Sahara Love

Sahara Love is a solid-state electronic pinball machine released in 1984 by Christian Automatic (trade name Christian Tabart) of Montgeron, France. Rather than an original design, it is a conversion kit built on Gottlieb's 1978 'Sinbad,' with 150 units confirmed produced. The kit included metal sheets to cover the original wood cabinet and backbox, and reused key internal components -- the ROM, wiring, and electronic cards -- from the donor Sinbad machines, which were shipped to Italy for assembly and redecoration.

The backglass and upper playfield artwork, created by Michele "Mike" Martinelli, prominently feature actress Brooke Shields, referencing her starring role in the 1983 film "Sahara." According to Christian Tabart himself, the new rules and overall design were his own work, while the playfield layout was likely based on Sinbad's.

As a small-run conversion rather than a from-scratch design, Sahara Love is a distinctive piece of 1980s French pinball history, illustrating how smaller operators repurposed existing Gottlieb hardware to create new, licensed-adjacent titles.