I've only had the opportunity to play it a few times but we both like GB. Was actually on my list at one point. Still kicking myself for not grabbing a nearby LE for $6600.

Every time I got to Are you a God I was happy only because it meant I'd probably be grand champ and not have to play that game again for a while. Especially if I managed to become a god.

Never played it by itself, always had to earn it. Its nice they give you the option though. However, it was never that impressive of a wizard mode to me either

Just curious, do you have a link for that?

I must admit, I'm finding it hard to believe that something as basic as the space between the flippers was somehow a mistake across multiple whitewoods and CAD drawings. How does that happen?

I can think of several myself. My main beef with the game, designer's personal failings aside, is the code was overly linear. I'm not a fan of that kind of ladder approach. But it's been done worse.

If I find one, I'll post it up. It pops up from time to time. I want to say maybe one of the last times I saw it was during a live stream of another game. Yes I agree the code sucks, yes even once they revamped it. Its not the code though and its not just the flipper gap, theres like a ton of horrible design choices that make it a real stinker. Maybe the Pro plays better, as I've only ever played premiums.

The story I heard was Stern had the current flipper gap on the prototype game and they didn't like it as wide as it is. They made the gap smaller but they sent in the wrong specks to the company making the playfields and it was too late and costly to remake the playfields with the smaller gap. I can't verify this but I think it was on a Franchi podcast? But really don't know for a fact if it's true or not or where I heard it.
I like the game myself and look at it as a harder challenge game. I miss the old code but understand why it was changed.
I thought this was a bitch about Bond pricing thread!!

The "game of chance" Ghostbusters is, is what makes it fun for me. It certainly isn't a tournament game. The magna slings just add to the unpredictability (and fun). It feels fucking good to deal with the slings successfully, and get those random Tobin's Spirit Guide multipliers, ESP video mode, and get a perfect storm of a game. It's a great home game that never gets old. There are way more linear games than GB that get higher praise.

And all for the bargain price of less than $20k!

you will learn here not to argue with tournament focused individuals as fun is not their main objective....points are. I have no clue what these negative people are talking about as it would be the last to go out of my collection. Guns and Roses CE would be the first

That at least makes some sense.

Someone slipping and the CAD getting accidentally too wide less so. The whole bottom of the layout is tied to the flipper positions, you can't just shift them without redoing everything else.

Goatf***ers always manages to ruin everything.

If I was project manager I'd have just had the shop use a router to make make the hole cut longer. The flipper is held entirely by the supporting mech + bushing on the bottom anyway so you should be able to just have a bigger hole in the playfield and slide the flipper assembly over. That is if it was caught before shipping and everyone agreed it messed up the game. How far off are the holes? I'll have to play Ghostbusters again and inspect.

I would have added Zipper Flippers to Ghost Busters

Learn something every day.

IIRC, the Trudeau gap is 1/4" wider than a normal flipper gap. However GB's flipper gap I think was another 1/4" wider. That is of course from flipper tip to flipper tip, but if you're talking each flipper from the centerline/SDTM line, cut those in half (so the left flipper is 1/8" more to the left on a Trudeau game, and an additional 1/8" to the left on GB. Vice versa for the right flipper).

I believe those were the numbers someone made based on measurements he took when the game was released. No idea how to search one post that long ago on Pinside.

So Kaneda's price prediction for James Bond 60th Anniversary Edition $LE in one year is $12,000.

Stern If you are reading this and If my BDSLE 60th drops in price that much.... I will not buy any more sterns for a long time. Stern will lose customers over this pin if it goes south!

LoL Kaneda, I tried listening to his stuff. He loves to whine and hear his own voice. Dude is a wind bag.
I am still excited for my Bond 60th anniversary game, should be here within 3-4 weeks I am guessing

How many of Kanedas predictions have been true? Half of the time he is just playing around. While he was flipping pinball machines for profit he was pumping values. Now he has no skin in the game he is doing the opposite.
He is just saying what he thinks people want to hear and he even puts Pinside posts on his Facebook account.

Neither one leaving for me!

I don't know which is a bigger waste of time, pointless podcasts or Facebook, but if you combine the two surely that's the chocolate and peanut butter of "don't you have better things to do with your day?"

With all the free time you saved you could argue with strangers about the value of a product you're never going to buy!

I think the bigger take away here is most would agree not to buy a game, especially one you haven't played, if you are concerned about what the price will be in a year. While historically most games have maintained or went up in value, there's no certainty that this will. As for what it will do, that remains to be seen. I doubt many people who buy one are going to let theirs go for such a loss after a year. They'd probably just keep them. On the flip side what could happen is that they don't sell out and Stern cuts production early and then they go up...but we just don't know at this point.

I can make predictions too. They'll sell all 500 and in one year people will wish they could get one for 20k.

My prediction is still the same for 2023.

The current pricing structure isn’t sustainable for the pinball masses.

Stern won’t see 1,000 LEs at $13k UNLESS people are just resigned to losing $$$ on the secondary market.

If that is a main concern for folks then you shouldn’t buy the pinball machine, any of them.

The days of buying, playing and flipping for more $$$ are over.

I would be ok with paying $18k for a BondSLE, playing it for however long to enjoy it and then IF it’s $12k next year or 2 years from now, that’s ok with me, the relative “value” is worth it to me.

Same thing with a BondLE at $14,500 shipped and taxes.

IF I ever sold for whatever price lower I’ve already gotten my FUN value out of it.

I get why most people don’t feel that way which is why the Stern and JJP Gooses are somewhat cooked OR they simply have to adjust in the future.

That’s what make pinball FUN, we get to “collect” and play what we like.

And it’s not just something that sits on a shelf to look at like my vintage graded basketball cards (worth more than my pins today)

This Wilt Chamberlain rookie card, psa 9, went for $348,000

A current auction for one is higher.

Maybe that’s where Stern card guy is going? $20k is nothing

Lots of big $$$ collectors out there!

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Agree with this...but if I like the game, Im not selling anyway.

If I don't like it, then I'll just sell. To Dougs point, I dont buy any game w intent on making $$$ after ( if) I sell. Losing some money on it wouldn't bother me ( will never be $12k....f*king stupid, attention getting comment).

Oddly haven't lost $$$ on a single game Ive ever sold though......guess Bond60 is just THAT bad..lmfao...

Agreed and well put.

I think it's less about if you like the game and more about moving on to whatever is next...which is what a lot of people do, even if they claim it to be the greatest game ever, bolted to the floor. Seen that so many times and a few days later it's up for sale.

Many MANY pins have come out to great ridicule and lower prices for the first year after release only to catch on and skyrocket in price after that. Be it code updates or a realization that the game is really good. Once the knee jerk observations calm down, the price finds a level.

This may be one of those as well. Time will tell. But for now, we REALLY need a game play vid!

I gotta say I respect your attitude toward all this drama. You seem like a stand-up guy.

How far South are you prepared to go?

Appreciate the kind words....Im oddly immune to most of the drama....kind of like babies screaming on an airplane ( I fly alot for work)...they always do it.....every flight....just naturally tune it out and do my work just fine....

Pinball is my hobby...my escape from the madness...no crybaby is ever going to affect my buying decisions or enjoyment of the game, lol.

There are good people in here that contribute to the hobby and enjoyable to chat with in the PM's...

Then there are the others...

( standing now, but yes, bourbon Friday)

Too stoked for this game!!

Bubba, I’ve seen the Pro prices. Getting LE-esque in pricing. I know, I know, ‘back in my day…’. But I’m talking 2014 Stern LE prices. Damn.

I’m gonna say this. If you play it and decide it’s awesome I’ll call this SLE version a win. For you.

More than fair, lol..

Wow - that's pretty remarkable! I've been in this hobby pretty deep for 20 years and have had a great run. I've made more money than I've lost and consider myself fortunate. Nevertheless, I've lost $$ on the following 6 games in 20 years (which is roughly 10% of the games I've purchased):

HEP AFM (-3k), Aerosmith (-$600), Munsters (-$400), SWLE (-$250), UMCE (-$1,250), IM (-$800)

From my perspective, it's inevitable that as prices go wild there will be much more opportunity to lose money. Who cares? Nice cars depreciate like crazy yet I still enjoy them. I also like investing...not all investments work out It's unfortunate that so many folks are fixated on "never losing money"...

If you measure your life on what you make or lose on pinball machines then I feel sorry for you.

Kaneda likes to talk about “grown men whining and arguing about pinball”

He’s a grown man doing hundreds of podcasts whining about grown men doing what they do.

Probably because I still have most of the one's I purchased, lol........

Jus got word my Bond 60th ships out next week!

Pinball award shows a close third.

Sell some pins through there. Then we will see what the masters of collectible market manipulation can do. Heritage is such a trash company.

The collectible card market is what it is. And idiots aren’t dropping that kind of $$$ on slabbed cardboard without some idea of what’s going on.

That’s just ONE example of thousands of them.

How easy do you think it is to “manipulate” somebody into dropping that kind of $$$ on a card? PSA 8 is $65k-100k.

Clueless

IF Bond 60th meets Beatles level then it’s a win for what it is. Playing it now.

Price wise, no comparison.

Awesome.. Congrats!

Owners club soon.

We keep the ones we like too. Main problem is in the last few years we have kept almost everything we have bought. Room is starting to become an issue.

Will be interesting to see how the 60th HUO price holds out in the future. If the BOM would have even remotely matched the outrageous price, no question, it would hold or might even gain in value. When a company is asking that kind of MSRP, it better be worth it in most people’s mind or it will surely go south in price down the road. The 60th is a throwback game: is there enough content to hold pinball players attention over the long haul, unless into the simplicity of besting your last score? (Apologist downvote away, lol)

Umm, you are seriously about 100 pages too late on this. Try to keep up.

Spell check Tbird. “Fairs” and “long hall”.

Ok we all get it. This game is directed at a high end “collector” that doesn’t care about price. That simple.

Is it going to F Stern with the fan base in the future? Yep. But these buyers don’t give a F

Lol, fixed it for you. This game is directed at anyone that will pay their asking price. Although we see that’s in big question too, since there is widespread discounting going on just to try and get rid of them. Most any brand’s reputation/image in the market place is of utmost importance. They guard their image like a hawk and pay PR firms big dollars to do so. It appears Stern doesn’t seem to care what happens to their’s. Is the big profit off of a measly 500 games worth that to Stern?