Who you gonna call for the boneyard? — Gottlieb’s Bone Busters Inc. is a delightfully campy haunted-and-supernatural solid-state four-player designed by Ray Tanzer with art by Constantino Mitchell, and it’s crowned by some genuinely fun toys: a moving, talking skeleton-head topper that yaks away during the game and in attract mode, plus light-up “ghostbusting” guns. With an alphanumeric display and a confirmed run of 2,000, it’s a spirited, spooky late-’80s Gottlieb.
The layout is lean but characterful, built around four flippers, a single pop bumper, a messenger ball, and a kick-out hole, with the theatrical skeleton topper and glowing guns providing the real personality. Those toys are the machine’s calling card — that chattering skeleton head and the light-up guns turn the game into a campy monster-hunting romp, exactly the kind of animated theater that makes a machine memorable on the arcade floor. The messenger ball adds a bit of mechanical interest, while the four flippers open up attacking angles across the playfield, all in service of the tongue-in-cheek ghost-and-skeleton theme.
Bone Busters Inc. is a fun, atmospheric Gottlieb that leans all the way into its campy supernatural theme, with that talking skeleton topper and the light-up guns giving it a personality far bigger than its modest layout might suggest. Ray Tanzer’s design and the Mitchells’ art bring the spooky spirit to life. For the collector who loves a machine with genuine character and a sense of humor, it’s a worthy find. Work the messenger ball, ride the flippers, and let that skeleton head do the talking. Some machines are treasured for their sheer theatrical charm, and this bone-rattling Gottlieb romp is one of them. Bust some bones and drop a coin.