Cobbled repair on Can Can Arrangeball

So the other day I was playing my Satomi Miracle Can Can (MC-1) Arrangeball machine when I noticed a ball going into 12, but 12 didn't light up on the card.

I thought it was maybe just a fluke so I played the game some more... 12 definitely didn't light up.

Then I thought it was maybe just the light, so I managed to hit the vertical 4 in line 4 - 8 - 12 - 16 and the win didn't register :-(

So I open the game and at the bottom of the cabinet, 3 small black innocuous looking plastic bits.

 

Those plastic bits were part of the leaf switch for #12. A sort of rigid leaf switch extender, that was originally molded to the end of the switch leaf.

Having no proper replacement parts on hand, I had to cobble something.

I managed to solder a trimmed part of a solder lug from some junk pinball leaf switch blade I had laying around. The width and length was just right. It soldered in surprisingly easy.

I just had to tweak the angle a bit for the switch to close properly.

 

I hate having to cobble stuff together like this but with no spare parts available, what are my options?

 

 

Satomi Miracle Can Can Arrangeball Video

A short gameplay video of the Miracle Can Can Arrangeball. Enjoy

Satomi Miracle Can Can Arrangeball Pictures

Satomi Miracle Can Can Arrangeball

More Pictures! Everyone likes pictures. They unintentionally, but inevitably, end up where pictures go to die... pinterest.

But first, I must admit, I made a mistake: One evening, I decided to clean the chrome frame around the arrangeball card... It  turned out very nice.

Since I had a rag saturated in Autosol polish, I thought: "I wonder if the nails clean up?"

So I started cleaning a dark brass nail head and it shined up great.

Typical nails Before:

Nails after:

But then I realised: I have one clean nail in a sea of black nail heads. It looked ridiculous.

So basically I had to clean all the other nails on the game.

I'm glad of how it turned out and that I didn't damage the machine in the process.

BUT

Lesson learnt: Don't polish up a pachinko nail unless you want to do the whole game.

Now for the pictures.

The machine is not for sale... don't bother asking.

Satomi Sammy Miracle Can Can Arrangeball

Sammy Miracle CAN CAN Arrangeball

Starting 2022 with a leg up on a very nice Arrangeball: Miracle CAN CAN

Every day I sit at home not repairing games my repair skills become weaker. Everyday an old game sits unused in a warehouse it becomes more decrepit.

When I'm fixing a game, all I want is to be done with it. When I have no games to fix, I want to be fixing games.

All I wanted was an Arrangeball, a 4x4 card Arrangeball. And for my collecting sins YJA sold me one. It was delivered to my place like room service by DHL.

How many games have I repaired? There were the 60 pingames downstairs for sure, but this time it was Japanese and a rare Arrangeball. It shouldn't have mattered, but it did.

The collectors around me are mostly just pinballers with one ball in the outlane... Ok enough of this derivative indulgence. Back to The Miracle CAN CAN :-)

First a tiny bit of background information. Arrangeballs are a type of japanese skill medal game. A hybrid of bingo and pachinko. They appeared around the mid 1970's. They are sometimes seen in smart ball parlours alongside smart ball games.

The objective of Arrangeballs is to shoot pachinko balls (16) into numbered traps to make winning combinations (horizontal line, vertical line or the 4 center square). Winning combinations are rewarded in tokens at the end of the game by pressing the payout button or by inserting a token to start a new game.

I already had the Hustler Miracle Arrangeball. I wrote a post it about a few years back. However, Hustler's card and scoring configurations is a bit of an oddity as arrangeballs go and I really wanted a standard 4x4 card game as a counterpoint.

The machine arrived via the usual means and well packaged.

The seller kindly left some instructions on how to open the machine.

All the machine needed was a bit of a cosmetic cleaning, burnishing an edge connector and removing a token that was jammed behind the pcb under a heat sink.

Really not much to write about repair wise so here's a bit of gameplay info and some reference pictures.

 There's so little information about Arrangeballs out there, it's a shame really.

Left and Right Green pockets are ball returns. Most Arrangeballs have ball return outlanes, but CAN CAN has the outlanes blocked off. Careless launching of balls results in traps 2 and 5 gobbling up the balls.

Scoring:

Vertical line pays 1 token per line

Horizontal line pays 2 tokens per line

Center square (6, 7, 10, 11) pays 3 tokens (Jackpot)

#7 pocket, spots 7 on the card, pays out 1 token automatically and starts the CAN CAN feature.

CAN CAN Feature spots #10, Pays out 1 token automatically and starts the CAN CAN feature.

CAN CAN feature lasts about 10 seconds where the dancer's legs "kick" open and close. Increasing the chance of hitting the feature and winning more tokens.

Winning combinations add up, but the machine pays out a maximum of 5 tokens per game.