How A Vintage Pachinko Machine works

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Basic game flow: A ball is delivered via a shooting device to the top area of the play field where it then falls down through a series of pins, spinners, wheels and other devices to either land is a ‘pay out’ pocket or to exit through a hole at the very bottom of the play field. All pay out pockets will deliver to the player a consistent set amount of balls into a tray that is situated to allow for the player retrieve or play back through the machine.

Basic Mechanics: The losing balls that exit the bottom hole of the play field simply out the back of the machine. All winning balls that fall into a pay out pocket will cascade down through a ‘frequency controlling rocker’ and from there onto the “Jack Pot Seesaw” which releases the current set of payout balls. The payout balls cascade down across a lever which then releases the winning ball out the back of the machine. As the Jack Pot Seesaw (JPS) resets to its starting position, the Jack Pot (JP) area is refilled and the frequency rocker is reset. Some pay out pockets have special devices that opens or closes ‘wings’ and these mechanics do not affect the pay out and will be discussed separately.

Detailed Flow: The following are the steps that a winning ball (WB) activates in order for the system to pay out. Again the specific pocket actions such as opening or closing will be discussed later. There are also several event controlling devices, such as when the reward hopper empty, that will also be detailed later.

Step1: All WB’s will process through to the exact same central point in preparation for the pay out process.
Step 2: The WB will move to the frequency rocker. This rocker is designed to move one ball at a time from one level to the next. This is accomplished by the WB landing in the rocker and moving it downward while the upper part of the rocker blocks the ramp preventing subsequent WBs from falling through. This rocker will remain in the lower position until Step 7. Additionally, this action set’s the pay out ramp into the proper position for step 6.

Image 1

This photo shows the position of the components discussed in Step 2 and 3. In this photo the regulator is the solid white piece and it is in the upper receiving position. The lever that positions the payout ramp is located inside the clear plastic and has the ‘swinging catch arm’ that is caught on the rocker piece.

Step 3. The WB will move across and drop down a shoot to land on the (JPS). This action, using the weight of the WB, moves a rod on the opposite side of the machine upward. In the photo previous the end of the JPS where the WB will land is in the raised position and parallel with the metal piece just below the clear plastic ‘box’.

Step 4: The push rod from the JPS activates another lever that performs two functions. First it blocks off the JP feed so balls do not flow into the JP area during the payout. Secondly it releases the JP retaining rocker/wing assembly.

Image 2

This photo shows the JPS connection to the upper jackpot area. The round bar on the right is from the JPS and it is connected to the JP release lever.

Step 5: Once The JP rocker/wing swivels outward into the open position it releases the JP balls and then immediately swings back to the closed position.

Image 3

This photo shows the JP area on a different machine and as you can see while there are subtle differences, the mechanics are basically the same. On this machine the JP rocker/wing piece was broken and has been replaced with a wooden replica.

Step 6: As the JP balls fall downward, the roll along the pay out ramp and which activates the WB release gate. From this point the JP balls roll out into the players feed tray.

Image 4

This photos shows the JPS in it’s raised position. At the lower left is the WB release gate and the area where the WB exits the machine.


Step 7: With the WB released, the JPS rises back to it’s original position. The motion releases the JP feed gate which refills the JP area and resets the frequency rocker to the receiving position.

Controlling Components: This section will describe the various controlling devices with in the machines. Some devices are designed to assist with the play while others are designed to prevent invalid pay outs due to play manipulation of the machine.

Empty Reward Hopper: This component is controlled by the weight of the balls residing in the reward hopper at the top of the machine and it simply pulls a rod up (or down) when the hopper is empty. The main purpose of this component is to stop more balls from being fed into the player’s shooting area. In the shooter area there is a feeding rocker assembly that regulates the balls being shot and this rocker is blocked to prevent the next ball from being lowered into position. Some machines also have an arm that lowers in the view window that indicates the hopper is empty. This process also activates an electrical switch that turns on a “hopper empty” light on the play field. Originally the electrical current was also sent to the Parlor operators control board notifying him which machine was empty. The empty hopper component does not affect the pay process in any manner; it only prevents more balls from being loaded in the shooter area.

Image 5

In this photo you can see the balls are holding down the lever. The switch in the center is used to turn on the Hopper Empty light.
JP Feed Empty: This component is again controlled by the weight of the balls but those residing in the feeding ramps leading to the JP area. This component will prevent the system from running out of balls for the JP which have to be present to prevent the system from ‘jamming up’. This component simply blocks the JPS push rod from moving upwards.

Image 6

In this photo the Feed Empty component is in the center on right. The two white ‘lightning bolt’ pieces are used to block the JPS from releasing more balls if there are none in the feed chute. Also, note the metal component just above the ‘lightning bolt’ pieces, this is the Machine Reset lock as described below.

Machine Reset: Activated from the front with a small wire, this component will release all but a few balls from the machine into the losing ball area. This gives the operator the ability to clear a machine of balls prior to servicing it. This component controls a set of flaps in the feeding ramps that, in normal play, is locked. By activating this control, the lock is undone and balls from the feeding ramps moves freely through the back of the machine into the losing ball area. It is imperative to ‘relock’ this control prior to filling the hopper or all the balls added will simply drain through the machine to the losing ball area. Once you do this, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

JP Validation: This component lies with in the JPS area and controls the movements of the pay out ramp. This system is devised to insure that the JP process was activated by a WB and not by some other means. As described in Step 4 the frequency rocker process locks into place the pay out ramp. With no winning ball in the JPS area, the pay out is not locked and thus any JP balls that fall into this area will cause the ramp to move downward and dump the erroneous balls into the losing ball area.

Special Pockets: These pockets are designed to add an additional bit of flair to the game and allows for multiple JPs to be easily accomplished as a ‘reward’ for entering that pocket or process.

Tulips: These are the most common special pockets. The pockets are in the general shape of a tulip with a set of two movable ‘wings’. The pockets are designed with an upper and lower exit with a lever separating the two. When a ball enters one of these partially closed pockets the ball rolls across the top of the lever that pulls the wings open. The next ball to enter this pocket will drop down in front of the lever and closes the wings back to the original position. Some tulip gates are opened by balls that enter a different pocket through means of additional levers or they simply divert the WB from one pocket over the lever of another.

Horizontal Spinners: These devices are simply ‘gates’ to a winning pocket and really has no other function than cosmetic.

Vertical Spinners: These devices are cosmetic in most games but in some they prevent balls from dropping through certain areas.

Swings: These devices are simply swinging targets and have no other function other than cosmetic, although they can randomly affect the movement of the ball depending upon placement in the design.

Double Open Tulips: These pockets generally found in the center most JP area are designed much the same as the standard Tulips with the exception that two balls are allowed to enter the open wings before they are closed back. I haven’t figured this type out yet. (More to come.)