Vintage Pachinko owner wades into the "modern pool"

[p.opus]

Picked this up on CL today for 75 bucks. Couldn't believe it. South Florida is not known for it's Pachinko selection.

Below is a 92 Nishijin "Hit Parade". Talk about a culture shock. I experienced my first "fever" mode and now realize why 500 balls just is not enough. This machine was an all 11 machine, but I saw that you could take the cover off of the seesaw cover and adjust the stops to make it an all 15. Since I am going to put a Gaku counter on it, I adjusted it to make it an all 15.

It appears every thing is in place with the exception of a few plastic covers on the back. Had to clear some stuck balls out the back and clean the jackpot track, to make it work. I also had to play with the shooter a bit.

I didn't know you had to have your hand on the "chrome" knob as well as rotating the lever to activate the shooter, so that had me a little confused coming from the simple manual shooters of my vintages.

I'm glad I bought 1000 balls, this thing just goes through balls. I may have to put 1500 in it, I'm not sure.

Well, here are the pix. It's in fantastic condition.

IMAG0266.jpgIMAG0268.jpgIMAG0269.jpgIMAG0270.jpgIMAG0272.jpg

[hanabi]

Sounds like you're going to have fun with this one Welcome to THE Dark Side

[alphaminor]

Great machine! Congratulations

[luckydog]

nice "early modern"

[p.opus]

it is a sweet machine. lots of lights, I love the characters that rotate through each round of a fever.

Speaking of fevers, does this particular hanemono have an adjustable fever mode. The machine is currently set to have 15 fever rounds and each round is very easy to advance to. This causes a veritable avalanche of balls, but the machine only tops out at 750 to 800 balls without any external hopper or ball handling system.

As a result, I am constantly refilling the back, transferring won balls to the lower hopper, emptying it, etc. etc. When my Gaku counter arrives, I'll be able to keep a running score. But I'm wondering if you can set the number of fever rounds on this machine. For me, 3 rounds would be sufficient. You could still win a bunch of balls and not have to continually work the front and back of the machine.

I know it sounds blasphemous to want to lower the number of fever rounds, but this bad boy could easily go through 3000 balls in a full fever and I don't have the ball handling capabilities to handle that.

Just a question.

[luckydog]

15 rounds can't be changed, if you get tired of filling the back hopper you can just shoot a few balls in the fever pocket each round

[p.opus]

Just win less...yeah, that's helpful

Seriously though. These early moderns are a different breed. They go through balls faster than Taylor Swift goes through boyfriends.

[Drunkenclam]

Ahh, The young one will learn the ways of the 2 handed shuffle - Or buy a ball lifter and another 1000 balls

[hanabi]

You know there's a reason we refer to it as a 'Fever'

Modern pachinko is all about fun and the frantic refilling and just wait til you hit back to back 'Fever' rounds

Of course you could get a ball lifter, I have one but I don't use it,

instead i utilise either one of my 2 children, they make excellent pachinko ball replenishers

of course sometimes I let them keep firing the balls for me whilst I refill the hopper, I'm not totally bad

[p.opus]

Modern pachinko is all about fun and the frantic refilling and just wait til you hit back to back 'Fever' rounds

Been There, Done that . It's fun. I have a bit of the system. Two out of three rounds, you can plant a ball with one of the characters so it will always go into the "V" hole at the end of the round. So Those are the rounds I refill. Once I ensure that I have the next round locked up, I turn my attention to refilling. On one of the rounds you don't have that option so you have to go for broke during that round.

About 800 balls is all this thing will hold without modification or a cabinet. I'm glad I have my Gaku Counter on order. What's fun about a fever when you don't know what you won?

[jodini]

I had a Nishijin Gumi-Gumi machine...same as yours but different them! I had no idea it had stop to adjust the payouts...nice find! But I sold it because man...it paid out like crazy and made my arm hurt! You got this machine at a great price! I do love the colors.
Here's mine when we first got it!
P3139125 - YouTube

Enjoy!
Joe

[p.opus]

Thanks Joe. I was a little disappointed at the "all 11" aspect of the machine at first since I was definitely going to put a Gaku counter on it. (only way to keep track of fevers). When I was cleaning, I noticed the jackpot supply and how it was set up and saw the two additional slots that you could screw the slots into. Very simple adjustment. The machine says all "11" on the front, but now it's all "15". Yes, I have to work more during a fever, but at least my Gaku Counter will be accurate.

The seller was asking 75 for it, and I countered with 50 sight unseen. I told him if I needed to do any work on it I'd give him 50. Brought some balls over and tested it out. I was tempted to offer less than asking price, but the machine was really in nice condition and I couldn't really justify paying less.

He had never seen it operate before because the person that sold it to him gave him like 15 balls. "Houston, we have a problem". He wanted a video of it in action, so I'm going to send him a video of it in fever mode.

Really the only work that needed done was cleanup and polishing of the pins. I took apart the shooter because I thought it was acting up, but realized it was user error. Did not know you needed to be touching chrome and pulling the lever. Once I played around with it and could hear the solenoid cycle when I touched the chrome of the knob, I realized what a tool I was.

All that's missing is a jackpot mechanism cover, which doesn't bother me, because it is a nice way to prefill the front supply tray without having to open the glass. I was thinking about putting glass instead of the plexi that is in there, but I don't think so. The machine is noisy enough as it is, and the glass will just amplify the noise.

It's a really fun machine, and at 75.00 it's really the closest I could get to a modern at that price. It was actually 25 dollars less than I paid for my 78 Sankyo.

I think I'm done for now. Unless something REALLY special comes down the pike. I now have two model 'A's (one a front overflow) that I did a playfield replacement on, so the refurbishment bug has been satisfied. I have the Sankyo 78 which is similar to what I had as a kid, so the nostalgia bug is quenched. Now I have a modern (albeit "early modern"), so I'm not a "fever" virgin anymore.

[mxfaiman]

Looks like you got a great find there my friend. Looks better than those CL pics showed it as.

I'm sure you'll want to add a volume control to the speaker. I still need to do that on a few of mine. Anyone know a good place to get those?

[Moparformances]

looks like a nice machine.. you can adjust the nails so its a bit harder to win.. thats what the parlor's did..

[Moparformances]

Looks like you got a great find there my friend. Looks better than those CL pics showed it as.

I'm sure you'll want to add a volume control to the speaker. I still need to do that on a few of mine. Anyone know a good place to get those?

my favorite

6 Volume Controls for Pachislo Slot Machine Pachinko | eBay

[jodini]

You got to love non-users when it comes to buying! Like this one:
Pachinko Machine Sankyo w Video Sound | eBay
And it includes "lots of balls"! Of course those balls are stuck on the playing field...ha! I count about 100! And all it would take is someone to move the glass from the front slot to the back and it would be fixed!

Take some video of the machine playing!
Joe

[p.opus]

Yeah, now that I have experience some full blown fevers, I think I'm gonna adjust the nails in going to the fever holes. Just a little bit though. I still want to fever.

[p.opus]

Well, You asked for it. Here is the Hit Parade in Fever Mode.

[p.opus]

Oh, and BTW, I found out, this is actually an Early 80's machine. The John Hughes/Miami Vice color scheme of the frame should have been a give away. I saw another Hit Parade which was on a newer frame, and it was labeled as a 91/92. I guess Nishijin re-issued the playfield back in the 90's in a newer frame as a bit of nostalgia of the Hanemono style machines.

Here is the 90's Hit Parade in the newer frame compared to the 80's one that I have.

NishijinHitParade01_90's.jpg

Above: 90's Hit Parade.

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Above: 80's Hit Parade.