working on サーカス (Circus) 1978

I got a pile of 10¥ coins from a coin dealer in Vancouver, where they are plentiful thanks to the proximity to Japan.  Washing them with one of these dishwasher baby-bottle holders

I prefer to take off the grime

There was a slight "click" that could be felt on the handle and I found that was the stop nail on the inside being a bit too bent inwards.  I think it being used as a the Stop for the knob means it will slowly move over time.  I used needle nose plyers to bend it back ever so slightly.

that nail should stop the metal on the bottom right, but should not rub the metal nub currently just above it

I have found a lot of 30mm tokens on ebay and I was quite happy to start getting payouts!

cool tokens!

my first paid-out win!

...but after a while, I encountered a problem:  the coins were jamming inside the feeder tube!

at first I figured this happened when I moved the machine while rearranging my shelves

JAMMED!!

after opening up the back track and clearing out the jam?  It happened again.  Time to give up on these tokens.

I found an advertisement for this machine in Game Machine

Game Machine (ゲームマシン) magazine1977-04-01

This advertisement is a bit ominous as it turns out that it was Homerun King and Circus that both appeared as New Old Stock in Japan!   Too bad there also isn't a stash of other similar machines, as there is at least one more 10¥ I'd love to get my hands on.

One thing to note here is that it says the prize tokens are supposed to be 2.2 mm thick!
The 30mm tokens I purchased measure at 1.65mm, and that's why they are getting stuck.  So now I  need to find more appropriate-sized tokens somewhere.

My hope is that the size works out so that I can alternate, thicker token, thinner token, thicker token, etc, and not get coin jams.  Worst case scenario, I'll get rid of the thinner tokens.

Niche Mechanisms 003: skill flicks

Perhaps you've seen a Bally Skill Roll before?   There is a long history in arcade games where you insert a coin and that coin becomes part of the game.  These are generally called "drop case" games, but I want to focus on one specific type of these games, that I'm calling "skill flick" machines.

Skill Flick: machines where you flick along the coin you put into the machine, and it's dependent on skill alone.  So that means no machines with bagatelle-style or pachinko-style playfields that make the skill negligible.  Some shots might be next to impossible, but the only thing standing in between you and a win is a Skilled Flick.

1958 Bally Skill-Roll

Let's get flicking!

Niche Mechanisms 002: catchers

One of the earliest coin-op game mechs, I've seen Catcher-style game examples ranging from 1900 to 2010!

You can't mess with perfection like that.

1927 Bajazzo SG & LM by Jentzsch and Meerz, Leipzig (Germany)

Let's get catching!

introducing... サーカス (Circus)

It's here and it's awesome.  I'm so happy to say I finally have a Japanese 10¥ machine in my collection!  Yes, it's Circus aka サーカス from Taiyo Sangyo in 1978.

When I got into Smart Ball (スマートボール) I started also discovering the world of 1970s Japanese 10¥ arcade machines.  These were games that you'd find in candy shops and would dispense tokens that could be exchanged for sweets or prizes.

It seems like lots of them did not survive.  Many were operated outdoors at the front of shops.  Sometimes under an awning, sometimes not.  Just lined up front along with vending machines.  Japan's a relatively small island with lots of coastline, so atmospheric conditions in many parts were probably not conducive to long-term preservation.

But what's really special about this one is that it is "New Old Stock".  It seems like a small number of Circus machines (and a game called Home Run Fever) popped up on Yahoo Japan Auctions.  Here was a chance to own a nearly brand-new 10¥ game from the 1970s, probably the only chance I'll ever have to get one in this condition too.

10¥ arcade machines do come up on occasion, but very rarely, they're often in quite poor condition, and they sell for hefty sums of money.

Enough preamble, let's open it up and take a look!