Skill Testers

[El Taco]

Is anyone into them? I'm slightly addicted to them as of late, so I wanna know if you guys like them as well.

The Stacker machines are alot more rigged though, I only rarely go on those, and never go on the Timezone one where you have to spin a circle to get higher in the tower.

Also, where are any Stacker/Skill Tester machines in Perth? I'm talking about where'd you get the train to, part of Perth.
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R.I.P Tanya

[IISpacebreakII]

I been playing a crap load of them lately, I spend about $5 a week on them. (Isn't much but it adds up hahaha).

So far haven't won anything recently though, I wanted to win a massive spongebob doll but when I went back to try and get it it was gone. EPICSUCK

[NaTe]

I play them if I see them and just trying to waste time. The biggest problem with that is that quite often I'll end up with a plush toy to carry around.
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[Cramsy]

Those stacker games are rigged. I was in Queensland on the Gold Coast and I was going for a Ipod touch, 3 times I got to the very last one before it jumped to either side of where it was supposed to go. The crowd of people around me felt the same too

[Appel]

I'm a big fan of the 3 pronged ones. The 4 prongs are much harder (though they look easier.)

I guess I go through stages. Thankfully I haven't had one for ages.

But there is nothing funnier than going out with a mate, watching a couple on a date and the girl goes, "I want that winnie the pooh right there!" and then the guy spends like $10 trying to get it but fails. Then you come along with your mate and win it first round. I don't know why thats so amusing... i guess i'm just a d**k.
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[Fly]

[Zhou]

My brother is a pro with the 20c/game ones. Out of about 10 goes ($2.00) he will get at least 1 toy. When he was younger, he had a whole shelf of toys from that machine. But since then they've taken that one away and replaced it with a $2/game one.

I used to be into stacker. But I never actually won any big prizes. Just the consolation prizes.
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My flickr
i7 930 | 6gb ddr3 Ripjaws 2000 | GTX 560 | 1tb 7200rpm WD |

[Vervain]

I tend to be a gun with skill testers. I usually win 1 in every 4 times that I play. The trick is going for what is easy to win as opposed to going for what you want. I tend to give the toys to my little sister or my girlfriend. Except for my large Stewie, Yoshi and Handy.
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http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-6u9h.html

[Sinthesys]

I'm not sure I'm good at them, so much as lucky. I usually play them a few times while waiting for movies to start (there's always at least 1 in every cinema) and I walk away with a toy nearly every time.
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GT: Da Herbalist - Keep on Choppin'

[mrcool37]

Funny you should ask this, as constructing skill testers has been my job for the last 10 years in between high school and uni. After my father quit Timezone many moons ago, he came up with a concept that a few of you might have seen, that simply consists of a 'push deck' and a mirror slide on the left hand side of the machine, so you don't necessarily win the same chocolate that you pick up. Plus we replaced plush toys with chocolate as they're much easier to win, and generally they appeal to more people than a fluffy toy. Today we make plush units, jumbo claw units and 'bonus play' units, where there is a plush setup on the left hand side and if you don't win with your credit, you are awarded up to 10 credits on the right hand side of the machine to win smaller lollies such as Warheads, Minties, and others of similar size. Our machines have the WGA symbol on them, are yellow or purple and can be found in many parts of Australia.

Other companies have been rigging plush skill testers for years. As more money gets put through, the claw's grip becomes much tighter until a prize is won, where the cycle then resets, to ensure effective turnover. The same thing can be said for pile-ups, in the case of Cramsy a few posts above, if you waited for a further 20 people to come along and lose then you put your dollar in, there'd be a slightly higher chance you would've won that Ipod. Also in plush machines, there's nothing stopping the owners of each machine to place every toy in such a way that part of a toy is stuck underneath an adjacent toy, effectively clamping it in the ground to begin with.

[Mike Perez]

Got one of these as a pressie from my girlfriend a couple of years ago as she knew I was a fan of skill-testers (it has sounds and everything):



Still works a treat today. It sits beside my desk and helps me control my sweet tooth - If I don't make it within the time limit the candy craving fades ...
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[Red]

[efo]

XD i just had a dream where i was playing on the skill testers XD XD

i always win on them and thats how i've gotten most of my best toys! also ask my sister if you guys don't believe me! go on clione, tell them about the cute piggy :3
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[El Taco]

[RAMPAGE]

Only skill tester i play it the chocolate ones. Im pretty good at those as well.

[IISpacebreakII]

[DeathFalcon]

[Rabscallion]

Its weird but i love watching people play skill testers... something just joyed me about watching 2 fairly drunk guys playing a skill tester and paying about $8 for a couple of mini sized picnic bars when there is a cadbury vending machine right next to em....

[Blast Hardbody]

I love the Skill Testers where you can win watches.

There was once a Time Zone in the city many years ago which had a very tight claw.

I think I won every single watch out of that machine, all 10 or 12 of them.
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[Darkwing Sykeduk]

The stacker machines are set up to only have a 1 in 300+ chance of winning if depending on where you start to stack. I know a few people who work around Aus in arcades and they've said in the options you can make it go up to something like 1 in 10, 000 >_> Except my mate won 5k tickets on that wheel thingo cause there was a free go on it XD He went to the desk and asked for the Gamecube and the guy at the counter was like "uummm it's just an empty box, do you want something else?" So he haggled him like crazy and got the the manager on the phone and everything and he ended up closing the arcade, going about 3 floors down, buying a cube, then coming back up and re-opening <3
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[Rabscallion]

^ exactly. If they offer a gamecube if you win enough tickets they damnwell better give you the gamecube.
I still remember my greatest exploit at an arcade was when i was on holidays somewhere, and at an arcade there was this one machine which i somehow could win at every time ( it was like a arcadey sorta game) and i ended up winning a couple thousand tickets with around $10, that was a good day

[clione]

[El Taco]

This is a new addition to the Taco skill tester winning clan.


Weird thing this, when I went into Perth, I found the skill tester place (Thanks Red) and it was those skill testers which pick things up all the time, but drop them when they do pull them up, but the Batman (why pink, no black ones left) had a string (which I'm holding it by) which wrapped around the claw, thus victory!
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R.I.P Tanya

[XtremeXfactor]

Have not played one for years on the basis that they've become harder to master. Won a few things legitimately, but we knew the people who ran a videoshop and fish n chip shop that had the claw machines next to their self serve soft drink fridge. If i had a go and lost, they'd open up the machine and give me the prize anyway (defeats the purpose of playing, but still!!).

I much preferred those other prize ticket machines from Timezone (launching a ball at clowns teeth, rolling a ball up a ramp into any of the circle cylinders, throwing basketballs etc) were more fun . Having said that, there was this one prize machine at Timezone that was easy to get massive ticket amounts from, as the unit itself was at a low height - anyone who wanted to, could just place the ball in between the rim of the basketball ring and the ticket counter would skyrocket up .

[Charly]