Fruit Machines Inside Out: Design & Development

Maygay in those days were iconic with there multi line machines more than the barcrest two winlines.
Machines like Manhattan skylines, and I think it's called
Lightening strike and Discovery, maybe not the first to have multiple lines but good none the less.
And the simple but great searchlight, sudden impact series were also good.

Now there's a question not answered before?
What was the first machine to have more than say two win lines?

Maygay in those days were iconic with there multi line machines more than the barcrest two winlines.
Machines like Manhattan skylines, and I think it's called
Lightening strike and Discovery, maybe not the first to have multiple lines but good none the less.
And the simple but great searchlight, sudden impact series were also good.
Now there's a question not answered before?
What was the first machine to have more than say two win lines?

I think ace coin £4.80, 5 reels looks like for example..
(The X are reels)

XXXOO
OXXXO
OOXXX
So that's 3 win lines!
Another called club California had 3 win lines as an option on upping stakes?
Barcrests 8th wonder springs to mind with 2 win lines.
I'm sure mpu 3 cab had 2 win lines with cash amounts on the reels....

Edited by mabby2000, 13 July 2017 - 08:49 PM.

Agreed, most of the best games were made by people who played machines. It was always clear when accountants started designing games.................look at BFM in the 90s. Only a few good games, and a hell of a lot of dross. Luckily their export games were very good and kept them busy. 

 

Some of the good guys from JPM left to form Impulse (and others to form Red Gaming), hence their run of good games, and then some of the Barcrest team left to start Extreme Gaming.

 

Global got one of the developers from Mazooma (ex JPM/Maygay!) who did their Beaver series and a lot of other popular games.

 

So you can see that a relatively small number of people (probably 10 or so) are responsible for the vast majority of the games in the 90s/early 2000s. They are still knocking about the industry to this day. You can never leave!

 

Maygay really were in the shit big time in the early to mid 2000s - it was only thanks to Global, Impulse and Extreme that they managed to keep afloat.

 

I agree - Maygay had totally lost their way... when i went there after Impulse was closed down, it was pretty obvious that certain ways of doing things were ingrained in some people who were there, although there were others who really did know what they were doing - but there was no overall quality control. It wasn't long before Maygay closed - i think i only got one game out in that time...

I thought one of the last good Maygay machines was Duff Beer Guide.  It was very Impulse gameplay wise.

 

 

J

I thought one of the last good Maygay machines was Duff Beer Guide.  It was very Impulse gameplay wise.

 

 

J

 

Wasn't it just a Maygay clone of Spartacash or High Voltage?

It was but still a good Maygay even though it was a clone of Spartacash. The Simpsons sound package was decent too.

There were a lot of not that great Maygay machines around this era though. One of the worst I've played is Italian Job 2. I think it plays such a sluggish game.

J

Interesting read, 

 

Thanks for the info.   I think the ACE five reeler was called "A fist Full of Money", 

 

If fact a Google Search brings in this

 

http://www.fruit-emu...ull-of-money-1/

I thought one of the last good Maygay machines was Duff Beer Guide.  It was very Impulse gameplay wise.

 

 

J

It was Spartcash with a Maygay badge - pretty much nothing changed. I did a clone of Duffs Beer Guide with a Buffy The Vampire licence - failed miserably, and yet i didn't change a single line of code to do with control of the game. Just the attract mode and sounds!

 

High Voltage came much later on

Interesting read, 
 
Thanks for the info.   I think the ACE five reeler was called "A fist Full of Money", 
 
If fact a Google Search brings in this
 
http://www.fruit-emu...ull-of-money-1/

Nice to see it again! First played it in late 1990 on a school trip, stopped off at some service station!

Interesting read, 

 

Thanks for the info.   I think the ACE five reeler was called "A fist Full of Money", 

 

If fact a Google Search brings in this

 

http://www.fruit-emu...ull-of-money-1/

 

We have the ROMs for another ACE 5 reeler called "Double Your Money" and they work in the emu.

Here is a pic:

 

 

Wow - I remember that.

 

Had this cool way of repeating the wins by offering holds - used to streak for 4 or 5 Jackpots which was relatively rare at the time...

What a good read love posts like this gives more insight on how the manufacturers conned me into spending shit loads of money everyday/week been pissed off saying"thats it never going on these again" only to find myself back in front of one the next day.

 

Would love to see them old timers (Double Your Money and Fistful Of Money emued)

What a good read love posts like this gives more insight on how the manufacturers conned me into spending shit loads of money everyday/week been pissed off saying"thats it never going on these again" only to find myself back in front of one the next day.

 

Would love to see them old timers (Double Your Money and Fistful Of Money emued)

 

Complete agree! - ripped off is being extremely polite - although the machines in the pubs now can't hide the fact that they are robbing you straight away - 

I don't think we ever ripped people off, that's too simplistic.

Bear in mind that we are all players too. We would make games that we would want to play.

At the end of the day the games had to make money or they wouldn't be there and we wouldn't have had jobs.

The A in AWP has gone but I think we can be pretty proud that we made these things that people look back fondly on. To be able to walk into a pub in some town and see your hard work there, and maybe someone winning a few quid was and still is a buzz.

I wrote a lot of system code that no one ever sees, but without it there would be no game. That gives me a kick because it's the backbone of every unit we sold.

Hi, amazing read - and love to see the openess of the dialogue! One question if anyone knows. I can remember back in the day (with the back pocket of my jeans brimming with tokens) seeing a flashing red or white light "TT" on some machines. I correlated it to the machine needing a token tube refill and swerved it.. is that incorrect and it meant something else?

Edited by pcmanning, 16 July 2017 - 08:51 PM.

The TT light lit when tokens were low. On some machines the jackpot was impossible to get if the TT was lit.

EG Road Hog and clones from this era would constantly spin 9s and 4s a tell tale sign it was low in tokens.

J

Thanks Fuzion  for cofirming all these years on!! Bringing back memories of all those wasted minutes spent putting tokens in and then knowing they are not registering.. then fighting with the red push button to flush them out and repeat the cycle all over- tokens loved and hated!! I think I have a few Traveller's Fare and Nobles ones kicking about somewhere

Some of us were certainly players..
And we always tried to make games we thought other players would like. It didn't always work but ripping people off was not a requisite. If you rip people off they don't come back and then the whole industry collapses. That said the pub companies and done other key stakeholders have not helped. Low RTP and stupid stake to jackpot ratios don't help

The TT light lit when tokens were low. On some machines the jackpot was impossible to get if the TT was lit.

EG Road Hog and clones from this era would constantly spin 9s and 4s a tell tale sign it was low in tokens.

J

 

Same for Andy Capp, in fact when it did give you a 1 or 12, it would just automatically collect the 3 blue sevens and not even let you gamble.

 

Block of all blocks.

 

NQ.