Thursday, July 23, 2020
Thursday, July 9, 2020
pachinko museum supplemental material
There was lots of information on the walls at Sugiyama's Pachinko Museum but I don't know any Japanese, so I wanted to include all of the extra historical details here for all of the Japanese-reading fans.
Again, thanks to nazox2016 for all of these photos!
If you can translate any of these please email me (at thetastates@gmail.com) or respond below, and reference the picture #
Again, thanks to nazox2016 for all of these photos!
If you can translate any of these please email me (at thetastates@gmail.com) or respond below, and reference the picture #
Niche Collections: Mr. Sugiyama's Pachinko Museum
Each of these Niche Collection entries has made me very happy to write, but this one I am by far the most excited about. Across continents, across language barriers, and through a pandemic, the stars aligned and I am happy to present one of the most important collections of Japanese machines that exists.
I first discovered the work of 杉山 一夫 (Kazuo Sugiyama) when I bought his book パチンコ誕生―シネマの世紀の大衆娯楽 and dove into it with my poor little translator app (I don't speak any Japanese). It remains one of the best books on the birth of pachinko available, even for English collectors like me. I then discovered he had two e-books as well so I had to snag those.
Sugiyama was working to correct the mistakes of the past. So many "pachinko histories" had huge missing gaps, and often incorrectly traced pachinko back to early 1900s bagatelle games. Articles sometimes quip that "pachinko is Japanese pinball" and that's a lazy description that should forever be laid to rest. Sugiyama has documented pachinko to the start of the 20th century, AS WELL documented bagatelle / corinthian/ corinth and it's developments in Japan.
First up, here are his books:
Since he had written on Corith, I had messaged him with questions about Smart Ball. In our conversations he revealed that he would be opening a museum! Very exciting stuff!!!
But then the pandemic was declared! Museum opening: POSTPONED!!!
With the pandemic now being much more controlled in Japan, and with the safety precautions much more well known, I encouraged my friend nazox2016 to go visit and he took all of the photos you'll see below. THANK YOU SIR! You can read his write-up at his site, part 1, part 2. Most of the translations below are also his.
I have included all of the signs filled with history in a separate post, and hopefully people can help translate them in the future.
So without further ado, let's get into it...
Niche Collection 007: Mr. Sugiyama's Pachinko Museum
I first discovered the work of 杉山 一夫 (Kazuo Sugiyama) when I bought his book パチンコ誕生―シネマの世紀の大衆娯楽 and dove into it with my poor little translator app (I don't speak any Japanese). It remains one of the best books on the birth of pachinko available, even for English collectors like me. I then discovered he had two e-books as well so I had to snag those.
Sugiyama was working to correct the mistakes of the past. So many "pachinko histories" had huge missing gaps, and often incorrectly traced pachinko back to early 1900s bagatelle games. Articles sometimes quip that "pachinko is Japanese pinball" and that's a lazy description that should forever be laid to rest. Sugiyama has documented pachinko to the start of the 20th century, AS WELL documented bagatelle / corinthian/ corinth and it's developments in Japan.
First up, here are his books:
Since he had written on Corith, I had messaged him with questions about Smart Ball. In our conversations he revealed that he would be opening a museum! Very exciting stuff!!!
But then the pandemic was declared! Museum opening: POSTPONED!!!
With the pandemic now being much more controlled in Japan, and with the safety precautions much more well known, I encouraged my friend nazox2016 to go visit and he took all of the photos you'll see below. THANK YOU SIR! You can read his write-up at his site, part 1, part 2. Most of the translations below are also his.
I have included all of the signs filled with history in a separate post, and hopefully people can help translate them in the future.
So without further ado, let's get into it...
Niche Collection 007: Mr. Sugiyama's Pachinko Museum
 |
| postcards from the museum featuring two of the rarest machines |
 |
| and this is just a sampling! - Garage exhibition room |
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
spotted at the Hong Kong Museum of History
I found these cool photos on flickr from the Hong Kong Museum of History 香港歷史博物館
It is from a display of Hong Kong life in the 60s, part of the permanent exhibition. And hey! Check out that cool little machine.
The machine looks like a modified version of this 1954 Zipper Skill machine (by Binks Industries). If it retains some of the same hardware, a bunch of the case has been removed + replaced.
But mostly I just love the hand-painted artwork on it.
zoom in on the Hong Kong one:
 |
| photo by iris_709394 |
It is from a display of Hong Kong life in the 60s, part of the permanent exhibition. And hey! Check out that cool little machine.
 |
| photo by iris_709394 |
Definitely pachinko vibes, but the scoring card on top suggests it's played like bingo. As my friend nazox2016 wrote to me:
(4 horizontal in a row) 一次(4 vertical in a row) 三次(4 diagonal in a row) 四次
I'm not good at Cantonese, but I guess "五毛一次” means "1 Play 5 cent"."一次", "三次", and "四次" means "1 time", "3 times", and "4 times".
So 1 point for horizontal row, 3 points for vertical, 4 points for diagonal?
 | |
|
But mostly I just love the hand-painted artwork on it.
zoom in on the Hong Kong one:
Monday, July 6, 2020
Rock-Ola's World's Series (1934) resources
Once upon a time I ended up buying 3 World's Series over the course of a year. I made a deal with a friend in the Montreal area and he took all 3 with the promise that one would be returned nicely restored.
In anticipation of my World's Series returning I wanted to compile some resources for this amazing machine.
It was wildly popular, they apparently made like 50,000 of them. And while so much coin-op from the 1930s never survived the last 90 years, the sheer volume of World's Series means they aren't too hard to come by.
Tonnes of reproduction parts are available at the wonderful Buckwerx Rock-Ola site
Chris Hale has a Shapeways (3d printing) store where he has recreated many of the key complex parts
and if you want to learn all about the machine, and even see videos of it operating from the INSIDE, check out Mark Gibson's World's Series restoration page at Fun With Pinball.
Between those three sites you should have every bit of info to take an 86 year old World's Series project from start to finish.
PLAY BALL!
In anticipation of my World's Series returning I wanted to compile some resources for this amazing machine.
It was wildly popular, they apparently made like 50,000 of them. And while so much coin-op from the 1930s never survived the last 90 years, the sheer volume of World's Series means they aren't too hard to come by.
Tonnes of reproduction parts are available at the wonderful Buckwerx Rock-Ola site
Chris Hale has a Shapeways (3d printing) store where he has recreated many of the key complex parts
and if you want to learn all about the machine, and even see videos of it operating from the INSIDE, check out Mark Gibson's World's Series restoration page at Fun With Pinball.
Between those three sites you should have every bit of info to take an 86 year old World's Series project from start to finish.
PLAY BALL!
 |
| photo by Mark Gibson |
Pike's Peak glass template
I needed a replacement glass for my 1940 Groetchen Pike's Peak machine so I made this.
I gave this to the glass shop and they were able to produce it easily.
Download the PDF
I gave this to the glass shop and they were able to produce it easily.
Download the PDF
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)