Pachinko (thing)

• Pinball is played on an inclined, but nearly horizontal, rectangular table. Pachinko is played on a round vertical table; the plunger fires the ball to the top, and it cascades down through a forest of tiny nails.
   
• Pinball is largely a game of skill. Pachinko is a game of chance, and is in fact used as a gambling device in pachinko parlors.
   
• What can I say? Pinball players have bigger balls. A Pachinko ball is the size of a raisin or blueberry. In Pachinko, you grab your balls and stick them in a tray, where they will roll down a chute towards the plunger.
   
• Pinball is typically played with one ball at a time. Pachinko can be played with many balls in play, because it takes several seconds for your shot to clatter down past the targets (dammit) and into the gutter at the bottom. When you slap five or ten onto the board at the same time, it has a lovely hypnotic look, and it sounds like a rainstick.

When a pachinko ball hits a target cup on the way down, the machine belches more pachinko balls into your tray, and often rings bells or flashes lights. Modern machines also play a little video in an embedded screen. (I learned on an old-school machine that used a D cell for power and was mostly mechanical.)

I don't consider myself much prone to gamble, but if there were a pachinko parlor in Tampa, I'd be in serious trouble, just because it's such a joy to the senses. If kittens had invented pinball, it would have been Pachinko.