First Pachinko - Monster Village

[Rabies]

Got one for Christmas from a good dealer here in Toronto, Canada. It's a used refurb of course, but looks like new.

I've been reading this site all day long, but I still have a couple Noobish things I wonder about:

1. What's running "under the hood" in these machines? Is there a harddrive somewhere in there? I just can't believe how much high-res graphics and video is in there.

2. Is it possible to check bulbs without taking parts off the back? I THINK everything lights up, but there are a couple spots I think MIGHT not be... The know for example has a reflector style part that looks like it could light up.

3. Been reading avidly about ball lifters. Anyone ever consider something using electro-magnets and conveyor belt?

~Ray

[luckydog]

these machines are amazing, believe it or not everything is run by computer chips.

some areas may only light up in fever rounds, so don't go taking anything apart until you have played the machine thru some fevers.

I have a light on my Evangelon thats has only gone on once during one of many fevers.

building your own ball lifter has been discussed and some people have tried it with no sucess so far.

[Rabies]

Heh. Computer chips eh?
I was wondering a bit deeper than that... I collect, restore and repair classic video arcade machines as a hobby. I'd take the pachinko apart just to find out, but.. I don't want to risk damaging anything.

Anyways, another thought came:

How do pachinko parlors NOT end up with patron injuries from stepping/slipping on pachinko balls? Surely balls must get dropped fairly frequently! I bet this is why pachinko never took off in America: There'd be too many law-suits!!

[Tulsa]

Remembering the ball represents money, there aren't many patrons that are going to let their money roll all over the floor. Unlike the game room player who's filling his own hopper during a fever round and dropping balls, their ball replenishing systems take rather good care of this.

[DrDark]

A Magnetic ball lifter might cause many problems. I can only imagine what would happen if the balls became magnetized. I bet just one magnetic ball would stop the machine cold.

[daverob]

Heh. Computer chips eh?
I was wondering a bit deeper than that...

Most of what I've found is from examining Sankyo and Heiwa machines, but the general architecture appears to be common between most of the machines I've encountered.

A pachinko with a graphic LCD display is usually split up into three processor modules.

The frame processor is usually a custom single chip processor based on a Z80. This just handles the payout control part of the machine, including communicating with the card reader unit and enabling/disabling the shooter handle control.

The main processor, is the one that decides on the gameplay, sets the odds and determines what is going to happen next. Like the frame processor, this is also a Z80 based single chip semi-secure processor.

The A/V or 'sub control' processor, is the one that handles all the graphics, this is different for each make/series of machines. Typically on recent machines this will be a processor and a separate graphics processor, and will be of a similar power to that found in a playstation 1.

There might be a audio processor, but it always seems to be integrated into a single chip on the sound board (along with a separate PROM chip) and I'm not sure if this is just a sound chip with the samples held in ROM, or a completely separate audio processor system.

In terms of storage, it's always in PROM chips. Hard drives or optical storage wouldn't survive long with all of the vibrations from a working pachinko machine.

The single chip Z80s only have around 8-16k embedded ROM in them, but they don't really need much as they really just function as simple microcontrollers.

The AV processor will typically have between 1-4Mb of program memory, and the GPU will have access to tens to hundreds of Mb of graphics roms (typically 2-6 32Mb chips or equivalent on most machines I've looked at).

[compirate]

Remembering the ball represents money, there aren't many patrons that are going to let their money roll all over the floor. Unlike the game room player who's filling his own hopper during a fever round and dropping balls, their ball replenishing systems take rather good care of this.

Any ball that hits the floor in a parlor is considered 'dead' and can not be picked up by patrons. Attendants are everywhere and have magnetic pickup tools to keep the floor clear.

[arbycoffee]

parlor floors draft to a corner for the balls to roll

[Rabies]

Great info. Thanks!

By the way, sorry for the dupe post. I had posted the "pachinko cherry popped" thread, then later, I checked "Show All posts" by me, and it didn't show up. I thought maybe I forgot to click submit or something amid all the Pachitalk pages I had open / was reading.

[Tulsa]

Any ball that hits the floor in a parlor is considered 'dead' and can not be picked up by patrons. Attendants are everywhere and have magnetic pickup tools to keep the floor clear.

If I ever go to Japan, I'm going to take my magnetic pickup tool with me!

I'll save a ton!

[hanabi]

If I ever go to Japan, I'm going to take my magnetic pickup tool with me!

I'll save a ton!

won't a 'ton' be a bit difficult / heavy to smuggle out of there
in your pockets??

[Tulsa]

won't a 'ton' be a bit difficult / heavy to smuggle out of there
in your pockets??

You're right.

I know, I'll take my wife. She has purses that hold that much stuff!

[arbycoffee]

I think my wifes purse could hold a Peel50 and the vienna boys choir