Star Wars Pachinko - how it works

In December 2014 I made six short videos. This is one of them. It features a Star Wars Pachinko Machine.

[@TJTheGreat23]

Hakari from Jujutsu Kaisen brought me here

[@meruemking1528]

Hakaris DOMAIN EXPANSION

[@z0mbiejr.757]

Honestly, this video was pretty helpful in understanding Hakari’s domain. It’s still pretty complicated though.

[@cabbycabby1770]

People are OBSESSED with this. While living in Japan I would go on morning bike rides. At 7AM middle aged men were lined up for the parlor to open. Wild.

[@ModMINI]

I used to live in Japan for many years. Every time someone visited me, they would want to play Pachinko. I tried to tell them to not bother. It's a complete waste of money. Everyone in Japan should be forced to watch this video. Then, maybe all the Pachinko parlors would go out of business, and millions of salarymen would have more money to spend on truly useful things and wouldn't lose their hearing (the interior of pachinko parlors is incredibly LOUD).

[@MorbidEel]

Loud is expected given that it is basically raining steel balls all the time inside.

[@Rutherford_Inchworm_III]

In America, old people and fools play a lot of scratch-off lottery tickets and slot machines. The former do it because they're stupid and have guaranteed income; the latter do it because they're stupid.

[@lukesw01productions46]

Here’s a familiar scene: you walk by a pachinko and the automatic door opens. The loud noises and the stench of cigarettes escape out of the doors for a few seconds until the door eventually closes again.

[@Di3mondDud3]

I found an old one from the 70s and got it for 40 bucks. If you own the machine and its an old mechanical one you can just enjoy it like a funky pinball machine.

[@wasatchcars]

That brings me back. Years age I was in Japan and went in a pachinko parlor just thinking I was playing a sort of pinball machine. When a crap load of ball started coming out people in there told me to keep the money. I had no idea I was gambling. The clerk gave me 3 ball point pens then took me out a back door and sent me to a shop down a alley where I gave them the 3 pen & got paid about $75.

[@CaptDavesSportfishing]

There's a "very dry humor Brit" doing "Abroad in Japan" YT video's. Fascinating stuff, via his perspective. After watching Mr. Techmoan, then this guy in the same hour, and an ole Benny Hill episode. You'll feel very thirsty, if you're an American...LOL

[@andrewsinclair7159]

These days instead of ball point pens, they use little fake gold bars in plastic cases. Same idea though. Cash for balls, balls for more balls, more balls for prize tokens, prize tokens for cash. Avoiding gambling laws by jumping through enough hoops lol.

[@mikediamond437]

At least they were honest with you

[@MarbleCarnivalDude]

@@andrewsinclair7159 holes that the government holds open, as this is their biggest industry

[@4G3NTanon]

I used to own a couple of really old pachincos, they were all mechanical and you could actually influence the game by how hard you flipped the ball launch lever. Much more fun than the electronic ones. :)

[@TerryClarkAccordioncrazy]

I visited a Pachinko hall in Japan, it was a deafening, crowded and (in 2003) smoke-filled place. Can't say it did a lot for me but it's clearly addictive for some - perhaps the appeal is the mindlessness of it, the other-world quality of numbing out after 12+ hours in the office.

[@alphamone]

even the entryway to those places sound like you are next to a huge AC unit.

[@ddragon8154]

Mightn't it still be filled with smoke? Never been to Japan myself, but I do know many people there smoke a lot more than I do...So I wouldn't be at all surprised to find they havn't introduced "Smokefree" legislation yet! :-o :-!

[@Garysmusic1964]

Yes, I'm sure having hundreds of these machines running at the same time would have been quite loud.. Mine is old, before the micro-processors came into being.. So lots of rods levers to make everything work, and no lcd screens or anything fancy.. They did have a built in ash tray though, that flipped upside down to empty the ash.. I just like having one for the novelty of it all. Never been to Japan, but used to be able to buy them at stores in the 70's .. At least in California.

[@HitomiCOD2]

ahaha "your ball lifter arrived" xD

[@BillAnt]

Yeah the "ball lifter" is a very important integral part of this machine... cuz if you can't lift your balls, then you'll miss your goal... ha-ha-ha

[@hurricane567]

"If that's your bag, baby! Yeah!" is a different Englishman!

[@The_Real_Chris]

I've been to a Pachinko parlor in Japan. It's deafening, and a bit depressing watching all the hundreds of people with zombie like expressions, holding onto the ball launcher like a life jacket on the titanic. Not much different from the slot jockeys in casinos. I have an old mechanical Pachinko from the 60's which I find fascinating. Not only the sound of the balls clinking off the pins and the glass in the door, but the sound of the mechanical components and the mechanical bell. It's like the old electromechanical pinball machines with the stepper motors and mechanical bells. Symphonic to me. Digital has no soul.

[@shanester366]

+Chris Quetsch my dad has a old mechanical one he got back when he was in the navy, they are really cool to look and play with

[@harpoon_bakery162]

don't the balls break the glass?

[@The_Real_Chris]

Harpoon_Bakery The balls are quite small and lightweight. The balls experience their highest velocity when being launched vertically. Should the ball strike the glass, it’s usually due to it bouncing off a pin or other obstacle. This ricochet consumes most of the balls energy, further reducing its ability to damage the glass. The machines I own have two layers of glass, spaced about a 1/2 inch apart. Should the inner glass shatter, the outer piece will keep the shards from contacting the player. It is plate glass, 1/16 inch thick. The newer machines use polycarbonate sheets (Lexan / Plexiglass) for added safety and to resist vandalism.

[@harpoon_bakery162]

@@The_Real_Chris thanks for that copious explanation...sure appreciate it

[@asmolbean9300]

An old mechanical one would be nice

[@JimNicholls]

Fascinating! Thanks for all of these, and the rest of the great videos you've produced all year.

[@sparks1943]

Thanks for a very entertaining year. I appreciate the amount of work you put into these videos. Merry Christmas.

[@ZoeSummers1701A]

Thank you for explaining this and showing some really interesting behind the scenes stuff. Great video.

[@Sperminski]

Was looking for a clear and simple explanation, Techmoan delivered. Thanks!

[@zzyzxroad92309]

Merry Christmas to you too Mat! Thanks for all the fun times courtesy of your videos!

[@RobWhittlestone]

Fascinating! I had never heard of them until I saw this video! Great! Many thanks Mat! All the best, Rob

[@xjet]

All the best to you and yours for the festive season and I'll be looking forward to more great stuff from you in 2015.

[@zeldajunkielol2]

Didn't know you watched these videos Bruce. Merry Christmas!

[@wattage2007]

zeldajunkielol2 Small world eh :-)

[@scowell]

I have played several different generations of Pachinko... by far the best was the old one-shot version... you flip the lever one time, one ball goes up... a completely mechanical playfield, with mechanical flaps remembering what stage you've won. The next version I played had the same fully-mechanical playfield, but it had the electric ball launcher... making the play happen much faster, an obvious win for the parlor. Then I played the latest Neon Evangelion when I was in Japan in 2011... it was insane, with crazy different game and story going on... sometimes you were flying and shooting with a joystick sometimes you were pachinkoing... really, really insane, hard to understand, and chaotic. By far my fave was the old-timey one, one ball at a time... you could prop your fingers against the stop and get some repeatability for aiming the ball at the top of the field.

[@slicedpage]

thank you. I always wondered how to play that game. Having stayed in Japan and watched hundreds of people playing these things I always wondered what was involved I never tried it myself, my brain is numbed enough thank you very much !

[@BenjermanKulandaisamy]

This machine's proves that Gambling can become a addiction

[@MrAtheHun]

You're a talented chap with an eclectic taste in gizmos. Thanks for this series and in fact all the videos. Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

[@Techmoan]

MrAtheHun Many thanks - eclectic is a good description. I'm a serial hobbiest, I like to learn all about something, but then when I feel I've learned enough I'll drop it and move on to something else. I like to keep my brain occupied.

[@WickedGamerCollector]

I did see couple of them here we have some sellers. Loved your explaining about how it worked in the Japan arcade.

[@df5295]

The older version from the '70's were all mechanical and required you to launch the balls yourself. It seems to require more skill than just holding a knob and watching the balls bounce around.

[@theend1555]

The loudest sound I ever heard was a Pachinko parlor in Shinjuku right after everyone had gotten off of work....on pay day. Wow was that place stuffed full of people, cigarette smoke and the deafening sound of ball bearing bouncing around.

[@RayManiac90]

I don't like pachinko machines but man I would love to own this one, I love Star Wars

[@sojournersrest8142]

This is the best video on pachinko! I finally understood how it works!

[@benjaminnelson5455]

My grandad own a much older version of one of these that was largely mechanical. It had some electronics with switches for jackpot lights and such, but it would run perfectly well without power. The center jackpot segment on his would start out with just a small hole in the top, but if you got one in there a couple wings would open expanding substantially the odds of another jackpot. His had a manual lever, so you could finesse your aim a bit more. I got good enough at it that I could open the jackpot wings and fairly reliably drop two more balls into them before the mechanism that closed them triggered. Msybe that's why the jackpot on your version is more random. A practiced player on the old versions could break the machine's bank.

[@stonedcommander]

Many years ago while in Atlantic city with my family, we took our daughter to an arcade. They had slots for kids where you put in real money and gold colored coins come out that you can exchange for prizes. We had 2 buckets filled when she was done but when looking at the garbage prizes we could exchange the coins for, she said she rather just keep the coins so we did.

[@michaelmartin9022]

Japan's gambling laws also cover "coin falls", so instead of putting in 10 yen coins (for instance), you put in silver tokens that look like 100 yen coins (but are probably worth significantly less). They tend to be played by kids, though, so I don't know if you can get prizes for the tokens or just keep them. Most grabbing games are 100 yen, though, maybe if you win some tokens you can use them in those instead of actual money?

[@ModMINI]

The game tokens for kids can be exchanged for prizes, or more commonly, candy. Unlike the grownup gambling, they can't be sold for cash. Some of the coin fall games you actually do put in a 100 yen coin, but it magically converts to a token on the playing field. (The coin is collected and a token is dropped in its place.

[@michaelmartin9022]

Ah right, I always waste 10p's in UK coin falls, but never tried the ones in Japan, token conversion is an extra step of effort before throwing away money, so I keep it instead

[@awnnerd]

The coins cost very much more than the prizes - yay for you daughter! Of course, you will spend almost all of what’s left of your life picking the damn things off the floor..

[@martkt10]

That machine is amazing , thank you for sharing it, happy christmas

[@KillerBill1953]

Best part of Christmas, thanks for sharing.

[@nirgunapa56]

Another fascinating vid! Thanks for making these and a very Merry Christmas to you.

[@Agamemnon2]

If there's arcades in Hell, these things are pretty much the only cabinets there. Playing them day in and day out sounds like the most awful, demoralizing thing ever.

[@Takeshi357]

Sounds a lot like the salaryman culture in general.

[@Shipwright1918]

Close cousin to a pinball machine, and indeed back in the day there were payout pinball machines that worked in a similar fashion (hence why a certain chappie called La Guardia got busy with an axe after banning the lot). That's why pinball machines still say "For Amusement Only" on them. Personally would like to track down a Galaxy Railways or Galaxy Express 999 pachinko machine, but I'd definitely accept a pinball machine first if given a choice between them.

[@user-kf6yt4mn9v]

My mother used to play these in the 80s in Japan, and I'm pretty sure that's how I got my Famicon! I also remember getting Gameboy games as prizes, so they weren't rubbish at all. :) I believe the "prizes" you went around back to exchange for money were little plastic cases with pieces of gold inside, so from a legal perspective you were selling those pieces of gold for money. I don't know if they still work this way, though. Sorry if this has all been mentioned before in another comment!

[@SilverSpectre90]

And this is the destiny of Metal Gear........

[@Mainsail1975au]

Merry Christmas, thanks for all the interesting videos.

[@Techmoan]

Mainsail1975au ...and to you too, but it might now be time we all turn off our computers/smart devices and go and have some fun before Christmas is over.

[@blueskylazer]

Fascinating machine and history.

[@mickygee66]

Thanks for the very entertaining videos!

[@john994589]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year thanks for all your videos hope to see more next year

[@Wideolink]

Thank u for the demonstration and explanation !

[@hunn20004]

For those who get the reference. "HIT THE LEVER!"

[@Frog_Puppet]

+hunn20004 Kronk?

[@Alxasaurus]

+hunn20004 WRONG LEVER!! :P

[@setsers1]

Silent Hill😬😂

[@HowlinMadMurD0C]

Jim Fucking Sterling?

[@kitchentable1362]

WRONNG LEVER!

[@bobbyslater1198]

I have a plastic hand-held Pachinko game that I bought for $1 back in 1979.

[@dinev9]

this vid is dreally good great explenation you are showing me what it actually is

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Merry Christmas to you Matt. Thanks for taking the time to make and upload the videos in 2014, I enjoyed them all. Interesting machine and something I ve never seen before. Well done for getting it to work. I can imagine a arcade of those would be really quite loud.

[@Techmoan]

fredintheshed1 Thanks Fred - and as I'm sure you'll appreciate, getting things to work just how you want is satisfying, but then the fun is over and you move on to something else.

[@startazz]

Great advent series and this one topped them off nicely. :-) Merry Christmas to you and yours and here's wishing you all a happy new year too.

[@sokolum]

Thank for sharing it! Merry Xmass and a good year for later on.

[@unremind]

Merry Christmas, enjoyed the vids.

[@pjy42]

Found the six videos of Christmas very interesting ,can you do more ? You do have some crazy stuff ,I hope you have more items to be able to do this. Many thanks for putting these excellent videos,best on KZbin

[@robertdunsmore]

Fits perfectly into your techmoan theme, what a relentlessly depressing yet hypnotically fascinating piece of extravagant electronics. Shiny objects, eh?

[@dappertharapper2484]

Great video dude

[@Heysahs007]

Thanks for the explanation!

[@xinox73]

Thanks i always wonder how these thing workes ^^ good video.

[@onemancrew3206]

This is awesome

[@tavitlertritsumpun7160]

Very interesting gadgets you have there. Merry Christmas to you also.

[@Velofil]

Merry christmas to you... and thank you for the great videos. I don't know if you are married or not , but if you are married, your wife deserves an award for letting you buy all those fun things :-)

[@superlight47]

Happy holiday to you too.

[@rchan0]

gasp the R2-D2 just moved! still an interesting device thanks for sharing

[@djstumpy7399]

Gr8 video , im here because i just watched Hector Barjots video of the Michael jackson pachinko press pack. I've never heard of these machines, b4. It seems like this is a bit like when we here, in the uk play to win barcode tickets on arcade machines to cash in and win crappy little prizes you could of brought cheaper at the pound shop ! 😅

[@McRocket]

'Coincidentally, they have the same table as the previous people' LOL. Ohhhh...that is how they do that. Interesting.

[@johnfritzel9833]

Same hands too !

[@ToumalRakesh]

You got some balls. Thank you, I'll show myself out ;)

[@benambrose7360]

I used to have this one, he's right, this one is disappointing, there's very little that changes throughout and there's a very limited number of animations. The win rate on pachinko machines is fixed (unlike a pachislot which is adjustable, I have a Devil May Cry 4 one of these which is quite fun). This particular star wars machine has a very low win rate. These are actually marked on the machine for everyone to see. I sold it and bought the newer darth vader machine. Much higher win rate, a ton of variation, a bunch of moving parts like a vader figure, spinning tie fighter, another pop up screen, 3d screen (no glasses necessary), vibration feedback handle and so on. You'll see the one in the video come up on ebay often, usually marked as rare, its not, its possibly the most common pachinko in the UK. A cool collectors piece, but not alot more unfortunately. I would like a lifter though, unfortunately they cost as much as the machines if not more to buy 2nd hand.

[@andrewtechful]

I would honestly get sick of how noisy this thing is lol. Great to see how it all works though :) Keep up the good work!

[@pegjames188]

When travelling fair arrived during the1960s there where machines in the sideshows, not quite pachinko ,not quite bagatelle, where the aim was to win a cigarette.

[@wild-radio7373]

I love it!♡♡♡ 🤜🏻👍🤛🏻

[@jacobosebastian818]

Great Video!!! Thanks!!!

[@livemanperu]

Magnífico video 👍

[@jimslav6973]

Incredible! It's like a headline. *Man removes euphoric 'win' aspect from gambling device and discovers there's no game at all.* It's a confirmation of a fact that we kind of already knew, but excellent effort! In this video lay the hard proof.

[@Musouka3]

Wow, never expected to see that! Actual Pachinko parlors in Japan are extremely loud. I don't know how people can manage to sit inside all this time! It seems like a national pastime. No wonder it is a highly lucrative business. It generated 19.66 trillion yen in 2012; more than the 17.4 trillion yen generated by the entire Japanese automotive industry from the production of passenger trucks, trucks and buses combined (for home use and export)!

[@sharizaslam]

Had no clue that's how gambling worked in Japan

[@Moe598]

thanks for the explanation

[@paulmcnamara16]

Wow what a thing to own. See the boredom factor but ooh its pritteee. Merry Crimble buddy do hope you carry this feature on in the new year. Im sure you have enough subject matter for it.

[@Techmoan]

paulmcnamara16 This series showcased things from 10 years of collecting - so expect a new series of these in a decade. If I try to do one next year, it would have to feature things like AA batteries and memory cards.

[@paulmcnamara16]

Come on you must have more retro gadge lying around buddy. Anyway enjoyed these and all of your videos this last year very much. And look forward to 2015s fair.

[@Dakkor32]

Happy Christmas sir!

[@TheAussieStig30]

All I can say is people will do anything to gamble. Sure, looks pretty, lots of cool animations and sounds (not a Star Wars fan myself but it still looks pretty) but oh god it must be boring to sit there for more than 5 minutes feeding ball bearings in. Merry Xmas Techy, thanks for a year of videos, again. And thanks for watching.

[@mikecarter8880]

About 10 years ago I bought like 8 off of Ebay, and 2 slot machines. They were fun, except until you won the jackpot, there was nothing left after that. If I was actually gambling for money I can see the interest, but when you own it, there isn't much fun after that jackpot and you have seen all the videos.

[@sycabara9229]

You have enough space for a pachinko machine, a retro music shelf, a sauna... How much house space do you have?

[@Techmoan]

Sycabara There's never enough space - would love a games room, a home cinema and a proper studio.

[@GerardvanSchip]

They are DIRT cheap here in Japan but sadly the shipping would kill any deal.

[@uselessDM]

+Gerard van Schip Are people buying them for their homes? Seems to me without the gambling aspect there wouldn't be any appeal. not even collecting the machines when they are cheap.

[@GerardvanSchip]

+useless1997 no idea, they do seem to get some at the second hand shops so someone may be buying them. I was considering it at one point to take it apart for parts. They have high res Lcd panels of interesting shapes.

[@GalanDun]

I've been wanting a Resident Evil pachinko machine for a long time, but I'm absolutely certain that the shipping would KILL me.

[@01chippe]

I prefer the mechanical ones from the 60's 70's. I have one of those. I also bought the Star Wars one with the 3D screen. That thing is a BEAST and weighs about 200 pounds. I've only used it once. It's too heavy to tote around. It's very loud and very flashy. I bought it on eBay from a company that imports them, and they added a US transformer in the machine, and added volume pots to turn the sound way down. It's been sitting on the floor next to one of my pinball machines for about 3 years now. The mechanical one I keep in a closet and drag it out from time to time. The box of balls I have is heavier than the mechanical pachinko machine.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

You should flog that when the new movie comes out, you'd probably get a nice amount for it, especially with the animated R2D2.

[@brewers2150]

I like the old Pachinko machines much better than these new "machine gun" machines. My brother and I got one of the old machines for Christmas in 1971. Love it.

[@ThoriumHeavyIndustries]

what a monster.

[@ZayIvory7]

HIT THE LEVER!!

[@pjy42]

Should read ...excellent videos UP

[@johannes914]

Learned something.

[@HimmeetValot]

In Finland we used to have Pajatso wich is kinda similar game to Pachinko, but a bit more skill based

[@aaron_ow]

Merry Christmas!

[@lionocyborg6030]

I like pachinko as it's basically my Grandpa's old bagatelle board but much better, but I've sadly never gotten a chance to play it. I'd want to start with the Sonic one if I could. I'm not a fan of the gambling aspect of pachinko though, but if you just get the prize at the end and not use it too much, it's similar to the ticket system in western arcades, including what I like to call "kiddy slots", which are slot machines that are much easier to win including jackpots, and they give you said tickets instead of cash.

[@ZeeZeeBun]

Pachinko.. Something I've always wanted to try... even though I know I'd probably get bored in about 5 minutes....

[@Alkhaldi92]

So that's why Konami killed Silent Hill? for this piece of crap? :(!

[@comady25]

+TripleFun92 HIT THE LEVER

[@caldenza]

+ThatDuck INSERT MORE BALLS TO SAVE BIG BOSS, SIR

[@Kaisaccountt]

Because fuck you give me money

[@roguespiral]

this is more diabolical than silent hill

[@jonathancastleman5339]

Silent Hill didn't get a pachinko--it got a pachislo--whish is worse, because instead of at least having a pinball-esque game of chance, you're just stuck with a slot machine. Yay.

[@tomg5187]

nice thanks bro!

[@GHILLIESARCADEANDMORE]

Cool

[@suopo32]

On the sixth thing of christmas Techmoan give to me 6 Japanese banknotes 5 calculator spins 4 channel player 3 input panels 2 clockwork spins and a picture David Niven

[@rfvtgbzhn]

I guess the reason why people play with these machines is the same as why people play with normal slot-machines: they hope to win.

[@RiseUpToYourAbility]

Yeh I don't see much fun in it, but I guess the hope of winning money keeps you interested.

[@RayManiac90]

If you think about it it's really sad, I mean yeah I played some slot machine I spent 20 euros and that's it one night with my friends, I saw people who stay inside buildings spending all their money on these slots. I mean why? People wake up spending your time and money on these games is a waste of time, maybe you can win after a while but it's more the money you spent than what you really win

[@jugglerjim01]

Merry Christmas 😊

[@captainzeppos]

"Oh, your ball lifter has arrived!"

[@oldsnell]

Merry Christmas

[@BigGuyReview]

LMAO Great video. I think I'll watch the useless machine again. at least I know I have NO chance to win anything..lol Thanks for the holiday wishes and allow me in return to wish you and your family a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

[@noname-bz7kl]

gambling addiction is miserable

[@redavatar]

It would make a nice decor piece for my gaming room... If I could, I'd get a coin pusher too - now those are fun to play and require some level of intelligence. Not the US kind with money on top, but the European kind where they place coins and casino chips on top for you to cash in for prizes.

[@DRKN98]

nice

[@DoctorEviloply]

HIT THE LEVER!

[@CorpseTongji]

watching the balls fall down is so satisfying , if i ever had one of these id watch it for hours lmfao

[@coolelectronics1759]

looks fun! I recently just got into repairing old slot machines etc and it is very interesting all the different ones that came out! I am legally blind so let me know if I missed anything. But these used balls instead of money? The one I am working on has tokens instead of money, I believe it is also a pachinko but waaaay newer Id say made some time in the 90s to mid 2000s or so. Its going to need a new marquee light, and the test mode bug worked out. I think a relay or solenoid is sticking causing mine to get stuck in service mode.