2 incredible pachinko scans!

2 more items purchased from Japan, graciously scanned by the lovely preservationist @hubz of GamingAlexandria fame.

The first one is an overview of the industry, released by a magazine that published beginning 1951.  This publication is from 2011.  It includes many rare photographs, even from before 1951.  My favourite section is the collection of advertisements from each of the eras.

It also includes an article that references Nic Costa and Kazuo Sugiyama!

遊技通信でみるパチンコ業界の60年
60 Years of the Pachinko Industry

1962 - page 37

1966 - page 59

1974 - page 71

1985 - page 86

Kazuo Sugiyama - page 129

This next one is a brochure from a Pachinko Museum that was operated by a pachinko industry association.  It is primarily focused on the mainstream pachinko industry, and does not include much information on Corinthian, smartball, arrangeball, sparrow ball, issen pachinko, or any of the other topics I am more interested in.

I would also caution at their version of history, as the pachinko industry does not seem committed to preservation and deep research nearly as much as projecting a positive and marketable image to the public.

パチンコ博物館
Pachinko Museum

I would like to learn where the museum collection went.  They have a large repository of magazines, and I need to access all of the information in these magazines!

magazine archives from page 7

exploring this Japanese arcade from a 1971 clip

The account @million7000 posted this video to twitter (archive).  I do not know what this is, but they say it's from 1971.

Based on a comment in the replies, I believe this is from 特別機動捜査隊 (Special Mobile Investigation Unit,) which aired 801 episodes!  According to a message from someone else, this clip features a character named "サブ" (Sabu), so these are the most likely episodes: 

1970: #441

1971: #493, #500, #528

1972: #535

If you have any further information, I would like to confirm which episode this is so we can confirm the date this episode aired.  If it was in 1971 (or earlier!) that pushes the date forward on at least 2 machines.

This a wonderful arcade, with a few machines I have not seen in a real arcade before!  Let's dive in.

First, we start at the pachinko side of things.  It's about what you'd expect of a standard pachinko parlor of 1971, though they don't show us much of these machines.

On to the arcade, where we begin with every editor's favourite cut: Untouchable!  You'll remember that this same style of cut (where we cut directly to arcade action) was also done in 愛欲の罠  (exploring the arcade in 愛欲の罠 / Aiyoku no wana aka Trapped in Lust (1973)).  This even includes footage of Sega's Jockey Club, which was also included in the Trapped In Lust arcade action montage.

1971 Untouchable - アンタッチャブル by 関西精機 (Kansai Seiki — Kasco)

the Nic Costa Archive version 1.1

Overview

Nic Costa is one of the premier researchers of coinop history.  Similar to what Dick Bueschel achieved in the USA, Nic Costa pursued with the UK's (and world's) coinop history.  

The Nic Costa Archive: Coinop History is an initiative out of Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK overseen by Dr. Alan Meades.  The archive consists of all of Nic's index card catalogues and research files, which have now been digitized.

Download a ZIP of the Nic Costa Archive v1.1 from archive.org

Related Books

Some of Nic's books on coinop:

Automatic Pleasures: the History of the Coin Machine

More Automatic Pleasures- The Slot Machine Revolution

Penny in the Slot: Conceiving the Internet- the Birth of the Coin Machine 1735-1883

Dr. Alan Meade has also published a coinop book:

Arcade Britannia: A Social History of the British Amusement Arcade

Archive Structure

The archive is currently in version 1.1 but I hope for this to be an iterative process.  Currently none of the files have useful names, but there is now a folder structure setup to help assist finding information.  One purpose of the archive is to help inform the world of the materials within.  For example, pages of negatives are scanned in, but the negatives themselves have not undergone preservationist scanning.  Likewise, some of the materials found within are done with quick scans, not preservationist scans.

Since the research is centered around UK/Europe, countries outside of that range like USA and Japan often have their own folders.  The sorting system I set up is still quite preliminary.

Here is the current folder structure:

1. flyers & photos & misc
1. allwin backflashes
2. flyers, ads, catalogues (UK, europe)
3. Japan
4. magazines, newspapers, articles
5. misc
6. paper, scraps, letters
7. Photographic Views Phototype Derbyshire
8. postcards
9. Samson Bolland Holloway (family interviewed late 1970s)
10. Stereoscopic and Mutoscope nudes
11. The Album of Folkestone
12. USA
2. index cards
1. Arcade Locations
2. Coin-op Articles
3. Companies - [A through Z]
4. Companies French
5. Companies German
6. Companies US - [A through I -- more sorting needed]
7. Company - [Bally (Bingos), Daval, Evans, Exhibit, Mills, Rock-ola, Skill Control, United]
8. Machine Types
9. Machines - [# through Z]
10. Machines General Info
11. Machines US
12. Magazines
13. NEED PLACING
14. People - [A through Z]
15. Societies
3. photo slides & negatives

Highlights from the Archive

To begin, I want to give examples of the last 2 main folders, so we are going in a somewhat reverse order.

The "photo slides & negatives" folder contains scans like this:

The "index cards" folder is a database in paper format.  This is a wonderful glimpse in to how research would be conducted before the days of affordable and readily accessible computers.

Companies - C
Caille Brothers

Machine Types
Strength

Machines - M
Miniature Cricket

People - W
Whales, Oliver

There are many wonderful bits of ephemera to be discovered in "flyers & photos & misc".  Within there are a handful of subfolders, and let's just glance at a few of the things we find:

flyers, ads, catalogues (UK, europe)

Expo 70: exploring the iconic Gameland arcade of Expoland

With Japan hosting Expo again in 2025, it is an appropriate moment for us to look back to Expo '70.

Expo 70 took place in Osaka, Japan.  It was a huge event for many reasons, but for the Amusement Machine Industry in Japan it marked a major turning point.  Manufacturers were beginning to organize together to address domestic perceptions, foreign markets, and issues with quality and reliability.

Japan organized a large amusement park area called Expoland.  Within that was the Central Plaza area were three distinctive tent areas.  A red tent for the Daidasaurus rollercoasters, the yellow Central Plaza tent, and blue tents which housed an area called Gameland.  (Sometimes referred to as Playland)  This is where the arcade machines were, and photographs of this area remain very elusive.  If you have any further media on the Gameland arcades please get in touch at thetastates@gmail.com.  There are many arcade machines that appeared at Expo 70 which we have no further documentation of other than their name.  Documentation of the Expo 70 Gameland will work to expand our knowledge of Japan's early Amusement Machine industry.

I am collecting the scraps of Expo 70 materials under the cut, and we will explore everything we know about the massive Gameland arcade.

This stunning photograph is the cover of the 1970-05 issue.

1983 83遊戯機械総合年鑑 (1983 Amusement Machine Yearbook)

I have now put the 1983 machine yearbook from Japan online!

83遊戯機械総合年鑑

Browse and download at archive dot org

Namco was really into the idea of "horny robots".  It was the 80s, everyone was into the idea of "horny robots".

Video games

All sorts of electromechanical goodies this year.  More than 1982 at least.

scan: Pinball! by Roger C. Sharpe & James Hamilton [1977]

Perhaps my favourite collection of pinball photography ever, highly sought after, and stupid expensive from resellers, it's time everyone got to enjoy Pinball! by Roger Sharpe with photographs by James Hamilton..

download or read at archive dot org

This is a book that needed the high-end treatment to properly capture the depth of blacks, and we are being treated (spoiled!) with 600 DPI PDF and CBZ files.

page 16

page 24

page 81

page 82

My absolute favourite photo is spread across 2 pages:

You can read (and download) this beautifully high res scan at archive.org.  Huge props to Hubz for getting this scanned.

baseball arrangeball

My friend semicolin was able to assist with the arrangeball light board and now the game is playing quite well.  You can read up on the rules in an earlier post, because right now I just want to show you how it plays with the lights all working!  I still do not know who made this game, as there are no company marks.

light board, back in and working great

Rialto (1964, Wulff)

I only now realize I never properly wrote about Rialto, so it's time to rectify that.

This is a slot machine made in 1964 by Wulff (Germany).  Slot machines became legal in Germany in the early 1950s, but that came with a set of limitations that made for some fascinating design choices.  Games could only offer a maximum 10x payout, and most importantly games needed to take a minimum of 10 seconds to play.  

So no putting in a coin and getting a result within 1-5 seconds, they had to design machines that offered a full 10 seconds of gameplay.  It is for this reason that I absolutely adore the 50s and 60s German machines and all of the small / quirky ways they innovated within this rule.