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

Monday, 1 September 2025

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.

スキールロール (skill roll) by 日本娯楽機械 (Japanese entertainment machine)

Name: スキールロール (skill roll)
Year: ~1960s
Company: 日本娯楽機械 (Japanese entertainment machine)

This this machine appears on a flyer that has the title "SKIRU ROLL", the phonetic pronunciation, but that title does not appear on the machine.

Skill Roll is a game released by Bally in 1956. you flick your nickel through each stage of the course, collecting 10, 20, 30, or 50 points from each flick.

1956 Skill Roll by Bally [from my collection]

The design of the cabinet matches quite well. The Japanese version has six knobs, the original has eight. The Japanese version also does not score at each level, only at the end. So instead of accumulating a score, and perhaps getting to the end of the course in lighting the "star" in the American version, the Japanese version has a single prize it dispenses at the winning slot. This would make construction far more cheaper, as it would require many less microswitches, and far less logic circuits.

There are two microswitches visible at the non-winning holes at the bottom, so perhaps there is a smaller prize dispensed with them.

The following images are from _QtQ_. Thank you for sharing these. Photos taken at 中古タイヤ市場.

Image from the flyer:

I do not have much information about the company, but 日本娯楽機械 (Nihon Gorakukiai) is just one additional character away from 日本娯楽機 (Nihon Gorakuki) and I can assure you they are not the same company.

Company info from the flyer:

Transcription:

日本娯楽機械株式会社
本社名古屋市東区七小町79番地電話(052>962-0982
工場春日井市松河戸町段下1489番地
東北営業所仙台市沖野字砂押46の3 電話<0222>86-5322

Machine translation:

Japan Amusement Machine Co., Ltd.
Head Office: 79 Nanakomachi, Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Tel: 052-962-0982
Factory: 1489 Danshita, Matsukawado-cho, Kasugai, Tel: 052-962-0982
Tohoku Office: 46-3 Sunaoshi, Okino, Sendai, Tel: 052-86-5322

The only other game I have by this company is Shovel Dozer, which I have a flyer of. The only other reference I have for Shovel Dozer is a game room photo that I estimate is from 1971.

By the looks of the advertisement in the cabinet, I am guessing 1960s, and the only real year anchor I have is that the renamed version of this game, Apollo Plan, which apparently was at Expo 70.

I am assuming that Apollo Plan came out after スキールロール (skill roll).

This game would go on to set the template through a flurry of coin flick games in the 1970s, including the always popular Shinkansen games.

While not exact, Shinkansen Game II does have a version that uses a very similar outerspace background.

1977 新幹線ゲームⅡ・宇宙 (Shinkansen Game II; Space) by 九娯貿易 (Kyugo Trading) & ニシキ製作所 (Nishiki Seisakusho)

Sunday, 10 August 2025

~1920s one sen pachinko by unknown

Name: one sen pachinko (real name unknown)

Year: ~1920s

Company: unknown

This early machine uses a large ball, not a small pachinko ball. There are a handful of European machines that use this size of ball. Note the size of the hole comes out of.

This machine was on display at the Pachinko Museum (パチンコ博物館).

visible on the far left (from the Pachinko Museum pamphlet)

image of the face of the game

machine on the left. (from the Pachinko Museum pamphlet)

There is a similar machine in a famous catalogue that is estimated from around 1929.

１錢の玉遊び [No. 16] (A ball game played with 1 sen) by 日本娯楽機製作所 (Japan Amusement Machine Manufacturing)

There are a few notable differences between this machine the photographed machine above, but they are both strikingly similar. This one also has the meshed hoop ball entrances, the hole layout is adjusted slightly, and this one appears to have a coin-return slot.

I have encountered a few other machines with a similarly large ball, but even these are extremely obscure (presumed) British games.

1933 Top Hat British Manufacturing Co (archive)

snooker-themed allwin-style game

WIN pocket from the above snooker machine

pocket from the game at the Pachinko Museum

Each of these pockets has 3 horizontal bands and one center vertical band. I believe the British machines are late 1920s, though it's hard to say for sure since documentation is scarce. While I am leaving this machine as ~1920s, it might be early 1930s. That Top Hat machine is listed as 1933...

This Bolland machine was listed as "1930s", but I have yet to get that confirmed. as you can see by the ball hole, this is another large ball game.

The 3 Sixes by Bolland

Another Bolland machine that appears to use a similar ball, but very different gameplay:

1930s Beat The Goalie by Bollands

One thing I look for is the ratio of Ball Hall size to coin slot size. we can see similar examples of large ball games if we look back a decade or two earlier.

1910 The Cresset by Cresset Auto Machine Co.

look at the ball hole size:

Pickwick:

A look at the balls:

we can also see larger balls used in earlier French machines:

French slot machine, stamped inside A Bessmann

As best I can tell, the use of larger balls began with Pickwick style machines, but then fell out of fashion in the early 1930s.

A few German wall machines post-World War II used similarly sized white balls, with a number of popular machines in the late 60s and into the 70s. Many of these German machines were imported into Japan in the 1970s, and a number of Japanese arcade machines in the 1970s copied aspects of the German designs.

Thursday, 31 July 2025

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.

Monday, 14 July 2025

1974 Playlearn ABC [seen in ラブラブ・ライバル] by unknown

Name: Playlearn ABC

Year: 1974 or earlier

Company: unknown

This game can be seen in 2 screenshots of the Japanese TV show ラブラブ・ライバル (Love Love Rivals), as shared by TOO_yoshikawa (archive)

ラブラブ・ライバル第21話「雪のロマンス？」(1974年2月19日放送)

This episode aired in 1974 but the game could have existed earlier. This is the only example of this game I have ever seen.

This game appears to be a reworking of a German Addi-Mint machine by NSM. There is a single button at the center, bottom, and a ring of numbers around it. You spin the wheel 3 times and the sum of your spins determines if you win.

The dimensions of Playlearn seem slightly different than the addi-mint machines, but sometimes a camera distorts things, and sometimes cabinets could be changed.

1963 add-mint standard by NSM

1964 addi-mint Juwel by NSM

Many German Rotamint-style machines were brought into Japan and used for gambling purposes, and I suspect that Playlearn ABC is another example of that.