This past weekend was my youngest step-granddaughter’s birthday. She had it at Chuck E. Cheese, which if you’re unfamiliar with them, built it’s reputation on the audioanimatronic figures of Chuck E. and friends playing in a band, and video games. Think of the Country Bear Jamboree at Disney World and you won’t be far off. They have since done away with the audioanimatronic figures but the video games remain.
My step-granddaughter found one game where you roll a token down a ramp. It might drop more tokens if you get the rolled token through a slot on the board. Eventually all the tokens end up on the platform at the bottom of the play area. It also randomly drops these little cards with pictures of the Spongebob Squarepants characters into the pile. A little brush pushes everything forward and as the pile accumulates it gets closer to the front edge of the platform. Eventually a few of the tokens and a card will drop off the front edge. The tokens go back into the machine but the card drops out a slot in the front for you to take.
Now, my step-granddaughter really wanted these cards. And since it was her birthday she got unlimited plays on the machine. She got it to the point that two cards were just about ready to fall off the front edge, but it was pizza time so she had to rejoin her guests. I volunteered to take over for her so she could go eat pizza.
It took me a little while but I finally got the cards and tokens to fall off the front edge. They all fell on the little conveyor belt and rolled to the back before dropping into the slot. The tokens all went through but the cards got stuck! Aaarrrgh!
I kept playing. I got pretty good at getting the token to roll down the ramp and into the slot. There was a Ferris wheel device that moved blocks in front of the slot to prevent you from hitting it. Sometimes getting the token in the slot would drop a few more tokens on the playing area. Sometimes it gave you more plays.
After a while I got the two cards to dislodge and slide out the front slot. Too late. I was already hooked. There was a pile of four cards right at the front edge of the platform, ready to fall. I won two more cards waiting for that pile to drop. I kept playing, getting a little dopamine hit every time I got the token to go through the slot. I got the pile of four cards to fall, but like the first time, the darn things got stuck. I kept playing until I got at least one of the cards to dislodge. Then I gave up and went to get pizza.
Whoever plays that machine next time is going to get a surprise three card win.
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