157 replies to this topic

[edwardb]

Indeed BWB's MPU4 video games had all kinds of sketchy stuff on them, either those guys made LOTS of mistakes, or something dodgy was going on.

They were all in there on purpose. Most of Mazooma's developers were all ex-BWB (just up the road in Newark).

[fuzion]

Be nice to have an early Donkey Kong romset, I only ever saw it work on one unit, must have been mid 1996 or early 1997.

 

J

[wayne123]

Got to ask, what did the designer do in the Ace machines?

[fuzion]

Band Aid feature was a free win on all the early Ace Coin machines from Play it Again to Open the Box and clones. I think Play it Again Club also suffered from this software problem.

J

[stevedude2]

The Fairground trick was a software build for the Test dept which ended up getting released by mistake.  The tester had to get a jackpot off Coconut Shy to make sure it paid the new jackpot amount correctly and not something else.  After spending most of the day trying to get it from normal play he asked for a version with a button cheat in so he could quickly force a jackpot to check it worked properly...and the rest is history.  Whoops!

Edited by stevedude2, 30 October 2017 - 09:50 PM.

[Chopaholic]

The Fairground trick was a software build for the Test dept which ended up getting released by mistake.  The tester had to get a jackpot off Coconut Shy to make sure it paid the new jackpot amount correctly and not something else.  After spending most of the day trying to get it from normal play he asked for a version with a button cheat in so he could quickly force a jackpot to check it worked properly...and the rest is history.  Whoops!

 

I doff my cap to you sir.

 

In that case I see your entirely plausible explanation for Fairground (and how on earth did anyone ever figure that out in the wild?), and raise you Supercharged.

 

(And one does have to ask of course, how do you possess such information? Methinks you must have been quite close to the situation back in the day.....)

[wayne123]

regarding the Band Aid as a free win - weren't they really difficult to get in the first place?,

[stevedude2]

 

I doff my cap to you sir.

 

In that case I see your entirely plausible explanation for Fairground (and how on earth did anyone ever figure that out in the wild?), and raise you Supercharged.

 

(And one does have to ask of course, how do you possess such information? Methinks you must have been quite close to the situation back in the day.....)

 

There's a few ex-JPM people where I work, that's how I know about that.

 

I don't know about Supercharged of course but it was probably something similar, even if it was a little more obscure.

 

You'd be amazed at how easy it is to make such mistakes.  Some of the cock-ups I've witnessed over the years are outrageous.

Edited by stevedude2, 30 October 2017 - 10:20 PM.

[stevedude2]

Be nice to have an early Donkey Kong romset, I only ever saw it work on one unit, must have been mid 1996 or early 1997.

 

J

 

Yeah it would be good to see that in action again.  Didn't last long did it?  I went to Southend for the weekend and found a few around the arcades that worked, but it was over very quickly.  The thing that fascinated me about that trick was the way the blue features never cleared down until you got on the board from the trail.  Made the whole thing a lot quicker; you could just play for wins and the ladder would still be blue, and under the circumstances getting reel wins was pretty easy!  The same sort of thing resurfaced on Just The Ticket and Special Brew a few years later; invincible board, play for reel wins after and when you exchanged into the board it would still be invincible because a flag wasn't getting cleared until you got in off the 3 in view.

[stevedude2]

While we're on the subject does anyone remember there being a jackpot shortcut on JPM's Camelot, original £10 cash?  I seem to remember something along the lines of getting on the board and landing on the nudge column with no win there, but it would let you press collect and it would nudge the jackpot in.  I'm pretty sure the money was all accounted for though because you couldn't really get anywhere playing specifically for it.  It felt like something that had been put in deliberately and made to look like a trick when it really wasn't.  JPM stuff back then had loads of things tucked away for the player to find.  Those games were like puzzles that you had to solve.  I remember when Sonic the Hedgehog came out and one day I held the hold buttons in during Nudge Spinner and found out you could hold the reels in.  I was convinced that it wasn't supposed to do that and that I'd found a bug, but alas there was no advantage to be had

[fuzion]

Yes, it wasn't as emptier would only offer when ready.

 

The blue feature bug was still in Donkey Kong after the rechip, but like you said, getting a reel win was almost impossible before it would stitch you up with the fixed feature.  Even if plugging worked it would still know it owed you a feature and drop it in a couple of spins later...

 

J

[fuzion]

I remember playing a JPM Big Banker (Impact) that was an early streaker programme, it would just start dropping in £6 token wins or £3 repeaters.   Love to have that software.  Great machine anyway.

 

J

[shaun2097]

While we're on the subject does anyone remember there being a jackpot shortcut on JPM's Camelot, original £10 cash?  I seem to remember something along the lines of getting on the board and landing on the nudge column with no win there, but it would let you press collect and it would nudge the jackpot in.  I'm pretty sure the money was all accounted for though because you couldn't really get anywhere playing specifically for it.  It felt like something that had been put in deliberately and made to look like a trick when it really wasn't.  JPM stuff back then had loads of things tucked away for the player to find.  Those games were like puzzles that you had to solve.  I remember when Sonic the Hedgehog came out and one day I held the hold buttons in during Nudge Spinner and found out you could hold the reels in.  I was convinced that it wasn't supposed to do that and that I'd found a bug, but alas there was no advantage to be had

 

re: camelot....i may have rememberd this incorrectly, but wasnt it the trick to get 4 nudges on the nudge tower with no win avalable and it would then nudge the jackpot? (by pressing collect or cancel?) i think it only worked on early versions.

The 4 nudges thing is sticking in my head...

Edited by shaun2097, 31 October 2017 - 12:53 AM.

[shaun2097]

and wasnt the £4 win a "free win" on maygay`s "hot pots"?

[wayne123]

Yes, is 4 nudges no win, for jackpot nugde, works on the emulated version - difficult to get though as there is almost always a win

[fuzion]

I've never hears that one Shaun about £4 free win on Maygay Hot Pots.

There were many exploits on them, usually based on the idea that any win over £5 is paid from the streak pot. People found ways to get to these wins which didn't affect normal play. I've emptied a fair few Superpots and Money Money Money back in the day.

J

[gemini17]

I've never hears that one Shaun about £4 free win on Maygay Hot Pots.

There were many exploits on them, usually based on the idea that any win over £5 is paid from the streak pot. People found ways to get to these wins which didn't affect normal play. I've emptied a fair few Superpots and Money Money Money back in the day.

J

You were emptying them and I along with many others were filling them up

 

Least I can have some revenge on the emulated slots.

 

Jay

[edwardb]

Got to ask, what did the designer do in the Ace machines?

There was a button code on a club machine which effectively dumped the tubes. He got caught in a pub and was prosecuted, and never worked in the trade again.

[edwardb]

The Fairground trick was a software build for the Test dept which ended up getting released by mistake.  The tester had to get a jackpot off Coconut Shy to make sure it paid the new jackpot amount correctly and not something else.  After spending most of the day trying to get it from normal play he asked for a version with a button cheat in so he could quickly force a jackpot to check it worked properly...and the rest is history.  Whoops!

Classic!

 

I was always so careful to surround my test code in a specific set of comments, and then before release, search the code for that comment and double-check anything that was there. Touch wood, I've never had an emptier that was my fault.

I had a fault on a German machine where you could press the Take Feature button when the feature pot was empty, and that would reset the machine. Calling a null function...oops. Was only on test so only 50 sets of ROMs to burn and send to Germany...

[shaun2097]

I've never hears that one Shaun about £4 free win on Maygay Hot Pots.

There were many exploits on them, usually based on the idea that any win over £5 is paid from the streak pot. People found ways to get to these wins which didn't affect normal play. I've emptied a fair few Superpots and Money Money Money back in the day.

J

 

yeah, it was just a vague memory.......