Pachinko

Every heard of Pachinko? No, thought not, well unless you're reading this blog from Japan where pachinko is one of the most commonest games around with a huge following of players.

However, pachinko is also popular in other countries too and many people collect pachinko machines or have one in their house to play. Have a look on eBay and you'll see many pachinko machines for sale.

So, what is it? Well, pachinko is like a cross between a pinball and a slot machine. Balls are fired into the upright pinball machine at the top, at a player controlled rate, and if they land in the catcher at the bottom, the slot machine element of the game is triggered. The slot machine generally sits in the middle of the game screen and winning combinations pay out more of the small balls. The idea of pachinko is to get as many small balls as possible, obviously to end up with more than you started with.

Anyway, pachinko is facinating and the history and setup in Japan is well worth a read, even if you'll never actually sit and play the games. I've devised a small site to highlight the game of pachinko, the history of pachinko and online pachinko. You'll also find other information about the game at Wikipedias Pachinko page.

Have a read of Pachinko8.com, it's facinating stuff.