what a balls up!

[cfdu]

ha, thought i knew golden game, but it would appear not. thought i'd timed it to be ready so went to play for the big one yesterday. machine wasn't dead, and was doing small cycles fairly regularly (you know, let em spin for a couple of fivers, then a pot off the top.) deciding that i had timed it right i kept recycling the wins, believing that the biggie was due. how wrong i was! in the end it cost £270 to get the 85 top (not even the real big 105!) and a couple of fiver wins as afters. shit! 170 down! i am gonna be very careful with these in the future! managed to nick a cheeky par for £4 but still well down on the day. might give lo tecs a bit of a wider berth for a while and stick to what i know for sure!

[fray]

Fucking hell, and i was remorseful about losing £100 the other day.

I dunno why ppl play lo tecs / roulettes / clubbers, big rewards but huge risks as well

Fair enough GG's if you know what you are doing (i don't)

When I get back to the IOM im gonna check out the lo tecs i think, if anyone knows about them early chips it wil be you lot...

[kidgloves]

Lo tecs are not pure luck..you just have to play them long enough to know the cycles.

[fray]

and how much does that lose you 'learning the cycles'?

[Booked_moss]

Its stories like theses that really make me glag i dont play lo techs

[kidgloves]

You lose whatever it takes to learn!
You said it yourself....you know roughly what the streak banks and Jackpot banks are on Golden Games, what you didn't know was the length of the cycle..£300-400 is not uncommon before a flash streak, and you mention the £105 top streak which is only obtainable on the recent chips which are less forgiving than the earlier ones.
My first reply is aimed at a broad spectrum of lo tecs, not just Golden Games...if you put them in order of risk, I'd say way out at the top you have party times where the streak is just not worth pushing for. Next you have you Magic 7/10's which are still programmed over a long streak cycle to bar the Jackpot. Sneaky programming allows a more than healthy payout at the right time through a combination of x and bar wins but keeping the 7's back allows a psychological advantage to the manu as human nature will make the player push for the Jackpot seeing as they haven't seen one for the last 2 hours playing and may think it's 'due', even though they have just had a £150 streak of the lower 2 wins. Next comes golden games, monopoly's etc. Medium risk in my view, discounting all earlier chips and manipulations it is at least possible to do a session on these and come off with having a flash nudge feature and a couple of pots, maybe a hold. We then get down to Normal bar x's which due to their payout ladder are somewhat easier to read but very boring when dead. Bottom and easiest to read are any chuzzy modified bar x's, red bars and the like which all have cycles which can be played through in a couple of hours at worst and have the advantage of the 'secret' holds/features that not everybody knows.
I still play them much more than hi tecs, but obviously the problem lies in you only ever play them in arcades so they are for the most part battered.
Why oh why they don't get put in pubs I don't know. Even just as a trial it may be that punters are enticed to play due to simplicity...in most non players eyes, the thing that puts them off is the complexity of todays hi tec. The players will say bar x's in pubs are just plain boring but I couldn't imagine anything more profitable than a pub crawl of chuzzy x's all with the Jackpot feature hold that in the wild will be virtually unknown. Also I like the quick play cycle in terms of speed...yep you can spend time on a hi tec manipulating this reel that reel this feature that feature to try and grab that elusive early Jackpot which you can't do as much on lo tecs but it all takes time and 90% of the time ends in failure. The lo tecs can be forced through the play cycle so much quicker by nature of their 'nothing to do' gameplay. Maybe I've played them for far too long but I don't get bored by them..even when you're 2 hours into a machine with just 3 wins on it and no features..just keep loading in the credits..hit auto and play something else. I don't want to give the impression that ALL I play is lo tec as this is certainly not the case, but as some of you know my era was more the King Kebab, Temple of Treasure, Spin on It, Cash beast time and we are never going to get playability like that again. Everyone moans about how much harder it is generally to make a profit these days, so I've simply moved on to a different genre of game type and am doing quite nicely thankyou very much. At least I can say that lo tecs playablity over the last 5-10 years has enhanced much more with the addition of quirky features. Hi tecs playability for the most part has taken a backward step with the loss of true skill and the introduction of rigid bars and flat profile. Can't really imagine a lo tec with a £3 bar on it can you??

[deejaybee]

Kidgloves - Excellent post m8 ( and thats from someone who hasnt played lo-tecs since since the early chip GG's )

Just a thought, but why dont you try bingo halls, as their machines are mostly lo-tec, with usually just a small sprinkling of hi-tecs... cleaner, friendlier environment than most arcades & no sharks hanging round all day.

The major chains ( ie Gala, Mecca etc) have locations in most towns & cities, and if you join your most local one then you automatically have membership for the rest of them.

[kidgloves]

As a matter of fact I do play in Gala Bingo halls when me and the missus go for a game. The problem lies in the 'middle aged fag smoking housewife' stereotype who will cling onto a machine for dear life once they are more than 1p into a machine. There are quite a few players in these places who just won't give anything up once it's looking anything like promising. It's not all bad..you can find the odd bit of hot property but it's all but burnt everywhere else. I also have misgivings about the generosity of percentages, particularly at Gala with well established machines. True that they are all bumped up during the promotion of the unit when it forst arrives but that doesn't last long. The one in Leicester has got to have the worst Golden Game settings I've ever seen...(don't play this one fray). I think they've invented a new mode, one higher than arcade, bingo called "I'm gonna give you squat for £100 then one feature for a fiver then fuck all for ever" mode.

[fray]

A good post but i still disagree, it would cost a fortune to find out what you know, and I would find it intensely dull sat there watching an autoplay m/c - 2hrs on autoplay? Fucking hell no thanks

Thank fuck they are not in pubs ( tho some are on the IOM erk) - i play when out on the piss for a laugh and so as such would find being sat in an arcade mind numbing, profit or not. Still, different strokes for different folks etc

Yes certain m/c's block, but you just don't play them, just like u wouldn't play the 'dead patch' lo tecs.

Nice argument tho.

This sums up my feelings on lo-tecs (bearing in mind never played 1, different stories from other mates) - yr last line

"I'm gonna give you squat for £100 then one feature for a fiver then fuck all for ever" mode.

Please put it into paragraphs as well next time...

[cfdu]

i'd actually say that magic games is the most risky! heard of 5-600 going in with nothing of value back. then people can catch the streak 2 or 3 times off £20.

i do know the cycle on golden game for the flash is big. it was one i emptied a couple of weeks ago, so i assumed that by now enough had gone in to bring it round to being close again. should have left it a few more days. you are right kidgloves, the chip its on is fair;ly harsh but it can still give a good game/profit.