You want to play??? (Fruit Machines)

Member Name: hughrimmer

Product:	Fruit Machines
Date:	17/05/01 (248 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Win or lose, it's still fun

Disadvantages: If you don't have the money, don't play

Ok, so gambling machines are bad, gambling machines are addictive and they are a waste of money, indeed, they are built to make the owners money... That aside, lets face it, if you want to play, you're gonna play. So you might as well know how to play them with style.

After six years of blissful addiction, there's pretty much nothing I can't tell you about gambling machines, so lets start with the basics:

For starters, the best bet for making any money is to be sure that someone else has lost on it first. Watch other people play, and even on a machine you don't know, you can get an idea of both how to play and how it is playing. If, however, you're too eager to be playing, then listen to the money when you drop it in. If the machine is 'backing', you will hear the money drop a long way into the cashbox. This indicates that the payout tubes are full and usually happy to pay a bit out.

When it comes to playing, ok, you might get lucky and get a win, but if you're serious, you're looking at five or ten pounds minimum to see the beginnings of a good return

3 HOLDS
While this feature isn't appearing as much as it used on some machines, it's still worth giving it a try. If you have two feature symbols or two matching fruits on the winline, hold them and spin the third reel. If the machine gives you the holds to repeat this twice, then on the third spin the prize should come in (Barcrest and Maygay machines still all seem to have this feature, while it is more rare on makes like Bell Fruit and BWB).

HOLDS AFTER NUDGES
Sometimes after nudges, if you have nudged in two of the same symbols onto the winline, you will be offered holds, if this happens, then spin all 3 reels,don't hold them, and the feature or win should come in! Most machines will sound a siren or give you a soundbite to tell you that you should.

HIDDEN HOLDS
On some machines you can sometim
es hold symbols, even wins, even if the lights are not flashing, so if there is anything worth holding, give it a try, doesn't happen often, but it's worth a go.

CANCEL BUTTON
Will sometimes flash on anything from taxi to the bonus, hold it down and it'll slow things down so you can stop it on what you want.

BONUS
On many machines, the bonus is offered on the number four. Very often it will give you something like a boost which will give you a couple of extra numbers, or stopper where it will happily flash all the way around the number line only to land woefully short of the feature.
The bonus still remains probably the best way to get on the feature, though, so if you get a 2 or two 1's then hold all the reels to be sure to land on it.
Look out for features like selector or skill stop, these will usually put you on a win, and can often be slowed down by holding the cancel button.
On some machines you will get a bonus like respin or reel stepper. Very often, you can hold reels that you want to keep so that they don't spin away, but you might have to be quick, so be ready.

COLOUR CHANGES
If you get on the feature and the logo start flashing more than usual or turing a different colour (usually red), then you've probably hit on invincible mode.... just keep on pressing go and you'll go right to the jackpot!

Well, without going into too much detail on particular machines, they're pretty much the basics that'll hold with most machines. Just remember to keep an eye on the machine, if it makes any noises that it usually doesn't, or flashes where it usually wouldn't bother, it's probably trying to tell you something, so keep an eye out!

And remeber, don't always go for the big wins, a few smaller wins are often the same as one big one, and the longer you spend on the feature, the more chance you have of the machine killing you off. Don't alwa
ys go for the big one.... even if you win two quid, at least it's another pint!

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