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Fringineering: The Crane Game

I pretty much rock at the Crane Game.

The “Crane Game” or “Claw Game”, for the fortunate few who have never been to Denny’s, consists of an enclosed glass closet full of toys, usually stuffed-animals, and a mechanical claw hanging from the ceiling. Inserting money grants you an allotted time frame to position the claw over your desired toy. The claw drops, closes, and most likely fails to grasp your prize. Your child cries, and your girlfriend leaves you.

I’ve seen two variations of this game. The first is a strict “move-drop” version: you move the crane, hit drop, it closes, and you win/lose. The second type is a nicer “move-drop-move” variation, where you are free to move the crane and lower it as desired during your time-frame. The crane only retracts and closes after either a) the time runs out, b) a sensor detects a prize in the claw, or c) the maximum drop length is reached.

The former type is a scam and should be avoided. The latter type, however, can be won almost every time. The key to winning is in the fact that you can move the crane after you’ve dropped it. Pay attention.

Ballistics:

It’s very easy to get caught up in the rules of the game. Think outside the box, man! Remember, your only goal is to get a stuffed-animal into the drop chute. Lower the crane just enough to reach an animal and violently rock the crane. Feel out the natural frequency and attack the animals positioned near the drop-chute. With practice, you can ballistically knock them into the hole. You can also use this technique to better position desired toys. Now who says violence doesn’t solve anything?

Dead Claw:

The key here is to understand the mechanics of the claw. The claw appears to close after a set retraction length. In my experience, it will close after it’s retracted about 2 inches. (e.g. The rope gets sucked upwards for 2 inches before the claw starts to close.) This is why you lose so frequently. Some games are programmed to give you a “fair” grab every X games, but you should be able to win regardless of this fact.

The trick is a make the game think you’ve dropped the claw lower than you really have. Lower the claw around an animal with a large horizontal surface area: an animal that is on it’s back or face. Lightly touch the claw to the animal, but be careful. Crashing the claw into an animal sets off a sensor in the claw and retracts it — we don’t want this. Carefully move the claw to the left or right such that it’s teeth catch on the animal. Then drop the rope a bit so the claw rests next to the toy.

If performed correctly, the “dead claw” will be lying horizontally with the animal in its teeth. Slowly drop the rope more and move the retraction-device appropriately, creating slack. Continue to slack the rope and move the retraction-device back directly above the animal. Eventually your time will run out or the maximum rope length will be reached.

Now, the animal is really ~3 feet from the ceiling, but you’ve dropped ~4 feet of rope. The claw will close after 2 inches of rope are retracted. But you’ll have 10 inches of slack!  You should get a nice grip on the animal and hopefully make the journey to the drop-chute.

Enjoy your Bettie Boops. But remember, it’s easy to think you’re beating Denny’s with these strategies –  a few hours after eating a Grand Slam, Denny’s usually has the last laugh.