Name: スーパーホームランゲーム [PH-51型] (Super home run game [PH-51 type])
Year: unknown, probably early 1960s
Company: 東洋プレーイングマシン (Toyo Playing Machine)
This flyer recently came up for auction and sold for 51,000 yen. We had bid 7500 yen on it and did not win the auction. If you acquired this flyer, can you please get in touch?
This is the first time we have ever seen the company 東洋プレーイングマシン (Toyo Playing Machine).
This is different from the 1920s company 東洋自動娯楽器商會 (Toyo Automatic Entertainment Equipment Business Association).
And this is not the 1970s company 東洋娯楽機 (Toyo entertainment machine) which would later be known by the brand name トーゴ (Togo).
A friend of mine notes that the characters used on the flyer are older. In 1959 the Ministry of Education announced a new typeface would be used, but this flyer used the old style Kanji with Chinese characters.
That does NOT guarantee this flyer is from the 1950s, but I am suspicious that it is. The flyer seems to say it has been a decade of Super Home Run Game, but I do not think I am understanding the translation properly. Did this game exist for a decade? If so that would definitely push this flyer closer to 1960. How are we only rediscovering it now?
Previously, the oldest Japanese flipper pinball was 1965 クレイジー15 (Crazy 15) by こまや (Komaya) but if we can verify this machine is from before 1965, it will take that title!
Nazox2016 has also been investigating this flyer. Paraphrasing what he told me: There area where Atami Center is used to be a red light district. An anti-prostitution law was enacted in 1957 and the red-light district was abolished in 1958. We are assuming the Atami Center moved into that building 1958 or later. Because of that, I believe it is most probably that this flyer is from the early 1960s. There is a chance it could be from the 1950s, but I think says "~1960s" is a far safer bet.
One thing to note about this flyer is that it appears to show 3 different backglasses for what appear to be the same machine. No game other than Super Home Run Game is mentioned on the flyer. We can see glimpses of the playfield on all 3 images, and they all appear to have the same playfield.
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| I am unable to discern what is on this backglass, but we can confidently say that it is not the same image as the two backglasses below. |
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| backglass shows a woman on the lower left, and a distinctive outline in the lower right. |
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| backglass shows a woman front and center. |
For the first 2 images, we see that the side art differs between them. For images 2 and 3 we see that the front cabinet art is different.
Each backglass is similar in how the score is shown. There is a large "50,000" near the top. The 2nd row says 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000.
3rd row is 1000 through 9000, bottom row is 100 through 900. This is how pinball scores were displayed before the invention of reels. Lights would illuminate your current score, and you would add up the 10k, 1k, and hundreds section for your total.
Let's look at the diagram in the flyer:
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The notes about points are self explanatory.
バット translates to 'bat', aka the flippers, but 'bat' works quite well for a baseball theme.
始動用メタル入金具 (Metal fitting for starting) is the coin slide
ボール送り出ミ金具 (ball delivery fitting) raises the ball to the shooter lane |
The most curious part above is the 景品メタル受金具 (prize metal bracket). It seems this has a slot to dispense winning tokens / coins to players!! If true, that is a remarkable addition.
Super Home Run Game seems to be a repainted version of Exhibit Supply's 1948 machine Banjo.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the playfields, in black & white:
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the playfield has been repainted. The center circle, beneath the three bumpers, is now painted to look like a baseball.
The lower bumpers were changed from diamond shaped to circles. |
For readers outside of the USA, it's important to note that the game Banjo uses the
'minstrel' stereotype.
Blackface and minstrel iconography are part of the history of
racism in the USA.
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| 1948 Banjo by Exhibit Supply (aka ESCO) |
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| nice playfield shot |
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| this is a shot from inside the cabinet. As you can seem, Banjo has no payout mechanism at all. Most "payout pinball" was discontinued pre-ww2. There were some one-ball horse race pinball machines in the 1940s that had payout hoppers, but none built into the side of the cabinet like Super Home Run Game. |
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| the score instructions for Banjo. The scoring seems altered for Super Home Run Game, and at the very least the score values have been divided by 10. |
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Banjo offers scores up to 699,000.
Super Home Run Game offers scores up to 59,900. |
While the side art for Banjo and Super Home Run Game are different, it is interesting to note that Super Home Run Game also has musical notes.
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left side art (right side is the same)
1948 Banjo by Exhibit Supply |
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| is that a baseball glove? |
I should also note the differences in the backglass frame. Around 1948, Exhibit Supply stopped using their fancier top wood trim and instead switched to a more economical trim.
While Banjo's promotional material show it with a larger top wooden trim, the game seems to exist with both types of frame. Mind you, we are 75 years past when it was made so the few existing Banjos today might have lost and gained parts over the years.
A month after Banjo, Exhibit Supply released Samba, with a nearly identical playfield except for the center feature, and the economical backglass trim.
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| fancy trim on a Banjo |
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| economical trim on a Banjo |
And just for fun, here's Samba's playfield
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1948 Samba by Exhibit Supply
note how Samba does not have the center drain post, but also a kickback lane near the center bottom. The other main difference is that the center gate bounded by triangles on Banjo is replaced with a kickout saucer on Samba. |
