One of my favorite machines was a game machine called pin ball. I am not sure when I first discovered pin ball, but when I did, I was instantly hooked for life. (I still own one of the early ones). In my memory, you got three plays for a dime, and five balls to a game. You could win extra plays pretty easy if you were good, and about every 10 plays or so, you would match the last two digits of the ending score and get a free play. Oh my gosh. Could we whittle away some time playing these. If we ran out of money, we would go and collect bottles for deposit return, and play again. But the fun of having the high score. You had to experience this first pin ball, before all the wizardry of the game machines that came later, to understand why Elton John’s song the Pin Ball Wizard was such a cool hit song.
I never could understand why someone would pay a nickel to weigh themselves. But they were around too. Much different then in the day, than now.
Of course, there must have been other coin machines back then, but nothing like today. There are now restaurants serving food in Japan completely hot, with only machines to vend.
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