I am very excited about this new book I received from Japan!
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| ミニドライブ大百科 Mini-Drive Encyclopedia by オニオン製作所 (Onion Seisakusho) |
Order this book through Beep Shop! (There are links for international shipping)
These page images taken from the Beep Shop page:
You are probably familiar with Onion Software via their youtube channel. They are a legend of game history! Their website lists many things they have published.
I am very grateful for this book. It contains a few bits of information that I previously did not have. It includes a very special photograph: the Playtron cabinet! Kansai Seiki (Kasco) showed off this prototype in 1973 and had it gone to production, it would have been the first colour videogame. Up until today, I had never seen a picture of the cabinet. No one I knew, even in Japan, had seen this before!
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| 1973 Playtron - プレイ トロン [prototype] by 関西精機 (Kansai Seiki — Kasco) |
Thank you so much, Onion-san!
Other pieces of information that are new to me:
- It has an amazing photo of a games parlor in Japan from the 1910s!! That is the earliest photo of a coin-operated arcade setup in Japan that I have ever seen.
- It has the Kansai Seiki gun-series flyer from the 1960s in colour!! It is a small reproduction, but it fills me with hope that one day I can get a proper scan of that flyer in colour.
- It shows off a different version of "Western Tag Game - タグゲーム" that is just called "Tag Game".
- It says Rabbit Game and Tag Game were both from 1966, and that ワッショイゲーム (Wasshoi game) and Punch - パンチゲーム are from 1968
- I only had Clay Shooting - クレイシューティング as being 1974, but this book says it was 1973.
- It shows a photo of the prototype ミニドライブ [アップ ライト] (mini drive upright) that preceded ポルル君の旅行 (Poluru's trip). I had never seen it before.
- It says Indy 500 [M] was 1968, a year earlier than I had found it. And it says Indy 500 [W] was 1969, where I only had info giving it as 1970. I'm grateful to have this improved accuracy.
- Gave 1968 as the year for Caliber-50 - キャリバー50 by 三共 (Sankyo) when I previously only had it as ~1969
- Verified the year of 1963 for Red Gun - レッド・ガン, which I previously only had as ~1963
- gives 1968 as the year for Caliber-50 - キャリバー50 by 三共 (Sankyo)
I highly recommend purchasing this book if you are in to electromechanical games. Thank you Mr. Onionsoft.
