New owner...and what exactly did I buy?

[Codo]

For some reason, I've always wanted a pachinko machine. I think I may have seen/played one when I was a kid. For whatever reason, while I was at work the other day, I just randomly pulled up a web browser, went to Craig's List, and typed in Pachinko. Would you believe I found one nearby? Guy wanted $125 for it, said it was working and it had, he guessed, around 300 balls. I talked him down to $100 and went and picked it up last night.

I'm very pleased. He said he bought the machine 15 years ago. He'd meant to set it up in his basement as part of a game room, but after a while, he kept buying pinball machines. He finally decided to let go of the pachinko which had been occupying a corner of his garage for a the past few years without being turned on. He plugged it in, and it lit up...but we couldn't get it to fire. We could hear the relays and see the arm moving, but balls weren't shooting. I took it anyway.

Got home, started cleaning it up (some mud on the front and spider webs inside). Wound up taking apart part of the ball feed mechanism and found the culprit. An incorrectly sized ball. When placed with all of the other balls, it was clearly the incorrect size. And then I watched in amazement as the balls started flying everywhere (and I mean everywhere...I still had the front door open!!!).

Chased down the errant balls, loaded everything up...closed all of the latches...and away I went. I'm hooked. Something stupidly fascinating about those balls flying around.

So as a new pachinko owner, I had a couple of questions and here seemed to be a good place to ask.

First...Odd issue. My wife sat down to play...and couldn't. It wouldn't recognize her touching the knob. Here's the super weird part...if she has her hand on the knob...and then I touch her (not the hand on the knob...but her opposite arm) then it will fire!

Next...what is this machine? I can post pics later (wife has digital camera and is off at work...along with the charger for my dead cell phone). Maybe a description will suffice for now... It is a Nishijin. My understanding is that it is would be termed a 'modern' pachinko. The theme of the machine seems to be food. The playfield has a plate with a wooden fork and spoon on it. There are vegetables and fruite all over the place. The video screen at one point appears to have the picture of a refrigerator on it. The light at the top of the machine says 'miraculous energy'. At the bottom of the playfield is a marking that says 'S-838B'.

And finally...if anyone can ID this machine...how does it play? I've gotten it to make quite a bit of noise and sound...but there appears to be more stuff I haven't been able to get it to do. There is a spinning gizmo above the monitor that has a bell pepper, a tomato and possibly a lemon. When I turn the machine on, this spins around and stops at the green pepper. I have never seen this spin while playing. There is some sort of rectangular opening at the bottom. My son said he thought he had seen it closing up while he was playing at one time. I've never seen it budge. And finally... am I missing something with the video screen? When a ball drops in the strawberry under it, the stuff on the screen starts spinning like it was some kind of roulette machine. On occasion, I've seen a bird and a superhero fly across the screen. I have never seen it show all three of the same thing.

Thanks for any help.

[MrGneiss]

WELCOME!!!

Pictures will help a lot!!

Without seeing it game play probably goes like this..Get a ball in the start pocket (strawberry?) and this will start a spin, get all the same symbol on the screen and the rectangular door at the bottom will open, get balls in there and let the winning begin!!

That just the basics..There could be more (or different game play) but its hard to say what until you can post some pics!!

[pachi_sloter]

The machine is Lucky Tomato SVZ (ラッキートマトSVZ) from 1997.

[dattia]

Welcome to PachiTalk!

There should be a metal ring around the shooter knob... your hand must be touching that ring in order for the balls to shoot. Is it possible that your wife wasn't touching the ring when she tried to shoot, and perhaps you were touching something metal when you touched her? Otherwise, being the romantic that I am... I would just say something lame like 'you complete her' or "two bodies, one soul'...

Have her try it again and make sure she is grasping the ring.

[Codo]

Thank you! Lucky Tomato SVZ (ラッキートマトSVZ) appears to be the name of my machine. The picture in your link pretty much looks like my machine...except I haven't yet seen the lucky tomato show up. Is there some trick to getting the video to show three in a row or is Vegas odds on that one?

I made sure my wife was touching the metal ring correctly. I like the 'completing her' idea... However, I need her to be able to use the machine, otherwise it's going to be one of those things she complains about sitting in the basement and maybe I should get rid of it... To appease her though...does anybody know if there was ever a Phantom of the Opera pachinko? I get one of those for her, and I can have about 5 or 6 of my own!

I was reading somewhere else that it might be a sensitivity issue. We found that she could activate the shooter if she touched the metal frame around the glass. I see on the back of the machine, there is a small box with two dials right about where the knob comes through. Would that be the adjustment? If so, which knob does what?

Is there some sort of 'testing' mode for these machines? For instance, getting it to turn all of the lights on to see if they work...

Thanks!

[TailTrauma]

I was reading somewhere else that it might be a sensitivity issue. We found that she could activate the shooter if she touched the metal frame around the glass. I see on the back of the machine, there is a small box with two dials right about where the knob comes through. Would that be the adjustment? If so, which knob does what?

Yup, that sounds like a sensitivity adjustment! My Newgins have two knobs, one adjusting how hard it shoots and one adjusting touch ring sensitivity... Not sure if yours will be similar. I didn't know which was which, I just messed with both. If you don't want to do that, when you can post a clear picture maybe a Japanese reader will be able to translate the knob labels.

And...

Welcome!!!

[rubberratt]

The newest DEVO album is awesome

GREAT AVATAR Mr.G.

[MrGneiss]

...I haven't yet seen the lucky tomato show up. Is there some trick to getting the video to show three in a row or is Vegas odds on that one?

Like a slot machine you're just going to have to wait until its ready to pay out!!

No trick, just keep playing!!

The newest DEVO album is awesome

Yeah it is!!

[Codo]

You were right...keep playing. LOL

I spent an hour playing last night...nothing. My youngest son who is 8, was fascinated by the machine. He asked to play. I figured it was time to make dinner, so sure... About 10 minutes in, the machine starts making a little more noise than normal (BTW, what's with that? Two volume settings...ear-piercing...and ear-piercing-even-at-the-neighbors-house...) So I look around the corner as he says 'Cool, what's with the little door that opened up?' Dinner got scorched, because I'm trying to keep re-cycling the couple of hundred balls I own so he can keep playing...because the 'HEY I'M NOT GOING TO WORK BECAUSE I'M MAD' sound seems to have found a volume setting of it's own called ear-splitting-for-anybody-within-a-mile. So just as I finally get him and the machine settled back down to normal play and rescue dinner...he hits it again. Holy crap...that's some serious volume and I consider disconnecting the speaker, but heck, the sounds are all part of the excitement, right? So, a while later...finally getting the machine settled again and able to actual get dinner on the table...AGAIN! Seriously? I've played this machine for several hours since I bought it...and nada. My 8 year old in 45 minutes gets THREE jackpots. Man, that's not fair. Good news is, I can tell all the lights work for sure! Even that one at the top got a good workout. I even got to see things on the video screen that I hadn't seen before (frozen veggies were new for me!)

So, this brings me to a small list of questions...

1) Does what happens on the video screen have any effect on anything? Or are you just waiting for a jackpot match? I've seen a jet, a bird, a superhero, and Lucky Tomato all show up. Sometimes the sound changes, and one of the characters looks like they're trying to affect the outcome of the spin. I've sometimes seen the pictures on the screen (accompanied by a sound change) get shorter, and slot machine-style payout line overlays start blinking (I've seen an upper-line pattern, and a centerline with both diagonals show up).

2) Does anything that happens on the field while the jackpot is spinning have any effect on the result?

3) Does the machine drop balls from the payout system into the 'out' box just to make more noise or something? I've noticed that when it makes small payouts, it seems to drop just enough into the upper tray...but when it's going all out making payouts, there are a handful of balls that get dropped into the dead ball bin. Figured this might be some form of 'hey-check-out-how-exciting-this-is' noisemaker to go along with the sounds.

4) I think there is something that changes the frequency of the claw opening. I swear while I was playing, that thing only opened once in a while. After my son made his second jackpot, I swear this thing was opening and closing quite frequently.

5) The subpockets don't count right? They are hard to get balls into, and they just don't seem to excite the machine very much. They're just there to make the machine look cooler, right?

6) Same for the gates right? Acutally, I'm a little more serious on this one. I don't see that the gates do ANYTHING...

7) Within the start pocket, there is a numeric display with four LEDs around it. What in the world does this do??? Most of the time, the numbers are cycling so fast on this thing, and the four LEDs seem to have any number of lights lit whenever it feels like it. On the other hand, I know that these are not entirely random. I've seen that if the machine sits long enough, only one LED is lit. I did notice the LEDs above the LCD which seem to be tied into the start pocket. Not fair that further start pocket hits don't seem to count if you've lit up all four lights. There are 3 LEDs to the right of the LCD, but these I believe are random.

8) On the back, there is a box with a single number display. I believe this box might be the CPU as it has attachments to quite a bit of the rest of the machine. To my mind, this makes this number some sort of status display. Most of the time it shows a zero, which I would presume to be 'System OK'. I've seen it light up with an 'H' a couple of times when trying to feed balls into the system to support my son's jackpots.

9) I presume the requirement of having to touch the ring around the shooter knob to fire it is to prevent people from just tying down the knob so they can play a whole bank of machines?

Whew...sorry for the long list...but I'm definitely curious. I finally found the label on the machine that has the name on it. The power supply cover has some Japanese characters followed by 'SVZ'...so I presume that says 'Lucky Tomato' or, as Google Translate says 'Rakkitomato' Heh.

[candyflip]

Congratulations on your first machine - sounds like it has you well and truly hooked.

So, this brings me to a small list of questions...

1) Does what happens on the video screen have any effect on anything? Or are you just waiting for a jackpot match? I've seen a jet, a bird, a superhero, and Lucky Tomato all show up. Sometimes the sound changes, and one of the characters looks like they're trying to affect the outcome of the spin. I've sometimes seen the pictures on the screen (accompanied by a sound change) get shorter, and slot machine-style payout line overlays start blinking (I've seen an upper-line pattern, and a centerline with both diagonals show up).

The short is answer is yes, but you can't control it. In other words, little things will appear that tip you to possible higher likelihood of jackpots (and you'll learn these patterns as time goes on), but you can't make those 'reaches' appear - they come when the machine is damn good and ready to deliver them.

Your particular machine features 3 types of Jackpots. You can find the info (in Japanese) here. What this says is that depending on the character that comes up (Bell Pepper, Grapefruit, or Tomato), you will get different amounts of Bonus rounds. It's 40 rounds for the Bell Pepper, 70 rounds for the Grapefruit, and 100 rounds for the Tomato. This seems like a very high number of rounds though - perhaps they mean total balls instead? Japanese is typically obtuse in its direct explanations. Anyway, you'll know from playing it some more. It also says the chance of this occurring is roughly 1/3 each - in other words, entirely random. And finally it notes the CR (Card Reader) version of this machine is identical in these patterns.

2) Does anything that happens on the field while the jackpot is spinning have any effect on the result?

Again, no, not on this machine.

3) Does the machine drop balls from the payout system into the 'out' box just to make more noise or something? I've noticed that when it makes small payouts, it seems to drop just enough into the upper tray...but when it's going all out making payouts, there are a handful of balls that get dropped into the dead ball bin. Figured this might be some form of 'hey-check-out-how-exciting-this-is' noisemaker to go along with the sounds.

Good guess, but no. My guess is that what's happening here is during Jackpots, the number of balls coming into your top tray is vastly increased. If that top try fills up, balls will eventually spill into your lower tray automatically as they bank back up into the machine payout hopper. In a parlour, the player would be draining his top tray slowly into the lower tray throughout the Jackpot sequence, so as the levels remain manageable in both.

4) I think there is something that changes the frequency of the claw opening. I swear while I was playing, that thing only opened once in a while. After my son made his second jackpot, I swear this thing was opening and closing quite frequently.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'claw', as I can't see a good clear picture of the entire playfield anywhere on the internet. Can you please put one or two in your post? Have a look at the attachment below for some terms in English that might help.

5) The subpockets don't count right? They are hard to get balls into, and they just don't seem to excite the machine very much. They're just there to make the machine look cooler, right?

The sub pockets you refer to do actually pay out balls to you. On your machine, it's a 6 /10 /15 machine meaning you get 6 balls back for hitting the pockets, 10 for a 'Start' pocket or gate (makes the reels spin) and 15 during a Jackpot entry in the V or 'Attacker' gate.

6) Same for the gates right? Acutally, I'm a little more serious on this one. I don't see that the gates do ANYTHING...

I'm not sure what you mean by 'gates', as I can't see a good clear picture of the entire playfield anywhere on the internet. Can you please put one or two in your post? Again, look at the attachment.

7) Within the start pocket, there is a numeric display with four LEDs around it. What in the world does this do??? Most of the time, the numbers are cycling so fast on this thing, and the four LEDs seem to have any number of lights lit whenever it feels like it. On the other hand, I know that these are not entirely random. I've seen that if the machine sits long enough, only one LED is lit. I did notice the LEDs above the LCD which seem to be tied into the start pocket. Not fair that further start pocket hits don't seem to count if you've lit up all four lights. There are 3 LEDs to the right of the LCD, but these I believe are random.

I've seen a video of your machine (not a good one) and agree that the lights above your LCD are the Horyu Lamp (see attachment) which track how many stored START ball entries you have. Yes, not fair it only goes to 4 - but them's the brakes.
The 3 LEDs to the right of the LCD do seem to be random to me. Other lights on your board may or may not be random - the manufacturers change these according to their whims as to whether they show anything, or nothing. You'll find this out over time.

8) On the back, there is a box with a single number display. I believe this box might be the CPU as it has attachments to quite a bit of the rest of the machine. To my mind, this makes this number some sort of status display. Most of the time it shows a zero, which I would presume to be 'System OK'. I've seen it light up with an 'H' a couple of times when trying to feed balls into the system to support my son's jackpots.

You guessed right. Its a status display. 0 is 'OK'.

9) I presume the requirement of having to touch the ring around the shooter knob to fire it is to prevent people from just tying down the knob so they can play a whole bank of machines?

Yes - its against parlour 'law' to play multiple machines.

Whew...sorry for the long list...but I'm definitely curious. I finally found the label on the machine that has the name on it. The power supply cover has some Japanese characters followed by 'SVZ'...so I presume that says 'Lucky Tomato' or, as Google Translate says 'Rakkitomato' Heh.

Your machine is ラッキートマトSVZ which is Lucky Tomato SVZ - there are others in the series that look different to your's, Lucky Tomato SVX here and CR Lucky Tomato Z here

cheers

[MrGneiss]

I think I can answer your other two questions..

4) I think there is something that changes the frequency of the claw opening. I swear while I was playing, that thing only opened once in a while. After my son made his second jackpot, I swear this thing was opening and closing quite frequently.

I believe you mean the "claws" around the start pocket??

If so the during normal play they will only open when you win a sub roulette (see below) But during a fever or bonus round they often open and close a lot more as you saw..

6) Same for the gates right? Actually, I'm a little more serious on this one. I don't see that the gates do ANYTHING...

Your machine I think from what I see has 2 pass through pockets..Most likely the one on the right does nothing, but getting balls through the one on the left will bank 'spins'..There are usually 4 leds that will light up each time a ball goes through..

Each time a ball goes through the pass through pocket, then one of the 4 leds will light..those are stocked chances of getting the flippers around the main start pocket to open for less than a second, theoretically giving you a better chance to get a ball in the start pocket for a spin..there is usually also 2 symbols somewhere on the play field or on the screen that are usually an X and an O that will flash back and forth and then stop on one of them..if it stops on the right symbol then the flippers will open..if it stops on the other symbol then they won't open..Then if you have anymore stocked it will start again!!

On some pachinkos it will always stop on the winning symbol and on others it rarely does..like on Star Wars!!

It is often referred to as the 'sub roulette' on these forums!!

I hope I explained that ok...Its a feature on most modern pachinkos!!

[Codo]

I believe you mean the "claws" around the start pocket??

Yes. Sorry, I was taking the 'gate' and 'claw' terminology from the stick-ied thread here called 'Pachinko Glossary Part One: Playfield Terminology ' If I was mis-using these terms, then I apologize.

There are usually 4 leds that will light up each time a ball goes through..

Hmmm, I wonder if these are the 4 LED's in the middle of my start pocket. As I said, there is a sedmented LCD display to show a single number in the middle of the start pocket (that most of the time looks like it is cycling numbers like crazy). There are also 4 LED's at each corner of this digit. I'll have to keep an eye out/experiment to see if the gates are tied to these LEDs.

...there is usually also 2 symbols somewhere on the play field or on the screen that are usually an X and an O that will flash back and forth and then stop on one of them..if it stops on the right symbol then the flippers will open..if it stops on the other symbol then they won't open..Then if you have anymore stocked it will start again!!

Now this one...I'm not sure I've got. I wonder if this is the myserious number display again in the start pocket area...

[Codo]

Good guess, but no. My guess is that what's happening here is during Jackpots, the number of balls coming into your top tray is vastly increased. If that top try fills up, balls will eventually spill into your lower tray automatically as they bank back up into the machine payout hopper. In a parlour, the player would be draining his top tray slowly into the lower tray throughout the Jackpot sequence, so as the levels remain manageable in both.

Actually, what I meant was that the machine was dumping balls into the...well, in a coin-op machine, you'd call it the coin box. It's the box in the back of the machine that holds the 'discards'.

[candyflip]

Actually, what I meant was that the machine was dumping balls into the...well, in a coin-op machine, you'd call it the coin box. It's the box in the back of the machine that holds the 'discards'.

ahh, I see. My mistake.

Not sure what's happening there?

[Codo]

Well, clearly it appears to be intended. There is actually a chute where the balls get dropped from. The main chute is obvious and only dumps balls while the player is playing. The second chute though only seems to dump balls while the payout mechanism is running.

On a side note -- This is ANNOYING. VERY annoying. When it is making big payouts is the only time I have to mess with moving balls from the bottom to the top. This means that it is also the same point in time where balls fall to the floor because I'm messing with the tray because I can't put the trade in longways and have it cover both chutes. *Grumble*

[Drunkenclam]

That the reason we all search or try to make our own ball lifters or have 1000's of ball.
I hate having to stop during fever, to top up the hoppers.

[Moparformances]

Well, clearly it appears to be intended. There is actually a chute where the balls get dropped from. The main chute is obvious and only dumps balls while the player is playing. The second chute though only seems to dump balls while the payout mechanism is running.

sounds like it is working as intended... the balls that trip a payout travel a different path then balls that do not trip a payout... some machine's will actualy give you you won ball back out to the front of the machine...(though i think that is a vintage feature)..

my guess would be that parlor's wanted balls that were wins and ball's that were losses coming from different spots so they could track how a machine was playing.. to many winners would signal a need for the nails to be adjusted... to many loosing balls ment not geting played and it is then time to adjust the nails the other direction...

On a side note -- This is ANNOYING. VERY annoying. When it is making big payouts is the only time I have to mess with moving balls from the bottom to the top. This means that it is also the same point in time where balls fall to the floor because I'm messing with the tray because I can't put the trade in longways and have it cover both chutes. *Grumble*

yes verry verry annoying... time for a nice cabinet and lots of balls... or its time for a ball lifter

[luckydog]

we call it the "two handed shuffle"

I've play thru many fevers that way