Pachinko is played on a machine. The first pachinko machines were built in the 1920s and were originally meant as a children's toy. The early versions were known as the Corinth Game, named after an American toy called the Corinthian Bagatelle. LIke other bagatelle games, the Corinthian was a wooden board with groups of pins and holes to catch marbles, the object being to get your marble past them.
Pachinko worked in a similar way, with small balls being shot into the machine, and in the early 1930s in the city of Nagoya it began to be used as a form of gambling popular with adults. Soon it developed into a craze and 'pachinko parlours' were opened, similar to amusement arcades.
Despite being closed down during World War II, these parlours were reopened and still exist today. The pachinko itself, however, has changed from a simple device operated by a lever to an electronic one.