Fishsta's FME Files - The Fairplay Campaign

Being the story of the Fairplay Campaign of 2003/4, championed by Stuart Campbell, and bringing the undeniably fixed nature of AWPs into the spotlight. You can read the full details of the Fairplay Campaign archived on Stuart's website, www.worldofstuart.excellentcon....
Many thanks to Stuart for his kind permission to use his content as the basis for this video, and to Degsy and Mark for providing the Club Tropicana files.

[@thespliffingbrit7766]

Great Videa Fishsta.. Thanks to Degs for the poke in this direction :)

[@chrcoluk]

Great video, and was good this was made public.

[@bubblekidproductions7614]

That's the most interesting thing I've watched all Xmas. Thanks for the video. Really enjoyed it. Also thanks to degsy

[@dazmc7744]

Fantastic video mate very interesting 👍

[@garrrrrr1]

Excellent video mate, proper nostalgia hit.

[@marcthomas4294]

Degsy sent me here and glad he did

[@adamschinkel5755]

Again sent hear by degsey thanks, I own a good few fruit machines and I also like to have the manuals within them, they use the word pseudo describing features, such as last ride on roller coaster, you get the jist, if it wasn't true skill, you knew you were getting given what the machine wanted to give, I always assumed this was the case with reel 4 too. I've got to ask the question, the warning told you the machine may offer the player a choice where there is a limited chance of success, did that mean the unwinnable gamble was removed? Was this re-tested? Meaning the game could be taken to the top using the same ram file technique? Thanks for the video I'd cured my love of these games by that point, I don't own any games made after 2004 but I'll keep a eye out for the famous warning in future and have a little chuckle knowing the back story.

[@Hypalinx]

I remember this campaign, never actually knew the machine needed to state "compensated play" etc because of that. One trick I think was missed and I think the campaign pushed for it was to show the true target RTP in a physical or display form instead of just a sticker which could be inaccurate to what the machine is set on. Instead of just this machine pays a min of 70% etc or sometimes displaying on a sticker 78% etc which could easily be wrong. You would have an actual psychical alpha near the coin slot or better still and more convenient it would display/flash on the alpha whilst on attract mode, no doubt this would of bumped up the RTP on machines all around the country as operators wouldn't want joe public to know a machine is on 70% or something, I'm sure things would of got into the mid 80s or higher. Or you could hold down hold button 1 or something or the cancel button to display its target RTP. I guess with the random machines this has now become a thing but it could of came in with awps quite easily or maybe it just wouldn't of made a difference. Some did bring in the accelerated percentage when you change stake +4% +8% etc but you would still need to know what its set at to begin with on 25p stake.

[@danisaac]

Totally agree operators should not be allowed to lie about RTP I’ve been an engineer in the industry for over 15 years I’ve never heard of any GC inspections to check for this practice either but it’s not the only type of gambling to do it the national lottery display no RTP % on any other their scratch cards or other games nor do most cash bingo game operators to name a few I feel the RTP % is the only relevant information a given player would need to make an informed decision to play yet GC seem more interested in pointless category and GameCare stickers than transparent information for players.

[@DazzaGee]

The guaranteed win/lose gamble is simply a consequence of compensated machines, of which the UK is one of the very few countries in the world to permit. Having played over 10,000 online random slots which aren't allowed to be compensated I can tell you none have hi-lo number reels on in their features aside from AWP tributes like Ted Pub Fruity. To have a truly random 1-12 hi-lo reel would make the maths almost impossible for video slots. I love the emulators but like Degsy and untold others of middle age, I would have never been sucked into spending so much over the years on those compensated machines if the alternative had always been random slots. Their main problem was instilling belief that the casual player could win and/or outsmart them when (aside from Donkey Kong et al and other bugs/scams) they would either fall victim to the number scam demonstrated here and its equivalent trail move number or be playing 'dead' machines sharked prior to their play. The day the last compensated AWP in inexistence in the UK's Arcades, pubs and clubs is crushed will be a day for celebration.

[@jpmwayne8965]

Nice vid mate. Do you know of any of those old JPM’s for sale? Like Big Bucks, Rollercoaster or Fast track?

[@whatwhatwhat6074]

JPM machines would get to a stage where they spin in the jackpot if no win was collected beforehand. Some machines like Red Arrow and Do You Feel Lucky had a streak above the jackpot symbols. So you could then lose the gamble on the jackpot symbols and then next credit it would spin in the jackpot again until you collected a win.

[@harrycallahan3391]

Good video pal. It took me back in time to a fruit machine I used to play called 'Pharaoh's Gold', circa late 90's. It had the high/low 1-12 feature. When it was buzzed up and ready to give the jackpot you couldn't lose on the climb and the numbers were never worse than a 3 or a 10. Again, another machine that had a pre determined feature.. 👍

[@PaulGodbehere]

Great video, and nice to see a Big Bucks on £4jp - sold mine 5yrs ago and looking to buy another. Great game.

[@DazzaGee]

There was a pyrrhic victory of sorts - the label should have been totally correct and stated the whole truth - "Little or NO chance of winning.." Would've been a killer for the industry had the 'no' been added. But openness and full disclosure are required in every other industry i.e. financial, food and consumer sales in order for transactions to be deemed 'fair'. Displaying features on the glass that were impossible to obtain at certain RTP settings on the dip switches and of course impossible HI-LO gambles - well let's just say equivalence of that shithousery would simply not be tolerated elsewhere.

[@philwright8269]

Great Video, I remember this lol... Regards, Road Hog Mad!

[@notrecyborg5492]

I think the 'fair play' campaign simply illustrated that people don't really understand how fruit machines work. The win is decided before the game even starts, what you do really makes very little difference. But its still a gamble, because you don't know how far that 'board' has pre-set it's willing to go. So the fact that some number gambles are technically 'unwinnable' in a certain game state, is really quite irrelevant. It's like with American slots, the win is decided the moment the player presses the button, the actual 'play out' of the reels or the subsequent feature is just purely for entertainment value. The only difference is they don't have numbers you go higher or lower than, but that's really just academic. If you really believed those numbers can be 'guessed right' - you're just naive or you've not played enough fruit machines to know how they work. So none of this was at all relevant. The guy was arguing about nothing, and the media just ran with it.

[@gamblor7151]

Well it was certainly a success for sticker manufacturers. I can't imagine there were many casual players who were shocked to find out the gamble wasn't fair and stopped gambling on them. Still, nice vid. And I never knew the same guy who reviewed my Amiga games was responsible for the Fair Play campaign AND now does Wings over Scotland.

[@user-ol7pf8ke7r]

And now there is ruthless so called random games that mug ya off relentlessly

[@neilgrundy]

14:41 I'm not sure you understand the word irrefutable. Compelling certainly but not irrefutable. Don't get me wrong, i'm sure you're correct but if you make absolute claims you need, for legal reasons, to make absolute proofs.

[@Fishsta]

A reasonable point taken onboard. Thanks for the constructive feedback.

[@delblue1823]

I don’t know what your point is? These are compensated games that always state there’s positions where the machine will offer you little or no chance of winning ? If they didn’t protect themselves with things like this , every machine would be emptiable lol . A campaign of wasted time.