The Fruity Arcade - UK AWP Machines, Jamma, Emulators, Fruities and more...

Power surge

2005-06-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

We get a lot of power dips, and power surges in our house, the supply is terrible - light bulbs blow (sometimes literally) on a regular basis, the average lifespan is in weeks, not months. The most recent event saw the power go off for about a second, but my pie factory did not come back on. I tried switching it off, then back on, but it still would not come back on. I opened up the "no user serviceable parts" power supply, and there IS a fuse (I cant stand it when companies like barcrest LIE about things like that, ok the average user should not poke around inside a switched mode psu unless they want to die, but saying there are no user servicable parts means nothing is fixable, or replaceable like a fuse is... Obviously there is a user serviceable part, if the user knows what they are doing. Why didnt they make the fuse accessible from the outside? Cheapskates thats why... Nothing is built like it used to be these days, its a throw-away society.)

Sadly the fuse was fine, so I put the psu back together, and plugged it back in, and the machine worked now. So it looks like they have a electronic fuse, like computer switch modes have, if you short one of them out, it shuts down, and refuses to come back on for a while.

Want to learn more? Got your own machine?

2005-05-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

Im trying to get a little cash in my paypal account, so I can pay for a item I just won, so I

I am selling of a great little manual, its a field service manual for MPU 4 based machines, and covers all sorts of technical details.

You can find it on ebay here

I would have had more saved up, but some con-artist picked up a item I sold on ebay, saying he would pay on paypal, foolishly I let him have it (thinking its only 3.50 and he is local....)
Bad move that was, the fella now wont pay, had to call the police and he still wont pay! Fresh promise that he would, but nothing yet, so I left the con-artist a neg to
warn others. It confuses me how someone can go to such much trouble to steal 3.50, they must be not all there in the head.

If you own a HP laser printer (4, or 4+, 5 or similar) then check out the other items I sell, as I have a sale on the memory upgrades. They really are great value, and make a big difference - just check what people said in my feedback about them!

Ok, thats my little sales pitch over, keep an eye out for more posts back on topic soon!

Let em spin...

2005-05-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

Modern fruit machines use electronically controlled reels, they are not like in the
dim and distant past when they used reels with carefully machined metalwork, and
springs, weights etc.

They use "stepper" motors, which are motors which are capable of being turned very precisely in small defined increments.

In the case of machines like the pie factory, the reels are controlled by a reel controll board (which translates signals from the main mpu board, into the electrical signals to turn the motors to a certain position). The mpu talks to the reel board via a serial link, which keeps wires in the machine to a minimum.

Reels have a plastic tab on them, which breaks a sensor once per revolution, this is used as feedback so the fruit machine knows the reel actually has turned a full revolution, and so it can find out the position of the reels when turned on.

The graphics on the reels are illuminated by fixed lamps, just under the plastic reel bands (strips of plastic which go around the reel, and show the reel graphics).

Here are some photos of reels, from various angles, so you can see what I am waffling on about.

You can often see people peering into the machine, trying to see what symbols are next in line when the machine offers nudges, usually you can make out the next symbol, which can be helpful sometimes.

Why do so many pubs have fruit machines.

2005-03-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

Its hard to find a pub in the country these days that doesn't have at least one fruit machine, often they have more than one.

Its almost a unwritten law, you can find a fruit machine in a pub, but why is that?

Personally I think its because they have cottoned on to the fact that fruit machines make a profit, and they make a nice easy profit when the people using them are drunk or tipsy! A sober player can spot the hints and play a lot better than someone after several pints of lager. Plus after a good intake of alcohol, those hypnotic flashing lights on the machine seem all the more attractive, and the lure of the instant win increases. And so does the players confidence that they will win (just like all those drunk drivers who leave the pub, stagger to their cars and say to themselves, hey Im a GOOD DRIVER I WONT CRASH!)

A modern fruity can make a staggering amount of profit for its owners if sited in the right place, in the right pub.

More about the RF Emptier's being sold..

2005-03-04T17:34:00.000-08:00

Still lots of people selling these devices that are claimed to empty machines, offer free wins etc, if you are daft enough to think they will work, and REALLY want to find out for yourself, dont give your cash to the con-artists.

Just buy the device from maplins

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=33400&TabID=1&source=17&WorldID=&doy=26m2

These are the two most common ones I have seen on ebay, heck one of the is even for the "Shark" range of alarms, and is sold on ebay as a "2005 Shark RF emptier"

Better yet do yourself a favour, dont fall for the con at all.

How the machine pays out the coins...

2005-03-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

Most peoples favourite thing a fruit machine can do, is pay out the winnings, so this post is all about how the coins get from inside the machine, and into your hands!

I will cover the modern "hopper" system in this post, the older machines use a tube system which I may cover in the future.

When you put your money into a fruit machine, it can go into one of two places, either into the cash box(es) at the bottom of the machine, or into the "hopper" which holds coins that it will pay out as winnings.

The hopper is a big box, with a rotating wheel at the bottom which coins fall into and as the wheel rotates, the coins get pushed out by a spring loaded mechanism.

You can see a picture of the wheel in the pictures below,

and another pic showing the wheel and a bit more of the hopper assembly below,

What you see above is contained in a container that funnels the coins in, and allows a large amount of coins to be stored. A typical pub 25 pounds jackpot machine expects to hold 125 pounds in the hopper. Club machines with higher jackpots can hold even more!

The hopper is pretty simple in operation, it consists mainly of a motor, which drives the disc through gears, which also act as a brake to stop the wheel turning when power is disconnected. When power is applied the wheel turns, and coins fall into the holes.
When a hole passes over a certain point, the mechanics in the hopper pull back a spring loaded firing pin, which then strikes the coin in one of the holes and literally shoots the coin out of the hopper.

The coin then passes through a infra-red sensor, and breaks the infra red light beam, which lets the fruit machine know a coin has sucessfully been paid out.

As infra red light beams need to be broken, this has led to people selling stuff on auction sites and websites that claim to confuse the hopper so it never thinks the beam is broken, and keeps on paying out coins.

Fine in theory, but look at the picture below......

The pic above shows the hopper encased in a SOLID METAL BOX, which serves a few purposes, one it protects coins from prying hands, two it allows the hopper to hold more coins and route them correctly, and three IT SHIELDS THE INTERNAL HOPPER FROM ANY LIGHT SOURCE.

The payout chute is also cleverly designed with plenty of sharp angles/bends so there is NO way you can shine a light up it to confuse the hopper, and even if you got something up there, the sensor is tiny, and the gap the coin passes through is very small.

Hoppers seem to be reliable, the main problem is if the machine ever accepts a damaged coin, it could jam and possibly damage the disk. Occasionally motors could fail, but the hoppers are cheap enough to replace.

The hopper itself does not know how much is in it, the fruit machine itself keeps track of that, all the hopper does, is spin and spit out coins, sending a signal each time a coin is spat out.

Most hoppers just require a voltage to operate the disk, and then they spin, some are more sophisticated, and have secure communication protocols for payout, but I cant comment on those, as I have not used any of those yet.

Refill Keys

2005-03-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

Im leaving the post about how the machines pay out money for now, until I take some photo's to go with it. For now the subject will be refill keys.

For those who dont know about refill keys, I will give a quick explanation of their use now.

Refill keys are used to operate a electrical switch inside the fruit machine which triggers the machine into "refill mode".

The main use for this is to allow the operators of the machine to top it up with cash when it is running low, to make sure it has enough money in it to cover any wins that may arise. It allows them to simply fill the machine by putting the coins direct into the coin slot - they do not need the rest of the keys to open the machine up.

Sometimes the machine will also display the last win, or the total won since short term counters were reset, and occasionally how much money is available for payout.
The volume of the machine can also be set on some machines, these features are accessible usually through pressing the hold buttons etc on the machine before or after turning the machine (each make of machine differs usually)

You would think that fruit machine refill keys would be secure, at the very least to stop idiots turning the sound level up or down. But in reality, one standard key fits pretty much EVERY machine in the UK. Thats why you will see these keys for sale on ebay, and various fruit machine sites.

In my opinion they are only useful if you own the machine, and need to refill it, or check / set various options. To the "player" they dont offer any advantage whatsoever.

Look at it logically, even if it tells you the amount won in the past, it wont tell you how much cash hsa been put into the machine since then, and it wont tell you HOW LONG AGO the win was........

The figure that comes up, is of no use... Yeah you can probably use them to impress teenagers in bars, but thats about it really.

Think about it, why are the keys ALL the same? Could it be because the manufacturers actually want to create hype and a false sense of security to encourage more gambling?

If the keys were of any use, they would all be keyed differently, but they are not.

So if you own a machine, by all means get a key if you want, but if you just want to play the machines, save the money and get something else more usefull.

Wow.

2005-02-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

Remember in the last post about the key fobs that people are selling, I saw another one on ebay last night, and the buyer had posted feedback (negative) with a link to 2 pics, the pics seem to be down at the moment, but they were quite revealing.

They showed the "device", this miraculous manipulator, opened up so you could see what was inside it. Guess what was inside............

Nothing, other than three 1 pence coins taped inside to give the item some weight....

Now surely the seller does not expect a plastic case with 3 one pence coins to actually make a fruit machine payout more money than its supposed to? Nah, its fraud.

I also forgot to mention the other device, the so called new one (which is in fact the oldest of the lot) - on sale for around 55 UK pounds. Save yourself some money, if you actually want to try this (On a machine you 0wn only) - go out and buy a cheap piezo electric cooker/gas lighter for a couple of pounds. Why? Because thats all these things are......

Years ago people claimed to get free credits from the old arcade machines by sparking them, now in the olden days, this may have worked, but newer machines, well put it this way - if it could be done, they would not be on the market, as they would never make any money as everyone would be doing it......... Not to mention the extra security built in to machines, and the fact that even if you did manage to "confuse" it there is no way you could predict what it would do, and in reality it would just end up resetting.......

The heart of the machine.

2005-02-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

Fruities are a lot more sophisticated now than in the olden days, long gone are the mechanical machines, no more machines stuffed to the brim with relays and cranks/pulleys/gears.

Now, they have a nice tidy, modular motherboard that controls things. To be honest they can be compared to a games console that takes cartridges. The pie factory machine, and others from the same group of manufacturers use MPU 5 technology (MPU=Main Processor Unit) into which the "program" is plugged in. The program, or how the game plays, including sound effects is stored on a cartridge that plugs in to the main board. If it wasnt for the fact that the machines have different graphics on the glass, different reel designs and lamp layouts, changing a machine from one type to another would be as simple as swapping the cart.....

A photo of the MPU is shown below, to make it more interesting I have removed the top cover, and program cartridge.

The board is nicely laid out, and has connectors for the wiring looms which take the signals to the lamps/reels etc.

With these machine, the reels and lamps also have their own microprocessor controlled boards to look after them, and these are controlled from the MPU via the "BARBUS" loom which is basically a set of wires containing the power and a serial rs232 like signal to the other boards.

As you can also see, these machines are clearly computer controlled, so remember when it says 78 percent payout (or whatever) then you are playing a COMPUTER PROGRAM that is designed to keep 22 percent of the profits in the long term......

I will go into more details about the MPU in a future post, as this is just a quick overview of whats inside the machine to start with.

On the subject of the MPU, a lot of people are selling "RF Manipulators" and "Machine Manipulators/Hopper emptiers" etc on ebay.

There are two main types on sale, and BOTH are designed to steal money not from the machine, but from the idiot that purchases them..........

The first type looks like a car alarm keyfob (the thing you turn your car alarm on and of with). The reason it looks like one, is because that is what it is.....
These unscrupulous people on ebay sell these claiming it will affect the computer in the fruit machine, and cause you to get financial gain from the machine.

There are many reasons why this will not work, not least of which is

1. The device is a car alarm keyfob.
and
2. You would need something a lot more sophisticated to crash the machine, and
if it crashed why would it always "crash" the same way like they claim?
and
3.The machines will have a watchdog built in, so even if they do crash, the watchdog will not receive an "ok" signal and will just reset the machine.

The other type is a infra-red light basically that is supposed to be shone into the machine to make it pay out more. I will go into more detail onto why this wont work these days when I post about the payout system in fruit machines.

The best way to empty a machine, and this ALWAYS works, is to OWN the machine, and collect the takings that other people have put into it. Buying a device on ebay to empty a machine, will just result in you emptying your pockets for peice of junk.

After all if YOU had a device that could easily earn you hundreds of pounds a night, would YOU sell it on ebay?

Enough tech stuff for now, lets have some fun...

2005-02-21T17:36:00.000-08:00

If you have not played a UK fruit machine before, then pretty soon, you can be
playing one for FREE on your PC. Even if you have, its still nice to play them for free, no risk of losing your wages into the machine when you dont have to put any coins in at all!

A talented bunch of people have created emulators which can read the ROM's (the chips from REAL machines) and play them exactly the same as the real thing does.

Obviously the software cant pay out real coins, or have genuine reels, but the game play is IDENTICAL to the real machine, as it uses the REAL MACHINE ROMS!

These emulators are FREELY available, so are the roms, and they are not meant to be sold for profit, but still people keep on selling them on ebay (along with ROMS, which upsets the manufacturers.)

So put your money away, dont pay for it on ebay, especially when that money does not go to the authors of the emulators, who give the stuff away for free....

Just download it from one of the many sites out there that cater for fruit machine emulation.

On the left hand side of this blog is a link to the fruit-emu site, this is one of many sites that deals with the emulation scene, and emulators and roms can be downloaded from there.

As the site says, you will not find emulators for the most upto date machines, but plenty of popular classics are all available.

The Coin Mech...

2005-02-21T17:20:00.000-08:00

Modern fruit machines take a wide range of coins, 5p 10p 20p 50p £1 and £2 coins
are the norm for a pub machine.

Old machines, in the dim and distant past used to mechanically measure the coinage to make sure it was of the correct size, and they were fairly easy to cheat on, by just making a "fake" coin the exact right size.

New machines are a lot more sophisticated, as they use electronics to determine the coin acceptance. When a coin enters a machine, it usually does not drop straight into the coin mech, as this would make it to easy for people to try to "pull coins" back out of the machine (a process known as strimming).

In order to defeat this (and other types of fraud) the coin first passes through a guide which then drops it down into the coin mech. This guide is designed to make strimming a thing of the past.

A picture of the coin mech is shown below, above the mech is the coin chute guide.

Once in the coin mech, it passes through a channel, where the coin is measured using magnetism from a set or more coils, the coin mech is pre-programmed with the known measurements of several different "good" coins. If a match occurs then the mech outputs a signal to the fruit machines main mother board (mpu) which registers the coin and gives you your play.

As the coin mech relies on detecting the electrical characteristics, a coin does not have to be just "the right size" it has to be made of exactly the same metals, and in the same way as a real coin for it to match.

Coin mechs can be re-programmed to accept virtually any coinage, so owners can update
their machines when new coins are introduced. Fake coins known as "slugs" are in existance, but owners can download updates to make the coin mech aware of these fakes, so they are rejected.

The mechs are not foolproof, but they are do offer a good level of security.

Some coin mechs, particularily in the USA do not hold data for multiple coins, instead they actually compare the coin you put in with readings from a real coin stored in the mech, this means its easy to change the mech to a new coin - but it can only ever handle one type of coin at a time.

Bent coins can cause problems inside the machine, so the coin mech tries to catch those, and jam them so they dont go any further, if this happens the user simply presses a button on the front of the machine, which is physically connected to the mech, this releases the mech door slightly allowing the coin to fall back out into the payout tray.

Lets lift the lid....

2005-02-20T12:52:00.000-08:00

There are many people out there who can put LOTS of money inside these machines, many players can loose heavily on them, some people are addicted to them, and they can cause misery when this happens.

There are many people who can play them for just a bit of fun, and some who can make a profit on them, but theres not many places where you can see inside a machine, and see what makes it tick. So I will do several posts showing the internals of a machine, and over time explain just how they work.

Firstly for security reasons, I am not going to reveal everything, but I will be going into a lot of details, so you can see just where your money goes and what happens to it. It will hopefully educate some people, and make them aware of just why certain items that are sold on ebay to beat these machines, are all a waste of time and money.

This particular machine is a "front opener", older machines had to be pulled forward away from the wall, and turned around so you could unlock the back door to gain access to the insides. To make things easier for the engineers newer cabinets are front opening. You unlock the top half with your keys, and then the top feature board just lifts up.

Despite the fact that the top board is probably quite heavy, its remarkably easy to lift it as it is supported by two gas hydraulic struts that keep the lid from falling shut on your head!

You can clearly see the main game reels, and the top reels in the picture.

As you can also see there is not that much inside these machines, and they are very tidy inside.

I will go into details of how the machine accepts your money from you next.....

A closer look at a UK Fruit machine...

2005-02-20T11:55:00.000-08:00

We will take a look at a machine called Pie Factory - its a fairly popular pub / arcade fruit machine, made by a company called Vivid, which is a sister company to Barcrest (one of the larger manufacturers of AWP machines in the UK).

Some basic facts about this machine.

Launch Date 01/06/2001
Machine Type UK AWP
Game Style Hi Tech AWP
Cabinet style :Tall Genesis, front opening
Technology :MPU 5
Float value £125 (£250 note acceptor)
Stake options 5p, 10p, 20p, 25p, 30p
Prize options £5, £8, £15, £25
Cabinet Dimensions(HxWxD) 179cm x 68cm x 68cm
Cabinet Weight 120kg Max

As you can see from the stats, its a hefty machine, as are almost all UK AWP's, this one is currently set on 30p play and 25 pound jackpot. Dont worry if you dont understand some of the terms in the spec, I will go into details explaining them all in future posts.

The 3 main reels at the middle of the machine, are the main game reels, a better view is shown below.

You can see how these machines get the name "fruit machine" from the symbols on the reels, you can also see on this picture that two of the reels are showing little chefs on them.

Many machine use additional symbols like this, they differ according to each machines style, but the general principle is that you either have to get three on the winline, or often just 3 visible to enter the feature board above.

Some machines use numbers instead, but the principle is similar, get so many points, and you gain access to the features.

On the top of the machine, on the left you can see a trail of numbers starting from 1 pounds and going up to the Jackpot of 25 pounds. This is the cash trail, and you can gamble your way up it (if you have the nerve to do so, as its easy to lose!) by choosing higher or lower on a reel with 12 numbers. The machine contrary to popular belief does not randomly choose what number come next, if it wants you to win, you will win. If it wants you to lose you will - every time.

On the right side you see the feature trail, this has a number of different games on it, each game will award a cash prize (or nothing if you lose...) and the higher up the trail you get, the better the prizes can get..

In the middle, you have another set of 3 reels, with pies on them, these are the "super" reels, and when the machine gives you spins on these, you will always get a win from each spin. The win amount from these reels goes into the cash pot, which is the large display above these reels. You have the option of collecting this, or continue gambling for more.......

The only other reel on the machine is the higher lower reel, which although numbered from 1 to 12, is not numbered in order, which makes some of the skill features harder than they should be (for example sometimes you have to stop the reel from spinning, but stop it on a even number...)

Going to take a little break now, but when I return I will go into more details, I start by showing a quick overview of what is inside the machine.

So, what is a fruit machine?

2005-02-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

As many of you reading this blog are probably from the USA, or another country far away from the UK, I shall start with an overview of just what a typical English Fruit machine is, and how it differs from the slot machines in the USA.

USA slot machines (and you will have to forgive any innacuracies, as I have never been to the USA, so never actually played one, just read about them..) tend to be quite simple in operation.

Insert coin, spin reels, then either curse as you lose your money, or delight in the sound of coins cascading into the payout tray (or onto the floor on some machines!).

They will keep a percentage of profit for the house, so the house is usually always in profit, and payout at random intervals, with no skill involved from the player. No player has any real advantage of any other, everyone has a chance to win by just spinning those reels and crossing their fingers.

Found normally in casino's these machines are also over here in england in the form of "lo-tech" fruit machines, the looks will differ, but the game play is the same - spin and win, or lose depending on your luck.

The UK has a different brand of fruit machine however, often refererred to as a "hi-tech" or "progressive" machine. These machines have the reels, like american machines (but usually have fruit symbols on the reels, hence the name fruit-machine) but in addition they have additional "feature" games where you can win money if you are lucky.

Machines are often themed, on films, tv-shows or board games, and have good quality sound effects, lovely artwork, and different gameplay depending on the machine you chose to play on.

Payout is progressive, in that you can gamble the winnings, or play on the feature board to increase your winnings, machines have hidden features, cheats and the like so experienced players can try to get more winnings from them - its not just a spin reels and hope machine. In fact its more an Amusement with Prizes machine, which is why they are also called AWP (amusement with prizes...)

UK machines can repeat wins, and often "streak" giving multiple repeats of the jackpot, making it possible to walk away from a machine with a healthy profit - for those lucky souls who use the machine at the right time.

In my next post, I will post some pictures of some UK machines, and explain a little more about the feature games and gambles, so everyone gets a feel what they are about.

Later on, I will also tell you how to play EXACT copies of many of these machines, on your pc - for free.

Welcome to the fruityarcade..

2005-02-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

This is my attempt to cover things related to fruit machines (slot machines for those outside the UK), expose a
few cons that are being played on people, arcade machines, mame, jamma and much more...

Posts will be varied, and will include useful links, photos and explanation of how the machines work,
and general posts of interest, for those who are interested in this area.