musings

I’ve been scouring the internet for a chime unit to go in my 1973 Gottlieb Big Brave pinball machine. What is it? A three-note xylophone which dings away as points are scored.

Many electro-mechanical pinball machines have had their chime units removed over the years. Some say it’s because they made too much noise. But, whilst that may be partly true, it isn’t the full story. If you were just bothered about that, you would simply disconnect it. What happened was, owners of more modern electronic pinball machines (which just have speakers, not metal bars that actually get struck) decided to pimp them with good old chimes from earlier generation machines.

This has created a shortage beyond what you might expect in parts for amusement machines more than thirty years old. (more…)