TD, HF, SS, BC

[Scott]

(Top Dogg, High Flyer, Super Star, Big Cheese)

Oki... just thought I would share a few tips now that these four have become my fav' machines! :P

Dont moan.. I know these things dont take too long too work out but who knows, they may help someone

1) If the machine is consistantly offering £5+ (shots, nudges.. whatever) then it WILL JP within a few boards.. keep at it..

2) If the JP repeat is True skill the next board will always flicker.. so dont leave it...

3) If you get JP.. (with or without repeat) then next board dont flicker then take any shot that has a repeater.. if this is true skill repeat the next board will USUALLY flicker... (90% of the time)

4) Dont bother with Win Series on a flickering board.. it wont give more than JP and will probably give less..

5) Dont bother with Hi/Lo gamble forcing.. it doesn't appear to make any difference whatsover..

6) Ok I had to change the thing about no force now :P Force for flickering board then take £1 on it now play about another £15 through it and it should go for about £75.. Be careful with this tip I have only tried it twice and I cant try it anywhere else till Friday now as I lost my bankcard today :/

7) Watch out for Golden Hold.. it likes to give JP from this.

If a hi/lo fails.. see if it flashes the hold buttons.. this is a hidden hold

Usual outcome if on a streak: JP (with repeat), JP, £5 wins
It will die out somewhere between £80 and £90... it is very rare to see it go over that.

Good signs:
Gambling upto £3/4 on Hi/Lo
Offering £5+ on shots
Supertrail becoming active on most boards
Getting supertrail then two more symbols whilst it is active.. (3 is invincible)
Skillstop from Bonus
Getting Add Again.. then not dieing within a few moves of getting it (Very good sign)

Bad Signs:
Dead within 2/3 moves on the board *VERY BAD*
Offering less than £4 on shots
Hi/Lo gambles losing on £2! :/
No supertrails.

Hope that helps someone. As usual I cannot be responsable for any actions taken using this information. Use at your own risk. However, in my experiance with these machines (and thats a LOT) you should find it is all accurate.

Regards,
Scott

P.S please add more if you can guys and gals

[dev001]

Big Cheese I found that you do have to force out the JP to activate the streak. Naturally, you need a bit of luck to have walked up to the machine at the end of its streak cycle when it has finished saving for it [or hope that the £20-50 you have to put into the bugger to get JP finishes paying for it].

I still haven't worked out the streak logic of these machines. I suspect that the next streak cycle length [that's the number of credits the streak is saved over] is randomly calculated every time the streak has just been paid. I reckon it might be similer to most BFG machines. This is anything from £300-1000.

I have noticed recent clones have slightly different streak behaviour in the way that often the streak is now a series of IM boards rather than JP Repeat and IM, and spread across £10, which is very nasty.

I think that your need to be jolly good friends with the barman and landlord to get profit off these machines. The other way is to open the machine up, but then you'll likely to hear that all familar sound some day, which is very similar to the sample played when you are thrown off Cop The Lot's super feature ("You're Nicked!!!").
In anycase, with a random streak cycle it is not going to be easy to make profit.

I also don't think that the machine is easy to read - I've had the streak been paid when the machine was playing dead.

[Topthelot]

Hmm, info from Scott is all correct and useful. Id contend these are shit machines since every one is the same effectively and the gameplay is very dull & repetitive

Force is the only way to make profit on these in the sense that you must *force* the first JP..taking wins below JP just sets the payout profile back

if you stick in a further £20 after taking £1 off the first flashing icon IM it guarantees JP repeat for (or 2 JP boards) and almost always forces the full £80 dump (*see %age comment below)

watch out for the streak being staggered - this is a bitch. JP board, crap board (£5 max offered which you must lose), JP board but not IM, crap board (possibly 2), IM board.

Look at the %age setting. I'm seeing loads opf these set at 70%, 72%, 74%, possibly as a result of them being *played* regularly. my advice - avoid those under 74% as they can suck £50+ from a happy machine before streak activated which can still be shit

You'll find these reletively easy to not lose a fortune on but also boring as hell and expect alot of £50-60 in for £75-80 returns with the occassional fleece where the return is only £25 with little prospect of recouping the difference

[Scott]

Hmmmmm to be honest I have never dared to pass up an IM board on these beasts.. so you sure taking £1 (nudges?) then waiting for next IM board will give a streak or £50+ at least?

Regards,
Scott

[Topthelot]

Standard barcrest tactic is to pass up a few IM boards, though i can understand your reluctance. It works with ALL barcrest i know of in the last 3 yrs or more.

Once i get the IM i tend to budget for sticking another £20 in. If IM comes after £15 though i'kll go for it, if it comes at around a tenner i'll knock it back (usually through £1 nudge win)

Tactic works regularly but, like i said, its difficult to raise a good profit on these. you wont lose much but niether will you gain much

[Scott]

Hmmmm..
Weird.. I tried passing up a few IM's and then it streaked for £84 after about £60 in.. not really bad..

My method has been to always force Barcrests but for some reason I never bothered it on these four, I dont know why.. I guess it was something about it having a sorta different streak pot than to stuff like say Lotta Luck

I still never bother trying to force Dosh and Pecks or the like anymore except for a Super top feature..

Cheers for the advice.

Regards,
Scott

[Topthelot]

AH - shit. made a small but rather crucial balls up in my previouis message. to clarify

UNLESS YOU HAVE BALLS OF BRASS, ALOT OF MONEY, OR ALOT OF KNOWLEDGE DO NOT FORCE DOSH N' PECKS OR FIREBALL!

It can be done, but i'm absolutely positive Barcrest have coded against it for these machines as it can be terribly costly. its far better to go for a sneaky JP by gambling up the feature trail once you've got to 'step to nearest win' than force for the dump. go for 'stepper surprise' (loco hold) or even 'step to nearest win'. use nudges to set the win up

most of you will hopefully have already known this

[Scott]

Oki then.. I hate to ask stupid questions but here I feel I must..

how do you take £1 off a board when it is already all really high up the features stack.. ?

On flickering boards I usually screw up Golden Hold or nudges but once I realise a non-flickering board is gonna JP there seems to be no way out.. press the nudges button and it auto nudges the win in :/

Any ideas?

[dev001]

...you will often be offered ? at least once for skill stop [interestingly enough on Top Dog the Skillstop isn't offered every time in the second JP+ on the streak]. So land on something to either access a pants feature or land on nudges to "nudge away" the £5+ win you currently have.

However, please bear in mind that passing an IM is not in itself a method as the machine will only streak when it is ready to do it. The only benefit passing an IM has is that you are forcing yourself to stay on machine, thus increasing you play time proportion in the machine's streak cycle, which ultimately means you are increasing you chance of being the lucky one to catch the streak over the other people that have played the machine [and others who could be playing the machine if your weren't].
Additionally, I'm still not suss on if a JP itself on later BC clones is actually required to create the streak when the machine is streak ready. I guess passing the IM help keeps the machine JP ready in case the streak comes later, although you should consider that the IM you pass by could be the streak anyway.

Personally, I advise a chat with barman first to assess when the last dump occured, then playing and taking the first JP off nudges or IM, and ignore JP off Golden Hold [I've never ever had the streak off this].

[Topthelot]

Scott - can be difficult to pass up a non IM JP happy board without taking at least a £3 win, but that doesnt do serious damage to the payout profile

My advice, talking strictly personal here, is dont bother (unless you are forcing after knocking back the first IM) if it gives JP it gives it. this may trigger the streak, if not, just recycle the JP. i wouldnt go for JP off a feature set up (golden hold, tutti frutti) so machine only has the option of it coming from completing a stack.

dev001 - its more than just staying on the machine for a long time in the hope of getting lucky. the benefit of knocking back an IM is that machine is obviously desparate to pay at least £25 but by refusing this and continuing to stick money in the aim is to tip the machine 'over the edge' i.e. trigger the streak. Streaks are part of a payout cycle which the machine 'saves' for over a £300 - 500 cycle (dep. on %age machine is set to and how its been played).

Theres no chance of missing the streak by refusing a JP IMHO. i've tried this and eventually it forces the first JP on you through straight nudge win. while i havent done it i'm sure that if you left it long enough the machine would roll in a JP off normal play (actually seen this happen on a GD once - very funny, the guy was a complete casuaL punter and it shit £100 in the space of 3 credits. Nice guy - he bought most of the pub a drink!)

Hmm is the JP needed to trigger the streak? Well ive not seen it triggered off anything else. there is an idea that you shouldnt aim for JPs but keep taking £5+ wins but i've never tried it on BC TD HF. It can be done on Cash Attack/ Supercharged from taking 9 winspins but total amount won is no differtent and it takes just as long to reach the point where it works

any help?