Archives for category: Scratch-R

The Scratch-R keeps crashing my game!

May 13, 2013 //

I really wanted to write a “How many snakes” post today but, honestly, after last week’s extension “incident”, I can’t really bring myself to do another one. All I can suggest as an alternative is to look at the distance between where you are now and your target, divide it by 3, and try to collect that number of snakes every day. Who knows exactly when the event will actually end? – it may be some time on Thursday, it may be on Friday, or it may be sometime around the next Olympics. But it’s best to be prepared.

Instead, here’s something from Keithemill on a problem that I’ve been hearing about a bit – the Scratch-R at the Kwik-E-Mart apparently crashing the app. My apologies to Keith for hanging on to this so long (in my defence, it’s been a busy 7 days). Here’s what he has to say (and note that he’s talking about the Scratch-R here, not the Golden Scratch-R):

Is anyone else having a problem when tapping on the Kwik-E-Mart? When I tap on the Scratch-R, it gives me a box titled “The Store” and it says “Retrieving item…” for several seconds (maybe even nearly a minute). Then it says (also in a box called “The Store”), “D’oh! A connection problem occurred. The requested action failed.” If I tap on “OK”, I get the usual “Kwik-E-Mart” box. But when I tap on the “250″ to purchase a regular “Scratch-R”, the app crashes. Sometimes I’ve gotten the Scratch-R to appear, but mostly it just crashes out to the home screen.

[But, I've] found a way to get my Scratch-R and not have it crash on me. When… [you] see the usual “Kwik-E-Mart” dialog box (with the option to buy the Golden Scratch-R, the regular Scratch-R and the timer for “Marking up Prices”). I don’t tap to buy the Scratch-R yet. Instead, I tap on the left (back) arrow at the top left of the dialog box to exit back to my Springfield. Then tap again on the Kwik-E-Mart and get the “Retrieving items…” message, followed by the “…The requested action failed.”

This time when I tap on “OK”, the Kwik-E-Mart dialog box comes up but without the option of purchasing the Golden Scratch-R. Then, I can click on the “250″ to purchase the regular Scratch-R and it doesn’t crash. Again… if you have this glitch, only click to buy the regular Scratch-R if you don’t see the option of buying a Golden Scratch-R.

I hope this helps people with this problem and thanks Keithemill.

Tags bugs and glitches, crashing, Kwik-E-Mart, scratch cards, Scratch-R, The Simpsons Tapped Out

Categories Bugs and glitches, Crashing, Kwik-E-Mart, Scratch cards, Scratch-R

Is there a problem with the Scratch-R tickets?

By TSTO Tips

April 4, 2013 //

Over the past week or so, some players have been reporting a problem with the Scratch-R tickets – even before you can scratch, the game crashes and you lose the money you’ve spent on the game. While this is annoying when you’ve bought a regular Scratch-R with game dollars, it’s far more than that when you’ve spent real-world cash on a Golden Scratch-R.

This doesn’t seem to be a general problem, though, and this glitch may be one why some players have seen a couple of in-game updates in the past few days while the rest of us have seen nothing at all. If there’s been a problem with your installation, the game sometimes self-corrects when it tries to connect to the servers.

If you’ve been experiencing this problem, deleting and reinstalling the game may resolve it. And if you’ve lost money on a Golden Scratch-R, the first thing you should do is contact Apple or Google Play directly to claim a refund:
- You can contact Apple through http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/#app_store to claim a refund. Look for the “Contact support” link at the bottom left of the page to start the process.
- You can contact Google Play through http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?&p=play_contact&rd=1

Any problems, though, are likely to be corrected through the next update – whenever that may be…

Tags bugs and glitches, crashing, golden scratch cards, Golden Scratch-R, scratch cards, Scratch-R, The Simpsons Tapped Out

Categories Bugs and glitches, Crashing, Golden Scratch-R, Scratch-R

What are the chances of winning $10,000 at the Scratch-R?

By TSTO Tips

March 29, 2013 //

The Scratch-R game is available to play free at the Kwik-E-Mart every 6 hours – and if you’re at an early a stage of the game, a big win can really change things for you. As you almost certainly already know, it offers a range of game dollar prizes all the way up to $10,000:

But despite playing 2 or 3 times a day every day since it was launched at the end of January, I’ve yet to win big. In fact, this is the kind of thing I usually see when I’ve scratched everything away:

So what are the chances of a big win? Based on information in the files, here are the possible prizes and the probability that each of those game dollar amounts will end up in your account at the Bank of Springfield:

$10,000 – 1% (just one chance in every 100 games)
$2,500 – 4%
$1,250 – 10%
$750 – 20%
$500 – 33%
$350 – 32%

Why these numbers are coming up slightly differently to the Golden Scratch-R numbers, I’m not sure – particularly given the message that comes up telling you what you could have won if you’d spent real world cash on the Golden Scratch-R rather than scratching away for free. And of course, probability being probability, it doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed to get the $10,000 once in 100 scratches, either. You might need to scratch a whole lot more before you win big. But, unlike the Golden Scratch-Rs, at least you don’t have to spend anything to do it!

Acknowledgements once again to j-3xx9 at http://tstappedout.proboards.com for the information used in this post.

Tags Cash, game dollars, golden scratch cards, Golden Scratch-R, Kwik-E-Mart, prizes, scratch cards, Scratch-R, The Simpsons Tapped Out

Categories Cash, Golden Scratch-R, Scratch-R

Is it possible to buy a Golden Scratch-R by accident?

By TSTO Tips

March 20, 2013 //

The Golden Scratch-R above the Kwik-E-Mart has been my favorite recent addition to the game – and that’s because, as a donut-buyer, it often gives me a bit more of a “bang for my buck”. Unless you’re buying donuts in large quantities, you often get more donuts through the US$0.99 Golden Scratch-r than you would through the donut store for the same amount of money. But, especially if you’re playing on a smaller device, it can be very easy to tap on the Golden Scratch-R when you really meant to tap on the regular Scratch-R game. Does this mean you’re at risk of spending your money accidentally?

Thankfully, the answer is no – and that’s because it’s not an instant purchase. in fact, the first thing you see when you tap on the Golden Scratch-R is this message:

I’ve covered what happens if you decide to go ahead with the purchase in a post a couple of weeks back, which you can find here. But what happens if you decide to tap “cancel”? In that case, this is the message you see:

Well, you may have made Maggie cry, but at least you didn’t accidentally spend your real-world cash. It’s a small price to pay.

Update: As Lucy pointed out in the comments section, you do need to be be very careful once you’ve made your first purchase, though. The Golden Scratch-R stays there until you choose the regular Scratch-R, encouraging you to try again – and a second purchase immediately after the first will be instant.