Nostalgic ramblings - the first game you ever played?

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 3:32 pm

A PM conversation with a fellow Fruitchatter has made me think back to the first games I ever played. This for me is going back to 1985/86, which is probably before one or two of you were even born!

The main game around when I started playing was Give Us A Break, which was based on a Dave Lee Travis radio quiz and which I believe was the first quiz machine ever, but the one I played for the very first time I can remember the game but not its name. After an initial set of questions, the prize round involved four questions each of which represented one quarter of a circle and as you answered them the prize (from £1 to a massive £10 Jackpot) was uncovered underneath. I remember winning the £10 on one of the first few goes I ever had while on lunchbreak at 6th form college and that was it really - I knew I just had to play them.

So that was my first machine and also the reason I started playing. What about you guys? Also, can anyone help an old git remember the name of that game? I'm guessing only other old gits will be help...

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 3:44 pm

Unsurprisingly the one I first played was 'Quizmaster' by a company called Coinmaster who have since departed and gone to quiz machine heaven.

I think the one you can't remember the name of was 'The Treasure Trail' by JPM

Always good for a few quid, that was.

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:41 pm

Thanks, QM. The name doesn't ring a bell but you may be right.

As for your namesake, I do remember that one from my University years in Liverpool. It was a real golden find to unearth one - there were only ever three in total that we ever found in a city that size!

The contemporary game that I played the most then (87-89) was Blockbuster - not the rubbish Bob Holness one but a relic from an earlier, simpler and more profitable life.

Happy days...

Ernest W. Quality · Post by **Ernest W. Quality** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:58 pm

Maybe there should be a new quiz machine game all about quiz machines.

tka · Post by **tka** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:15 am

The first I ever remember was Cluedo 50p-£20/£1-£40 when I was about 15 with my football manager. I saw him win a £40 JP and I was hooked. That was a helluva lot of money to me back then.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:11 am

i honestly can't remember, maybe guinness book of records/radio times that sort of era

cool · Post by **cool** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:29 am

THE FIRST QUIZ MACHINE I CAN REMEMBER WAS QUIZMASTER, ORIGINALLY INTRODUCED INTO PUBS WITH A £100 JACKPOT BEFORE
THE PROGRAMMERS REALISED THAT IT WAS LEARNABLE. TIC TAC TRIVIA WITH PROFESSOR TIC TAC AND I REMEMBER THERE WAS A SMUTTY SECTION IN THE DATABASE. GREYHOUND TRIVIA QUIZ WAS A USA VERSION OF THE QUIZMASTER AND THERE WAS A SIMILAR VERSION OF THE QUIZMASTER AROUND . TRAILBLAZER WAS EARLY
AS WELL AS THE CARD GAME WHERE IF YOU GOT 4 JOKERS YOU WON THE JACKPOT. BREAKTHRU A FORERUNNER OF TODAYS VERSION EXISTED WHERE YOU COULD ACTUALLY WIN MONEY. SUPERNUDGE. WISH TODAYS PROGRAMMERS HAD TO SHOW TO THE GAMING BOARD HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE THE JACKPOT ON THEIR MACHINES-THE PROBLEM WITH THAT THEY WOULD HARDLY EVER GET ANYTHING APPROVED!

foxy · Post by **foxy** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:43 am

Was there really a £100 jackpot on a quiz machine?
I remember my mate Gordon telling me that quizmaster only paid out if you beat the previous high-score, so obviously the idea was to raise this score in the smallest increment possible.
Maybe I'm getting this mixed up with something else as I didn't actually play it.No, that honour I believe goes to Skillcash-a cunning mix of trivia and skill with a £10 jackpot which suddenly appeared in the amusement arcade in town where I used to feed all my money into the puggies.In time I realised I had a bit more control over these things and here we are!
Incidentally there was a skillcash in the caff in Eastenders for about 10 years-a shocking lack of rotation but I'll save these thoughts for a new thread.

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 3:14 pm

I remember my mate Gordon telling me that quizmaster only paid out if you beat the previous high-score, so obviously the idea was to raise this score in the smallest increment possible.

That was exactly right, Foxy - I used to play it with another quizzer and we would take it in turns in that one would be the main player and would answer all the questions, with the other's responsibilities being (a) to chip in if there was any hesitation - we seemed not to have the same gaps in our knowledge - and (b) to say STOP when you got ten points or whatever above the previous high score.

I don't ever remember it being higher than a £10 jackpot but you could literally empty that one by taking each £10 as described before eventually it would offer say £2.60 for the next jackpot and so you knew that was all it had left to pay out! One other oddity was that it would only pay out £8 in £1 coins with the rest in 50ps and 10ps. Unless you put those back in you ended up being weighed down with them as you left to find the next machine!

foxy · Post by **foxy** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:10 am

Does anyone remember £20 turnover?
I do because I found one in a Chinese supermarket today!!!
£6.40 up.
Happy days.

gmapearl · Post by **gmapearl** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:47 am

First machine.... BarQuest around 1986 ish !

thebigchap · Post by **thebigchap** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:35 pm

foxy wrote:Was there really a £100 jackpot on a quiz machine?
I remember my mate Gordon telling me that quizmaster only paid out if you beat the previous high-score, so obviously the idea was to raise this score in the smallest increment possible.

You remember my words correctly foxy.

The first machine I played was Quizmaster back in 1986. There had been a "for amusement only" version of the same game in a Glasgow boozer for a few months before the cash version so, when it arrived, I already knew a fair amount of the questions.

Treasure Island arcade in Glasgow was the first time I saw a cash prize version and after 3 days of emptying the machine I was barred. The kind chap who ran the arcade did however offer to let me know if he saw them anywhere else. And he did.

I think I managed around £6000 profit in the first six months. IMHO quiz machines have gone downhill steadily since then. Too much fannying about for too little money. The great thing about "Quizmaster" was that it was straight questions one after the other. No shitey time-wasting animations, no Dr. Fox, and no faulty touch screens.

I also liked Treble Top, "on-off" £40 Cluedo, Monopoly 10's and "pens and paper at the ready" Quintoon.

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:29 pm

Welcome to Fruitchat, Big Man! It's good to hear of another refugee from the good old days of quiz machines. Have you kept playing them all these years or did you go into semi-retirement when the ItBox first darkened our doors?

foxy · Post by **foxy** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:40 pm

Come come Gordon,err I mean the big chap,Dr Fox may be a grinning irksome buffoon but his quiz format is easily one of the fairest in the last few years and the source of much bountiful profit....as you yourself are only too aware!

tka · Post by **tka** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 11:17 pm

The Big Chap's avatar is sick. Are you Big Ed?