The redemption games thread- do you ever play them?

[XYXZYZ]

My favorite redemption game was ski ball. Even so, I never really played it that much. I was also known to go a round or two at whack-a-mole, but for the most part redemption games never interested me, nor do they now. I never did redeem anything with the tickets I had, as anything worth a damn required some astronomical amount of tickets. In fact , the only prize I ever wanted was a Street Fighter II T-shirt that I never would be able to win, and that was in 1993 or thereabouts.

I haven't been to an arcade in awhile, what kind of prizes do they have nowadays? Same old cheap shit no one wants? Or a whole new kind of cheap shit no one wants? Now that they dominate what's left of arcades, do you ever play them?

[SpaceHarrier]

Last redemption games I was involved in was at Dave & Busters. It was mostly the same stuff like fake plastic spiders, stuffed animals, yoyos, bouncy balls and the like. Of course, it being D&B, they also had shot glasses and beer mugs. The upscale stuff was portable DVD players and a PSP I think. I don't play them but whatever girls I hang around tend to really enjoy them.

[MrSparkle]

Last time i was in a dave and busters, which was probably about 2 months ago they had a ps3 in the redemption stand. of course it was like 120,000 tickets
lol. which would probably be several thousand dollars worth of plays. alot of times ill give the old stop the light machine a single whirl, thats really about it.

[Nikademus1969]

We have Ski-Ball where I work, sometime I'll play it when I come into work early. Last thing I remember winning was a stuffed Sonic that I gave to a kid by the pool who was lost.

[phreak97]

hell yeah i play them.. but never play them with a prize in mind, play them for fun, treat the tickets as a bonus. games which involve aiming or timing a coin drop are the ones i find best, as theyre usually 20c (australian) per play (claim jumper was a favourite of mine a few years ago), otherwise anything with physical gameplay is much more fun than a game with a monitor or lights that you have to stop.. theres nothing but sheer difficulty to stop you winning, i work in an arcade, and i know for sure that the jackpot light doesnt have even nearly the same chance of being hit as the others (cyclone, wheel of fortune/wheel a win, time buster, whatever, if it's electronic, it's rigged). for some reason i also like slam a winner, even though it's a dollar game. skill testers and other prize games are great too, but you gotta learn how to judge your chances and let it go if it's not going to happen.

i've probably spent a hundred thousand tickets over the years, i bought a ps2 for 12,000 tickets.. the huge hundred thousand ticket prizes are pretty much out of reach, deal with it.. unless youre incredibly rich and really really like to play redemption games, forget about it, theyre just to make morons play more games.. often the arcades wont even have the consoles in the store. after i got my ps2, their display box stayed there for months, i actually asked if they had one when i went there another time, and they said they didnt, the box was just for display.

[kaedesdisciple]

I LOVE skee-ball, but I seem to have a harder time finding the machines these days. It makes me sad any time I walk into an arcade and I don't see a lane of skee-ball machines. Sigh.

As far as the tickets, these days when I do get them I'll just find some kid that looks like they could use them and give them away. I'm 26 years old, what do I need a couple of erasers and a plastic kazoo for?

[Pantechnicon]

I have kids, thus I frequently visit places like Chuck E. Cheese, family fun centers, etc., and as an arcade enthusiast I think an interest in redemption games just goes along with the territory. Naturally I want my kids to get the most bang for their tokens, so we spend a good amount of time studying them, seeing what works and what doesn't. We're pretty obsessed with "crane game" theory as well.

In fact my children are probably the only ones in their social circles who even know what the term "redemption games" refers to. Once last year at a birthday party at this regional Dave & Busters type place (http://www.itzusa.com/Albuquerque/), when the kids finished their pizza my son stood up and said, "Alright! Let's go blow a bunch of tokens on tickets to exchange for a bunch of overpriced foreign made junk!" And one of the other dads just looked at him like, "How did that kid just read my mind?!" LOL

[Flack]

I am becoming the crotchety old man who repeats stories -- forgive me. The short version of this story is, through math I determined that the cash equivalent of a ticket is 1/3 of a cent. That means, to break even, you need to get back 75 tickets for every token spent. If you get less than that, you're losing money.

If I had my way I'd forbid my kids from playing any ticket redemption games. They'll spend $5 to win tickets and buy something worth a quarter. I'd rather spend the $5 at the store and get my kids each something worth $2.50.

Especially those GD cranes. After seeing those videos that show how they are rigged, I hate watching my kids drop token after token into them, trying to win stuffed animals that we don't have room for in the first place.

EDIT: I should note that I have no problem with ticket dispensers that are actually games (like Skee-Ball). There's actually a point to that (a score), and the tickets are just icing on the cake. The things I hate are the "put a token in just to try and win tickets" things.

[Clownzilla]

Namco's Flaming Finger is one of my favorites. It's different, challenging and most importantly FUN:)

[Pantechnicon]

If I had my way I'd forbid my kids from playing any ticket redemption games. They'll spend $5 to win tickets and buy something worth a quarter. I'd rather spend the $5 at the store and get my kids each something worth $2.50.

Especially those GD cranes. After seeing those videos that show how they are rigged, I hate watching my kids drop token after token into them, trying to win stuffed animals that we don't have room for in the first place.

What makes it easier for me is the fact that I have established both perspective and limits with my crumb crunchers when it comes to redemptions and cranes. That quote from Alex in my first post wasn't just him reiterating his grumpy dad's observation. It's his own observation based on our discussions about these things. He's pretty savvy about scoping out the redemption games for ones that are doable or offer big payoffs. And both kids get that the upper limit they're going to get out of me on these occasions is $10 to share between them so they try and make it count. (Actually, Alex, recognizing the generally dodgy quality of redemption prizes usually winds up giving his tickets to Bella so she can get a better prize. He's a better big brother than I ever was).

As for the cranes...same thing. The kids know they're rigged, but there's always the chance that the control is ready to give a reward and it's worth - at most - $1 worth of tries to find out. It's kind of like sticking your finger in the coin slot of a soda machine. 9.4 times out of 10 there will be nothing there. But on the day you actually find a quarter...well, that's your lucky day!

[DigitalSpace]

Skee Ball FTW.

I'm not a fan of redemption games. Whenever I'm at a Wunderland (http://www.wunderlandgames.com/) with friends, I spend most of my time playing the aforementioned Skee Ball, arcade games, pinball tables, or air hockey.

Parachute men and bouncy balls are only amusing for so long (though the bouncy balls have received a little more amusement recently since my cats love chasing after them, but I can get those for a quarter in the vending machine at the grocery store).

[phreak97]

not all crane games are rigged, older ones usually have two adjustable settings (other than the physical adjustments, which are constant) one for the initial grab strength, and another one that it changes to after the crane has lifted up (OH I ALMOST HAD IT!). these games dont change at all no matter how many or few people play. you should be able to tell fairly quickly if its going to be winable. newer ones such as winner every time and carnival crane (both ICE games) have a number of settings and can self adjust difficulty to achieve a target payout, however where i work i've set both our winner every times to manual mode, so they are fully constant, not actually rigged, just really hard. sega's ufo catcher has one knob for the strength of each claw, and thats all, providing it isnt set way too loose, skill (and prize position) should be able to win it for you.

[scooterb23]

I play them once I get tired of the gun games at Gameworks. I find them to be mostly brainless, and good for when you have a drink or two in you, and just want to have a laugh.

Story time:

My last day at work a couple months ago, a few of us met at Gameworks to celebrate and reminisce a bit. So after we play through a couple House of the Dead games, we go to the redemption area, and take over the Deal or no Deal machine for an hour or so. Then we go to the redemtion table to look at the prizes, and we haven't won enough tickets for much of anything. So I walk over to the Wheel of Fortune machine, put one token in, stop the lights in the exact right spot, and win 900 tickets!

So after saying my goodbyes to everyone, I walked out with my High School Musical lunchbox, twisty straw cup, and plastic princess tiara. It was a very memorable night.

[phreak97]

wheel of fortune's jackpot is usually 500 tickets.. (it can be changed but it means restickering the wheel, and i've never seen one that's been changed) wheel of fortune (or wheel a win) is a much better game than cyclone.. it's got a much better payout.. theres probably other similar games too, but i know those two because we have them at work, any location can make either of these games better or worse than the other, but by default, wheel of fortune or wheel a win is better, most locations dont change enough settings to make things drastically different.

[SegaAges]

Dude, I am super dissappointed by Family Fun Center in Omaha. It is supposedly the midwest's biggest arcade, but the games suck butt. They have a top floor with like 10 machines I like (the fighters, they have about 7 or 8 machines, 3 linked up War machines which is a midway game that is like an arcade Unreal tournament, 4 or 5 old school games like q-bert, ms pac man, tempest, star wars arcade trilogy, jurrasic park, downstairs they have 2 linked up Initial D Ver. 3 machines). Yeah, I can remember almost every good game. I think for really new games, the only good one they had was mario kart.

The place is still huge, so what could possibly be taking up all that space? Arcade versions of home games. Seriously. They have "lounges" where you put tokens in and play wii, ps3, or 360. They set guitar hero 2 and 3 up in arcade cabs. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

What does this all have to do with redemption games? I am getting to that (sorry about the rant, I was used to an awesome arcade and last week got massive dissappointment). Before the big games to get a crowd around you on were the fighters and the ddr games (anybody that goes to arcades knows who awesome it feels to get a crowd around you while you are pwning a game). Now what is the biggest crowd grabber, Deal or No Deal: The Arcade Game. Yes, it gives out tickets. There were like 15-20 people watching some dude play this game. I went during a saturday, played some ddr, got 1st on the machine, then proceeded to pwn capcom vs snk 2 on 1 credit, even pwning the 1 dude that wanted to play me, no crowd for me.

Deal or No Deal (which is a redemption game) apparently is the big game in Omaha.

Sorry about the rant, somebody asked what the arcades were like. Please tell me they are better in other places, because this half the arcade is consoles (uh, what?), quarter is redemption (makes sense), only another quarter is actual arcade games has got to go.

As for redemption games, I have been at D&B around when they were closing and literally watched what they did at the crane games. They put animals and stuff in, and stuff them down, hard. I can't watch youtube at work, but I am guessing it is something similar.

[jb143]

Crane games are the ones I see more often. And I've harldy ever seen anyone win something from one. I'm almost surprized they're legal seing how you have better odds in Vegas. They're like slot machines for kids.

But then again I've seen a Japaneese guy that was really good at those and could win on the first try everytime. His room was completely filled with stuffed animals.

[scooterb23]

wheel of fortune's jackpot is usually 500 tickets.. (it can be changed but it means restickering the wheel, and i've never seen one that's been changed)


I'll grab a picture for ya next time :P

[phreak97]

lol ok:P why choose 900? 1000 is a much more satisfying number:/

[boatofcar]

I love Skee Ball. If I'm ever rich, I'm going to buy an antique one that takes nickels and provide people liberty head nickels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Head_nickel) to play it.

[phreak97]

skee ball (ours are ice ball) is only enjoyable for so long.. i find myself wanting something a bit more complex after a while.