Geezers

You posted this same thing on 4/30/14. Didn't get the answers you were looking for a month ago ?

RCI bought this certificate from Carnival at a reduced rate (net rate). No matter what you paid RCI for this it won't matter. Carnival will not give you the stock credit. It's not Carnivals fault in this. The problem lies with the certificate and RCI getting it at a net rate. Sorry this deal didn't work out to be a deal.

This would speak against the person who said the machine pays zero until a certain amount is fed in and supports my theory that the whole thing is controled by the random number generator.

You forget the part about the rung / row programming as different values. Each value is tracked individually by the machine. Not the machine as a whole. It does not have a "random number generator".

It is possible ( rare but possible ) to win on one row and then on another on the next play.

I can put an end to the speculation on this game once and for all. I work in the industry. This machine is programmed to take in a set amount of money before it opens the program to player skill mode. Unless the machine malfunctions you WILL NOT win until the window for skill opens up. They have to do a calibration on the machine on a regular basis to account for wear and tear on the motor and belts that move the key. This makes sure the machine knows where the key arm is at all times. If you knew the settings for each row then yes you could count the plays and know when it is ready to let the players skill be the only factor in winning.

This game is also not allowed to be operated in some States because of the way is is programmed.

Carnival does make a good chuck of money from this and does give out winnings. As I see it the more they make from things like this the less my cruise will go up in price.

Dollar bills only. $1 = 1 play.

Then they are paying back about 10% of revenue taken in . Fairly standard in high turnover locations with few regular repeat customers.

I just figured it out not too long ago myself. When I started researching my upcoming cruises I saw a video of people playing it and thought it looked interesting.. after digging around I found this:

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3SmqkZkICgvOGU5NjQ0MDktMmEyNy00MjE5LWFlNzYtOTMxNGY0M2ZlNjE1/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

 

The real name for this machine (as someone else mentioned) is the Sega Keymaster.. that link is the page of the setup manual that shows how to change the payoff for each row. You'll notice each row can be set to payoff after up to 9999 "credits".. and by default 1 credit is $1. I'm not saying Carnival has them set to 9999 but that's the max. You can also make each row different so I'm sure the bottom rows are set lower. I guess if you see 9998 other people put a dollar in it's time to play :D

You are close on this but read the chart wrong. One credit is 1 coin. That means that $1 = 4 credits. Max setting at 9999 credits would be 2499.75 before changing to skill mode for the true player control. Of course this could be changed to $9999.00 if they disabled the coin slots and only ran the bill acceptor with a 1 bill = 1 credit setting.

The question is - - Do the coin mechs work on these machines ?