Strangest thing you've seen at a prize counter

[bluevolume]

With the talk about Arcades going on here, it reminded me of something I saw at an arcade near here a few years back.  They had a lot of ticket machines, and they had a counter where you could turn your tickets in for a fabulous prize. 

I was looking at the "top shelf" stuff, and up there was a garden hose.  A freaking garden hose.  What kid is ever going to want that?

Anyone else remember any bizarre "prizes"?

[shardian]

The Tilt in town went on a dollar store binge when I was younger. I remember seeing a hair curling iron for a few thousand tickets.

[grantspain]

at my arcade my bosses actually put some baseball caps with our logo as a prize(the same as our waiters) and they look complete dorks

[javeryh]

The arcade in Salisbury, MA still has all the prizes from the 80s behind the counter including a Walkman, a vacuum cleaner and a "food processor" among other things - everything is covered in about an inch of dust.  It's pretty funny.

[SavannahLion]

Try as I might, I don't recall anything really bizarre.

I remember seeing used NES catridges at one (this is right after the PSX was introduced to the market).

Another had gift certificates of some kind.

A few obscure food and drink items at another. Pocky Sticks, weird sodas.

At Ceasers Palace 'cade located inside a casino, there used to be a lot of casino related items. Retired house cards (these have holes punched through the center), retired gaming chips (same), etc.

[Kangum]

people probrobly wont believe me but im pretty sure i saw a toaster in the arcade in salisbury once.

ticket places make me think of my x girlfriend and her kids. her daughter got all the tickets. so her mom is like let your brother pick something from the prize counter. you already got tons of candy and junk. so her daughter finally says fine. so he picks out a back scratcher. what do you think happened after we left.  she beat him with the back scratcher the whole way home. what is that called. choose your weapon of demise?

[bluevolume]

That's hilarious.

You know, I think the whole "prize counter" thing is just a big cause of stress and anxiety for kids.  Think about it.  Parents wait till its time to leave before they drag their kids up there, and now they have 30 seconds to pick something "nice" out of this mountain of worthless crap.  They've spent the last hour collecting these tickets as if they were planning on trading them in for a new bike or something.  Then they get to the counter, certain that the 400 tickets they are carrying around would get them carte blanche, only to see that the bratty kid next to them has 2000 of them.  Then comes the inevitable letdown as the choices are boiled down to a pack of gum or a Bicentennial Pencil (see Steve Martin in The Jerk for reference).

And we wonder why our kids end up in therapy...

[SavannahLion]

Then they get to the counter, certain that the 400 tickets they are carrying around would get them carte blanche, only to see that the bratty kid next to them has 2000 of them. 

That's not the suck part, the suck part is saving up those 400 tickets to get 2,000 tickets only to find the ---smurfing--- tickets have an expiration date and in order to extend the expiration date, you have to buy these ticket books which have an extended expiration date (but still expire) at roughly a 5% loss on the ticket count. 

This was a few years ago when I used to have to travel across state lines to get to anything remotely resembling an arcade and before the anti-expiration law was passed in my state (which probably don't apply to tickets anyways).

[javeryh]

I always give away my tickets from skee-ball and other games when I'm at the arcade.  The look on some other kid's face is always priceless.

[ChadTower]

I was at a Chuck E Cheese with my kids last year and two 8 year olds had pried the front off the skeeball ticket dispenser and were taking out all of the tickets.  They later actually cashed them in, even though the counter girl saw them do it, and they left with armfuls of prizes and no punishment.

[ChadTower]

Even those skeezy tricks aren't as bad as physically prying the door off and stealing the tickets in plain sight, though.  I still can't believe they had the sack to do that.

[bluevolume]

Even those skeezy tricks aren't as bad as physically prying the door off and stealing the tickets in plain sight, though.  I still can't believe they had the sack to do that.

Just another sign of the times.  When I was a kid, if someone did that the manager would have yelled at them and physically removed them from the place.  I'm not talking about beating the kid or anything, but grabbing them by the shoulder or arm and leading them out.  And the kid would pray that his parents didn't find out about it; if they did he was in for a lot worse than the arcade manager gave him.

Today, the kid will just do whatever he wants, because the employees either don't care or are afraid to do/say anything.  If a kid did get thrown out, the parents would come back down later that night and chew out the worker for hurting their precious child's feelings.

[ChadTower]

Keep in mind that's a Chuck E Cheese... they're not allowed in there without a parent.  I haven't been in that place with less than a 10-1 kid to adult ratio, though, so clearly a lot of people use that as dropoff babysitting.

[Jeff AMN]

My cousin and I used to save up tickets for months on end (going about once per week) and then cash them all in and go home with actually worthwhile prizes. I got to where I was able to hit Cyclone on the jackpot about 90% of the time too, so we didn't have to spend a lot to do well. The manager used to grumble every time I told him the Cyclone was out of tickets again. One day he saw us coming and shut it off.

We'd usually get videogames (NES, SNES, Genesis, GameBoy) at or below cost because we did so well. I still have some of the better prizes we nabbed.

[ahofle]

Keep in mind that's a Chuck E Cheese... they're not allowed in there without a parent.  I haven't been in that place with less than a 10-1 kid to adult ratio, though, so clearly a lot of people use that as dropoff babysitting.

I always find it amusing when they stamp your hand and your kid's hand when you go in to prevent someone from kidnapping your child (presumably).  I have yet to see anyone at the front door checking stamps on the way out (I usually have to just walk out under the rope barricade because no one shows up).

[Flip_Willie]

  One time at a local skating rink, my friends and I saved 4000+ tickets just to find out that the skating rink didn't actually have the prize that we had been saving for.  It was a piece of junk anyway, but it was still pretty low for them to deny it to us.  They could have at least given us the display item.

Just as it is,
Flip Willie

[ErikRuud]

Several years ago, we were at Dave & Busters. My mother-in-law had bought each of the kids a bunch of tokens.  I was going around with my 6 year old daughter letting her choose which games she wanted to play.

I forget now what machine it was,  but she played some game and won like twenty tickets, but nothing comes out.  We found somebody to check the machine and he found that it was empty.  He reloads it with a full block of tickets and walks away.  It starts spitting out tickets.   When it didn't stop at twenty tickets I assumed it was still trying to give out the remainder of the prize from when it ran out before we got there.  So we stand there and the machine keeps on spitting out tickets.  The thing did not stop until it had spit out the entire block of tickets!

I don't remember what the final count was, but we got decent sized stuffed animals for both of the kids and some other things.

[ChadTower]

I always find it amusing when they stamp your hand and your kid's hand when you go in to prevent someone from kidnapping your child (presumably).  I have yet to see anyone at the front door checking stamps on the way out (I usually have to just walk out under the rope barricade because no one shows up).

They do check the kids at this Chuck E Cheese... but really, what they need to do is stop the parents from leaving without the kids. 

[bluevolume]

Several years ago, we were at Dave & Busters. My mother-in-law had bought each of the kids a bunch of tokens.  I was going around with my 6 year old daughter letting her choose which games she wanted to play.

I forget now what machine it was,  but she played some game and won like twenty tickets, but nothing comes out.  We found somebody to check the machine and he found that it was empty.  He reloads it with a full block of tickets and walks away.  It starts spitting out tickets.   When it didn't stop at twenty tickets I assumed it was still trying to give out the remainder of the prize from when it ran out before we got there.  So we stand there and the machine keeps on spitting out tickets.  The thing did not stop until it had spit out the entire block of tickets!

I don't remember what the final count was, but we got decent sized stuffed animals for both of the kids and some other things.

I wonder what you're kids will think when they are old enough to use an ATM.

[ChadTower]

Meh, I've climbed into the skeeball machine and tripped the switch in the 100 point hole manually hundreds and times and emptied a machine out.

An alarm will go off everytime you cross 900 points (which is the theoretical maximum) but you can keep going.  Hopefully, hopefully, the newer machines will shut off at some threshold, but these were newish early 90s machines!  =0

When I was younger, I used to tug ever so carefully on tickets as they were dispensed and you could occasionally get the dispenser to slip up and feed more or just keep feeding.  You couldn't go forever, you had to maintain a certain amount of force, but you could sometimes get an extra couple of feet of tickets.

I've even scammed those card reader things that spit out receipts.  Sometimes you get lucky and it'll grab the card wrong and the stupid things will malfunction and ADD tickets to your card.  There was a trick one at a Mr Gatti's that you could scam for 81 tickets a swipe if you did it right.    Always good for an armload of prizes.


I never felt too bad about it... a Tilt manager told me once that they priced things at basically 2 tickets for 1 cent.  So 400 tickets to buy a $2 item.

That's awesome that you're teaching your kids how to steal.

 

[ErikRuud]

Several years ago, we were at Dave & Busters. My mother-in-law had bought each of the kids a bunch of tokens.  I was going around with my 6 year old daughter letting her choose which games she wanted to play.

I forget now what machine it was,  but she played some game and won like twenty tickets, but nothing comes out.  We found somebody to check the machine and he found that it was empty.  He reloads it with a full block of tickets and walks away.  It starts spitting out tickets.   When it didn't stop at twenty tickets I assumed it was still trying to give out the remainder of the prize from when it ran out before we got there.  So we stand there and the machine keeps on spitting out tickets.  The thing did not stop until it had spit out the entire block of tickets!

I don't remember what the final count was, but we got decent sized stuffed animals for both of the kids and some other things.

I wonder what you're kids will think when they are old enough to use an ATM.

I'll admit that it wasn't the best judgment I have ever shown, but I doubt that one incident is going to affect them much.

My wife and I are actually working pretty hard at rising are children to be responsible adults.  My daughter earns and save all the money needed to pay for her own horseback riding lessons and she is 10.  My son is one of the few kids that waits his turn on the slide at the playground instead of just sliding down on top of other kids and he is 2 and a half.

In our area it seems that most children expect their parents to get them what ever they want and apparently most of the parents do just that and ignore the behavior of their children.

[bluevolume]

I hope you didn't think I was judging you, I'd probably do the same thing if it made my kids laugh.  I just thought the ATM reference was funny.

[ErikRuud]

I hope you didn't think I was judging you, I'd probably do the same thing if it made my kids laugh.  I just thought the ATM reference was funny.

I did think you were judging me.  a smiley in your post would have made it clear that you were joking.

Just don't use an animated one!  Apparently they are annoying.

[ChadTower]

I judged pinballjim while he was judging you.

I did it with an NBA Jam sized head.

[ErikRuud]

I judged pinballjim while he was judging you.

I did it with an NBA Jam sized head.

That is why I did  not comment on his post.

[knave]

Sometimes life kicks you in the rear other times it rewards you.

The ticket dispenser exists to give out tickets. It's a real stretch to call it stealing when the machine malfunctions.  So you chose to get your kids something nice I'm sure it was fun for all of you.  At worst it is slightly morally ambiguous. 

I'm sure your kids will not learn stealing from this. 

Pinballjim would have made a different choice and that's fine too.

So what was the crazy prize you all were referring to?

[bluevolume]

Alright, since everyone is getting so excited about this, take a closer look at the details.  The machine wasn't malfunctioning, it was simply spitting out all of the tickets that it had queued up while it was empty.  So actually, he was just taking the tickets that other people had won but didn't want to put in the effort to collect.

Of course I doubt a six year old would put all of those pieces together, so maybe it was a bad lesson.  Who knows.  I'm sure I'll inadvertantly teach my kids bad things too.

[hatrick]

That is why I did  not comment on his post.

My bad behavior is a result of my own inclinations. 

If you found the repair guy once, you could have found him again.  You taught your daughter how to exploit and take advantage of a situation, rather than teach her about honesty.  The guy probably would have handed you hundreds of tickets anyway, and you could have told her, 'see, honesty is the best policy'.  But nope, instead, you stood there for 5 minutes while the machine shot its load all over your hands and taught a, "look honey, the world revolves around us" lesson instead.

So let me get this straight...earlier pinballjim post and brags about how he ripped off this and that...

Meh, I've climbed into the skeeball machine and tripped the switch in the 100 point hole manually hundreds and times and emptied a machine out.

An alarm will go off everytime you cross 900 points (which is the theoretical maximum) but you can keep going.  Hopefully, hopefully, the newer machines will shut off at some threshold, but these were newish early 90s machines!  =0

When I was younger, I used to tug ever so carefully on tickets as they were dispensed and you could occasionally get the dispenser to slip up and feed more or just keep feeding.  You couldn't go forever, you had to maintain a certain amount of force, but you could sometimes get an extra couple of feet of tickets.

I've even scammed those card reader things that spit out receipts.  Sometimes you get lucky and it'll grab the card wrong and the stupid things will malfunction and ADD tickets to your card.  There was a trick one at a Mr Gatti's that you could scam for 81 tickets a swipe if you did it right.    Always good for an armload of prizes.


I never felt too bad about it... a Tilt manager told me once that they priced things at basically 2 tickets for 1 cent.  So 400 tickets to buy a $2 item
 
 

And then judges somone else. What a hypocrite.

[ChadTower]

The machine wasn't malfunctioning, it was simply spitting out all of the tickets that it had queued up while it was empty. 

Or, uh, it was empty because it was malfunctioning?

That's my thought.  They don't keep a "queue" of backlogged tickets.  When they keep spitting out tickets it's because there is something wrong with the dispenser control circuit.

[DaOld Man]

Ok, back to the original topic:
I think the strangest thing I have ever seen was this guy that ran the prize counter at an arcade in Owensboro, Ky. He looked really weird. I would not let my 8 year old kid go to that counter by himself.

[saint]

The machine wasn't malfunctioning, it was simply spitting out all of the tickets that it had queued up while it was empty. 

Or, uh, it was empty because it was malfunctioning?

That's my thought.  They don't keep a "queue" of backlogged tickets.  When they keep spitting out tickets it's because there is something wrong with the dispenser control circuit.

Well actually I've seen a machine do exactly that - spit out a queue of backlogged tickets. Was some hit-the-rubber-thumper-and-it-bounces-the-ball-into-a-variety-of-different-scored-nets thing.

[ChadTower]

Hrm.  Maybe some do then, some don't.  The ones I've played around with did not.

[SirPeale]

That's my thought.  They don't keep a "queue" of backlogged tickets.  When they keep spitting out tickets it's because there is something wrong with the dispenser control circuit.

I haven't read any posts in front of this, but someone may have said it already.  Yeah, they do keep a queue.  If a machine runs out of tickets the 'out of tickets' sensor is tripped and it queues the remainder.

Unlikely that it queued up an entire book, though.

[DrFrag]

That happened to me too, but after they replaced the roll I only got about 80 tickets.  I was never quite sure if there had been a backlog or I'd just been really skillful. 

[bluevolume]

I really wish I had the clip from "The Jerk" where Steve Martin is the weight guesser.  It would be perfect for this discussion.

[SirPeale]

I really wish I had the clip from "The Jerk" where Steve Martin is the weight guesser.  It would be perfect for this discussion.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cKZg2jtg8Yw

[bluevolume]

"Take a chance and win some crap!" 

Thank you for finding that.

[Kangum]

there are so many funny parts in that movie.

stay away from the cans! he hates those cans!