Mini Derby - ミニダービー by フジ (Fuji) & other similar games

Name: Mini Derby - ミニダービー
Year: ~1972-1973
Company: フジ (Fuji)

I am using this article to try and lay out the evidence I have about these Derby wall machine games.  This post will be the stub for:

• 1972 Winter Book by unknown
• ~1972 Mini Derby - ミニダービー by 大森 (Omori) & フジ (Fuji)
• ~1973 New Mini Derby - ミニダービー by フジ (Fuji)
• ~1973 Derby 200 by unknown
• ~1973 Sarabled Thoroughbred - サラブレッド (Thoroughbred) by アムコ (Amco) & ダックス (Ducks)
• ~1973 Sarabled Thoroughbred Try by アムコ (Amco) & ダックス (Ducks)
• 1974 Derby Triple 300 - ダービートリプル300 by オガ (Oga)
• 1974 電光式のダービー21 (Lightning Derby 21) by 三協商事 (Sankyo Shoji)
• 1974 Mini Derby 3 [Three] - ミニダービースリー by 細川商事 (Hosokawa Shoji)
• 1974 Stage Girl - ステージガール by 大森 (Omori) & バーリー・サービス・カンパニー (Bally Service Company)

Thank you to Erwann for sending me extra information for this article.

I was inspired to write about these due to learning of this American machine:

1953 Saddle & Turf by H.C. Evans (ipdb)

This is one of the last machines made by H.C. Evans, or perhaps the last, as the company folded in 1954 under the weight of the numerous anti-gambling laws,

This is a "flasher" machine, a style of machine made to circumvent laws that described slot machines as having spinning reels.  Instead of spinning reels, lights would flash on and off in succession to simulate the rotation.  (Mind you, the 'flashing' in this game is simulated thanks to a spinning lamp.)  This machine also did not payout, it kept credits won on displayed on the backglass and a proprietor would have to pay out the player(s) manually.

I mention this machine because of the distinctive artwork on the playfield glass:

picture taken from ipdb

taken from a photo on facebook

Press the buttons to select one or more horses, press start and it appears there is a 1 in 21 chance the number you chose will come up.  

There is even an old youtube video that shows some of the internals.

I do not know for sure, but in this video the spinner wheel appears to have around 21 stop positions, so perhaps that means the game can stop on the green spaces between the numbers?  The contact disk definitely has 21 positions, but that is so all of the lights can flash during rotation.  If you were going to only have 7 win positions, you wouldn't need that many teeth for the wheel to stop on.  There is a chance it was required for the design though, and that multiple stop points map to one specific number.  I hope to get in touch with someone who owns this to confirm.

This gameplay, the rows of 7 buttons, and some of the artwork show up in these Japanese machines.

What caught my eye was the sign with instructions on it.  Unmissable, and the text on the Japanese machines is exactly the same.  

The lower horses are not copied on the Japanese games, but the general composition is copied.  The wheel is mostly the same, but similar flasher wheels were used on a few other USA machines as well.  It is really the direct copying of the sign that intrigued me the most.

All of the Japanese machines have similar gameplay: bet on a horse by pressing a button, press start, and win if the flasher lands on your number.  Even the buttons on the Japanese machines mostly look similar to the Saddle & Turf ones.

Here is what I see as the first iterations of this machine:

~1972 Mini Derby - ミニダービー by 大森 (Omori) & フジ (Fuji)

New Mini Derby - ミニダービー by フジ (Fuji)

Derby 200

Fuji is given as the maker of Mini Derby the 1976 machine directory.

1976 machine directory

And if we look at the manufacturer plate, it was built by Omori:

大森 (Omori)
TAN 91-9368
this is the same Type Approval Number that Stage Girl has

On the New Mini Derby above, take note that it looks like the "New" is a translucent sticker:

But they also did print it properly on the backglass at some point:

It is not rare to hear about iterations in development, and "New Mini Derby" probably represents some engineering improvements.   Looking at their internals, it's mostly identical except Mini Derby has a sub-board and extra visible capacitors, so New Mini Derby probably represents a more streamlined design with a slightly reduced bill of materials.

Derby 200 does not have a front-facing payout cup.  It probably ejects coins out the bottom, and so would have to be placed over a tray.  The images I have show an on/off switch at the bottom at the back, reinforcing the idea that it wasn't meant to stand flat on a countertop.

rear, bottom of Derby 200 show the on/off switch

These machines are more advanced that Saddle & Turf.  First off, they have a payout mechanism.  Gameplay wise, the center of the circle (I assume) randomly chooses the potential award each race.

Since the above games are already old compared to 1974 standards, I am assuming they are from 1973, if not earlier.  Perhaps New Mini Derby is 1973, and Mini Derby is 1972.  +/- 1 year.  

We know these machines were around in 1972, as there is another variant visible in a 1972 TV show:

Winter Book
アイちゃんが行く！　第12話「ここは仙台青葉城」（1972年11月17日放送）
Ai-chan is going! Episode 12 "This is Sendai Aoba Castle" (broadcast on November 17, 1972)

full screen shot, I don't remember the source:

Winter Book of course being a famous USA gambling machine from the 1950s, and a number of gambling machines in Japan borrowed the "Winter Book" name.



There is also one more game which appears to be the same game, but with an alternate backglass.  This is notable only because they redrew the "Start" sign:

Sarabled Thoroughbred - サラブレッド (Thoroughbred) by アムコ (Amco) & ダックス (Ducks)

This game looks to be nearly identical to Mini Derby except for the backglass.  But there is a slightly more advanced variant of Sarabled Throughbred

Sarabled Thoroughbred Try by アムコ (Amco) & ダックス (Ducks)

I have no year references for the Sarabled games, but I will assume they are around 1973 based on designs.  

TAN 91-8099 on Sarabled Thoroughbred Try by アムコ (Amco) & ダックス (Ducks)

The Type Approval Number here is earlier than the one on Mini Derby, but it is hard to say that Sarabled Thoroughbred Try came out before Mini Derby.  During this era, I've seen a number of different machines use the same TAN, and over a span of a few years.  Until we can look up these TANs we will have to settle on merely recording them.

We have evidence Derby Triple 300 was advertised in 1974 and it introduced a new feature to allow up to triple bets.  You can press the bet button up to 3 times to triple the odds.  There is an excellent writeup on this machine by pindude152. (archive)

I have to assume that the 300 is there because "Derby 200" was already out there, but that's an assumption.  There are only 6 horses to bet on.  Having less horses might give the player a feeling that winning is easier.

Derby Triple 300 - ダービートリプル300 by オガ (Oga)

Game Machine 1974-08-10

In 1974 we would already see machines that moved from 7 buttons to a grid with 21 buttons, allowing a player to instant bet 3x on a horse.

Derby Triple 300 also has this iconic Start graphic

電光式のダービー21 (Lightning Derby 21) by 三協商事 (Sankyo Shoji)

While Lightning Derby 21 looks quite similar to the early machines, look at the size of the hopper on the bottom.  I am guessing that Lightning Derby 21 was modified to dispense prizes / cigarettes.

booth of 三協商事 (Sankyo Shoji)
game machine 1974

Continuing the Mini Derby series, this next machine simplifies things further, giving a 1-in-3 choice.  This model introduces a new style of button that would replace the earlier round industrial-style buttons.

Mini Derby 3 [Three] - ミニダービースリー by 細川商事 (Hosokawa Shoji)

Game Machine 1974-09-20

Mini Derby 3 seems to be the same game as Stage Girl, but renamed to be familiar for Mini Derby fans.  It is odd to see original games from Bally Service that are not imports, so perhaps they were just a distributor?  It is always hard to tell on the early machines.

1974 Stage Girl - ステージガール by 大森 (Omori) & バーリー・サービス・カンパニー (Bally Service Company)

1974 Stage Girl - ステージガール by 大森 (Omori) & バーリー・サービス・カンパニー (Bally Service Company)
Amusement 1974-07

1974 Stage Girl - ステージガール by 大森 (Omori) & バーリー・サービス・カンパニー (Bally Service Company)
1974/75 machine directory

The next waves:

In 1974 we also saw the beginning of a new innovation for these games, where instead of pressing a button numerous times, there is a grid of buttons allowing you to make your selection and choose your odds at the same time.  This new wave of machines also began the era of "IC control", where the game is no longer using steppers and relays to control odds, they're using early integrated circuits.

1974 Wander Boy - ワンダーボーイ by パブコ (Pubco) & ベンドジャパン (Vend Japan)

This button configuration would dominate these gambling machines for the rest of the 1970s.

1981 Star Dust II - スターダスト part II by フジスタ (Fuji Star)

Manufacturers realized buttons were expensive, and they receded to a single line again by 1982:

1982 Piccadilly Circus [Lion] - ピカデリーサーカス [ライオン] by コナミ (Konami)

Coin chutes:

It should be noted that these games all have switches in their coin chutes.  The switches would close when the payout tubes were full.  That implies that it is designed to reduce the odds when the coin tube isn't full!

Mini Derby has 2 tubes but I think just a single switch, which would indicate when the 2nd chute is full.  I assume when the tube is full the game's odds get more generous.

2 payout chutes on the New Mini Derby, same as Mini Derby

on Derby Triple 300 each payout chute has a switch at the top to know when it's full, and a switch at the bottom to know when it's empty.

The flyers on these games advertise payout percentages, sometimes in the 35%-80% range.  That's incredibly low, but it also reinforces that the logic is not designed to be fair.  It's designed to have operator controls to hinder the player's odds.  The coin chute switches are probably just one part of that.

Sarabled Thoroughbred Try by アムコ (Amco) & ダックス (Ducks)
3 payout chutes!  With switches on the top and bottom.