Fruit Machine (Doctor Soft)

Fruit Machine is a slot machine game which was released by Doctor Soft upon the Acorn Electron in 1984; it uses nine symbols (a pair of cherries, an apple, a plum, a bell, a pear, a strawberry, a melon, Namco's signature character Pac-Man, and the BBC Micro's "owl" logo), and its winning positions are listed once it has been loaded into the computer (the text "Press SPACE" will also flash at the bottom of the screen each time it has been filled and the player must do so to list the next winning positions).

When you press C to enter credit, the text "Enter Credit ?" will be displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen; use the number keys to enter any number up to 99, then press Enter to confirm your choice. The number you entered shall then be displayed under the text "CREDIT" to the right of the six magenta Pac-Man-shaped lights and the text "Press RETURN" shall be displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen - and when you've pressed Enter again, the reels will start spinning. If the reels stop in a winning position, the cyan light for the amount listed for the position at the opening of the game shall turn red while the two above or below it flash yellow, and the text "GAMBLE/COLLECT" appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen; you can then either press 6 to gamble or 3 to collect, and if you press 6 while the cyan light of the higher amount above or below the one you won is yellow, the light of the higher amount shall turn red and the two above or below it will start to flash yellow, so you can again press 6 to gamble (unless you had won, or reached, the £2 jackpot), but if you press 6 while the light of the lower amount is yellow at any time during your gambling, the light of the lower amount will turn red, and you will only win that amount. If the reels do not stop in a winning position, but one or more of the symbols on the win line have a number on them, the feature in the maze shall advance the amount of spaces that the numbers add to - and as listed on the first and second pages of instructions, certain positions in that maze are marked by special characters to indicate functions (but the feature will return to its initial position on each spin unless the text of "Feature HELD" appears above "Press RETURN" after your most recent one). If the feature stops on "10p", "£1" or "£2", you will receive those amounts; however, if it stops on "2n", "4n", "6n" or "8n", you will be awarded two, four, six or eight nudges which are explained on the third and fourth pages of instructions. If the feature stops upon "j18", "j26", or "??", it will jump to Position 18, Position 26 or a mystery position in the maze - and if it stops on "Bt", the text "BOOST!" shall appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen as the six magenta Pac-Man-shaped lights rapidly turn yellow. Once you have pushed 5 to stop the lights, the feature will advance one more space in the maze for each one of the lights that is yellow; furthermore, if the feature stops on the two apples, the two plums or the two Pac-Mans, the reels shall automatically respin to give a mystery win. When the text "HOLD" appears below the reels, you can stop them from spinning on the next credit by pressing 8, 9 and 0, in which case the "HOLD" text below them will change to "HELD" - however, you can also press 7 to cancel the holds. When you run out of credit you can push T to transfer credit from your winnings; once you do this, the text of "Transfer ?" shall appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen, so you shall again have to use the number keys to enter any number up to 99 and press Enter to confirm your choice (but if you enter a number greater than your winnings allow, it shall not work). You can also press Esc to reset your winnings and credit at any time - and because the game does not end, it can go on indefinitely.