I had a look around, couldn't see any similar threads, so I thought I'd ask - what was your first fruitie? Maybe give a year number too if you can remember it so that we get an idea of what was around at the time. Also, what machine gave you your first jackpot? :-)
My era is late 2001 onwards. Therefore I saw the tail end of the £15 jp era. I can't say I got on with £15 jp very well. £25 jp was much more favourable.
First machine to me was Madness (Maygay), which I realised later on is a clone of IJ2 (Italian Job 2). Since then, I've seen dozens of IJ2's but never saw another Madness. Next machines were Fort Boyard (clone of Jackpoteers), Austin Powers (clone of King/Doner Kebab) and Mazooma's Rolling Thunder. All machines were pretty good. Fort Boyard was very force-able, Austin Powers stung me once but had numerous features that could give you jackpot. Very playable. Rolling Thunder sometimes liked to kill you on the first number but generally played well. Although I'm not into 80s music, Madness remains one of my very favourites in terms of entertainment value.
First jackpot was off JPM's Tomb Raider £25 jp. The title logo went red instead of white, indicating IM, and the top feature went for a flat £25. Take this machine with a pinch of salt though. Nice board layout, poor behaviour.
The first machine(s) you played?
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Mr Move It
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Matt Vinyl
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Good topic.
My first machine was Ace's Cash Bowl, must've been about '97 / '98? I can even remember my first win: £4 off of Strawberries.
I also remember 'finding out' my first 'rip' on this one. The 2nd feature up (Super Hold) was a sort of super-super hold, as in it spun the reels, you could collect for a super hold or else it would spin again. You could often get a 1-2-3 combination (each fruit had a number overprinted on it) and if it was JP / Grape / Plum (I think!) you hit hold 3 and it gave you 5 nudges for Jackpot. A whole Ayrton Senna!
My first machine was Ace's Cash Bowl, must've been about '97 / '98? I can even remember my first win: £4 off of Strawberries.
I also remember 'finding out' my first 'rip' on this one. The 2nd feature up (Super Hold) was a sort of super-super hold, as in it spun the reels, you could collect for a super hold or else it would spin again. You could often get a 1-2-3 combination (each fruit had a number overprinted on it) and if it was JP / Grape / Plum (I think!) you hit hold 3 and it gave you 5 nudges for Jackpot. A whole Ayrton Senna! "And do you ever contradict yourself, Minister?" "Well, yes and no..."
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sir ratholer
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If you don't count the machine I had in my house when i was about 9 (I think it was 2p/£2 but could be wrong), I vaguely remember it being new York, new York in tunbridge wells wetherspoons. I must have been 17 or 18, so about 13-14 years ago.
I never once thought how much money I'd make in that pub over the years!!!
I never once thought how much money I'd make in that pub over the years!!!
Bored of the grind.
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Captain.Tattybojangles
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First machines I played were Impulses in services, namely Funny Money, before I even knew what Hilo gamble was!
First win was roll in cherries on a Prize is Right, and not knowing a thing about steps and that, and thinking that the hilo reel went from 1-10 only. I got the quid. Don't know how though!
Then I was back on the £5 Funny Money again. First Jackpot...though some advisors helped me with it. First actual jackpot without any assistance was from a Honey Money. Quite a few years down the line, but there were quite a few sharks.
First win was roll in cherries on a Prize is Right, and not knowing a thing about steps and that, and thinking that the hilo reel went from 1-10 only. I got the quid. Don't know how though!
Then I was back on the £5 Funny Money again. First Jackpot...though some advisors helped me with it. First actual jackpot without any assistance was from a Honey Money. Quite a few years down the line, but there were quite a few sharks.
hmmm.. £4 token machines were my first, along with £2/2 jackpots.
Line Up would be close to first, along with Jailbreak (my first empty at the tender age of 12 !).
Yikes, I've been playing machines for over 2 decades now !
Line Up would be close to first, along with Jailbreak (my first empty at the tender age of 12 !).
Yikes, I've been playing machines for over 2 decades now !
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
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betchrider
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I really wish I could remember some of the machines I got started on.
Definately the 2p/£2 and 10p/£4 era tho.
I remember the days goin in the chippy with a few quid, sacking off the food and gettin stuck in to the fruit instead!! Use to go home starvin sometimes but couldn't tell me mum!!
Really started to get involved when the pots went up to £4.80. Some of those projects could really go big holding numerous times on the jackpot.
Then on to £6'ers, hidden treasures, coronation streets, eastenders, road hogs etc, really fun times to play and with pocket fulls of tokens serious money could be made! Remember getting my first run on Reno reels, what a great feeling that was.
Wish I'd of known then what I know now. Could of destroyed places.
Definately the 2p/£2 and 10p/£4 era tho.
I remember the days goin in the chippy with a few quid, sacking off the food and gettin stuck in to the fruit instead!! Use to go home starvin sometimes but couldn't tell me mum!!
Really started to get involved when the pots went up to £4.80. Some of those projects could really go big holding numerous times on the jackpot.
Then on to £6'ers, hidden treasures, coronation streets, eastenders, road hogs etc, really fun times to play and with pocket fulls of tokens serious money could be made! Remember getting my first run on Reno reels, what a great feeling that was.
Wish I'd of known then what I know now. Could of destroyed places.
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Been-Grant-Mitchell'd!
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I remember the days goin in the chippy with a few quid, sacking off the food and gettin stuck in to the fruit instead!! Use to go home starvin sometimes but couldn't tell me mum!!
Wish I'd of known then what I know now. Could of destroyed places.[/quote]
totally agree with the first point.
However, though the money has been absolutely brilliant, and the hours suit me fine, if I could go back to the first time I put a coin in a fruit machine, not knowing the life I could have made for myself after my time growing up, I swear to god I would have NEVER put that coin in.
In short, I regret EVER playing a fruit machine in the first place.
I was talking to another old-school player a couple of years back, and he agreed with me. Does anyone else?
Wish I'd of known then what I know now. Could of destroyed places.[/quote]
totally agree with the first point.
However, though the money has been absolutely brilliant, and the hours suit me fine, if I could go back to the first time I put a coin in a fruit machine, not knowing the life I could have made for myself after my time growing up, I swear to god I would have NEVER put that coin in.
In short, I regret EVER playing a fruit machine in the first place.
I was talking to another old-school player a couple of years back, and he agreed with me. Does anyone else?
Don't we all? Tamworth services p1 dial next to a Power 5. Shame I didn't know Power 5 at the time. Soar Point in Leicester, p1 dial and 4 reeler. Again, more's the pity.
First machine? Can't remember the name. It was with 10p I found in the lockers at Warwick swimming baths (now closed I think). Pirate themed? Not Bootylicious, no it wouldn't have been that. Hmmmm, 2p a play. With my 10p I got a wonderful 4p win from same-same-any, took it and ran. Hooked me in.
So I'm pretty sure I left my first machine 6p down, all be it on a freeroll. Good job I didn't stop there eh?
Where then?
Cutting my teeth on a Copper Pot (Aaaaaarooooon) in a chip shop. Lost £6 or so, which was a HUGE loss for me to cope with back then (I was only 27 years old at the time).
Putting various quids into Eastenders, Pink panthers, old m1a even older Jape stuff, Supa Vault, mystery plums and bells with 3s on 'em, dabbled in 'em all.
I tell you what though, I used to be quite disciplined. I'd only put 10p in if I was out with the family. I'd keep the 10p in my sweaty hands and then at the end of the meal, I'd haul myself up to the slot, kerlunk it'd go and one press. If I was lucky a same-same-any would come in for 20p. I never gambled, I was ultra cautious. I'd collect it like a shot and write about it in creative writing at school for maybe weeks after the event.
I was even putting material like that in my pure maths paper in sixth form. That's what got me my A grade I reckon.
Then I got a bit more adventurous with a 5p Club Celebration or some such thing in a Working Men's club. A quid would last for ages.
I remember though at a fair, I had a Vinyl moment which suckered me in a bit more. Eastenders. I put my 20p in and one nudge off double blue bars. Glory be! THREE whole pounds plus a repeat. Not only that it repeated. Had Buddylove (or Clarkey) been there, he would have have been recording it frame by frame on a pinhole camera and assorting the images into a flick book, whilst waiting for The Internet, similar to its current incarnation, to be created.
Anyway uuuft then it was Sytem 5s with Popeyes and Hagars and you had your m1a Monops, Impacts, your 'Crests which were all mixed 7s and green, pink, yellow bars. Adders, Capps, Vegas, Rods. Who could forget Cops 'n Robbers? Used to be one in a transport cafe in Willoughby. I wonder if it's still there? Probably some crap like an Indy Grail with a full hopper no doubt now or a Digger giving £10 shots, still over £300 away from giving a natural jackpot.
Where then? Well as I approached my latter teenage years, more disposable income. That was when the dark days came. Crystal Maze was a Nemesis, talking of Nemesis, so was Rollercoaster on £10 jackpot. Numbers? What numbers? Bad days. Alienating people, too consumed by an addiction perfect for my psychological defects. With age comes maturity and in my case, bizarre circumstance.
Maybe the turn started with a stranger I met in town who talked a foreign language. Audit days, 1s and 12s, tubes full up. I had the basic grasp of the lingo. It wasn't too long until I got wind of a coconut humptier. As luck would have it, Fairground £8 cash jp was in a local chippy. The poor chip shop owner couldn't understand why his cashbox was never full. However easy come, easy go, £10 japes and crystal mazes and Showtime Spectaculars soon put pay to any long term profit.
It took a while to reach the turning point, it was strangely in Thomas's in Chester that I think the point was reached. I walked out having battled with the likes of TGE, TIJ etc a good ton up. If there was a definitive point of muntling to pruntling, that would be it.
ToT, Pays and pays, Wizard of Odds, Boulderdash, Cluedo, G Force Rollercoaster. I'm just saying random names there for the fun of it.
Enough nostalgia.
"Jan! This pays an pays has done me innit!"
First machine? Can't remember the name. It was with 10p I found in the lockers at Warwick swimming baths (now closed I think). Pirate themed? Not Bootylicious, no it wouldn't have been that. Hmmmm, 2p a play. With my 10p I got a wonderful 4p win from same-same-any, took it and ran. Hooked me in.
So I'm pretty sure I left my first machine 6p down, all be it on a freeroll. Good job I didn't stop there eh?
Where then?
Cutting my teeth on a Copper Pot (Aaaaaarooooon) in a chip shop. Lost £6 or so, which was a HUGE loss for me to cope with back then (I was only 27 years old at the time).
Putting various quids into Eastenders, Pink panthers, old m1a even older Jape stuff, Supa Vault, mystery plums and bells with 3s on 'em, dabbled in 'em all.
I tell you what though, I used to be quite disciplined. I'd only put 10p in if I was out with the family. I'd keep the 10p in my sweaty hands and then at the end of the meal, I'd haul myself up to the slot, kerlunk it'd go and one press. If I was lucky a same-same-any would come in for 20p. I never gambled, I was ultra cautious. I'd collect it like a shot and write about it in creative writing at school for maybe weeks after the event.
I was even putting material like that in my pure maths paper in sixth form. That's what got me my A grade I reckon.
Then I got a bit more adventurous with a 5p Club Celebration or some such thing in a Working Men's club. A quid would last for ages.
I remember though at a fair, I had a Vinyl moment which suckered me in a bit more. Eastenders. I put my 20p in and one nudge off double blue bars. Glory be! THREE whole pounds plus a repeat. Not only that it repeated. Had Buddylove (or Clarkey) been there, he would have have been recording it frame by frame on a pinhole camera and assorting the images into a flick book, whilst waiting for The Internet, similar to its current incarnation, to be created.
Anyway uuuft then it was Sytem 5s with Popeyes and Hagars and you had your m1a Monops, Impacts, your 'Crests which were all mixed 7s and green, pink, yellow bars. Adders, Capps, Vegas, Rods. Who could forget Cops 'n Robbers? Used to be one in a transport cafe in Willoughby. I wonder if it's still there? Probably some crap like an Indy Grail with a full hopper no doubt now or a Digger giving £10 shots, still over £300 away from giving a natural jackpot.
Where then? Well as I approached my latter teenage years, more disposable income. That was when the dark days came. Crystal Maze was a Nemesis, talking of Nemesis, so was Rollercoaster on £10 jackpot. Numbers? What numbers? Bad days. Alienating people, too consumed by an addiction perfect for my psychological defects. With age comes maturity and in my case, bizarre circumstance.
Maybe the turn started with a stranger I met in town who talked a foreign language. Audit days, 1s and 12s, tubes full up. I had the basic grasp of the lingo. It wasn't too long until I got wind of a coconut humptier. As luck would have it, Fairground £8 cash jp was in a local chippy. The poor chip shop owner couldn't understand why his cashbox was never full. However easy come, easy go, £10 japes and crystal mazes and Showtime Spectaculars soon put pay to any long term profit.
It took a while to reach the turning point, it was strangely in Thomas's in Chester that I think the point was reached. I walked out having battled with the likes of TGE, TIJ etc a good ton up. If there was a definitive point of muntling to pruntling, that would be it.
ToT, Pays and pays, Wizard of Odds, Boulderdash, Cluedo, G Force Rollercoaster. I'm just saying random names there for the fun of it.
Enough nostalgia.
"Jan! This pays an pays has done me innit!"
JG
Agreed Grant Mitchell.
Whilst the money was stupendous throughout my twenties, I could have made so much more of, and indeed with, my time.
Whilst the money was stupendous throughout my twenties, I could have made so much more of, and indeed with, my time.
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
Sorry lads, understand your point but without doing this your life might have turned out crap! We all have dreams but be gratefull for the life these shitty things have allowed us! I wouldnt have fuck all without what ive earned!blackmogu wrote:Agreed Grant Mitchell.
Whilst the money was stupendous throughout my twenties, I could have made so much more of, and indeed with, my time.
I am Glendale, much better than you!
Just seen BGM's posting up there. What an interesting point.
Then again, I think fate plays a part here. You had no choice. Your psyche was cast. You were always going to put that coin in. Next life you might be a professional footballer or a stockbroker, who never so much as gambles. OK, silly examples. You might be a chartered accountant or an actually (person who....who calculates....something or other) or a dentist or run your own shoe consultancy business (I think your workforce need kitting out in these Berlutis).
I did hear an urban myth or maybe truth about an accountant who had a very respectable, all be it possibly average life. Wife and 2.4 children, a nice car and a house in affluent leafy suburbs.
One night, a visit to the casino on a work's night out. First time of visiting. He blew £10,000. Within a month he was a broken man.
He had it bad, just was never exposed to it. Extreme case.
There are probably lots of people out there, some solicitors, shop assistants, plumbers who could have been 'players', just they never got to put that 2p in the Rat Race at the seaside.
I suspect certain players have very few regrets. For them, a dry park bench awaits, who knows how far down the line.
It's inevitable though. To be a player you had to be a least a bit 'too' obsessed. Had that obsession been focus on other things? Who knows. Regrets, yes of course but then huge positives as well.
Never forget, there is no greater concession to royalty, than being able to purchase a chinky kebab at will
Then again, I think fate plays a part here. You had no choice. Your psyche was cast. You were always going to put that coin in. Next life you might be a professional footballer or a stockbroker, who never so much as gambles. OK, silly examples. You might be a chartered accountant or an actually (person who....who calculates....something or other) or a dentist or run your own shoe consultancy business (I think your workforce need kitting out in these Berlutis).
I did hear an urban myth or maybe truth about an accountant who had a very respectable, all be it possibly average life. Wife and 2.4 children, a nice car and a house in affluent leafy suburbs.
One night, a visit to the casino on a work's night out. First time of visiting. He blew £10,000. Within a month he was a broken man.
He had it bad, just was never exposed to it. Extreme case.
There are probably lots of people out there, some solicitors, shop assistants, plumbers who could have been 'players', just they never got to put that 2p in the Rat Race at the seaside.
I suspect certain players have very few regrets. For them, a dry park bench awaits, who knows how far down the line.
It's inevitable though. To be a player you had to be a least a bit 'too' obsessed. Had that obsession been focus on other things? Who knows. Regrets, yes of course but then huge positives as well.
Never forget, there is no greater concession to royalty, than being able to purchase a chinky kebab at will
JG