What is Serbian Magnets?
1.
The magnets placed in pinball machines during the early- to mid-1990s by Serbian agents wishing to demoralise the UK into pulling out of the UN Peacekeeping Mission during the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War.
These magnets are cunningly placed to deflect the pin ball itself, and cause frustration by subtly deflecting the ball into a narrow channel between the paddles, or into other "Game over" scenarios.
Now the expression can be used to describe any unusual activity in electrical equipment that dates from 1991 - 1995.
"I was going to hit the High Score, but those bloody Serbian Magnets kept stopping me upgrading my bumpers."
See
