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Thought this forum might be a good place for this question...

I was playing the IT Box game 'Word Soup' in my local last night for the first time. If you're unfamiliar with the game, the interface is a large grid of random letters and you have to make words by connecting the letters. You score points depending on the length of the word and the commoness of the letters in the word. We were under the impression that you had to get 500 points to win a prize, the first time we played was a disaster, the second time we got to 480, we spotted a decent word with 10 seconds to go but due to some drunken typing we didn't submit it in time. By now we were addicted so had a third go and easily smashed the 500 barrier getting in excess of 800.

Despite this we still didn't win a prize or get a chance to have a go at a bonus round, after reading the rules carefully we have no idea what gave us the impression we should have got a prize for scoring over 500, but it didn't state what we'd have had to do to win a prize/unlock a bonus round. I've had a brief look on the internet for the rules but still haven't found the answer so does anyone know how you complete this game?

Douglas Wilson wrote:Thought this forum might be a good place for this question...

I was playing the IT Box game 'Word Soup' in my local last night for the first time. If you're unfamiliar with the game, the interface is a large grid of random letters and you have to make words by connecting the letters. You score points depending on the length of the word and the commoness of the letters in the word. We were under the impression that you had to get 500 points to win a prize, the first time we played was a disaster, the second time we got to 480, we spotted a decent word with 10 seconds to go but due to some drunken typing we didn't submit it in time. By now we were addicted so had a third go and easily smashed the 500 barrier getting in excess of 800.

Despite this we still didn't win a prize or get a chance to have a go at a bonus round, after reading the rules carefully we have no idea what gave us the impression we should have got a prize for scoring over 500, but it didn't state what we'd have had to do to win a prize/unlock a bonus round. I've had a brief look on the internet for the rules but still haven't found the answer so does anyone know how you complete this game?

It depends on the area how much you need to get a prize. IT Box machines have a very shitty payout percentage (25-35ish) so be prepared for disappointment. In general you need to clear the grid (500 points bonus) and thus end up with a 1600+ type score to win money. But again it varies. Busy pubs in London it's pretty tough to win anything. If you find a machine in a hotel or suchlike where you're more likely to find people wilfully throwing money away then you've a better chance. Bear in mind though that each time you do well (even if you don't win money) on a machine the score needed to win prizes will increase - that's where most of the variability comes from. These machines will happily set impossible targets to get the desired payout percentage. I think this applies across all the games on the machine, so even someone winning on a different game will up the target score on Word Soup.

Personally I can complete the grids fairly often and win a few quid. The dictionary is virtually CSW (Scrabble's dictionary) but with the odd exception. It's a real help to know those Q without U words. Also try and plan out your last 3-4 words at the end before you jump straight in - if you can get that far.

I've played a few times with a guy who made this site:

http://www.cantab.net/users/nfm24/ewq/wordup.html

That's a pretty good resource for hints and tips.

Yep. As far as I'm aware when you play word soup there is a bar somewhere on the screen that shows you your score (possibly running along at the top). The bar keeps moving along so I reckon that when you first start it shows from 0-500 on the scale. So when you're near to the 500 mark the scale will just come more into view on the screen so it may range from like 500-1000 on it. The prize is indicated on this scale so you don't actually know whereabout it is but I think 1200 is where I've had it before and it was tough to achieve (and we failed). Usually 800 points gets you a £1 in my memory, not too sure though as I avoid that game now. The place at where the prize is achievable depends on basically how much is in the machine already and also I think the owners of the machines can set a difficulty level for a quiz machine. The one at my 'local' is set to a nice standard. We've had the top prize out of it before on more than one occasion (on various games) but also lose and I think in the long run I am down on quiz machines, which is what they are there for but the fun is playing the game and if you get like a £2 prize off your first 50p then you (perhaps I'm generalising) tend to put it back in and often just spend it all until the fun is over. I've sidetracked...back to your question. The prize of £1 will be further on the scale than you could see basically meaning that the owner of the quiz machine is a stingy bastard who has it set to the highest possible setting or someone had just won/emptied the machine. This happens on Hex. Before the prize of £1 has been at the 3rd round stage, other times we've had to get to about round 8 to win £1. All depends on how much money is in it etc. I like to lurk behind people on a quiz machine and keep a track of how much is going in/coming out and also check some of the questions (as the same questions do crop up, but rarely thanks to the vast database that is now available). So it's best to go on after someone has put a nice few quid in, or be even more devious and work out when the owner epties the quiz machine so that you can go on the machine on the day that they empty it as it should, in theory, have the most money in it at that point, unless Kevin Ashman has been in the pub.

Ryan Taylor wrote:or be even more devious and work out when the owner epties the quiz machine so that you can go on the machine on the day that they empty it as it should, in theory, have the most money in it at that point, unless Kevin Ashman has been in the pub.

The physical amount of money in the machine makes bugger-all difference. It's all software-controlled. It won't be reset by them counting the money out of it and refloating.

Craig Beevers wrote:These machines will happily set impossible targets to get the desired payout percentage.

Very true and with something like Word Soup I'm pretty sure they reduce the amount of vowels so at the half way stage you're left with about 2 vowels left which are usually U's. The quiz machines will also knowingly mark a correct answer wrongly for you to lose, which I'm pretty sure is illegal...but who's gonna grumble to someone after losing 50p in gain for a couple of quid? Certainly not me.

Jon Corby wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:or be even more devious and work out when the owner epties the quiz machine so that you can go on the machine on the day that they empty it as it should, in theory, have the most money in it at that point, unless Kevin Ashman has been in the pub.

The physical amount of money in the machine makes bugger-all difference. It's all software-controlled. It won't be reset by them counting the money out of it and refloating.

I'm pretty sure that I've heard (and I think read somewhere) that some machines like this are affected by the weight of the money in the machine?

Ryan Taylor wrote:I'm pretty sure that I've heard (and I think read somewhere) that some machines like this are affected by the weight of the money in the machine?

And that sounded plausible to you?

Jon Corby wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:I'm pretty sure that I've heard (and I think read somewhere) that some machines like this are affected by the weight of the money in the machine?

And that sounded plausible to you?

Ha! Yes! Although thinking about it, if someone put a pound in 10 pences rather than £1 coin then there would be more weight, hmmm, perhaps you have opened my eyes.

Well, hopefully you were drunk!

You hear that kinda myth (about 'playing them when they're full') peddled around about fruit machines too (which I used to play for a living for a few years.... happy days!) but while there is some truth in it, it's not quite as straightforward as that. It's also useful to know which days they're refilled on, but again not necessarily so you can leap straight on it!

Jon Corby wrote:Well, hopefully you were drunk!

Possibly. Although I am now a teetotaller.

Jon Corby wrote:I used to play for a living for a few years...

This brought on a nice mental image!

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Well, hopefully you were drunk!

Possibly. Although I am now a teeto taller.

What has drinking got to do with growth?

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Well, hopefully you were drunk!

Possibly. Although I am now a teeto taller.

What has drinking got to do with growth?

A lot!

Jon Corby wrote:(which I used to play for a living for a few years.... happy days!)

What happened?

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:(which I used to play for a living for a few years.... happy days!)

What happened?

Several things really, growing family meant I needed something a bit more proper like, internet made information spread like wildfire and the number of players increased (they don't even particularly need to be 'good' in order to fuck things up for you), manufacturers also started to make a bit more of an effort to tighten up the machines and not make them "playable" by pros. All in all it started to get a little bit trickier to make good money, just at the time that one of my old bosses rang me up and made me an offer. Being sat in an office 9-5 now does make me yearn for the days of just getting in the car and buggering off to wherever the hell I felt like for the day, spending the day in and out of pubs and arcades. Like I said, good times.

Cool story. Bit annoying Gevin asked as I was going to make that a backup conversation topic on Saturday in case of awkward silences.

Matt Morrison wrote:Cool story. Bit annoying Gevin asked as I was going to make that a backup conversation topic on Saturday in case of awkward silences.

You could have pretended not to have seen it if you hadn't posted that reply. Still, there's plenty more on the subject to talk about than that if you're interested!

Jon Corby wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:Cool story. Bit annoying Gevin asked as I was going to make that a backup conversation topic on Saturday in case of awkward silences.

You could have pretended not to have seen it if you hadn't posted that reply. Still, there's plenty more on the subject to talk about than that if you're interested!

Can I ask for further information just to annoy Matt even more?

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:Cool story. Bit annoying Gevin asked as I was going to make that a backup conversation topic on Saturday in case of awkward silences.

You could have pretended not to have seen it if you hadn't posted that reply. Still, there's plenty more on the subject to talk about than that if you're interested!

Can I ask for further information just to annoy Matt even more?

Sure, at Co:Lon.

Jon Corby wrote:Sure, at Co:Lon.

Unfortunately I won't be there. But if I do go to one of these CO things one day and you're there I'll ask about it.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Sure, at Co:Lon.

Unfortunately I won't be there. But if I do go to one of these CO things one day and you're there I'll ask about it.

Exactly, it's my way of saying "you should be there"!

I have found the best game that pays out money is Pints make Prizes. The Hangman style game (like Hex) pays out extremely well if played correctly (tactics do come into play with which pints you fill up first etc). I won the jackpot 2 weeks ago (just £10 but not bad for 50p) and £4 the time before that. Sadly the machine at my pub rarely pays out - only £1 at a push. Not sure if the controls are stricter on that particular machine but I have certain machines that I go to if I want to make a small profit as they tend to give out cash more readily on Pints. Never won on Word Soup (I've practised it at home for free about 10 times and never won anything either) so I don't bother now.

If there's a Pints or a Hex machine (preferably Appeal, but Maniac will do) at CO:LON then I look forward to racking my brains with all you word buffs.

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Sure, at Co:Lon.

Unfortunately I won't be there. But if I do go to one of these CO things one day and you're there I'll ask about it.

Exactly, it's my way of saying "you should be there"!

This was actually the one I was most likely to consider (being not miles up north) but my friend decided to arrange his wedding for that day but it's now been cancelled in very mysterious circumstances.

Gavin Chipper wrote:it's now been cancelled in very mysterious circumstances.

Since you aren't coming, I can say "more details please" without worrying about future awkward silences.

Kirk Bevins wrote:I have found the best game that pays out money is Pints make Prizes. The Hangman style game (like Hex) pays out extremely well if played correctly (tactics do come into play with which pints you fill up first etc). I won the jackpot 2 weeks ago (just £10 but not bad for 50p) and £4 the time before that. Sadly the machine at my pub rarely pays out - only £1 at a push. Not sure if the controls are stricter on that particular machine but I have certain machines that I go to if I want to make a small profit as they tend to give out cash more readily on Pints. Never won on Word Soup (I've practised it at home for free about 10 times and never won anything either) so I don't bother now.

If there's a Pints or a Hex machine (preferably Appeal, but Maniac will do) at CO:LON then I look forward to racking my brains with all you word buffs.

Just lift the machine at one end and drop it, that's what I used to do with the 2p machines... happy days!

Kirk Bevins wrote:I have found the best game that pays out money is Pints make Prizes.

Except for the stupid bit with the 4 beer mats. They can choose to end you at any point by giving you 3 which are "ya barred" and only 1 beneficial one...then they whizz out of sight and come back into shot. I can never do that part of it, although if it.

Kirk Bevins wrote:Not sure if the controls are stricter on that particular machine but I have certain machines that I go to if I want to make a small profit as they tend to give out cash more readily

Yep, same. I know in which pubs and bars round me have machines that you have a chance of winning on and completely avoid those which you know are impossible.

Ben Hunter wrote:Just lift the machine at one end and drop it, that's what I used to do with the 2p machines... happy days!

What about the loud alarm that goes off or are you a fast runner?

Ryan Taylor wrote: Except for the stupid bit with the 4 beer mats. They can choose to end you at any point by giving you 3 which are "ya barred" and only 1 beneficial one...then they whizz out of sight and come back into shot. I can never do that part of it, although if it.

That usually only happens when you are one away from a cash value...when that's the case, never choose Bonus. Someone online said on a forum that if the pass and 3 x ya barred mats appear, look where pass starts and then when they finish, it's always the opposite one. I've yet to confirm this although they do certainly always rotate at the same speed.

Charlie Reams wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:it's now been cancelled in very mysterious circumstances.

Since you aren't coming, I can say "more details please" without worrying about future awkward silences.

It's not that exciting really, so I'll include some irrelevant background detail.

So my friend's wedding was due to be on 22nd May and his "gift list" was with John Lewis.

Meanwhile, I'd noticed that dried apricots often have maggots in. I noticed this with Tesco's ones first but we sometimes get stuff delivered from Okado (basically Waitrose online) and found that the Waitrose brand apricots were the same. I imagine that they have the same supplier, rather than supermarket chains manufacturing all their own fruit. So I e-mailed Waitrose about this problem with their apricots and made it clear that this was more about having maggot-free apricots than getting some sort of compensation. So they sent me £14 of John Lewis vouchers.

It didn't take me long to twig that I could use these towards a wedding present from the "gift list". I was on the cusp of choosing something when another friend texted to say that the wedding is definitely off because she'd returned the ring. Then the friend whose wedding it was texted the next day to say that the wedding was off because she's had some sort of breakdown.

Luckily I hadn't spent the £14 of John Lewis vouchers.

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Ben Hunter wrote:Just lift the machine at one end and drop it, that's what I used to do with the 2p machines... happy days!

What about the loud alarm that goes off or are you a fast runner?

I grew up in a town where the alarm on a 2p machine is a drop of piss in an ocean of alarms going off.