Yes sir

So, how was it? Is it back to full strength? What was the renovation about? Just the laundry or the pinball area, too? The internet needs to know.

At location and with the current patch are all the IC badges working?

Not sure. Still open and closed. No idea if last night was a fluke.

Renovations mostly structural looks pretty
Much the same inside.

I went on a tirade in my 007 reaction video about the geometry flaw and impact of this shot. I even said at one point "they should put a rubber there or something". Guess who's full of regrets because it doesn't really look good.

rant (resized).jpg

There's several places I rant about it and it was posted in this thread before. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bond-james-bond-stern-007-hype-club/page/80#post-7153813

If they ran it all the way up so it covered the whole visible area and had a vinyl sticker on it, it wouldn't look bad. It'd be a consumable because it would get the crap beat out of it, but it would look better.

Also, to be fair, you DID say, "I might just be full of shit." So it's not like you didn't have an idea the suggestion could go bad.

So no more Disco Volante boat?
Maybe they will put it back on on the LE's and premiums?

A middle road here would be to keep the boat sticker and put a clear rubber on top of it, all the way up.

Perceptive!

We shall find out soon. There's been premiums at shows, right?

I mean, look how much better this looks? Just put a clear rubber sheet (3mm?) over it and call it a day.

pasted_image (resized).png

Of all the things that deserve a rant... I'd rate this on with the burden of breathing. Seriously... this is nothing to bat an eye at... complain about where the scoop fires, not the siderail. Good grief.

This was before I knew nothing about the gameplay, it was just when the pictures were released by Stern. I didn't even know the Pro had the scoop even. I haven't played the game yet and have not watched much gameplay as it's pretty grating and repetitive. We'll see after next weekend if I have an update. Thanks for watching!

All I see in that picture is the stupid rail in the underwater diorama. Would it have KILLED Stern to put a printed cardboard U on the top end so there was a background to sustain the effect without cabinet rail hardware photobombing the diorama when it lights up?

This, too, shall pass. We'll have a new pin announcement to pick apart and complain about soon enough.

Yet you keep posting about it? Please don’t

And no I don’t watch

I played a few games at the Oakdale Burrow in MN today. First couple games it was draining on me all over the place, lots of dumb center drains on my part. Once I got a few shots dialed in, it played a lot better. Seems like if you know what you are shooting for, then it’ll be a lot easier to keep the ball in play. Missed shots like to punish. Or it could’ve just been bad luck/play on my part. I’m an OK player, but usually don’t trap when just playing for fun.

Software is definitely “raw” and needs a lot of polish. I think that’ll be coming. Stern has done pretty well on improving software on most of their titles. I have a Guardans and a Rush in my collection, and those are both very fun over the long haul.

I don’t know if I would pay extra for the Premium on Bond. If the jetpack is just “press the button when it gets to the end of movement to drop it on the tank” and there’s no skill involved, that’ll be pretty pointless. The shot around the left orbit and up the ramp is satisfying.

I’m not sure if I’m in on this one or not yet…. Maybe learning more combos will make it more fun like Rush.

The spinner was laying under the ball guide between the right outlane and inlane, interfering with the post drop there. A little nudge got the ball out, but the tilt bob was set very sensitive on this one, so it complained every time. I’ve seen people complain about broken spinners on Rush as well. Is there something Stern changed on spinners that make them more susceptible to break?

I'm assuming cheaper/thinner (hidden cost savings, yay!) steel bracket that the spinner goes in, so the bracket bends over time and lets the spinner arm fall out. I haven't seen broken spinners per se, just ones that fell out of the bracket from too-short spinner arms (or gates) and/or brackets that deformed over time.

Agree, looks far better with the decal.

I wonder where Stern gets these parts from, seems something has changed.

Probably the same place. Stern just details the specs, and they probably changed them to shave some cost. Might be a softer steel alloy or a thinner steel to save a few pennies per unit. Stern is not above scraping pennies to increase profit per machine, as evidenced as far back as 2016 when they made their plastic drop target shelves thinner starting with GoT. It's a plastic part that could not have cost more than 5 cents per. The thinner version probably saved a penny or two. But the upshot was that broken target shelves in the real world became a thing where I had never even SEEN one break before that point. Burden shifted to the consumer.

Got to play some more games on the latest code on a brand new machine on location. I like the flow of the upper flipper shots and the right ramp. The kickout from the Astin Martin is cute. Code will make or break this game. Its way too basic right now to really have any idea what the long term objectives will be, how modes will work/stack with others etc.

Liked it more than my initial impression and the game definitely feels solid for a pro. Hoping for the best on the code front.

Just need to color match it to a blue in that part of the playfield

Gomez said several things coming in code updates for bond on wand. Not sure how many places you could hit on that path unless goes way over to left side need missile? They tried some other trajectories and had trouble (the up over down one was cool). I’d def hope they code it a few different outcomes from when/how player releases ball- maybe in more than one mode.

There's definitely some scope for modders to add something nice for that area though

My random first impressions: I liked the yellow and red color scheme. Theme feels fresh in a modern stern lineup that is comic book heavy. The blorby pop bumper sound effects seemed out of place. The lock shot up the middle that goes counterclockwise around the rocket was rarely smooth. Ball seemed to love bouncing down the left outlane. Rusty/rough looking balls. The music is made more repetitive by it continuing for a bit after you've moved onto another table. Spent most of my time shooting the left side of the playfield, wasn't able to figure out the best approach to the right ramps yet, but I am intrigued. Needs more times for assets and code. I look forward to playing it again after some updates.

No comment

You spend a fortune on grooming products and manscaping equipment and you still end up with comments like this… can’t please everyone.

Just jammed on Bond again for awhile. I liked it to begin with and I’m still liking it more each game. Lots of flow in the game. Shots are so smooth with lots of combos. Upper flipper is a smooth feed from either the right orbit or the middle/shot.

The inner orbit to middle ramp combo is a blast. Very similar to the orbit to Tower combo on Jurassic Park as the ball slams up the ramp after flying through the orbit. Right orbit is challenging but make-able and, again, smoooooooth.

Can get the ball to either flipper via ramps or post passes. The 007 sound for jackpots is great.

Does the dragon tank on pre/le light up?

Yes, in the manual it says there is an LED named "Tank" and another named "Tank Hood".

Cool thanks, maybe the eyes and something where flame thrower would be.

Looking at the manual it looks like the LED's are a under a yellow mini-dome under the plastic in front of tank and another one facing forward behind the "mouth" of the tank.

rps20221205_210332 (resized).jpg

Just saw a short video review of the Bond pro at Ayce Gogi by youtuber Kongs-R-Us.

I saw there was a lot of white dust near the DB5 hatch. I'm assuming there might be some there and the hatch is getting ground down there? Or maybe the final testers at Stern were doing coke on their break?

Anyone else see this on other Bond games?

rps20221205_220015 (resized).jpg

Haven't seen it on my local one. I wonder if the pad thats supposed to be under the roof fell off or wasn't installed at the factory

Jamming on a pro today and having a blast!!

6D30236F-A9E0-4F3F-9714-6D06C966D488 (resized).jpeg

I wonder how many people think Sean Connery is Dr No

Probably a close second to the amount of people who think the game is called "Dr. No"

The silliest backglass idea since Silly McSilly had the silly idea to spray silly string over the entire island of Scilly.

No mention of James Bond... what the game is about.

Lyons Pinball in Colorado should be getting theirs in any day! LET'S GO

I have to assume the licensor demanded the backglass design as is and not to put 007/James Bond on it. They sneak the 007 logo and "James Bond" elsewhere

It is really dumb decision by the licensor though. But hey, when they sell the topper it at least won't repeat the game name.

Those Stern boys are brilliant! "$2000 so your pin has a proper name!"

I like how it lists the scores and just not on different screens.

That could well change.

The game doesn’t even have a flipper status check yet, how much thought do you think they’ve put into high score listings ?

Ture, I guess we will see. Maybe there is another code release before onsites start having the parties.

That is the rumor, we shall see.

It's not?

Our cat has been enjoying ours. We've played it a bit..we don't hate it

PXL_20221205_023657882 (resized).jpg

Nice to see people have this at home already.

If Stern had one open lamp circuit (probably do), they could have just spun up a very simple auxiliary driver board with a single mosfet on it and a teenie bit of circuitry to interface a lamp signal into turning on the mosfet coil driver.

How long before someone hacks in a gottlieb pop bumper driver board or something like that... I am pretty sure having both pops fire at the same time would bother me.

Build it and they will come

Just like on the home edition pins! Imagine someone paying $14,601.41 for a game and GG couldn't be fucked putting in another node board just to keep the BOM down. Oh, wait... :'(

Is your cat pleased with low res movie poster art on cabinet? Bet he’d prefer a pussy galore edition. More pussy is good, but pussy galore is glorious. haha.