exploring the arcade in the トラック野郎 / Torakku yarô aka Truck Guy movies (1975-1979)

Truck Guys was a series of 10 films released in 5 years!  The wikipedia description will suffice here:

All ten films in the series were directed by Norifumi Suzuki and starred Bunta Sugawara as Momojiro Hoshi ("Ichibanboshi" or "first star") and Kinya Aikawa as Kinzo Matsushita, also known as "Jonathan". The title Torakku Yaro means "truck guys" or "truck rascals", and the films involve two truckers and their various escapades as they travel around Japan in highly decorated trucks.

The plot formula is similar to the Otoko wa Tsurai yo films. Each time Momojiro falls in love with a woman (the "Madonna") and then ends up having to help her romance with another man. The stories end with Momojiro having to race his truck to meet a deadline to rejoin the couple.

Many of these movies have arcade machines so of course we need to go exploring.

From wikipedia, a wonderful image of Momojiro Hoshi's truck on display in 2016:

This movie series also spawned 2 medal games:

1976 トラック野郎 (Truck Yaro) by 太陽自動機 (Taiyo Jidoki)

1977 特急・一番星 (Limited Express) by 太陽自動機 (Taiyo Jidoki)

On to the movies!

scans: Universal company profiles, 1981 & 1982

A friend has sent me these documents with permission to share them.

The first document does not have a year in the title.  The timeline included does not go past 1979.

The second one has "1982" on the cover, but the timeline is only one year forward, just to 1980.  My assumption is that the "1982" document was prepared near the end of 1981 in preparation for the 1982 year.  If the books of 1981 were not closed, the history makes sense to only include history up to 1980.

Based on that assumption, I am assuming the first document is the "1981" corporate profile, probably written at the end of 1980.

Download both of these from The Internet Archive.

~1981 Universal company profile

1982 Universal company profile

What intrigues me most about these is the timelines given for the machines.  Many of the early machines are on the list are ahead of when I have evidence of them being released.  Typically by a year or two, which might be expected given how spotty information we have from 1975 and earlier is. 

But there is one big mystery staring us right in the face:

scans: antique postcards from Japan

I purchased 4 old postcards from Japan.  Thank you to Detchibe for scanning them for me.  Links under each go to the uploads on The Internet Archive.

This illustration of a shooting gallery is quite interesting, and is allegedly from 1907-1909.  The auction (archive) states "滑稽新聞社発行の「絵葉書世界」＝明治40年～明治42年 石版多色刷りの絵葉書１集30枚を第1集から第26集まで発行": "Postcard World" published by the Kakaku Shimbunsha newspaper, Meiji 40-Meiji 42. A collection of 30 lithographed multicolor postcards was published from the first to the 26th collection.

室内射的 (indoor shooting) ~1908

These next two are seemingly from the same place, showcasing an archery range.  The auctions for these mentioned 山形 (Yamagata) but I am unsure if that is accurate.  This dovetails into my arcade interests since archery training was also sometimes an arcade-adjacent amusement.

瀨見矢塲ノ景 (semi yaba scenery)

瀬見矢場 (semi yaba)

And the last one is not arcade related, but I just love the huge energy it exudes.

宝塚新温泉遊戯室 (Takarazuka New Hot Springs Playroom)

On the rear it says 宝塚新温泉遊戯室 (Takarazuka New Hot Springs Playroom) and we have seen mention of the legendary Takarzauka hot springs before!  I believe this to be pre-war because the writing on the back is read right-to-left.  Probably 1930?

scans: Canadian Coin Box 1977-11. 1977-12, 1978-01

3 more issues of Canadian Coin Box have been scanned by @hubz.  

Canadian Coin Box Magazine - November 1977

Canadian Coin Box Magazine - December 1977

Canadian Coin Box Magazine - January 1978

exploring the arcade in this Shinshu Togura Kamiyamada Onsen Hotel Seifuen Brochure

Inspired by the lovely blog 昭和～平成前期のホテルや旅館などのパンフレット, we purchased and scanned this hotel brochure.  In one photograph it features a game room and we're going to see what the lineup is.

You can get the 1200 DPI scans at The Internet Archive thanks to Hubz. The brochure images pasted here have been shrunk down.  信州/戸倉上山田温泉 ホテル清風園 - Shinshu Togura Kamiyamada Onsen Hotel Seifuen Brochure

The arcade:

Immediately we see two famous Sega machines that were released in 1969, but look to the left and we see a Gottlieb pin from 1970.  It would be a fair guess to say this photo is from 1970.  However there is a basketball game on the right that we have only documented as early as a 1971 catalogue, so either that version of the game came out in 1970, or this photo is from 1971.