Mechanical Memories Magazine

The Things We Do For Love
By John Peterson
It is said love makes fools of us all. Normally such assessment is made at the end of a
relationship, not the beginning. Hindsight is always so much clearer than foresight.
Experience is not necessarily the saving grace either. Otherwise, there would be no
such thing as remarriage after divorce. But what a sadder place the world would be
without love and the foolish things we do for it. Today' s tale is one such story.
Photo A (opposite) is my latest acquisition. It appeared on Ebay as a truncated
five-day auction. The seller had done his homework. The piece was correctly
described as a "super rare vintage Bussoz - Paris France 'Exclusive Automatics, ' a
construecteur coin operated arcade game." The 'super rare' part of the description
was a bit of a stretch but the attribution was correct. This is a Pierre Bussoz roulette
game originally named 'La Girouette ' from the early 20 th Century.
The three spinning panels were originally painted with barnyard animals. A
number of these games were exported to England where they were revamped to accept
the large British penny. The graphics were also changed from animals to pin-ups. The
name given this 'new' machine was 'Exclusive Automatics.' The machine being
offered for sale was one of these British revamps. I know the game fairly well for I
own one that I purchased from a nice lad in England years ago, Photo B.
The auction started at the nominal offering of $9.99. I was interested, of course.
The ad stated that the door was locked with no key. There was no way to ascertain the
completeness of the mechanism, although the seller did include the ever helpful
opinion that "this one is in fantastic physical condition and appears to be complete
with the entire mechanism inside (from what I can tell without removing the back.)"
He also stated "I have not tried it since the photo plates are not present nor do I have
the correct coins as I don't know what they would have been and didn't want to jam
it."
Looking at the game with what I like to think is a more experienced eye, I could
see that certain pieces of the hardware were garden variety replacements, including the
actual garden spigot handle parading as a turn knob. This does not inspire confidence.
Hoping to learn more, I emailed the seller and asked for background concerning the
previous owner. Might I have his telephone number so I could hear first-hand what
other improvements he had made? The seller informed me that the previous owner, an
elderly gentleman, had recently died. His grandson was the one who presented the
game to the seller, saying, "Granddad got the machine running just fine ."
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