash, mostly £1 coins. I would often drop in to Lloyds during my lunch break to "cash up" the previous day's takings.

Unfortunately, a new attendant decided to have a clear out of us "pro" players, and I eventually got banned. I suspected he was "on the fiddle" as he would sometimes bring tokens out from his office and he and his wife would play the machines with them and pocket the cash. He once left a big bag of tokens in a payout tray through forgetfulness, I had that away in a flash when he was safely tucked away in his office:D

I regularly made three figure sums over the weekends on 70+ machines, most of which offered an advantage to skilled players.

I also remember 777 Heaven. Someone came in to do the emptier, and after the first switch-off security pounced. It was under CCTV surveillance.

I was thrown out for "THINKING of switching a machine off at the plug" - I didn't do anything to it at all, and besides, it wasn't even the correct machine for that kind of tactic, it was a Bell Fruit.

This was the ejection that made me move on to the services.

Not long after, most of the machines had been taken away from the Point and the area became a restaurant. I thought that at the services there was less chance of a smartarse on site attendant who would chuck pro players out, and I was right. However, some services have security, and they will throw out those using "gadgets". One even had signs up saying it was "illegal" to possess and use a refill key at the site. Total BS, but it was a sign that security was prepared to eject gadget users, and were actively looking out for it.

What I was really looking for were methods that could be done by "just using the buttons put in front of me" as this way there would be no chance of anything being deemed "illegal" and security having an excuse to throw me out. Switching off & on worked widely, but was easily noticed, and often made hard to achieve because machines were mostly sited to ensure players couldn't get at the plug and socket. Many machines would also "alarm" briefly during the process, making it pretty obvious to everyone in there what was going on.

The UK gambling regulations actually make emptying far harder as they require either a permanent attendant, or closely monitored CCTV. This will mean that any emptier that relied on abnormal activity would easily be spotted, so my "buttons in front of me" ideal is probably now the only kind of empty that can be done right under their noses.
 
vinylweatherman;689331[/QUOTE said:
. This will mean that any emptier that relied on abnormal activity would easily be spotted, so my "buttons in front of me" ideal is probably now the only kind of empty that can be done right under their noses.

:lolup::lolup: That would be fun to watch. Now I understand where your obsession with fruties comes from. MG like the attendants kicked you out by removing all the AWP games. Probably because you emptied them all too much over time;)
 
Ace coin red lines machines....practically secured my student days financially from them and other things.
Monte Carlo, Reno Reels, I'd give anything to relive those days.

There are PC based emulators for these and more available. Quality varies, but it is probably as close as you can get without actually playing the physical machines in an arcade.

The manufacturers don't like these emulators getting out, especially for current machines, but for older ones it's a case of they probably know it happens, but they have better things to do.

Often you will find that the emulators and the ROMs have to be sourced separately. This is done so that no one can be said to have distributed a complete working article, which could make it easy for the manufacturer to use copyright laws against them. The downside is that anyone wanting to play these on an emulator has to do a bit of "legwork" in order to set it up on their PC.

There is an emulation community who produce emulations for free distribution. They have a dim view of anyone who tries to make money for themselves from their work, and so they ask that people only charge what it has cost them to provide a DVD, and not have a charge for the games themselves. There have been people selling these DVDs on eBay, when it's possible to download everything for free.

Anyone interested can start here:-

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.
 
. This will mean that any emptier that relied on abnormal activity would easily be spotted, so my "buttons in front of me" ideal is probably now the only kind of empty that can be done right under their noses.

:lolup::lolup: That would be fun to watch. Now I understand where your obsession with fruties comes from. MG like the attendants kicked you out by removing all the AWP games. Probably because you emptied them all too much over time;)[/QUOTE]

Well, they couldn't see me switching them off & on again, so it took them AGES to figure things out:D

It seems that wild horses won't drag the REAL reason from them for the sudden removal of these games without notice, a game purge that was unprecedented for Microgaming especially, and nothing even close to this has happened other than when Sheriff gaming got raided by the police and shut down, which meant all their games vanished from online casinos.

It did have me wondering though that an innocent explanation could exist, based on the company supplying MG AWP games suddenly and unexpectedly shutting down, even that they might have been Sheriff games all along, but rebranded by MG.

The "official excuse" is that they are "undergoing maintenance". This from my VIP host at Casino Rewards, who says this is all they have managed to get out of Microgaming on the matter.

Well us old school players know what "undergoing maintenance" means, the game is "getting chipped".
 
I remember visiting the services on the toll M6, where there was a "Rat Pack". I buzzed it up, but ran out of coins. I had to go back to the car for another bag, and when I got back it was "undergoing maintenance". I asked the engineer what was up as it was perfectly OK when I played it just now, and he said it was having a new ROM put in because of "a problem with one of the features", and he showed me the old one.

Mad?, I was BLOODY FUMING:mad:

I was so mad because I had only just nailed the emptier after spending weeks researching it with only rumours and half-truths about the exact procedure. This was my first field trial, and I knew I would probably have to act fast and do a big run that weekend. It seems I was a week too late, the chip had been released and was being distributed as fast as possible.

It was a weird one, and not entirely what I had expected from the rumours. A critical step was missing from all of the information, the need to get a win from that weird zone of a single game after the repeat had been knocked back. Fail, and another repeat chance was given, and you got kicked out and had to try all over again to set it up.

Whilst I never made it, I knew what the next step was from what was going round and what I had seen from another player on that stage, it was to play only for cash which would always gamble all the way up to the jackpot, and presumably to avoid getting the feature again at all costs. I surmised that had I got that win, I would remain trapped in this "weird zone" between repeat chances where I could keep playing for cash, and it would always gamble all the way. Sadly, I was never able to 100% confirm this final theory.
 
Erm! You got me on this one, no idea :oops::oops: - Sure I'll think 'Bloody hell, yeah' when you tell me :p

Gotta at least return the favour tho...

1) On which machine could you (with the skills) get the £3 repeater via 'Find the Knight'?
2) Which SWP featured 4 playing cards of same value, where a very fast 'eye' was needed but was genuine skill?
3) Which Project Coin machine was one of the first to feature both a 'bonus reel' along with Black 7's on the reel strips? (maybe more than one answer to this but pretty sure you'll name the one I'm thinking of)
and an easy one...
4) What was the 'symbol' which stood out from all the others on Project's 'Hit the Six'
 
Erm! You got me on this one, no idea :oops::oops: - Sure I'll think 'Bloody hell, yeah' when you tell me :p

Gotta at least return the favour tho...

1) On which machine could you (with the skills) get the £3 repeater via 'Find the Knight'?
2) Which SWP featured 4 playing cards of same value, where a very fast 'eye' was needed but was genuine skill?
3) Which Project Coin machine was one of the first to feature both a 'bonus reel' along with Black 7's on the reel strips? (maybe more than one answer to this but pretty sure you'll name the one I'm thinking of)
and an easy one...
4) What was the 'symbol' which stood out from all the others on Project's 'Hit the Six'

Who said anything about me telling anyone the answer:p:p

I'll get back to you on those, we'll see who is first.
 
Erm! You got me on this one, no idea :oops::oops: - Sure I'll think 'Bloody hell, yeah' when you tell me :p

Gotta at least return the favour tho...

1) On which machine could you (with the skills) get the £3 repeater via 'Find the Knight'?

Partly guess work, but I'll go with "Camelot" the ACE version. This is because their machines all had this "find the pea" "find the key" etc as the exchange feature for the blue bars. Camelot came along after the "lines" heyday, so it's an educated guess that they rehashed this feature as the "skill climb" to the £3 repeater.

2) Which SWP featured 4 playing cards of same value, where a very fast 'eye' was needed but was genuine skill?

BWB's "Find the Lady". Was 4 queens and you had to spot the last one to show. It got faster and faster as you climbed the prizes, so a "fast eye" was required. I think I only saw a couple of these. I don't think they were meant to be SWP, but maybe they were if players were quick enough that they could hit it every time.

3) Which Project Coin machine was one of the first to feature both a 'bonus reel' along with Black 7's on the reel strips? (maybe more than one answer to this but pretty sure you'll name the one I'm thinking of)

Nudge XS - lo tech crap, not something I would play very often.

and an easy one...
4) What was the 'symbol' which stood out from all the others on Project's 'Hit the Six'
Yes and no, there were two symbols that could be said to "stand out". one was the top prize symbol, which was a target theme with "hit the six" written across it at a time when jackpots were usually sevens of various colours, although there were exceptions like 8's, moons, and 9's. The other was the number 2 in an arrow that was only on the middle reel, and which activated the "hit the six" bonus feature. In terms of it's function as well as it's style, this was a most unusual symbol, and may be the one that really "stood out" to players.

Easy in the sense that it's emulated, So didn't have to break a sweat working this one out:p

.......
 

Attachments

  • Hit The Six.jpg
    Hit The Six.jpg
    128.3 KB · Views: 85
Cheers for the pic, couldn't find that any where, must be a bad googler :p

Gonna take a look at that emu-link later this thread got me wishing I had a Tardis.

Regarding your initial challenge :eek: not a clue, played it back 7-8 times and I can't even think of an answer that would be classed as even close!

1) Maygay's 'Screen Play' Find the Knight was one of the £1 or £1.20 'exchange points' and was very similar in play to (2) Find the Lady. For an AWP it was genuine skill and if you selected correctly it would award you as it should (no jumping or pretending you'd got it wrong)

2) Spot On! - As you say rare, I knew of 2 in Wolves, a local chippy and Eve's Nighclub.

3) Spot on again! - No emptier my end etc but a slot I was genuinely very lucky on (helped that I knew you could nudge up during XS feature and most of the other players didn't)

4) Yup! - The arrow symbol was the one I meant (apologies, not a very well worded question) The combination in your screen shot (I Think) is ready for a 'Hold the lot' and nudge up either the Bar or Hit the Six symbol for a JP?

PS: You gonna keep me hanging on VWM :p ???
 
Last edited:
Cheers for the pic, couldn't find that any where, must be a bad googler :p

Gonna take a look at that emu-link later this thread got me wishing I had a Tardis.

Regarding your initial challenge :eek: not a clue, played it back 7-8 times and I can't even think of an answer that would be classed as even close!

1) Maygay's 'Screen Play' Find the Knight was one of the £1 or £1.20 'exchange points' and was very similar in play to (2) Find the Lady. For an AWP it was genuine skill and if you selected correctly it would award you as it should (no jumping or pretending you'd got it wrong)

2) Spot On! - As you say rare, I knew of 2 in Wolves, a local chippy and Eve's Nighclub.

3) Spot on again! - No emptier my end etc but a slot I was genuinely very lucky on (helped that I knew you could nudge up during XS feature and most of the other players didn't)

4) Yup! - The arrow symbol was the one I meant (apologies, not a very well worded question) The combination in your screen shot (I Think) is ready for a 'Hold the lot' and nudge up either the Bar or Hit the Six symbol for a JP?
I was just about to answer these questions!
Remember maygay' screen play! Good game play!
Played find the lady, £10 jackpot at a bus station cafe in Exeter about 20 years ago!
Hit the six 20p play £2.40 cash jackpot in an arcade in Taunton in early 90's.
Great thread!
Cheers.
 
I was just about to answer these questions!
Remember maygay' screen play! Good game play!
Played find the lady, £10 jackpot at a bus station cafe in Exeter about 20 years ago!
Hit the six 20p play £2.40 cash jackpot in an arcade in Taunton in early 90's.
Great thread!
Cheers.

Oops! - my apologies forgot there were hundreds who read this, not just VWM and myself :p :oops:

Will do another mini quiz soon, not a PM thing or a 'proper' quiz like Dunover's recent marvel, just ask that participants don't post answers in thread and reveal all after a few days maybe??
 
Oops! - my apologies forgot there were hundreds who read this, not just VWM and myself :p :oops:

Will do another mini quiz soon, not a PM thing or a 'proper' quiz like Dunover's recent marvel, just ask that participants don't post answers in thread and reveal all after a few days maybe??
That's a good idea!
Cheers.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Meister Ratings

Back
Top