Fruit Machine Chat

Im starting to think that £35 j/ps were a bad idea.
Everyone remembers a time when when playability was much better, for me the best j/p from a playability view was £15.

These days its rare to see an average joe firing £2 into a fruity as he walks past or while waiting for the bird to come out of the loo, why? Because he know he wont get anywhere, esp. on 50p/play. Even long time players are getting fed up of putting in £10+ before getting a board.

At the end of the day the A in AWP is AMUSEMENT. Where the hell is the amusement in putting £20 into a machine in the less than 5 minutes just for it to tell you to bend over and pull your trousers down?

If the j/ps went down to £25 and stakes down to 25p again I think that would encourage people to start firing change in from a pint and surely that is a good thing.

I work in old mans pubs and I have worked 6 hour shifts before now where the machine has not been touched at all. Yet a couple of years ago there was always people on it.

In a pub I left at Christmas the fortnightly share of the collection for my boss (after the taxman, operator and Enterprise Inns) was less than £10!
Why bother having it?

Since £35 j/ps have come along fun has gone right out of the window and directly behind it are the average "stick a quid in and see what happens" brigade. If these people stop playing than who is going to be left? The pros? Why would an operator/owner have machines where the only players are ones who are going to take out £70+ on every visit?

While a lot of Leisure Links troubles are down to bad business practices/desicions there must be some blame attributed to the fact that people just dont play machines as much anymore.

Im not daft enough to think that j/ps ever would go down again, I just think it would be nice if they did because things arent looking that good now. After all if AWP's are still about in 5 years what will it be: lo-techs set to £100 jps at £1/play with only 3 prizes? Because there will be nobody playing it for the fun factor then, just chronic gamblers hoping against hope.

Even most £25 jackpots cost £6 avrage, lookin at vamps darts ect, id like to see £10 jackpots but there is no chance now!

Cant believe the outcome of this vote so far, i'd take a 35 over a 25 everytime!
Roll on 50's

but i do think 500's should be abolished, its a waste of arcade space to me, just dont appeal to me

The £35 top is not the problem. Its the garbage they are churning out.

jeffvickers wrote:The £35 top is not the problem. Its the garbage they are churning out.

correct jeff
its the game-play and the 'rediculous' cost for boards they need to be looking at !

I think £35 pot is ok, it's just that the way they are delivered (as said above) is getting poorer and poorer. When they initially came about, I was hoping that the 'height' of the JP would open up the possibilities of different gameplay, new ideas; as cash trails etc could be longer. But no, they've generally just plastered the £35 decal over the £25 and tweaked the code.

If fruit machines were our 'game console' indoors, we'd have binned it by now due to the similarity of all the 'game releases' made for it. Even by different 'software houses'!!!

you should be able to choose your jackpot, like 10p play; £10 jp ; 25p; £25 ; and 50p ; £50 jp when they get round to introdicing them (cant be too far away the way theyre going now!!)

It's a hard question really, in the current climate £35JP's are acceptable, but when the machines are £25 JP's with another decal then obviously something needs to change.

The JP isn't a problem, it's the decrease in people playing and increase in popularity in other forms of gambling which needs to be looked at.

AMUSEMENT WITH PRIZES. The ability to buy a pint, and put your loose change in the bandit. A few addicts thrown in and everybody was happy.

Still works well with pubs with Shark Ravings/Bully 4 u etc.

[quote="wildcat"]you should be able to choose your jackpot, like 10p play]


Mmmm..just imagine how much stake changing / JP skimming you could do changing round the stakes, it would be a mine field for the programmers.

i have to say that reding the opening post about machines being better when lower jackpots is exactly what i have been saying and thinking for a long time now.

I have played fruits for my living for the past 12/13 years now and have owned my own arcade for 3 years.

I have 35 classic machines in my arcade that consists of 56 fuits and a pusher.

Im an AGC (over 18's) and have noticed a BIG change in the arcade sector.

Things are very bad, and its ALL down to the rubbish the manufacturers produce.

Naturally as a player DOND is a fave but bring back the MAYGAY and JPM stuff. With the Maygays there were elements of suprise in them, EVERYONE got a game.

Look at the Great escape/italian job era....if the machine had dropped its balls you could still 'nick' a quick barcode for 6/8/10 on nudges!

On the buses would give board after board offering NOTHING but AT LEAST you were thinking you got a game!

The JPM era was awesome too, great games, i still operate a few.

Barcrest had great games like LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL, LAS VEGAS STRIP ETC

The jackpot IS too big, the stake IS too big. The machines with a smaller jackpot can be less controlled as £10/£15 is not a lot for the machine to lose as three boards costing just £5 allows the machine to recoup.

Vamps and clones were not 'deeply' contolled and that is why they were so successful. It could be stone and you could blag a jackpot of nearest.

I am operating more and more older stuff because my customers WANT IT, and frankly i cant look them in the eye if they put £10 in without a board let alone £20!

The programmers have HAD to block the wins so much on the £35's as one simple thing....PLAYERS.

No other reason. £35 is too much for the machine to lose when not ready, £50 jackpots will be GAME OVER.

your living in a dream world

Yes got to agree with BFK here, you could have the most splendifourously fantsicabulous magnificobabulous mathematically balanced orgasmically super duper game on 20p/£10, 34p/£37, 3.5p/£8.50 (tokens) IT DON'T BLOOMIN' MATTER.

PEOPLE NOWADAYS are staring at CARDS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN AT HOME where they can BUY IN for £10 AND GET BANTER AND A CHAT without the local junkie tapping them up. Plus they get a good session for their money unless they bowl out early on a bad beat.

OR

THEY CAN DO THEIR, sorry for the caps, they can do their balls in a section 16 or the like, Fobbo rip off terminal, lottery, on line casino, bingo, virtual greyhounds or the like.


If you're at the seaside in season, brilliant! If not you probably have about two customers. All day. Vamp, Bick Bucks, Each way nudger, Grand Golden, Bar-X, Cash attack, Deal or no deal it doesn't matter. This is all about market shares and the credit crunch, not the music a game plays when you get a nudge and a feel of a balanced game.

jackpotman wrote:Naturally as a player DOND is a fave

Well as a player I can say it's not a fave of mine!

your're only a player when BFK says your're a player..capiche??