Can I have a quarter?

[MaximRecoil]

C'mon! It's just a quarter!

Does anyone remember a time before they discovered arcade machines? I do, and quarters were damned easy to come by. Dollars, well that was another story but my mother or my father or even my older brother or sister would cough up a quarter without much coaxing; after all, it was just a quarter.

I noticed a drastic change in tune once I got hooked on Karate Champ VS when I was about 8 or 9 years old. It didn't take long for my parents to decide that those quarters they were giving me were adding up quickly, and I was pretty much cut off. I guess I should have saved all of those quarter back when they were easy to come by.

I started riding around town on my BMX looking on the ground for change or bottles; even checking the public trash cans for bottles, but of course, trying not to be seen while doing it. Then of course there was the old "Hey, this machine stole my money" trick, though that got old with the employees fast. Showing up when the arcade machine tech was there would usually net a free play or two; you know, to "test her out" for him. Oh, and always check those coin return slots, though that rarely turned anything up.

There was an old lady on my street that would give you a handful of change for walking her dog; so that was always good for a few honest quarters.

Those sources were getting pretty weak by the time I found Super Punch-Out in 7th grade. Not only did I love the game; but there was a rivalry for top score going on between me and an 8th grader who'd held the top spot unchallenged for about a year. My older brother was working a part time job by that time and he had one of those cylindrical glass candles and he dumped his spare change in it just about every day. "He won't miss a couple dimes and a nickel will he?"

Well he didn't miss the change and I did get the top score on that machine; well, he didn't miss it until about 3 months later when I'd gotten a little overambitious in my life of crime; and had emptied that candle of everything but a few pennies that were buried down too deep in the candle wax to dig out, LOL.

He and my parents put a stop to that. Oh well, soon after that, Super Punch-Out was gone from that place, never to be seen again and that was the last time I played any arcade machines until Street Fighter II came along in the early 90's; by which time I had a vehicle and a job.

[paigeoliver]

The "Hey, this machine stole my money" trick is so prevalent that I refuse to give vending machine refunds to male children. Because they are ALWAYS lying. My machines are in top order, and the only honest refunds I ever have to give are when the stupid GM fills up soda slots with bottled water.

[MaximRecoil]

The "Hey, this machine stole my money" trick is so prevalent that I refuse to give vending machine refunds to male children. Because they are ALWAYS lying. My machines are in top order, and the only honest refunds I ever have to give are when the stupid GM fills up soda slots with bottled water.

I have had legitimate instances of losing money in a machine. I can't remember them all but one I do remember is when the quarter only slid part way into the slot and stopped. You could see it stuck there if you looked close. After some time of trying to get it back out with a paper clip, I just got a refund. I imagine that someone had tried to stuff a nickel or a washer or something in there earlier and had jammed it up. I also would ask for a refund if the controls were messed up and the machine was not marked as such.

If I were an arcade operator; I don't know how I would deal with that. Outright denial of refunds is certainly one option but then you may have to deal with the parents who believe their kids no matter what they say. I'd think the best approach, for PR reasons, would be to give the refund (or open the coin door and hit the switch); unless it is becoming a habit with a certain kid.

[missioncontrol]

we used the "this machine took my money" many times. we would even use it at grocery stores to score free sodas out of the pop machines...........

[MaximRecoil]

we used the "this machine took my money" many times. we would even use it at grocery stores to score free sodas out of the pop machines...........

Oh yeah, the free sodas. I did that on a few occassions myself, though I was more interested in free games.

I just remembered another game that constantly stole money, though in a non-traditional way. It was the Karate Champ VS. machine down at the laundromat. A lot of people liked to stack their quarters on the control panel in an effort to keep people from grabbing the machine before they had played as many times as they intended to. Well, the Data East CP on that game was quite slanted so laying quarters flat on it wasn't such a good idea; so they tended to set the quarters on the top edge of the CP where it met up with the "glass" like so:



Well, when you pulled down hard on both of those joysticks to do a foot sweep, the CP would pull out a little and those quarters were gone, lol.

I remember seeing a tech working on that machine once and he must have pulled out like $10 worth of quarters from the inside of that CP; which of course he kept.