"The ball never goes into the pocket!" or Bisty Fails Ballistics

[heima]

So this post is going to get kind of technical, and I will be making many generalizations. But I hope to identify a reason why you do not get the ball into certain pockets, and because of this, payout data provided by manufacturers might be wrong, misleading or is the case with many large companies, there is a lack of communication. In this instance, it is between the playfield designer, the statistician, and manufacturing quality assurance.

So lets begin the investigation.

Maybe you have a pachinko, that for some reason, balls never go into one, (or in my case, any) of the pockets.

What's that you say, sour grapes from a sore loser? Not after you see these pictures.

This problem I discovered is prevalent on the Bisty Evangelion 5 (I now own one) and other pachinkos employing the same playfield design aesthetic. Such as Evangelion 4.

Take a look at subroulettegate.jpg.
subroulettegate.jpg
This is the Sub-Roulette gate on the Eva 5. Notice how the brass pins arch up and over from the left of the gate. This design is used on many pachinkos over gates and pockets. It regulates entry into the gate/pocket from one general direction.

For the sake of simplicity, we will analyze this gate with respect to the ball entering the picture from upper left of center. The ball could enter from the upper right quadrant, but the discussion that follows can easily apply to that possibility.

So now look at a.jpg.
a.jpg
The ball falls and strikes pin A. It could go to the right or the left. If it goes to the left on any trajectory, it is not eventually going through the sub-roulette gate. If it goes to the right, it could follow an infinite number of paths, but I have indicated 4 most likely paths. It could strike pins B, C, D, or E next. It could also pass between D and E, but to do so would require it to strike pins C, D, or E first. How do I know? Look at the wear marks on the playfield. These are the summation of paths that a ball can travel. If you can draw a parabolic curve from the gap between pins D and E, back to pin A, travelling over a worn surface, then that is possible. But if you look closely, my curve from A to E might not be possible.

Lets say the ball strikes pin B. See b.jpg.
b.jpg
The ball can bounce off to the left clearing pin C and continuing down. No sub-roulette. But the ball can strike pins C, D, and E. Applying the wear path axiom, it doesn't appear that a ball can travel between pins D and E, or C and E without striking pin E first.

Now lets say that the ball strikes pin C. This isn't necessarily after bouncing off pin B. See c.jpg.
c.jpg
The ball could bounce to the left and not make the sub-roulette. The ball could bounce to the right and stike pin D or E, or pass between pins D and E, and again, no sub-roulette.

What if the ball strikes pin D? See d.jpg.
d.jpg
The ball could strike pin D, and continue to the right, but that is unlikely, and will probably strike the pin to the upper right of D and bounce back to the left. So after striking pin D, the ball will either arch over pin C, with no sub-roulette, strike pins C or E, pass between pins D and E (though the arch is drawn sloppy) or if everything's good, pass between pins C and E and into the sub-roulette gate.

When the ball eventually strikes pin E, see e.jpg,
e.jpg
the ball can either go to the right or to the left and the sub-roulette gate. If the ball were to come from the upper right quadrant, through the gap between pins B and D, the wear marks indicate that it would have to strike pins C, D, or E, berfore entering the gate. Note how narrow the wear paths are on either side of pin E.

So in looking at these photos, many things can be learned. For example, for a ball to pass through the sub-roulette, it must strike either pin D or pin E. "Duhh!" you say? Well, realize that if pin D was removed, the odds of getting a sub-roulette would become very slim.

So now you are asking yourself, "can I get this ten minutes of my life back?" The answer is no, but keep reading to see why you can't get that ball into that pocket.

Take a look at pockets1.jpg.
pockets1.jpg
The pin layout above the pockets look very similar to the sub-roulette, and it is with this exception, the layout is rotated 30 degrees clockwise. This is a design aesthetic to flow with the playfield graphic. The picture is not rotated at all.

I could do a ball bounce breakdown for this picture, but I don't need to, because you can see the wear paths in the playfield surface. From the wear paths, relatively no balls have ever gone into the upper left pocket. Some, but very few have gone into the center pocket, and it is not possible to tell what has happened with the lower right pocket. Because of the rotation of the arch layout, the ball would have to bounce off the pin opposite the arch opening, to enter the opening. However, the pin located immediately above the arch prevents that from happening. So you would think that all this pin arrangment is stacked against you and you would never get the ball into a pocket.

Well, its worse than that. See pockets2.jpg.
pockets2.jpg
The pins at the top of each arch are bent to the right, while the pins on the right side of the pocket are bent to the left. The pachinko parlor was bound and determined to not let that ball get into that pocket. But "Why" might you ask? Getting a ball into a pocket pays 10 balls. Getting a ball into the Start gets you only 3.

So for me, my first step is to correct the bent pocket pins and see if it helps my odds. If not, then remove the top pin of each arch. That should swing things in my favor.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and yes, the ball failing to enter the pocket is not all in your head. The playfield wear paths will tell the truth.

[rubberratt]

There is an entire Japanese art to bending the pins, and to walking around the parlor to see which machine is bent the way you like it

I always bend them so my machines to play hard, but allow pocket hits. I have a few books that describe the process, and (of course) the pin bending kits/tools. There is some pretty simple physics that describe the way the ball will bounce, when it hits a pin that is bent in a certain direction.

Most importantly... have fun !

[daverob]

As Rubberratt says, there's an art to bending the nails. While your diagrams may ring true with perfectly perpendicular nails, give one or two nails a tweak and you can make big changes to the paths the balls take. Also take into account the front to back lean of the machine. If the machine is perfectly upright the pins tend to bounce the balls a lot, a slight lean backwards (like the machines have in the parlour) and the pins have less bounce.

None of the quoted statistics from the manufacturers relate to balls launched, the odds are based on start pocket hits, as that's all that they have control over. It's up to the player to determine how the nails are set and to whether they'll be able to get a good ratio of balls launched vs start pocket hits on this machine, and up to the parlour to set them in a way that they can make maximum profit while keeping the player happy enough to keep feeding money into the machine.

So you'll often see the side payout pockets closed off on machines as they only provide a payout of balls, and no additional entertainment to the player. A machine with them closed off and the start pocket opened up a little can result in exactly the same balls played to balls won ratio (and the same profit ratio for the parlour), but will result in more 'action' on the machine (reaches/fevers etc) due to having more start pocket hits and can be perceived by the player to be a better and more rewarding machine to play.

Learn the art of bending the nails, in my opinion it's an essential part of pachinko ownership. If you end up resorting to removing any of the nails, then you're pretty much admitting failure as a pachinko owner.