I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

General vintage slot machine related topics.
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beromat
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I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by beromat »

Hi guys, been a while, other things have been occupying me.

But I got bored with lock down and had run out of PC projects. I'd been down loading some fruit machine emulations from those nice people at fruit-emu, just to see if my prejudices against modern machines had foundation. They were! That got me to thinking about PC versions of old electro-mechanical machines. Over the years I haven't found many simulations of those and the ones I did find weren't realistic. Basically they all paid out (much) more than 100% and tended to be all about hi scores and the like. So I thought I'd try my hand at doing my own, based on no specific machine, just a general memory.

After a while rooting around the web I located the resources I needed for the project, such as sounds and symbols. The only problem I faced then, apart from coding it(!), was the 3d graphics for rolling the reels. This was a major hurdle as I know nothing about 3d animations and it is a complex subject. Then I remembered one of the "pays too much" simulations had a dodge for that whereby you display 3 symbols above each other with the top and bottom ones being half height, which squashes the symbols so they vaguely look as though they are on a reel. Then to rotate the reels, you simply step through the symbols in each position in turn, but very quickly. It is pretty obvious that the reels are not really rotating, but if you don't look too hard your mind expects rotation so that is what you see!

So, yay, I coded it up and twiddled the payouts until they were reasonable and it now works. The only features I included were the traditional Hold/Nudge Up/Nudge Down.

Those stalwart few of you who downloaded my free efforts regarding Allwin analysers and my Autofruit simulation might (if I'm lucky) be pleased to know that I've now put this project on my web site as Freeware, no ads or anything else.

I can't say it's the most gripping of PC games, but if you want something to do for the odd five minutes that requires little thought whilst you are waiting for something else to happen, than please give it a go! I unimaginatively called it Elec-Mech! It's down at the bottom of my Freeware page. Search for Racing Dog's Kennel to find my site, then hit the Freeware button.

Oh yes, and in the Help text I hid the less than obvious way you can get a display of the reels' structure just to encourage reading the Help text!

Finally, if anybody has a 3D reel spinner that allows user defined reels and a simple user interface, especially if it comes as a Delphi VCL control, then please get in touch as I'd love to do this job properly.

Cheers all and stay safe,
Derek,
aka beromat aka Racing Dog
geofflove
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Re: I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by geofflove »

Hi - looks interesting.... The link on your page doesn't seem to work though...
cait001
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Re: I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by cait001 »

What is your Allwin Analyzer?
beromat
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Re: I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by beromat »

That's weird, 5 people used it successfully and I've changed nothing, but yeah it is definitely broken!

I'll check it after lunch, which has just arrived.
beromat
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Re: I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by beromat »

When I got my Allwin, which is in the style of a Fivewin, I wanted to know how it was performing. So I wrote a simple program, called Fivewin Analyser, which allowed me to record which holes the ball hit (by clicking on the headers of a table) and automatically keep track of the totals, percentages, return percentage. As there are variations of payout schemes and free ball availability, I built those options into the program even though they were of no use to me, just because others might need them.

I realised that not much was needed to produce a version for Win and Place machines and another one for Elevenses machines, so I did that too. Yes I was bored and short of things to do!
beromat
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Re: I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by beromat »

I have no idea why, but the file had been deleted! I have restored it!

If it disappears again do let me know people.
beromat
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Re: I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by beromat »

So whilst we were posting the above I was busily working on another imaginary machine!

Why?

Well, I was still bored but also, whilst playing with some of the emulators from those nice people at fruit-emu, I came across a bit of an odd ball way of giving Nudges. It wasn't the old fashioned random number method as per Elech-Mech, nor was it a ladder driven by subscripted numbers on certain symbols as is common now, but rather it was 3X3 grid with one of each symbol from the reels in the grid. The idea being that 2 nudges are awarded for every tic-tac-toe style line of symbols completed. To help you with that there is of course a Feature Held mechanism. So I just wondered how that would have played out in a more early '70s style machine.

Therefore, I reworked Elech-Mech with the reel layouts and the payouts to stake ratio of the machine I'd seen plus the nudges grid. Had I been bothered to do the maths I wouldn't have been surprised at the result. As it was I was totally astonished by it. The resulting machine was a total cash cow for the punter!

So I did some major surgery on the design of the machine I was copying. The original had payouts for matching symbols on the first two reels. I deleted that. I made the payouts really mean by doubling the unit stake. I did a few other minor changes. You would have thought that such drastic surgery would have to result in a machine with a sensible payout, wouldn't you? Well the return was still a tad over 100%. If that doesn't tell what a con modern micro-processor controlled machine are, then nothing will. Anyway, I shelved the project at that point.

Two months later and I've changed my mind. It's only supposed to be a bit of fun on the PC after all, so I've published it in the usual place, see initial post. You will be familiar by now with my lack of imagination when it comes to inventing names, hence I called it Elec-Mech II. Sorry! So help yerselves. It's free just like all my stuff.

And before anybody asks, yes I have seen all the possible nudge awards during testing!

Cheers all and stay safe.
beromat
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Re: I got bored with lockdown, so being a retired programmer......

Post by beromat »

As noted on another thread, circumstances beyond my control mean I have had to move my web site to http://racingdog.lazenby.me/ though the page names are still the same.
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