How did you get hooked?

[scotaku]

Because I'm curious and can segue into introducing myself, how did you get hooked on pachinko/pachislo?

I got mine honestly, I'd say. My Dad was in the Air Force and we were shipped off to Misawa, Japan, twice when I was a kid. Without my Mom though, we'd probably not have experienced a fraction of Japanese life. She took on a job as an English teacher in one of the highschools off base. Slowly but surely we ventured out into northern Japan eating and visiting the way the locals did; a character I still have today.

I was not old enough to earn my base ID card that would let me pass through the security gates on my own. I never got to explore Misawa on my own, but I did get to go on dozens of class field trips through Culture Class. It was a class just for exposing us to Japan at eye level and an experience I never had again in schools back in the US.

The pachinko parlours enchanted me and every kid my age. The crowded rows of players, the wild and colorful lights, and big band music that could be heard a block away... all of that added up to an off limits place kids were not allowed. Pachinko was in every town no matter what castle or festival or resort getaway we were out there to visit.

And I couldn't touch them.

Years later, eight to be exact, I was graduating highschool and got a unique gift; my first pachinko machine. I still have it; a vintage Sankyo single shot. It was one of those machines that had come to the US in a fad that died in the 70's still bearing a crudely typed sticker directing the owner to their local BEST store for help. It was dusty and jammed, no longer working, a relic that had languished in a basement once it had stopped working.

A curious gift though it was on it's way to the landfill if my Mom hadn't spotted it. Her assistant had bought a new house and my parents had chipped in to help the family move in. When Mom identified the machine, "Do you want it?" was all the owner asked. She brought it home for me thinking I would like to at least see it up close since I'd been denied all those years we'd lived overseas.

I could hardly believe it. I spent days studying and sketching the mechanisms, figuring out how the balls should pass through the machine. There was no world wide web back then and newsgroups were the domain of the military and universities. Little did I know there was a small piece missing that prevented the machine from reseting after paying off any one winning ball. years later I would find another machine very much like this first one that would provide the clue both machines needed to come back to life.

The pachinkos were great conversation pieces in my first apartment and part of a larger affection I had for Japanese comics, cartoons, music, tv, and foods. Growing up in Japan left a mark on me. To this day I still ask some questions in Japanese not even thinking that no one around me may understand what I'm saying. My wife has learned to answer many of them though; it's just part of who I am.

Today, I'm a new fan again. Friends of mine saw fit to hoodwink me with a Christmas gift this season; a Sankyo Star Wars digi-pachi machine they found on eBay. I feel like a kid again!


True story: I saw the first Star Wars movie in a Japanese theater with subtitles along the left and bottom of the screen. The print we saw was unlike any cut I've ever seen since except in stills. You see, we got to see Biggs Darklighter visit Luke on Tattooine at the very start of the movie, not the giant star destroyer chasing the Princess' ship. We also got to see Han Solo confront a human Jabba the Hutt. Who knew?

[arbycoffee]

Tulsa was my Down fall, he got the First Batman and was talking it up strongly and I broke down and got a Lord of the Rings.
It went down hill from there, but it was a grand ride!!!

The little Spheres will always hold a spot of my heart, liver, lung, knee, foot, etc.

[sharmoni]

I blame PachiTalk.

When I was a kid, I saw my first pachinko machine at someone's house and thought it was weird but really interesting (I was used to pinball machines). I wished I could play one—since I couldn't figure out you won exactly, and I was curious—but at that time (the 60s) the only people who had them, had brought them over from Japan (I grew up in Southern California).

Last January I was reading a webcomic that suddenly reminded me of pachinko machines, and I realized I could afford to just go buy one now. I went looking online for a machine similar to what I had seen as a kid and ended up buying a gorgeous mid-60s model from Bill at vintagepachinko. He was one of the few listing on eBay under BuyItNow, and I wasn't going to buy one that didn't look beautiful or wasn't guaranteed to work. (Interesting sidenote: I'm pretty sure the once I bought from him is identical to the first one I ever saw, but that could be a memory trick.) Once I had it home and was happily figuring out how all the ramps and levers worked, I wanted to know its age and that lead me to the PachiTalk forum.

Here I found out there were many earlier and later models all the way up to modern ones that were more like video slot machines. My second machine was a Julie Pinball, since I'd always wanted to have a pinball machine and a slot machine. Then I wanted to know how to play through the "reaches" and by then I was starting to actually post on the forum instead of lurking.

My third machine was my antique 40s machine which was my first scary eBay purchase (I had never bid in an auction before, much less ever bought a used machine with no guarantee). I had to request a lot of photos to determine if it was in reasonable shape, and even then I knew I would probably have to strip the warped plastic laminate off the playfield. I was sure it was a terrific bargain—worth thousands of dollars(!)—and I sniped it to make sure I would get it.

Then I was searching for info about pachinkos to try and figure out how old it really was and discovered that many people were listing pachinkos on craigslist—which was a lot safer (because I could check out the condition), and cheaper (because there was no shipping, and no bidders to bump up the price). So suddenly I had four machines and I was starting to get hooked on having new and different ones to see how the mechanics worked, or how differently they played.

I did enough research (a copy of Winning Pachinko from my library helped) to narrow down the basic stages of pachinko design evolution and decided to get one of each distinctive type. Fourteen machines later I realized that somewhere along the way I had become seriously addicted to buying pachinkos.

Now I'm cutting back by focusing on restoring early 50s machines, but I still check into the forum twice a day, and often spend many hours writing posts to threads (check out my album for photos and descriptions of my machines). So yes, I'm hooked and I've got PachiTalk to thank for it!

[dattia]

Yes, PachiTalk is what hooked me.

I ordered on eBay as a decorative item for my basement remodel. It didn't work as described and sent me Googling. I found my way here looking for help and what I found were friends.

[luckydog]

our local flea market had a pachislo dealer and everytime i went there he would give me some tokens to play.

i didn't really think too much of them until one day i hit the bonus rounds on one

i was hooked instantly and started checking ebay for pachislos, my first buy was a Golgo 13 and before i recieved it i had won 3 more from Stealth with 49.95 each shipping,

along with the machines from Stealth was an invitation to 2 free months of the "old way"
i met many friends their and when things started going downhill Pachitalk was born

I was invited to "come on down" and I did

with all the talk of pachinko i was checking ebay and found my Nurse Betty listed from a local seller. I won the bid and picked it up and was hooked right away

I now have a house full of machines and many friends on Pachitalk

[johntofva]

Me...I saw my first one at a Sam's Club a couple years ago. But had to research them before I bought one. My first one was Thunderbirds, which I purchased off of ebay. So...my research also led me to two things more fun than pachislo's. First is pachinko and second would be this forum.

http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/mode...u-started.html

[takethecastle57]

In 1974 i saw the "American Pachinko" by Pressman and bought one then in 1976 i was working at Toys R Us I bought my 1st "Castle" pachinko for $30 . Flash foward to 1982 when i stopped collecting and repairing pachinkos and joined the U.S.Army . I rediscovered pachinkos in 2002 when i wanted to see if i could get a replacement "Castle" I own/owned over 50 Pachinkos and i have 3 Pachislos . The "Addiction " has not eased in the slightest

[Frank A]

I bought my first two Pachislo machines in April of 2003 at an auction when I was looking for pinball machines. Double Impact and Pegasus. I still have the Double Impact and many others. Two became four, four became eight and the rest is history. The best part was talking with the members and learning how to repair and modify the games. Auto Stops from Vince and arms from E-bay. Fun times. Hello to my Pachi Friends.

Frank A

[Ikaria]

We were looking for something unique for my daughter for Christmas a few years back. We saw a pachinko in the Penney's catalog, and decided this was what to buy, but they were too expensive. We found the same machine on e-bay, for less, and bought it.

Flash forward to summer '08. I was looking at pachinko machines on e-bay, and I saw the Super Sea Story and thought it would be a great addition to the fish room. Like most people with new machines, I had questions, and this led to the discovery of Pachitalk.

Once I discovered Pachitalk it was all over.

[beachcat]

Its NIT's fault. When he received new games he would let me try them out . One day I knocked on his door and he was filming his Pachi's for Pachitalk. I was curious to see what he filmed and logged on here. I have been hooked ever since.

[scotaku]

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone.

I spent some quality time yesterday concocting a ball catch for the back of the new machine. We bought an antique curio cabinet to replace an old baker's rack that, in turn, is now the home for my Star Wars machine. I used the top of a small water bottle and some large gauge computer cable organizer wrapping to fashion a funnel/tube to redirect lost balls to the front of the machine. It took a little doing and is not yet Scotaku-proof, but it was working pretty well and gave me ideas for a more refined system.

I was stunned to see the cell swapping video from rubberrat. I had no idea the games could be changed so much easier than dismounting the cabinets. I am now terribly curious if cells can be purchased separately from the frames. I would love to be able to change out the game every so often and keep things lively. Do people trade these cells by any chance?

Such a cute pup there, luckydog. My wife and I have two mini-schnauzers, both boys, one black and one parti, Bailey age 9 and Hurley age 2 1/2.

[MrGneiss]

I know I posted how I got into pachinko around here somewhere, if I can ever find that post I'll re post it here!!

You are in luck with the cell swapping as you already have the most cell swapped frame around these parts, the Lumina frame!!

[Lazarus]

First I would like to say that I am NOT addicted! So now that's cleared up. I was given a pachinko machine for Christmas as a kid. As would be expected I grew tired of it and it ended up on a rummage sale. Just one of the many regrets. A few years back I was told by a coworker of a place selling slot machines. I went to look at them and realized they were from japan like that old pachinko. I bought on for to much money . I wanted to know more about it and found the old way. I came along to pachitalk when we were created. With my first machine being an Aztec standard three wheel machine I purchased a number of others as well as pachinkos over the years.

[Lazarus]

Sharmoni. I took a look at the picks of your machines. I am vary impressed! I will need to pay more attention to the vintage pachinko.

[Tulsa]

How did I get hooked?

It started slow with only small doses of the poppy and soon it was $200 a day to satisfy the craving. Finally the hospital put me on methadone and it was all down hill from there.

[Lazarus]

Do you have what I asked for? Good I'll meet you at the usual place. OK, here is the money and this is what I want next time. Sheeeesh You didn't see that! Here take this bag of tokens. Have fun!

[mudfud]

my first exposure to pachinko was as a kid at the japanese gardens in the los angeles area. they had a few to play. you bought balls to use, but I don't think they had prizes or a back window. I tried it and wanted to play more, but couldn't convince the parents to let me "waste more money"

later when I was high school age, pachinko palace had a store in the sacramento area. we got a 70's daiichi w/eagle in the center, and I enjoyed playing with it and figuring out how to get the lights working. I kept wishing that I had more than one tulip on the playfield, to make it more fun, and to be able to play longer.

20 years later, the pachinko had been collecting dust in my parents house. I was moving spare furniture to a second house in the fresno area, where I worked a lot, and thought I'd put in a game room in the family room. so, the pachinko went to the foothills near yosemite.

last year, I moved again, since I work in salinas now, and the pachinko finally got dusted off one day and I tried to remember how to get it going. vintage pachinko's how-to instructions got the ball empty chute closed and I was hooked again.

since november, i found this website, learned more and more about pachinkos, realized that there were lots of different mechanisms to collect, bought and installed the extra tulips, and I have bought too many pachinkos:

a Sanyo comet, with a lemur in the center, $30, not working, but fixed in about 2 hours, two single shot Sophias at $75 and $20, both dirty and needing some work, one Maruhon super play for $75 with 800 balls (Xmas present to brother-inlaw), one nishijin power flash $87 plus shipping (still coming from NC), and one Star Wars 2004 for $250 w/nice cabinet and shooter not working (stuck staple in the mechanism)

my friends say that I have pachinko brain and need pachinkos anonymous.

I am on this forum at least twice a day and scanning local craigslists and ebay almost daily.

maybe I need to plan a game room addition when I remodel the laundry room...

thanks for all the support and friendliness here!

[hanabi]

How did I get hooked??

Well we had been collecting UK fruit machines for a couple of years and although I played them a little, they didn’t really excite me that much

One day, back in June 2006, the other half informed me that he had won yet another slot machine on ebay I thought, another huge thing to clutter up the garage

Well when he arrived home with it I was surprised to see how small it was, It was a Pachislo!! Don Chan 2 to be exact, although at the time I presumed it to be called ‘hanabi’ hence my user name here

Well that pachislo seemed to interest me far more than any other slot / fruit machine ever did, I enjoyed playing it and wanted to learn more about these Japanese machines

I think I googled and found the link to PachiTalk and a whole new world opened up to me

Shortly after, we bought a Pachinko, STAR WARS!! And I was totally blown away by it, I couldn’t stop playing it, it drew me in with it’s amazing lights, video and the cute animatronic R2D2, suddenly I realised it was the lure of the hallowed sphericals calling to me

I have never been the same since that day!!

I became a Pachinko-holic immediately and the purchasing of more quickly followed, I now have 9 pachinkos and 6 pachislos and it’s only the current lack of space that is holding me back from buying more, but I’m currently in the process of trying to get planning approval to build my long awaited extension,

I must say that I got addicted to PachiTalk the day I joined and it became part of my World on a daily basis, the people are fantastic and I doubt you could find a better community anywhere else

[Sid]

oh lets see...

it started off on a cruise, where the mrs and i had, had lots of fun playing the slots onboard and we came away with some small winnings.
An idea came to mind in my head that hey i wonder if i could find a slot for home use.
There started my quest for a slot machine, i looked locally and over Europe but found that they were much to pricey and second of all and most important Illegal to own here.

I let the Idea die, then one day while visiting one of the sites i frequented often back then RETROBLAST.COM i read an article by MAMEMASTER and well that and some searching brought me here at the end of September of 2005.

I joined, i got the info i needed i bought my first machine, but.. i got hooked more on the forum then on the machine...

sure the machine was fun but PachiTalk was funner full of excitement.. soon friendships evolved and more fun was had. a day wouldnt go by that i wasnt here.

Good times. in March of 2006 i was given the opportunity by Tulsa to become a moderator, this gave me new purpose and reason to be here beside the fun i was having... 2008 for me was a year when i took on more challenges going from moderator to owner almost overnight, after a day that many of us would prefer to forget.

since then ive been online both in in the scene and behind the scenes.

bottom line was that its not just the machines, its the people.

PT people is good people and i am very glad i can call a good number of them friends.

thats my story and im sticking to it!





oh and Stuey... Here is your write up..

PachiTalk Stuey's Story!

[dishpan]

Hooked? I'm not hooked. I can quit anytime I want to ... not ...

Mamemaster's Pachislo article at retroblast.com was also my first introduction and googling brought me here. Pachitalk was the crack that got me hooked and the good people here are helping me control the addiction ... not ...