Dai Uchuu Ryokou (大宇宙旅行)

Dai Uchuu Ryokou (大宇宙旅行), meaning roughly 'Big Space Journey,' is an electro-mechanical pinball machine manufactured circa the 1960s by the Japan Automatic Vending Machine Company, Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan. It is based on a sugoroku game, a Japanese variety of Parcheesi, and offers a rare glimpse into early Japanese pinball production.

The gameplay experience centers on a space exploration theme: players guide a spaceship toward a goal to earn a replay. The scoring system uses bulb lighting rather than score reels, and the playfield is filled with posts and rollovers -- some of which advance the spaceship toward its goal, while others move it backward, adding strategy to each shot. The game features a ball shooter lane with a plunger and a wedge-shaped head box.

Very little documentation of this game survives; only an online flyer image has been reviewed, and it's unclear whether the cabinet even had coin slots on the front door (a single coin drop appears to be on the lockdown bar) or whether the game had flippers. Its rarity and mysterious origins make Dai Uchuu Ryokou a fascinating subject for pinball historians researching the early Japanese arcade industry.