Italian Job

THE ITALIAN JOB and THE SIMPSONS (original machines, clones of Great Escape) - up to £15 JP

There is a very simple method to make regular profit from these machines. This is how I make money from them and not necesarily a definitive guide. This guide will not work on £15 Great Escapes. This guide was written as if you were playing a £10 jackpot machine but still works for the £15 upgrades.

The method of play is to force the machine to 'streak'. The machine will pay 5 or more jackpots in a short period of time. From the start the machine must be full or nearly full. I will play the machine if the 11th pound coin I put in falls down to the cashbox. The likely scenario is that someone has just won a single jackpot off a 'red' feature. This is when the name of the machine changes colour and you become invincible and you are effectively given a jp by landing only on cash squares. The machine very rarely repeats from a jackpot from a 'red' feature. In normal play the biggest win you are likely to get off a yellow feature game is £5. This is a block imposed by the software. So the sign you are looking for is a win of £6 or more. The chances are the machine will not be streaking when you get on it. To force a streak you must refuse all 'red' feature boards offered to you. You do this by taking £2 and £4 wins when you get a red feature game. Eventually (sometimes very soon) you will find the machine goes on a streak. Often the first number spun will be an 8 taking you to a 'searchlight' square. Use cancel to stop on the cash+3 square. The machine wil very likely roll a 4 to take you back to the searchlight. You should get a jackpot from this feature. If you die on this yellow board it does not matter. Another yellow board will soon give the jackpot and repeat chance. If this first jp repeats 3 times for a total of £40 you will get a red board very soon which you must take for a total of £50. Sometimes this first jackpot will repeat only once or twice. If this is the case then your 4th jackpot (including repeats) can also repeat 3 times with a red to follow. The Italian Job has often given this sequence: jp+2 repeats - jp+3 repeats - red mode jp. You can also find you get your first 3 jackpots off yellow boards with no repeats and then the 4th will repeat 3 times. One important note: If you get 5 jackpots off yellow feature boards on The Simpsons there is NOT a red mode to follow. If you find the machine is streaking but you are not getting to the jp then you sometimes have to take a win slightly less to unblock the machine. With some experience you will know when this has to be done. Some times the 4th jp proves difficult to get and I find that taking the WIN SERIES when offered can give a series of up to £30. But when you take it the cash must be over the £5 bar otherwise the win series will just be £5.

£15 jackpot machines are very different. A Simpsons will streak for £60 normally unless you are lucky enough to get the 3rd jackpot to repeat a few times. The Great Escape seems to have new software whereby it is much harder to tell if it is streaking. It will often pay a jackpot on a yellow board when it is not streaking which makes them very hard to win on.

LONDON UNDERGROUND is one of Maygay's creations which very closely resembles its predecessors in gameplay. As usual there is the block on the feature game barring all wins over £5 until the streak is activated. The main difference, which makes this machine much harder, is activating the streak. The probelem is you can get a jackpot off a normal feature board but it is often treated as if you had taken an invincible board and this will set the machine back by £15 to £20. Definite signs of a streak are:

• repeats on the jackpot
• mystery wins over £5.00
• hitting the treble bar on the barcode from reel 3.

Some additional notes by Christian Riley: Here's something more on the Simpons and Homers Meltdown. I was the first person to discover this ages ago but now probably half the country knows. When the feature starts, AFTER the fade-in effect on the lights on the board, the three pot collect buttons light as follows: a) if they light up IMMEDIATELY, then this is a JP board; if on The Simpsons then it's streaking, if on HM then it's a phantom red which could do the red board (streak) after; occasionally on HM I take 2-4 quid on the no-delay (NOT on a red!) and see if it comes back within that 2-4 quid (+ %age and streak money of course), if so it's streaking for sure; b) if they light up after a SHORT delay, then this is a typical 'death second/third go' board, usually when the red 7's are on for 2 nudges, or the blue bars are on for 1 nudge. c) if they light up after a LONG delay, then this is a *possible* JP board; on The Simpsons hit corners on +2 nudges as usual and if the cash goes over a fiver (or the feature goes to HA or better), then it's streaking; on HM hit the corners on +1/2 FEATURES and try to get Turnabout (same as Butler on OTB and is a relatively easy JP). On The Simpsons, if you get the no-delay then you know it's streaking and you've got the SJP. Going for barcodes AFTER you know the streak is triggered, and exchanging usually DOESN'T do the no-delay, hence you're wasting time. That's why I said don't go for barcodes after you've got it streaking. Just hold the feature symbols and look for the no-delay boards. If you know a Simpsons is streaking and it does the LONG delay board, then usually hitting the +2 nudge method will get the SJP. Another point, on The Simpsons there is a bug where a YELLOW board can give SJP when it's NOT streaking. This can repeat to 30 or 45 but unfortunately it all comes out the current pot, hence it'll cost 60+ to get the red back, and probably 10+ to get back on the board to be killed second go. This is very rare and only happened to me twice in 300+ Simpsons streaks. If it does happen, and the red doesn't come back in the 7 quid as it should, then leave it. When it's took all the 60+ back, it'll 9/10 streak properly straight away. The best way to avoid this is to confirm it's streaking by seeing a cash or feature go above the bar (5/HA). The delays don't apply to TIJ and TGE. Oh, and another point, on The Simpsons it sometimes does the 'moody third JP' where after the first 2 JP's, it keeps doing the long-delay boards for the 6/8/10 bar and +2 nudges doesn't bring it out. This is more likely to happen when 4 quid is took all the time on reds and since I've been taking other wins (0-3) as well as 4, it's NEVER done this.