Vintage Pachinko Book Pics

[emmadog]

Here's a small sampling of the pics in the book. As I mentioned before it's quite a beautiful book with great pics and quality paper. It has tons of pics based on years as well as a bunch of old black and white pics of pachinko parlors in the past and a timeline. Also shows machines being made and an artist creating cel designs for machines. I'm sure it's an exhaustive accounbt of pachinko history and I'm working on translating it now. The only machine I recognized is a Nishijin Power Roulette like mine in that it has the ball bumper as opposed to a ball return on theright side of the cel. Lemme know if u want hi-res pics emailed.

[emmadog]

More:

[bfree]

Really awesome!

[who922]

Amazing to me that with as many Pachis that we have, we don't have many of those designs that are shown in the book. I wonder what happened. Did they never make it out of Japan? Were they destroyed? Are they in museums? OR have these people just not found their way to the great PachiTalk site???

[emmadog]

I was thinking the same thing as I flipped through the pages. I think all the factors you mentioned are the reason for their scarcity. Vintage machines especially 50's and earlier, sell for a premium on YJA so I would think that those particular machines that rarely come up are indicative of both the quantity and type of what's available. That's my theory anyway based on my assumption that these machines are profitable for their sellers so it would behoove them to search them out.
I've contacted several manufacturers to find out more about their vintage machines (mainly arrange balls). I was surprised to receive responses from them and they all said they had no records on file that far back. It could be they all just blew me off but I tend to think that there really is not much record keeping in general. Maybe there's just not enough Japanese interested in the historical aspect of it all to warrant archiving as we Americans are fond of doing.
Here's a few more pics.

[emmadog]

Some more:
I particularly like the Heiwa in the second pic of the second group above from the other day. It reminds me of a power flash with the multiple pockets. It looks like possibly a ball in a certain pocket will open the other pockets of that color? Cool machine.

[JACKSJE4]

Thanks for scanning and posting these pics!! You have me drooling!!

I wish they also printed pis of the backside for each machine. I would love to see how some of these machines work.

I have one of the Hokoku machines in your post #5 - bottom row, second picture. How cool to see my machine in a book.

[emmadog]

I knew that one looked familiar!

[JACKSJE4]

YouTube - 1950's Hokoku Vintage Pachinko Machine

Does the book offer any manufacture date or other info about that machine?

[emmadog]

There is some info about that particular machine. I just sent pics of the pages to the translator so I should have something for you within a day.

[emmadog]

Standby for translation...

[emmadog]

Ok, apparently these types of machines are known as half-gauges since the ball dump is located mid field. This proved to be unpopular with players since another ball cannot be shot until the ball in motion lands in the tray to trigger another ball into the shooter area.
It sure makes for a cool mechanism though!! "Gauge also seems to be the name for the win pockets as well.
Ok translations 1 and 2 apply to the first pic. Translation 3 applies to these machines in general. Translation 4 applies to second pic.
Translation 1-Type 2, 7/10 gauge
Translation 2-Type 2, 7/10 gauge (P.19)
With 3 7/10 gauges in a row, there is no need for more explanation. However, notice the hole under the head. (Showa 31, Toyokuni Games)

• Translation 3-Type 2, Half gauge,Type 2 refers to the system in which the next ball comes to the firing location when the previous ball is confirmed to be either out or safe. However, players said that it was frustrating not being able to fire your next ball until the first ball falls to the bottom, so by taking the “out point” to the halfway point of the board, the waiting time was shortened and the player would not become annoyed. The model that came to be in this way is the half gauge. It was a great idea to decorate the bottom half of the board that had become unnecessary with a gauge. (Showa 28, Toyokuni Games)
• Translation 4-Type 2, 7/10 gauge Compared to the half gauge, the size of the playing area was increased. A rocket-shaped prize entrance added in the center drew players’ interest. (Showa 28, Nishijin)
• Showa 28 is 1953 and Showa 31 is 1956
  

[emmadog]

Some clarification for the above. What proved to be unpopular was not the ball dump being mid field. Apparently, this type of ball dump where the next ball cannot be shot until the previous ball enters, is what was unpopular. So the designers moved the dump to mid field to shorten the time it took for a ball to make it to the tray to subsequently release the next ball.
______________________________________________________
Also, thanks to the translation I figured out what the number at the bottom of each picture's caption is. It's the Showa year number.
The Nishijin Power Roulette was made in 1979.

[JACKSJE4]

Personally, I think it's pretty cool that there is a mechanism to prevent another ball going into play until the last ball has exited. But seeing how pachinkos have developed over the decades (electric ball shooters) it is apparant that people are generally impatient and want the ability to shoot balls with more frequency and allow them to bounce/play off each other.

Did I understand the translation correctly? Is the machine in the first picture dated around 1953?

Thank you so much for the information. I think it's facinating to learn something about one of the more unusual machines in my collection.

[emmadog]

I agree, I like the one ball at a time mechanism and yes that is the correct age. These machines are fascinating and yours is quite a find not only because of the type and age but it looks to be practically new!

[JACKSJE4]

You don't happen to have this Nishijin in that book of yours, do you? I am mostly interested in finding out the actual year it was manufactured.

[emmadog]

I couldnt find that machine and the only Nishijin from around that erawas dated at 1960. It is definitely more modern than yours. I'd guess yours to be early 50's. Are there any plastic parts on it?

[JACKSJE4]

Only one or two plastic covers. The rest is all metal.

[candyflip]

You're providing a terrific service here to the Vintage community emmadog - I really think some of this info should go 'sticky', perhaps in another separated thread when you have collated everything in one place?

Information of this type and calibre in English, with pictures, is rare as Rocking-Horse Do-Do.

- applause to you.

[emmadog]

Yeah, I'll set up some sort of sticky or something once I get it all better organized.
The book that these pics came out of has a ton of info to be translated.
I work with a half-Japanese guy and his mother speaks and reads the language. If she's stateside I'd like to see if she could help out. Maybe she could read the pages and record the info on audio and then I'll type it up. Plus my next book has made it to the states and is on the way to my place and I've got one coming after that. Should be plenty of info.
Thanks for the kudos.