If you've played this game at an arcade or movie theatre, you know what it is. The blocks go back and forth, and you stop them to stack them ontop of each other. The machine has awesome prizes like ipods, nintendo DS's, and somethimes even xboxes and wiis! Sep 7, 2015 - Arcade Adventures - Episode 256 'How To Hack The Red or Blue Stacker Arcade Game' Grimknights test his stacker skills and also lends an extra hand as we hack.

For [LumoW], what started as a school project turned into a passion project. He and his team made a hardware implementation of an arcade game called Stacker. Never heard of it? It’s pretty fun, kind of like an inverse Tetris. You can play the flash version here and see their mini arcade version after the break.

The game is based around the Mojo FPGA which the class required, and it’s programmed entirely in bitwise operators. It uses WS2812 RGB LEDs to represent the individual tower building blocks, and these are mounted on plywood in a matrix and separated into cells by a grid of foam board. After some trial and error, the team found the perfect shade of acrylic to diffuse the bright dots into glowing squares.

Since the game only needs one input, we don’t think [LumoW] should apologize at all for using the biggest, baddest button they could find. Besides, the game has that edge-of-your-seat action that can turn panic into heavy-handedness and cool DIY arcade games into shards of sadness.

Looking for something more advanced to do with an FPGA? Try your hand at vector games.

Stacker is a game merchandiser manufactured by LAI Games, first produced in 2004. The goal of the game is to align rows of lights on top of each other. A player who stacks 11 rows can choose to win a minor prize, which is usually low in value, sometimes lower in value than the amount of money the player paid to play the game. A player who gets to the top row wins a major prize. Major prizes vary from machine to machine but will often include high-value items such as game consoles and mobile phones and gift cards from 50 to 100$. There are three different colorways for the machines; blue and black, red and black, and red, yellow, and blue.

Standard layout[edit]

There is a row of three LED blocks which move side to side on the screen, at the first row. When the player pushes the start/stop button, the row of blocks will stop. Then, another row of three moving blocks appears above the previous row, moving faster than the one before it. If the blocks do not align directly above the previous set, any overhanging blocks will be removed. If the player misses completely, the game is over. The number of available blocks is automatically reduced to two, then one, during the game. The goal is to consistently get the blocks directly above the previous set, 'stacking' them to the minor prize and ultimately the major prize level. According to the merchandise manual, a major prize is worth about 100 times the cost per play.^[1]

Difficulty[edit]

Stacker is a skill with prize game, although the relative proportions are not specified by LAI or in the operator's manual, it does state a disclaimer that it is '100% a game of skill and although it is very difficult, every game played can be a winning game.' The owner's manual states that at the game's highest difficulty level, the estimated ratio of wins to losses will be near 1-in-800. However, the actual ratio may be lower or higher based somewhat on the skill of the players, with the approximate frequency of winning the major prize being set at the discretion of the game's operator.^[2]

However, despite the claim in the operator's manual that the game is '100% a game of skill', some versions of stacker have settings that allow the operator to adjust the frequency of pay outs by making it impossible for the player to stack rows beyond a certain height; usually just before the major prize. Even if the player pushes the button at the right time, the moving squares will either skip a certain column or keep moving after the button is pushed.^[3]

If a person reaches the 'Major Prize' level, the blocks will flash on and off spelling the word 'Win.'

Variations of Stacker[edit]

• Stacker Standard - The original Stacker created in 2004.
• Stacker Club - Similar to Stacker Standard but with different colors and graphics aimed towards older people.
• Mini Stacker - This is a smaller version of Stacker, meant for places that do not have enough space for the regular Stacker game.
• Stacker Giant - A bigger version of Stacker.
• Stacker Double Up - This version of Stacker only pays out tickets. When players reach the 'Double Up Zone', they are offered to double their tickets. When players reach the 'Super Bonus Zone,' they win the jackpot displayed.
• Stack-It - This is a later version of Stacker Double Up. This version is more similar to the original Stacker game.
• Stack n' Grab - In this version of Stacker, the playfield is smaller, and when players get to the top, they get unlimited tries to grab a prize with a claw machine.
• Stacker Wall Street - A version of Stacker that can be mounted on a wall, and has 4 areas for prizes.
• Mega Stacker - The largest version of Stacker. This version has an adjustable ticket amount instead of the minor prize. It also has a platform to stand on and a metal bar to sit on.
• Mega Stacker Lite - This version of Mega Stacker only pays out tickets. It also does not have a platform or metal bar.

Sales tactics[edit]

Stacker has been advertised as being a successor to crane games.^[4]

A typical stacker game is 78' high by 27'. A more recently released version of the game, called Stacker Giant, is about twice the size. Stacker games come in two different color schemes; black and blue, or red and blue. Yet another version has been added to the family recently: the Stacker Mini. It is just like the standard Stacker except it only has two major prize arms and four minor prize arms, and only has 10 rows of lights instead of the standard 15. It is red, black, and white and stands about 6 feet tall by two feet deep and two feet wide. All of the different schemes are attractively painted to draw in customers. Stacker games have large windows covering the top half of the machine on three sides. The large windows are to allow passersby to be able to view the prizes, which may, in turn, lead them to play the game. Such techniques use prizes such as the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS systems and other products that are either difficult for children to obtain due to cost, or are appealing to kids because of looks. The four 'Prize rods' on a Stacker game are spread far apart and lit from the ceiling to add emphasis.

Buy Stacker Arcade Game

Distribution[edit]

In Europe, the primary distributor of Stacker is the Austrian company funworld AG, distributing in 14 European countries: Germany, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the United Kingdom and Cyprus.^[4][5]

References[edit]

1. ^LAI Games. Merchandise Manual Comic Book for Stacker game. Accessed 2007-10-07.
2. ^LAI Games (July 2004). 'Stacker Operator's Manual'.Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
3. ^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofEb9fM8m0Q&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=ArcadeMatt
4. ^ ^abfunworld is selling Stacker in 14 European countries!
5. ^funworld - stacker

External links[edit]

Stacker Arcade Game Cheat Games