Pinball / James Bond 007 (Stern)

Left: The Pro version of the cornerstone game.
Right: The 60th Anniversary Limited Edition.

In September 2022, Stern Pinball announced two physical pinball tables based on the James Bond film series, both titled James Bond 007.

The "cornerstone" game was designed by George Gomez, with coding work by Lonnie Ropp and Mike Vinikour. It is specifically based on Sean Connery's films — Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever — and utilizes artwork from their posters. Assuming the role of Bond, the player is tasked with playing through several modes representing the films' villains, their henchmen, and their attempts to kill 007. Acquiring Q's gadgets (including an Aston Martin on the playfield with a pseudo-Ejection Seat) and up to six "Bond women" will help out during these endeavours. Other features include two multiballs: Jetpack and Bird One (the latter associated with a replica of the namesake rocket on the playfield). Finally, the game's soundtrack includes the series' usual theme song and a handful of the individual movies' themes ("From Russia with Love," "You Only Live Twice," and "Diamonds are Forever").

There are three versions of this title: the Pro^note themed after Dr. No model omits certain mechanisms to reduce costs. Features exclusive to the Premium^note themed after You Only Live Twice and Limited Edition^note themed after Thunderball and limited to 1,000 units models include a jetpack-wearing, moving Bond figure that can magnetically drop the ball onto a "Dragon" tank with a drop target, a physical ball lock for Bird One Multiball, and small figurines of Bond fighting an underwater assailant visible under a portion of the playfield.

The other game is officially called James Bond 60th Anniversary Limited Edition, though its backglass simply bills it as 007. True to the name, it directly commemorates the 60th anniversary of the first film in the series by incorporating elements from every single instalment (including George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig's Bonds). Designer Keith Elwin and programmer Mark Penacho^note whose last work on a pinball game was Fish Tales, released over three decades before James Bond made an effort to imitate earlier pinball games, and the end result blends both classic and modern influences: old-school scoring reels are used to keep track of scores, a small LCD screen is embedded in the playfield, and the soundtrack ranges from actual James Bond music to chimes straight out of electromagnetic machines based on the player's preference. Similarly, the game's rules are much simpler than the cornerstone title: the player must collect various Bonds, obtain gadgets, and fight villains by shooting specific elements of the playfield. (The latter two in particular are tied to a spinning replica of Oddjob's hat, located right in the centre.)

Not to be confused with James Bond 007 (Gottlieb), which was released in 1980.

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James Bond 007 provides examples of:

Both games

• Match Sequence:
  • The cornerstone models use their main LCD screen to show a roulette table — the ball bounces and eventually settles on the match number.
  • The 60th Anniversary Limited Edition uses four old-timey scoring reels, so its match sequence starts with all four of them rapidly spinning, with each one independently stopping in place like a slot machine to reveal the match number (the last digit).
• Mythology Gag:
  • The cornerstone game is primarily based on Sean Connery's James Bond films and alludes to them frequently, though it also references other instalments in the series that otherwise aren't represented.
    • The area around the shooter lane is decorated with several coloured dots in abstract patterns, much like the opening sequence for Dr. No.
    • Blofeld appears twice on the playfield as the main villain of both You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever, but the latter insert light gives his name as "aka Mr. Henderson." This references the fact that Charles Gray played Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice before assuming the role of Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever.
    • The drop targets in front of the Bird One are marked with the logo of Osato Chemicals, which helped built the rocket in the film it came from.
    • The henchman and villain ramps are both decorated with the SPECTRE logo used in 2015's Spectre (instead of the less abstract versions seen in Connery's films).
    • One of the Skill Shots is named "Eyes Only," alluding to For Your Eyes Only.
    • The final Wizard Mode, "Her Majesty's Secret Service," is one word off from On Her Majesty's Secret Service (a film which starred George Lazenby as Bond).
  • In the 60th Anniversary game, the leftmost shot has artwork referencing two Roger Moore films:
    • The underwater Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me is visible on the playfield◊ (near the start of the loop).
    • The area features a plastic decoration◊ depicting the rotating car jump from The Man with the Golden Gun.
• Secondary Adaptation: Both games incorporate elements from the James Bond films, most of which were adapted from Ian Fleming's original novels. The cornerstone game focuses on six films^note specifically, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever that were each based on a specific book,^note Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever while the 60th Anniversary Limited Edition draws from every film that was out at the time it was made (some of which were not direct adaptations).
• Skill Shot:
  • The cornerstone models have no fewer than eight skill shots. Two of them involve shooting the ball into a specific lane at the top of the playfield, while the rest require making a specific shot shortly after the ball enters play.
  • The 60th Anniversary game instead has two: getting the ball into the flashing top lane (which awards one of a handful of bonuses) and shooting the ball into the right scoop after plunging (which immediately lights a lock for multiball).
• Spelling Bonus:
  • In the cornerstone models:
    • Spelling M-I-6 via the topmost lanes adds a multiplier to the end-of-ball bonus.
    • Lighting all the letters in S-P-E-C-T-R-E increases the jackpot in Bird One Multiball and lights a SPECTRE Weapon mode.
    • Each of the in- and outlanes represents a letter in B-O-N-D. Every other time the player gets them all, they light "High Stakes" (a mystery award).
  • The 60th Anniversary Limited Edition has two sets of drop targets that each spell something:
    • B-O-N-D can either light one of the Bonds for collection or allow the player to collect a gadget by shooting the Oddjob disc.
    • Spelling M-I-6 once lets the player begin choosing a Villain Mode, while spelling it again afterward will start it.
• Wizard Mode:
  • The cornerstone game has several mini-wizard modes.
    • "Bond... James Bond" requires a Villain Mode, Henchmen Mode, and both main multiballs to have been started beforehand. The mode itself gives the player 70 seconds to make 10 shots before they get a shot at obtaining a super jackpot, with everything increasing the latter's value.
    • There are a set of mini-wizard modes themed after specific movies that are lit after accomplishing one of four objectives (starting every Villain, Henchmen, Q Branch, or SPECTRE Weapon mode). These include "Chaos at Crab Key" (a multiball requiring the player to make two separate sets of shots while the flipper buttons are reversed) and "Ahoy, Mr. Bond!" (where certain major shots either award jackpots or double jackpots, with the point value of each one counting down as time passes).
  • In the 60th Anniversary Limited Edition, starting the three objective-driven multiball modes (Bond, Gadget, and Villain Multiball) lights "007 Multiball." The mode opens with a short period where everything on the playfield increases the final jackpot's value — once that's over, the player must defuse a bomb by hitting three drop targets and subsequently the right scoop. Accomplishing this starts the actual multiball, with every shot being lit for a hefty amount of points.

The cornerstone models

• Achievement Mockery: If a player who's logged into Stern Insider Connected lights an outlane ball saver and then loses their last ball without using it, they receive the achievement "Improper Drain Usage."
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The playfield lights persistently use the same colour to indicate characters and gadgets from a specific movie. Dr. No is yellow, From Russia with Love is red, Goldfinger is gold, Thunderball is orange, You Only Live Twice is green, and Diamonds Are Forever is blue.
• Interface Screw: The mini-Wizard Mode "Chaos at Crab Key" reverses the flipper buttons while it's running.
• Painting the Medium: The lone vertical up-kicker^note a device on the playfield which, as its name suggests, kicks the ball upward onto a ramp is contained within a miniature Aston Martin model, representing the car's Ejection Seat (as seen in Goldfinger).
• Score Multiplier: Each of the Bond women adds 1x to an overall playfield multiplier that can be activated by pressing the action button. Getting all six automatically increases scoring to 7x (or "007x"); additionally, as a reward for taking a huge risk, the player immediately gets 30 seconds of uninterrupted ball save.

The 60th Anniversary Limited Edition

• Bomb Disposal: The Wizard Mode is themed around defusing a lit bomb, though this is only communicated through text and not visuals.
• Retraux: Downplayed. While the game consciously takes after older pinball machines, including using electromagnetic-style reels for scoring in lieu of a digital display, it still utilizes newer technology (including an LCD screen on the playfield). In addition, the player can choose one of several sound packages at the start of a game, ranging from various chimes from '70s-era machines to a more modern soundtrack.

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