Being olden enough to remember the machines from the very early 80's this is a topic I have often discussed with a friend of mine. Both of us stopped playing fruit machines around 1998 time. Around the time jackpots were pushed up to £15. Living in seaside towns I had (against my parents orders) played fruit machines since I was about 8 though in them days I was more interested in the video games. I never really played the fruits machines regularly until I was a bit older around 1990 which is probably the 'golden era' for many of us here. Barcrest, Maygay and JPM were all on top form, there were new and unique games coming out all the time with interesting licenses and fun new mechanics to learn and pit your wits and reactions against. There was a nice spread of stakes, ranging from the 2p - £2.40 up to 20p - £10 and £20 in your pocket could last you all afternoon barring extreme bad luck.Discussing this with my friend we noticed a change in the new machines, they bumped the jackpot up yes which is always going to create an environment where the machines needs longer to save up to pay the jackpot (yes I know this is not how it works but go with the analogy), but jackpots are the bit that creates interest from people around, the self-advertising feature of all machines, hence the fanfare. To increase the frequency of the jackpots as much as they could they introduced the (then) £4 block, basically you could get no win higher than £4 until it was ready to pay the jackpot. When it was ready it either gifted you the 'red' board or it just dropped it in on the reels. There was no challenge any more, you were either deliberately tricked into gambling away the £4, the dreaded 10 lower 11 (life gone) 11 lower 12 scenario or you just bought yourself a half dozen extra credits. Boring...Then there was the lack of interesting new mechanics, every machine seemed to be a clone of each other, hundreds of machines but only a dozen ideas. There have always been clones but this was it to another level.As someone mentioned further up, it was a perfect storm of several things... higher jackpot / higher stake reducing the win frequency and increasing the play cost, immediately turning off most casual players, you can loose £10 in a flash without even a feature or win. Lack of innovation, I guess there is only so many things you can do with a fruit machine but it just seemed to me that there wasn't the originality any more, if a machine was original it was quickly cloned to death. Lazy programming, speaking as a computer scientist myself, there were many ways they could have smoothed out the game experience but the £4 block was just incredibly lazy and ineffective. What's the point of all them features if they are all hobbled and not used to give the jackpot.My friend basically agreed with all these points and we were both glad in a way, I haven't put money in a fruit machine in over a decade and my 'hobby' no longer drains me of a (then) £1000+ a year. Part of me wants to see the industry return to its roots, but the other part hopes they don't as while the machines are as they are now I will never return except through emulation.
The simple answer is No! there will never be a return to £2 repeater days and the £6/£8 token jackpot slots.
There are a few arcades,around the land that still have some of the classic slots,running and playable-but they are very few and far between.
Mainstream arcades,bingo halls and bookies would be at a loss without the £100,£200 and £500 FOBT'S or similar styles slots-as they are so random and pretty much make up the lions share of there takings.
A good example of this is the slot Action Bank-for those who don't know the slots it is a typical £500 Barcrest slot with a triggered free spin feature,activated by 5 gold safes landing on each of the 5 reels in any sequence. You then get to pick one random safe which has a free spin value of 5-25 spins within them and occasionally(very rare lol) one of the golden safes will have in it a super pot feature,call THE BIG BANK BONUS. You then have a chance to win a pot from three pot levels similar to the slot Rainbow Riches.
Now my point here is this,the three pots can all level off at £500 regardless of the stake you play.
On £1/£2 play the top pot is stagnant at £500 and never moves,whether you win it once or multiple times. But on 20p/50p stake the pots won will reduce to a baseline amount in each pot.
Each spin you make on the reels increases the pots by anything from 1p-5p(dependent on stake you play)
I calculated that on the 20p/50 stakes in order for the pots to reach the max(£500) in each pot level you would need to spin on average 24,000 spins!!
So on 50p play that's a total input of £12,000!
As I said just one example of one game as to why the many gaming outlets have become so dependent upon these slots.
So no return the the golden years of slotting.
But re Nails post over the reduction in stakes in the bookies,we may well see some positive changes across the board of gaming.
Online is finally turning a corner too-as now you can keep winnings that are generated from cash winnings. Those awful high percentage bonus's that they dangle ,to tempt you in to there casino's are gradually becoming a nightmare of the past.
The best way to enjoy the many delights of the past is through the many amazing emulations we have.
But a virtual arcade is the closest we will ever get to in recreating some of the great arcades that are now fond,but very much distant memories.
Jay
Edited by gemini17, 27 April 2018 - 11:56 PM.
