There were two games that started out as quarter magnets and became time sinks:
![[Image: Xevious-logo.webp]](https://i.ibb.co/CVgsm83/Xevious-logo.webp)
This one got me banned from one of the local (small) arcades because they couldn't make any money on the machine while I was there.
![[Image: bump-n-jump-2-marquee-scaled.webp]](https://i.ibb.co/zJCtQnq/bump-n-jump-2-marquee-scaled.webp)
I got really good at this one playing a rigged* machine that would only give extra lives every 90,000 points. I found one at the University of Oregon campus that coughed them up at every 40,000. The current high score owner on that machine plunked a quarter on the machine to claim next game and commenced to bragging about his high score. My only response was "not for long." He left in disgust when I doubled his high score and still had lives left. I more than tripled it before I had to start crashing on purpose so I wouldn't miss my ride home.
The thing most players didn't know at the time was if you didn't crash any other cars for the entire round, you got a 50,000 bonus. To get 50,000 by crashing the other cars, as the instructions tell you to, requires bashing well over 150 of the enemy cars, and honestly a really good play could get 60-65 on a good run. My best run ever, smashing enemies, was around 25k.
In the early nineties I switched to pinball and got quite good at a few tables, but never quite as good as I got on those two arcade games.
*maximum allowed in the programming
This one got me banned from one of the local (small) arcades because they couldn't make any money on the machine while I was there.
I got really good at this one playing a rigged* machine that would only give extra lives every 90,000 points. I found one at the University of Oregon campus that coughed them up at every 40,000. The current high score owner on that machine plunked a quarter on the machine to claim next game and commenced to bragging about his high score. My only response was "not for long." He left in disgust when I doubled his high score and still had lives left. I more than tripled it before I had to start crashing on purpose so I wouldn't miss my ride home.
The thing most players didn't know at the time was if you didn't crash any other cars for the entire round, you got a 50,000 bonus. To get 50,000 by crashing the other cars, as the instructions tell you to, requires bashing well over 150 of the enemy cars, and honestly a really good play could get 60-65 on a good run. My best run ever, smashing enemies, was around 25k.
In the early nineties I switched to pinball and got quite good at a few tables, but never quite as good as I got on those two arcade games.
*maximum allowed in the programming
Thief and assassin for hire. Member in good standing of the Rogues Guild.
