Place of doom
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:41 am
OK so the machine in question was Pure Madness £70jp by Empire. Now I was investigating something on these at the time to do with filling up the trail on various stakes + general experimentation. On different units I had got the 'run' on 10p and looked at letting it time out to 25p (default) and seeing if it'd carry on, on that stake. I'd think 10p and 25p stakes would be different as they have different sized jackpots. I assume it always goes 'YO!' (stop) as I could never get it to carry over. After many attempts it never worked, I assumed it was no go. I also had a couple of theories on filling up the letters. Alas these two didn't come to fruition. There were a few other bits I tried to no avail. Anyhow that's by the by, I had sacked Pure Madness off as having no real value and I was in an arcade which for now has to remain nameless. I will at some juncture in time reveal the name+venue, but I feel for reasons I cannot go into at this current time that this arcade must remain nameless. Let's just say it is some sort of sister company to Moreton's and it's an independent in a backwater place. I had played Pure Madness in Galas and never had any big problems with them. I mean Empire lo techs of the tic tac toe variety are usually fairly safe short cycle affairs. You might get done a bit to % you might get a bit better than % but they'll never do an Electrocoin Bar-X and give no win for £100sss....you'd think eh?.......
Well part of me thinks BL4000 is foolish for doing £100 in a £5 Deal and not smelling a rat, but read on McDuff.....
I'm in this arcade and let's say not swooping down to a particular machine (not machine y) straight away, so I'm playing peripheral time wasters. Things such as Casino Monopoly on duff %s for example. Also this town to me is known by me as the 'PLACE OF DOOM' such are the other horrific bad luck tales I have from this place.
As a whole my luck on machines in 2013 has been palatable. Nothing WOOF! BANG! BING! ZAP! KERPOW! No gold pots other than thirds with Rob and Ian in Worcester Shipleys on the Pure Pots and that was a £700 deep £900 out miracle recovery including two golds, a £500 and a near rest [NB Pure Pots is shit btw, so save your money, done £1000s solo on that game, yes indeed in the PLACE OF DOOM]. Solo it has all been workhorsery on standard stuff, mists, body odours etc. This town however must have a gypsy curse that surrounds it, for I could no longer win there. It started off ok, but come November 2012 it all went a bit Rita Bong.
SO what of this Pure Madness? Firstly it is not the standard 84/86/88/90% 10p/25p/50p/£1 that Galas have, it was 82%/84%/86%/90%, but so what eh? Anyhow I started off playing it and bear in mind I had played it on prior visits and not had any horrendous results. Well a few uninspiring features and pretty quick I found myself £300 deep. On occasions it had been looking like it was hotting up, but now it was definitely cooling down. I had been flicking through the stakes a bit but now I was on the £1. After one final £12 top, it was now blocking the feature. The only wins were when PURE MADN was lit and it blocks that E for an age then gives roll in cherries/pears. It wouldn't give any more features. I'm ashamed to say I lost count but a further £700 confirmed it was unable to give feature. I nearly had a heart attack when I checked my grand plus float and saw a thin sliver of tenners! Totally out of character with this machine and I've played this machine lots. Bad discipline and money awareness by me as well. Out of character, but badly managed I hold my hands up.
Sure they can take the piss like most Empire machines, they'll do a £150 streak and then want £400 back before streaking again. The % drift presumably locked up to gradually spill out on the lower stakes to the next punter. I've found out a few things about Empires that aren't terribly helpful, but they are programmed with a set of rules regardless of % that even if it had the value for back to back streaks it can't do it. So if you're nudging away some wins at a certain point you're just putting value into the machine that it cannot release in its current state. Anyway long shot of it was, the arcade already hated me, I was in a position were complaining probably wouldn't my cause. I'm sorry I can't be more specific on some details.
So there you have it, about £1,100 for £0 back and a rough estimate 10%-20% payout given. Quickly done on £1 a spin when it's bent to buggery. Rob has had similar on Clockwork Oranges Freespins. I guessed that it wasn't putting value in on the £1 stake. I think 25-50-100 are linked and I'd put a few quid through 25 and 50 which gave the 100 stake enough value to play normally if a little dead to start, then it could only afford to do it's forced roll ins after a while. So I'd assume there's a fault in the EPROM chip or PCB which isn't addding value to the RAM on £1 stake. That's the best way to explain it I feel.
It could be anything though, a bent program, some wierd anti player reflex, a custom program, hardware fault, God knows.
Other games in this arcade were low %s but were fair. I doubt it has been intentionally done by the arcade. Possibly a fault in a batch of Empire hardware? Cheap and nasty tech so that'd be my thoughts.
TO make it worse, I then span off a few hundred on shitty Triple £500 games. On the way back I stopped off at a services for a pee and got a cashpot repeat on a Seal (virginity lost) and a Murphy gave a £50 box! This took my days total to -£1234 and made me wish I had camped out in the services all day!!
Rob phoned me up.
"How much are you up JG, did you bank xxxxx for £300?"
"Errr no, bit of a nightmare, I'm down actually."
"How much?"
"Minus one two three four"
"Oh f*** off! Tell me the truth"
Not only was I down, but I was down a comedy value that no one would believe.
MINUS ONE TWO THREE FOUR
The PLACE OF DOOM had done well out of me. Once again.
Now let's look at some sick losing stories prior to this in the place of doom. There are two losses on a Pure pots, a three figure and a four figure one. Yes don't play Pure Pots, on good pots the pots are harder to get and I'm getting reports that this ultra spin crap in bookies PROBABLY has a weighting of greater than the implied 50% to bronze. I'll bore you no more on that one.
KEYBETS. Yes there were some half decent Keybets in a nearby Coral. Pre Christmas I had procured a delicate £200 raise from, soemthing or other and some other bits and got my teeth into an in the 300s Keybet. I was there until closing from about 1pm and this was three days before Christmas I think. Either I was working the next day or had some sort of commitment, either way I wasn't getting back to it soon.
No great surprise, a fortnight or so later it had gone but there was this £350ish Keybet. Now this PLACE OF DOOM is about an hour and a half drive from me. It's a bloopin' trek. ok so Keybet Take 2. Or maybe it was Take 3. Anyhow I had never had a Keybet in this place, but today that was going to change, I hoped anyhow.... Similar scenario. Nine hour sit and I left it on £450. This time no commitments, I was back at doors to get that £450! Slight miscalculation, aimed for 9am when it opens at half eight. Plus it was icy and they'd closed the Aston Expressway and there was a tailback on M6 that put half an hour on my journey at least. Burst through the doors at 9:40ish.....Load it up.....no one in the shop bar staff.......£50.12 or some such value. Cheers. SICK! Got up early, drive through the cold weather in shit traffic for that. PLACE OF DOOM STRIKES AGAIN!!!! Either it was reset (don't think so, staff are friendly) or some jammy sod, shark or no got it super quick. I shoudl have asked the staff I guess...but hey ho....
Roll on after Pure Madness and in this same Coral. I had gone for the big bite on the now tragically mega heated whippedy woopa you all f**king now I'm talking about machine X don't you? Could I leave the PLACE OF DOOM in profit? A few hundred up and the trimmings were fine and BANG I'm set to leave. Nothing stands in my way apart from NEW TERMINALS IN THE CORAL. So in I go reset Trailblazers I thank you.....reset Triple DonD not quite as good but thankyou [READ MY POST ON THE NEW DIRTY NO VALUE RESET TRAILBLAZERS] These were ok and I'm a few bob up when I play one Triple DonD off reset as the rest had been ok...no BOARD FOR £40 sack it.....dirty bastard c**ting thing, why do these get so dead. So now I'm in a chasing mood and it's then IN THE PLACE OF DOOM that I see ALL4One Arabian Nights Ultra Spins. Now I could walk £10 or so up.....a decent amount up if you add on the early £350 profit from Mx plus trimmings. I could get back to my car and drive home, maybe even getting a few more quid from Murphy and the Seal.
However I thought of the Buddylove videos. Fuck *t I was going to fucking w*ll have a feature on this shite. I was going to BREAK MY DUCK in this PLACE OF DOOM. BOOOOOOF!!!!!!!!!!!! SEVEN HUNDRED SHEETS IN for a £300 odd feature. Could I walk from the PLACE OF DOOM a VERY MODEST AMOUNT DOWN over all? Could I? Could it be done? I could pull that £40 odd back from the servos and if needed a couple of pubs round Cannock way. You would think. But when you're £360 up, who is walking £40 down? Sod it, let's rechase.
Before I knew it my grand+ float PUFF! Let me tell you gameplay on All 4 One is typically put in £600 for a £150ish feature. That's how it goes. Of course if you switch on the pie and try to gamble it goes along the lines of blow a grand. Then another. After several card deposits. I left deflated. Over 2k down. My current account SMASHED AND DASHED TO pieces. I just about had enough to withdraw £60. Enough to wrap the Murphys.
Well part of me thinks BL4000 is foolish for doing £100 in a £5 Deal and not smelling a rat, but read on McDuff.....
I'm in this arcade and let's say not swooping down to a particular machine (not machine y) straight away, so I'm playing peripheral time wasters. Things such as Casino Monopoly on duff %s for example. Also this town to me is known by me as the 'PLACE OF DOOM' such are the other horrific bad luck tales I have from this place.
As a whole my luck on machines in 2013 has been palatable. Nothing WOOF! BANG! BING! ZAP! KERPOW! No gold pots other than thirds with Rob and Ian in Worcester Shipleys on the Pure Pots and that was a £700 deep £900 out miracle recovery including two golds, a £500 and a near rest [NB Pure Pots is shit btw, so save your money, done £1000s solo on that game, yes indeed in the PLACE OF DOOM]. Solo it has all been workhorsery on standard stuff, mists, body odours etc. This town however must have a gypsy curse that surrounds it, for I could no longer win there. It started off ok, but come November 2012 it all went a bit Rita Bong.
SO what of this Pure Madness? Firstly it is not the standard 84/86/88/90% 10p/25p/50p/£1 that Galas have, it was 82%/84%/86%/90%, but so what eh? Anyhow I started off playing it and bear in mind I had played it on prior visits and not had any horrendous results. Well a few uninspiring features and pretty quick I found myself £300 deep. On occasions it had been looking like it was hotting up, but now it was definitely cooling down. I had been flicking through the stakes a bit but now I was on the £1. After one final £12 top, it was now blocking the feature. The only wins were when PURE MADN was lit and it blocks that E for an age then gives roll in cherries/pears. It wouldn't give any more features. I'm ashamed to say I lost count but a further £700 confirmed it was unable to give feature. I nearly had a heart attack when I checked my grand plus float and saw a thin sliver of tenners! Totally out of character with this machine and I've played this machine lots. Bad discipline and money awareness by me as well. Out of character, but badly managed I hold my hands up.
Sure they can take the piss like most Empire machines, they'll do a £150 streak and then want £400 back before streaking again. The % drift presumably locked up to gradually spill out on the lower stakes to the next punter. I've found out a few things about Empires that aren't terribly helpful, but they are programmed with a set of rules regardless of % that even if it had the value for back to back streaks it can't do it. So if you're nudging away some wins at a certain point you're just putting value into the machine that it cannot release in its current state. Anyway long shot of it was, the arcade already hated me, I was in a position were complaining probably wouldn't my cause. I'm sorry I can't be more specific on some details.
So there you have it, about £1,100 for £0 back and a rough estimate 10%-20% payout given. Quickly done on £1 a spin when it's bent to buggery. Rob has had similar on Clockwork Oranges Freespins. I guessed that it wasn't putting value in on the £1 stake. I think 25-50-100 are linked and I'd put a few quid through 25 and 50 which gave the 100 stake enough value to play normally if a little dead to start, then it could only afford to do it's forced roll ins after a while. So I'd assume there's a fault in the EPROM chip or PCB which isn't addding value to the RAM on £1 stake. That's the best way to explain it I feel.
It could be anything though, a bent program, some wierd anti player reflex, a custom program, hardware fault, God knows.
Other games in this arcade were low %s but were fair. I doubt it has been intentionally done by the arcade. Possibly a fault in a batch of Empire hardware? Cheap and nasty tech so that'd be my thoughts.
TO make it worse, I then span off a few hundred on shitty Triple £500 games. On the way back I stopped off at a services for a pee and got a cashpot repeat on a Seal (virginity lost) and a Murphy gave a £50 box! This took my days total to -£1234 and made me wish I had camped out in the services all day!!
Rob phoned me up.
"How much are you up JG, did you bank xxxxx for £300?"
"Errr no, bit of a nightmare, I'm down actually."
"How much?"
"Minus one two three four"
"Oh f*** off! Tell me the truth"
Not only was I down, but I was down a comedy value that no one would believe.
MINUS ONE TWO THREE FOUR
The PLACE OF DOOM had done well out of me. Once again.
Now let's look at some sick losing stories prior to this in the place of doom. There are two losses on a Pure pots, a three figure and a four figure one. Yes don't play Pure Pots, on good pots the pots are harder to get and I'm getting reports that this ultra spin crap in bookies PROBABLY has a weighting of greater than the implied 50% to bronze. I'll bore you no more on that one.
KEYBETS. Yes there were some half decent Keybets in a nearby Coral. Pre Christmas I had procured a delicate £200 raise from, soemthing or other and some other bits and got my teeth into an in the 300s Keybet. I was there until closing from about 1pm and this was three days before Christmas I think. Either I was working the next day or had some sort of commitment, either way I wasn't getting back to it soon.
No great surprise, a fortnight or so later it had gone but there was this £350ish Keybet. Now this PLACE OF DOOM is about an hour and a half drive from me. It's a bloopin' trek. ok so Keybet Take 2. Or maybe it was Take 3. Anyhow I had never had a Keybet in this place, but today that was going to change, I hoped anyhow.... Similar scenario. Nine hour sit and I left it on £450. This time no commitments, I was back at doors to get that £450! Slight miscalculation, aimed for 9am when it opens at half eight. Plus it was icy and they'd closed the Aston Expressway and there was a tailback on M6 that put half an hour on my journey at least. Burst through the doors at 9:40ish.....Load it up.....no one in the shop bar staff.......£50.12 or some such value. Cheers. SICK! Got up early, drive through the cold weather in shit traffic for that. PLACE OF DOOM STRIKES AGAIN!!!! Either it was reset (don't think so, staff are friendly) or some jammy sod, shark or no got it super quick. I shoudl have asked the staff I guess...but hey ho....
Roll on after Pure Madness and in this same Coral. I had gone for the big bite on the now tragically mega heated whippedy woopa you all f**king now I'm talking about machine X don't you? Could I leave the PLACE OF DOOM in profit? A few hundred up and the trimmings were fine and BANG I'm set to leave. Nothing stands in my way apart from NEW TERMINALS IN THE CORAL. So in I go reset Trailblazers I thank you.....reset Triple DonD not quite as good but thankyou [READ MY POST ON THE NEW DIRTY NO VALUE RESET TRAILBLAZERS] These were ok and I'm a few bob up when I play one Triple DonD off reset as the rest had been ok...no BOARD FOR £40 sack it.....dirty bastard c**ting thing, why do these get so dead. So now I'm in a chasing mood and it's then IN THE PLACE OF DOOM that I see ALL4One Arabian Nights Ultra Spins. Now I could walk £10 or so up.....a decent amount up if you add on the early £350 profit from Mx plus trimmings. I could get back to my car and drive home, maybe even getting a few more quid from Murphy and the Seal.
However I thought of the Buddylove videos. Fuck *t I was going to fucking w*ll have a feature on this shite. I was going to BREAK MY DUCK in this PLACE OF DOOM. BOOOOOOF!!!!!!!!!!!! SEVEN HUNDRED SHEETS IN for a £300 odd feature. Could I walk from the PLACE OF DOOM a VERY MODEST AMOUNT DOWN over all? Could I? Could it be done? I could pull that £40 odd back from the servos and if needed a couple of pubs round Cannock way. You would think. But when you're £360 up, who is walking £40 down? Sod it, let's rechase.
Before I knew it my grand+ float PUFF! Let me tell you gameplay on All 4 One is typically put in £600 for a £150ish feature. That's how it goes. Of course if you switch on the pie and try to gamble it goes along the lines of blow a grand. Then another. After several card deposits. I left deflated. Over 2k down. My current account SMASHED AND DASHED TO pieces. I just about had enough to withdraw £60. Enough to wrap the Murphys.