Fruit Machine Chat

After reading about all the recent emptiers it takes me fondly back to the early 90`s. Anyone here that old?! Anyway I`m on about the Ace machines of that era and the reel band emptier. Anyone who doesn`t know what this was I`ll explain. On the top glass the symbols relating to the reels were laid out and were an extra feature of the game. the symbols on the winline were lit with the corresponding ones on the top glass. You had to get a line of 3 of these for certain wins. They were easily obtained by manipulating the reels using holds and nudges because the reels always stepped a certain number of moves when spinning. The magic thing was that these wins were free and by only taking these you could empty the machine in under half an hour. If I remember correctly they held £56 in pound coins, £20 in ten pences or about £40 in 20ps depending on which machine it was. Also the tokens amounted to about £60 I think!
I sussed this one out myself at the time - as did many others!
Anyway after a few months, they got chipped and everybody thought that was the end until one day I saw a stranger in my local arcade doing something I hadnt seen before - sparking! Using a stripped down gas lighter you would short the machine when it was counting a win into the bank. This would reset the machine and when it came back on it would pay out the win but not register it. Bit dodgy this though! Had a few close calls. This methiod worked on Maygays at the time aswell - great because there were plenty of these about aswell!
After they were chipped against this there was one final emptier for some ace machines - you refused all wins until you achieved 5 nudges. Any win from 5 nudges was free and it would just keep awarding them until the machine was empty.
These emptiers were only around for maybe 8 months in total and I made an absolute fortune. When it all stopped I had a laundry basket full of tokens - enough to win maybe £30K in cash back aswell!!

HAPPY DAYS!

P.S. Seem to remember at the time there were 4 jokers who got their picture into the Sun newspaper bragging about emptying all the machines by switching them on and off. Hope they got paid enough to cover the re-chips they caused!!

Ahh.... nostalgia... it ain't what is used to be.

1-2, do the Kung Fu !

used to love all those aces(payrise ,twilight zone ,open the box ,high flyer etc.) used to do a nice run aswell.
best emptiers around that time for me were the projects .
7 heavens 10p collect trick with win on line (load 1/2 credit if holds briefly flashed then put another 10p in to get hold )if not collect 10p then repeat.
early 7 heaven with green start button if back door was openned for any reason (used to say token got jammed in mech ,or any old bullshit) you could press start as they put the back door back on and it would start the nudge run off . this slowly became less useful though if you used this too much.
jokers wild was probaby the best one, this was getting plugged from the very start and was very happy to hold wins. it wasnt long after this was stopped that we sussed you could refuse a jackpot nudge and be re awarded it each time it was there after that. the machine was kind enough to let you take the tokens back out aswell as long as you banked a bit of cash ,say a tenner or so,and would carry on going.
at the time these projects were every where and im sure when i say the are a nice few old school players on here who made a tidy result on these for a long time

god things used to be so easy then. ive been out of the loop too long

Didn`t know about those ones!

mr lugsy wrote:used to love all those aces(payrise ,twilight zone ,open the box ,high flyer etc.) used to do a nice run aswell.
best emptiers around that time for me were the projects .
7 heavens 10p collect trick with win on line (load 1/2 credit if holds briefly flashed then put another 10p in to get hold )if not collect 10p then repeat.
early 7 heaven with green start button if back door was openned for any reason (used to say token got jammed in mech ,or any old bullshit) you could press start as they put the back door back on and it would start the nudge run off . this slowly became less useful though if you used this too much.
jokers wild was probaby the best one, this was getting plugged from the very start and was very happy to hold wins. it wasnt long after this was stopped that we sussed you could refuse a jackpot nudge and be re awarded it each time it was there after that. the machine was kind enough to let you take the tokens back out aswell as long as you banked a bit of cash ,say a tenner or so,and would carry on going.
at the time these projects were every where and im sure when i say the are a nice few old school players on here who made a tidy result on these for a long time

god things used to be so easy then. ive been out of the loop too long

Ah, the old 10p trick on 777 heaven and jackpot 7's,
was doing them in my local bingo hall, i found they *FLASHED* a lot
quicker when they were *BOXED 7's*
I too was doing jokers wild, jackpot refusal trick, emptied many
of all cash, (including 10p's) and tokens, which i used to
change for high-street vouchers, redeemable at Iceland
for my weeks groceries lol
This wasn't mentioned on the 'Ace' post above, but on PAYRISE
the 'find-the-pea' was free, and could also be emptied by this
method as well as the lines method
NOSTALGIA

its true, back in the day emptys could last 6month to a year, donky kong, superpots ,money money money etc ,,,,,,,,, as opposed to 6days if ya lucky now,

theres a lot of contributing factors, chiefly technology has been our undoing ,,,,, the internet, mobile phones, and the fact that the companies joined together and got there heads screwed on now,.

things were quieter on the pro player front too.
ive said this before in another thread, there was a time when i knew 90% of players throughout england , there were only 4 or 5 to every major city,
now however (or should i say since vivids) theres been a player explosion .

i appreciate everybody has to start somewhere but vivids were the start of the decline .
vivids were free money for all , sounds great, and it was in the short term, but once it got out new players came out the woodwork on the smell of free "no skill required" money like the bisto kids.
suddenly landlord awareness went through the roof,

it will never return to its glory days ,,, im just grateful i was there from the beginning .

when i was a newb player in felixstowe (over 20 years ago ) there was this guy who was already on top of the game ,so to speak.
he was emptying stuff like "win a gain" by plugging , and spinning 2ps in 50p change givers, even used to turn 2p'ers upside down to empty them !

trayhop123 wrote:its true, back in the day emptys could last 6month to a year, donky kong, superpots ,money money money etc ,,,,,,,,, as opposed to 6days if ya lucky now,

theres a lot of contributing factors, chiefly technology has been our undoing ,,,,, the internet, mobile phones, and the fact that the companies joined together and got there heads screwed on now,.

things were quieter on the pro player front too.
ive said this before in another thread, there was a time when i knew 90% of players throughout england , there were only 4 or 5 to every major city,
now however (or should i say since vivids) theres been a player explosion .

i appreciate everybody has to start somewhere but vivids were the start of the decline .
vivids were free money for all , sounds great, and it was in the short term, but once it got out new players came out the woodwork on the smell of free "no skill required" money like the bisto kids.
suddenly landlord awareness went through the roof,

it will never return to its glory days ,,, im just grateful i was there from the beginning .

Haven't been in the game as long as some of you guys but disagree with quite a bit of whats been said. I often come across players who often try and refer to a 'badge of honour' regarding their past playing experiences and how long they have been playing. Essentially theres nothing wrong with this, remenissings fine, but it does irritate me when I talk to players and this topic takes up nearly all their conversation. Its like they live in a past world and simply haven't adapted to the modern day.

I do strongly disagree with saying things like 'technologys our undoing' and 'the glory days are finished' mostly because on a personal level, my earnings have only ever gone one way since I started, and thats up. To tell you the truth, Im not that really bothered about emptiers because its the easy way out and they can get you into bad habits. Why not just put the hard work in and earn a regular wage?

I would say most people don't like seeing other players but its a factor even the most novice of players should adjust too. The reason you talk so fondly about knowing most of the players across the country, and not many players in each town, is because you loved the control aspect of that realisation. You could hop along at your own pace, knowing that nobody will get in your way and you'd turn a nice tidy profit over. Getting the better of your competiton is probably one of the most important factors these days, and I supose we all have a little dream from time to time imagining, what if there were no players but just me.

I am certain the chief instigator in fuelling the production of players is the internet, namely message boards such as this one. I know some players who feel so strongly about this, that to this day they will not log onto any fruit machine related site. I used to be one of them but I feel the damage had been long done that I now don't see any harm in it. Whether its new players looking for tutorials, new info passed around, new emptiers or suppliers and manu's looking for faults at their end, these types of sites is where they frequent. I supose in this respect, technology is responsible, but certainly not my 'undoing'

The one thing I would agree with is landlords are a lot more aware due to more players, more playable machines ie reds and higher payouts.

Yeah i don't agree with this glory day crap at all. When i started playing 'properly' 5-6 years ago, i didn't make half as much as i do now. It's just the win/lose amounts are so much bigger with the upped stakes/jackpots. You'd never get £200+ into an old crest....but these days, open the box/smtm/any games media can and will do this. Equally, you were unbelievably lucky to make more than £40 chasing the much older £25s. I mean vamps etc often only ran for 2 pots, 3 if lucky, and you were often £30-£50 in for £50-£80 back. These days you can be £100+ up on single machines every day. Doesn't always happen, but times are a changin'.

im 19 and was an addict until bumping into some good players about 2 years ago when I was 17 and they showed me quite alot as I drove around with them.... basically they showed me Extremes early and I went out with them quite regular as I driver until I got fairly good!!

Then onto tooling were I got busted, but... no charge then I stopped that and started playing but by this time I had met other players and was getting pretty good myself, then I started going out halves with one of them and started getting stuff soon as he did and now to this day I get stuff in good time and get told stuff and have a nice selection of players in me phone book!

But this site is Fucking wrecking fruit machines, people come on and say have you heard about ******* then bang a manu may see that and investigate.

I had TOTP althoug it was wank i still made £20 off it lol but someone setup a thread about it??!!! WHY ????

Cash Attack?! same again just keep your mouth shut people when you get stuff!

I know alot of people on here do and they know who they are as I speak to them but some are just idiots.!

Thats just my view on things

yup the stakes/jackys are higher ,,,, and maybe i am looking at things through rose tinted specs fair points one and all. but irrespective of profit amounts there will always be "glory days golden ages" for many old players ,,,,,,,, nothing wrong with that is there,

OK then. Who wouldn't, if they had the chance, take the opportunity to have been around when England won the World Cup in 1966 ?

At least in the "good all days" the following wouldn't happen.


Sunday. Get a message about Power 5.
Monday and Tuesday, go into local pub after work and win a few quid.
Wednesday go into pub after work. Some acne ridden youth is playing the machine. He looks out of place because
a) The average age of the drinkers is about 60 at 6.00 pm.
b) He didn't even buy a drink
c) He is rabbiting into a mobile and telling his mates what a "professional" he is.


I buy a pint and sit down near the machine. The landlord comes up and stands behind this kid and he doesn't even notice. About ten minutes later the landlord tells this kid to buy a drink or leave. The guy goes to the bar and the landlord turns the fruit machine off. Thursday afternoon, the machines already been changed.


Twenty years ago, people would play machines because they offered a bit of cheap entertainment. Nowadays they just gather dust in the corner of a pub.

redlinesman, I just can't see how any optimism about future profits is merited with the current lot of NEW machines being produced, which simply consist of the following:

BFM (Very widely distributed): Poor DOND clones/showtime etc.
Mazooma/qps (Quite Widely distributed): Mummy's purse, more DOND clones, clones of cleudo with the rips taken out.
Games media (Quite Widely distributed) : Poorer clones of past machines, that streak less and cost more.
Crest: (Not very widely distributed): PCB2 pretty flat, cash attack etc. ok yes I know the xxx
Red (Rare in pubs): Snakes and ladders/Cash or bust, poor machines, especially in comparison with old reds.
Extreme (Rare in pubs): Treasure island, and another poor new one, which gives safe cash on nearly every board redendering it pointless.
Video machines (Here and there): Poor.

Which of these NEW machines, that are WIDELY distributed can you really make good regular money on (WIJB IS NOT NEW)... remember in a good few months this will be all there is to play....?

so you are a tooler dean!