Monday, 22 September 2025

1929 自動木馬 (automatic wooden horse) by 遠藤嘉一 (Kaichi Endo)


Name: 自動木馬 (automatic wooden horse)
Year: 1929
Company: 遠藤嘉一 (Kaichi Endo)


In 1928 Endo went to Takarazuka Shin Onsen and saw an electric German ride that is sometimes referred to as a rocking horse but is said to look more like a duck. It had to be operated by an attendant, and the seat would rise and lower with the motor while in operation. 1929 Endo released his own version, which would be activated for 40 seconds when coins were inserted.

I believe this makes it one of the earliest coin-operated kiddy rides in the world. 

from this PDF from JAIA
rough OCR:

'29 日本媽澳
第1号自動木馬
宝塚新温泉(のちの宝塚ファミリーランド)に設置されていたドイツ製のアヒル型の (係がスイッチを入れると岐が上下する)をヒントに作られた初の国産自動木馬。

Machine translation:

1929 Japan Maao [sp!]
First Automatic Rocking Horse
The first Japanese-made automatic rocking horse was inspired by a German duck-shaped one (the legs would rise and fall when the attendant flipped a switch) that was installed at Takarazuka Shin Onsen (later Takarazuka Family Land).



From Coin Journal 1982-12:



Transcription:

(3)日本独自の自動木馬の誕生から松屋スポーツランドへ
現在の宝塚ファミリーランド(旧宝塚新温泉)が、わが国のアミューズメント産業に多大な影響を与えたことは既に述べたが、遠藤嘉一氏がこの方面に着目したのも、宝塚新温泉がきっかけとなっている。昭和三年、宝塚に輸入の遊戯機械が設置されていることを知った氏は、仕事もそっちのけで出かけて行った。アミューズメント機械の意識を抱いていた人間のアンテナに敏感に感じる何かがあったからであろう。
宝塚新温泉には、屋外に単式飛行塔が一機設置されていた。ポールを支点に飛行機(というよりも座席か?)を振り回すものだったというが、国産ではなく輸入である。そして屋内の遊戯場には、力試し機、マストコープ立体写真廻転装置(いわゆるのぞきめがね)、玉遊び機(子供用であったパチンコ)、占い機、香水自動噴霧機などが置かれていた。百坪くらいの広さがあった一階の遊戯場である。また、中二階には、一人の女性の係員がついて、二銭の料金を取るとスイッチを入れ、二分間鞍が上下するドイツ製の木馬があった。木馬というのは少し誤弊があるかもしれない。全体がアヒルのような形をしていたという。
遠藤氏はそれを見たとたん、ひらめくものがあった。この乗物を自動式にして馬の形にすれば、面白い木馬になると感じたのである。早速製作にとりかかり、二銭入れると四○秒間自動的に動く装置を作り、さらに木馬をとりつけた。完成後、ヒントを得た縁で宝塚に二台納入した。昭和四年七月のことである。そしてこの年が、日本における自動木馬の誕生の年でもあるわけだ。当時担当の課長は、後に東京テアトルの会長になった吉岡重三郎氏であった。 

[昭和4年第1号自動木馬] 

Machine translation:

(3) From the Birth of Japan's Unique Automatic Rocking Horse to Matsuya Sportsland
We've already mentioned that Takarazuka Family Land (formerly Takarazuka Shin-Onsen) had a profound impact on Japan's amusement industry. It was Takarazuka Shin-Onsen that first sparked Yoshikazu Endo's interest in this field. In 1928, upon learning that imported amusement machines had been installed in Takarazuka, he left work and went to check them out. There was something about them that resonated with the antennae of someone who was already conscious of amusement machines.

Takarazuka Shin-Onsen had a single-type flying tower installed outdoors. It was said to swing an airplane (or perhaps a seat?) around on a pole, but it was imported, not domestically produced. The indoor amusement area featured a strength machine, a Mutoscope stereoscopic rotating device (a type of peeping glasses), a ball-playing machine (a pachinko machine for children), a fortune-telling machine, and an automatic perfume sprayer. The amusement area on the first floor covered an area of ​​approximately 100 tsubo (approx. 330 square meters). Also on the mezzanine level was a German-made rocking horse, staffed by a female attendant who, for a fee of two sen, would flip a switch and the saddle would rise and fall for two minutes. The term "rocking horse" may be a bit of a misnomer, as the entire vehicle was said to be shaped like a duck.
As soon as Endo saw it, he was struck by an idea. He felt that if he made this vehicle automatic and gave it the shape of a horse, it would make an interesting rocking horse. He immediately began construction, creating a device that would run automatically for 40 seconds when two sen was inserted, and then attached a rocking horse. After completion, and inspired by this connection, he delivered two units to Takarazuka. This was in July 1929. And this was also the year the automatic rocking horse was born in Japan. The section manager in charge at the time was Yoshioka Juzaburo, who later became chairman of Tokyo Theatre.

[1929, No. 1 Automatic Wooden Horse]
I wonder if there is any documentation of this German duck shaped electric ride?

I always worry about timelines getting mashed together, but this text suggests that in 1928 all of those other described machines were in place. Eventually we will have to figure out which specific machines are being referred to. My hope is that more photo documentation of the arcade surfaces.

 

In the image we're using, on the left it is a replica or restored version of Endo's automatic wooden horse.  I am unsure if any parts of our original. 

写真は兵庫県立歴史博物館で展示されている、日本娯楽機の遠藤嘉一氏が作った看板兼用菓子自動販売機の実物(上の左)と日本初の自動木馬の復元機。
The photos show an actual signboard-cum-candy vending machine (top left) made by Japanese amusement machine maker Yoshikazu Endo, which is on display at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, and a replica of Japan's first automatic wooden horse.

This photo was shared by Amusement Press in 2009.


Saturday, 13 September 2025

1980 Arm Wrestling - アーム・レスリング by 池本車体 (Ikemoto Shatai)

 

Name: Arm Wrestling - アーム・レスリング
Year: 1980 
Company:  池本車体 (Ikemoto Shatai)

Arm Wrestling was released in 1980. it is the only machine that I have listed for 池本車体 (Ikemoto Shatai).

 

Game Machine 1980-08-01

Game Machine 1980-08-01
TAN 91-22280

This game appears to have been exported heavily, and I do not know what happened to the company.

USA ad

The following two flyers were provided by Mike Minchew, and are available for download and high rise from the Internet archive.




English instructions:


 this image shows the original coin door.


 

t should probably be noted that this game appears similar to one total released in 1979.

1979 腕相撲 (Arm Wrestling) by トーゴ (Togo)


 

There are drawings of a "Western Look" version, presumably for Americans, but I do not know if it was ever produced.

Vending International Corporation, San Juan Capistrano, California


Tuesday, 2 September 2025

1974 Stop Joker by 昭和遊園機械 (Showa Yuen Kikai)

Name: Stop Joker
Year: 1974
Company: 昭和遊園機械 (Showa Yuen Kikai)

Stop Joker is a medal game that was converted from a German machine. the front artwork has been redone, and the stand is all new.

TAN 91-10923

Type approval number 91-10923 was registered in 1974 to Showa Yuen Kikai. I am assuming that is when this game was released.

transcription:

STOP&JOKERの遊び方
10円玉1個を入れると数字がまわりだします。ボタンにあかりがついたらスタート。ストップを上手にして数字を合せてください。うまくできると合った数だけ PFG メタルがでてきます。
PFG メタルは右上の入口から入れてください。1個で1回ゲームができます。 メタルは金品ととりかえることはできませんので全部ゲームをしてください。
1回10円
10円玉しかつかえません

machine translation:

How to play STOP & JOKER
Insert one 10-yen coin and the numbers will start to rotate. Start when the button lights up. Use the stop function to match the numbers. If you do it right, you'll receive PFG medals equal to the number of matches.
Insert PFG medals through the opening in the upper right corner. One coin will be enough for one game. Medals cannot be exchanged for cash, so play all of them.
10 yen per play
Only 10-yen coins are accepted.



This machine appears to be a conversion of Roto Mat Joker, released 1963 by Günter Wulff

Roto Mat Joker, released 1963 by Günter Wulff

Roto Mat Joker, inside



Monday, 1 September 2025

1970s Hole In One - ホールインワン by 関西企業 (Kansai Kigyo)

 

Name: Hole In One - ホールインワン
Year: 1970s
Company:  関西企業 (Kansai Kigyo)

Hole In One is a vertical coin-flick game that awards a prize at the bottom slot when you can get a coin into the winning hole.  There are two columns that accumulate coins and if you enter into one of the associated holes the coins are dispensed from the front cup.

関西企業 (Kansai Kigyo) logo, used up until 1977

The clown logo was used up until 1977, so we know this game was before then.  I have not seen Kansai Kigyo before 1974, so probably safe to assume it was between 1974-1977.

I have never seen this game advertised in a catalogue or magazine.

 

oh and Jack Nicklaus

Laura Baugh, Tom Weiskopf, Arnold Palmer

 

 Looking inside we see there is one rotary motor that spins the 3 wheels

internals


dual prize hopper

These next photos are courtesy of _QtQ_ who found one of these still in operation at 中古タイヤ市場.




Replaying Japan 2025: eremeka presentation

Welcome to everyone arriving here after my Replaying Japan talk.

This post gives access to the database info, a summary of the links from the presentation, notes in addendum to my presentation, as well as an archive of my presentation.

Replaying Japan 2025 happened September 1-3, 2025, in Melbourne Australia. My submitted abstract was accepted into the Replaying Japan 2025 Journal. My presentation was pre-recorded, but the Q&A was live.  My 1:30pm AEST presentation translates to 11:30pm my time.


Downloading the database data:

 

Links from the presentation:

 

addendum / notes:

  • Research Notes: more random notes in regards to companies, years, and other considerations I've made
  • I keep a list of research materials am looking for, but I always am looking for access to magazines and catalogs from 1975 before, and especially any materials from before World War II. That includes random photos of arcades/machines, no matter how degraded the image quality. That also includes any discussions of specific machines. 
  • sometimes I will use the indicator "[presumed]" for a name or company. A good example of that is 1970 Ronin - 浪人 by こまや (Komaya) [presumed]
  • some machine years utilize a tilda, '~'. This is to convey that I believe the machine year is the given year +/- 1. There are a few machines that might be +/- 2, especially in the 1960s.  As I have shored up the data, I found that most often my year deductions & estimates have been correct.
  • My caution around listing the years became very important when I processed a PDF of the 1969 machine directory. This is the earliest catalogue I had seen at the time, and it contained a remarkable trove of information. There are many machines that appear in this document that do not appear anywhere else. This book came out in 1969, so we know these machines existed in 69, but certainly a large number of them also existed prior to 1969.
    Now, for some of them we do have documentation that shows, or implies, their specific year of release. But for most we just have this appearance in a 1969 book. When I didn’t have further information for these machines, I chose to depict them as ~1969, utilizing the tilda symbol to convey ambiguity.  This was a special case for me, since there were so many machines being listed as 1969 from this book.
  • Some machines are listed with just a decade (1970s) and some machines are placed in a decade with a lower confidence, ~1970s, where we strongly believe that is the correct decade, but are not certain. We see this often for machines that perhaps were late 1970's, but could've been early 80s.
  • The earliest phases of this project consisted primarily of low resolution black and white images from Game Machine, blurry shots of the games seen in the background of movies and TV shows, and hundreds of photographs of Japanese arcades that I had saved from blog posts and forums. A large amount of entries were just text, but I would mark them as “MENTION ONLY”, keeping track of machines discussed but we hadn't yet found a picture.
    As more sources were added the information could be refined, names and companies corrected, the year of a machine zeroed in, and thousands of photographs were upgraded.

Q&A Addendum:

I would like to add to my 2nd Q&A answer that I am a collector who owns a number of antique arcade machines. My main interest is preserving eremeka machines. I work towards that goal by helping preserve eremeka culture. My contribution towards that goal is this database. 

The way I approach research is inherently anarchic and incompatible with academia or publishing. This kind of research would not be possible otherwise. There is a natural tension between a desire to respect social norms and a preservationist mission.  Every year more and more game machines and ephemera are lost, but public efforts can assist by building a baseline of knowledge.

Presentation video:

This is my video presentation.

1973 Jumbo - ジャンボ by 日本自動販売機 (Nihon Jidô Hanbaiki — Nihon Jihan) & 昭和遊園機械 (Showa Yuen Kikai)

Name: Jumbo - ジャンボ
Year: 1973
Company:  日本自動販売機 (Nihon Jidô Hanbaiki — Nihon Jihan) & 昭和遊園機械 (Showa Yuen Kikai) 

Jumbo is a wonderfully oversized pachinko cabinet surrounded by a western shootout theme. I like it for the nixie tube scoring in the center.


While this flyer is small because I only could get this thumbnail image, it does show us that it was distributed under the brand name Nihon Jihan, and has the type approval number 91-8108.

If we look up type approval number 91-8108 we see it was registered by 昭和遊園機械 (Showa Yuen Kikai) in 1972.

We do not know if it was actually released in 1972 though. In fact, Jumbo does not appear in any of the annual machine catalogs. but we do know it exists in 1973 because it appears in the movie 愛欲の罠 / Aiyoku no wana aka Trapped in Lust (1973).

愛欲の罠 / Aiyoku no wana aka Trapped in Lust (1973)

愛欲の罠 / Aiyoku no wana aka Trapped in Lust (1973)
[image rotated to be upright]
 
 


 

cabinet photos taken from me by _QtQ_ of the machine at 中古タイヤ市場




Other photographs I had saved:



nixie tube scoring





 

Jumbo appears in a number of hotel game room pictures:




 

1970 Apollo Plan - アポロプラン by 東光遊園設備 (Toko Amusement Park Equipment)

Name: Apollo Plan - アポロプラン
Year: 1970
Company: 東光遊園設備 (Toko Amusement Park Equipment)

Apollo Plan appears to be the exact same game as スキールロール (skill roll), just with the new name and a different company. We have no date information for skill roll, but we do you have an indication that Apollo plan was at Expo'70.

Expo'70 reported game list excerpt, Apollo Plan in the center

Apollo Plan also appears in the in 1972 machine directory, guaranteeing that it existed in 1971.

1972 machine directory


 

Address information from the Apollo plan flyer: 

 

Transcription:

東光遊園設備株式会社
■本社■東京都杉並区堀ノ内3-52-3:佐藤ビル〒166
電:03:313-8661-2(代)

■西日本支社■岡山市西大寺町109 東光ビル 〒700 0862 24-0601

■営業所■東只,「葉松戸,西伊豆、名古屋、伊勢
烏羽二見。大阪汐江,岡山,金山,看水瓶。十地広島・杉山圖工場圖東京、名古屋、岡山
Machine translation:

Toko Amusement Equipment Co., Ltd.
■Head Office■ Sato Building, 3-52-3 Horinouchi, Suginami-ku, Tokyo 166
Tel: 03-313-8661-2 (Main)

■West Japan Branch■ Toko Building, 109 Saidaiji-cho, Okayama City 700-0862-24-0601

■Sales Offices■ Higashi-Tada, Hamatsudo, Nishi-Izu, Nagoya, Ise
Uwa Futami, Osaka Shioe, Okayama, Kanayama, Kansuibing, Hiroshima, Sugiyama Factory Locations Tokyo, Nagoya, Okayama


Compare this with the locations on the skill roll flyer, and there is no overlap. It is just my assumption that the skill role model was built before the Apollo Plan model. perhaps one is the manufacturer, and the other is a distributor? Perhaps one company is copping the other? perhaps one company purchased the other. I have no other clues to go on now.

a foreigners' guide to eremeka arcades - 外国人のためのエレメカアーケードゲームガイド: introduction & main page - 紹介&メインページ

eremeka search tool  // エレメカ検索ツール begin browsing at the beginning / 最初から閲覧を開始する begin browsing at 1960 / 1960年代から閲覧する begin browsing at 1970...