Personal firsts

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:42 pm

In an otherwise unproductive evening in Southampton (anything to take my mind off Everton's non-performance at Portsmouth!) I managed to achieve a few notable firsts, none of which are that great in the general scheme of things but they all meant something to me:

(1) My first Word Up Jackpot (El Paso) - this one was bizarre. The £1 was at something like 250 points and I only needed 850 for the £10 but my score was so low, as were the individual words etc, that I don't have any proof on any of the scoreboards

(2) My first appearance at the top of a Word Up Best Words list (Yates's) - i.e. other than after a brand new install - it was only QUIZZES for I think 259 points and therefore not eligible for VB's scoreboards but, well, it made me happy!

(3) My first DOND Jackpot (Yates's) - again, it was a little bizarre as I was left with 10p and £20 and to my amazement was given the £20. For those of you that have done the same, you'll know that sadly there isn't a little song and dance by old Tidy Beard to enjoy/endure, just a brief graphic to confirm the win

(4) My first sighting of the "impossible" Caveman Capers prize line (Yates's) - sorry for not believing you Hornby but there it was - 6,000 points needed for £1 and nothing else after that. What is odd about this is that the other ItBoxes close by weren't in the same state, so the question remains - how did the game get so unplayable on just one machine? My guess is that this is what happens when someone wins the Jackpot, whereas the much more common state, where £1 is at 3,000 points or more and therefore to all intents and purposes the game is still unplayable to mere mortals, occurs after someone has only won a few quid, which to me is just pathetic.

On a longer term note, I still remember the pub, game, prize (£10) and even the question which won me my first Jackpot! I realise that makes me a founder member of Saddoes Anonymous but can anyone else confess to the same??

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:02 pm

good stuff NS, i'm guessing you follow everton across the country mopping up local money. sounds like a good plan. i always imagine that in places like ci/forces barracks you'd make a killing; captive audience unlikely to be any pros there. similiar to departure lounges.
being predominantly a wordgamer i've done 1, 2 and 4 on your list but not 3. re 1b i had QUARTERBACKS not make the hiscore board the other day. gah.

and i'll join your club, i remember getting cluedo JP on £1/£40 at a pub called the north star in uxbridge. i was 15 and it was in the 4th room on (looking back) ridiculously easy Qs which i'd sneer at these days. my last non-word game JP* was many moons ago though;
probably weakest link

ops:

*inc hangman clones and paragon swp/atms**
**am i the only one who does well out of these?

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:49 pm

unknownpseudonym wrote:good stuff NS, i'm guessing you follow everton across the country mopping up local money. sounds like a good plan.

I do travel watching Everton a lot but sadly the idea that I mop up lots of local money is not really the case any more. I was a firm disciple of Dr Fox so a year or so ago I could pretty much be guaranteed to visit a town and have my travel costs and beer etc. paid for and still make a tidy profit but (as I've mentioned elsewhere) I genuinely now think that this is the worst time ever to try to travel and make money off quiz machines.

The standard ItBox for example has only five or six games that I would consider playing for money, plus Word Up for recreation and the occasional surprise. On most machines nowadays three or four of those games are completely dead and you struggle to make a few quid here or there from the others. Caveman Capers is a classic example - at least it made it onto my 'Worth Playing' list but it has been killed on around 95% of machines within two to three months without even I don't believe (as I explained in my original post) having paid out the Jackpot once.

Similarly the large oval Gamesnet, which has been my favourite for ages, now has a lower number of games to choose from and some of them are just unforgiveable and/or completely pointless.

unknownpseudonym wrote:i always imagine that in places like ci/forces barracks you'd make a killing]

Army Barracks might well be a good location but I really don't have the chutzpah (is that the word?) to stroll into one of those, pretend to be a 'native', nick all the squaddies' money then stroll out again. I'll leave that to the braver amongst you!

unknownpseudonym wrote:*inc hangman clones and paragon swp/atms**
**am i the only one who does well out of these?

I know it's partly personal taste but the only Paragon games I can ever remember winning more than say £1 on are Moneycomb, Trivial Pursuit and Word Up, all of which are available elsewhere. Things like Cops and Robbers, Hasbro Battleships, Pimp Your Ride, Bend it Like..., Bling Bling and its football equivalent, The Movie Quiz, Snakes and Ladders, ... (the list is endless!) I find either dull, impossible or dead (or often all three at the same time!).

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:09 pm

i guess so: personal taste.
just lately i've had between £5 and £10 pretty often from most of the new batch on paragon (buckaroo, PMP, SP, GW?, hasbro, C&R) up to about ten JPs on PMP and £7-£15 a few times on C&R, my personal record is much better on this terminal. on itbox i'm lucky if it pays for my pint.

i trust i am teaching granny to suck (easter) eggs but you are aware of the free gifts on PMP, hasbro battleshits, SP & SQ?
afaiaa the only easter egg on twitbox is the bullseye one which even he dimmest punter knows about. (notwithstanding His Eminence

)

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:19 pm

[quote="unknownpseudonym"]i trust i am teaching granny to suck (easter) eggs but you are aware of the free gifts on PMP, hasbro battleshits, SP & SQ?
afaiaa the only easter egg on twitbox is the bullseye one which even he dimmest punter knows about. (notwithstanding His Eminence ]

I know about the Hasbro Sonar Bonus (and the equivalent Bully Bonus on Bullseye) - I may even have been responsible for revealing that one to the world on here. I don't play PMP - assuming that is Pimp My Prize - you can tell how much I play it given that I got the name wrong! As for the other two, I've always been crap at abbreviations so I can't guess what those two are! (which probably means that I don't play them either).

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:34 pm

[quote="unknownpseudonym"]which even he dimmest punter knows about. (notwithstanding His Eminence ]

Yes. It wasn't my finest hour.

And in case anyone has missed it, on Caveman CApers, it's possible to view the question, then collect your money if you don't like the look of it (assuming you've reached the money that is).

kidgloves · Post by **kidgloves** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:53 pm

Nil Satis wrote: On a longer term note, I still remember the pub, game, prize (£10) and even the question which won me my first Jackpot! I realise that makes me a founder member of Saddoes Anonymous but can anyone else confess to the same??

Me too, the game was called "Ten Quid Grid"
Others were D.L.T's Treble Top with the £20 Jp and a sweet victory against prize space invaders for £20.
Quiz machines of old were much more progressive than these days. The Treble Top used to go for a JP (off a force!) once every week or so.
Another one I liked was called Crazy Maze, nice gimmicky end feature where you had a certain amount of time to move your little man around the maze hoovering up the cash amounts.

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 11:52 pm

Can't remember the name of it (someone has already reminded me of its name on this forum which says something for my short-term memory), but the final question was an opportunity to stake my £10 winnings to go for el gordo, the £20 jackpot.

It was a picture question. The picture quality was so poor you could barely make out a human form. The question was where does this gentleman hail from?

A) ENGLAND
B) USA
C) THE NETHERLANDS

Thankfully, realising the poor quality of their visuals, they provided the chap's name as well. Jan de Groot. I didn't know this at the time, but the village of John O'Groats is named after him. This was immaterial anyway, as Jan de Groot struck me as the most Dutch name since Jan Jansz de Jonge Stampioen. I was rewarded with £20, or at least about £18 and some 20ps, or fresh air - I can't quite remember.

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Personal firsts

Personal firsts

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