I spent/wasted ?2.44 on the penny falls!!

[Blue_SV650S]

What a rip off!!

I put 44p in the 2p ones and then a further £2 in the 10p ones ... my £2 didn't last long!!

I feel robbed

Do you like the arcades? If so, what games do you play on?

I like the penny falls and the grabber/crane machines!!
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The purpose of life is to fight maturity.

[Eddie Hitler]

All a complete waste of money. When I last had the unfortunate time of being in Great Yarmouth (like a year ago) I just stood about laughing in the Arcade. One guy I was on a rideout with lost £15 quid.

[LustyLew]

When I was little my parents used to take us to Dawlish Warren on the Devon South coast.

We'd be given 50p each evening (if we were good!) to play on the slot machines. I used to enjoy playing the 2p-play ones as you had a better return. Go clued up on one machine in particular so was banned from it!

The penny drops are good, but annoying when you want to stop and your last few coins cause a huge drop!
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Like a Yorkie - I'm not for the girls

[MinhDinh]

Since you could have given it to charity, you must cut your wrists you fish murdering, poll making and stupid money waster.

Now feel the wrath of being poor with your loss.
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Hit the G spot.

[pa_broon74]

I used to enjoy arcades until I ran one for a spell.

Rip off! Video machines are fine, you pay your money and get your fun, but bandits are crap. Coin fountains strangely are actually more fair. Cranes on the other hand are also a complete con.

So...

Bandits.

These tricks vary, holds after nudges for example on Bell Fruit machines. If you get nudges and are left with two same symbols with the option to hold, don't hold and that win will come in. Also three nudges in a row, if you hold the same two symbols three times in a row, that win will come in. However, you're not pulling a fast one, its written into the machines programming.

Only way to prpperly rip a bandit of is to spike or drill it.

Coin Fountains.

The most annoying machines to have, always breaking down and punters always used to moan about money falling but nothing appearing in the tray. You had to patiently explain: "there is a cash box at the bottom of the machine, if you look at either side of the coin bed you can see an inch or so of space, those chutes go to the cash box, look - 2 inches!! You get all that space along the bed and we just get the edges!" Basically the money they hear falling is going down those chutes, not into the pay out tray.

We had several chavvy wee tarts who would bump the machine then claim they'd won money, they hear it fall but not realise these machines have sensors that when tripped, close off the payout trays and redirect any coins to the cash box below. Cheers for that dolls, you've just ruined it for anyone else coming along after.

These are any arcades most profitable M/C. I had a 6 bed 2p pusher and it took £1500 a week in high season. Crazy, a heap of 2p coins about a metre high.

Cranes.

The claws can be set in several ways. Length of time the grip stays on for, strength of the grip, number of times out of 100 it would grip properly... Its maths, if it doesn't want a poor squeeling bairn to have a fluffy bunny, it won't give on out.

Nominally, they're set to payout once out of every 20 or 30 times. The rest of the time, the claw is programmed to pick up strongly for 2 or 3 sec then go all limp thus dropping the toy. The punter is supposed to be 'tantilized!'

We paid about 45p for each stuffed toy and bought them by the hundred.

Tricks.

On coin fountains, sometimes its possible to force coins round the glass. For example, one could force 2p coins between the glass and the frame onto a 20p bed.

If you work in an arcade and have keys try this out. If you open the back door some machines (not all) will drop into test mode. Basically you can test all the M/C's facilities, nudges hold ect ect ect. I was working on a machine one day (simple naughts & crosses machine (5p play £5 J/P)) when a local kid comes up and see's the 20 credits that appear when you open the back door for testing...

I could see him through the glass from behind the machine, he looked furtively around, sees no one so starts playing. He burns through all 20 plays amassing a huge bank of about £25 (huge for him, he was a resident living in a caravan onsite with his alky parents.) He hits the collect button and the machine just beeps at him.

His poor wee face fell and he became quite irate when he saw me sniggering through the glass... I gave him a £10 so he could by himself and his sister some fish and chips. (We usually did that out of petty cash, there parents were shit people...)

Having the keys to all the machines was fun though, unlimited Alpine Ski was fun... We also had that rubbish motoGP game with the fake bikes that you leaned to steer... Yamamoto GP or something...


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Didn't catch anything.

[Blue_SV650S]

pa_broon74 - that was interesting ... ta

I didn't play on the penny falls expecting to come away better off ... its just amusement ... its nice to get some fall - then put them back in again ... if for £1 down at the end I can entertain myself for say 10 mins its counted as worthwhile!!

Sadly the 10p one I played on just killed my £2 in ~1 min and it didn't drop once!!

I should have not got distracted by the shiny lights and integrated one-arm-bandit bit on the 10p one and just got 100 2p coins for my £2 ... that would have kept me going a while!!

Sadly I didn't and my fun was over just like that!!


There was a car boot on next door ... but I had wasted enough money as it was!!
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The purpose of life is to fight maturity.

[Louise]

Love Arcades.
Used to play the claw ones - I have won loads but dread to think how much I have paid for them

[Dr. DaveJPS]

[killa]

when i was younger i did have a lot of holidays on the coast and loved arcades.
Where is a good place to go nowadays for all good games and arcades?
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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
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