A Very Loose Slot

[coppinpr]

I keep my machines in a seperate room but usually have one on duty in my conservertery . About three months ago I moved this hi-top( I know its not a 'wild deuce' I just restored it to look like one) . It came to me as a nasty chipped blue 7-7-7 machine. Thing is its great as a house machine because it pays out a lot, in fact it pays out ALL the time and im not sure why. Some extra payouts are obvious, as well as the usual list of payouts it also has three beer mugs which pay 18 as a mystery payout, three stars superimposed on standard symbols which pay 10 and three 7's with pay 20, OK this will increase the payout numbers but the big surprise is the jackpot, none of the reel strips (and payout discs ) have been altered by the way, The jackpot pays out VERY often, in fact if i didnt hand fill the JP there would never be anything in it as the payout tube is never full!!, Remember this is just in my house, no kids,just me and the wife and a few guests from time to time. Ive done tests by checking and emptying the cash box every time JP comes up, the average number of coins that would be profit is 5!!! As a house machine its just perfect,every one gets a payout in nice shinny 6d and the good chance of a woosh of coins from the JP but as a club or arcade machine its odd, remember all the reel strips and discs look original. Its become a favorite in the collection and usuall I sell them on after a while as its the re-building I like but not this one, Im keeping it. Perhaps its possesed when I first got it I put in one 6d to see if it worked and got the jackpot or is it just the settings? but there are only the usual number of BARS on the reels. any thoughts?

[badpenny]

You say neither the reels nor the finger discs have been altered, in that case .........

I imagine this is your wife .........



Which of your houses is it in?




When you bought it I suppose you got somebody to do it for you instead of using your own car?



One final question ............ can you lick your eyebrows?

[andydotp]

So that's where my ex ended up! My dingy flat & Robin Reliant obviously not good enough for her!

Coppinpr, that is truly bizarre. Are you sure the reel strips - and discs accordingly - are original? I can only think it's been purposley altered 'cause, as we all know, the reel strip combination predetermines the payout percentage. I figure if the machine (great resto BTW) was 'tightened', you'd see patches on the disks and lemon symbols placed over paying symbols but to punch or drill new disk holes would be harder to detect.
Well that's my take on it.
Regs.
A.

[coppinpr]

It's always possible the discs have been drilled and I can't see it but that doesn't explain the high JP payout rate. The number of BAR symbols is the same as a standard reel strip set. The reel strips themselves are, I believe, original to the machine. The beer mugs, stars and 7s would make me think that and there are definitely no symbols patched over, so wherever the strips came from, they came as they are now.

[andydotp]

Hi again coppinpr.

Well! Am somewhat flumoxed but offer two more unlikely (though possble) scenarios:

Do the three bars HAVE to line up on the centre (pay) line? Mills introduced the three bars Over or Under to still dump the JP.

The reel disk teeth relating to the symbols beneath the bars haven't been 'bugged' or filed down have they? That would greatly increase the number of 3-bar line-ups. This method was originally to ensure the bars physically couldn't line up so no reason to suspect the opposite couldn't apply?

Errr, after thes,,,, I dunno
andydotp

[coppinpr]

Only pays on center line and discs look untouched, certainly no bugs added... it's possessed, I'm sure of it Either that or it paid so little during its working life it's evening up the averages in its declining years

[andydotp]

Oohhh, coppinpr my head's hurting on this conundrum now...

Lets say, if the reel strip combination, disks & payouts ARE in fact original could THIS particular machine have been a factory-produced 'sales tool' to demonstrate its reliability and explanation of how the percentages work to a potential purchaser (many of hundreds of machines)? This could be demonstrated and the Mills guys who would've said.... 'don't purchase so & so's - they're set up like this (nudge nudge, whisper, we checked 'em out)'.
'OUR machines are as tight as a .... so you'll clean up!'

Are you 100% sure the disks havent been filed in any way? i.e. grooves deepend just before bars? Would only take a fraction of a millimetre!
Or a slightly off-horizontal filing of disk tooth or stop bar so a few symbols could slip through then the bars get stopped...

Really AM stumped now! again.
andydotp

[gameswat]

Hey Coppinpr, I've been thinking about this too and Andy has some good ideas going. Would help us all if you could take some good mech photos showing the relevant parts so we can look for anything out of the ordinary. I've had some weird payout sequences over the years but only short lived. And after a full resto on any machine I thrash them looking for issues, only then moving them into the house to thrash once more until I'm sure they're working properly. So after playing 500 coins through a slot non stop you start to realise how rare a jackpot is usually!

[coppinpr]

I'm in the Philippines for a week, when I get back I'll take close ups. It is a strange one. As I say, the reel strips have not been altered and the number of 3 oranges and 3 bells that come up are enough to keep the payout tube going down. As to the jp, the strangest thing is it plays like a modern electric machine: for a while no bars appear in the window at all, then one shows somewhere, then another a few goes later, then all three scattered about in view, then it might move away and not pay a jp, then the same sequence will start again and perhaps the three in a line comes up this time, as if the reels were turning always the same number of times, say 6.5 revs, slowly moving the bars back to the front. Not possible, I think.

[andydotp]

Did we ever get to the bottom of this 'mysterious' machine and it's propensity to keep on paying winners?
Be interested to hear..
andydotp

[treefrog]

I have a challenge, I bought a Aristocrat Sheerline last year, which does not appear to follow any kind of random mathematical calculation, but oddly for a mechanical bandit will actually play around 20 or 30 normal small wins or no wins, but then go through a win streak. Eg. it will perform 6 wins on the trot, high pays wins and then go back to normal play for 30 mins.
Not sure what calculation method to use on this one, but it is true..... Haven't worked out what's going on yet.......
Any views!

Now about 3 years ago I posted on a thread about a mysterious Aristocrat Sheerline I had, that seemed to be possessed, as it would go through a series of "win streak" type features every 100 or so plays, 6 or 7 wins on trot. Suspect no one believed me at the time, but I keep meaning to video this, as it is a totally mechanical machine. When played in this state, the reels immediately jump to each win rather than spin at the normal rate. Of course this could be a problem with the kicker or timing etc., but I would not expect it to hit sequential wins and progressively give bigger payouts.... I guess until I video this, no one will believe me... At the moment it is hidden at the back of a shed, so the mystery will stay that way till I have a clear out.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1116&p=5449

[operator bell]

When played in this state, the reels immediately jump to each win rather than spin at the normal rate.

Ok, I can suggest a possible explanation for that behaviour. Perhaps not the right one, but it fits the description. If the payout fingers let go too early while the reels are spinning, the first reel will stop the moment one of the fingers drops into a hole. This finger then tests the center disk and stops the reel when it falls into the corresponding hole. Similarly for the third disk. As long as the reels have enough inertia and low enough friction, this will hit a winner every time.

[coppinpr]

Well, I'm finally back from the Philippeans (what a chore that was, sunny every day, never saw any rain, best selection of restaurants in ANY city in the world, a maid, a cook and a personal driver for £50 per month for the lot and 5 girls to every man in a country where men over 50 are prefered by girls to young men. I was SO pleased to get back to wet England in time for the Olympics )

Took the promised photos of my Hi Top that pays out a lot, definitely no filing of the star wheels and no changes to the payout discs, BUT after 12 months of high payouts the machine has suddenly got the hump and stopped paying out anything but cherries. My bin of 6d is empty for the first time, the JP is bursting with coins and the coin box is filling up for the first time ever . Ran 100 coins today and got 1 cherry 6 times, nothing else! Looks like the good times are REALLY over all round

[badpenny]

When played in this state, the reels immediately jump to each win rather than spin at the normal rate.

Ok, I can suggest a possible explanation for that behaviour. Perhaps not the right one, but it fits the description. If the payout fingers let go too early while the reels are spinning, the first reel will stop the moment one of the fingers drops into a hole. This finger then tests the center disk and stops the reel when it falls into the corresponding hole. Similarly for the third disk. As long as the reels have enough inertia and low enough friction, this will hit a winner every time.

A splendid suggestion squire, I used to have a Bryan's Bullion that did the same.
The first clue was track marks appearing on the star wheel where the pins were dragging until they snagged a hole.

Slowing the action right down, I saw the chosen pin being released just before the brake. Equally odd was that because Bryan's pins are thin and have lateral play in them, often they'd flex enough to allow the wheel to move on and then the brake would stop it on a neighbouring number. Thus you only had to bet on a number to have a high chance of payback although the pointer was stopped on a different number.
Drove me mad for ages.
What's really annoying is I never connected it to this thread