New guy with an old machine
My dad picked up a pachinko machine when I was 7 or 8 and me and my brother and sister (and the rest of the neighborhood kids) played it all the time. We would spend hours launching the balls and tinkering around in back trying to figure the whole thing out. It was the first (and really the only) toy we got that gave us full access to the inner workings of it. And it was fascinating. I spent as much time watching balls travel around the back side as I did the front. Some kids were happy out front with all the lights and color and then there was a sub set of us that were more amazed with the tubes, gates, levers, and pathways in the back. It was a self exploration into the world of mechanical engineering at a very young age. We could watch and learn the logic of it and it blew our tiny minds to think that someone had come up with this thing. If they were to make them today they would cover up the back before shipping them and offer a service package or extended warranty.
At some point we got another one and then a few more popped up at other kid's houses in the neighborhood and then somewhere along the way they all vanished to basements and garage back corners.
I don't know why pachinko popped into my head again a while back, but it did and I started searching. I found a filthy machine in a consignment shop for $40 bucks through Craigs. I started to mess around with it and went right to the internet to see what info I could find, which, of course, led me to you guys. I've had a lot of questions, but before I needed to post them I found the answer in a post somewhere on the site. I have a Nishijin Model-A Cupie Combit. I read through all the cleaning advice and trouble shooting stuff and especially found the animation video to be helpful. So instead of my first post being a question it is a thanks to you guys for all the quality info and education. I got it up and running and my kids are going to get something under the tree "From: Japan, To:USA". It probably won't be their favorite gift next to all devices, like PS4 stuff and ieverythings, but who am I kidding? It's for me! I loved working on it and I guess I do have one question.......anybody selling an old one?
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