50s Narita photos and info

[sharmoni]

Before I show you the details of the back mechanism, I'll point out the three unusual features on the front.

First, Narita bypassed the usual ball feed hole on the right side so players could load with their left hand and keep their right hand on the shooting lever. They did this by routing balls through a new hole in the door to drop right in front of the shooter. They covered the right side hole with a white plastic plate. This looks like a transitional development since the standard ramp is still in place (or it was a stock part that was cheaper to use than manufacturing a custom part).

The second feature is the chrome pocket that catches the balls rolling backwards down the rails and dumps them into the payout tray for another chance to shoot. This appears on many later pachinkos in different forms. Because it's made with a 50s era stock chrome pocket (my Misono and Nishijins all have the same style), it looks like another Narita innovation and may have been the first design for catching back-rolling balls.

The third and most eye-catching feature of Narita machines is the wide ball return slot at the base of the rail. This is their signature visual style and it shows the cleverness of the designers in the way it works with the pachinko's back mechanism.

The rail flattens out and runs across the front of a long ball return slot. Any ball missing the three bottom pockets will roll through metal flaps into the tray at the back of the machine. Any ball fall in one of the three pockets in front of the return slot will be channeled over the top of the rail and then dropped down through a hole in the backboard to the jackpot collection ramp.