PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Sega
GENRE: Gambling
RELEASE DATE: 1983
If there’s anything more depressing than gambling, it’s video game gambling where you ostensibly gamble for fun, not money. Problem is, nobody gambles for fun, so the only way video gambling games are enjoyable is if the game that’s being digitally rendered – like, say, blackjack – was rewarding before people decided to mix money, booze, and smokes with it. Unfortunately, Pachinko could use a little substance abuse and financial payoff to make its mindless ball-hucking worthwhile. The act of playing pachinko is replicated well enough, but without a reward system, the goal becomes to accumulate as many balls as possible. I doubt even Kenny Rogers and his unfortunate addiction would stick with Pachinko for long.
For those unfamiliar with Japanese culture, pachinko machines are like a mix between pinball and slot machines, and they’re used primarily for gambling. Imagine a small upright pinball machine littered with pins, a handful of holes, and no flippers to propel the balls upward. The player purchases a certain amount of balls and launches them as slowly or quickly as they’d like. The balls drop through the pins and into the hole at the bottom, and occasionally, into the holes strewn about the machine.
Most holes activate a small number of extra balls to be released, but the hole in the center of the machine activates a slot device. Getting three-of-a-kind in the slot device triggers a jackpot of balls, at which time, the player trades in his balls for prizes or continues to fling balls. Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, but the prizes one receives from the pachinko parlor can be exchanged for cash at locations near the parlors. I’ve never been to a pachinko parlor myself, but from the testimonials I’ve read, the police do not care that these shenanigans continue unabated. Once again, the system fails.
Pachinko for the SG-1000 provides the player a single pachinko machine. You set the angle you wish to launch the balls with the joystick, launch them one at a time or a bunch in a row with button II, and hope they land in the holes.
Word to pachinko noobs: firing off a bunch of balls is the only way you’ll acquire more balls. When I first began playing, I was shooting out one at a time and getting nowhere. Then I realized the game started me with fifty balls, so why be bashful? Once I let the balls fly, I was able to successfully land a ball in the slot portion about a dozen times (though I never won anything) and the green holes numerous times.
The green holes open once a ball goes in, winning you ten balls in return. The red Lucky cups also give you ten balls, but are much harder to land in. On one playthrough, I won about 140 balls before deciding to stop. Firing balls as rapidly as possible was chaotic and briefly entertaining, but once the illusion of progress wore off, I realized once again that life is but a vapor. Unless you’re a die-hard pachinko fan who plays as much for the “sport” as for the winnings, Pachinko is an inarguable waste of your time.
Unless, of course, you own a physical copy of the game. Pachinko is one of the rarest SG-1000 titles on the market. The only copy I could find to purchase was through a second-hand seller on Amazon Japan who wanted 300,000 yen for it. That’s thousands of dollars, or in collector’s terms, one copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga. According to SegaRetro, Pachinko was recalled due to a game-breaking bug. The idea that someone played Pachinko long enough to find such a bug confounds the mind. Then again, by SegaRetro’s own admission, this information has not been verified. I’d say there’s an equally good chance Sega didn’t sell very many copies and destroyed the remainder of their stock.
So if any of your friends ask what pachinko is, remember: it’s not a Japanese misspelling of the surname ‘Pacino.’ Pachinko is slot pinball, which sounds a lot more fun than it actually is, while Pachinko for the SG-1000 is digital slot pinball and about as entertaining as listening to “The Gambler” on infinite loop.
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4 replies on “Pachinko (SG-1000, 1983)”
Ah, okay! So this song makes a bit more sense now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RDO-0eqsCQ
I discovered Pachinko as a kid maybe seven years old. One of my Granmothers friends had a real machine that he kept on his covered porch that he had bought back from Japan when stationed overseas in the 50,s or something. So at a party one time the set me up with it and filled it with ball bearings and let me go at it. I spent hours playing. In real life it’s actually pretty interesting. The mechanical feel of it. The lights and sounds very reminiscent of Pinball. The clack as the balls fall down the pegs and the excitement you try to get thm to fall in the scoring holes. And equally when you hit a jackpot the rush of steel balls running down to your catchment tray. And yes the more you shoot at once the more likely it is too win. I remember just plugging away almost finding a Rythm to shooting the balls between too slow and frantic. It was fun for a few hours. That being said, I wasn’t playing for real money. A couple times I emptied the machine of bearings and just poured them back in the top. I could see how addicting this could be sitting hours on end.
Anyway, that one time pretty much got Pachinco out of my system for life and I have no desire to play it ever again. Especially video Pachinco that removes the feel of the physical machines and he infinte possibilities real physics creates are displaced by mathematical formulas. It’s the worst. One time in Japan as an adult when I was there I tried a machine, it was boring as shit. And obviously designed to suck your money. I honestly have no desire to Pachinco ever again, and especially video Pachinco. (Unless you want to call Peggle Pachinco then that may be my one exception.) I want to say there were some future Sega games where I was forced to play this as a mini game or something.
I always think of Plinko on the Price is Right when pachinko is mentioned. I’m sure we all have memories of being home sick on a school day, watching Bob and the lovely ladies…
Plinko and “the big wheel” stick out the most. I hated when people would spin that wheel like a pussy and hoped they would get sucked underneath…
I’ve come to the conclusion this is rare because it was shite and no one bought it. This is truly one of the most dull and pointless games I’ve ever played.