limited games on machines

cool · Post by **cool** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:18 pm

Fewer machines but also a trend to fewer and fewer games on the QZONE units.
Anybody know the reason?

Topical2009 · Post by **Topical2009** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:34 am

Forgive my ignorance, what is QZONE?

cool · Post by **cool** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 4:06 pm

The most popular unit produced by Games Warehouse.
As far as I know quite a lot of contributors call it a Games Warehouse although I presume that relates to the company or the part of the parent company that produces the QZONE. It states QZONE on the machines but to cloud the issue the actual hardwear is sold as a Paragon.
However its all the samething unless there are pedants out there!

Topical2009 · Post by **Topical2009** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:09 pm

Ah, I see, I just think of all those as Paragons.

paragoon · Post by **paragoon** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:40 pm

Seen one today that's lost Eliminator and Pointless amongst others. Think there were just 8 games available. We've come a long way since the itbox used to get updated every couple of months. Presume there's no money left to pay people to come up with new games.

dog section · Post by **dog section** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:59 pm

im afraid the business as a whole has been sliding for a long time. just like yarmouth seafront

Drpepper · Post by **Drpepper** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:37 pm

Got to love the fact you can still find a £25 Grand Blaster Cash down those parts though!

dog section · Post by **dog section** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:09 pm

thats where i had a very unique experience,being interfered with by a feral female of yarco origin whilst trying to concentrate on a simpsons machine

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:27 am

paragoon wrote:Seen one today that's lost Eliminator and Pointless amongst others. Think there were just 8 games available.

I'm starting to see a few of these on my travels but they aren't widespread in my areas yet. What is much more of an issue is machines disappearing - I've just checked back and I have lost 22 machines since last Friday evening (across various locations). Only one of these was an actual pub closure, the rest were all in places that were otherwise still trading. All of them have had a machine within the last year. It feels like, after something of a plateau, that the downward spiral has really kicked in again.

Topical2009 · Post by **Topical2009** » Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:43 am

Depressing, and hard to see how the tide can be turned. When I try to think of places which have had a machine, ditched it, and then gone back to having one again, even if I extend the time-frame to the last two decades it's a pretty small list. Pubs are closing, and pubs which aren't closing are changing - when a place with a machine closes for a refurb you can be pretty certain that means there won't be a place for a machine in the new version.

dog section · Post by **dog section** » Mon Nov 03, 2014 7:43 pm

also dongle and cards are now selling for more dosh than the whole machine is worth

muddle · Post by **muddle** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 11:37 am

I would say that my observations and thoughts are similar to Nil and Topical;every week a couple of machines (often old stalwarts) disappear.The tide may well be unturnable,but I can't help thinking the companies aren't really giving it a chance to do so.To make a couple of suggestions (perhaps pleas would be a better expression),how about making sure that the coin mechanisms accept all current currency all of the time? Certainly,my anecdotal evidence is that there must be a fair amount of money each week that people try to put in the machine,that doesn't actually end up in it.I don't suppose Wetherspoons et al have decided that 4,5,6,7... bandits is more aestethically pleasing,it's been a financial decision,and one possibly based on flawed evidence.Also I think very small floats may be counter-productive.I'm not expecting to go back to the days of £70 plus floats that a pro could empty,but,as happened the other day,leave me a pound or so short in three consecutive pubs (after collecting sums of around £8 )then that's the machine out of action for god knows how long.Surely,it's not beyond the wit of the programmers to make sure each game is properly protected against pro play? The Chase was a popular game and it seems ridiculous that that has all but vanished - maybe there was a tactic to this that made it exploitable that I'm unaware of - but if it was simply the case that pros had learned shed loads of answers,could they not simply have written some more spoilers?
Anyway,my general point is that the industry may well be on a terminal slide,but how about at least giving it a decent chance rather than carrying on somewhat half-hearted lay and contributing to the demise? Please.Lol.

paragoon · Post by **paragoon** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:19 pm

muddle wrote:I would say that my observations and thoughts are similar to Nil and Topical;every week a couple of machines (often old stalwarts) disappear.The tide may well be unturnable,but I can't help thinking the companies aren't really giving it a chance to do so.To make a couple of suggestions (perhaps pleas would be a better expression),how about making sure that the coin mechanisms accept all current currency all of the time? Certainly,my anecdotal evidence is that there must be a fair amount of money each week that people try to put in the machine,that doesn't actually end up in it.I don't suppose Wetherspoons et al have decided that 4,5,6,7... bandits is more aestethically pleasing,it's been a financial decision,and one possibly based on flawed evidence.Also I think very small floats may be counter-productive.I'm not expecting to go back to the days of £70 plus floats that a pro could empty,but,as happened the other day,leave me a pound or so short in three consecutive pubs (after collecting sums of around £8 )then that's the machine out of action for god knows how long.Surely,it's not beyond the wit of the programmers to make sure each game is properly protected against pro play? The Chase was a popular game and it seems ridiculous that that has all but vanished - maybe there was a tactic to this that made it exploitable that I'm unaware of - but if it was simply the case that pros had learned shed loads of answers,could they not simply have written some more spoilers?
Anyway,my general point is that the industry may well be on a terminal slide,but how about at least giving it a decent chance rather than carrying on somewhat half-hearted lay and contributing to the demise? Please.Lol.

Good post. Same is happening up north.
What I can't believe is machines that don't accept pound coins! There's two pubs near me that only take silver or notes.
When I say silver - I mean obviously 'old' silver as none of the new coins work. When you add in the fact they also don't accept copper that's a hell of a lot of coins that are useless.

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:19 pm

Those are indeed the other issues that the industry as a whole seems completely unable to either care about or respond to:

- faulty coin mechanisms are common, and it's not just the general issue that none of them have been updated to accept the newer design of 10ps and 5ps

- payout failures - anywhere over £20 and I now expect a failure to occur on each subsequent attempt to collect, and as we know with Sceptre machines that £20 figure is often deliberately set as the maximum, independent of how much is actually available to pay out. However, as you say, even collecting £20 can sometimes be a forlorn hope

I see that GWHL have, instead of addressing these issues, introduced a new line of defence (against what? - who knows...) in that rebooting some of their machines now kicks off an alarm loud enough to wake the dead. I would usually try to reboot a machine if it has failed to pay out a few quid, with the aim of losing the remaining credits deliberately so that at least the machine is back available again for someone else to start playing, but that now seems less worthwhile. Similarly the standard response of landlords and bar staff in such circumstances is usually to try to reboot; presumably they have now been warned not to. Rebooting is also the most reliable method of trying to get a coin mechanism that refuses to accept any coins to start working again. The net result? - more machines left unplayable and more punters left to find somewhere else to put their spare change...

Topical2009 · Post by **Topical2009** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:52 pm

Nil Satis wrote: I see that GWHL have, instead of addressing these issues, introduced a new line of defence (against what? - who knows...)

I think this hits the n on the h. Companies have become obsessed with defending games/cabinets against a vanishingly small number of what think we used to refer to as "top boys" (maybe in common with Premiership football parlance these are now "top top boys"?) even though these defence mechanisms mainly succeed in driving away Joe Public. And in any case, professionals will always find a way, however unlikely it seems. If they'd spent more time in making popular games that appeal to a wide audience, and cabinets with reliable coinslots instead, there might still be a cake big enough to let professional players take a slice without utterly consuming operators' profit margins.