Another movie discovered via Sugiyama-san, this is the fourth in a row! (Previously: 波止場の賭博師 (1963), 投げたダイスが明日を呼ぶ (1965), and ネオン太平記 (1968))
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| 意気に感ず (1965) |
We will look at the gun games on the left at the end, because what we see on the right is quite exciting already! Both of those machines are part of mysteries we have been documenting about 1960s Japanese machines.
First is a driving game that looks very similar to the iconic Mini Drive, but is slightly different.
The frame surrounding the backglass has noticeably different proportions than Kansai Seiki's Mini Drive games.
But if we look at the impressions of the backglass, we can see that we have indeed seen this game before. note the dark swoop that starts at the bottom center. Also note the faint white line that almost looks sinusoidal here, most prominently seen in the bottom-right.
The white line and the blue river line up. This is the same driving game we had seen in 黒い賭博師 悪魔の左手 (1966) & in ワンパク番外地 (1971). We now get to move this game to having existed in 1965.
That is 3 different times we have seen this mysterious game, but still we do not know its name!
The second mystery is the game to the right.
We saw this same machine in the last arcade exploration post, for 波止場の賭博師 (1963) aka Hatoba no tobakushi (The Wharf Gambler).
When I wrote about the game at first, I had assumed it was a prop made by the set designer. It looked like a bingo pinball machine head, backglass removed, and with a few images pasted on.
Now I can see that the grid is actually 6x5, not 5x5 like an American bingo pinball machine. The version in this movie has different images on the backglass, placed in different locations.
As in 波止場の賭博師 (1963), this game has another similar machine placed right next to it. This next frame gives us more information about this style of game.
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| this shot shows the front of the cabinets from a side profile and is in focus enough to show a robust knob. |
This type of knob looks similar to the selector knobs seen on bingo pinball machines from the 1950s. Similar, but not exact. Most of the knobs I saw have a slight tapering, whereas the ones on these mystery machines look to extend fully perpendicular from the machine.
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| selector knob from a 1955 Beach Beauty by Bally |
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| 1955 Tropicana by United |
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| 1955 Miami Beach by Bally |
In 波止場の賭博師 (1963) we see another similar machine with the same cabinet and knob, but what appears to be a modified Mini Drive variant backglass.
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| ミニドライブ (mini drive) |
And then in this movie we know have another machine of this style to ponder.
We can get decent glimpses of the backglass in these frames
I will be adding the game to the eremeka database as such:
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| unknown game |
These 3 small machines we've just discussed all seem very similar to another game that appears in the background of a movie.
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| seen in 黒い賭博師 悪魔の左手 aka Kuroi Tobakushi: Akuma no Hidarite aka Black Gambler: Devil's Left Hand (1966) |
When I saw this baseball game I thought perhaps it was a re-working of Bally's Heavy Hitter from 1948. These machines are all similar to that one, size-wise, though perhaps these 4 Japanese machines have larger backglasses.
Is there an entire style of Japanese arcade game that has yet to be documented? It's a mystery!
Later in the movie we have a shot from the entrance that lets us easily see the 3 gun games.
Somewhat curious, the 1st and 3rd gun games are the same. they have similar cabinet designs, but not exact. I suppose they were repainted, but I've seen a few this game with a few different paint designs.
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| 1956 State-Fair Rifle Gallery by Genco |
The middle game:
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| 1960 Shoot The Clown by Chicago Coin - via pinrepair |
Finally, back to the original angle and this time we can see the front-edge of a cork gun shooting gallery setup on the left.
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To my readers in the USA: This
blog stands in protest against the moral panic directed at trans people, and the horrific eliminationist policies being enacted to remove trans people from society. Do not treat me like a sub-human undeserving of dignity and freedom and then thank me for my work on arcade history.
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