Hanging prize machines victims of theft by lasers Namco Bulletin. Kids frying strings

[mhkohne]

BTW, what's wrong with teaching kids to gamble? Kids gamble anyways. Skip school, you're gambling you wont' get caught. Take Chemo, you're gambling it'll take care of the cancer. Drive over the speedlimit, you're gambling you won't flip your car. Life is a gamble. Kids should learn how to win and lose, early, and often.

The problem isn't 'teaching kids to gamble', it's that most of these devices go to great lengths to hide the fact that the player is gambling! Real gambling devices tell you the odds and you know that it's a game of chance. What I'm reading here is that Stacker (for instance) is really a game of chance, but the device manufacturer has gone to great lengths to dress it up and make it look like a game of skill.

 

[Encom]

Stacker is based on skill for the lower prizes. It's the higher prizes that the win every so many games comes into play.

 

[monster kong]

thank you so much for pointing that out. people need to realize, you cant expect to stick $1 in a game and win a damn ipod everytime you play because u know how to play it well. part of the "skill" is knowing when it may hit, kind of like counting cards.

 

[mhkohne]

Stacker is based on skill for the lower prizes. It's the higher prizes that the win every so many games comes into play.

I REALLY would love to get a look at the code and hardware for one of these. Because the manual lists 'skill' settings for the minor prizes ranging from 1 in every game to 1 in every 15 games, while the major prize 'skill level' ranges from 1 in 20 to 1 in 2500.

I'm not sure there's any difference between the minor and major operation other than the frequency it lets you win.

If anyone ever comes up with one they'd like tossed out within a 100 or 200 miles of Philly, let me know. I've love to tear one apart and find out what makes it tick.

 

[MTPPC]

How to cheat barber cut lite without a laser.

Warning, NECROTHREAD REVIVAL!

OK. I have one of these Barber Cuts in my shop right now. The game practices "win control" there are 3 levels ($) of prize and you set win control for each with 3 rotary switches. they can be set from 40-999 for each prize level. This is the number of "win controlled" plays until the machine goes to skill mode.

The blade always has the same pressure.. which is almost nothing. This does not change. What happens is that the button that brings the scissors toward you is electronically held down just a bit longer when you release it correctly. The game is calibrated to know the exact position of the string and if the game is in "win-control" it will come just a touch further toward you to deliberately miss the string every time.

So how do you cheat and cut the string during "win control"?

It's quite simple idea, but hard to implement. YOu need be very precise with the left/right I close one eye and line up with a marking on the back wall to know where to stop. This left/right position is the key. You must line up the very tip of the teflon/plastic guide with the string. If you are dead on and stop the scissors correctly while coming toward you, the guide will hit the string and the string will either go left or right. If it goes left, game over. If it goes right, you have just cheated the game. The string will twang like a guitar. Since the game is in win-control, the blade will overshoot the sting according to the software. This is your advantage. When the string twangs, it will nick the moving blade. I'm not sure how many times it takes to cut a string, but it is probably about 15-25 perfect hits at most.

So if the game is in win-control, you still can win, but it takes a series of perfect left/right stops.

You want to look for already frayed strings if you want to try this. Keep in mind that operators will do tricks like use a frayed line to entice you. Just because a line is frayed, that does not indicated "win-control" has expired. You can tell if win-control has expired because you will be able to stop the blade on the string. Don't worry, it probably won't cut the line because it squeezes too lightly. You will have to use the twang if you want to win during win-control or after. There is no other way (besides lasers).

 

[SaraAB87]

It also depends on the game as well. A good example is Stacker. Now, I could be wrong, but from I read online, when you get to the grand prize, it will be programmed to skip over the winning item block and only go there every once in awhile.

I watched a video, I think it was on youtube, when it went in slow motion and you could see it skip over the winning block.

I have also been to Dave and Busters close to closing time and watched how they are told to handle the crane machines. I did not ask if it was policy, but it probably was. I don't remember what I was doing there, but it was almost closing time, and he opened up the crane machine and mushed all of the stuff down as hard as he could. I guess it makes sense why the crane games are hard

I seriously doubt this is policy at D&B. This sounds like a rogue D&B, I have found that the claws at D&B are the easiest to win at and were honestly the only claws I could win at due to more rigged payout type machines coming into play more and more. The D&B I go to has plenty of loose prizes in the claw machine (though I do believe its one of those rigged machines now, though I did win a prize on it first try last time, perhaps I got really lucky), and its very easy to visually tell when the prizes are packed in tight so that you cannot win, if I see that I simply do not play. But D&B does vary by location, even though they are supposed to have something called global settings.

From what I gather about claw machines a few things have to come into play, you have to hit the right payout play AND you have to line the claw up properly to the prize (this is unfortunately, the skill part), if either of these 2 things are not present on certain modern claw machines you will not win. If its an older fixed strength machine, these are still around in some places, the claw will be at the same strength each time you play so you have to take that into consideration.

Even more rare is the type of machine where you look down into the top of the machine through glass in the top of the machine, in this type of machine you have to go for a prize that is higher up on the pile because the claw only goes down so far.

Some claws are very outright rigged, as in the size of the plush in the machine will not physically fit into the size of the claw, or vice versa, the claw is so large with the most tiny plush or prize so there is no way to pick it up. I have seen this in person, though only on a couple occasions thankfully, and people still play and go for the largest prize, even though there is no way you can win that large prize and in the case of a specific machine here that large prize has been sitting in the claw for at least a couple years now (I am talking a prize so large that the prize will not physically fit through the chute).

The best type of claw to play is the Sugarloaf branded claws (some areas may not have these claws), these claws are not rigged to a payout however the claw may be weak, but its possible to win if you grab the prize the right way, it is a game of skill. Yes it is possible for a claw game to be an actual game of skill, is it rigged against you, of course it always is, as is basically every other arcade game that is ticket or prize based and so are carnival games and those cost a lot more to play than a 50 cent claw machine but they are still around and people still play them. You can find these claws in walmart and grocery stores usually.

 

[MTPPC]

Claws have a rheostat in the door that limits grip strength. But that's not enough. They also have an eye to count the win and the claw strength is further limited for a period of time after a "win".

 

[Encom]

I have some Coastals and Coast to Coast cranes and they work exactly opposite to you think.
They have 3 claw strength settings, the initial close, the holding and the last one is the bonus strength. If they don't see a win in 8 plays (I think) then it uses the bonus strength for one game to try to generate a winner.

The thing about cranes is that you want people to win just not every game. People notice that cranes aren't paying out and stop playing them if they are set to rip off mode. Places where you have a high turnover of people such as amusement parks can get away with it but street locations where you have the same crowd week in and week out can't get away with it. Nothing raises earnings more on a crane then people seeing winners walking around with their prize.

Claws have a rheostat in the door that limits grip strength. But that's not enough. They also have an eye to count the win and the claw strength is further limited for a period of time after a "win".

 

[SaraAB87]

I have some Coastals and Coast to Coast cranes and they work exactly opposite to you think.
They have 3 claw strength settings, the initial close, the holding and the last one is the bonus strength. If they don't see a win in 8 plays (I think) then it uses the bonus strength for one game to try to generate a winner.

The thing about cranes is that you want people to win just not every game. People notice that cranes aren't paying out and stop playing them if they are set to rip off mode. Places where you have a high turnover of people such as amusement parks can get away with it but street locations where you have the same crowd week in and week out can't get away with it. Nothing raises earnings more on a crane then people seeing winners walking around with their prize.

One of my local arcades apparently had their claws set up to rip people off (I talked to several people who worked at the arcade who confirmed this was true), so people started posting negative reviews about it on yelp and other sites, specifically stating the claws were rigged, and these are members of the General public, the customers know when a claw is a ripoff whether you think they do or not, this can't be good for an arcade where the same customers come in over and over again especially when the area has many other arcades where kids can go and play. So yeah, this is true. Also there is no better advertisement than having people walk around with their prizes when they are at the arcade.

 

[Iggy]

Warning, NECROTHREAD REVIVAL!

Tombo gone ban yo ass!!

Seriously, though.... interesting thread, and yes, I read the whole thing(I missed it's original go around).

I do want to chime in on something here.... When I "worked" Magfest, the one event I was involved in was the "Claw machine tournament". Which reminds me, I need to get back to editing my MagFest pics, and get them uploaded. Thanks for that. Anyway...

There are people out there who travel around playing those claw machine tournaments. And it's serious fuckin' bidniss. Honestly, the way those people "play", was insane. It actually gave me a good bit of a comedy act, when relating it to people.

I don't normally play them, myself. But I did "test play" one of the ones Buffett had set up, and managed to snag an Elmo on my first go. (Bastard wouldn't let me keep it, though.)

Damn, I can get sidetracked easy....

I played one of those "KeyMaster"(I think it was called) on the cruise ship during our honeymoon. I had it lined up right, press the button... it slides toward the hole..... and "OOPS", it turned just slightly to prevent it going in the hole. My wife said, "I thought you had it!" I replied, "I did.... watch..." and did it again. Before pressing the button, I said, watch the key thingy, real close.... She saw it too. It only moved a quarter of an inch or so, if that much.... you'd not see it if you weren't watching close. By that time, we were in "international waters", so there wasn't really anything to say or do about it.... but it left an impression on me. The only time we went back to the Casino was to smoke.

I know those machines are designed to make money, but you really don't know what the "odds" are until you actually put money in it and watch it in action. While I like "Plushes", I'd rather just buy one than put money in one of those machines. At least I know I'll get what I want.