What is a pachinko machine?
57607#3
A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but is different from Western pinball in several ways. First, a pachinko machine uses small (11 mm diameter) steel balls, which are rented to the player by the owner (usually a "pachinko parlor," featuring many individual games in rows), while pinball games use a larger, captive ball. The pachinko balls are not only the active object, but are also the bet and the prize. The player loads one or more balls into the machine, then presses and releases a spring-loaded handle, which is attached to a padded hammer inside the machine, thus launching the ball into a metal track. The track guides the ball around the edge of the playing field, then when the ball loses momentum, it falls into the playing field from near the top. Some pachinko machines have a bumper to bounce the ball as it reaches the top, while other machines allow the ball to travel all the way around the field, to fall on the second time that it reaches the top.
Pachinko
57607#19
Pachinko machines vary in several aspects, including decoration, music, modes and gates. The majority of modern machines have an LCD screen centered over the main start pocket. The game is played with keeping the stream of balls to the left of the screen, but many models will have their optimized ball stream to be in the center of the play field or to switch from left side to right side depending on the game mode. Vintage machines vary in pocket location and strategy with the majority having a specific center piece that usually contains win pockets.
Pachinko
57607#6
Until the 1980s, pachinko machines were mechanical devices, using bells to indicate different states of the machine. Electricity was used only to flash lights and to indicate problems, such as a machine emptied of its balls. Balls were launched using a flipper; their speed was controlled by pulling the flipper down to different levels. Manufacturers in this period included Nishijin and Sankyo; most of these machines available on online auction sites today date to the 1970s. After that time, pachinko machines incorporated more electronic features, thus requiring electricity for operation.
Pachinko
57607#15
When a jackpot does not result in a "kakuhen" combination, the pachinko machine will enter into "" (時短, short for 時間短縮 meaning time-reduction) mode, with a much larger number of spins than "kakuhen". Under the original payout odds, the center gate widens to make it considerably easier for balls to fall into it; this system is also present in "kakuhen". To compensate for the increase in the number of spins, the digital slot machine produces the final outcomes of each spin faster. ST pachinko machines do not offer this mode; after it ends, the machine spins as in "kakuhen". Once no more jackpots have been made, the pachinko machine reverts to its original setting.
Pachinko
31519614#1
Pachinko is a popular gambling game in Japan, that traces its roots back to the early 20th century. The Masamura trading company from Nagoya constructed a museum in tribute to the company's founder Masamura Takeuchi on the third floor of the old Masamura Building in Nishi-ku. He is often acknowledged to be the creator of modern pachinko, by turning this children's game into an adult hobby. In the years after World War II, when supplies were short, he was able to build together some of the first pachinko machines made out of old tea chests and greenhouse glass. The legendary Masamura Gauge All 15 is remembered as the precursor to modern day Pachinko machines.
Masamura Pachinko Museum
57607#5
Pachinko machines were first built during the 1920s as a children's toy called the , based on and named after the American "Corinthian bagatelle". Another likely inspiration was the "Billard japonais", 'Japanese billiards', invented in Western Europe during the 18th century. It emerged as an adult pastime in Nagoya around 1930 and spread from there. All of Japan's pachinko parlors were closed down during World War II but re-emerged in the late 1940s. Pachinko has remained popular since; the first commercial parlor was opened in Nagoya in 1948. As a country influenced by Japan during its occupation, Taiwan has many pachinko establishments. Nowadays an estimated 80 percent of pachinko parlors in Japan are owned by ethnic Koreans.
Pachinko
57607#16
Starting in 2007, the majority of Japanese pachinko machines started to include "" (小当たり, small jackpot) into their payout systems. "Koatari" is shorter than the normal jackpot and during payout mode the payout gate opens for a short time only, even if no balls go into it. The timing of the opening of the gates is unpredictable, effectively making it a jackpot where the player receives no payout. "Koatari" jackpots can result in a "kakuhen" as per normal operation, depending on the payout scheme of the machine in question. The main purpose of "koatari" is so that pachinko manufacturers can offer payout schemes that "appear" to be largely favorable to customers, without losing any long-term profit.
Pachinko
15412092#7
Pachinko is a pinball-like slot machine game. It is officially not considered gambling because Japanese laws regard pachinko as an exception to the criminal code on gambling for historical, monetary, and cultural reasons. Pachinko parlours can be found all over Japan, and they are operated by private companies. As of 2011, there are about 12,480 pachinko parlors in Japan.
Gambling in Japan
28082011#0
In machine learning and natural language processing, the pachinko allocation model (PAM) is a topic model. Topic models are a suite of algorithms to uncover the hidden thematic structure of a collection of documents. The algorithm improves upon earlier topic models such as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) by modeling correlations between topics in addition to the word correlations which constitute topics. PAM provides more flexibility and greater expressive power
than latent Dirichlet allocation. While first described and implemented in the context of natural language processing, the algorithm may have applications in other fields such as bioinformatics. The
model is named for pachinko machines—a game popular in Japan, in which metal balls bounce down around
a complex collection of pins until they land in various
bins at the bottom.
Pachinko allocation
57607#14
After the payout mode has ended, the pachinko machine may do one of two things. Most Pachinko machines employ the " (確変, short for 確率変動 meaning probability change) system, where some percentage of the possible jackpots on the digital slot machine result in the odds of hitting the next jackpot multiplying by a large amount, followed by another spin regardless of the outcome. The probability of a "kakuhen" occurring is determined by a random number generator. Hence, under this system, it is possible for a player to get a string of consecutive jackpots after the first "hard earned" one, commonly referred to as "fever mode". Another type of "kakuhen" system is the special time or ST "kakuhen". With these machines, every jackpot earned results in a "kakuhen", but in order to earn a payout beyond the first jackpot, the player must hit a certain set of odds within a given amount of spins.
Pachinko