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The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
#393842 - 04/23/22 01:45 PM
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Has anyone else ever seen someone use a quarter on a string to play arcade games for free? I've only seen it done once. I believe the game was Xevious, and this kid had a quarter with a hole in it on a string, and he would put the quarter in, it would make a louder than usual metallic latching sound, the game would credit him, then he'd pull the quarter back out by the string.
I wonder if that would still work nowadays? As I recall, the game had a horizontal coin slot that was all metal, not the red, rectangular, plastic coin slot that most arcade machines have. Maybe the red ones are the new kind to prevent this trick from working.
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Mr. Do |
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: mike20599]
#393843 - 04/23/22 05:42 PM
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> Has anyone else ever seen someone use a quarter on a string to play arcade games for
> free? I've only seen it done once. I believe the game was Xevious, and this kid had a
> quarter with a hole in it on a string, and he would put the quarter in, it would make
> a louder than usual metallic latching sound, the game would credit him, then he'd
> pull the quarter back out by the string.
>
> I wonder if that would still work nowadays? As I recall, the game had a horizontal
> coin slot that was all metal, not the red, rectangular, plastic coin slot that most
> arcade machines have. Maybe the red ones are the new kind to prevent this trick from
> working.
Yup... I've seen it in action for real more than one, at some of the local liquor stores, back when they all had games in them. I don't remember which type of coin slot or what game though.
Story time... one day I'm playing Space Ace at the store right by my house, and while I'm playing, I bumped the machine in one area on accident, and it added a credit. It was somewhere half way between the control panel and the coin slot... I'm guessing the "add a credit" switch had come loose or something, and was leaning against the coin door, or something like that.
During the next game, I played around, and found the spot, and I kept on adding credits. Ended up playing for at least an hour... might have been two... until at some point, the owner figured out something weird was going on, then he walked over and unplugged the game.
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RELAX and just have fun. Remember, it's all about the games.
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| John IV |
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IV/Play, MAME, MAMEUI
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: Mr. Do]
#393846 - 04/23/22 07:38 PM
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Quote:
During the next game, I played around, and found the spot, and I kept on adding credits. Ended up playing for at least an hour... might have been two...
Laugh, and did you actually finish the game in that time? Some LD games were time consuming to initially find your way through without help. Mine was Cliff Hanger, had my younger sister nearby writing all the moves down as I went. Ran out of time and only got as far as the ninja attacks I think.
FYI Lupin III Mystery of Mamo just dropped on blu ray. It along with Castle of Cagliostro made up the video content.
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john iv
http://www.mameui.info/
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: mike20599]
#393847 - 04/23/22 09:21 PM
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Done it all the time in the early 80's.
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: John IV]
#393848 - 04/23/22 09:23 PM
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I use to know every move on cliffhanger I could right it down at home without even seeing the game in person from beginning to end. Same as Space Ace and Dragon's Lair.
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: mike20599]
#393849 - 04/23/22 09:57 PM
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That was one method. Another method was to use an electric strike from a cigarette lighter in the days.
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: mike20599]
#393850 - 04/23/22 11:03 PM
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I used to work at an arcade doing maintenance and repair. Based on the coin mechs the games had, IDK if a coin on a string would work with these.
https://na.suzohapp.com/products/coin_doors/42-3079-100
That mech is very similar to what we used. The coin goes back and forth through that before falling out the bottom onto a bent piece of wire attached to a switch to trigger the game. I don't know if a coin could go down far enough to trigger the switch and still be able to pull out without getting stuck or breaking something.
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| TrevEB |
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Brokering peace between the collectors and the Mame Community
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: John IV]
#393851 - 04/23/22 11:46 PM
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And the much more recent Lupin III The First was surprisingly good.
The 4K edition of Castle of Cagliostro is awesome!
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| John IV |
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IV/Play, MAME, MAMEUI
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: TrevEB]
#393852 - 04/24/22 12:11 AM
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: mike20599]
#393855 - 04/24/22 04:40 PM
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> Has anyone else ever seen someone use a quarter on a string to play arcade games for
> free? I've only seen it done once. I believe the game was Xevious, and this kid had a
> quarter with a hole in it on a string, and he would put the quarter in, it would make
> a louder than usual metallic latching sound, the game would credit him, then he'd
> pull the quarter back out by the string.
>
> I wonder if that would still work nowadays? As I recall, the game had a horizontal
> coin slot that was all metal, not the red, rectangular, plastic coin slot that most
> arcade machines have. Maybe the red ones are the new kind to prevent this trick from
> working.
Do it with a slot machine and the machine will disable itself and show "Call Attendant - Coin Yoyo" or similar. 
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| roscian |
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Re: The ol' quarter-on-a-string trick
[Re: mike20599]
#393869 - 04/25/22 04:59 PM
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When the street cleaning machine truck would pass by they, at times, would drop these thin metal bristles. A guy I knew would collect these and uses them on arcade machines. He would somehow slide one in through the coin slot and receive free credits. It was back in the day so we would play Pac-Man and Centipede for hours at the local pizza pub.
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