This is the 3rd of 3 arcade explorations I will be doing based on a series of tweets from Sugiyama-san. (archive).
They have been increasing with excitement, and this one is my favourite. It introduces a number of previously unseen machines from Japan's (mostly-undocumented) early 60s.
Check out this amazing arcade called BUFFALO. It's a fairly steady shot so here's 6 frames. Cycle through them and you get a sense of the motion in the scene. (This appears to be an arcade constructed for the movie.)
There is so much to look at here, and this isn't even the whole thing! We're going to proceed Left to Right, but since there are smartball tables on both sides I will look at them all first.
On the left there are 3 smartball tables. 2 views on the left:
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center table, we can see Olympic rings
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The upper ball tray on these tables is an indented curve. We can see a similar curve in the smart ball spotted in the 1955 movie 未成年.
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| スマートボール (smart ball) [seen in 未成年] by 三葉 (Mitsuba) [presumed] |
On the right-hand side we can see 2 smartballs that almost perfectly line up with this Mitsuba smart ball:
In the screenshot above we cannot tell much about the ball tray curve.
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| 1950s スマートボール (smart ball) by 三葉工業 (Mitsuba Kogyo) |
Another smartball with an upward curve at the ball tray:
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1950s スマートボール (smart ball)
note the curve of the upper ball tray rail
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Next we have these two copies of ドライブ (drive):
We get a number of great shots of these games! Let's start with this next shot, which also shows the profile of the smartball tables:
This game appears to be a knock-off of Kansai Seiki's Mini Drive:
Let's combine some of the better angles for a picture to use in the database:
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| ドライブ (drive) |
While perhaps not the exact same game, this game is nearly identical to another Mini-Drive copy we've seen, and the painted dots from one of the two cabinets are certainly recognizable.
This version, with the brown ground and the blue stream, appears in
黒い賭博師 悪魔の左手 (1966) & in
ワンパク番外地 (1971).
Next we see a woman in front of this machine that is the size of a woodrail pinball machine, but does not have a head. The cabinet is blue with a moon and stars.
We can get a glimpse of it through a window in a later shot:
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note the indentation of the top rail from this side, and what appears to be a joystick?
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We can see it better in these next two shots during a fight sequence:
From this angle the joystick is once again facing the player. But this machine actually has a joystick on either side. It has been repainted, but this is Twin Hockey.
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1950 Twin Hockey by Chicago Coin
shown without legs
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Next up is a classic!
Yes that's right, we finally get nice colour images Sega's first game, Jungle Gun!!!
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| 1961 Jungle Gun - ジャングルガン by 日本娯楽物産 (Nihon Goraku Bussan) & 日本機械製造 (Nihon Kikai Seizo — Sega) |
Let's check some later scenes:
It's not the best picture, but we now have a colour image of Jungle Gun:
Next two are American gun games.
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| 1954 Sportsman by Keeney |
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| 1954 De Luxe Carnival Gun by United |
On to the right-hand side of this shot:
The yellow cabinet with red splattered paint is Jet Gun.
Next is the iconic Punching Bag. This one doesn't have the
lined-trim at the top, but it's quite recognizable when you look at this
diagram from the specs sheet.
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| 1962 Punching Bag - パンチングバッグ by 日本娯楽物産 (Nihon Goraku Bussan) & 日本機械製造 (Nihon Kikai Seizo — Sega) |
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Punching Bag specs diagram, showing a matching profile
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They grey-pedestal gun game:
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1956 Jungle Hunt by Exhibit Supply - pinrepair
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The blue cabinet with stars has a very distinct marquee. This is another repainted cabinet, which makes sense given that the game was then 22 years old.
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1941 Scientific Batting Practice by Scientific Machine Co - source
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Tucked at the right of the frame we see a purple vertical cabinet.
We can get another perspective on it in this frame:
