Movie-maker needs help...

[YokohamaJo]

Good afternoon, everyone, and nice to meet you all.

I am new to the forum, but hope to be busy here over the next twelve months.

I'm a British-born screenwriter, currently on assigment in Japan to pen a film about pachinko. I've secure funding from a U.S. studio and now I'm in the process of writing the story. It looks like it's going to be about an American pachinko player battling the steel balls on their home turf.

My initial research has begun and I sold this tale as a starter to a Japanese magazine: http://www.japan-zine.com/article/jz...Balls+of+Steel

Would you be able to tell me if it jibes with your experiences of playing this manic-zen game?

All the best,

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu,

YJ

[slotter]

Interesting read... I think.


Welcome!

[luckydog]

clean it up and make it "G" rated please !!

[alphajerk3000]

I was a bit lost, but I've never played Pachinko before. Keep us updated...

[hanabi]

to PachiTalk YokohamaJo!!

[drcrippen324]

Welcome to the funny farm we call pachitalk where fun is the main part of the daily diet along with a side order of info on machanics electronics and a pudding of laughs with fellow people intrested in the same things

[MrGneiss]

WELCOME!!!

[daverob]

Well it seems well written and is an engaging storyline, but there's a few technical inaccuracies that don't seem to sit quite right for me. Bearing in mind I've never actually been to a parlour, and all the information I know about them comes from articles I've read, programmes I've watched, and machines I've played in my own home. So I might not be the best person to advise you on these issues

The parlor’s security camera footage showed he hadn’t been doing so well when he was alive, but after he’d died he’d hit the jackpot four times, won ¥80,000 post-mortem.

An average fever win (jackpot) is in the range of 1800 to 2200 balls, each ball has a redemption value around ¥2-3, so you're looking at a few more jackpots than four to get that kind of winnings out of a machine. I guess they could be referring to linked fevers as jackpots, but I'm really not sure if this would be the case.

the LED display that tells you how many balls you have left. It comes up 10,000.

The display on the upper front tray of a pachinko machine shows you how much credit you have left, 3 digits x 100 yen, it leaves you to work out how many balls you can rent for that amount of credit.

Also where you show the balls remaining dropping by the hour, I'd be very surprised if you could manage to make an initial 1400 balls last an hour without hitting at least one fever. Especially seeing as you've got Blondboy losing 800 balls in 15 minutes near the end of the story, and he's trying to make them last by shooting 5 or 6 at a time.

My girl-assistant loads them onto an airport luggage trolley and wheels them off to be counted. When she comes back, she hands me three brown notes.

This would constitute illegal gambling in Japan, The balls cannot be exchanged for money in the parlours, they have to be exchanged for prizes. Most players exchange their balls for 'special prizes' which are then exchanged for cash off premesis. You would never get a parlour assistant returning with cash for the player.

I check the LED counter; it’s up to 15,000

The credit counter will never increase from balls won. The only way the counter can increase is to insert money, and it wouldn't be considered appropriate for the parlour assistants to take your prize balls, exchange them for cash (which of course is illegal), and then insert them into the machine for you (especially while you're asleep!).

Hope this helps, the ball counts and play rates I can live with and put it down to artistic license, but the parlour assistant returning with cash sets off alarm bells for me (and probably would inside the parlour ).

[arbycoffee]

From what I have read, most parlors ask you to change machines after a wave of fevers

[compirate]

Plus, we all know, the lower tray has to be emptied or the machine will stop shooting.

[Denhomer]

Most I know about pachinko comes from this forum and my hands on experience in the holy land itself (Japan, duh).

I'm agreeing with what daverob says.
Also the counter displays 1 for each 100 yen / 25 balls like daverob says.
So 10000 balls would be 400 on the counter.
If the nice parlor lady runs off with the balls you don't get brown notes, you get a white note instead. A ticket that says "23.542 balls won", this has a barcode, which they can scan at the register to sum up all your tickets.

From what I have read, most parlors ask you to change machines after a wave of fevers

This is not always correct. I've seen a guy in a parlor that had a corner seat with approximately 20 ball trays full of won balls. (the whole corner of the row was filled with ball trays).
For a parlor it's sometimes good to show that you can actually win lots in here. As long as there aint 10 people who are doing this.

Plus, we all know, the lower tray has to be emptied or the machine will stop shooting.

Not true on all machines. My Horror Mansion will just stop paying out. The shooting just continues.

[rubberratt]

Welcome to Pachitalk YokohamaJo!!!

My first Pachinko experience was in 1976.
The Ice Cream/Sandwich shop, next to the high school, had what is now called a vintage machine (may have been vintage back then as well !), and you got about 20 balls and tried to "stay alive" as long as you could

I have been to Japan a few times (work related), and while in Shinjuku I always make it my business to play Pachinko. On my last trip I had a fever... no really I was sick as a dog LOL, but I went in anyway, and wore a mask:indiffere. Yes... I LOVE PACHINKO!

Considering the observations that have already been mentioned by my esteemed Pachi-pals i.e. not getting real money in the "actual" parlor, how to count balls &c. the description in your story was pretty accurate, and the fact that I had a cold the last time I played made it even more surreal.

My Japanese is not the greatest, but I remember talking casually with one of my more westernized colleagues about how Pachinko is played. I was really confused when she explained how to redeem my prize from the pachinko parlor. Of course, I wasn't a winner until my third trip. So I was really excited to see what was going to happen. In exchange for my trays of balls I was handed a small box I went into the alley (literally around the corner) and exchanged my crappy prize (I think it was cuff links LOL) for roughly ¥40,000, with which I purchased A-train 2000 for my Japanese Playstation 2

[Denhomer]

Of course, I wasn't a winner until my third trip. So I was really excited to see what was going to happen. In exchange for my trays of balls I was handed a small box I went into the alley (literally around the corner) and exchanged my crappy prize (I think it was cuff links LOL) for roughly ¥40,000, with which I purchased A-train 2000 for my Japanese Playstation 2

Dang, you got 40000 ¥ ? I only won 8000 ¥ on the Hissatsu 3 pachinko. But that was like my second time I played the pachi in Japan. The first time i played for 1000 ¥, the second time i put in 4000 or 5000 ¥ and I was hitting a fever, then my girlfriend hit 2 fevers in a row

[rubberratt]

Dang, you got 40000 ¥ ? I only won 8000 ¥ on the Hissatsu 3 pachinko. But that was like my second time I played the pachi in Japan. The first time i played for 1000 ¥, the second time i put in 4000 or 5000 ¥ and I was hitting a fever, then my girlfriend hit 2 fevers in a row

whoops I meant ¥4,000, and it was on a machine that had sea creatures, and during the reach a shark chased you and a giant squid made a whirlpool, but I can't remember the name of it ><

[YokohamaJo]

Everyone,

Thanks so much for all of your comments and suggestions. It really means a lot for me.

I'm trying to work out whether to take the tale in an Oceans Thirteen-type direction, or something darker.

Would anyone know if there have been any English-language movies set around the world of pachinko?

Thanks again,

YJ

[drcrippen324]

there is one loosley set around the car scean a pachinko parlour and the mob butthe only reason the parlour is involved is the mob side of things its title is tokyo drift