Lemmy's touring slot machines
Added 2021-03-01 16:37:03 +0000 UTCI’m very happy to have finally finished this one. It's taken me longer to make than most videos, approximately five years.
It’s an unusual tale with a bit of a mystery, a bit of history and a bit of a demo. Way more niche than a review of a dishwasher, but far more personal too. I know it won't attract a wide audience, or even appeal to all the usual viewers but it's a tale I wanted to tell.
As always, take care and keep smiling.
Anyone want a broken geldspielautomat? - No charge, but buyer collects.
Comments
I used to work for a company that having hit hard times within the UK after years of seemingly unstoppable early 80s' to mid 90s' success, started to produce machines exclusively for the (then) promising post-1992 European market. One of my jobs was to play machines like these to get a feel for the game, and then software engineers would shamelessly copy the whole thing but with different artwork. Wall machines were always popular in Germany, but also tabletop types in Spain and Italy (usually using reels on bands to save space) purely to stop the machines taking up too much floorspace. Some countries welcomed outsiders selling machines - Spain was 'tough but fair', needing a lot of donated machines to pass their own testing regime, others worked on near-bribery, some like France were basically (and effectively illegally, given free trade requirements) shut out to the UK supplier. The company I used to work for are long gone, quite a sad story (personally) for the people involved really, after a period of consolidation, all the famous British AWP factories went and lived on only as digital brands. We used to be jealous of the huge, ultimately US owned, but still UK based Barcrest who claimed to have a room equipped as a STUDIO for effects and a 3 day a week employed 'musician'! But as the days of the breweries placing large numbers of machines dwindled, as pub estates got split up and digital started to creep in (or just punters using their own phones to gamble) the pinch started even there. First things like cabinet building were outsourced to subcontractors, then the build, then the spare parts supply, it's like Rover all over again really :( After a while, the only company left in the UK making brand new, reels based machines (known as 'analogue' machines in the industry) was Bell Fruit Manufacturing in Nottingham. They were owned by German based Novomatic (sound familiar?) and did try to introduce wall based machines to the UK but with little success. As it happens our company did try and convert Pashislo (token type) machines to 10p payout, £3 jackpot low tech gamblers, but no-one was really interested despite the machines being two a penny. By then second hand AWPs were always cheaper, and offered more. In 2001 you could have effectively bought any 3-4 year old, fully working full size AWP machine you wanted for £50, provided you were an approved trade buyer. Bell Fruit produced their last new analogue machine in 2019 I think, and by 2020, they were gone :( https://www.flickr.com/photos/buzzer999/50058070267
Lord Brannigan-7
2021-04-06 17:59:09 +0000 UTCThanks for the links but I’ll be passing this one on in its current state for someone else to work on. It’s served it’s purpose for me now.
Techmoan
2021-03-20 17:56:41 +0000 UTCHello Matt. If you’re still hoping to get the machine working again one day, perhaps this will help: A swiss IT professional, who also happens to be a YouTuber, just released a video (less than an hour ago, from when I posted this) that just might send you in the direction of somebody that could help! His channel name is “Play With Junk.” https://youtu.be/24JRPMDzYzA Here is the website that belongs to the museum: https://www.outlane.ch
Bo Holbo Rasmussen
2021-03-20 17:34:19 +0000 UTC
