JP2015167577A - Pinball game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pinball game machine with which an unstable accumulation of game balls at the back side of a ball box hardly occurs when transferring game balls stored in a ball tray to the ball box through a ball discharging hole.SOLUTION: A pinball game machine 1 includes: an outer frame 2 attached to an installation island 100; a front member 3; a ball tray 4; a ball discharging hole 4b opened at a bottom part 4a of the ball tray 4; and a ball discharging member 6b that freely move between a closed position to close the ball discharging hole 4b and an open position to open it, usually stays at the closed position, but can be moved to the open position by an operation of a player. In the pinball game machine 1, game balls in the ball tray 4 are discharged to a ball box 103 by opening the ball discharging hole 4b with the ball discharging member 6b with the ball box 103 placed on a shelf board 102 of the installation island 100. The pinball game machine 1 further includes: a ball stop plate 7 provided vertically in a swingable manner at the back side of the ball discharging hole 4b and at a position under the ball tray 4; and a lock member 8 for locking the ball stop plate 7 in linkage with a ball discharging operation of the ball discharging member 6b. Movement of game balls discharged from the ball discharging hole 4b toward the back side of the ball box 103 is designed to be suppressed by the locked ball stop plate 7.

Description

  The present invention relates to a ball game machine that includes a player's ball tray that stores game balls and that can discharge the game balls stored in the ball tray to a portable ball box.

  An outer frame attached to the gaming machine installation island, a front member provided in a door-like rotatable state on the front surface of the outer frame, and a ball provided on the front surface of the front member for storing game balls A shelf board on an island where a gaming machine is installed, having a dish, a ball hole formed at the bottom of the ball dish, and a ball removing member that opens and closes the ball hole. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a bullet ball game machine in which a portable ball box is placed in the ball box and the game ball is discharged from the ball hole into the ball box.

JP 2009-261655 A

  As described above, in a ball game machine in which a carry-type ball box is placed on the shelf board of the island where the game machine is installed, and the game balls stored in the ball tray are discharged into the ball box, the rear side of the ball box is at the back of the ball tray. Therefore, it is difficult to notice even if the game balls accumulate on the rear side of the ball box and rise to an unstable state. When the ball box in such a state is pulled forward, the raised game ball collapses and overflows, which may be scattered on the shelf board (see Patent Document 1 [0006]).

  The bullet ball game machine of Patent Document 1 has a problem that the game ball spills from the rear of the ball box as described above, and the upper surface of the ball box is formed on the front upper portion of the curtain plate portion formed on the lower front surface of the outer frame. A ball storage stabilization protrusion that protrudes from the opening surface is projected, and the ball storage stabilization protrusion blocks the trailing edge of the opening surface of the ball box, thereby preventing unstable bulging of the game ball at that portion. It is what I did.

  However, it is the player himself that sets the ball box on the shelf board in the ball game machine, and therefore the ball box is not always pushed into the shelf board. If the setting position of the ball box is shallow and the position of the rear part of the ball box stays in front of the ball storage stabilization protrusion, the ball storage stabilization protrusion hardly functions or is sufficiently I cannot expect the effect.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to prevent an unstable rise of the game ball to the rear part of the ball box when the game ball stored in the ball tray is transferred from the ball hole to the ball box. The object is to provide a ball game machine.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention
An outer frame attached to the island where the gaming machine is installed,
A front member provided on the front surface of the outer frame, when the side close to the player is the front and the opposite side is the rear,
A ball tray provided in front of the front member for storing game balls;
A ball hole opened at the bottom of the ball pan;
It is movable between a closed position that closes the ball hole and an open position that opens the ball hole, and is normally in the closed position by a biasing means that biases toward the closed position. A ball removal member that can move to the open position by a player's ball removal operation that applies a force against the bias of the means,
With the carrying type ball box placed on the shelf board of the gaming machine installation island so as to face under the ball hole of the ball tray, the ball hole member is moved to the open position to open the ball hole. A ball game machine in which the game balls in the ball tray are discharged into the ball box,
A ball stop plate suspended in a pendulum-like swingable state behind the ball hole and below the ball pan;
A lock member that locks the ball stop plate in conjunction with the ball removal operation of the ball removal member,
Provided is a ball game machine in which the ball stop plate locked by the lock member can suppress the movement of the game ball discharged from the ball hole to the rear of the ball box.

According to the ball game machine of the present invention, in order to transfer the game ball on the ball tray to the ball box, when the player performs a ball removal operation on the ball removal member, the ball stop plate is interlocked with the ball removal operation. Locked by. Since this ball stop plate is suspended from the ball hole and below the ball plate, it functions like a fixed wall provided behind the ball hole when locked. Therefore, even if the game ball discharged from the ball hole is directed to the rear of the ball box, the locked ball stop plate prevents the game ball from moving to the rear of the ball box.
In addition, even if the ball box is set at a shallow position on the shelf, there is no doubt that the upper surface of the ball box can receive a game ball correspondingly at least under the ball hole in the ball tray. The ball stop plate at the rear also corresponds approximately to the front of the ball box opening. Therefore, even if the ball box is set at a shallow position of the shelf board, the movement of the game ball to the rear of the ball box by the ball stop plate can be suppressed.

It is a partial cross section front view of the bullet ball game machine which omitted the upper half. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the principal part of a bullet ball game machine. It is a principal part longitudinal cross-sectional view of the bullet ball game machine which shows the state which pulls out a ball box. It is a half section top view of a ball removal device which shows a state where a ball removal member exists in a closed position. It is a half cross-sectional top view of the ball removal apparatus which shows the state which has a ball removal member in an open position. It is a disassembled perspective view of a ball removal device. According to another embodiment, (a) is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part showing a ball stop plate, and (b) is a vertical section of the main part showing a state in which the height of the ball stop plate is changed from the state of (a). FIG.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 2, the ball and ball game machine 1 is fixed in a state where it is placed on the horizontal rail 101 of the gaming machine installation island 100 provided in the game hall, and the gaming machine installation island 100 is located at the lower front side thereof. A shelf board 102 is projected from the player toward the player side.

  The ball game machine 1 of the embodiment provides a player with a plurality of game balls as prizes when a game ball is launched toward the game area of the game board and the game ball wins a winning opening. It is generally called “Pachinko machine”. This bullet ball game machine 1 includes a rectangular outer frame 2 and a front member 3 mounted on the front surface of the outer frame 2 so as to be rotatable like a door with a hinge (not shown). And a ball tray 4 provided on the front surface of the front member 3 for storing game balls. The outer frame 2 is provided with a curtain plate portion 2a at the lower part on the front side so as to be in contact with the lower edge of the front member 3.

The illustrated ball game machine 1 has only a lower half, and a well-known window hole covered with a transparent plate and a game board mounted on the back side of the window hole are not shown. And a prize ball emitting device for emitting a predetermined number of game balls as game prizes, an upper ball tray for receiving the game balls emitted by the prize ball emitting device, and the like.
The ball tray 4 is disposed below the upper ball tray. The ball tray 4 and the upper ball tray are connected to an overflow bowl 5 (see FIGS. 2 and 3) provided on the back of the machine. It is connected. Therefore, when the upper ball tray is full, the game balls released from the prize ball discharge device flow into the lower ball tray 4 through the overflow bowl 5.
At present, there is a model in which the upper and lower bowls are unified.

[Ball plate]
The ball tray 4 has a tray shape surrounding the front of the ball outlet 5a of the overflow bowl 5 established in the front member 3, and the shelf board of the gaming machine installation island 100 as shown in FIGS. It is protruding above 102. The space between the ball tray 4 and the shelf plate 102 is high enough to allow the portable ball box 103 to be taken in and out. The ball box 103 is a square synthetic resin box having a top opening and having handles 104, 104 on both sides.

  The ball tray 4 is provided with a circular ball hole 4b at the bottom 4a, and a gradient gently descending toward the ball hole 4b is provided at the bottom 4a. Therefore, the original game balls released toward the ball tray 4 from the ball outlet 5a of the overflow basket 5 are collected in the ball extraction holes 4b along the gradient of the bottom portion 4a.

  Further, the ball tray 4 is provided with a ball removing device 6 on the lower surface of the bottom portion 4a which can arbitrarily switch between storage and discharge of game balls.

[Ball removal device]
As shown in FIG. 6, the ball punching device 6 is mounted on the bottom surface of the ball tray 4 with a fixing means such as a screw, and an upward tray-like base member 6a, and is slidably mounted on the base member 6a. The ball punching member 6b and a coil spring 6c as a biasing means for biasing the ball punching member 6b are schematically configured.

  The base member 6a has a square substrate 6d facing the bottom portion 4a of the ball tray 4, a side frame plate 6e surrounding the substrate 6d in a low fence shape, and substantially the same diameter as the ball hole 4b of the ball tray 4. A vertical cylindrical hole 6f that communicates with the spherical hole 4b in the vertical direction, a guide groove 6g that guides a lock member 8 to be described later along the side frame plate 6e, and a spring receiving pin that receives the base end of the coil spring 6c. 6h.

Further, the ball punching member 6b includes a shutter plate 60b that can block the lower surface of the ball punching hole 4b, a sliding operation piece 61b that is integrally provided on the side edge of the shutter plate 60b on the player side, and the tip of the coil spring 6c. A spring receiving recess 62b.
The ball removing member 6b is slidably supported by sandwiching the shutter plate 60b between the ball tray 4 and the base member 6a. Further, a coil spring 6c is interposed between the spring receiving pin 6h and the spring receiving recess 62b in a compressed state. Under normal conditions, the shutter plate 60b is formed into a spherical hole as shown in FIGS. It is biased toward the closed position that closes 4b.
Further, in the ball removing member 6b, the sliding operation piece 61b beside the shutter plate 60b protrudes to the player side through the operation piece missing portion 6i provided on the side frame plate 6e of the base member 6a. A person can move the sliding operation piece 61b to the open position where the ball extraction hole 4b is opened as shown in FIG. 5 by performing a ball extraction operation that applies a force against the biasing force of the coil spring 6c.

Since the ball removal device 6 is configured as described above, the ball removal member 6b is normally in the closed position and the ball removal hole 4b is closed by the shutter plate 60b as shown in FIGS. Accordingly, the game balls released into the ball tray 4 from the ball outlet 5a of the overflow basket 5 are stored in the ball tray 4 without coming out of the ball extraction hole 4b.
On the other hand, when the game ball is stored in the ball tray 4 and the player forcibly moves the ball removal member 6b to the open position, the ball removal hole 4b is opened as shown in FIG. The sphere flows downward through the ball extraction hole 4b and the vertical cylinder hole 6f. As will be described later, a ball box 103 is set on the shelf plate 102 under the ball tray 4, so that game balls that have flowed out of the ball tray 4 are stored in the ball box 103.
Further, when the player releases his / her hand from the sliding operation piece 61b with the ball removal member 6b in the open position, the ball removal member 6b moves to the closed position due to the elasticity of the coil spring 6c and returns to the original state.

  Therefore, in the present invention, in the above-described ball game machine 1, in order to solve the problem that the game balls transferred from the ball tray 4 to the ball box 103 rise unstably on the ball box 103 and collapse. The ball spill prevention means is provided.

  This ball spill prevention means is generally constituted by a ball stop plate 7 suspended from a position below the ball tray 4 and a lock member 8 for locking the ball stop plate 7.

[Ball stop plate]
As shown in FIG. 6, the ball stop plate 7 is a plate-like member having a substantially rectangular shape in front view having a shaft hole 7 a at the top, and swings in a pendulum shape behind the ball hole 4 b and below the ball tray 4. It is suspended in a movable state.
The size of the ball stop plate 7 is substantially the same as the base member 6a of the ball removing device 6 when viewed from the player side, and the lower end is slightly lower than the upper edge of the ball box 103. Yes.
Specifically, the ball stop plate 7 is inserted through the rotating shaft 9 through the bearing portion 6j projecting from the rear edge of the base member 6a of the ball removing device 6 and the shaft hole 7a of the ball member. The base member 6a is vertically suspended from the rear edge of the base member 6a.
In the embodiment, a weight 7b is inserted in the lower portion of the swinging load means for applying an appropriate load to the swinging motion of the ball stop plate 7.

[Lock member]
The lock member 8 locks the ball stop plate 7 in conjunction with the ball removal operation of the ball release member 6b, and the shaft hole 7a of the ball stop plate 7 is attached to one end of the upper portion of the ball stop plate 7. And a claw piece 8b provided on the rear edge side of the shutter plate 60b of the ball removing member 6b.
The claw piece 8b of the shutter plate 60b is slidably fitted into the guide groove 6g of the base member 6a.
On the other hand, the brake plate 8a of the ball stop plate 7 has an upper part of the arc passing through an opening 6k formed in the base member 6a and facing the end of the guide groove 6g. The surface faces the claw piece 8b of the shutter plate 60b.

[Ball removal operation]
Next, a ball removal operation for transferring the game balls stored in the ball tray 4 to the ball box 103 will be described.
First, the player pushes the ball box 103 from the front side of the shelf board 102 toward the back, and sets the ball box 103 so that at least the upper surface opening of the ball box 103 corresponds to the bottom of the ball hole 4b of the ball tray 4. To do. At this time, even if the upper edge of the rear side of the ball box 103 hits the ball stop plate 7 hanging below the ball tray 4, the ball stop plate 7 swings backward and escapes. Returning to the inside of the ball box 103 as shown in FIG.

Next, when the player places a finger on the sliding operation piece 61b of the ball removal member 6b in the closed position and moves the ball removal member 6b to the open position against the bias of the coil spring 6c, FIG. Thus, the shutter plate 60b is displaced and the ball hole 4b is opened. Thereby, the game ball flows out from the ball extraction hole 4 b toward the ball box 103.
On the other hand, the claw piece 8b of the lock member 8 slides along the guide groove 6g together with the ball release member 6b, and the claw piece 8b reaches the open / closed state with the ball release member 6b reaching the open position. Engage with the surface. As a result, the ball stop plate 7 is locked in the hanging position shown in FIG. 2, so that a square fixed wall appears behind the ball extraction hole 4b. In addition, for example, a certain amount of game balls are already in the ball box 103 at the stage of placing on the shelf board 102, and the ball stop plate 7 is tilted by hitting the game balls, or set to the back as shown in FIG. The ball stop plate 7 may be tilted from the vertical direction for some reason, such as the ball box 103 being displaced forward and the ball stop plate 7 being inclined, but even in such a case, the brake plate 8a Since the concavo-convex surface is in the shape of a crown gear, the engagement of the ball removing member 6b with the claw piece 8b can be performed without any problem.

  Even when the ball stop plate 7 is locked by the lock member 8 as described above, the game ball can move freely in the ball box 103 below the ball stop plate 7. Regardless of the game ball, the game ball spreads to every corner of the ball box 103, but when the level of the game ball reaches the lower end of the ball stop plate 7, the movement of the game ball to the rear of the ball box 103 is blocked by the ball stop plate 7. . Accordingly, since the movement of the game ball to the rear of the ball box 103 is suppressed, the game ball does not rise behind the ball stop plate 7. In particular, in the embodiment, the bottom of the ball stop plate 7 is thickened, and an inclined surface that guides the falling game ball forward is formed at least on the front surface thereof, so that the game ball flows in front of the ball box 103. Cheap.

Next, when the player releases the sliding operation piece 61b of the ball removal member 6b when the ball box 103 is full, the ball removal member 6b is automatically moved to the closed position by the bias of the coil spring 6c. At the same time, the claw piece 8b is detached from the braking plate 8a of the ball stop plate 7. As a result, the ball stop plate 7 is unlocked and returned to a swingable state, so that the game ball in front of the ball stop plate 7 can flow backward as shown by the imaginary line in FIG. Even if a game ball flows behind 7, the ball stop plate 7 does not swell because there is an appropriate space behind it. Therefore, even if the ball box 103 is pulled out from the shelf plate 102, the ball spills hardly occur.
As described above, the ball stop plate 7 is provided with swing load means such as the weight 7b and an appropriate load is applied to the swing, so that the ball when the lock of the ball stop plate 7 is released is released. The movement of the game ball can be made smooth by suppressing the swing due to the pressure to some extent.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the ball box 103 containing the game balls is pulled out from the shelf board 102. At that time, even if the ball stop plate 7 hits the upper edge of the rear side of the ball box 103, the ball stop plate 7 swings in the opposite direction to that in the setting and returns to the original state.

As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, of course, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment. For example, in the embodiment, the ball stop plate 7 has a single plate structure of a synthetic resin and there is no room for adjusting the height by itself, but as shown in FIGS. 7 (a) and 7 (b), The plate 7 may be provided with height adjusting means 70. 7A and 7B, the height adjusting means 70 divides and forms the ball stop plate 7 into an upper half 71 and a lower half 72, and heights the upper half 71 and the lower half 72. The plurality of screw fixing portions 73a, 73b, and 73c having different levels are appropriately joined together. 7A and 7B, reference numeral 74 is a joint plate protruding from the lower half 72, reference numeral 75 is a receiving hole for receiving the joint plate 74, and reference numeral 76 is a male screw.
By making it possible to adjust the height of the ball stop plate 7 by using this height adjusting means 70, it is possible to easily cope with differences in the height of the ball box 103 employed in each game hall. Can do.
Needless to say, the height adjusting means 70 shown in the figure is an example. For example, an auxiliary piece for adjusting the height is added below the ball stop plate 7 of the embodiment, or the height of the ball stop plate 7 is increased. In addition, a plurality of horizontal thin cutting lines may be provided and resin-molded, and cut off from an appropriate thin cutting line in accordance with the specifications of the ball box 103.

  Further, in the embodiment, the lock member 8 is formed by a combination of the braking plate 8a having a crown-gear-like uneven surface and the claw piece 8b meshing with the uneven surface, but the front surface of the braking plate 8a and / or A synthetic resin material having a large friction coefficient may be disposed at the tip of the claw piece 8b, and the ball stop plate 7 may be locked by the frictional resistance of both. In such a case, even if an excessive turning force is applied to the ball stop plate 7 by pulling out the ball box 103 with the ball stop plate 7 locked, the brake plate 8a and the claw piece 8b rub against each other. The worst is not reached.

  In the embodiment, the rocking load means of the ball stop plate 7 is formed by the weight 7b. However, instead of such weight 7b, a torsion bar spring (torsion bar spring) is applied to the rotating shaft 9. You may do it.

  In the embodiment, the ball stop plate 7 is provided on the base member 6 a. However, the ball stop plate 7 is directly suspended from the bottom portion 4 a of the ball tray 4 or the curtain plate portion 2 a of the outer frame 2. A bearing arm may be provided so as to protrude from the bearing arm. However, when the ball stop plate 7 and the lock member 8 are provided on the base member 6a of the ball removing device 6 as in the embodiment, the present invention is also applied to an existing ball game machine simply by replacing the base member 6a. can do.

  In the embodiment, the ball removal operation of the ball removal member 6b and the interlocking of the lock member 8 that locks the ball stop plate 7 are mechanically performed. The switch of the electric lock member may be turned ON / OFF by the ball extraction operation of the extraction member 6b.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Bullet-ball game machine 2 ... Outer frame 3 ... Front member 4 ... Ball tray 4a ... Bottom part 4b ... Ball punching hole 6b ... Ball punching member 6c ... Coil spring (biasing means)
7 ... Ball stop plate 8 ... Lock member 100 ... Game machine installation island 102 ... Shelf plate 103 ... Ball box

Claims (1)

An outer frame attached to the island where the gaming machine is installed,
A front member provided on the front surface of the outer frame, when the side close to the player is the front and the opposite side is the rear,
A ball tray provided in front of the front member for storing game balls;
A ball hole opened at the bottom of the ball pan;
It is movable between a closed position that closes the ball hole and an open position that opens the ball hole, and is normally in the closed position by a biasing means that biases toward the closed position. A ball removal member that can move to the open position by a player's ball removal operation that applies a force against the bias of the means,
With the carrying type ball box placed on the shelf board of the gaming machine installation island so as to face under the ball hole of the ball tray, the ball hole member is moved to the open position to open the ball hole. A ball game machine in which the game balls in the ball tray are discharged into the ball box,
A ball stop plate suspended in a pendulum-like swingable state behind the ball hole and below the ball pan;
A lock member that locks the ball stop plate in conjunction with the ball removal operation of the ball removal member,
A ball game machine characterized in that the ball stop plate locked by the lock member can suppress the movement of the game ball discharged from the ball hole to the rear of the ball box.

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