Here is an advertisement with Champion Basket Game published in the 1973 machine directory, which came out at the end of 1972.
1973 machine directory ad
This machine is nearly identical to a version of Sega's Basketball. This model appears in the 1971 Sega pricelist. Similar to チャンピオン・バスケットゲーム (Champion basket game) Showa Yuen seem to be putting their own name on other company's machines, and we can only speculate on the reasons. These were sold for a number of years, so in my mind that rules out bootlegging.
They have a quite distinct "CHAMPION BASKET GAME" written across the control panel, so they won't get mistaken for a Sega model.
Champion Basket Game also appears in the 1978 machine directory.
1978 machine directory
I have to assume that the version with the vertical legs was an earlier production.
The flyer lists this version as 152 cm long while the version with the angled legs is advertised as being 137cm long. I am unsure if there is any actual difference between the two. If you look closely at the version with the angled legs, the colour flyer shows a seam which might indicate that they got rid of the vertical legs for the 1950s pinball style. (Perhaps it was structural, but also perhaps they were able to buy a huge haul of the old legs for a cheap price?)
You can see Champion Basket Game at 6:59 in this video:
It is listed in both the 1969 and 1972 machine directories.
1969 machine directory
1972 machine directory
I wonder if Showa Yuen were acting as a distributor for Crown Basketball, but giving it their own name? Maybe it was done to get the Taito machines into certain regional markets?
1969 machine directory entry for 昭和遊園 (Showa Yuen) which lists チャンピオン・バスケットゲーム (Champion basket game)
This machine is known as "Champion Long Shoot" by the flyer, but if you look at the control panel the name there is "Champion Shoot Ball".
The flyer implies that it was built by Show Yuen, but distributed by Nihon Jidô Hanbaiki.
We have the game as 1970 since 2 copies of "Long Shoot" were reported next to 2 Basketball games at Expo'70 Game Land.
We can see it in this TV show in 1972:
なんたって18歳！ 第36話「ピリカメノコは恋の花」(1972年6月6日放送) After all, she's 18 years old!Episode 36 “Pirikamenoko is the flower of love” (broadcast June 6, 1972)
You can tell it is Champion Long Shoot because there are only 5 buttons facing the player.
The gameplay appears to be a cross between Bally's Spinner (1966) and the prior domed basketball games. In Spinner, a central spinner knocks balls into pockets at each players' station. The player can choose to eject balls out of holes. In this game it appears the balls are ejected from the holes towards the nets.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
