Showing posts with label misc. Show all posts

Wednesday, 7 January 2026

wanted: 1969 遊戲機械名鑑

We would like to buy a copy of the 1969 machine directory.
1969 年のマシンディレクトリのコピーを購入したいと考えています。

¥60,000 offered for '69 遊戲機械名鑑 ('69 Game Machine Directory)

「'69 遊戲機械名鑑」に6万円をプレゼント

'69 遊戲機械名鑑
「全日本遊園」編集局刊
'69 Game Machine Directory
Published by the All Japan Amusement Park Editorial Department

We are offering ¥60,000 to purchase this publication. If you have a copy that is damaged we are probably still interested in it. Email me at thetastates@gmail.com

この出版物を6万円で購入いたします。もし破損している本をお持ちでしたら、まだ購入を検討しているかもしれません。thetastates@gmail.comまでメールでご連絡ください。

There is an "index book" that accompanies the directory, and we would like that "index book" as well.

ディレクトリには「索引ブック」が付属していますが、その「索引ブック」も欲しいです。

This book is an important piece of arcade history. It needs to be publicly preserved at the highest quality. Working together, we can make this happen!

この本はアーケードの歴史を語る上で重要な一冊です。最高の品質で公に保存されるべきです。力を合わせれば、きっと実現できるはずです！

Borrowing: 借用:

Alternatively, we would like to BORROW your copy. We can pay for a courier to send it, we will scan it non-destructively on an edge scanner (so we don't have to chop the spine,) and then send it back via courier.

To see the kind of work we do, please see our research publication list. There you can find scans of the yearbooks from 1978-1983, 1985-1987, and 1993.

あるいは、本書をお借りしてスキャンさせていただくことも可能です。送料は当方で負担いたします。エッジスキャナーで非破壊スキャン（背表紙を切り落とす必要がないため）し、その後、宅配便でご返送いたします。

当館の活動内容については、研究出版物リストをご覧ください。1978年から1983年、1985年から1987年、そして1993年の年鑑のスキャン画像が掲載されています。

Monday, 20 October 2025

announcement + updates: 5500+ machines! 発表: 5500 台以上のマシン!

Check the main page list, we are now at 5500 machines! It's going to be slow and steady from here on out. I felt a great sense of relief being able to present at Replaying Japan. That was my goal for how I wanted to promote this database.

Currently I am just cleaning things up while I bide my time until the Coin Journal scans begin flowing. Reminder that you can always find a list of the magazines I am using, and the research publications list will get updated with links to the scans when they are online. You can also follow my pinball and arcade blog for updates on scans. (prior celebration posts here)

While you're here, check out this accumulation of updates:

Added a 'random page / ランダムページ' link to the main page.
New tags:

New company filters:

New information added about チャレンジャー (Challenger) which makes me think it was NOT made by 中村製作所 (Nakamura Seisakusho).
added an article to 1975 Magic Toppers - マジックトッパー [import, 1975] by クロンプトン (Crompton) & エスコ貿易 (Esco Trading) that confirmed its year, and it was made primarily for the Japanese market.
Manix article had a major update.
Added new photos of Dodge City to the bottom of Western Gun - ウェスタン・ガン [possibly] by 日本娯楽物産 (Nihon Goraku Bussan) & 日本機械製造 (Nihon Kikai Seizo — Sega)
Added the gameplay rules for 1965 Amosco - アモスコ by アオシマ・モウカル・オカネ・シコタマ・カンパニー (Aoshima Moukaru Okane Shikotama Company)
Japanese flyer added to 1968 Periscope [single] - ペリスコープ by セガ (Sega)
added to probable UK clones of 1966 Periscope - ペリスコープ by セガ (Sega)
Added a photo (and thus shifted the date for) Grip Test - 握力計 (grip force meter) [import, 1927] by Jentzsch & Meerz [presumed]
Added early version of 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)

Monday, 1 September 2025

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:

click here for a CSV file of all the fused database information (tab separated). If you're having trouble maintaining the Japanese characters, try opening the CSV file in a program like Notepad++, and then just copy+paste the entire contents into your spreadsheet.
click here for a ZIP file with all of the database images. This file will be date stamped, and this link updated as needed.

Links from the presentation:

eremeka.com redirects to my main page. (Does not work when I add HTTPS to the front of it)
https://pinballnovice.blogspot.com/ is my pinball / arcade blog. New scans posted here.
https://earlyarcadesjapan.blogspot.com/ is my blog with articles for the eremeka project
My pinball ancestry presentation from Pinball Expo 2025
Game Machine archive [ゲームマシン]
Sega in the 1960s article
Source: Arcade Explorations
Arcade Exploration video clips
exploring pachinko in Japanese cinema
industry magazines: research publication list - 研究出版物リスト
Gaming Alexandria Discord

my email: thetastates@gmail.com

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.

research publication list - 研究出版物リスト

These are the magazines, catalogues, and flyers that I have already accessed, or at least purchased. If you have different magazines, I would love to receive scans, or a chance to purchase the magazines so we can scan them.
雑誌調査リスト - これらは私がすでにアクセスした雑誌です。別の雑誌をお持ちの場合は、スキャンしたものをお送りいただくか、雑誌を購入してスキャンする機会をいただければ幸いです。

We purchased many of these publications, and will eventually scan all that we bought. When a publication has been scanned it will get linked below.
私たちはこれらの出版物を多数購入しており、最終的にはすべてスキャンする予定です。スキャンが完了した出版物は下記にリンクされます。

This list last updated 2026-07-28. For more scans, including flyers, please check the SCANS tag on my pinballnovice blog.

Note: this list had previously been part of the 4500 machine & 5000 machine celebration posts.

Saturday, 29 March 2025

announcement: 5000+ machines! 発表: 5000 台以上のマシン!

The machine tally is currently 5191.
マシンの合計数は現在 5191 です。

Prior milestones: これまでのマイルストーン:

2024-07-21: 4500+ machines! 発表: 4500 台以上のマシン!
2024-02-07: 4000 machines // 4000台
2023-05-10: 3500 machines // 3500台
2022-11-01: 3000 machines // 3000台
2022-02-03: beginning of this blog. We probably had over 2000 machines listed.
このブログの冒頭では、おそらく 2000 台以上のマシンがリストされていました。

To celebrate, we have 2 fun new features:

(These are also linked from the main page.)

Previously, we had discussed some of the challenges faced in our 4500 machine announcement.

We have made progress on the Type Approval Research, and there should be an announcement in regards to that in 2025.

We've purchased a bunch more magazines and catalogues, though the vast majority were from after the Showa era. I am excited to be able to flesh out the electromechanical machines that are more recent as well, but this project's primary focus has always been Showa and before. That is the history in most need of preservation.

If you have any materials you would like to contribute to this project, or if you would like to make donations towards future materials, my email is thetastates@gmail.com and I also use that for PayPal.

We are also moving the magazines list from that prior post to this post. Another new feature is there are links to the magazines referenced, if we have them up on The Internet Archive.

The Magazine research list has been moved to a dedicated post.

Monday, 20 January 2025

some updates

We are currently at 4930 machines.

Updates to tags:

added physical ~ archery / blowgun
added theme ~ animals ~ elephant
added yokomono ~ corinthian
the boats / pirates theme has been broken into two:

martial arts / ninja / samurai has been separated:

using appearance ~ pachinko lever now instead of nesting that under the pachinko category
using vending machine ~ candy now instead of just saying gum

Updates: view the 200 entries most recently updated. (currently not perfect, using wrong system dates)

1928 photograph added to Takaraonsen Takarazuka 宝塚宝温泉 and arcade machines in Japan before WW1

Friday, 9 August 2024

Updates: liberalized searches, TAN numbers, new categories, game updates

The search engine has been modified to allow for broader matches.

We will ignore spaces in searches because some names are compound words. Same with hyphens, " and ", and &. Characters like ~・。.!★ will now be ignored for searches.

The main page now has a search box embedded in it:

our new search box!

I'm hoping this will make things a bit more straightforward. If you have any UI suggestions, I'm interested.

Type Approval Numbers:

We are now uploading our list of TANs with each update. Type Approval Numbers list. This feature is beta.

New and recent tags added:

A number of companies were also added in the Company dropdown box. The Sega company tag has been extended to include Service Games, 日本娯楽物産 (Nihon Goraku Bussan), and 日本機械製造 (Nihon Kikai Seizo — Sega) properly. The company notes for Sega have been added.

Game page updates

1965 エレキボール (Electric Ball) by カトウ (Kato) & 日本自動販売機 (Japan Vending Machine): added colour photos, showcased both cabinet designs

1966 Basketball - バスケットボール by セガ (Sega): found that the design was originally built in Italy

1965 クレーンゲーム [クラウン602] (Crane Game [Crown 602]) by 太東 (Taito — Crown): found a matching design from Italy that preceded it.

1971 Air Scramble - エアースクランブル by さとみ (Satomi — Sammy): schematics + manual added

~1969 King Ball - キングボール by 日本自動販売機 (Japan Vending Machine — Game Mate) & カトウ (Kato): colour image added

1970 Clay Gun - クレーガン by 日本自動販売機 (Japan Vending Machine — Game Mate) & カトウ (Kato): colour flyer added

Sunday, 21 July 2024

announcement: 4500+ machines! 発表: 4500 台以上のマシン!

We have now surpassed 4500 machines!!
現在4500台以上のマシンを掲載しております!!

The machine tally is currently 4566.
マシンの合計数は現在 4566 です。

Prior milestones: これまでのマイルストーン:

2024-02-07: 4000 machines // 4000台
2023-05-10: 3500 machines // 3500台
2022-11-01: 3000 machines // 3000台
2022-02-03: beginning of this blog. We probably had over 2000 machines listed.
このブログの冒頭では、おそらく 2000 台以上のマシンがリストされていました。

I would like to thank everyone who has been contributing to this project. A number of contributors have asked to remain anonymous, but I want to thank you all for your generosity of both time and resources. And thank you to everyone who contributes to the history of arcades by sharing their knowledge and scans on all sorts of social media sites.
このプロジェクトに貢献してくださった皆様に感謝申し上げます。匿名を希望する貢献者も多数いらっしゃいますが、時間とリソースを惜しみなく提供していただいた皆様に感謝申し上げます。また、さまざまなソーシャルメディアサイトで知識やスキャンを共有してアーケードの歴史に貢献してくださった皆様にも感謝申し上げます。

This is a community-focused project. It has been built by dispersed collectors and researchers, and I am helping to shape a useful dataset for everyone to utilize. I hope you feel a similar satisfaction about this project as I do. I am grateful to have been trusted with such material. This is history that needed to be recorded and shared, and I am satisfied to help produce this body of research. The research will outlive my own collection. I am happy it will assist in arcade preservation efforts world-wide.
これはコミュニティに焦点を当てたプロジェクトです。これは各地に散らばった収集家や研究者によって構築されており、私は誰もが利用できる有用なデータセットの形成に協力しています。皆さんも私と同じようにこのプロジェクトに満足していただければ幸いです。このような資料を任せていただいたことに感謝しています。これは記録して共有する必要のある歴史であり、私はこの研究成果の作成に協力できたことを嬉しく思います。この研究は私のコレクションよりも長く残るでしょう。世界中のアーケード保存活動に役立つことを嬉しく思います。

[Note: All translation is done with Machine Translation tools]
[注: すべての翻訳は機械翻訳ツールで行われています]

Will we make it to 5000 machines?
5000台まで到達できるでしょうか?

I am unsure if we will reach 5000 machines. I think it is possible, but with the current set of research materials available to me it will not happen. I have been actively gathering research materials for a number of years, and we are nearing the point where everything I need is either too rare or too expensive. I would like to outline some of the difficulties this project is facing.
5000 台のマシンに到達できるかどうかはわかりません。可能だとは思いますが、現在入手できる研究資料では実現しないでしょう。私は何年も研究資料を積極的に収集してきましたが、必要なものがすべて希少すぎるか高価すぎるという状況に近づいています。このプロジェクトが直面しているいくつかの困難について概説したいと思います。

Current challenges to the Eremeka Project:
エレメカリストプロジェクトにおける現在の課題:

Flyer Prices: Any remaining flyers and catalogues I'm interested in have been selling for 20k-50k. If you collect these items, would you please consider contributing scans to the project? Any information or images would be greatly beneficial to documenting this history.
チラシの価格: 私が興味を持っている残りのチラシやカタログは、20,000～50,000 で販売されています。これらのアイテムを収集している場合は、スキャンした画像をプロジェクトに提供することを検討してください。情報や画像は、この歴史を記録するのに非常に役立ちます。
Incredibly Rare Flyers: I have seen some incredibly rare flyers that I would love to have images of, but worry I will never be able to see them and add their information.
非常に珍しいチラシ: 非常に珍しいチラシをいくつか見ましたが、画像があればいいのですが、それを見て情報を追加することは決してできないのではないかと心配しています。

In this photo from @pachinkotanjo a guest at the Birth Of Pachinko Museum shows off 3 extremely rare flyers from the 1930s. (archive) If you are reading this, thank you so much for saving those flyers. I would very much like to speak with you and incorporate the information you have into this database.
@pachinkotanjoのこの写真では、パチンコ誕生博物館のゲストが 1930 年代の非常に珍しいチラシ 3 枚を披露しています。(アーカイブ) これを読んでいる方、チラシを保存してくださって本当にありがとうございます。ぜひあなたとお話しして、あなたが持っている情報をこのデータベースに組み込みたいと思っています。
This seller has a 1966 Senyo Kogyo catalogue (archive,) and while I added information from the glimpses I can see in the photographs, I would absolutely love to get a scan of this to include the information into the database.
この販売者は 1966 年の Senyo Kogyo カタログ (アーカイブ) を所有しており、写真で垣間見える部分から情報を追加しましたが、この情報をデータベースに含めるために、ぜひこれをスキャンして入手したいと思っています。

Pachinko Magazines: I have been unable to track down any copies of pachinko industry magazines from the 1950s to early 1980s. I am pleading for anyone who may have these, or know where they can be accessed, to please get in touch with me. If I could see the first decade or two of 遊技通信 (1951-1990) I would be incredibly happy. I believe it is filled with crucial information. 全遊連弘報 launched in 1965 and there might be copies at the National Diet Library. グリーンべると launched in 1966. Are there other industry magazines I should be looking for? 1950s-1980s
パチンコ雑誌: 1950 年代から 1980 年代初頭までのパチンコ業界雑誌のコピーを 1 冊も見つけることができませんでした。これらの雑誌をお持ちの方、または入手できる場所を知っている方は、ぜひ私に連絡してください。遊技通信 (1951-1990) の最初の 10 年か 20 年を見ることができれば、とてもうれしいです。重要な情報が満載だと思います。全遊連弘報は 1965 年に創刊され、国立国会図書館にコピーがあるかもしれません。グリーンべるとは 1966 年に創刊されました。他に探すべき業界雑誌はありますか? 1950 年代 - 1980 年代
Meeting Collectors: Networking with other electromechanical collectors in Japan has been difficult. I have found message boards for collectors of EM games in Canada, USA, France, Italy, UK, and Germany. But I have found no boards for Japanese collectors. I would love to contact collectors in order to learn more about Japanese machines, and to share our mutual passion for collecting EM machines.
コレクターとの出会い: 日本国内で他の電気機械コレクターとのネットワーク作りは困難でした。カナダ、米国、フランス、イタリア、英国、ドイツで EM ゲームのコレクター向けの掲示板を見つけましたが、日本のコレクター向けの掲示板は見つかりませんでした。日本のマシンについてもっと知り、EM マシン収集への共通の情熱を共有するために、コレクターと連絡を取りたいと思っています。
Type Approval Numbers: The Type Approval Numbers research that I hope to locate might be at the National Diet Library. It might be a very arduous and slow process to retrieve it, but I am unsure. Would anyone in Japan be willing to assist in this research? Perhaps there is an easier method? Perhaps I could hire a university student near an appropriate NDL location?
型式承認番号: 私が探したい型式承認番号の調査は、国立国会図書館にあるかもしれません。それを取得するのは非常に困難で時間のかかるプロセスかもしれませんが、確信はありません。日本でこの調査を手伝ってくれる人はいませんか? もっと簡単な方法があるのでしょうか? 適切な国立国会図書館の近くの大学生を雇うことはできるでしょうか?
Magazines Needed: I need magazines from the 1980s! They are selling for over 10k each and I keep losing auctions. I have very few magazines from the 1980s and it is a large hole in the dataset. I will post a list of the magazines I have processed for information. If you have any other magazine issues, I would love a scan of it, or the chance to purchase it so we can scan it.
雑誌募集: 1980 年代の雑誌が必要です。1 冊あたり 1 万ドル以上で売られており、オークションで負け続けています。1980 年代の雑誌はほとんどなく、データセットに大きな穴があります。情報として処理した雑誌のリストを投稿します。他の雑誌をお持ちの場合は、スキャンしたものをお送りいただくか、購入してスキャンできるようにしていただければ幸いです。

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

Wednesday, 7 January 2026