the regularity of new issues?

[rogerthymes]

I've been enjoying reading the board. I'm a regular player myself. Searched this place out after nearly winning JP on DOND yesterday - I bottled out basically with five boxes left. Very annoying! But, yes, my original question...I've never sat down to work it out but how long does each 'Issue' last? And how long do you think they'll keep giving DOND pride of place?

[Cardinal Sin]

For as long as clowns like me keep playing it!

And for as long as it keeps enthralling the masses on the telly.

Welcome to the board, by the way.

[Istenem]

welcome. the titbox updates seasonally i.e. nominally four times a year. they have a funny old calendar in LLland though. paragons seem to update a bit less frequently and once in a blue moon ind:e cleans out the stable.
gamesnets are probably the most often updated with new (rehashed) content.

[Nil Satis]

how long do you think they'll keep giving DOND pride of place?

This varies from game to game and is based you would presume on the profitability of each game, but I'd have also thought that the numbers of games played would be taken into account as well - if a game has a very high profit percentage but almost no one plays it (which fits about 80% of the dross that comes out nowadays!) then it is likely to get the heave-ho pretty quickly. For the ItBox this is usually a two-stage process of firstly relegation to the second screen and then removal completely on the next iteration.

By the way I've spotted an interesting variation on the ItBox model which seems specifically for motorway service stations of all places - the front screen has just that Swiss Tony Bingo game, with the second screen then having the usual ropey selection of rubbish seen on other ItBoxes.

[Istenem]

By the way I've spotted an interesting variation on the ItBox model which seems specifically for motorway service stations of all places - the front screen has just that Swiss Tony Bingo game, with the second screen then having the usual ropey selection of rubbish seen on other ItBoxes.

i've seen one of these. it was in a bowling alley in finchley. both it and the alley's issue 50 had had their WUs mysteriously raped. the beer was utterly foul too.

[Mattb]

Speaking of Swiss Toni ItBoxes, there is one now in our bowling alley. Needless to say, i haven't even gone near it. The other ItBox would be a goldimine for you lot though.....the bowling alley is opposite a sixth form college. All the students go in at lunchtime and hammer the quizzer. Most times i go in and play a bit of caveman capers at 1000-1200 points. Lovely

[SWP]

Back on the topic of ITbox issues:

A couple of questions for those in the know:
Is 51 the latest?
Have games ever gone out in an issue to reappear in a later issue?
Is 31 games + managers choice (32) the most games an Itbox can hold?
Whats the deal with issues, do sites have to pay for update to latest issue? I remember reading about support contracts somewhere (I ask because I've seen sites with 2 machines, one on issue47, the other on issue50)
I take it they're updated via ISDN link overnight?

Has anyone got an historical record of the games that appeared/disappeared in each issue? (Yes I've run out of bed time reading)

Ok that was more than a couple of questions but I know most of you like quizzes.

[rogerthymes]

Some games have definitely come back after a while away. Q the Music quiz was around last year, albeit in the form where once someone had won a bit of cash you had to answer a silly amount of questions to get anywhere.

[grecian]

Some games have definitely come back after a while away. Q the Music quiz was around last year, albeit in the form where once someone had won a bit of cash you had to answer a silly amount of questions to get anywhere.

I think games which come back, like Q, usually come back explicitly updated, as a new version or somesuch. I can't think of a game which has been away from ItBoxes and come back in the same version, I have to say. I think 51 is the latest version and would expect it to remain so for the next couple of months at least. My feeling is that sites would not have to pay extra for updates, but that they happen automatically unless the site's ISDN or whatever is down. That's because in my experience about 90 per cent of ItBoxes seem to be up to date at any one time.

[rogerthymes]

There's no way issue 51 will last a couple of months...I've already seen a couple of trailers for x factor which say 'coming in June'....

[Dolan]

I played a new version yesterday, it had a Greyhound Racing game which looked OK. I only won £1 but it was pretty easy. There was a celebrity snap game too but I didn't bother playing it and Dungeons and Dragons is back! But I didn't notice X Factor.

[grecian]

There's no way issue 51 will last a couple of months...I've already seen a couple of trailers for x factor which say 'coming in June'....

OK, maybe I'm wrong...! They usually last a few months though. Maybe the plan is to bring X-Factor in half way through an issue, as they did with ELW during issue 50.

[SWP]

I played a new version yesterday, it had a Greyhound Racing game which looked OK. I only won £1 but it was pretty easy. There was a celebrity snap game too but I didn't bother playing it and Dungeons and Dragons is back! But I didn't notice X Factor.

Dolan, that really doesn't sound like an ITbox .

Maybe I'm confused?

[ZAX]

I think games which come back, like Q, usually come back explicitly updated, as a new version or somesuch. I can't think of a game which has been away from ItBoxes and come back in the same version, I have to say.

Dunno about that Grecian I have to say, I recall a while back quite a few that miss a few iterations and then return mysteriously unchanged. For example Cryptic Clues- I only know this cos I played it to death and it came back with all the same categories and unwinneable prize structure intact. Stand and Deliver (although I know thats not on itbox) has been back a few times although it returned at one point with speeded up bonuses rounds that made it unplayable. After that it returned and it was identical to the original. It soon went away again...! [/quote]

[grecian]

I think games which come back, like Q, usually come back explicitly updated, as a new version or somesuch. I can't think of a game which has been away from ItBoxes and come back in the same version, I have to say.

Dunno about that Grecian I have to say, I recall a while back quite a few that miss a few iterations and then return mysteriously unchanged. For example Cryptic Clues- I only know this cos I played it to death and it came back with all the same categories and unwinneable prize structure intact. Stand and Deliver (although I know thats not on itbox) has been back a few times although it returned at one point with speeded up bonuses rounds that made it unplayable. After that it returned and it was identical to the original. It soon went away again...!

Fair do's ZAX - I haven't played much of either game so have probably been talking through my hat.