Same names on Leaderboards

cool · Post by **cool** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:03 pm

I doubt he has been to Newcastle. He is even older than me , machines often make long trips up and down the motorways , players I assume less so (discounting Nil Satis) .Recently I played a GW and three weeks later I walked into a pub 60 miles away and it was sitting there waiting for me to play.

Northern Monkey · Post by **Northern Monkey** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:00 am

messiah wrote:I played one game of WordSoup last time I was back in Newcastle in a pub with my brother and bloody Hyena had pushed the prizemoney up to 2050 points....

HYENA is shit at word soup is he not. Whilst not in the elite league myself (broke 2000 for the first time in a couple of years the other day) always put Hyena out of sight. Of course even one modest win will knock it back that far sometimes.

Also recently noted that no one bothers with Canary Wharf any more - a couple of reasonable efforts aside from Messi on WU being the only evidence of any serious play - the rest of the games obliging like the Thicko Arms.

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 12:33 pm

I have seen huge machine losses (70-80%) over the last two or three years in many of the towns within easy reach for me, so some travelling is inevitable if I want to find a decent crop - you can't just keep revisiting the same machines if you are playing them properly. It is always an amusing moment when I visit a new pub and find an old machine, i.e. one that I have played somewhere else. A few of the Hotwire/Open games put a date against the high scores so it is sometimes possible to work out where it was that I previously played it.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:31 am

Topical2009 wrote:Having a little jolly to the south coast this week, I noticed a familiar name on a machine with some impressive high scores. Given how sensitive the filter is on rude words on that game, I was surprised it let that one through as well...

yep, went to visit my goddaughter and squeezed in a few pints here and there. fairly feeble total as noted by others. think my pb is about 90k but these wizened old sausages are not built for speed.

cool · Post by **cool** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:18 am

Nils comments about travelling are slightly illogical to myself. When there was low hanging fruit in far off places it certainly was profitable to travel. My area of operations has decreased over the years as it was a petrol / winnings equation as well as the travelling to take into account. A pro like me it's likely I will travel a bit as otherwise I would sit on my arse for most of the time, just to make a paltry amount. A player like Nils who has always insisted is not a pro yet who's high scores are found up and done the country I am led to believe it doesn't make a lot of sense unless his addiction is as bad as mine!

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:48 am

I'm not a pro as I have a 'normal' full-time job but I do play machines in many locations, either as part of journeys I would make anyway or as dedicated weekends. For those dedicated weekends there is no point in my simply revisiting the machines in my immediate area as (a) there aren't enough of them and (b) I play them during the week anyway. I reiterate what I said - there is no point returning to most machines regularly if you play them properly as the games won't be worth playing (e.g. Quizmaster will be on £1 JP, Battleships will be in rock hard mode, and so on) and in some cases you will have physically emptied the machine, even if that is by winning a relatively low amount. The 'good old days' of playing a standalone once a week and simply scooping up the money that had gone in from punters that week have long gone. I will leave it a minimum of 3 or 4 months between visits in most cases. Part of this is about 'managing' the machines that remain - every machine that disappears because it has been emptied or has given the pub too much hassle in terms of engineer visits for payout and other errors is another machine that is likely to be gone for ever.

As for petrol and accommodation, they are absolutely part of the equation but as long as there are enough machines in a location to pay for those and still leave a worthwhile surplus, I will keep doing it. There are already towns with so few machines left that they are no longer worth touching - Winchester for example - but others still remain for now. I won't travel for a paltry amount but, for now and for the foreseeable future, I don't have to.

SoccerHQ · Post by **SoccerHQ** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 8:59 pm

The last couple of posts have reminded me...

Walked into Solihull spoons a few weeks back and that leaderboard that pops up on the preview had "Nil Satis" perched proudly on top. Also seen "Istenem" in a few places.

And regards the general debate I also agree with NS. I travel as the game I play/ed got taken off the new update. There are about 20 + machines dotted around the country with the old issue 32 update still available so I have to ration the visits otherwise machines break and disappear....

messiah · Post by **messiah** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:57 pm

Agreed Hyena is not very good, but it doesn't take a lot to push the prize money up to levels I am not going to hit.....

As for Canary Wharf, other than a couple of games of Word Soup during the odd work's drinks down the Cat, I haven't been for ages. I would say it would be worth doing a Greenwich and Canary Wharf day out, but worry how few machines I would find now....

Northern Monkey · Post by **Northern Monkey** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 3:33 pm

messiah wrote:Agreed Hyena is not very good, but it doesn't take a lot to push the prize money up to levels I am not going to hit.....

As for Canary Wharf, other than a couple of games of Word Soup during the odd work's drinks down the Cat, I haven't been for ages. I would say it would be worth doing a Greenwich and Canary Wharf day out, but worry how few machines I would find now....

E14 another now barren area. Can't think I spotted any other than the two in the Cat. Nothing in the Ledger building any more; I presume nothing in the Nicholsons; didn't go in the Slug; Bar 38 (or was it 1802) long gone; City Pride demolished; place down Crossharbour long gone; don't know about the one on millwall inner dock between South Quay and Crossharbour - cant even find that on a map anymore.

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 4:57 pm

I wonder what the highest machine loss rate is that anyone has experienced on their patch (however big or small that patch is)? I can't think of a worse one than Newbury - I can think of 19 locations where there has been a machine in the town itself or in the surrounding area within the last five years, of which there has probably been a maximum of 15 at any one time. That is now down to a grand total of ... TWO (and only one of the lost machines is due to an actual pub closure).

Northern Monkey · Post by **Northern Monkey** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 5:21 pm

Nil Satis wrote:I wonder what the highest machine loss rate is that anyone has experienced on their patch (however big or small that patch is)? I can't think of a worse one than Newbury - I can think of 19 locations where there has been a machine in the town itself or in the surrounding area within the last five years, of which there has probably been a maximum of 15 at any one time. That is now down to a grand total of ... TWO (and only one of the lost machines is due to an actual pub closure).

I very quickly listed down those machines that were right on my doorstep 5 years ago (doorstep being defined as no more than 10 minutes schlep from the office at lunchtime) and got to 30 without thinking too hard about it - only 6 of those are left but I guess percentage wise that is positively bountiful compared to Newbury. Makes little difference to my bottom line as I had to share the area with a far more proficient resident of the area as well as countless itinerants. Does however limit the number of places to go and while away a couple of hours.

paragoon · Post by **paragoon** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:44 pm

Just noticed Glendale's name on some of the machines. Thought he was here as a fruit player - obviously dabbles in both.

bubbles · Post by **bubbles** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:04 am

thought you needed a brain cell to win out of a quiz?!

SoccerHQ · Post by **SoccerHQ** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:42 pm

Northern Monkey wrote:E14 another now barren area. Can't think I spotted any other than the two in the Cat. Nothing in the Ledger building any more; I presume nothing in the Nicholsons; didn't go in the Slug; Bar 38 (or was it 1802) long gone; City Pride demolished; place down Crossharbour long gone; don't know about the one on millwall inner dock between South Quay and Crossharbour - cant even find that on a map anymore.

The Hollywood Bowl in Surrey Quays used to have an I Quest but that evaporated around June time as did the gamesnet in the Greenwich spoons so another two to add to the list.

messiah · Post by **messiah** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 7:22 am

Not the Hollywood bowl...