Erratique

[treefrog]

Thought I may as well add this unusual dropper to the site, at least for reference. Not seen one before, seller states made by Selecta Music, but it clearly states distributed by them and there is another thread on this company already. I wonder who did make it it, it is certainly in the familiar electro-mech wall machine case seen used by other company's.....Looks simple and neat though and judging by the price it has reached already, which is above what 30's Challengers make, obviously with the rarity value seems a desired machine. Seller also states been in family ownership since the 60's which is when it would have been made, so if true has seen little action, in fact the insides are the case look very clean,

I would be tempted, but this is serious money for this,

.....Anyone seen one before?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151600714628? ... EBIDX%3AIT

[JC]

Yes, I thought this was interesting - sort of a cross between a Challenger and a Bomb Dropper. Actually, the Bomb Dropper element is somewhat superfluous, as having dropped the coin it then makes its way through a pin-field, over which of course the player has no control. Still an interesting machine though. Case is in the style of Golding, but that's not necessarily an indication it was made by them.

[jimmycowman]

one thing puts me off its on 3d, is it foreign and been converted to 3d?? .....

[moonriver]

Its not really the kind of machine I'd go for, but I like it though, its very tidy and looks nice. I agree the 3D play is the downside for me, but the coin would roll down slower I guess

[jonesthegarage]

given that as Brits we are not known for our command over the languages of johnny foreigner I cannot imagine this would be an English machine badged with a French name in the 50s or 60s (pause while I wait for members to give me several examples proving this theory wrong), it would be interesting to know if a 10 centime piece could be replaced by 3d, I bet it ain't far off.

[pennymachines]

It is an odd name for a British machine and seems quite crude to make the main name badge out of a bit of clear Perspex with what appears to be hand written script behind it. Until I saw the innards, I suspected it was something lashed up from parts by an operator or collector. As JC says, it's a British (Golding Automatics) cabinet. Another mystery machine!

[widget2k4]

Lovely machine, but I was wondering - how would the operator have made any profit from this machine?

[badpenny]

It probably keeps the coin that trips each column, also aren't the columns at each end losers?
I didn't really pay too much attention to it after a close look suggested that the gaps between the chrome columns were really wider than a thruppeny bit so it might have been a bit bodged.

Long way to go and check and too much money to take a risk ... for me anyway.

[widget2k4]

The end columns returns the coin to the punter, so therefore the operator loses 4 to gain 1 ?

[JC]

the end columns returns the coin to the punter

Do you know that for sure? Seems pretty unlikely.

[wembleylion]

Looking at the door on the original eBay posting I can't see how the end columns feed coins into the cashbox. The pay-out hopper appears to collect from all ten columns so the operator only gets the winning coins.

Erratique.JPG (33.83 KiB) Viewed 2353 times

John

[13rebel]

Coins missing the payout columns are indeed returned to the player.

[widget2k4]

Do you know that for sure? Seems pretty unlikely.

100% positive - the machine is sitting here next to me.

It certainly doesn't look like it's been modified in any way at all, I am guessing that it must have been on a different coin and the threepenny was the only one that was close enough to work. A £1 coin may work but I have not tried it yet.

[JC]

Yes, I can see that now. The wide black coin chute clearly directs everything to the payout tray. Seems a strange design though - collecting players' lost coins would be easy money for the machine.....and there it is, giving it away.

[pennymachines]

There are a few games which use this scheme of only taking one penny to the coffer when they pay out. It's quite ingenious, because it effectively hides the machine's profiteering from the player. The Bradley Challenger is the classic example, also the R&W multicolumn allwins, with balls standing in for coins. Bryan's Pot The Copper employed the same idea - sooner or later, all coins on the tables, plus any that go over the edges, return to the players. When a table is released, the penny that triggered it goes to the cash box.

The multicolumn allwins often had their outer channels, and Challengers their centre channels, converted to lose positions and Super Challengers always seem to have a central lose column. Clearly operators weren't satisfied the system was profitable enough. I'm inclined to believe they were wrong and that the games would attract more play and thereby make more money in their original form, just as bandits were found to be more profitable when their payout percentages were increased.

[widget2k4]

when you put it like that it makes a lot of sense now

[operator bell]

Very few coins make it to the outer columns. The application of mathemagic* suggests less than one in thirty, if the playfield is fair, so the operator isn't giving much away. Besides, who, upon receiving a coin back, wouldn't put it in again?**


* Pascal's Triangle

** My ex wife. "Look, you won. Don't put it all back in again. Can we go now?"

[JC]

Pascal's Triangle would only apply if the coin was always dropped from top centre of the playfield. As the point it is dropped is effectively random, there's no way of predicting the percentage of coins falling to the outermost columns.