The height of a 14-year-old girl can vary quite a bit, haha
This is also the largest pachinko machine I’ve seen. Looks like a lot of fun!
I agree. I was being a bit facetious. She’s around 5’ 2" or 157 cm.
When I lived in Japan, there was a pachinko arcade in my town that had nothing but pachinko machines lined up in rows like slot machines in a casino. They were skinnier than this, but a couple feet taller than me, and I’m 6" even.
It’s illegal to gamble with money in Japan, but not to gamble with little metal balls, so you buy the balls, play with the machines, and sell back the balls you have left at the end. If you win more balls, then you get more money when you sell them back. A nice little legal loophole for gambling.
Pachinko in Japan is basically what slot machines are here, and they are arranged in a similar manner with similar degrees of design audacity. Most of them also have a slot machine built into them, which spins its reels (digitally, they’re all screens now) whenever you land a ball in a pocket or whatever. You get a fixed payout for landing a ball in a pocket, but you can also theoretically win a jackpot by winning at the slot machine aspect. So think of it like a slot machine that has a luck check before you can even pull the lever, and then another luck check to see if you actually win. Gamblers are already famously bad at understanding statistics, but I guarantee you practically nobody can accurately assess the risk vs. reward of that. It’s diabolical, but apparently also very effective.
For what it’s worth, I have an “old” Metal Army pachinko machine from circa 1998 and even mine has a color LCD screen slot machine reel in the middle of the playfield.
While we’re at it, even my dinky Metal Army machine is quite possibly the single loudest mechanical object ever manufactured in the history of mankind, and that’s when there’s only one of them. A ball bearing factory in full production during a tornado is probably quieter than a pachinko parlor at prime time.
I had one myself, but I think it was from the 60s. The electronics didn’t work anymore, but there was a bell as part of the mechanism that would ring whenever more balls ended up in the tray, so that was enough to make it fun.
It looked very similar to this:
Woah, what a weird coincidence, I also have one of those Metal Army pachinko machines, found it at a flea market around here.
And yes, now that I have more than one pachinko machine my house is probably the loudest in the city.
Do any other sort of games take advantage of that loophole or is it just pachinko?
i actually expected something quite a bit larger than this.
Pachinko is like pinball for people who suck at pinball.
Hard disagree. I’m pretty damn good at pinball and I used to own a pachinko machine. It’s fun. It gives you that little burst of serotonin when it goes in the right hole and the bells and sirens go off and a bunch more pachinko balls end up in the tray.
I don’t have room for it today, but I miss it. I wish I had room for a pinball table. I even know the exact one I want- Funhouse. I kick ass at Funhouse. Plus, I love getting into an insult-slinging contest with the little ventrilquist dummy.
I really want a Safe Cracker machine, myself. There was a local restaurant in my small town growing up that had one and would reward you with a gold token every million points that could be redeemed for a large 1 topping pizza.
I ate so much pizza off just a few quarters. 😋
A friend of mine just came to town and purchased this ticket machine a couple of weeks ago because “it was only $100.”
He very excitedly texted me later to tell me it was full of tickets and tokens.
He’ll add it to his multiple classic arcade cabinet, his two MAME cabinets, his sit-down driving cabinet and his large collection of classic consoles.
He also coded an NES game about 10 years ago for the fun of it. Even put it on a cartridge. Currently, he’s working on a video pinball simulator in a pinball table format which will use rumble to simulate the feel of things like the ball hitting the flipper.
I have cool, weird friends. Some of them who have way too much disposable income.
I miss our pinball machine we used to have. Of course I had to learn to solder because those damn flappers were always breaking because people were to rough on them. Did you have the same issues?
I think you misread my post or I just wrote it poorly. I never owned a pinball machine, just a pachinko machine. They don’t have flippers. But I wish I owned a pinball machine.
As far as servicing them and repairing them, I worked in an arcade in the 90s. I’ve had to do so much pinball repair work it’s not even funny.
Oh yeah sorry I did. But that makes since because we were always working on ours. I rather have that if it easier to repair and looks fun. Don’t think I ever played on one.
I have own a veiw acrade machines too. They used to have huge auctions in Dallas for them, not sure still do been years. But seen the pinball machine you mentioned at one. I got out bided on it and a Southpark machine.
And I still ticked off when the auction allowed the owner of the machines to bid. Got bid me right out of buying these bad ass shooter.
Funhouse was great. Given a choice I’d def go for that or Elvira.
And pinball is like pachinko for people who suck at pachinko.
the largest pachinko machine I’ve ever seen
Have you never watched The Price Is Right?
Pff. Plinko is not pachinko.
![In our mall, there is an arcade. In that arcade is the largest pachinko machine I have ever seen. (14-year-old girl for scale.) [OC]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5f0f6911-e46a-45ef-8d53-a4dd7d2b7ba9.png){kind=link}