scans: Canadian Coin Box, Canadian Vending, and Star Tech Journal scans

A nice potpourri of scans here. Thank you as always to those who donated and sold these to me, and thanks to Detchibe for scanning.  Most of these were pickups from the COAPF show in June.

Let's start with a Canadian Vending scan. Chronological order! This issue has an interesting article on the Japanese vending machine industry.

Canadian Vending 1970-12

here are the pages about vending machines and Japan:

Canadian Coin Box scans:

Canadian Coin Box 1971-12

Canadian Coin Box 1978-03

Star Tech Journal scans

Star Tech Journal 1990-08

Star Tech Journal 1991-05

Star Tech Journal 1991-08

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For my readers in the USA: The incoming administration has laid out plans for an eliminationist policy against trans people in your country. They have already written hundreds of laws to try and make trans people existing illegal, their health care the illegal, their schooling impossible, their history banned, and providing care for trans people has become illegal in some states with governors demanding parents be jailed if they support their trans child.  They have now set their eyes on eliminating trans people at the federal level. This blog stands in solidarity with trans people, in the face of this authoritarian evil.

The following is an excerpt of an email I had sent to another collector:

The time of wait and see was around 2017-2018 when Republican operatives openly planned to create a moral panic about LGBTQ people and especially trans people. They launched a massive propaganda campaign and the media accepted it at face value.  The time for action and solidarity was 6 years ago when they called all LGBTQ people pedophiles, sent bomb threats to schools, and sent death threats to our community leaders and healthcare providers. 

Before this latest open disinformation operation, LGBTQ people were enjoying more acceptance, rights, and freedoms than ever before. Those are being clawed back and an entire population gets to experience the utter dehumanization of having your rights revoked by a sneering majority.

Recall Rush Limbaugh laughing on his radio show as he daily celebrated every death from HIV/AIDS by name. They again revel in their cruelty.

I wish I had the luxury of distance, but I have to protect my family and friends from the death threats sent to us by literal nazis.  People are making plans for their entire lives being destroyed, for incarceration, and a huge uptick in the already normalized violence.

My continued presence on this blog is a reminder that we need to find moments of joy even amongst the sadistic terror of rising authoritarianism.

Never comply in advance.  Please stay safe.

banner via United Church of Christ

1949 Skill Bowl by Allied

I saw this advertised on Facebook and wrote to the seller for more photos, and got their permission to share here.  I'm fascinated by old arcade games that failed to launch. 

As of writing, the game is still available for purchase.

The only reference I was able to find was this mention from 1949. I doubt a different version was ever built. It is also good to remember that most of what the industry figures say in these magazines is bluster.

Cash Box 1949-12-24

Text:

Thomas F. Anderson, director of sales, Allied Mfg., Inc., Cleveland, dropped into our office to discuss the firm's "Skill Bowl". Tho this game is not as yet coin operated it has been doing a terrific job on locations in many parts of the midwest he reports. Anderson of the belief that if "coin operated" will do even better...

The game is the size of a large shuffleboard table. I would consider this a pub game, similar to shuffleboard, especially since scoring would be done manually by the players.  The pins are manually between rounds using the heavy-duty pinsetter frame.  The player appears to pull back the ball on a chain and let it go. The seller says that when the chain then hits the bar, the ball releases and proceeds down the lane.

Upon inserting a coin the pin-setter frame is released and can be lifted up. The pin frame can be lower and raised 11 times, to bowl full game. If it is a multiplayer game the player light at the top will advance after each frame use.

This game has a long tradition in the world of traditional wooden games, though most of these are based on a ball staying affixed to the pendulum.  Please look at this catalogue entry from 1870, and the bottom left version is a very similar style of bowling: 

1870-12-24 Harper's Weekly

 

 

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For my readers in the USA:  The only way for this blog to continue in the face of the crushing authoritarian moral panic against trans people in your country is for me to continue to make space for the struggles of my friends and family staring down the horrors of hundreds of millions of dollars funneled into hate campaigns to vilify and lie about them.

For some context on how this dehumanizing bigotry was mainstreamed, please read and NYTLetter from 2023, which was in response to the New York Times being controlled by an editorial board that hates trans people, and consistently promoted propaganda and moral panics while discarding science and healthcare.  (archive)

illustration by Rose Wong, taken from a 2020 article on trans healthcare protections being gutted (archive)

Ins and outs of the arcade

I have been getting lost in the scanning, and I've been neglecting to update about my own projects. Things are all moving quite slowly right now because I am dealing with some significant chronic pain issues. As a result, most of what I write here is dictated these days. So far so good.

My friend Rob took on my Mills high-top slot machine. I had posted on the local board that I was looking for a technician to clean that out and replace the grease and he happily took it on. The machine played quite well, but the reels did not spin as fast as they should. That in turn can affect the randomization, even if ever so slightly. Plus is more satisfying to see the wheels spin multiple iterations before stopping.

Rob went above and beyond, buffing every surface to a beautiful shine, in addition to removing the 76-year-old grease.

There was a crack in the the nickel escalator glass. I finally got a new piece of glass cut.  The specifications I sent in: 2mm thick x 32mm tall x 155 mm long.  It sits well, but it's a bit tight vertically. If I ordered again I would ask for 31 mm tall.

installing new glass for the coin escalator

Now that the slot machine is home, my friend is borrowing my coin pusher. :)

Bally Heavy Hitter is a new arrival. First released in 1948, an etching on the lockdown bar seems to suggest my copy was made in 1951. It is a teeny tiny pitch-n-bat.  it has a delightful back box animation, where balls represent the players and you can watch them move around. You don't control when the pitch is happen, the ball will get ejected that you the moment it settles in the shooter. The game apparently has a three minute timer, but I've never been able to it play for that long to test that. Maybe I'll try with a glass of one time.

I have shuffled things around on the prewar table side.  I am loving this lineup. Things will be more streamlined when the items I am selling (see below) are gone.  Lucky Ball is a new arrival, and I plan to do a post about the work on that machine.  I have the Redgrave bagatelle on display and soon enough my Rock-Ola World's Series will come home enjoying this lineup.  oh and I suppose I should eventually talk about that red pachinko up there as well, that's a very special one.

Rollygame is also now the lineup. I had a piece of Lexan cut to act as a dust cover. It's not a perfect seal or anything, you can see the gaps at the ball basins at the front for example, but it will help reduce potential damage and minimize the dust. It is a really fun game, and probably the best Corinthian game out there? Plus the fact that it is a prewar Japanese game makes it very special for me.

note the shooting gallery cork gun on the wall.  more on that later

To make room for the new arrivals, I have a bunch of stuff that I'm selling. Please email me at thetastates@gmail.com and/or reply here if you are interested in purchasing any of these.  Located in Ottawa Canada, that is just one hour north of the Ogdensburg New York border. Shipping is a possibility, provided you arrange it.  If you are a collector "of means" I would love someone to just come in and buy them all at once at a discount.  That would help me balance my books and find some peace/space in my tiny office/workshop/arcade.

• 1932 Cloverleaf by Gottlieb
• 1934 Signal Jr by Bally
• 1935 One Two Three by Coin Craft Canada
• SOLD 1968 pachinko (single shot)
• 1930s 9-hole English bagatelle toy by Hamleys
  
• 1930s miniature bar billiards toy from the UK
• 2 Pachinko history documentary VHS tapes (unreleased)
• SOLD 1931 Base Ball by Pace
  
• 1926 New Target Practice by Mills Novelty Co
  
  

SOLD

SOLD

For my readers in the USA:  A moral panic has taken hold of your country, and the incoming administration has promised maximum cruelty to millions of Americans by designating trans people as undesirable and unworthy of human dignity and health care.  I am continuing to blog about my hobby, but need to constantly grapple with the horrors of institutionalized bigotry working to destroy the lives of my friends and family down South.

Please read this post by Julia Serano: LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back

Protect Trans Kids flag as seen in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

scans: 1960s Japanese arcade flyers

Mike Minchew has provided us with some incredibly rare flyers from Japan from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Taito's Crazy Ball is one I have never seen before, and it's always exciting to pull together tidbits of history from a massive company like Taito that might've otherwise been lost to time.  As of writing this, there are 3 Taito games from the 1960s that we do not have any photograph of. (link is to the full Taito timeline)

 

1967 Crown Soccer Special - サッカーゲーム701 (soccer game 701) by 太東 (Taito)

~1967 サッカー8 [エイト] (Soccer 8) by カトウ (Kato)

1968 Crazy Ball - クレージーボール by 太東 (Taito — Crown)

1969 Let's Go! Bazooka - レッゴー・バズーカ by ホープ自動車 (Hope Motor Co — Hope Star)

1970 Baby Gang - ベビーギャング by ホープ自動車 (Hope Motor Co — Hope Star)

1970 Torpedo Shark - 魚雷シャーク by ホープ自動車 (Hope Motor Co)

~1975 Play-Mate - プレイメイト by コパルマシン (Copal Machine) & 新潟ジューク (Niigata Juke)

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For my readers in the USA:  The only way for this blog to continue in the face of the crushing authoritarian moral panic against trans people in your country is for me to continue to make space for the struggles of my friends and family staring down the horrors of hundreds of millions of dollars funneled into hate campaigns to vilify and lie about them.  Trans people have existed across all recorded civilizations, and suddenly the Christofascist powers have decided they want to eradicate trans people from society by whatever means necessary.

via Transfigure