Last night, Stern Pinball streamed its new Keith Elwin-designed single-level James Bond 60th Anniversary Limited Edition pinball machine for the first time. A link to the broadcast is embedded below.
Beyond getting to see the new game in action for the very first time, we were given a few interesting pieces of information on the stream. The first of the 500 James Bond 60th machines to be produced have begun to ship. The first games are destined for Europe and are already on the boat heading over, scheduled for arrival today or tomorrow. Games for U.S. customers will begin shipping soon. Interestingly, the majority of the Bond 60th machines that have sold so far are for export.
During the stream, Stern showed off the game's unique mechanical scoring reel mechanism (see pics below). The game shipped with code that is very close to being finished, version 1.03. The code for the Bond 60th was easier and faster to complete because it wasn't slowed down by the constant need for approval of video assets from the license holder like the regular version of Stern James Bond has been.
The game has a total of five different sound packages that each player can choose from when they start a game, three different EM chime packages (1964, 1973 & 1975), a 1980s sound packages that sounds a lot like early solid state games and a modern sound package.
As far as gameplay goes, it looked really fast and fun. As was stated during the stream, the shorter ball-times than most new pinball machines would make it a great multi-player "party game." It appears to be loaded with cool shots and Insider Connected achievements (94 of them).
Priced like a Beatles Gold I think that this machine would sell like hotcakes. For essentially the price of three Stern Pros, the machine is definitely only for a certain type of consumer. It strikes me as sort of a Gucci or Prada of pinball, like a jacket or a hat that costs several times as much as it should solely because of its exclusivity. The game's price will be an interesting litmus test for the industry.
Stern is not officially bringing a Bond 60th machine to the Texas Pinball Festival, but George Gomez believed that someone who purchased the game will likely bring it to the show for the public to try. Stern is going to officially bring the Bond 60th anniversary machines to the Midwest Gaming Classic in Wisconsin (3/31 - 4/2).
There was another interesting side discussion during the stream about the 1990 Williams pinball machine, Roller Games. While Bond 60th's coder Mark Penacho was at Williams, the company was given a choice of three themes for what eventually ended up being Roller Games. They were American Gladiators, Roller Games and something called "Fish Police" (it's a real thing, I had to look it up lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_Police ).
Other odds and ends from the stream include...
- The app for Insider Connected is coming sooner rather than later
- Insider Connected is coming to Stern's line of home games
- The long-awaited run of Elvira's House of Horrors is on the line at Stern right now
- The toppers for Rush and Godzilla are done and coming very soon
- Stern has a record number of backorders, despite producing more games/day than ever
