Pachinko!

Pachinko!

Odyssey 2 - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Magnavox Publisher Philips, Magnavox Published 1980-??-?? Platforms Odyssey 2 Genres Action, Ball and paddle, Pinball, Single-screen Multiplayer Simultaneous versus Distribution Commercial

Pachinko! is a ball and paddle video game developed by Magnavox and published by Philips for the Odyssey 2 in 1980. Despite its title, the game has very little to do with actual pachinko machines, and instead is more like a competitive pinball game.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. First to 100, final score 103 to 79.
Finished	2023-10-24.

After beating Volleyball!, I was curious to see if there were any other Odyssey 2 games I could beat. I tried this one out and beat the AI in a way described in the manual (to the first 100 points) with a score of 103 to 79.

Review

2	2	2	1	2

Best Version: Odyssey 2

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• I honestly can't think of anything good to say about this game.

Bad

• This is the very first video game to use the "pachinko" name, and, it could have been the first fully digital pachinko game in history, but, despite its title, it is very different from actual pachinko. Luckily, almost nobody in the West knew what pachinko was at the time, so few would have been disappointed.
• The game doesn't have a programmatic victory condition. Instead, each time either player surpasses a multiple of 100, the background flashes. The manual suggests players decide what score they will play up to before they start, or use an external clock and play for a set length of time.

Ugly

• The Troubleshooter very clearly favors the AI opponent, i.e.: it cheats. It will more frequently drop balls on your opponent's side of the board and more frequently lingers on your side of the board to catch balls. This makes it very difficult to keep a lead over time.
• One similarity the game does have with pachinko is that it's very difficult to control the trajectory of the balls. This means, it doesn't really matter whether you rebound them or not, success is more a matter of keeping the balls your color and adjusting the board so the baskets on your side have a greater number than your opponent.
• The graphics are poor, the sound is grating, and the animation is bad.

Media

Box Art

All regions use the same art of this vibrant dragon fighting off three men with magic swords. It's pretty good art, too bad it has absolutely nothing to do with the game at all.

• 

  USA.

Manuals

• 

Videos

Review.

Longplay to 100.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Characters don't have a clear race.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Credits

Role	Staff
Entire Game	Ed Averett

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
Danish	Kurvespil	Kurvespil	Basket Game
Dutch	Korfspel	Korfspel	Netball
English (Europe)	Basket Game
English (USA)	Pachinko!
French	Jeu de paniers	Jeu de paniers	Basket Game
German	Korbball	Korbball	Netball
Italian	Tiro al cesto	Tiro al cesto	Basket Shooting
Spanish	Juego del enceste	Juego del enceste	Basket Game
Swedish	Poäng-jakt	Poang-jakt	Point Chase

Links