Thursday, January 04, 2007

Lots of Bills

I was in Atlantic City with my mom and my cousin Mongo, gambling on the boardwalk in the daytime. We were in front of the convention center, and there were slot machines set up in a truck trailer, almost like how you'd see carnival games at a local fair.

I was playing some sort of mechanical / video slot machine that showed winnings in some type of foreign currency, even though I was playing with regular quarters. The slot didn't make any noise, but when I'd hit a winning combination it would display lots of numbers on two vertical red LED displays above the reels. The numbers would say 2000, 2450, 3000, etc... but once the totals were figured, a display at the top of the machine would show that I actually won like $11.25 or whatever.

I brought mom over to show her how the machine pays off as I was hitting a winning combination, and she started pressing buttons on my machine. This stopped my payoff, and instead switched the machine over to a joystick controlled bonus game. At first I was upset, thinking she completely canceled my payout - but I soon figured out how to play the bonus to add to my winnings.

I played the videogame bonus stage, which involved controlling a little cartoon dog on a beach - making him jump up in the air to eat floating flowers, each of which added a few more coins to the bonus payout. When I got done with that game, the game paid out in dollar bills. I ended up getting a stack of about 50 of them, and decided to quit while I was ahead. Everyone around me was cheering about my amazing winnings... heh...

I started off down the boardwalk to look through some of the shops, with Mongo running behind me... but it sorta wasn't him. He was shorter than me, younger than me, and kinda looked like a kid I went to elementary school with way back in the day.