10 replies to this topic

[bj7864]

why do refill keys only work on certain machines?

[tracey2]

Mainly to stop people checking the balance. From about 2001 a change in cabinet by Barcrest stopped this, the machine now has to be open to check the balance as are many other companys.

[Bencrest]

Why do car keys only work on certain cars?? :)

I think Barcrest realised that people were buying refill/refloat keys on eBay for £5 a time and were less than impressed....I dare say that operators mentioned it to them and their suppliers as well.

Refill keys are damn near useless anyway. Just because the hopper is full doesnt mean that you have any better chance of dropping a JP than a machine without a full hopper....what you would really want would be a key that would show you the machines VTP, which can only be accessed when in a test mode.

I never have and never would use a refill key in a pub/arcade or otherwise...not that I play machines in pubs anymore anyway, but is it worth being barred from an establishment just because you want to know if the hopper is full or not?

Some operators actually top machines up after large payouts anyway, which helps to confuse users of refill keys - say Thunderbirds drops a £75 streak [as the £25/30p JPeMu one does]....they can quite easily poke £75 back in using their refill key.....

Hence the hopper is full, but will take another £100 to get a streak out :)

[fruitymad2003]

i have a refill key great for seeing what the last win was and changing the volume

[hurtand165]

what are refill keys anyway? itake it that you do not mean a key to actually open the machine.

[fruitymad2003]

No they are jusyt keys that you can refill machines with and adjust volume and see what the last bank and win was sometimes the hopper balance.

[JustInfo]

You have to take this with a pinch of salt.

Consider a machine on percentage, full hopper.

Go up to it, start playing. You have £60 of coins. After £30 in, you get a nice streak of £50 over several pounds of credits, which goes in the bank. All your coins are dropping down the back remember.

You keep playing on for more/afterplay etc. You put your other £30 in and win nothing.

Arcade closes, you collect bank, walk away.

You now have a machine £50 light in the hopper, yet it is ready and willing to pay a JP it can afford.

Guy comes up to it with a key, sees its £50 light and thinks hmmmmm, not playing that, it's just played out!

Next guy walks in, puts in £2, gets invincible board for £25, walks away.

There goes £23 the key guy could have made.

Just a thought.

[fruitymad2003]

Exactly!!!!!!!!

[bj7864]

good points but what i meant is, my local arcade did something to the machines so that refill keys didnt work, for whatever someone has told them they have to have the machines so the refill keys work. however for example, you can check the balance on fright night but you cant on big cheese. i just wondered if there were different keys for different machines or if there was another reason the keys dont work in certain machines.

[JustInfo]

The code for the refill is in the rom, same as other code for the machine.

If the machine was rechipped it would be simple to remove parts of the refill key functionality, or only allow access to it if some other event is true, say if the cash box is open.

What you need to take into consideration is that any time manufacturers get info about methods being used by machine players to try and get an indication, whether that be in gameplay, refill keys, only playing if backing etc, the next chip often contains something to get around that, change of play style, refill not giving float balance anymore, fake backing, etc.

The arcade near me there are two regulars who walk around keying the machines before deciding whether to play, and don't play the ones paid out. Hence I don't go in there anymore.

[impact]

bfm or bfg maz qps jpm impluse maygay ,global have always been access denied barcrest still used the refill programme to check the blance of the machine on Genesis, blue,2000,2001,2002,and 2003 if not the software like justinfo said has been changed by holding hold 1 and turnning the refill or hold 2 volume cancel dose last bank start dose last win red gaming have the bacta std v1.0 code using a menu scroll system which dose not use the blance check no blance check on vivid remember the s/ware verson matters some time i,e kbab1.0DTY king kebab with D=data (( T= test s/ware )) and Y = % change on the mpu only though on a %key it may not have been added in to the programme because it is test machine and not a fall production verson KKebab was add on the first verson after of 0.1 on the £15 versons