A Mario Pocket Watch I Won from a Japanese Crane Game
imgur.com/a/udkp0#0
imgur.comPosted Jun 19, 2012, 1:42 AM UTC
2.1K664
imgur.comFound em on Amazon. There appear to be 4 different types, and there really aren't many left on Amazon. Those are pretty nice though, and not bad for $30.
Edit: And they have been sold out.
Article about them, and words of auctions usually closing at 1250 yen.
Final Edit: Looks like there are 8 different watches so far. The second set look amazing.
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Aaaaaaaaannnnd....
They're Gone.
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I'm currently in Tokyo, let me know if you guys want me to get one for you. I can get my hands on any of the different versions! Have to send it all the way from Sweden though, not sure what the cost of that would be. Sitting here with one of these in my hand I'd say they're the coolest watches I've ever seen, well worth irrational amounts of money :p
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That Bowser one OP posted doesn't say MADE IN CHINA on it like these do.
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damn, I was so close to getting the fire mario one. whoever just ordered those last 3, I envy you.
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Just ordered one, Thanks for the link!
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How did you buy one? All four say unavailable.
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He got there before everyone gobbled them up.
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And once again, Reddit breaks my heart.
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Yup, that was one of the first responses to my post, meaning he got in there before the horde had a chance to collect on the 10 or so that were available. And my 10 or so, I mean across the 4 types for sale.
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There was only one other source for getting the watches that I stumbled across, but something tells me that the company may not be prepared to send the items outside of Japan. I'll keep on searching as I'd like one of these for myself some day.
There are also some on Ebay, but they are all $50..
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TIL Yahoo still exists, and they have an auction house.
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Thanks buddy, just ordered two. I feel like I would never get another chance to own them so paying a surplus is worth it.
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It seems as though they are not available anymore. :(
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Set of 4 currently at ~$10 (will definitely go up)
http://page21.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/j171075816
All 8 for ~$100
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Thanks for the article! I'm in Japan and was able to snag one off yahoo auctions for 600 yen (7.50 USD)! Woo!
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"It depicts a human and a dragon. The dragon is striking the human down."
I don't even?
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Dwarf Fortress joke. :(
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I was so happy to see another Urist outside of that subreddit. Knew immediatley as I saw the description under the last pic.
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It seems to menace with spikes of amazing as well.
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There is an image of a plump helmet on the steel watch.
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I was greatly amused by it.
At first I thought, "wow, it takes a special kind of person to sit through all the frustration needed to actually get what they want out of a crane game." Then I read the last description and realized that you were a dwarf fortress player, and everything made sense.
Crane games sure are Fun.
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!!Fun!!
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If you catch fire playing a crane game, you may be doing it wrong.
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Its okay, the people who got it are all the happier for it.
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Are you a legendary crane operator now?
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Possessed, man. I mean, I don't know what possessed him to play a crane game.
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The dwarf is surrounded by purring koopas, the dwarf is jumping in panic.
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What kind of game is Dwarf Fortress? It seems pretty popular around here.
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Dungeon Keeper meets the Sims, with ASCII graphics.
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DF is a world simulator with a "fortress mode" and an "adventurer mode."
Since most games have pre-made stories which never change, the developer's idea was to have the game create stories on its own by simulating every possible thing.
For example: the first step in Dwarf Fortress is to create the world. The game calculates land formation, then continues with mineral deposits, water erosion, volcanic activity, the birth of civilizations, the historical figures of these civilizations, demons and dragons and titans who wreak havoc, religious cults, zombies, ghosts, vampires, etc...
All this occurs before you play the game.
Once you start the Fortress part of the game, you are given seven dwarves who are specialists in whatever you choose. All your dwarves' emotions, preferences, shyness, aversions, etc... are simulated. This can lead to friendships, marriages, and arguments (in-game). In this way it's like the Sims as one poster said.
You must feed your dwarves or they will starve, so the early game is all about survival. After you have a steady supply of food, you may want to give your dwarves more purposeful lives, such as armorsmithing, craft-making, clothesmaking, cheesemaking, engraving, etc...
Once you have a successful fortress, migrants will hear of the magnificence which is BasementCrab and head in. You'll need to keep expanding to avoid unhappiness (which is bad). Humans and Elves will come to trade, looking for a great deal.
Of course, peaceful visitors aren't the only ones to notice your new magnificent fortress. Kobolds will steal from you, wild beasts will harass you, and Goblins will ride in on beaked canines to spill blood for their demonic rulers. If you have dug out (or built) a mighty fortress, with a well-trained military and clever traps and mechanisms, they will fall and you can melt down their weapons for delicious, delicious iron (even more valuable if your fortress is in an area without iron deposits).
Eventually, you may want to dig deep, deep into the earth as the dwarves of Moria did. Remember what happened to them? Hope you're well-prepared. Just be prepared for lots of fun.
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Sounds amazing, although I'm not sure how my brain can handle the whole ASCII thing. So it's free?
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Urist McVerdian cancels joke: Interrupted by karma.
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And enjoyed it thoroughly.
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Kudos to you for the relatively obscure reference.
I'm sure there are many Mario fans on here thinking, "WTF dude!? Dragon? Human? That's Bowser and Mario, n00b".
I commend your integrity.
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http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/Introduction/ That pretty much describes DF.
Edit: Story starts here
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If you ever have time I humbly suggest you read the Story of Boatmurdered. It's possibly the greatest read I've had in years.
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The UFO machines in Japan are nuts. They're not JUST crane type games, ones where you tap the prize off a ledge, ones where you pull down a cord to release the prize and so on. They are multi-level gaming places in Akihabara that are full of these machines. The prizes are pretty great too as OP can verify. Here's a sample of some of the pictures I took in an Akihabara gaming centre when I was there in April. http://imgur.com/a/0XFpp
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lol. Did'nt.
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To be fair it does seem more logical than didn't.
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wtf English...
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Hah I didn't even notice that! I wish I'd grabbed one of those bags. Each store has their own branded ones for when you win a toy/figurine. I have a Taito one at home.
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Next time.
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Say rap! Say taito! Say yo!
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It's pronounced "did-int", so a foreign speaker could easily misplace the apostrophe.
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It just seems a lot more accentuated that way. Like a sassy black woman saying "Oh no you DID-UNT!"
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That actually makes more sense than "didn't". Did+not+'= Did'nt
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These machines actually take skill to win. They're not rigged like the ones back here in the U.S., but there is actually a method to win the prizes (and as the OP shown, they're pretty legit prizes).
However, a lot of these machines are VERY rarely one play and win (those are usually borderline impossible to win unless you have machine-like precision). They require multiple plays to slowly win the prize (on the level of up 5-15 plays to win).
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Yep It's important to find a machine that looks setup for a win. I walked from floor to floor looking for ones that had the prizes in the right spot e.g. leaning against an edge I could just nudge it off or slip the hook under. The attendents will help if you ask though which is handy. Sometimes they'll even show you how to use it. I spent over 2,000 yen trying to win a Nerv/Evangelion music box once.
Funnily enough, I was in Amsterdam about a week later and won this after two tries. Cost me all of 2euro and it was well worth it. http://i.imgur.com/e7Agn.jpg
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I wish I had your luck. I'm very bad at these games and blew 2000 yen trying to win a set of Fate/Stay Night lighters before I decided to cut my losses (I went overboard cuz I wanted something Fate/Stay Night from Japan).
O yeah, always have girls around, especially girls not from Japan. They can appeal to the attendants to make it easier for you to win. Studies show that your chance of winning is proportional to the number of girls with you.
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I am myself, a girl not from Japan. The power of win is strong in this one.
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oh FUCK me that is the coolest thing i have ever seen.
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Wow, the Kirby plush looks very high quality and looks like original licensed product.
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How so? Does the claw not open very wide and the controls are too sensitive?
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Sorry, I meant to refer to all of the arcade games, not just the claw game.
For example, one game has you controlling a horizontal rod that goes up and down along a chain and your goal is to stop the rod at the exact point in which it can be inserted into a hole that pushes the prize down. If the pole is rod is blocked even just a little bit, it will move back and you lose.
...I felt like I just wrote something dirty.
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Those ones are super tricky. Just like the ones where you have to try and nudge the prize off a ledge. You just know there's sticky mats under it keeping it upright, defying gravity like a big FUCK YOU!
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I really want to go to Akihabara now.
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It's one of those places where you know without a doubt you're in Japan the second you step off the train.
When I was there, the first thing that happened was that I was greeted by a girl in a maid costume handing out flyers for a maid cafe.
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Towards the top of Google image results for Akihabara. Apparently, you are not alone. :)
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I don't think I would ever buy anything like that for myself, but I would try to win something from the Eva machine all goddamn day.
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Any of the machines with Eva related prizes in them got my attention.... and my Yen.
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That place looks absolutely majestic! Japan is a magical place
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shouldn't the apostrophe in picture 4, be after the letter ''N''?
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I went there in 2008 and played on that exact machine you posted in the first picture. Almost won but just didn't. I spent the whole day in there and spent about an hour on each floor, mostly just watching jap guys play tekken. Can't wait to go back soon!
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Oh god Strike Witches.
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You just read my mind, those figures, dear god.
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They have one machine where you control an arm with very tiny scissors and have to cut a string holding up a prize. You have to hit the string in the same spot multiple times for it to actually break.
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I won a Nintendo DSi from one of those machines. I think it was called "Barber Cut". They're a total bastard!
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I'm impressed.
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In Melbourne aus they have then in the city at a place called photo world. Won a lot out of them.
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What are those super cute things in the second picture? Are they.. hamsters? Anyone know?
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It's also worth mentioning that they can cost a lot more than US crane games. 500yen a try!
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Dwarf Fortress reference. yes.
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DF really is wonderful for describing objects. And that is an awesome object.
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Please explain. Some of us haven't felt the full splendour of DF yet.
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Pretty much everything in the game is explained in high detail.
This is a silver pocket watch. All craftmushroomship is of the highest quality. It depicts a human and a dragon. The dragon is striking the human down.
Is the reference.
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Thanks!
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Came to say this.
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Japan's crane games are awesome. The US is missing out on the arcade business they could be building had they built any exclusive partnerships with toy companies to exclusively have products ONLY in crane games like Japan does.
What's awesome is they have different machines that all have various levels of skill and even have national tournaments where people compete on various styles of crane games. They're a big deal here and completely awesome!
I've won a lot and my favorite thing is a set of fleece Namekian Dragon Balls =)
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National tournaments
Crane Game Level: Asian
In all seriousness though, I'm super jelly. I'm sure if I liked anime at all, Japan would geek me the fuck out.
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US ones are rigged and they have cheap toys on purpose. It isn't really about the fun or the prize so much as it is about raking in the money.
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I'LL SELL YOU MY SOUL. GIVE ME THE WATCH
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Rest assured that when they are back in stock they won't be $30 any more. Supply and Demand, at your service!
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I'm going to keep up with this. Good luck getting one.
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Reddit has already taken your soul, what else do you have to offer?
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I'm currently in Tokyo, let me know if you guys want me to get one for you. I can get my hands on any of the different versions! Have to send it all the way from Sweden though, not sure what the cost of that would be. Sitting here with one of these in my hand I'd say they're the coolest watches I've ever seen, well worth irrational amounts of money :p
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Just take my money. I want one with Bowser
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I am so jealous i barely even know how to handle it. That's amazing!!!
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^^^^
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Nice, makes the pocketwatch I spent ~$100 on look like crap. Very cool nonetheless, welcome to the pocketwatch club!
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I spent about 1200￥ on this, which google tells me is about $15. Definitely worth it!
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$15 on a crane game?
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im assuming it was a 100￥ crane game and he tried around 12 times.
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You are correct, sir!
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Im fairly certain these sort of games are a lot more popular in japan, a lot like our scratch off tickets or electronic casino games.
Disclaimer- I have never been to Japan, this is only a guess based upon things I've seen in documentaries/movies.
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I've spent that much on an arcade game to get an iPod.
When I won I pressed the wrong button and got a fucking watch.
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In japan, these games take multiple tries to win, but you're almost guaranteed a win - they aren't rigged like in the US.
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How much you want for it?
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that sounds about right... though the thing is, usually they rig it so you sink even more in... double sided tape, rubber padding, and weighting of the box... ive seen it all in the game centers... though I have managed to win a couple statues myself.
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Sooo Japan actually has quality crap in its crane machines.
DA FUQ MERICA
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Is that an actual licensed product from Nintendo?
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Yes! It was the 40th anniversary of the first Mario game, and so they released these in arcades.
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I believe you probably mean 30th anniversary. Mario's first game was Donkey Kong, 1981
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Upboat for DwarfFortress.
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Someone get some peanut butter because I am jelly. Oh God that was horrible...
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Craftmushroomship, well said.
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I love how winning these games to get your S.O. a prize they will enjoy keeps these horrible con games alive in America. Meanwhile in Japan they actually have tons of arcades still and they have great prizes. -_- Even their "bubble gum" machines have way better toys.
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Meanwhile in America, we got shitty stuffed animals and other crap that's $3-$5 at most, but will cost you close to $10-$15 just to get one because of how rigged those goddamned machines are.
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Many of them are actually games of chance on the backend. They'll only clamp hard enough to get something 1 time in 10 or whatever.
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It's still a con, in America at least, since most of the shit in those machines are worth nowhere near what you'd have to put in to get them. You could literally walk into the store and buy some of the things in the machine for a fraction of what you would potentially have to shell out in order to "win" it out of the claw machine.
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I'd tend to think making it a game of chance even though it appears to be a game of skill would make it more of a con and not less.
Were it not the case that the average player loses, it wouldn't be profitable to run a claw machine.
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Of course it makes total sense from a business view point to make it so most people lose, but it's annoying as hell from a consumer stand point that 95% of the prizes in there are total garbage and not worth the money to try to win. Every now and then you'll see something cool that might be worth the money, like some Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy dolls I saw about a week ago, but most of the time it's generic crap that costs $2-$3. Hell, sometimes you can actually by that thing in the store the claw machine is located.
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But seriously I don't see it menacing with any obsidian spikes
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Sexy
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A watch is sexy? You probably describe video games and cars as sexy as well in order to cover up your inexperience with the opposite sex.
Get out of your house for once, and maybe you won't have such a miserable life.
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Urist McMario has created a masterpiece.
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You get an up-vote for a very dwarfy description of your watch.
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The fuck Japan?!? How are these your crane prizes. I would pay irrational amounts of money for that.
Dude, why are you complaining? Our crane machines have stuffed animals, and, um, stuffed animals....and stuffed animals.....
Why is Japan so good compared to North America?
Don't forget those rubber balls that are literally impossible to get.
A dildo once in a while too.
9 times out of 10, it's an electric razor. But every once in a while, it's a dildo.
I would crane through ten 1$ plush toys to get to that buttplug.
You say this now but when I was in Paris I went to a fair and saw two UFO machines. One had lacy g-strings in it, the other had fluffy handcuffs and some whips. 0_o
Japan has freakin vending machines for those.
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Heres one I found. http://imgur.com/gFahs http://imgur.com/JvvTm http://imgur.com/8zwqe
Wait, so you pay $1 for the chance to win $1?
You gotta give these kids what they want and they don't want no fuckin' teddy bears mane
How do they make money?
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You fool! It's all literally impossible to get.
I hate those things! We once picked one up and it fell out as soon as the crane hit the top.
And the occasional toddler.
Those are the only ones I could get!
because, their porn is so messed up that normal sex doesnt bother them in the slightest, leaving them jaded to any but the most hardcore of fucked up porn. This leaves them fewer links to click online giving them more free time to be better than america.
After delving into the world of Japanese porn, I just can't get off anymore unless a girl unloads a milk enema into my face.
be glad it wasnt german porn, i hear they like shitting on things
while 500 tentacles probe her ever orifice.
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Nailed it.
Literally nailing things with actual construction kind of nails probably features prominently
We have Stacker. Much more fun and skill based and better prizes
http://ademdjemil.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/stacker.jpg
And heres an xbox 360 dropping out of the machine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVS-5zmbgkg
Except for having worked in an arcade, i know that they can be rigged to where you only win the major prize every few hundred times or not even at all.
Damn it! I always played and almost always got to the last level and lost by one square.
Haha, the "random delay" introduced at the higher levels? Yeah, worked on a variant of Stacker too, ours even had a bastardly option of increasing the maximum random delay, right up to (just less than) the actual time it took for the light to move from one square to the next, at maximum. Hated that I had to service that thing; made me feel filthy.
They're always rigged. Or rather, "controlled" as it's called. If they weren't it would only be a matter of time (and not very long at all) before someone had enough practice to make a career of it. The cranes do the same thing - they will vary the pressure applied to the claw to maintain a quota in the long run.
Then you know crane games are rigged as well.
as someone who can consistently get to the top row, this is the sad, sad truth of my life
Crane games are controlled for wins too.
Those machines are fun and definitely take a little skill to win, however they are also programmed to only allow winners every so many plays. I think the slider can go to allowing a winner from every 200 to 1000 plays. Essentially, once the game reaches the point where it will allow a winner, the next person that gets to the top wins the prize. If a winner is not allowed yet and a person gets to the last row, they will always miss it. Your best bet is to play the game once, and if you miss the last row, stop playing; further plays will most likely only be a waste of money. Similarly, if you see someone win it, don't play that game for a day or so (depending on how many plays it gets in a day).
Source: I read the programming manual from the manufacturer when the machines first became popular. They seem to have made them harder to find/access now though.
I remember reading a comment from someone who worked at an arcade, would keep track of how many people played/won the machines, and would go win frequent prizes since he knew when he could win.
Actually, it wouldn't change your odds. If someone won every 200 turns, it wouldn't matter if you were 99th or 199th player, there's no way of knowing. Doesn't make it clever to play on though, you're still more likely to lose than win. I'm just saying that losing once doesn't make it any more/less likely that you'll lose again.
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Skill-based for the first 14 levels and then on the last one they adjust the timing. >:[
We have stacker too. It's really easy to get a minor prize but I think they modify it to where it's nearly impossible to get a major prize.
They modify it so they can gain a profit. It's basically a gambling machine, except it's not random.
I would suggest staking it out and counting the amount of tries it takes until it gives out a major prize, and then going in for the kill once you figure out the pattern.
Major prize is not skill based, just luck. If it were skill based, anyone with enough free time to master it could just clean out the machine in a day.
The minor prize however is incredibly easy to get.
It has been confirmed that you can set stacker machines to no win or rare win. It's all skill til the last bit which actually SKIPS the correct spot so you can't win unless the parameters are met.
There is one of these in a bar by June mountain. The bartender there said its primed to hit every month between the 20th and the end of the month. He has won many times, and in fact said it was about ready to hit again. Then 3 plays later I won a Go Pro.
Had a friend win the 360 on one of these and it didn't give her the prize. She had to call the number on the machine and argue with a lot of people. After a few days they met her at the machine and gave her the 360 so it turned out ok.
But this is a fucking Mario pocket watch we're talking about here. A POCKET WATCH. You just can't beat that.
Stacker is the best! I own an iPod and a Nintendo DS Lite thanks to these wonderful machines. Granted, it's been a few years since she's paid out for me...
I have a much better strategy. I buy an arcade card that's unlimited for a couple of hours, and then I just go to the machines that give you tons of tickets. I do this day after day until I get enough tickets for a major prize.
There is one near to me that has toys with various bills rubber-banded to them, 20s, 50s, a few 100s... It's super rigged however, more so than other crane games. On those you just have to know when to play them to win and which animals to grab.
Hey now, I've seen one that had a Pokemon game in the center. I'm pretty sure that was bolted down, but regardless, it was in the machine!
Haven't you ever seen the treasure crane machines with the gold-and-jewel logo? they have much better prizes
what about the ones with live lobsters...
those stuffed animals usually only cost around a dollar each for the machine operator.
It's good unless you're a schoolgirl on a train. Or in general.
Ohhh, you must have very big penis!
& the stuffed animals in the Japan UFO catchers are better quality (and cuter), too.
As an American, I can confirm this.
Because JAPAN! ...geez...
False. they censor genitalia...what the fuck is up with that?
They are the futureeee
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It's a different approach. The UFO catcher (the crane game) prizes in Japan tend to be good to entice players to spend time at getting good at the game. In the US, the prizes are generally crappy and the crane is loose so if you luck out, they don't lose out on too much money. I haven't seen a good US crane game player yet, and good UFO catcher kids don't bother playing US games because the prizes suck and the crane is loose.
I won a fluffy cupcake the other week. Felt good. It has a smiley face, too.
Today I saw a crane machine with little bags of candy today. They were like 1.5 times Halloween fun size bags/bars but only 1/3-1/2 normal size, not even king size. 50 cents a game. If you won every game it was a loss.
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Don't forget, there's a trade off. It involves tentacles.
they compensate by having 80 dollar watermelon and hornets that shoot flesh eating acid out their stingers
In many ways it's much worse.
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I was going to comment about how you cannot acquire pi dollars, and then I realized OP said "irrational amounts".
Touché.
I didn't get it until I read your comment there. Cheers!
reddit power (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞
3 dollars 14 cents... Pi dollars... whatchutalkinbout?
Pi is transcendental, it is not equal to 3.14, in fact, it cannot be represented by a decimal number. It is irrational, it cannot be represented as a fraction or "rational" number either. It is an empirical measurement, equal to the circumference of any circle divided by its diameter.
Yeah OP, you should totally wear that in public. Because not only will you look like a douche, you'll look like a childish douche as well.
MARIO POCKETWATCH FTW!!!!
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Cheeky mother fucker
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Nintendo-Super-Mario-Star-1UP-Piranha-Hatena-Block-4-Set-Pocket-Watch-/170846024723?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c7377413#ht_2832wt_971
I know. I'm pretty good with crane games. Wish I could give this a shot...
Edit: I see some people who aren't good at crane games trying to claim it's nothing but luck. It's not. Yes, they're rigged against you to a certain extent, but there's still skill in manipulating the controls and selecting the prizes you're most likely to be able to grab and that will open up other things for grabbing. My now-ex wife and I used to clean out claw games at local arcades when we got bored, often with better than a 2:1 tries to grabs ratio. There IS skill to it.
Re-edit: You know, I had no idea this would turn out to be such a controversial assertion...
You can't be good at crane games. They're programmed to apply different amounts of pressure per grab. That's why you often see obvious grabs slip through the claw's grasp.
Japanese crane games are very different from American ones. Crane games in Japan are a business, not a novelty. The prizes are very good, as you can see, and people actually want specific ones. New prizes are constantly coming in to match the latest fad or TV show. Because of this, and here is the key difference, Japanese game centers actually want you to win.
With new items always coming in every week, they want to get rid of their old stock. So as long as you are willing to keep trying, you can get the prize in a reasonable amount of tries.
I did not pick that big box up with a crane. I pushed it forward, slowly, a little bit each time, until it went over the edge of the drop. That is how most of the games work. It is like throwing money in a slot machine, except you know exactly how much you will win.
In Japan I went to some mall and you could play the crane game for huge grocery bundles and stuff... Pictures are on my old hard drive. :(
It seems like this difference illustrates a key disparity between the way Japanese and Americans think about doing business.
The gamecentre staff will often (read; if you've spent enough money) just open the machine and straight out hand you the prize. Ask, politely, and they'll give tips and eventually give you whatever you wanted to win.
The games that always appealed to me were the ones where you (attempt to) cut the thread holding the prize.
As someone living in Tokyo, I'm very curious what game center you won this from.
Please answer :)
I saw a stacker in Denmark where you could win a PS3 and some other cool stuff
They're called UFO catchers in Japan.
And 3000 dollars later that watch was alllll yours.
Another excellent claw machine strategy!
Or you could be lazy like I was and go to the store that just sells crane game and gacha machine prizes directly. They are priced based on rarity and demand but it was easier for me.
Not in Japan. Japan has strict gambling laws and if you can't prove there is actual skill required to win something then it's considered "gambling" and therefore extremely illegal.
This doesn't explain Pachinko machines in the least......
This also describes Alberta, Canada, except probably less strict about it.
Not necessarily. I mean sure, some are, but older ones tend to have an interior grip-pressure adjuster so all grabs are pretty equal, and newer ones can have it set to gradually increase pressure each time someone plays and does not win a prize. So the operator could set it to have a very weak grip immediately after someone wins a prize, and slowly get a stronger and stronger grip with each failed attempt after until like the 10th attempt. Then the grip is its strongest and a prize is very easy to win. This makes it much easier to control the profit margins of the machine. Sure, sometimes someone will be lucky and snag a prize with a weak grip, but it makes it much more predictable.
At an arcade I used to work at, I'd set it to go from weakest to strongest over the course of 10 unsuccessful attempts. At fifty cents per play, we would make approx. $5 per small stuffed animal won. We bought them by the case and cost the store something like $0.35 a piece in bulk orders.
There were also ways to restock the claw machines to further prevent those lucky weak grabs from hooking a prize. I don't think the error margin was ever greater than 10%.
This is interesting information. Thank you!
Should be illegal IMHO.
Yes but how many stuffed animals were actually won? Every one of those machines I've ever seen has been filled with dusty stuffed animals that nobody has won because everyone knows they're rigged. Also why don't those machines have to display the fact that the pressure increases after every unsuccessful grab?
Because stealing money from people until you decide they should win is ethical business practice.
Theres definitely some rip off crane games but I remember a long time ago in the Knott's Berry Farm dinosaur arcade 5 coins and a good eye got you 5 stuffed animals.
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You should go to a Six Flags. They have crane games with iPads in them.
e: It just occurred to me that these iPads very likely have been dropped quite a number of times. Who the hell came up with that idea?
Although it may be different there. Most crane games with heavy breakable prizes are just the box and you take the box to a prize table and get your iPad or whatever you won there, but that may just be the ones I've seen.
*edit grammar
Step 1: Buy product from Wal Mart.
Step 2: Take empty box to Six Flags.
Step 3: Profit!
You one there
they're probably padded
iPadded.
sorry.
Don't they land on a pile of stuffed animals, though?
They look something like this.
Spongebob? Ignore all the Squidwards.
I know what you mean, I'm good at the lottery too.
You don't think before you post.
We have a winner, ladies and gentlemen.
At my local Wal-Mart they have a crane game with retail items in it for prizes, they are in a blister pack with a hole to hang it from a hook on a shelf and everything.
I got really good at getting one arm of the claw to fall through the hole so that i would get a prize even though the claw wasn't ready to spit.
You're getting a lot of heat for being good at the crane games, so I'm gunna back you up and say I used to be good at them, too. The real trick, of course, is figuring out what you can get instead of what you want to get. You set your sights on something that's not positioned right and you'll just throw your money away. The rest is just positioning the claw to minimize the chance of stuff slipping through it.
Exactly right, and very well-put.
As someone who was 13 once and bought a crane machine.. It's skill.
I would have thought you were exaggerating, but I happened to witness a private in the army take out 4 different items In. A. Row... from the crane right after i gave up and he claimed expertise. There does appear to be some sort of skill involved, albeit I remain absolutely clueless as to what that skill might be called..
I agree. I'm pretty damn good at crane games, if they aren't set to have the grip of a newborn. It's usually the same for me, 2 tries per win is what I've averaged.
there's skill, but the machines are programmed to grab harder every 10-20 turns or so. same thing with slot machines in vegas, there's actually a law stating that they have to give back about 20% of what they take in
Umm. It is actually more in the range of 75-90%, not 20%.
edit: fixed numbers a little. I was off by 10ish percent. Also why am I being downvoted?
Downvoted for being right, I suppose? The mandatory minimum payout percentage is typically in the 70-90% region, depending on region, and operators will sometimes set a higher payout, because it keeps players interested. Vegas in particular is 75%, I believe.
[Citation needed]
Also in Japan, if a worker sees that you're at a crane for a little while trying to get something and failing, they will open the cage for you and re-arrange things so that it's very easy for you to win the prize you're after.
Sounds more like Canada, to me.
Japanada.
Home of the Japandroids.
WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PANDA YA PANDA?!
Japanadamerighanistanexico
Canadian here, sadly this doesn't happen in Canada.
Canapan.
They wouldn't re-arrange everything, they'd just say "sorry" to you after losing.
because they'd be fined if you couldn't win a prize from it.
tl;dr you pay them to let you win
no, you purchase a toy and the vending machine entertains you as well.
When i went to LA and checked out a japanese arcade chain (round 1) they also did this.
And even if you "lose" your money in one, they are happy to open it up and replace the money for you.
I won a miniature living blowfish from a crane game here (Japan) once. Only lasted a couple of weeks :(
Here's an example.
Sounds fishy.
don't buy fish from vending machines.
Problem solved.
I kind of figured the lesson was "take better care of your fish" but YMMV.
That'll be Square-Root-of-2 Yen please.
Japan has really good crane game (they're called UFO catchers in Japan) prizes. They're also easier, too. The claws aren't weak and they actually drop all the way down, not like American ones.
Workers there also "help" you win, too. I was trying to win a large plushie once and I kept missing. One of the workers walked by, opened the machine up, and asked me which plushie I was trying to get. I told him which one and he took it and moved it right to the very edge of the hole you're supposed to carry the prize too.
Funny enough I still had 2 tries in the machine, and got that plushie on the next try and another, different one, on my final try.
They are actually for sale in many video game stores in Japan. Such as super potato. It was 2000 or 2500 yen I think.
You can find one on eBay for the cheap prize of $250.00
actually that is a set of 4, they are $50 + shipping
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There are a bunch of them on ebay for about $50
Yep, exactly. I look up pocket watches on ebay all the time and I've seen this one. I wouldn't be surprised if OP just took pictures from the ebay listing and posted them on here.
You can buy them in Tokyo for about 20 bucks. (Super potato, akihabara, 2000 JPY afaik)
Wish I had picked one up when I was there. Debated for a while, now I feel a fool
My thoughts exactly, look at all the karma we're missing out on!
I'm currently in Tokyo, let me know if you guys want me to get one for you. I can get my hands on any of the different versions! Have to send it all the way from Sweden though, not sure what the cost of that would be. Sitting here with one of these in my hand I'd say they're the coolest watches I've ever seen, well worth irrational amounts of money :p
This is what I came here to say, when do we start bidding?
Seriously! I'd pay at least e yen for that!
The arcades in Japan have rows of crane machines, I spent 3000 yen this past weekend and was well rewarded with random anime paraphernalia.
You'd have to to actually win one. Stuff like that's normally in the harder machines, where you've got to drop a peg down through a hole or tip things off platform or something.
It costs $50. In case you really wanted to know
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There's usually a store next door that sells the prizes, but where's the fun in that?
Source: I spent about 2000 yen trying to win a sully toy to then walking past a store selling them for 1000
I bought one for 1200 yen (~$15 US) in a retro video game shop in Akihabara... You don't need irrational amounts... Just a plane ticket.
Is this irrational?
It's not bad that this is the one thing that has really kick started my need to go to Japan, right? I can just go because I want to hopefully find the crane game that leads me to to beauty.
Ahem..."Spend...ALL the Yin."
You could pay 49.90 rational dollars for it
plus $18 S&H
True ... this is one motherfucking sexy watch.
Yeah. The only prizes that come even close to this here in America you can only get from those impossible machines like "Barber Cut" where even if you time it right the damn thing isn't sharp enough to cut the string!
Best I can do $1,000,000,000 •~•
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Sir! I would pay a million dollarsfor that hat!
They are usually rigged to be either impossible, or take many attempts to get. This is my friend getting a prize on his first try after I had pushed the thing around for $20 worth of tries
Japanese crane games follow different rules. They're not legally able to be set up as a Gambling device and have to demonstrate a certain amount of skill is required to win.
Agreed