Miscellaneous November Update

November sucks! It's cold. It rains. It snows.

Daylight is down to nine and a half hours and getting shorter everyday until winter solstice.

It's a difficult time of the year.

I realized I haven't posted anything here in awhile. Things have been a bit slow machine wise.

So here's a bunch of little things I've been fiddling with lately:

 

Nishijin Circuit Racer in my custom cabinet:

I installed Circuit Racer in my custom pachinko cabinet.

 

 

Also, as can be seen in my original post for the game, It was missing all the aluminum trim on the lower ball tray.

So I found a tray that had the trim I needed.

 

 

I Ginger-carefully removed the trim, and installed it onto Circuit Racer. It really improves the overall look of the game. Especially since this is pretty clean example.

 

Kyoraku Oryusan in the ball lift frame:

 

I installed Oryusan in the ball lift frame.

 

 

Oryusan was what finally motivated me to buy a Silver Orange ball lifter after all these years of wanting one. So, naturally, it was the next game to go onto my test platform I cobbled together in my previous post.

 

These newer pachinko machines with the fever modes are impossible to appreciate, as in really experience the gameplay, without some sort of ball lift system. The machine's prize hopper is too small and the machine quickly runs out of balls as soon as you achieve a fever mode.

BUT I didn't just install the game. I bought two more Orange ball lifts: One that is complete with the proper prize hopper paddle switch and one that had the overflow blocked off.

 

I modified my platform to accommodate the second lifter. As the first lift fills up with played balls, it overflows into the second lifter. Excessive balls overflow into a couple of boxes. That gives the whole setup amazing capacity. I admit that TWO Silver ball lifts is a bit of a Pachinko Nerd Flex but now I can play through a 15R and not run out of prize balls.

 

 

I wired a timer so that when the prize hopper paddle switch closes the first lift will run continuously and the second will run 15 seconds ON, 15 seconds OFF until the prize hopper is filled. That way is prioritizes the first lift so that it empties first.

The one down side of my new system is that I occasionally have to manually empty excess balls if gameplay goes on for too long without a significant win.

 

It's crazy how many balls these newer pachinko machines can gobble up!

New tokens for Satomi Buffalo Arrangeball:

I got some 26mm tokens for the Buffalo Arrangeball. I like 'em.

I want each machine to have it's own token model to make things more complicated.

Bally Miss Universe side art:

 

This is a bit off topic.

 

I recently watched, for the first time, the 2001 movie adaptation of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

 

I know... I'm about 25 years late.

I thought the titular character totally looks like the side art of the Miss Universe bingo machine.

 

I just had to share it.

🎵Through the dark turns and noise of this wicked little town🎵

Kyoraku Oryusan (1995) pachinko machine

 I bought what could be most annoying pachinko machine ever made:

 Oryusan released by Kyoraku in 1995 according to this Japanese webpage.

 

It's annoying because when it goes into some of the fever modes it starts emitting this very annoying laughter like sound. A game-play video (not mine) can be watched here.

I wanted to dive into the world of modern-ish pachinko machines, but I wasn't interested in digipachi games or more modern games. 1980's games, that are becoming quite collectable now, are either expensive or in very rough condition so I was looking for some early to mid 1990's Hanemono type pachinko machine.

Hanemono type games have a central feature with "wings" or "feathers" that momentarily open once or twice, to let balls in when certain pockets are hit. Then once a ball enters the feature it has to enter a specific pocket the start a fever mode.

When in fever mode, the feature wings open and close almost continuously for a number of rounds for a big payout.

 

The center feature of Oryusan depicts a story, but I lack the context and cultural background to decipher it.

When I saw Oryusan It ticked all the boxes. Hanemono feature with a little animated manikin, 1995, the right aesthetics (the cell art reminds me of waporwave somehow), a distinctive yet annoying sound feature. In a way it's a very ironic purchase.

 

The game arrived by EMS / Canada Post and it was packaged in what looks like bags of marshmallows. However I did not try to eat them.

 

 

 

The game just needed the bottom of the frame re-glued (easily done with some woodworking clamps and carpenter's glue), some glass, a good cleaning and a 24Vac transformer.

 

 

I sourced the transformer locally and cobbled together some power supply setup from stuff I already had in the workshop.

 

One very cool thing about Oryusan is the feature mechanism. So many solenoids them tightly packed together.

Coils, linkage and bell-cranks in a very efficient package for the animation of the wings, manikin head and both arms and small boxes that move up and down.

Game-play impressions:

Oryusan is my first modern-ish pachinko machine with an auto-shooter and the whole experience with the flashing lights, the sounds and the repetitive shooting of the balls is... mind numbing. Very passive. I find the older games more involved game-play wise.

Also when the game is in 15R or even 5R mode the game runs out of payout balls very quickly, so now I have to look into some kind of ball elevator.

More pictures