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"It's TIME for a thrilling new pinball concept, and Gottlieb introduces it now! Pinball players are always looking for a new challenge...and James Bond is Gottlieb's dramatic new breakthrough in pinball design. Each player is given 50 time units at the start of the game, with no limit to the number of balls available. The player competes against the clock to score big before time runs out. Extra time can be gained through skillful play while building high scores on James Bond's fantastic playfield. The countdown is recorded by the pulsing beat of Bond's dual-speaker sound system...building and building to a crashing climax as the digital timer reaches zero. The result is a fast paced, high-powered pinball game as exciting and entertaining as the world's most popular spy, James Bond." |
Gottlieb's pinball interpretation of James Bond proved to be less exciting and entertaining than even George Lazenby's dismal one-off portrayal of the world's most popular spy. The concept of play limited by time was as unpalatable to player's as sleeping with the same girl twice was to Bond. Imagine playing the first ball for a while and then upon its draining seeing the Game Over light flashing...."hey, where are my other balls?......hummphh!" | |
Gottlieb tried various remedies including a sticker for the playfield apron (see right) to try to get across to players that this was a time-based game. As we all know though, nobody reads the instruction card before they play anyway. Finally, Gottlieb issued replacement software allowing regular 3 or 5-ball play, but it was too late and it also didn't fit to the playfield instructions offering time units when hit/lit. The original timed game is much more challenging and fits well to the James Bond "beat-the-clock and save the world" scenario. |  |
 | The pin's artwork is "Moonraker" vintage and features Roger Moore as Bond with the usual bevy of beautiful Bond girls along for the ride of course. Two images are taken directly from the movie poster: on the backglass is Bond's adversary of the time, Jaws (Richard Kiel), whilst on the large upper left plastic shield is the villain Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), together with the space shuttle "Moonraker" and the submersible Lotus Esprit. The artwork comes from Doug Watson and he considers it to be the worst artwork of his entire career. Watson wanted to paint the images with oils but this would have required reproduction using a 4-colour printing process, something that Gottlieb were not yet ready for. Despite Watson's pleading, the artwork was done as line art (reproduced by screen-printing) and the solid blocks of colour therefore make the whole work look rather flat. The game featured on the front cover of the 15 October 1980 issue of Playmeter Magazine, in which Gottlieb President Bob Bloob spoke of the "time for new ideas in pinball". James Bond appeared again in another pinball adventure: Sega's "Goldeneye" (1996). | ||
PROMOTIONAL FLYERJAMES BOND 007 PAGES:TECH.INFO.
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