Code Masters
£2.99
If CodeMasters keep on releasing games like this and Pub Trivia Quiz you soon won't have to leave the house to get all the fun and excitement of your local tavern. Just get a few cans in, ask a few friends to come round and be violently ill on the floor, and there you have it - the ultimate pub in your own home!
Fruit Machine Simulator 2 has all the features of the normal fruit machine - things like nudge and hold - and includes some special features, unique to the game.
You must get the highest numbers on the fruits to take you up the MEGA-TREK and get to all the good features. Shuffle- Nudge-Box allows you to shuffle the reels to try and get a better win: this uses up one nudge each time. Winner-Spinner respins the reels until you press TAKE to get the best combination, and Super-Scanner is the big one (which I can't get to!).
One problem I found with Fruit Machine Simulator 2 was that the computer was a bit mean with the numbers to begin with, making you sit and wait for ages before getting into the fun features.
All the graphics in the game are good: there are separate sprites for all the coins, detailed pictures of notes and lots of colour everywhere. And there's a good CodeMasters tune when you first load up and plenty of spot FX in the game.
Fruit Machine Simulator 2 is one of the best around. If you're a big gambling person this could save you lots of money.
Code Masters
£2.99
Bring a fruit machine into your home! The differences between this and Fruit Machine Simulator are the added features to the program (if you can find them). This game gives you just about every feature found on today's top machines, plus some of the old favourites that keep you coming back for more.
The added attraction of this over a real machine is that you never get into trouble for spending all your cash! This looks exactly the same as the first Fruit Machine Simulator. I can't remember exactly what features that has on it so perhaps they've just added one or two. The big joke about the game is that there seems to be a delay between you pressing a key on the keyboard and the computer registering it. This makes it very difficult when it comes to the repeat function or gambling, whatever you press it goes on to the next icon!
Graphics are bright and cheerful but each screen looks too cluttered. You simply can't tell what the hell is going on half the time, it all happens so fast.
Fruit Machine Simulator 2 has nothing much more to offer than it's predecessor: if you bought the first don't bother, if you didn't then it may be worth a look in.
BARGAIN BASEMENT
A bit short of the readies? Low on the folding stuff? Totally borassic? Then pop down the Bargain Basement with Marcus Berkmann, and see what goes "Cheep!" (Eh? Ed).
Code Masters
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann
Good grief, is every game from CodeMasters this month? (Looks like it, Ed) Now, regular readers of this page will know that I'm a bit of a sucker for fruit machines, which may explain why I have to toil long and hard writing this column (all my spondoolicks having disappeared down their throats). And CM's Fruit Machine Sim, which sold trillions on its release last year, was an especially fine example of the species - especially as it cost me just two quid. Now, here's the sequel, and it's another winner. For most of these machines, of course, you need a degree in Electronic Engineering and two years at NASA, and the one in FMS2 is no exception. Shuffle Nudge Boxes? Winner Spinners? It's got the lot. Naturally it was the work of a moment (two hours) for me to win a bumper £8.60 and so top the high score table, but I'm sure you can do better. But this is a perfect budget release - it doesn't do anything new, but what it does it does brilliantly. (Anyone lend me a quid?)
RICH PELLEY dons his washing-up gloves and prepares to take on those oh-so-murky depths of...
BARGAIN BASEMENT
CodeMasters
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley
What's this then? Oh, a fruit machine simulator. Hmm. "Insert Coin". Which key was that again? Oh yes. In goes 20p. Press Space to start and dunk dunk dunk, did I win? Erm, no. I think I'll have another go. Dunk dunk dunk. Three bananas. Hurrah! I've won I've won - but how much? Oh, 20p. I know, I'll gamble. Right, what do I have to do now - stop those flashing things and, ahem, I've lost. (Blimey, this game is crap.)
Or perhaps it's just me, cos I have to admit that as a fruity machine jobby you can't really fault this. It's got everything - and more besides (super nudge boxes, anyone?). It's a cinch to play (once you've mastered the keys), does so very realistically, erm, 'looks very nice' and, dare I say, is quite a lot of fun as well.
And things really start to hot up if you're playing with a friend or two. You all start off with an agreed amount of cash and the winner is the last player to go broke. (Simple really.) it sounds brill, but unfortunately I haven't got any pals so I couldn't actually try this out. And my family weren't much help either. (Sniff.) But never mind - Fruit Machine Simulator II is an ace laugh, there's oodles of features, and it's as addictive as a, erm, very addictive fruit machine.
Label: Codemasters
Author: In House
Price: £.95
Memory: 48K/128K/+2/+3
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter
Fruit machines are the devil's own brew. Like a ravenous monster from hell, the familiar one-armed bandit has now leapt into the world of technology and although now limbless, it is far from armless with dazzling arrays of pulsing lights, special features, flashes and even voices to tempt the wary into parting with their worldly goods.
So why have a simulation of a fruit machine? As we all I know, you're supposed to win money out of 'em otherwise, why play 'em? I have to maintain that for me, any games where you have to stake your own money in order to try to gain more back doesn't work if there isn't the prospect of losing (or gaining) some cash. If you play poker without the prospect of winning money it's just not the adrenalin pumping experience it should it. Unfortunately, the same can be said of fruit machine simulator.
Climbing precariously down from my high horse, I must say that the game is a very good example of fruit machineness. Up to four players can compete against each other to see who is the best gambler. Each spin of the wheels sends the fruits tumbling towards the elusive winline. Get two or more similar items on the first two or more reels and presto! You win! A MEGA-TREK feature comes into play if you can light all the letters of MEGA-TREK with some of the numbers that appear on the fruit. Collect this and you move to the Mega-Trek screen where there is a multitude of various wins which you may collect or try to gamble for a higher prize. A Turbo feature (which appears to be random) is also included, whereby you can try to continue Treking for a better win or take whatever feature is lit.
What can I, a mere irritation or the bum of humanity say? The graphics are quite good, sound is okay and the playability is simple enough. The lastability depends entirely upon your need to play fruit machines that cost nothing and pay even less. The prospect of using the program for practice before bunking off school and whizzing up the arcade to spend all the money out of your mum's purse that you've just stolen is frightening to say the least. So don't do it. It's illegal and your mum'll give you a well deserved thrashing to within a inch of your life - and all that happens before she turns you over to the Police. So be warned, if you feel the urge to leap into an arcade and gamble away the family fortune whilst hanging around with delinquents (like Kylie Minogue) buy this game instead.
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