How to Beat the Claw Machine

Only have £1 left to win that Pikachu plushie from the claw machine? After today you'll be able to turn every attempt into a victory (sort of). The only problem we have is that the arcade machines keep evolving with new models being released, newer versions of the same machine but this time it's harder to ensure you're victory. In these modern machines everything is randomised, but as Beetee from the Hunger Games would say: "There's always a flaw in the system" and the claw machine is no different...

First of all let's look back at the older versions of the claw machine (not too far back like the Steam Shovel days but to the ones of about the earlyish 2000s) and see how to beat these machines. In these machines the arcade owner would set the amount of turns that the claw is weaker before it becomes stronger and therefore give out a prize. If you are willing to put the time in you could count the amount of failed attempts people have before a victory. This would not be the most effective method however due to the players own skill. Let's look at the tips that could help you win even with a weak claw so that, at least, you will know that the machine gives out prizes after, say, 30 attempts.

A machine with a claw with four prongs is most effective for grappling on to stuffed toys and are most effective when two prongs are placed below the arms and two prongs are placed above the arm. However, to pull this move off you must wait for a toy to be lying on its side. Another useful tip is to have a second person looking at the machine from a side on view to tell if the claw is above the toy. These tips transfer effectively to the modern claw machines but what about that computerised randomiser? How can we beat a game that's based off of being purely random and luck having more to do with the victory than skill?

In modern claw machines everything is randomised, how many turns it takes for the claw to become stronger between each turn is just one thing. It seems impossible to beat this system everytime, right? We can't just rely on the tips above to bag ourselves that Pikachu plushie! I spent literal days trying to find a solution, I downloaded claw machine manuals from all different developers to work out this problem. I was getting nowhere (other than finding out that if a machine gives out too many prizes it puts itself out of order! And also how to replace the logic board in certain claw machines) until I made a discovery: arcade owners were using handheld devices to monitor these machines remotely. They could see how many times the machine has given out prizes and how profitable the machines are from wherever the machine is. So what? It's not like we could get our hands on this device so why did I even follow this lead? Remembering Game Theory's two part episode on the hacking in Watch_Dogs (well we managed to link it to video games at least) and how vunerable wireless systems can be. I couldn't find out the device that arcade owners have but I did make a completely different discovery...

I turned from manuals and other sources of information to online auctions to see if they held any information on that handheld device when I discovered that in small claw machines designed for domestic use they contain what are known as "cell phone boosters" (it was an American website). These machines are designed to excactly replicate the arcade version (even to the point of taking money from player at home) so therefore the arcade counterparts would have to contain something similar, only on a bigger scale. A cell phone booster is a type of Celluar Repeater which are designed to boost mobile phone signal or act as a broadcasting tower in which mobile devices can connect to. This is what the handheld devices the arcade owner connects to and also our way in. I'm not suggesting we can hack into the internal computer from a mobile phone but using a separate Celluar Repeater we can access the signal passing between the handheld device and the claw machine. Once we connect to that signal, in theory, we could access the claw strength and payout percentages. The only problem is your £1 coin isn't going to buy you one of these, although they're not too expensive. So maybe with that coin it would be best to place the claw in the optimum postion of two above and two below Pikachu's arm to boost your levels of success!

#arcade #clawmachine