Trigger Happy
Some Pachinko experts roam the halls with a gaze so intuitively attuned to the game that they can pick out machines whose pins are slightly bent from the constant battering of balls. These, they know, will pay out more often. But to minimize this advantage, parlor operators go around at closing time with a hammer, knocking all the bent pins back into line. So the Pachinko system can never be rationally mastered.
A lot of videogames rely in part on exactly the same teasing unpredictability as Pachinko. It is thoroughly deterministic, but a feeling of randomness is generated by our imperfect knowledge. “We may have written the game, but we don’t know what’s going to happen.” You’re never sure what’s coming next, which is partly why you want to try again.
Pachinko further prefigures another deep pleasure of videogames in its method of control. The player holds a single, very sensitive knob; as it is turned clockwise the tiny silver balls are shot out from the funnel at increasing speed. The challenge for the player is to manipulate the control in order to find the optimal ball
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