vpFREE2 Forums

Silicon Gaming's Oddyssey machines

#1

In a message dated 12/3/07 1:34:30 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
galle2u2@yahoo.com writes:

···

Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK or was eaten
up by larger company? Richard

****
My recollection was the funky CRTs were not available anymore.<BR><BR><BR>
**************************************<BR>Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest products.<BR>
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#2

They were assimilated by IGT.
-Dave

···

On Dec 3, 2007 3:58 PM, <GRAYTLEEGRAY@aol.com> wrote:

In a message dated 12/3/07 1:34:30 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
galle2u2@yahoo.com writes:

> Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK or was
eaten
> up by larger company? Richard
>
>

****
My recollection was the funky CRTs were not available anymore.<BR><BR><BR>
**************************************<BR>Check out AOL's list of 2007's
hottest products.<BR>
(http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)<http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)>
</HTML>

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#3

In a message dated 12/3/07 1:34:30 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
galle2u2@... writes:

> Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK or

was eaten

> up by larger company? Richard
>
>

****
My recollection was the funky CRTs were not available

anymore.<BR><BR><BR>

What I heard was Silicon got into money trouble, the machines weren't
making what they thought they would. The main complaint from people
was it took to long to get to a game and start playing. They were
painstakinglly slow going from the neutral screen to a game screen. I
also heard IGT bought them out so no one else could: just to put them
out of business.

While I averaged about $22 an hour playing 180 and up on the quarter--I
never hit a royal on quarters-- Bonus Playoff, I can also tell you some
horror stories. I jumped on a 180 at River Palms about 5:00 PM on a
Friday afternoon--without thinking--and wound up cancelling two
engagements I had for later on that night. I think I finally cracked
it at 880 or so.

I jumped on a 240 Deuces Wild Bonus Playoff at the Riverside one time--
the bonus rolls up 5 coins every 23 games on deuces, instead of 16 on
Jacks or Better--and the dam thing ran me up to like 665. The machine
sat right on the hustler's path from the Piggy Bankin' and House a
Rockin' to the Flush Attacks and all the hustlers had a field day
laughing at me. I was faking like it didn't bother me but the steam
was rolling out of my ears. I put $2000 in and cashed out $700. The
dam thing beat me nine times in a row in the bonus playoff.

A friend of mine jumped on a 440 at the Lakeside up at the Lake and it
topped him out at 995. The meter quit moving up at that point. No one
knew that it would do that until it happened to him. When he finally
got the bonus it came back on 175 instead of 75.

But, like I said, I did make money on them. It was just irritating as
hell when you got hung up.

I miss the game though and all the other games, Fort Knox, Buccaneer
Gold, Lady of Fortune, Riddle of the Sphinx.

My best success story has to do with just getting back up to Reno one
midsummer morning. I bought a flea bag hotel room, threw my luggage in
and took off looking for plays. I got back about midnight and the
temperature in the room was like ninety degrees. The air conditioner
just would not work. No one was in the office so I was screwed. I
couldn't take the heat so decided to stay up the rest of the night
looking for bonus plays, then get another room somewhere else. I took
a cab out to the Reno Hilton and found a play on a dollar Oddyssey
Bonus Playoff. About ten hands in I made a royal for $4,000. If the
air conditioner worked I wouldn't have made that royal.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, GRAYTLEEGRAY@... wrote:

#4

Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK or
was eaten up by larger company? Richard

mickeycrimm wrote:

What I heard was Silicon got into money trouble, the machines weren't
making what they thought they would.

Fool.com reports in 9/98 that the troubles largely reflect a young,
inexperienced management whose heads were swelled by early positive
reception to what were the first multigame/multiplay machines on the
market. Casinos enjoyed the flexibility and players the novelty, even
if there were some hitches in operation:

http://www.fool.com/dtrouble/1998/dtrouble980929.htm

Confidence buoyed by early success, Silicon invested heavily in
manufacturing capacity and rapidly built manufactured machine
inventories, anticipating continued escalating casino demand. Lacking
sufficient internal investor capital to fund this expansion, they
borrowed heavily -- as reported in their quarterly financial filing
for 9/98:

http://sec.edgar-online.com/1998/11/16/17/0001012870-98-002942/Section6.asp

This report discloses that they tripled inventories of machines on
hand in the first 9 months of 1998, growing them from $6 million to
$15 million. They financed this, along with a capacity to continue
the aggressive expansion, by doubling their outstanding long term
debt, taking on $20 million of new obligations.

Losses were mounting during this time, amounting to $26 million for
the first 9 months of 1998 vs. $16 million for the comparable period
in 1997. That in itself isn't unusual for a company in it's infancy
(it was founded in 1996). However, it's a mandate that expansion be
funded through equity sources, not debt.

This suggests that the investment community didn't share Silicon's
expansion enthusiasm and that Silicon wasn't effective at selling the
idea -- thus the idea of floating more stock wasn't palatable. That
alone should have been good cause for Silicon to chill and wait for
clearer evidence of demand, but IGT was hot on their heels ...
Moody/IGT field tested their Triple Play VP in 12/97 (with likely much
more savvy and finesse).

http://gamingtoday.com/index.cfm?articleid=12317&AIN=517314

Silicon stock hit $20 at it's peak in 1997. By 9/98 it was at $4. At
12/99 it was at $.19

- Harry

#5

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Harry Porter" <harry.porter@...>
wrote:

> Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK or
> was eaten up by larger company? Richard

mickeycrimm wrote:
> What I heard was Silicon got into money trouble, the machines

weren't

> making what they thought they would.

Fool.com reports in 9/98 that the troubles largely reflect a young,
inexperienced management whose heads were swelled by early positive
reception to what were the first multigame/multiplay machines on the
market. Casinos enjoyed the flexibility and players the novelty,

even

if there were some hitches in operation:

http://www.fool.com/dtrouble/1998/dtrouble980929.htm

Confidence buoyed by early success, Silicon invested heavily in
manufacturing capacity and rapidly built manufactured machine
inventories, anticipating continued escalating casino demand.

Lacking

sufficient internal investor capital to fund this expansion, they
borrowed heavily -- as reported in their quarterly financial filing
for 9/98:

http://sec.edgar-online.com/1998/11/16/17/0001012870-98-

002942/Section6.asp

This report discloses that they tripled inventories of machines on
hand in the first 9 months of 1998, growing them from $6 million to
$15 million. They financed this, along with a capacity to continue
the aggressive expansion, by doubling their outstanding long term
debt, taking on $20 million of new obligations.

Losses were mounting during this time, amounting to $26 million for
the first 9 months of 1998 vs. $16 million for the comparable period
in 1997. That in itself isn't unusual for a company in it's infancy
(it was founded in 1996). However, it's a mandate that expansion be
funded through equity sources, not debt.

This suggests that the investment community didn't share Silicon's
expansion enthusiasm and that Silicon wasn't effective at selling

the

idea -- thus the idea of floating more stock wasn't palatable. That
alone should have been good cause for Silicon to chill and wait for
clearer evidence of demand, but IGT was hot on their heels ...
Moody/IGT field tested their Triple Play VP in 12/97 (with likely

much

more savvy and finesse).

http://gamingtoday.com/index.cfm?articleid=12317&AIN=517314

Silicon stock hit $20 at it's peak in 1997. By 9/98 it was at $4.

At

12/99 it was at $.19

- Harry

Wow! That is really sad, Harry. Those machines were like ATM's to
some players. They were goldmines.

#6

mickeycrimm wrote:

Wow! That is really sad, Harry. Those machines were like ATM's to
some players. They were goldmines.

May be why those hoped for orders never materialized :wink:

- H.

#7

<<Silicon stock hit $20 at it's peak in 1997. By 9/98 it was at $4. At
12/99 it was at $.19>>

One of my bad investment memories. Fortunately we didn't go whole hog and invest too much - because we basically lost almost all of it. They said you should invest in something that you know and I thought these machines were the beginning of something very spectacular - they were so popular and we loved them. So much for thinking we would get in on the bottom floor because of personal information!!!!

···

________________
Jean $�ott
The much-expanded new edition of my tax book,
including a new chapter on poker, is now available
to order at my Web site, http://queenofcomps.com/.

#8

The machines cost $13,000 each compared to $3,500 for an IGT video poker machine and played slower. The graphics also took a long time to load. Thet just were not economical. The last tgime I saw one was in a movie which featured a casino on the moon. I forget the name.

mickeycrimm <mickeycrimm@yahoo.com> wrote: --- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Harry Porter" <harry.porter@...>
wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK or
> > was eaten up by larger company? Richard
>
> mickeycrimm wrote:
> > What I heard was Silicon got into money trouble, the machines
weren't
> > making what they thought they would.
>
> Fool.com reports in 9/98 that the troubles largely reflect a young,
> inexperienced management whose heads were swelled by early positive
> reception to what were the first multigame/multiplay machines on the
> market. Casinos enjoyed the flexibility and players the novelty,
even
> if there were some hitches in operation:
>
> http://www.fool.com/dtrouble/1998/dtrouble980929.htm
>
> Confidence buoyed by early success, Silicon invested heavily in
> manufacturing capacity and rapidly built manufactured machine
> inventories, anticipating continued escalating casino demand.
Lacking
> sufficient internal investor capital to fund this expansion, they
> borrowed heavily -- as reported in their quarterly financial filing
> for 9/98:
>
> http://sec.edgar-online.com/1998/11/16/17/0001012870-98-
002942/Section6.asp
>
> This report discloses that they tripled inventories of machines on
> hand in the first 9 months of 1998, growing them from $6 million to
> $15 million. They financed this, along with a capacity to continue
> the aggressive expansion, by doubling their outstanding long term
> debt, taking on $20 million of new obligations.
>
> Losses were mounting during this time, amounting to $26 million for
> the first 9 months of 1998 vs. $16 million for the comparable period
> in 1997. That in itself isn't unusual for a company in it's infancy
> (it was founded in 1996). However, it's a mandate that expansion be
> funded through equity sources, not debt.
>
> This suggests that the investment community didn't share Silicon's
> expansion enthusiasm and that Silicon wasn't effective at selling
the
> idea -- thus the idea of floating more stock wasn't palatable. That
> alone should have been good cause for Silicon to chill and wait for
> clearer evidence of demand, but IGT was hot on their heels ...
> Moody/IGT field tested their Triple Play VP in 12/97 (with likely
much
> more savvy and finesse).
>
> http://gamingtoday.com/index.cfm?articleid=12317&AIN=517314
>
> Silicon stock hit $20 at it's peak in 1997. By 9/98 it was at $4.
At
> 12/99 it was at $.19
>
> - Harry
>

Wow! That is really sad, Harry. Those machines were like ATM's to
some players. They were goldmines.

···

---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#9

Doug Reul wrote-

The machines cost $13,000 each compared to $3,500 for an IGT video poker machine and played slower. The graphics also took a long time to load. Thet just were not economical. The last tgime I saw one was in a movie which featured a casino on the moon. I forget the name.

I saw one for sale at a local store in Tempe, AZ when I was buying my
GameKing. I think they wanted around $5000 for it.

Dennis
vp-connoisseur

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#10

Pluto Nash?

The machines cost $13,000 each compared to $3,500 for an IGT video

poker machine and played slower. The graphics also took a long time
to load. Thet just were not economical. The last tgime I saw one was
in a movie which featured a casino on the moon. I forget the name.

mickeycrimm <mickeycrimm@...> wrote: -

-- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Harry Porter" <harry.porter@>

wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK

or

> > was eaten up by larger company? Richard
>
> mickeycrimm wrote:
> > What I heard was Silicon got into money trouble, the machines
weren't
> > making what they thought they would.
>
> Fool.com reports in 9/98 that the troubles largely reflect a

young,

> inexperienced management whose heads were swelled by early

positive

> reception to what were the first multigame/multiplay machines on

the

> market. Casinos enjoyed the flexibility and players the

novelty,

even
> if there were some hitches in operation:
>
> http://www.fool.com/dtrouble/1998/dtrouble980929.htm
>
> Confidence buoyed by early success, Silicon invested heavily in
> manufacturing capacity and rapidly built manufactured machine
> inventories, anticipating continued escalating casino demand.
Lacking
> sufficient internal investor capital to fund this expansion, they
> borrowed heavily -- as reported in their quarterly financial

filing

> for 9/98:
>
> http://sec.edgar-online.com/1998/11/16/17/0001012870-98-
002942/Section6.asp
>
> This report discloses that they tripled inventories of machines

on

> hand in the first 9 months of 1998, growing them from $6

million to

> $15 million. They financed this, along with a capacity to

continue

> the aggressive expansion, by doubling their outstanding long term
> debt, taking on $20 million of new obligations.
>
> Losses were mounting during this time, amounting to $26 million

for

> the first 9 months of 1998 vs. $16 million for the comparable

period

> in 1997. That in itself isn't unusual for a company in it's

infancy

> (it was founded in 1996). However, it's a mandate that

expansion be

> funded through equity sources, not debt.
>
> This suggests that the investment community didn't share

Silicon's

> expansion enthusiasm and that Silicon wasn't effective at

selling

the
> idea -- thus the idea of floating more stock wasn't palatable.

That

> alone should have been good cause for Silicon to chill and wait

for

> clearer evidence of demand, but IGT was hot on their heels ...
> Moody/IGT field tested their Triple Play VP in 12/97 (with

likely

much
> more savvy and finesse).
>
> http://gamingtoday.com/index.cfm?articleid=12317&AIN=517314
>
> Silicon stock hit $20 at it's peak in 1997. By 9/98 it was at

$4.

At
> 12/99 it was at $.19
>
> - Harry
>

Wow! That is really sad, Harry. Those machines were like ATM's

to

some players. They were goldmines.

---------------------------------
Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo!

Search.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Doug Reul <dougreul@...> wrote:

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#11

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Harry Porter" <harry.porter@...>
wrote:

> Does anyone know what happened to them ?Did the company go BK or
> was eaten up by larger company? Richard

> Fool.com reports in 9/98 that the troubles largely reflect a

young,

inexperienced management whose heads were swelled by early positive
reception to what were the first multigame/multiplay machines on

the

market. Casinos enjoyed the flexibility and players the novelty,

even

if there were some hitches in operation:

http://www.fool.com/dtrouble/1998/dtrouble980929.htm

Confidence buoyed by early success, Silicon invested heavily in
manufacturing capacity and rapidly built manufactured machine
inventories, anticipating continued escalating casino demand.

Lacking

sufficient internal investor capital to fund this expansion, they
borrowed heavily -- as reported in their quarterly financial filing
for 9/98:

http://sec.edgar-online.com/1998/11/16/17/0001012870-98-

002942/Section6.asp

This report discloses that they tripled inventories of machines on
hand in the first 9 months of 1998, growing them from $6 million

to

$15 million. They financed this, along with a capacity to continue
the aggressive expansion, by doubling their outstanding long term
debt, taking on $20 million of new obligations.

Losses were mounting during this time, amounting to $26 million for
the first 9 months of 1998 vs. $16 million for the comparable

period

in 1997. That in itself isn't unusual for a company in it's

infancy

(it was founded in 1996). However, it's a mandate that expansion

be

funded through equity sources, not debt.

This suggests that the investment community didn't share Silicon's
expansion enthusiasm and that Silicon wasn't effective at selling

the

idea -- thus the idea of floating more stock wasn't palatable.

That

alone should have been good cause for Silicon to chill and wait for
clearer evidence of demand, but IGT was hot on their heels ...
Moody/IGT field tested their Triple Play VP in 12/97 (with likely

much

more savvy and finesse).

http://gamingtoday.com/index.cfm?articleid=12317&AIN=517314

Silicon stock hit $20 at it's peak in 1997. By 9/98 it was at

$4. At

12/99 it was at $.19

- Harry
*************************************************************

Taking your co. public & then borrowing on top of that almost always
a bad sign, plus the fact most of the money from the stock offering
went to the original investors is why I did not touch it.

If Silicon gaming had some success, I am sure IGT would have made an
offer as they have done to other companies and I would own it anyway.
Thats how IGT got into ticket-in ticket-out, player tracking
systems, & multi play.

M J