The brutal reality of redemption games.

[69er]

While this is a joke …. It’s probably not beyond some shady kiosk operators cheating minimum payout percentage or short changing a child and going home with a ghetto blaster worth 3000 points tickets? Themselves!!!!

Like giving 90p worth of 2ps in a tub for £1.
That happens a lot when kiosk person is unsupervised! Not many kids count to check before rushing to feed the pushers!

 

[Lurch666]

In the U.K. redemption is stacked against the player,just like the cranes.
I play them for the fun of winning and usually give the tickets away.

 

[Vorbis]

It's how I feel when I look at my wages after tax. Has about the same purchasing power 🤣

 

[Sbdesign]

Fun fact:
If you take your tickets to a paper recycling centre, you get more value than the kiosk

 

[John Bennett]

I dunno, coconut ice isn't too many tickets and you could live off that.

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

Yes, it's the sad reality of what children experience in arcades now compared to when we had the excitement of all different arcade machines like electromechanical classics still playable, dedicated arcade classic games and the thrill of a new game being put on display. These ticket redemptions just rip people off and get children into gambling habits.

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

And of course all the classic pinball tables that used to be scattered around the arcades. Also there used to be other crazy ride ons and other great exciting games for kids like the radio controlled boats and cars (remember them 😀) Bloody depressing walking into a arcade at a seafront now with my children when you remember how cool they used to be.

 

[pooman2084]

Radio controlled boats! Yeah!

Those big Wild West shooting arcades were ace too. Especially ones that would squirt water.

 

[Bods]

Well at least with those redemption tickets they aren't selling all your data like every other voucher, app, rewards card scheme

I'm just working on my Coin Operated Radio Controlled Forklift Truck, was a Forkless truck when I bought it. I nearly bought some boats years back but I didn't really want half the garden a lake so opted for the cars instead lol

My nephew sent me some videos of Great Yarmouth arcades few weeks back, all rubbish machines and even the pushers had Tokens instead of 2p or 10p so I wouldn't even bother going in them if there like that as they were about the only thing worth playing in recent years

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

Aaahh, not a ticket redemption in sight. Glory days.

 

[_Matt_]

I've never understood why they don't have any good prizes to encourage people even more. I've seen better things in pound land. Some of them are fun to play, we've just been on holiday to Pwllheli Haven and had a lot of fun on the 2p pushers. I enjoy pushers with just coins to play for but they have little toys to push off plus tickets.

There's an arcade in the centre of Pwllheli that's got a Sega Rally with working crts which is nice. The Kung Fu Panda next to it is a fun ticket one to play too! They also had Adams Family pinball a few years ago but that's gone now.

 

[BubNotBob]

View attachment 62284
Aaahh, not a ticket redemption in sight. Glory days.

I love this picture must be mid 80's, BMX bikes and casual fashion from the terraces. Those were my golden years.

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

I've never understood why they don't have any good prizes to encourage people even more. I've seen better things in pound land. Some of them are fun to play, we've just been on holiday to Pwllheli Haven and had a lot of fun on the 2p pushers. I enjoy pushers with just coins to play for but they have little toys to push off plus tickets.

There's an arcade in the centre of Pwllheli that's got a Sega Rally with working crts which is nice. The Kung Fu Panda next to it is a fun ticket one to play too! They also had Adams Family pinball a few years ago but that's gone now.

View attachment 62285

Yes it's lucky we still have the 2p pushers in the arcades. I've never understood why big seafront arcades don't still have a dozen or so classic arcade games and pinball. They still would get used by the adults looking for a nostalgia trip and even kids looking to play some cool classic retro. You get some mario kart and modern gun games etc but they aint the same.

 

[Bods]

I've never understood why they don't have any good prizes to encourage people even more. I've seen better things in pound land. Some of them are fun to play, we've just been on holiday to Pwllheli Haven and had a lot of fun on the 2p pushers. I enjoy pushers with just coins to play for but they have little toys to push off plus tickets.

There's an arcade in the centre of Pwllheli that's got a Sega Rally with working crts which is nice. The Kung Fu Panda next to it is a fun ticket one to play too! They also had Adams Family pinball a few years ago but that's gone now.

View attachment 62285

All my Nephew found old school was Sega Rally, Sega Rally 2 and then later now old stuff like Blazing Angels and Global VR Driver and that was it

We would spend a few hours on the pushers, you aren't going to win money but spending 30/40 quid on 2 of us for an afternoon and then getting some of the prizes from them wasn't too expensive in comparison to other places, the prizes then go in our pushers and cranes at home, got loads of Pirate and treasure stuff for my Treasure Bay Pirate pusher with a lot of the newer pushers also with redemption tickets we usually got something at the end of the day too

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

I love this picture must be mid 80's, BMX bikes and casual fashion from the terraces. Those were my golden years.

Yes golden years. I want my Diamondback Silver Streak II back with a Marathon bar and a tin of Shandy 😊

 

[John Bennett]

They still would get used by the adults looking for a nostalgia trip and even kids looking to play some cool classic retro. You get some mario kart and modern gun games etc but they aint the same.

Sadly I don't think they would get played.

Arcades as we loved them died-out around 2000 as you could get the same or better at home.
It's all about kids smashing big buttons, bright lights and oversized phone games now. Oh and tickets.
There's still Raw Thrills stuff, but they manage to have even less fun and imagination than the phone games.

No one goes to arcades for an actual gaming fix. No one touches those Pandora machines either, there's loads of them in my local arcade and I've never seen anyone on one once.
Doesn't mean you can't make a retro arcade work (although that seems horrendously hard work too), but I can't see how arcades for the general public will ever be about gaming again.

It's a shame. There's been the odd game I've really enjoyed in the last decade (some VR stuff, Time Crisis 5, even the odd ticket game), but I don't know how you'd ever get a big revival when people can have half a rally car in their games room with VR headsets and motion seats.

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

All my Nephew found old school was Sega Rally, Sega Rally 2 and then later now old stuff like Blazing Angels and Global VR Driver and that was it

We would spend a few hours on the pushers, you aren't going to win money but spending 30/40 quid on 2 of us for an afternoon and then getting some of the prizes from them wasn't too expensive in comparison to other places, the prizes then go in our pushers and cranes at home, got loads of Pirate and treasure stuff for my Treasure Bay Pirate pusher with a lot of the newer pushers also with redemption tickets we usually got something at the end of the day too

Lucky to find any old school. Yes the 2p pushers are good value in the current arcade situation. My kids love em and it doesn't blow the budget and they win a few small toys or sweets that would probably cost 200 × more on ticket redemptions. Cool that you got a 2p pusher at home. Very nice

 

[pubjoe]

These ticket redemptions just rip people off and get children into gambling habits.

I sincerely wonder if that's true. Gambling's been a big part of my life and it started as a child on fruit machines.

The difference then is it was possible to win. AWPs were typically set to an 80% payout. The business relied on winnings being recycled back in and they usually were. But at least you could get lucky, or if you grew up around them you could notice programmed patterns that signal the state of their ledger. This created addicts.

Ticket redemption however targets a pitiful 20% redemption value of money played. Young kids without concept of money don't care, but when they get older it becomes very clear that they're an impossible bet in straight gambling terms. The only appeal is to play to just have fun and any prizes are a crap compensation of money spent, which is arguably healthier (though I hate to say it).

They're a rip-off but with zero hope of a win they don't really form gambling addiction like fruit machines did. I'd hate to meet the poor bastard that proves me wrong.

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

Sadly I don't think they would get played.

Arcades as we loved them died-out around 2000 as you could get the same or better at home.
It's all about kids smashing big buttons, bright lights and oversized phone games now. Oh and tickets.
There's still Raw Thrills stuff, but they manage to have even less fun and imagination than the phone games.

No one goes to arcades for an actual gaming fix. No one touches those Pandora machines either, there's loads of them in my local arcade and I've never seen anyone on one once.
Doesn't mean you can't make a retro arcade work (although that seems horrendously hard work too), but I can't see how arcades for the general public will ever be about gaming again.

It's a shame. There's been the odd game I've really enjoyed in the last decade (some VR stuff, Time Crisis 5, even the odd ticket game), but I don't know how you'd ever get a big revival when people can have half a rally car in their games room with VR headsets and motion seats.

Yeah i hear what your saying about the changing arcade scene, but i still feel like if these arcades had Outrun, Street Fighter, Afterburner etc they would probably get used.

 

[pubjoe]

The best ticket redemption game I know of was this football themed one around holiday arcades 10-15 years ago. It was my eldest son that noticed it was actually a decent ticket dispenser when he was little.


You pop a 10p coin in and aim to get it to slide into the slowly rotating balls. With a little practice on timing it's very doable to get it in the jackpot ball almost every time. My son managed 8 out of 10 in his best £1 iirc and we were always getting it there at least 5 of 10. Probably averaging 300 tickets per £1 (the jackpot value reduces) and even then the prize redemption was nothing to write home about. It made the prizes 'okay' rather than fucking awful.