33 replies to this topic

[vectra666]

Went on a day out with a coach full of grannies lol to Porthcawl South Wales. First impressions a small seaside town in Wales but knew there is a amusement park up one end, so off I go to look. The funfair looks like a pikey park good rides usual hook a duck throw darts rip off's but very dilapidated needs a lick of paint but good for kids. Now on to the arcades this is where the fun starts fair enough a varied mix of slots n pushers no £25+jps, older slots like vamp it up, tuppenny nudger etc but the state of the machines most machines that worked had dirty reels lights out lots of em and a big Ben even had wrong sounds playing in it. But some machines in there even if they were free I wouldn't have them. Why? You ask 'rust, lots of it oxo reels the worse case of neglect I've ever seen. Only the top box lit nothing on all three units, so could be off on bottom parts but the chrome around the buttons what was left, full of rust even the single party time I saw had rust on it. No wonder why knowone plays anymore if the machine's are this neglected. Any other seaside town like this.

[£6 In Tokens]

The golden days of the late 70's, 80's & early 90's are gone forever mate.  What is amazing is that we have saved most (recon about 80%) of these great machines forever of the various Fruit Emulators.  The era's I mention above will never be recreated again, nor will the machines that lived in them.  I'm happy we preserved a lot of them forever, thanks to all the creators of the emulators first, second to the classic layout artists and finally to the people who supplied scans, artwork, pictures, rell scans etc and the Dx'ers!

[brucegeorge]

Your lucky to find any fruit machines at all I went to Brighton and few months back and all they really had were ticket machines the same at Butlins Bognor about 20 £5 machines left on the whole camp used to be 100s its a sad time for seaside arcades

 

I hope it not the same in Skegness when I go next month

Edited by brucegeorge, 06 August 2014 - 08:20 PM.

[stanmarsh14]

Your lucky to find any fruit machines at all I went to Brighton and few months back and all they really had were ticket machines the same at Butlins Bognor about 20 £5 machines left on the whole camp used to be 100s its a sad time for seaside arcades

 

I hope it not the same in Skegness when I go next month

 

Was up there last saturday, and it's generally not too bad what I saw in Halls and Tower Arcades, but I am betting the ones on the sea front will be generally shite

[vectra666]

I still rate Weston super mare, Paignton and torquay as the best seaside arcade towns still shit arcades found within them, Bude in Cornwall is another dive I've been to a while back, still stuck in the 80's. Come on seaside towns get your acts together. Don't cost much for a tin of paint and a dozen bulbs per machine.

[gemini17]

Sadly Vectra it is all part of the recession(that London may be out of),but the rest of the country is still firmly in!

They just quite simply, have no money to make the arcades look like an arcade any more.

On top of structural changes and mechanical ones like the mechs getting changed to tailor the new coins. The mind boggles to think how the whole industry will cope when the new 12 sided £1 coin comes into affect?????????

It is the same here in Blackpool-bar Coral island all the arcades along the sea front reflect the arcades you visited.

That said a clean of the machines shouldn't go a miss in any arcade-That's pure laziness on the part of staff that do not!!  

Most arcade owners at the coast are forever looking over their shoulders, as they do not know if sadly this will be there last season or not.!!

 

It real is that bad out there. I have friends who have recently taken on a 3 year lease on two arcades and this is there first season and nail biting isn't the word.!!

 

Approx 20% of the tourists Blackpool used to welcome just over 20years ago now come to visit here. Now replicate that figure across the countries coastal areas!!

One more interesting fact,along the coast from me is Morecambe-They are just enjoying their season which lasts for 

two week,end of July to the 1st week in Aug and that's if they get the weather!!

I real wonder how coastal towns will look and arcades for that matter 20years from now???

I can well imagine some towns will disappear off the map

 

And in the arcades that do survive -what will we have as slots!?????

 

 

 

Jay

[jackpotjon05]

I have to admit, I live near Torquay and Paignton and they have got worse over the years.

 

One particular arcade did have some good machines in, but now the majority of the arcade now is all ticket affairs and to be honest just bores the tits off me.

 

I can understand why arcades are starting to do this as it's easy money for the owners and crappy prizes with hardly anything to return to the customer.

 

Paignton pier now has at least 50 toy grabbers in it with hardly any machines worth playing anymore and the main street is either tickets, DOND's

 

and £500 jackpots.

 

I used to make regular trips up there, as it was a bloody good day out, but quite frankly now there is no incentive and I can't be bothered to make the trip

 

for nowt, as I soon get bored after an hour.

[stevedude2]

The rusty fairground at Porthcawl is indeed a shit-hole.  Those machines get kept in those tin shacks through the winter so it's no wonder they are in such a state.

[Guitar]

Bulbs out, no sound, incorrect payouts and wrong sound.

 

The entire problem in a nutshell.

[banditboy2006]

and theres too many rebuids as well

 

I have walked past too many bars x with 50p wins I wish they could keep things orginal  as its no fun putting 50 quid in crappy rebuild for a flat jackpot then dead and that's why things are so dead these days and even the city arcades are setting there machines at 70% now as well sadly so that don't help thinks

[nails]

seaside doesn't need to woo customers like inland AGC's.

 

the attitude inland is that everything needs to be laid on, tea coffee sandwiches etc to keep the customers. seaside tourists spend money on whatever and any cost because they are there to enjoy themselves.

 

I 100% think that if seaside adopted the inland way of thinking then you would get repeated custom year on year.

[vectra666]

true nails example arcade in Weston "pennyfalls" I go approx. 4xtimes a year for a blowout spend approx £250 across all arcades usually last 10hrs ish.

peenyfalls open from 8.30 till late seven days a week, the machines are All clean 95% working and mostly lit, clean carpets and friendly service. As soon as I go in "want a drink" even the kids get drinks and every 30mins same question, also do sandwiches and once had free fish n chips on a Friday. also do partydays like mr p's but probs not as good.

another example arcade in torquay smaller one of the two, again drinks n food also he gives kids free toys whilst playing the pushers.

In my eyes if you spend a little you make a lot more as I always go to these first when in town! Like I said a tin of paint and a few bulbs goes a looonnng way, its not just the recessionits been happening for years, bude since I last went in 2002 arcades dirty n grubby 

[Memap]

Blackpool has plenty of arcades and £5 jp machines everywhere. Mostly in good nick. I was down in Newquay this summer and a lot of fruities have made way for toy grabbers and coindozers. 

 

You need to check percentages before playing too - in one arcade I found payouts at anything from 70 to 88 percent!

 

Must admit, enjoyed playing the new era £5 jp machines a lot on holiday - things like Star Wars ANH, Oche Oche Oche and a couple of Monopoly and DOND games. Homers Meltdown is a good one for grabbing a quick £4 off if you can get on the board and get the first cooling tower. Hate the machines that don't round to the nearest pound. Meh.

[nails]

true nails example arcade in Weston "pennyfalls" I go approx. 4xtimes a year for a blowout spend approx £250 across all arcades usually last 10hrs ish.

peenyfalls open from 8.30 till late seven days a week, the machines are All clean 95% working and mostly lit, clean carpets and friendly service. As soon as I go in "want a drink" even the kids get drinks and every 30mins same question, also do sandwiches and once had free fish n chips on a Friday. also do partydays like mr p's but probs not as good.

another example arcade in torquay smaller one of the two, again drinks n food also he gives kids free toys whilst playing the pushers.

In my eyes if you spend a little you make a lot more as I always go to these first when in town! Like I said a tin of paint and a few bulbs goes a looonnng way, its not just the recessionits been happening for years, bude since I last went in 2002 arcades dirty n grubby 

thats because penny falls is owned and very well operated by JNC. they also own the arcade either up or down the road on the same side of the street. the attention to detail is fantastic, the machines are monitored and if any are under performing they are whipped out and replaced with a more successful unit. there are prize draws, raffles and give aways to keep the customer base happy.

 

this is EXACTLY how to run an arcade IMHO.

Blackpool has plenty of arcades and £5 jp machines everywhere. Mostly in good nick. I was down in Newquay this summer and a lot of fruities have made way for toy grabbers and coindozers. 

 

You need to check percentages before playing too - in one arcade I found payouts at anything from 70 to 88 percent!

 

Must admit, enjoyed playing the new era £5 jp machines a lot on holiday - things like Star Wars ANH, Oche Oche Oche and a couple of Monopoly and DOND games. Homers Meltdown is a good one for grabbing a quick £4 off if you can get on the board and get the first cooling tower. Hate the machines that don't round to the nearest pound. Meh.

the deluxe hastings has machines on 94% - and this is a seaside arcade !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vectra666]

tenpenny falls they own that's a shit hole very poorly maintained machines completely the opposite

[letmein]

What did I tell you Vectra? The High Tide Arcade Porthcawl (My neck of the woods) is a record breaker for rip off machines. As I said in an earlier post, £100+ in half an hour. Wish I new you were visiting, could have come along and warned you off the worst offenders.

 

M.

[Magz]

Am off to Blackpool with the kids next week. Went last year as well.

 

Don't even bother with the arcades, there's enough other stuff that's worthwhile with a Merlin pass. When I went the arcades had people in but only looked half full when it was raining outside.

 

They'll eventually go under but not because of the recession, it's because their product is rubbish. If your AWP has no amusement then there's no point in playing. Tickets for tat is also a rip and the public have voted with their feet.

 

If we ever get the big casinos (I hope we don't) then they'll kick this lot out and spend the money they'd need to but it'll be US style machines and US sized jackpots.

 

Having spoken to the B&B guy we know he said that far from it being less busy he was maxed out. There are also a lot of derelict B&B which are being renovated and re-opened so blaming the recession seems to me a bit simplistic.

 

As others have said, fix your product and you'll get the customers. Don't and wave bye-bye to your investment.

[richy1976]

I haven't seriously played a fruit machine (apart from my own) since about 1995, its not fun for me anymore, I have threw a few pound in in the pub that's about it.

I do love the old ones though from around 1985-2000.

Working in an arcade made me see the light lol.

[vectra666]

I didn,t do to bad letmein although only had about £20 to play with came off with £30 better than losing, one arcade all machine on 70% or less if it was owned by pikey's