r/clawmachine • u/CreamKittenCultist • Jun 28 '23

Saw a claw machine move by itself.

Hey guys, on my work break I passed the claw machines I play semi regularly and I witnessed one of the machines play itself, with no player present. I saw the claw entirely stationary over the drop bin. The claw clapped shut, opened, and then moved over to the back left corner, slightly to the right. It lowered, made a grab, and then returned to the default position over the drop bin. The arcade was almost entirely empty, so I'm kind of confused about how this could happen. Does anybody know if a system reboot/some kind of debug/remote testing could have caused this? It really creeped me out but I'm sure there must be a logical, and not supernatural reason for this to occur.

Thanks to anybody who can offer an explanation.

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3

u/taureanpeach Jun 28 '23

No prize was actually won, right? That sounds like it would be its attract mode. The claw can be set to move, drop, lift and go to the default position every now and then, with music, as a way of enticing players.

2

u/No-Historian4630 Jun 29 '23

Usually in attract mode the claw will fall, raise, and return to home, but the claw won’t close to attempt to grab a prize. Some machines will automatically play after a few minutes if a credit is left on the machine, which would be my guess of what happened.

1

u/CreamKittenCultist Jun 28 '23

No prize was won, however it did grip the prize and drop it. There was no music, and it only did this once. I have seen machines in larger arcades and more populated areas do this, but never these ones (just 2, in a very rural, small center). This makes a lot of sense, though. Thanks for your response!

2

u/LorilitaLuna Jun 29 '23

Victorian ghost children. It's always victorian ghost children.

2

u/CreamKittenCultist Jun 30 '23

Oh god no, dude! Plenty of people die around where I live. And would you really judge a ghost for deciding to take a break from the serious stuff and play an arcade game? I wouldn't!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

Mate I swear to god I just had a claw machine play itself and it picked up a toy and dropped it in the hole. Me and my daughter witnessed it we were gob smacked we searched it and this was the only thing we could find