Something's Going On!
November 15, 2014 6:55 AM Subscribe
I couldn't tell from the video, are these tokens or are they actually money?
posted by codacorolla at 7:08 AM on November 15, 2014
posted by codacorolla at 7:08 AM on November 15, 2014
THAT'S NUMBERWANG!
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:11 AM on November 15, 2014 [19 favorites]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:11 AM on November 15, 2014 [19 favorites]
leotrotsky, thanks I skipped ahead and it was worth it.
"Okay, we're gonna stop playing now, I think..."
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:13 AM on November 15, 2014
"Okay, we're gonna stop playing now, I think..."
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:13 AM on November 15, 2014
That machine is amazing.
posted by empath at 7:14 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 7:14 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
2 jumping frogs
posted by leotrotsky at 7:17 AM on November 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 7:17 AM on November 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
It looks like a medal game, so likely nothing but more medals. They're like arcade tokens. There's no cash out.
posted by bonehead at 7:18 AM on November 15, 2014
posted by bonehead at 7:18 AM on November 15, 2014
No matter what, things tumbling out of a machine into buckets is always going to be exciting. Even if it only means you're going to be able to play 5,000 more times at the same machine.
posted by xingcat at 7:51 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by xingcat at 7:51 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
They kind of look like 100 yen coins (in which case they just won about $5000 USD), but bonehead is probably right that it is a medal game. Does anyone know if medal games are like Pachinko though, where you can't cash them in directly, but you can use them to buy figurines and such that a store next door (run by the same company as the arcade) is happy to buy back for cash?
I spent a couple of evenings playing ridiculous pachinko machines when I was in Tokyo, not looking to really win any money, but mostly just hoping for an experience like this one. A lot of these machines have over-the-top jackpot sequences even for relatively small jackpots (like a couple of hundred bucks). I saw other people win a couple of times, but never managed even a single three-number match myself. I think I was singularly unlucky.
posted by 256 at 8:01 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I spent a couple of evenings playing ridiculous pachinko machines when I was in Tokyo, not looking to really win any money, but mostly just hoping for an experience like this one. A lot of these machines have over-the-top jackpot sequences even for relatively small jackpots (like a couple of hundred bucks). I saw other people win a couple of times, but never managed even a single three-number match myself. I think I was singularly unlucky.
posted by 256 at 8:01 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's like a tupenny shove from the future!
posted by Thing at 8:22 AM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Thing at 8:22 AM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
THAT'S NUMBERWANG!
I think that may have even been, in fact, Wangernumb.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:27 AM on November 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
I think that may have even been, in fact, Wangernumb.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:27 AM on November 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
From the video description: "5000 ARCADE TOKENS, NOT 5000 YEN. 5000 Yen would be a silly minimal Jackpot, why would a machine pay you out in 1 yen coins which = 0.0098 Australian Dollar." Looks like they took the tokens up to the arcade's redemption counter to get crappy prize(s).
posted by user92371 at 8:38 AM on November 15, 2014
posted by user92371 at 8:38 AM on November 15, 2014
Well, given that there's little skill involved and the odds are fixed on the machine, it's basically lottery with a complicated way of purchasing a ticket and a highly convoluted and entertaining draw.
posted by Thing at 9:10 AM on November 15, 2014
posted by Thing at 9:10 AM on November 15, 2014
My favorite part was when you thought it was all over, and then the main screen separated and even more shit started happening.
posted by codacorolla at 9:21 AM on November 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by codacorolla at 9:21 AM on November 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
That seems like way more giddiness than 5000 arcade tokens merits.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:23 AM on November 15, 2014
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:23 AM on November 15, 2014
Dear Dudes,
Come out to the Playland Arcade at the Santa Monica Pier and I will give you a roll of quarters to MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.
leotrotsky, that was really fun, thanks for posting it.
THAT'S NUMBERWANG!
They they even rotated the board!!
posted by Room 641-A at 12:41 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Come out to the Playland Arcade at the Santa Monica Pier and I will give you a roll of quarters to MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.
leotrotsky, that was really fun, thanks for posting it.
THAT'S NUMBERWANG!
They they even rotated the board!!
posted by Room 641-A at 12:41 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
oh I love those games and australian accents
i was expecting more coin-pushing strategy tho
posted by ghostbikes at 1:22 PM on November 15, 2014
i was expecting more coin-pushing strategy tho
posted by ghostbikes at 1:22 PM on November 15, 2014
if there's no cash-out and it's just medals/tokens for lame prizes, it's not gambling, is it?
Gambling is technically illegal in Japan. But if this is anything like pachinko, you take your winnings (I think these days a receipt of those winnings) and walk out of the pachinko parlor to a TUC shop next door. There you can exchange those winnings for a "prize:" a few dust-covered samples of random crap, OR oh, hey, cash money. Guess which one everyone chooses? It's a silly solution to a silly loophole.
posted by zardoz at 2:01 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Gambling is technically illegal in Japan. But if this is anything like pachinko, you take your winnings (I think these days a receipt of those winnings) and walk out of the pachinko parlor to a TUC shop next door. There you can exchange those winnings for a "prize:" a few dust-covered samples of random crap, OR oh, hey, cash money. Guess which one everyone chooses? It's a silly solution to a silly loophole.
posted by zardoz at 2:01 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
According to many people in the reddit threads, the medal games are for children and families, and no, there are no shady shops around the corner that exchange it for cash.
posted by empath at 2:32 PM on November 15, 2014
posted by empath at 2:32 PM on November 15, 2014
Here's the official information site for this wonderful machine. (Japanese)
posted by umrain at 2:49 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by umrain at 2:49 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I've never seen any medal games where you could exchange the medals for anything. The Japanese Wikipedia article seems to back that up. You can't exchange them for money (that would be straight-up illegal). You can't do the pachinko run-around where you exchange them for prizes and then sell those prizes at a counter nearby. You can't even do the US ski-ball thing where you exchange the medals for prizes and then just keep the prizes. As the Wikipedia article explains, the only thing you can really "win" by winning medals is the ability to play more games. Like getting a free play on a video game by reaching a high enough score.
posted by Bugbread at 2:51 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Bugbread at 2:51 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
And if anyone's wondering "what's the point?", watch the video. See how much fun those guys are having?
(Personally, medal games bore me to death. But some people obviously find them very fun, and that's who those games are for.)
posted by Bugbread at 3:12 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
(Personally, medal games bore me to death. But some people obviously find them very fun, and that's who those games are for.)
posted by Bugbread at 3:12 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I never understood how people knew what those games do and how they work and what you are supposed to do and what it all means. Now I realise that they don't, and they play them anyway. It seems like more fun that way.
posted by lollusc at 6:37 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by lollusc at 6:37 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Now I realise that they don't, and they play them anyway.
With Pachinko there is always the idea you can manipulate it with magnets, but I have no idea how. I avoided those places except once. There is more smoke than a bingo parlour back home and so much blinking lights and shit I could not even hope to understand.
posted by Hoopo at 11:03 PM on November 15, 2014
With Pachinko there is always the idea you can manipulate it with magnets, but I have no idea how. I avoided those places except once. There is more smoke than a bingo parlour back home and so much blinking lights and shit I could not even hope to understand.
posted by Hoopo at 11:03 PM on November 15, 2014
I never understood how people knew what those games do and how they work and what you are supposed to do and what it all means.
I was the same with fruit machines in the UK. Still played them a bit - after a few pints.
posted by pompomtom at 12:06 AM on November 16, 2014
I was the same with fruit machines in the UK. Still played them a bit - after a few pints.
posted by pompomtom at 12:06 AM on November 16, 2014
This was wickedly entertaining, even with his fairly obnoxious accent.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:16 PM on November 16, 2014
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:16 PM on November 16, 2014
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posted by leotrotsky at 6:57 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]