Rowamet’s Heavy Metal: Brazil’s Rare 1980s Pinball Machine
Rowamet and the Heavy Metal Pinball Machine
Rowamet Indústria Eletrometalúrgica LTDA was a Brazilian manufacturer that produced some of the rarest pinball machines ever built. Located in Santo André, São Paulo, the company operated from 1980 to 1983, a brief but significant window in Brazil’s arcade manufacturing history. During those four years, Rowamet built a small but memorable line of machines, with Heavy Metal standing out as one of their most recognizable titles.
The Company Behind the Machine
Rowamet was founded in 1966 as an electrometallurgical manufacturing company. When the Brazilian pinball industry boomed in the 1970s and early 1980s, Rowamet pivoted to arcade machine production alongside other domestic manufacturers like Fliperbol, Eletromatic, and J Steban. This was a uniquely Brazilian moment in arcade history. While American manufacturers like Bally, Williams, and Gottlieb dominated the global market, companies like Rowamet developed their own machines tailored to the Brazilian market.
The company’s tenure was short. By the mid-1980s, Rowamet ceased pinball production and eventually shut down entirely. Today, the company no longer exists, making their machines increasingly difficult to find and study.
The Heavy Metal Machine
Heavy Metal was produced around 1983, during the height of Rowamet’s operations. The machine was inspired by the Heavy Metal animated film released in 1981, which had already spawned heavy interest in arcade and home entertainment. The backglass artwork drew directly from the movie’s iconic imagery, giving the machine immediate visual appeal to players familiar with the film.
The machine followed standard electromechanical pinball design of the era: a tilting playfield, bumpers, ramps, and flippers controlled by solenoid mechanisms. Like many Brazilian machines, Heavy Metal was engineered to be durable and serviceable with locally available parts, an important consideration for operators in markets where parts shipments from North America were expensive and slow.
Rarity and Collector Value
Finding an original Heavy Metal today is exceptionally rare. Pinball historians and collectors estimate that very few units ever left Brazil, and fewer still survived the decades intact. Unlike American machines from the same era, which are well-documented in databases and heavily traded among collectors, Brazilian machines like Rowamet’s products remain poorly documented. Most pinball price guides and collecting references focus almost exclusively on American manufacturers.
This scarcity makes Heavy Metal a significant find for serious collectors. A working machine in original condition would be sought after not just for its playability, but for its historical importance in documenting Brazil’s overlooked contribution to arcade gaming. Condition, working parts, and original artwork all affect a machine’s value, which can range from a few hundred dollars for a non-working shell to several thousand for a fully restored, playable example.
Other Rowamet Titles
Heavy Metal was not Rowamet’s only machine. During the same period, the company produced Vulcan IV, Conan, Diana, and Jet Surf. These machines, equally rare today, represent the full scope of Rowamet’s brief catalog. Unlike major American manufacturers that produced dozens of different titles and thousands of units per game, Rowamet appears to have built relatively small quantities of each machine, which explains why finding any of them is so difficult now.
Finding Documentation and Community
If you own a Heavy Metal or are researching one, the Internet Pinball Machine Database (IPDB) is the first stop. It maintains records of machine specs, production dates, and known ownership instances. The Arcade Museum also catalogs Rowamet machines and can provide technical specifications. Pinball collector forums and groups occasionally have members with knowledge of Brazilian machines, though these communities are smaller and less active than those focused on American manufacturers.
Museums in Brazil, particularly in São Paulo state, have begun preserving machines from this era as cultural artifacts. These collections help document Rowamet’s engineering choices and design philosophy, offering context for understanding what makes these machines distinctive.
Preservation and Restoration
Restoring a Rowamet machine presents challenges: original parts are scarce, and repair documentation is minimal compared to American machines. Collectors typically work with local technicians in Brazil or source generic electromechanical components that fit standard pinball architecture. The experience of the pinball restoration community suggests that patience and networking within collector groups yields better results than searching alone.