I saw this tweet that features two old photos of Japanese arcades that had been colourized via AI.
https://twitter.com/onionsoftware/status/1351516597840580609
Let's spot some games!
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| "American Game"! we can identify three machines here, can you? This photo is taken from a 1973 issue of The Amusement magazine:  |
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| Gottlieb Roller Coaster (1971) |
This one stumped me at first:
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| from Billboard Magazine in 1970, via |
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| 1970 Racer - レーサー by 中村製作所 (Nakamura Seisakusho) |
Next up we see a 1972 Sega Killer Shark
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| once you know the cabinet, you can't miss it |
on the left we have Sega's Surfing from 1972:
Center:
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| 五角パッチンボール (Five-sided pachinko) these kinds of installations were sold over a span of many years, but I am unsure if the models had much variation. |
At the far far right edge of the screen we see this:
Not much to go on? But luckily it's iconic:
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| 1970 30 Test - サーティテスト by 中村製作所 (Nakamura Seisakusho) |
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| 1970 MiniCom - ミニコンピューター by 中村製作所 (Nakamura Seisakusho) |
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| 1971 Untouchable by Kasco |
These next two machines actually have some intense glare on the backglass, but there is one small detail to note.
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| pinball machines with black trim |
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| in this version, we can clearly see the white "15" at the bottom. |
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| 1970 クレイジー15ゲーム [マークIII] (Crazy 15 game mark III) by こまや (Komaya) |
The games on the left there appear to be Big Bowl
At the front we have two domed machines and a crane machine near us.
There are many Basketball variantsThere are many Basketball variants but I believe the one we are looking at here is a 1970 Champion Basket Game - チャンピオン バスケット ゲーム by 日本自動販売機 (Japan Vending Machine). The dome is different than the catalogue photo below, but the key things to look for are the control panels and legs.
The machine on the right looks similar to Space Crane, but I do not think the shape of the cabinet entirely matches.
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| 1972 スペースクレーン (Space Crane) by 三共 (Sankyo) |
Here is a great arcade photo that has the matching Basketball:
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| image is from this amazing blog |
ZOOM IN!
The machine to the right of the basketball game seems to be the same cabinet / style as these 2:
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| UNKNOWN MACHINE - stubby pinball style cabinet with steep-incline glass. I have no record of any machines in this style being made past 1969. |
short backbox.
As wide as a pinball machine.
fairly steep slant on the glass...
There are two machines in the very front that appears to be the same hockey game
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| ~1969 ホッケーゲーム (hockey game) by 関西精機 (Kansai Seiki) |
I got more details and a Kasco flyer from the original tweeter (thank you so much!) and we can now identify more from this corner.
The row starts with ピエロ (clown)
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| 1973 The Music Clown - ピエロと遊ぼう by 関西精機 (Kansai Seiki) |
And then there are two ミニドライブ (Mini Drive) machines. You can notice the rounded front upper corner, the illuminated strip near the top, and the two graphics beneath that with the upper-rightward angling.
this one threw me off because I had only ever previously see Mini Drive with this far more common backglass:
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| the Mini Drive backglass I'm used to |
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| 1973 ミニドライブ [15 year version] (Mini Drive) by 関西精機 (Kansai Seiki -- Kasco) this version from the flyer is the one that appears to be in the photograph. You can even see the striations of horizontal colour lines if you zoom in on the arcade photo closely. |
While we're here, here's some Mini Drive gameplay:
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