Thursday, February 2nd at 5:30pm Eastern, George Gomez joins us on PinTech LIVE to deep dive into the Premium and LE models of 007 James Bond Pinball.
We’re celebrating the release of James Bond 007 pinball, getting updates on the game launch, and exploring the mechanical features of the premium and LE. Interact with us in the chat and ask George questions about the game!
And just like every PinTech LIVE special, we’ll be giving away cool Marco & Stern swag during the show!! (winners must be present to win)
Don’t forget to look for the special 24hr free domestic shipping and $10 OFF international shipping code in the chat. :]
Watch it here:
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Did you miss our PinTech LIVE special on James Bond pinball? In this episode, George Gomez, Chief Creative Officer of Stern Pinball and lead designer of James Bond 007 pinball talks all about the 007 license and the pinball game development.
Q: Where are you located, and how long have you been restoring/working in the pinball sphere? A: I live in Richmond, Kentucky, and I have been repairing and restoring pinball machines for about 15 years. I have been playing pinball since I was 7 years old.
Q: What is your current project? A: I am currently doing a playfield swap on a Williams Whirlwind, and next in line is a Gottlieb Haunted House.
Q: Do you restore games to sell or to keep? A: I occasionally restore to keep, but most of my restorations are done for pinball collectors and operators.
Q: What was the hardest restoration you worked on? Which one are you most proud of? A: The most difficult restoration and the one I am most proud of was a Bally Addams Family. This pin was purchased at auction and was in overall very bad shape. It received a new playfield, plastics, and ramp plus a complete cabinet restoration with decals. All the mechanisms were disassembled, cleaned, and polished as well as most of the hardware. This was basically an “over the top” with no stone left unturned. When it was completed, it could easily pass for brand new.
Q: Do you have any future projects planned? A: I have restoration projects belonging to clients routinely coming in, but I would like to restore the cabinets on my Williams Funhouse and Bally Attack From Mars. My biggest project is manufacturing and selling my PinDoc Playfield Rotisseries and accessories to the larger community of pinball repairers and restorers.
Q: What are some of your favorite types of projects? A: I enjoy the mechanical aspects the most. I really like the challenge of getting these old pins to perform like they did when they were new. I also find myself having to make parts in-house quite often for some of the more difficult repairs.
Q: Do you have any specific tools you can’t live without? A: The one tool I simply cannot live without is my PinDoc Playfield Rotisserie. This tool is essential for doing playfield swaps, hardtops, and other more complex restoration and repair work.
Q: How would someone get in touch with you for restoration/maintenance services? A: I live in Richmond, Kentucky and typically service the entire state.
Q: Where are you located, how long have you been around pinball and how long have you been working on games for? A: My name is Lauren Cugliotta, and I have been working in pinball for 3 years, and as a technician for 2.
Q: How did you first get into the hobby? A: When I was a teenager, a pinball arcade called “The Pinball Gallery” opened up nearby my house. I learned all about the hobby when I would go there to play after school.
Q: Did you jump right into repairing machines or did you learn under someone else? A: When I was a junior in college, I needed to do an internship as part of my graduation requirements. That same year, The Pinball Dudes opened in Jupiter where I had just moved a couple years before. Eric Francis, one of the co-owners of the store, took me under his wing and taught me how to shop games, and eventually beginner tech work. I learned even more under the master techs here at the shop. After I graduated in 2020, I came back here full time to work!
Q: Did you have a background in another field that made that transition easier? A: I am a college graduate with a Bachelor’s in computer engineering. While they don’t relate 100%, I’ve taken a lot of the skills I learned in my electronics classes (logic, schematics, etc.) to learn how to troubleshoot!
Q: Some techs have a particular aspect they really enjoy working on or they have a specialized set of skills (ie: boards, EMs, new Sterns, restoring cabinet art, etc) – Do you specialize in something? What’s your favorite aspect to work on? A: I don’t have a particular specialty as I am still learning, but so far I have found that I really enjoy working on circuit boards (such as component replacement), and I really love shopping playfields as well!
Q: What are you working on now? What has been your favorite project/game that you worked on? A: Right now I am working on a Strange Science, and I just finished up a Whirlwind! My favorite project was the most recent Taxi I did. Taxi was the first game I ever played, the first game I started working on as a tech, and the first game I own! It was a gift from the owners for Christmas last year, and it felt really special knowing I had worked on my own game.
Q: What is the best way to contact you and what areas do you service? A: You can contact me/The Pinball Dudes at [email protected]. I am an in-house technician, but The Pinball Dudes services southeast Florida.
Our Location of the Month for December is the Bank of Pinball at Terre Haute, Indiana. Priding themselves on being the “newest destination for pinball enthusiasts”, they have an extensive collection of machines that includes some of Stern Pinball’s best and most recent, with something for everyone to enjoy.
They are currently focused on getting as many online-connected machines as possible with Stern’s Insider Connected and Scorbit. Some snacks and soft drinks are available so players can refuel after playing their favorite game.
Q: When did you get into the pinball business? A: We have operated a LAN center (eBash Game Center) since 2004. I (Shawn Wells) would occasionally set up one or two of my personal machines in there for people to play.
Q: When did you open this location? A: We opened the Bank of Pinball in December of 2021.
Q: Do you guys run any tournaments or leagues? Can you give us more details? A: We select random machines for a tournament that lasts for a few weeks and the players that has the highest score on each of those machines gets a small trophy.
Q: Do you have a specific pinball night and what other events/specials do you run? A: We offer an after-hours special every Friday and Saturday night that starts at 8PM (when the mall closes) and ends at 11PM. All the pinball you can play, for $10.
Q: Do you fix your own games or do you use a local operator/tech? A: We do our own repairs. I take care of the more technical problems, but a few of our employees are inclined enough that they can handle the small issues.
Q: What’s the last game you brought in and how often do you rotate? A: We’ve been adding machines fairly regularly. Cactus Canyon just arrived a couple of weeks ago. Toy Story will arrive in the first few days in December and we have a James Bond on order.
Q: What would be your holy grail of a machine? A: Addams Family. Maybe a Banzai Run.
Q: What do you feel you do for the pinball community or for your local community in general? A: It has been interesting this past year watching parents come in with their kids and most of those kids just weren’t that interested in pinball. But with us having more modern machines, with current themes, those kids inevitably will give one of those machines a try. Next thing you know, those kids are challenging their parents for the high score on one of the leaderboards. We like to think that we are helping the next generation of pinheads get started.
Q: Where are you located, how long have you been around pinball and how long have you been working on games for?
A: “Located in the middle of NJ about 25 miles outside of NYCity.
Started as a player over 50 years ago when EM games were 10c / 3 for 25c. Working on games since mid-90s and started as a business WannaPinball.com in 2005 after losing my corporate job. It’s a full-time business.”
Q: How did you first get into the hobby?
A: “My family picked up our first machine in mid 90’s among other used furniture we were buying. It was a single player EM called FLYING CARPET. Having several children, we needed a multiplayer game. So our next game was one of my favorites – “Whirlwind”. Then soon I bought a StarTrek: TNG from an operator in my local arcade. And this was the first game I was involved in an effort to “shop it out”. It was like being thrown in the deep end. But I was hooked.”
Q: Did you jump right into repairing machines or did you learn under someone else?
A: “This operator became a good friend and he worked on this STTNG game with me as an assistant. I felt overwhelmed. We took no pictures but he was confident on how to do the 3 hour job. Of course, it was an arcade level cleaning/re-rubbering. But I was intrigued and was able to obtain some games from several sources and started to explore.
Then, at my new corporate job, there were 4 of us pinball hobbyists that started to share ideas along with the growing number of helpful websites on the internet.
Q: Did you have a background in another field that made that transition easier?
A: “My corporate job was in computer tech support and programming. In this environment, I was intrigued by pinball machines and I saw them as specialized computers. So thinking of myself as a “logical solution provider”, I believe it did help to develop my ability to solve problems with pinball games.”
Q: Some techs have a particular aspect they really enjoy working on or they have a specialized set of skills (ie: boards, EMs, new Sterns, restoring cabinet art, etc) – Do you specialize in something? What’s your favorite aspect to work on?
A: “Interesting question… As I continue to grow, I’ve always kept my mind open to learning a variety of skills. Then I realized that a pinball game touches on a good number of trades or types of work. It’s a complete package that require bringing together a variety of talents. In the case of restoration/repair, I enjoy working with a number of talented colleagues to get some of the jobs done.”
Q: What are you working on now? What has been your favorite project/game that you worked on?
A: “My favorite game has been The Shadow. One of the best integrations with a movie theme, exciting music and unique complexity. It never feels repetitive. I call it my “desert island game”.
Currently, I am working a number of client projects in my home shop including playfield swaps. I have 2 active ones and 2 in the wings. You learn so much when doing a deep disassembly. I am fascinated how the older games were designed without a computer design program but on paper! Very talented people were doing these.
I also have a number personal projects involving the upgrade kits (like P3 Multimorphic, BOP2.0 and FH2.0). Cool stuff!”
Q: What is the best way to contact you and what areas do you service? Do you also operate your own route?
I offer service to mostly clients in NJ, I am one hour to the borders East, West and North. I have some very nice clients in other states, if it works.
I only have one coindrop location close to home, with five games where I actually share the room with the same operator that sold me that first STTNG. We are still supporting a longtime pinball league from the 1990’s: Eight On The Break in Dunellen, NJ
Are you ready for chaos, destruction, and the conquering of Mechagodzilla to become King of the Monsters? Get your hands on a Godzilla Premium pinball machine before they sell out (again!).
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Our goal is to give you the confidence that we are working hard to get your pinball parts to you as fast as possible so you can keep those games up and running. While we cannot guarantee any of our shipping carriers’ delivery speeds, we will make sure that we get your packages out our door quickly and efficiently!
If you have not received your shipping confirmation email within 48 hours after placing an order, please reach out to us at 1-803-957-5500 or email us at [email protected].
Q: When did you get into actually restoring machines?
A: “I’ve been working on Pinball machines since about 2000, I restored my first game Star Gazer in 2013. I have a background in painting and restoring classic cars, and I thought I could bring the same level to Pinball. So I did, and at first my take on fit and finish was met with optimism, as no one at TPF had seen such work on a machine before.”
Q: What is your current project?
A: “Currently I am working on a Getaway for a very good friend of mine. I have many more games in the line up, but that one is at the forefront right now.”
Q: Do you restore games to sell or to keep?
A: “I restore games for myself, and others to enjoy. I also restore games for other people, friends, and people I meet at TPF that would like me to work on their machine. I’ve restore a Hulk for Lou Ferigno, and helped with a restore of Joker Poker that Ed Robertson from the Bare Naked Ladies owns.”
Q: What was the hardest restoration you worked on and which one were you most proud of?
A: “While not the most difficult, Star Gazer was the hardest, and the one I am most proud of. It was the hardest, because I was doing things that no one had done before, so there was no map, or blueprint. I learned alot doing that game, and learn more each game I do.”
Q: Do you have any future projects planned?
A: “Plenty of future projects! Meteor, Seawitch, Diner, Fishtales, Bad Cats, Sorcerer just to name a few.”
Q: If someone would like to contact you for restoration/maintenance service, where are you located, what areas do you service and what is your contact information?
A: “I am located in Princeton, Texas. Right now I service in about a 35 mile radius as I do this part time. The plan is to retire from my job in the near future and focus on this full time. People can find me through my website Pinball ERS or email me at [email protected]“
