1972 Time 80 - タイム・エイティー by 日本自動販売機 (Nihon Jidô Hanbaiki — Game Mate Jihan) & ユニバーサル (Universal)

Name: Time 80 - タイム・エイティー

Year: 1972

Company: 日本自動販売機 (Nihon Jidô Hanbaiki — Game Mate Jihan) & ユニバーサル (Universal)

 

Time 80 is a popular arcade game where the player has to hit a number of pachinko jackpots in a limited amount of time. I have identified four artwork and cabinet variations of this game.  

The first two have the iconic lion head prize dispenser, but different bezel art. The latter two have a stencil of a race car on the cabinet.  One of the race car variants has a speaker grille.

This machine appears to have been copied by Play-Mate - プレイメイト by 新潟ジューク (Niigata Juke), but in all fairness there were already a number of similar games on the market since the 1960s.

The earliest appearance so far, with the original and more obscure artwork, was in March 1972.

Amusement 1972 – 03

We have scanned and shared two Universal corporate guides. In these documents, it lists Time 80 as 1970. That feels like a major discrepancy, and I wonder if that is one the project began and not when the game was released? Normally with a corporate document like that would I would defer to it, but in this case I am going to leave the year as 1972 until I can find further information.

If anyone has any corroborating evidence about Time 80 in 1970 or 1971, I would love to see it!

 

Excerpt from Universal corporate profile, approximately ~1981

Time 80 does not appear in the 1972 machine directory, but does appear in the 1973 machine directory (which was printed at the end of 1972).

1973 machine directory

This is the most well-known version, with the sports car art and the lion-head dispenser.

In later versions, the lion head is gone, replaced by a rectangular slot. The cabinet now has a stencil of a race car.

I have no date reference for this specific cabinet, so I am assuming it is around 1973

In an advertisement from 1973, we can see an illustration of Time 80 with this stencil, blue cabinet, no speaker panel.

Amusement 1973 – 05

The off-white cabinet seems more obscure than this typical blue cabinet.

I am not considering the blue and off-white cabinets as separate games. But there is one more variation.

This version of Time 80 has a speaker grille

1973 is the last year I have for any games by Nihon Jidô Hanbaiki, and you can read all of the notes I have compiled about them.

Except for the very first version that we talked about, every Time 80 has the universal logo displayed front and center.  This game would be followed up quickly by New Time 80.