Coin Slot + Coat Hanger = free credits

[Tempest]

Fonzi taught us all that you could just bang on the jukebox to get a song.

Actually that does remind me of an arcade machine at the local pool that must have had something wrong with it where if you hit it hard enough (enough to rock it a little) it would reset. As a kid I was sure that if I did that enough times I'd get a free credit or something, but almost no arcade machine gives credits on power up.

[Lord Innit]

I remember a travelling fairground visiting my home town back in 1985. They had a Donkey Kong Jr machine into which my friend inserted a coin, it showed up over 90 credits! Being crap at the game, we had quite a lot of goes. The counter went down to around 70 then went back up to over 90 credits again. After a further few goes the whole bank of machines turned off. The owner said a fuse went but we reckoned he cottoned on to the fact we were not inserting any coins.

[+FujiSkunk]

Actually that does remind me of an arcade machine at the local pool that must have had something wrong with it where if you hit it hard enough (enough to rock it a little) it would reset. As a kid I was sure that if I did that enough times I'd get a free credit or something, but almost no arcade machine gives credits on power up.

 

I don't know about arcade machines, but pretty much all pinball tables from the '80s onward are designed to reset if you hit them hard enough. The technical term for it is a "slam tilt". If a game is in progress, obviously it will be lost. The goal was to keep people from getting funny ideas about making the game give up free credits or other unexpected bonuses when "properly" abused, and so cut down on unnecessary wear and tear. Of course, for me and many other once-temperamental players, the slam tilt was the perfect way to rage-quit a bad game, so machines frequently still got a good share of abuse.

[Tempest]

 

I don't know about arcade machines, but pretty much all pinball tables from the '80s onward are designed to reset if you hit them hard enough. The technical term for it is a "slam tilt". If a game is in progress, obviously it will be lost. The goal was to keep people from getting funny ideas about making the game give up free credits or other unexpected bonuses when "properly" abused, and so cut down on unnecessary wear and tear. Of course, for me and many other once-temperamental players, the slam tilt was the perfect way to rage-quit a bad game, so machines frequently still got a good share of abuse.

 

Yeah I know about Pinball Machines, but this was just some sort of short in the arcade machine. No arcade machine I know has a tilt feature.

[+save2600]

Yeah I know about Pinball Machines, but this was just some sort of short in the arcade machine. No arcade machine I know has a tilt feature.

Almost all arcade games have a "tilt" feature. It's on the coin door and referrered to as the slam switch. Bang the coin door hard enough to cause the switch to open and the game resets. There's also switches on the back door, so when you open it or it comes loose, the game powers off.

[Tempest]

Almost all arcade games have a "tilt" feature. It's on the coin door and referrered to as the slam switch. Bang the coin door hard enough to cause the switch to open and the game resets. There's also switches on the back door, so when you open it or it comes loose, the game powers off.

 

Maybe that's what it was then. Maybe the coin door was loose and causing it to reset when it got rocked too hard? Oh well, it didn't get me any free games, that's for sure.

[+FujiSkunk]

Actually, come to think of it, I did try the "hit the machine for free games" trick once, and it just so happens it was with an arcade video game... more or less. It was a Baby Pac-Man machine. Someone had just told me the rumor about hitting the coin door of a machine for free games. The machine was in my apartment complex's club house, and I was in the room by myself. So I figured, "Why not?" I hit the coin door fairly hard, and immediately heard a crash and saw "SLAM!" on the screen. Then the screen started displaying garbage, and I, being nine or so years old at the time, started freaking out. But then the attract mode started again and the game seemed to be none the worse off. I decided to walk away quietly. I'm fairly confident that was the first and last time I tried that trick.

[Gamemoose]

While not arcade machines: hen I hung out/helped at an arcade back in high school, I heard stories of people putting salt water into outdoor soda machines to get free soda. Basically fill a syringe, squirt into the coin slot and somehow magically you get a soda. Needless to say the arcade owner was happy to not have his soda machine outside.

[SignGuy81]

This is stealing so don't do it. But some of the coin trays you slide in, like the ones for vacuum cleaners at carwashes, have holes in the guide under the coin tray. You put your original quarters in, push the tray all the way in like supposed to, but don't let it slide back, instead put a screw or something in one of the holes which stops it from sliding back. Then vacuum the car, and naturally not having enough time the vacuum will stop. But instead of putting new coins in, hold the tray to stop it from sliding back, take out the screw, let the tray slide slightly back just a little bit, then just push it back in(and it starts again) and put the screw in hole again, then when vacuum stops again, repeat. But don't do any of that it was just for educational purposes only.

[R.Cade]

I was young in the late 70's/early 80's, but all the older teenagers knew the tricks to powering off/on and kicking the coin doors at just the right time to get credits. I saw it many times and it works, but makes a lot of noise- you could only do it on machines in areas that weren't "patrolled" or had employees there. At that point in time, that was common - machines were everywhere.

 

Astro Fighter - they would kick the hell out of this game and it would give you multiple credits at a time.

Pac-Man - this one they would reset it, and would kick it right before or after the end of the crosshatch screen (I forget which). For some reason, if they timed it right it would give a credit.

Galaxian - same as Pac-Man.

Turbo - I remember they would kick the hell out of the side of the sit-down version of this and it gave credits.

 

Many Pinball machines from the late 70's would give you credit if you kicked them hard. At a skating rink, that's really easy since you have heavy skates on.

 

I always heard rumors about quarters with strings, or using a flattened red Dairy Queen straw. I never saw any of those work...

 

So many abused machines....

Edited September 30, 2017 by R.Cade

[derFunkenstein]

Fonzi taught us all that you could just bang on the jukebox to get a song.

that's nothing. Michael Jackson could flip a quarter from across the room and get it in the slot. It actually cost money that way but I think Michael was way more impressive.

[Tanooki]

I always heard rumors about quarters with strings, or using a flattened red Dairy Queen straw. I never saw any of those work...

 

So many abused machines....

It does or did into the earlier 90s. As I said in my other post I used a drill on a quarter and put a high tension thin fishing line onto it and it worked. You had to just get in far enough without getting the coin stuck and losing it so it was a bit of an art, but if you did it, free games until you screwed up or got bored.

[zylon]

I had an old quarter that was actual silver. it would register for a credit, but always came back on machines with the red push return slots. You just put it in and follow through with the push.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=arcade+coin+slots&tbm=isch&imgil=gHOCnnusTRk1WM%253A%253BtF-tvD-Je-hcgM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fblog.mercedesbenzraleigh.com%25252Fstarting-car-arcade-style-coin-slot-awesome%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=gHOCnnusTRk1WM%253A%252CtF-tvD-Je-hcgM%252C_&usg=__Jz8WxTPxUnKQsMgfRkmaEIn7ceA%3D&biw=1107&bih=610&ved=0ahUKEwj16KzB09DWAhWG5iYKHTxTB4sQyjcIkAE&ei=P4TRWbXNA4bNmwG8pp3YCA#imgrc=gHOCnnusTRk1WM:

 

Galaga would give free games and play in a reversed mode if you unplugged it and plugged it back in rapidly a few times. The player ship would appear above the aliens and your shots went out the top and came up through bottom of screen.

Edited October 2, 2017 by zylon

[+FujiSkunk]

So you're saying arcade games could be fried just like 2600 games!

[Andromeda Stardust]

Man, this thread has awesome stories of abuse. I wish I had my own stories to share, but alas, I did not frequent arcades as a kid, lest not with actual money. I would watch others play and imagine it was me, or just sit and watch the demos for minutes or hours. No friends either. No Nintendo/Atari at home. My childhood sucked, so thanks everyone for sharing your non-sucky memories!

[+save2600]

Man, this thread has awesome stories of abuse. I wish I had my own stories to share, but alas, I did not frequent arcades as a kid, lest not with actual money. I would watch others play and imagine it was me, or just sit and watch the demos for minutes or hours. No friends either. No Nintendo/Atari at home. My childhood sucked, so thanks everyone for sharing your non-sucky memories!

Look at it this way: you're kind of living out your childhood now. Making up for some of it at least.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Look at it this way: you're kind of living out your childhood now. Making up for some of it at least.

I became obsessed with Nintendo in 2002, thanks to the CIB NES that magically appeared in my beedroom when I was 21, the very same Nintendo my mom bought for me one year, which got shelved and forgotten in the garage for nearly ten years...