Time Running Out for Beloved Mechanical Horse-Race Game in Vegas | Hacker News Reader

Time Running Out for Beloved Mechanical Horse-Race Game in Vegas

atlasobscura.com

76 pointsbcaulfield18 comments

> Stevens and company eventually tracked down a machine in “either in northern Nevada or northern California,” although he no longer recalls the specifics.

They removed one of these from Montbleu Casino in Stateline, NV / Lake Tahoe a couple of years ago for a remodel. Everyone I knew was really upset about it... Even if you weren’t playing, it was a blast to grab a drink and stand around cheering folks on. There was never any word what was happening to it, many people hoped it would come back just in a different part of the casino. Unfortunately it never did. I wonder if this is its new home?

I was once at the poker tables nearby and a group came in at 1:00 in the morning dressed head to toe in derby viewing apparel. They proceeded to play the mechanical horses and it was absolutely hilarious.

You remember the 1-5 guy? 1-5!!! 1-5!!!

"Stevens and his team are determined to keep those hooves pounding for as long as is physically possible."

Gee, and I thought he was trying to sell it... =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbfmkna8Yh4

Curious to see whose price was closer to the mark, I just found one listed for $27.5K asking, so the $80K ask seems like a way to get free publicity for the casino without having to sell it, or appear to sell it, which would defeat the purpose.

You'd have to think between this show and Storage Wars that they've run out of interesting things to put on TV.

The second floor of The D is a magical place. It is also the location of the first Bitcoin ATM in Las Vegas if I recall correctly.

Bitcoin atm has to have the worst odds in the entire place.

Why don't they just make a modern version that emulates the function?

They exist, but they just don't have the same charm. You can find them pretty easily in places like Japanese arcades.

Because it would be fake, and nostalgia is an emotional quality that depends on authenticity.

On one level I agree with you, but then I look at the retrogaming scene, and how much of a part emulation plays there.

There's obviously good emulation and bad emulation, although for some neither is authentic enough. Still, one day all my discs will rot, and all my physical hardware will fail, yet I'll still be able to play and enjoy the games - and get that same nostalgia kick - through emulation.

(There's also the fact that some games are now so unbelievably expensive in physical form that the only way I'm ever going to be able to afford to play them is emulated with ROM or disk images.)

That's a good point and I'm OK with things like synthesizer clones. But those are semi-commodities, plus the originals will always have some special cachet.

Maybe part of the appeal of this gambling machine is that the capability of failure is linked to the potential of paying out.

They have, but I don’t think they can resist trying to sex it up. Part of the charm of the old machines is their simplicity.

I guess this is what I don't get the most about the future that was, we can't just do things anymore. We have to "sex it up."

Could we easily make horses race around a track, sure an arduino and a 3d printer will do it, but we need to add flashing lights and lcd screens that display bullshit.

Amen. One of my favourite movies is Labyrinth [1]. From 1986, the entire movie is live action with puppets and practical effects. Plus David Bowie, of course.

I could imagine one day somebody might try to remake this movie. They'd shoot it entirely in front of a green screen. The music would be compressed and auto-tuned to oblivion. I'd see it and sigh at the death of another little piece of my faith in humanity.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/

They do have more modern versions, and they're also in all the casinos in Vegas.

Didn't the casino in Montreal have one of these?

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