As the smaller parlors closed, those that remained expanded to pick up the slack. In 1958, the first automated rental ball dispenser was invented. It soon came into widespread use. This and other improvements in and around the pachinko parlors led to a period of slow but steady growth, marked by the continued development of new machines to hold the customers' interest. The development of the special scoring slots known as "tulips" took place in the late 1950s. These were incorporated into different patterns starting in the early 1960s and helped revive interest in the game. However, it would be more than two decades before integral changes in the pachinko machine itself led to the next, and biggest, pachinko boom.
The Boom in the Eighties
Pachinko is a constantly changing game. From the beginning, machine manufacturers have always tried to develop new and exciting variations to attract more players to the parlors. Some of the more unusual machines developed over the years include tere-pachi, (with a television screen in the middle so customers don't have to miss their favorite program or that night's baseball game), or a cross between mahjongg and pachinko called jan-kyū, where a winning ball puts out a mahjongg tile and the customer tries to collect enough tiles to make a winning hand. Tere-pachi has long since gone the way of the dinosaurs, but some parlors now install televisions throughout the building. Jan-kyū can still be found, with a digital display, here and there in out-of-the-way parlors or at larger parlors catering to an older, tradition-oriented clientele.
Before we can begin discussing the types of machines that revolutionized pachinko, we have to take a closer look at the machine that set the standard over the years, the hikōki. The hikōki was developed at around the same time as deji-pachi (described later), but because deji-pachi was slow in gaining acceptance, the hikōki machine became more widely played and dominated the game offerings of most parlors soon after its development. Up until the advent of the hikōki, the center of the machine was left unused except for either decorative designs or a combination of hard-to-enter tulips. In 1971, one maker designed a machine with a central scoring slot that opened five tulips when a ball fell inside. However, by 1981 the central area was furnished with a larger-than-normal scoring slot that could only be entered by a ball landing on a hane, or "wing," which was located on each side of this new central scoring area. The wings were opened when a ball entered one of the lower three scoring slots. Almost immediately after swinging down, the wings closed back up again, but in that short interval, it was possible for one or more balls to alight and fall inside the central scoring slot before the wings folded again. This movement was entirely new and lent a new element of luck to the game, which up until that time had been based more on skill.
Even after the wing development the machine center was still used for creative expression. The most common design was an airplane, which perfectly incorporated the wing concept, hence the terminology "airplane type." Hikōki is Japanese for "airplane." The design on the first machine of this type was that of an actual plane called the Zero Tiger. "Hane type" is also used to describe this machine, but we will henceforth refer to it as a "flipper type," mainly because in the ever-changing world of pachinko, the word "flipper" best sums up the various designs encountered. These days, an airplane design in the central scoring area, or "generator," is rare and many of the wings have come to resemble flower petals, baskets, brooms, and even drawers.
As mentioned above, the flipper-type machine has been considered the standard and most prevalent pachinko machine over the years, due not only to a lack of real competition, but also to the fact that it uses the nail design pioneered by Masamura. Three other types of pachinko, however, one developed at about the same time as the hikōki machine, the others shortly thereafter, are believed to have been directly responsible for reviving the public's interest in pachinko during the last five years. (By the way, nearly all the strategy and nail-reading techniques covered in this book can be applied to these hybrid pachinko, with the exception of pachi-slo, which does not have any nails.) Taking a somewhat purist approach, we will not examine the particular strategies of each machine in extreme detail, but instead just limit ourselves to a general outline of each machine type and how it is distinguished from the more traditional flipper-type machine.
Deji-pachi
Spring is the most popular season for new pachinko machines to be introduced and the spring of 1980 was no exception, when a machine that was to literally revolutionize the pachinko industry made its debut. This machine incorporated a new type of ball-gathering mechanism in the center, and while it did not catch on at first, it slowly began to overtake the popularity of the hikōki machine, which was just beginning to dominate the industry. The new machine also did away with the flippers and substituted a set of three numbered drums or later, three LEDs, which were activated by a ball entering a particular slot. The drums rolled or the LEDs flashed and eventually came to a stop. If a certain combination of numbers came up, an extra large chute near the bottom of the machine opened. As balls streamed into this chute, a plethora of prize balls poured out of the machine. These balls could later be redeemed for prizes. This machine came to be known as the fiibā machine, the Japanese rendering of "fever," which is what is supposedly incurred by the player during the rush of prize balls. Some people also refer to this game as "seven-seven-seven" or "all seven" after the most common and sought-after winning combination.
Advances in technology eventually allowed most manufacturers to use flashing LEDs in place of spinning drums so that this machine type came to be known as deji-pachi, the Japanese contraction of "digital pachinko." Even though some of these machines still use the numbered drums that resemble a slot machine they are still commonly referred to as deji-pachi machines. Another factor contributing to the tenacity of this questionable terminology is the computer that controls the spinning of the drums. It is basically the same as the one for the digital-display machines.
From its obscure start in 1980, deji-pachi has come to rival the traditional flipper-type machine in popularity. The biggest factor in deji-pachi's wide appeal is its speed. On the flipper-type machine, it usually takes two or three hours of consistent scoring (getting balls into the generator via the flippers) to make a machine dispense its set limit of balls, even if the person playing the machine is very good. It is not uncommon, however, for a deji-pachi machine to go ucki-dome (that is, dispense its predetermined ball limit) in fifteen or twenty minutes. Because of this speed element, and the fact that just a few well-placed, well-aimed, well-shot balls can result in uchi-dome, deji-pachi tends to be a very unforgiving machine for the beginning player. A deji-pachi machine can quickly put out three or four thousand balls, but it can suck up ¥8,000 or ¥10,000 just as quickly. Thus, players with gambling spirit tend to congregate in the deji-pachi shima, or "island," of the parlor. It is to this gambling aspect of deji-pachi that most people attribute the game's success, reasoning that Japanese are inherent gamblers and deji-pachi caters to their desires. Also, some parlors have a museigen policy on deji-pachi machines. Museigen means "unlimited" and refers to deji-pachi machines that have no limit on the number of balls they can put out. Not surprisingly, this too has proved quite popular among the gamblers and pachi-pro (pachinko professionals, those who play pachinko for a living). Whatever the reason, deji-pachi machines can be found in almost any pachinko parlor, and, most recently, more often than not outnumber the flipper-type machines.
Ippatsu-dai
Another machine, ippatsu-dai, was developed in the mid 1980s. It is closer to deji-pachi than to flipper-type machines, even though its generator (central scoring area) does