Taito pinball machines - a standard body version of flight 2000 (among others)

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4579&picno=43777&zoom=1

I just stumbled across a video of a taito pinball machine and started looking into what they had produced.

They had several knock-offs including gorgar, firepower, black knight, xenon, and a standard body version of flight 2000 (with a layout similar to centaur).

image-6_(resized).jpg

Has anyone seen Taito pins in the US?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taito_of_Brazil

I wasn't able to identify this one--anyone know which one it is?

https://www.facebook.com/100008378448436/videos/1668382603451005/?fref=nf

2015-12-30_14_40_46-(15)_Frajola_Pinball_(resized).png

[edit] Found the one in the video--it's polar explorer: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4588

#2 8 years ago

TLZ

timtim

Pinside member

9y 89,300 2,958 8 7

very interesting I never knew about this

#3 8 years ago

CDF

Collin

Pinside member

Columbus, OH

11y 116K 5,272 29 82 1

I've never seen a Taito game in person. I can't imagine many made it to the US, as they're mostly knockoffs and importing them probably would have been not cost effective

#4 8 years ago

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ForceFlow

Quoted from Collin:
I've never seen a Taito game in person. I can't imagine many made it to the US, as they're mostly knockoffs and importing them probably would have been not cost effective

You're probably right--it looks like Taito of Brazil started out importing components from Taito in Japan, assembling in Brazil, and shipping to the US. But, it looks like that ceased after a while due to import laws and pinball machines being seen as gambling devices.

Some are direct knock-offs, but others were completely rethemed (like polar explorer). I don't care too much for the artwork on the Zaccaria game that polar explorer is based on, but I do like the polar explorer artwork better.

#5 8 years ago

BIL

dothedoo

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12y 106K 7,265

F2K's art on Centaur's playfield. Wonder what the sound package is like.

#6 8 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

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Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,076 19 30 1

Man thanks for this...what a weird ass set up they had going.

#7 8 years ago

CNK

CNKay

Pinside member

East Aurora, NY

14y 72,050 3,452 12 10

It is called "the force awakens"

#8 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Ive always wanted one of these Haunted Hotel

#9 8 years ago

BAW

neurokinetik

Inactive member

10y 67,900 693 3 15

Quoted from dothedoo:
F2K's art on Centaur's playfield. Wonder what the sound package is like.

Not the real machine, but since it is running the real ROMs, you can hear what it sounds like. Different than either Centaur or Flight 2000.

#10 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Mr Black:

#11 8 years ago

SPM

Fishbeadtwo

Pinside member

Seattle, WA

12y 60,150 900 99

Any Taitos floating around needing a new home???????????

#12 8 years ago

BAW

neurokinetik

Inactive member

10y 67,900 693 3 15

Does PAPA have any of these? I need to check them out at ReplayFX if they do.

#13 8 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

Pinside+ Addict

Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,076 19 30 1

Just when I thought Thunder Man was the wackyiest thing out there.

#14 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Snake Machine

#15 8 years ago

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ForceFlow

I'm betting Taito recycled their sound board technology from their video games. It's interesting to hear 70s/80s video game style audio on a pin.

#16 8 years ago

---

ForceFlow

Quoted from Fishbeadtwo:
Any Taitos floating around needing a new home???????????

Uh oh...did I just suddenly spike market demand for these pins?

#17 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Cavaleiro Negro

#18 8 years ago

ASM

AlexSMendes

Inactive member

If someone knows how to import from Brazil, maybe I could help...

#19 8 years ago

SPM

Fishbeadtwo

Pinside member

Seattle, WA

12y 60,150 900 99

I have been looking for awhile now so nope.

#20 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Titan (really badass) Made in USA if you want to reimport duty free.

#21 8 years ago

BIL

dothedoo

Pinside member

12y 106K 7,265

Quoted from vid1900:
Mr Black:
» YouTube video

Defender

#22 8 years ago

robertmee

Pinside member

Raleigh, NC

12y 82,800 6,430 15 9

Taitos are hard to find....I've been looking for a Mr. Black for 3 years.

#23 8 years ago

robertmee

Pinside member

Raleigh, NC

12y 82,800 6,430 15 9

Quoted from AlexSMendes:
If someone knows how to import from Brazil, maybe I could help...

I'll take one each of everything you can find Taito

#24 8 years ago

SAP

seshpilot

Pinside member

11y 112K 2,530 169 3

Cool! I think an Elevator Action or Jungle Hunt pin would have rocked!

#25 8 years ago

JON

unigroove

Pinball Magazine

Utrecht

12y 80,900 2,145 11

Quoted from vid1900:
Titan (really badass) Made in USA if you want to reimport duty free.
» YouTube video

Titan = Barracora

#26 8 years ago

???

KenLayton

In Memoriam

Olympia, WA

12y 83,400 5,965

What's the boardsets look like? What cpu chip do they use?

Any pictures under the playfield? What do the flipper assemblies look like?

Any manuals/schematics scanned?

#27 8 years ago

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ForceFlow

Quoted from KenLayton:
What's the boardsets look like? What cpu chip do they use?
Any pictures under the playfield? What do the flipper assemblies look like?
Any manuals/schematics scanned?

I was curious too, but I haven't dug up any photos yet.

There are a few random instruction sheets on a couple ipdb pages.

#28 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Drakor

#29 8 years ago

CJJ

nman

Pinside+ Frequent

9y 78,800 1,107

Quoted from vid1900:
Mr Black:
» YouTube video

I really really really want one of these. Hopefully in 6-8 months I'll be able to start seriously trying to track one down but, based on what I've read so far, it will probably be a big pain and require recruiting some Brazilian pinsiders for help.

#30 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

http://www.pinballbrasil.org/

Brush up on your Portuguese and get into the Brazilian pinball forums.

Heavy Metal Rowamet

heavy4_(resized).jpg

#31 8 years ago

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ForceFlow

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.tabalabs.com.br/pinball/dicas_tecnicas/eletronica/eletronica.htm&usg=ALkJrhi6NhvrBQEm56eopB4e1FVyDjU5Lg

Found an overview of the boards:

The translation isn't perfect, but it's understandable.

It runs on an 8080 CPU.

#32 8 years ago

JCD

dmbjunky

Pinside member

Funny Forceflow. I was looking at these today too. Spent about 2-3 hours just clicking on Brazilian websites. It started with amendes thread on that funny looking CV and I thought maybe amendes could help me import some. Here's what I found...

After amendes thread I started looking on that Mercado Livre site which seemed like a Brazilian CL. I bookmarked a pinball search and thought I might start listing some in the SS for sale thread.
http://lista.mercadolivre.com.br/pinball#D[A:pinball-]

This site seemed to have a bunch of schematics and technical stuff. I didn't dive fully into it yet but it was one I bookmarked.
http://www.tabalabs.com.br/pinball/esquemas.htm

This site had a listing of all of the pins made by Spanish companies and had some flyers which I thought about putting on IPDB. This didn't have anything to do with Taito but a pin Vid showed me was Terrific Lake, which I think looks so awesome, and this site had a flyer.
http://www.tecnopinball.org/doc_biblioteca.php

A Spanish arcade forum. Again looking for info on Terrific Lake.
http://www.retrovicio.org/contacta-nosotros

This was a site I found that seemed to sell parts for Taito machines. They had a "sell machines" category but nothing in it yet. I thought it may be interesting to contact them to see how easy it would be ship a machine.
http://www.jswpinball.com/

A Brazilian pinball forum
http://www.pinballbrasil.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

This was a site dedicated to Jose Batalha. He worked for Taito for 35 years.
http://www.pinballgames.com.br/

An interesting article on the origins of Taito de Brasil. It has some really cool pictures including flyers.
http://augustocampos.net/taito-brasil/

#33 8 years ago

JCD

dmbjunky

Pinside member

I love these foreign machines that no one in the U.S. knows exists. I'd love more info on Sega machines from the 60s and 70s but that seems harder to come by.

#34 8 years ago

---

ForceFlow

Nice detective work

Yeah, I hear you. I also seem to have acquired a taste for oddball machines, even though they can sometimes be frustrating to work because of the limited repair info available.

#35 8 years ago

JCD

dmbjunky

Pinside member

OP
Quoted from ForceFlow:
Nice detective work

If you ever make any connections that might yield some cool games, hit me up. I may be in for a Titan or Mr. Black.

#36 8 years ago

???

rubberducks

Inactive member

8y 76,150 3,031 1

I wonder how long it'll be before a Japanese company produces a pinball table again ...

#37 8 years ago

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ForceFlow

Quoted from dmbjunky:
If you ever make any connections that might yield some cool games, hit me up. I may be in for a Titan or Mr. Black.

While I hope I can make some connections, I doubt I'll be able to connect with anyone anytime soon. I don't think I know anyone in Brazil and the little Spanish I still remember doesn't help a whole lot with Portuguese

#38 8 years ago

---

ForceFlow

Quoted from rubberducks:
I wonder how long it'll be before a Japanese company produces a pinball table again ...

If they ever do, I'm sure it would turn out to be pretty darn interesting. They do some wild and crazy things with video games.

#39 8 years ago

JCD

dmbjunky

Pinside member

So I punched in some numbers on UPS.com to see what the cost of shipping would be. I may have done it wrong but shipping cost was $8,334.27 to Indiana. Probably not going to do that.

#40 8 years ago

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ForceFlow

Quoted from dmbjunky:
So I punched in some numbers on UPS.com to see what the cost of shipping would be. I may have done it wrong but shipping cost was $8,334.27 to Indiana. Probably not going to do that.

A shipping container would probably be cheaper.

#41 8 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

P1010515_1280x960_(resized).jpg

#42 8 years ago

ECB

erak

Pinside member

Grimsby, ON

15y 122K 3,749 5 86

If only they could incorporate into Pinball the same technology they have put into pachinko.

Japanese Pinball machines would be amazing.

#43 8 years ago

---

ForceFlow

Quoted from vid1900:
P1010515_1280x960_(resized).jpg

Thats quite a stack of backglasses. That Spanish Columbia seems interesting. I like the sounds with the extra ditties during gameplay.

#44 8 years ago

ASM

AlexSMendes

Inactive member

http://ipdb.org/search.pl?any=taito&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick

#45 8 years ago

ASM

AlexSMendes

Inactive member

Quoted from robertmee:
I'll take one each of everything you can find Taito

I can find them all

#46 8 years ago

ASM

AlexSMendes

Inactive member

OP
Quoted from ForceFlow:
A shipping container would probably be cheaper.

I got a friend who's got an office that handles some import/export stuff at Rio's pier docks..... Not sure what he does exactly, but I'll find out!

#47 8 years ago

ASM

AlexSMendes

Inactive member

Quoted from vid1900:
» YouTube video
Ive always wanted one of these Haunted Hotel

Me too.... But that's another old manufacturer (LTD).

#48 8 years ago

ASM

AlexSMendes

Inactive member

OP
Quoted from ForceFlow:
I'm betting Taito recycled their sound board technology from their video games. It's interesting to hear 70s/80s video game style audio on a pin.

Taito's sounds are absolutely awful.... Take for instance Zarza (clone of Xenon), and Sure Shot (clone of Eight Ball), and compare!

I was once interested on acquiring a Zarza, and asked the restorer if he could use Xenon's sound instead. He said it's very, very difficult to do it (please don't ask me why), so I gave up...

#49 8 years ago

ASM

AlexSMendes

Inactive member