Showing posts with label Game (Gambling). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game (Gambling). Show all posts

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Generous Gambler - Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1864)

Source.

"My dear brethren, do not ever forget, when you hear the progress of lights praised, that the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist!"




Friday, January 17, 2014

The American Policy Player's Guide and Dream Book (1892)

Policy, also known as a numbers racket, was an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods (black, Italian, latin)  in the US, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day (Source). The book below--which could pass as a book on dream interpretation--has a secondary purpose. To associate winning policy numbers with the dreamer's dream. More context: see, Herbert Gladstone Parris: Professor Konje Policy Players Dream Books and Policy Pete’s Dream Book (1933) | Digital Harlem Blog.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Virtual Game Exhibition

A wide-ranging presentation of historical games, with photographs: here.

Thanks, University of Waterloo.


Other Game Resources

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Nikolai Gogol


Source.



Novels
Taras Bulba [1835]
Dead Souls [1841-46] 

Plays
The Gamblers [1843]
The Inspector-General (The Government Inspector) [1836] 

Short Stories
St John's Eve
A May Night ; or the Drowned Maiden
Taras Bulba [1835]
The Viy
How the Two Ivans Quarrelled (The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich)

Arabesques (1835, short story collection) :
Memoirs of a Madman (Diary of a Madman)
The Nose [1836]
The Calash (The Carriage) [1836]

Rome (1842, fragment)
The Cloak (The Overcoat) [1842]
The Mysterious Portrait [1842]

Sunday, April 10, 2011

The History Of Slot Machines


GAMBLING MEN

Source.
"1891 and against the backdrop of the town of Brooklyn, in the recently-booming east coast New York City, Sittman and Pitt had just developed the gaming machine that in the years to come would be considered THE precursor to the modern slot machine. Based on poker, possibly to cash-in on the popularity of the game, the machine contained five drums carrying a total of fifty cards and like it’s namesake in the table-sitting world, it proved to be a popular hit with gambling players everywhere but especially in it’s home city of New York. At this time you would be hard-pressed to find a bar in the city that didn't have at least one of these machines standing at the side of the bar waiting for potential players to insert a nickel and press the lever in the hope of a good poker hand. These machines had a drawback. There was no direct payout mechanism, so in order to cure this problem, establishments would for example, offer a patron a free beer should he receive a pair of Kings, maybe a cigar if he hit a lower hand. It was not ‘made’ easy for a customer to win. Once obtaining a machine, many establishments would typically remove two select cards from the deck: the Ten of Spades and the Jack of Hearts. This, naturally, cut the odds of winning drastically and to make it even more difficult to win, the drums themselves could also be re-arranged to the taste of the proprietor.

"What can not be re-arranged so simply however, is the differing accounts of a German immigrant named Charles Augustus Fey, and his invention over on the west coast. There are some who say he invented the first mechanical slot machine in 1887, four years BEFORE Sittman and Pitt’s machine hit the bars of New York. There are others who state that Fey conceived his innovation in 1895, four years AFTER Sittman and Pitt’s machine. It is the year 1895 however, that seems to prove more popular with gambling history enthusiasts. Regardless of the chronology, Fey’s invention was revolutionary.

"With what later would be termed the first "one-armed bandit," Fey had solved the problem of designing a machine capable of making an automatic pay-out for all possible winning combinations. This was achieved by replacing ten cards with five symbols ( Diamonds, Hearts, Horseshoes, Spades and a cracked Liberty Bell ), and utilizing three reels instead of five drums thereby considerably reducing the complexity of reading a win! Three bells in a row equaled the largest payoff, amounting to fifty cents or ten nickels. The machine, consequently called Liberty Bell due to it’s attractive symbol became a massive success and is generally credited with spawning the massive mechanical gaming device industry at this time.

"During the next five years Charles Fey also invented the first descendent of the Liberty Bell called "4-11-44" named so after the maximum winning combination of the machine, worth five dollars. After this success, Fey upgraded his business from small-shop trading to factory production and in successive years invented the "Card Bell" machine and then further improved it a year later in 1899. This latest innovation had an altered symbol ( Star ) and boasted a maximum prize of twenty dimes or tokens, achieved with a three bell combination!

"Fey had been enjoying limited competition and favorable government legislature in his bid to dominate the gaming device market. However, various companies including Kalamazoo and Monarch had also released slot machines and one company in particular would severely test his control. Again, there are conflicting theories as to what actually happened but it was well-known in gaming device circles around the turn of the century that Charles Fey refused to sell or lease his revolutionary Liberty Bell slot machine to anyone. One theory as it that in 1905, a robbery occurred at a saloon in San Francisco, a theft in which only two items were stolen - an apron and a Liberty Bell slot machine. Less than a year later, Herbert Stephen Mills who had inherited the ‘Mills Novelty Company’ some years earlier from his father Mortimer Mills, produced a new version of the Liberty Bell called the Mills Liberty Bell. Despite the competition, the Mills Liberty Bell saw off all challengers. Mills, at this point, was employing assembly-line techniques for the construction of slot machines and despite the controversy, later became known as the "Henry Ford of slot machines."

"The other theory however states that Charles Fey actually went into business with the Mills Novelty Company, and then manufactured the Mills Liberty Bell which stunted all competition.

Source
"The Mills Liberty Bell itself featured a cast iron case with a classic Liberty Bell actually cast into the front of the machine. Originally the machine had cast iron feet with toes, but this was scrapped in later versions and they were replaced with ornate scrolled feet. Playing cards ( the King, Queen and Jack ) were depicted on the machine’s reel strips, and it also featured a bell that rung when a winning combination was hit. This was later dropped for the Mills Liberty Bell, though this concept would resurface many years later.


"Charles Fey had not only had to contend with these commercial losses, but he suffered most heavily when his main slot-machine producing factory was almost utterly destroyed in an earthquake. After this point, Fey faded into relative obscurity and he died some years later in 1944. Herbert Mills’ company however continued to thrive.


A BOOMING INDUSTRY

"By 1910 slot machines could be found seemingly everywhere. The Mills Novelty Company introduced slight variations to it’s Liberty Bell design and named it the Operator Bell. The Operator Bell had a more fitting neck coin entry and also featured fruit symbols unlike previous models. The Mills Novelty Company was also now producing five different variations of it’s Liberty Bell design at it’s factories, and by the time World War One broke out, the company had expanded into Europe and it’s factories were manufacturing up to 30,000 gaming machines.


"The age of the cast iron machines came to an abrupt end when Mills introduced slot machines fashioned with cheaper wooden cabinets, and by the early 1930’s the Mills Novelty Company made a number of changes to it’s production line of slot machines that signaled another revolution of the gaming industry.


"The new wave of machines introduced a double jackpot that allowed players the luxury of knowing that they could win twice in quick succession. The machines were also designed to be quieter and these 1930’s machines are now referred to as the "Silent Bell(s)."


"New cabinet designs were also released as part of this new wave of slot machines and included such themes as the Lion Head, the War Eagle, the Roman Head and finally in 1933, the Castle Front.

"The War Eagle also boasted a new coin acceptor that displayed the coins played moving successively across the top of the machine. In the case that slugs were used to operate the machine, the operator would now be able to see if such an object was being used. The new specification also added additional movement. Herbert Mills passed away in 1929 at the age of 57, leaving a vast fortune to his wife and eight children.

"In 1909, the previously favorable laws were thrown out the window, and new laws were introduced declaring that slot machines could no longer dispense cash. Slot machine manufacturers and bar owners managed to cope with these new laws by giving away free packs of gum and other prizes for getting certain combinations of symbols on the machines. There is a theory that this was the idea for the fruit and bar symbols present on modern-day slot machines. The bars are said to represent the packs of gum and the fruit symbols indicate the various kinds of candy that were won. Another theory holds that an early slot machine rewarded it’s players by awarding fruit-flavored chewing gums with the pictures of the flavors depicted by the corresponding symbols on the reels. The popular ‘cherry’ and ‘melon’ symbols are said to have derived from this machine. According to this representation of events, the ‘BAR’ symbol now common in slot machines was actually derived from an early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company.

"In 1919, the American government declared PROHIBITION and the consumption or supplying of alcohol was made illegal. The slot machines which mainly populated bars and saloons, were moved into the speakeasies that had been set up in light of the recent changes in the law. Since the speakeasies were illegal anyway, the managers figured they may as well go back to offering cash prizes on the slot machines. Because of this, the popularity of slot machines increased even more.

"Despite the governmental pressure the gaming industry continued to bloom and grow, especially in the state of Nevada where gambling was legalized in 1931. Several companies sprung up to take advantage of the situation, and they began to manufacture and sell slot machines to the fledgling casinos in Nevada. The manufacture and enjoyment of slot machines grew at an exponential rate well into the 1960’s.

"NEW LOOKS FOR NEW ERA
The pinball machine manufacturer, Bally, in 1964 began to produce a new slot machine named Money Honey. This machine was powered by electricity, and also possessed new sound effects as well as being classed as a multi coin machine. It was also the first slot machine ever to have a hopper - the name for the holder into which the coins get paid out. More innovations flowed from the Bally business brains; they added games that had more reels, bigger hoppers and more coins until 1970 when they produced a hopper large enough to hold dollar coins which meant larger jackpots for the consumers.

"In 1978, Atlantic City legalized gambling, and by this time Bally had cornered about 90% of the slot machine market. The company continued to add reels, knowing this would decrease chances of winning and so maximizing the size of a jackpot . In addition to increasing the number of symbols on each reel with 25 eventually becoming the maximum, they also raised the wagers so games could be played at $5, $25 and even $100. Bally also hired a computer programmer by the name of Inge Telnaus to increase the size of the jackpots without losing profits for the company. Using a computer program, Telnaus utilized a random number generator that cycled through the numbers on imaginary reels he had made. A revolution had been realized in slot machine gaming as Telnaus with these imaginary reels could radically change the amounts that could be won. This random number generator has ushered slot machines into a new age and opened up new markets with new opportunities to be explored much like the Californian gold fields did for the American populace over 150 years ago."

Friday, March 25, 2011

Blues Lyrics and Hoodoo

This includes both primary and secondary songs. Source.


(field transcription, uncredited)
Cotton-Eyed Joe (hoodoo) pre-1925

Arnold, (James) Kokomo
Old Black Cat Blues (Jinx Blues)
(black cat, jinx) 1935

Arnold, (James) Kokomo 
Policy Wheel Blues (Jinx Blues)
(policy dream books) 1935

Batts, Will
Country Woman Blues (goofer dust) 1933
Black Spider Dumpling 



Blake, Blind (Arthur)
Policy Blues (policy dream books)

Blake, Blind (Arthur)
Panther Squall Blues (jinx) 1928

Bogan, Lucille (with Spoken parts by Papa Charlie Jackson) 
Jim Tampa Blues (jomo, black cat bone) 1927

Brown, Bessie
Hoodoo Blues (goofer, gris-gris, spider dumpling, black cat bone, shoes) 1924

Brown, Gabriel
Jinx Is On Me (jinx, gypsy, card reading, numbers) 1945

Carter, Bo (Armentier Chatmon)
The Ins and Outs of My Girl (jinx) 1936

Carter, Big Lucky (Levester Carter)
Goofer Dust (goofer dust, dragon's blood, etc.) 1968

Chatmon, Harry
Hoo Doo Blues (hoodoo, palmistry, horseshoe) 1935

Chicago String Band
Hoodoo Blues (hoodoo, gambling)

Clayton, Dr. (Peter)
Root Doctor Blues (double entendre on root work) 1946

Cox, Ida
Fogyism (black cat, etc.) 1928
Gypsy Glass Blues (Gypsy) 1927
Mojo Hand Blues (mojo) 1927

Crudup, Arthur
"Big Boy" Hoodoo Lady (hoodoo lady, hoodoo hand) 1947

Dixon, Willie
I Ain't Superstitious (bad luck omen list) 1962

Gibson, Clifford 
Don't Put That Thing On Me (conjure, hoodooing male nature) 1929

Gillum, Jazz 
The Blues What Am (bad luck omen list) 1947
Hand Reader Blues (fortune teller, herb tea, good luck pills) 1947

Harlem Hamfats
Hoodooin' Woman (hoodoo, fix, spread stuff) 1937

Harris, Wynonie
Conjured (foot-track magic, graveyard dirt, etc.) 1964

Henry, Waymon "Sloppy" 
Jomo Man Blues (jomo, lodestone, john the conquer, goofer dust) 1928

Hogg, Andrew "Smokey"
I Bleed Through My Soul (black cat bone) c.1950

Hopkins, Lightning
Mojo Hand (mojo) 1960; also a later version, undated

House, Son
The Jinx Blues [No. 1 and No. 2] (jinx, Gypsy) 1942

Hudson, Hattie
Doggone My Good Luck Soul (black cat, horseshoe, rabbit foot) 1927

Hunter, Ivory Joe
I Almost Lost My Mind (Gypsy) 1950

Jackson, Papa Charlie 
Bad Luck Woman Blues (jinx, rat's [?] foot) 1924

Jefferson, Blind Lemon 
Bad Luck Blues 1926
Broke and Hungry Blues (black cat bone) 19-- (INCOMPLETE)
Dry Southern Blues (implied menstrual blood in coffee) 1926
Low Down Mojo Blues (mojo)
Lemon Rambler Blues (jinx) 1927

Johnson, Merline
Sold It to the Devil (crossroads ritual) 1937

Johnson, Robert Little
Queen of Spades (mojo) 1937

Johnson, Robert
Hellhound on My Trail (Hot Foot Powder)
Stones In My Passway (foot-track magic) 1938

Jones, Curtis
Black Gipsy Blues (Black Gypsy) 1938
Black Magic Blues (hoodoo)

Jordan, Charley (with Charlie Manson)
I Couldn't Stay Here (jinx) 1936

Jordan, Louis
Somebody Done Hoodooed the Hoodoo Man (hoodoo) 1939

Lenoir, J. B.
The Mojo, a.k.a. Mojo Boogie, Voodoo Boogie (jack ball) 1953, etc.

Lewis, Furry
Black Gypsy Blues (Black Gypsy) 1929

Lightnin' Slim (Otis Hicks)
Hoo Doo Blues (hoodoo)


Lincoln, Charlie (Charlie Hicks, Laughing Charley)
Mojoe Blues (mojo, hoodoo) 1957


Lofton, Cripple Clarence
I Don't Know (goofer dust) 1939


Lofton, Cripple Clarence
Strut That Thing (goofer dust) 1935


Lonesome Sundown (Cornelius Green)
I'm a Mojo Man (mojo) 1957

Mabon, Willie
I Don't Know (goofer dust) 1952 / 1953

Memphis Jug Band (with Will Shade)
Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues (Aunt Caroline Dye, mojo) 1930

Memphis Jug Band (with Will Shade)I Whipped My Woman With A Singletree (Black Gypsy) 1930

Memphis Jug Band (with Hattie Hart)
Spider's Nest Blues (spider, toby) 1930

Memphis Minnie (Lizzie Douglas)
Hoodoo Lady (hoodoo woman) 1936

Moss, Buddy
Jinks Man Blues (jinx)

Nelson, Romeo
Gettin' Dirty Just Shakin' That Thing (goofer dust) 1929

Otis, Johnny
Castin' My Spell (mentions many hoodoo beliefs) 1950s

Patton, Charlie
Revenue Man Blues (jinx) 1934

Rainey, Ma Black
Cat Hoot Owl Blues (bad luck beliefs) 1927

Rainey, Ma Black
Dust Blues (goofer dust) 1928

Rainey, Ma Louisiana
Hoo Doo Blues (Algiers, hand, hoodoo, goofer) 1925

Red, Tampa (Hudson Whittaker) and Georgia Tom
Dorsey The Duck Yas-Yas-Yas (hoodoo women) 1929

Ross, Dolly Hootin'
Owl Blues (bad luck beliefs) 1927

Shade, Will (Memphis Jug Band)
I Whipped My Woman with a Singletree (gypsy) 1929

Shines, Johnny
Hoodoo Snake Doctor Blues (hoodoo doctor) 1970

Smith, Bessie
Lady Luck Blues (horseshoe, goofer dust) 1923

Smith, Elizabeth
Gwine To Have Bad Luck Seven Years (bad luck women list)

Spand, Charlie
Big Fat Mama Blues (goofer dust) 1930
Evil Woman Spell (hoodoo woman) 1931
Hoodoo Woman Blues (hoodoo woman) 1940

Spivey, Victoria
Hoodoo Man Blues (hoodoo man) 1926

Stokes, Frank
Bedtime Blues (Goofer Dust) 1928

Tampa Red (Hudson Woodbridge / Hudson Whittaker)
Anna Lou Blues (mojo hand)

Temple, Johnnie
Hoodoo Women (Aunt Caroline Dye, hoodoo) 1937

Torey, George
Lonesome Man Blues (jinx) 1937

Towel, Jim
I've Been Hoodooed (hoodoo, rabbit foot, foot track) 1928

Twitty, John D.
(Black Spider Dumpling) Sold It to the Devil (crossroads ritual) 1937

Washboard Sam
Hand Reader Blues (fortune teller, herb tea, good luck pills) 1938

Washboard Sam
Suspicious Blues (many bad-luck beliefs) 1938

Waters, Muddy (McKinley Morganfield)
Louisiana Blues (mojo) 1950

Weldon, Casey Bill (Casey Will Weldon)
Jinx Blues (jinx)

Wells, Junior
Hoodoo Man Blues (reworking of SBW's "Hoodoo Hoodoo") 1953 & 1965

Wheatstraw, Peetie
Last Week Blues (jinx) 1934

Wheatstraw, Peetie
Cut Out Blues (policy, jinx) 1936 (INCOMPLETE)

Wiley, Arnold
Spider in Your Dumpling (spider dumpling, live things) 1920s

Williams, Albert
Hoodoo Man (Memphis Al) (hoodoo man) 1963

Williams, Big Joe
Jinx Blues (jinx) 1963

Williams, Robert Pete
Black Cat Bone (black cat bone) 1961

Wiliamson, John Lee "Sonny Boy"
Hoodoo Hoodoo (hoodoo, mojo) 1946

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

$1bn Streets of Monaco Yacht a Floating City

Source.

A LAVISH new yacht recreating the billionaire's playground of Monaco is set to become the world's most expensive.

The staggering 155m Streets of Monaco yacht is expected to cost over $1.1 billion to build and is modelled on a section of Monte Carlo.

Currently in the design stage, the super-ship will feature smaller versions of the state’s famous landmarks such as the Monte Carlo Casino and racetrack, as well as swimming pools, tennis courts, a cinema, a go kart track and a Hotel de Paris.

Instead of traditional decks the one-of-a-kind ship will have buildings, and instead of a swimming platform it will have a beach.

Travellers will also spot waterfalls, a swim-in Jacuzzi-bar, helicopters and submarines on board.



Monday, September 20, 2010

Total Art: A Big List of Kid Birthday Party Ideas

As clear an example of contemporary total art as I can think of (almost akin to religious activity), here are some fantastically non-transcendent, mass culture ideas for children's birthday parties. These are ceremonies often involving music, costume, ritual enactment of persona (popular characters), feast and prop-based transformation of a space. Yet the goal is self-consciously only to fill a couple hours: no invocation of a god or magical transformation is intended. The celebration is, of course, of youth (parties should become less elaborate as one ages): immortality for a culture without an after-life; immortality, that is, until it passes, and one reaches the mortal age of twenty-one and beyond.

The aesthetic borrows from other holidays and the attenuated symbolism of sentimentalism kept in circulation by trending activity of the publishing, toy and entertainment industries. One imagines if an ambitious parent dug up some ingenious theme for a celebration that was uncommon to a toy store's stock (dryads, kill-bots!), children would instantly smell the lie. What is held in common currency by children is what is expected and desired.

Rituals are games often involving prizes: junior gambling. All props are cheap, disposable and easily attainable from malls. Thus we have sound, set design, costume, arts and crafts, ceremonial ritual, consumerism, an occasion for snapshots, eating, gambling and compulsory participation all in one. If the event staged encouraged thought (in those ways art likes to: conceptualism, subversion, reflexivity, etc.), these little naive ceremonies would fail miserably; and moreover, make the host a bad parent.

4th of July Party
50s - Rock'n Fifties

Sleep Over Party



Followers