1967 Crown Basketball - バスケットボール 901 (Basketball 901) by 太東 (Taito — Crown)

Name: Crown Basketball - バスケットボール 901 (Basketball 901)
Year: 1967
Company: 太東 (Taito — Crown)

While this article is ostensibly about Crown Basketball 901, it is also about Crown Basketball 902, the 1973 Basketball, as well as a bunch of Showa Yuen games too.

One year after Sega released their iconic Basketball (1966), Taito released Crown Basketball, which featured a smooth dome.

from the Taito 40th anniversary book: バスケットボール 901 (Basketball 901)

The first English-language advertisement for Crown Basketball was in 1967:

Cash Box 1967-07-08

This machine is readily identifiable by the size of the three colours on the cabinet, the rocker-type buttons, and the smooth metallic rail legs.

via yomogi2017

Japanese flyer

Taito 40th anniversary book, photo from 1968

I wish that Taito's Basketball game had a more straightforward story, but what we know is even more confusing than the history of Sega's Basketball.  Please bear with me while I present all of the evidence.

There is a 2nd variety of Crown Basketball.  While I do not have any ad-copy to support this, I believe the 2nd version is Crown Basketball 902.  They are identifiable by their differences:

• Spindly legs at the bottom instead of the external metal rail legs
• The red and blue cabinet sections align horizontally
• Vertically, the red section is much thinner.

The earliest advertisement I have seen this machine in is 1968, so it might be that this version did not arrive until 1968?   We do not have more evidence.

Cash Box 1968-07-07: Crown Basketball with the spindly legs and different cabinet shape

 Randy Senna of Randyland fame has a Basketball 902.

schematics say Crown BASKETBALL 902

While the video does not have a good photo of the machine, we can see the thin red line in this shot.
Also note the Taito Trading manufacturer plate, verifying that this is from before the name change in 1972. In another shot, you can see the spindly leg style.

But in this copy there is another variance to note: this machine goes up to 40 points instead of 24.

From a machine shown at the Aussie Arcade forums:

This one in Australia was definitely made for export, with English info plates:

The machines above have 40 point scoring, but the English flyer has a 24-point scoreboard:

English flyer: 24 point scoreboard visible. "Taito Trading" here means this flyer is 1972 or earlier

Already I have many questions, but now things really go off the rails.  

Enter: 昭和遊園 (Showa Yuen).

 

チャンピオン・バスケットゲーム (Champion basket game) by 昭和遊園 (Showa Yuen)

This image is identical to a Crown Basketball 901 machine.  Even the backboard is the same.

 

 

This machine appears in both the 1969 and 1972 machine directories, meaning this wasn't just a mistake.

1969 machine directory

1972 machine directory

The photo seems to be cropped from an arcade photograph, as you can see a Mini-Drive steering wheel through the dome.

昭和遊園 (Showa Yuen) company info from the 1969 machine directory
The machine チャンピオン・バスケットゲーム (Champion basket game) is listed.

Did they become a distributor for Crown Basketball and sell it modified to their name?

I would like to show you a strong pattern of Showa Yuen using parts and/or designs from other companies.

We know Champion Long Shoot is from at least 1970 since it was named in the list of arcade games at Game Land Expo'70.  It appears to use the exact same body as Sega's first iteration of basketball, circa 1966.

Compare the bodies:

1970 Champion Long Shoot [Champion Shoot Ball] - ロングシュート by 日本自動販売機 (Japan Vending Machine) & 昭和遊園 (Showa Yuen)

1966 Basketball - バスケットボール by セガ (Sega)

In 1972 we have an advertisement for advertisement for another Showa Yuen game, titled Champion Basket Game, same as the one from the 1969 yearbook.  But the game was different.  Instead of being a copy of Taito's Basketball 901, this was a copy of a later iteration of Sega's Basketball.

In Sega's 1971 price list, they sell a Basketball that looks like this:

Basketball - バスケットボール by セガ (Sega)

Champion Basket Game, circa 1972:

Champion Basket Game - チャンピオン バスケット ゲーム by 昭和遊園 (Showa Yuen)

The scoreboards are different and the metal button marquees/plates are different.

Things are confusing about basketball games.

A bit of an aside, but Crown Basketball was among the games used by Mike Munves to promote 25-cent play among operators.  Previously, all games were 5 or 10 cents.

1968-12-14  Billboard

On to 1973

As we saw at the top of this post, the Taito 40th Anniversary book lists Basketball 901 as 1967.  Then in 1973 they list another Basketball arcade game, then in 1974 a Basketball video game.

Taito 40th anniversary book, showing a 1973 arcade game Basketball, and a 1974 videogame Basketball

Looking to Taito's flyers in the 1970s, they did have that looks like Crown Basketball 902

This game appears on a flyer that has the old Taito name...

太東 (Taito Trading) became the more familiar タイトー (Taito) in August 1972.  A similar-though-slightly-different version of the same flyer was released with the new logo.

The top-line games on that flyer are Speed Skier and Western  Hill, both from 1972.

We see this same version in a 1976 flyer as well.  What can we make of this?  Did Taito engineer some of it but use the same appearance, and thus marking it as a new game?  If so, I would put this as a 1972 machine, not a 1973, since we have the before and after name change of that flyer.

1973 machine directory (was printed in near the end of 1972)

 

1976 catalog entry

 

 

I would like to know more about this machine.  Please let me know any additional information, and if you have one of these please send me photographs.