IN MEMORIAM – THE GOLDENEYE 1996 SEGA PINBALL MACHINE

In 1996, one year after the international release of GOLDENEYE, the famous entertainment enterprise Sega joined the world of James Bond one more time after the video game JAMES BOND: THE DUEL, released for the Sega Genesis console system in 1991. This time, Sega didn’t release a new video game, but something more traditional which aimed to both a young and a grown-up public: a pinball machine.

GOLDENEYE pinball flyer - front



Featuring a brilliant hand-painted artwork which combined images of Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, and other film stars like Desmond Llewelyn, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, and Sean Bean –just to name a few, and lots of funny options and bonuses the player could do while playing, it was, in my humble opinion, one of the best Bond (GOLDENEYE and beyond) merchandise ever released.

Being an Argentinean, I was lucky enough to have the chance of playing this pinball during my childhood and teens. I can remember being eight or nine years old and going off holiday with my mother or father to Mar del Plata (a shoreline city five hours away of Buenos Aires) and visiting that arcade place only to spend most of my game card credit in that pinball. My heart jumped everytime I saw it, and even when I just looked at it, I felt happy. I recall even joking with the arcade assistants, saying “Hey, someday I’m gonna buy it!”

As I grew up older and older, everytime I got the chance to spend my holydays in Mar del Plata, I always went to play the GOLDENEYE pinball, at least for a while. I was planning to do the same when I visited the city last weekend, and even pose for a photo with the machine.

GOLDENEYE pinball flyer - back

I can’t explain how shocked I felt when I went to the arcade place and… it was gone. All the pinball machines from that arcade place where gone, including my much loved GOLDENEYE.  Why? Beacause the pinball replacement stock parts aren’t made anymore. Where is the machine now? Nobody knows. Will I ever get the chance to get my hands on it? Well, I sincerely hope so.

There’s another proof of how fast time passes. Anyway, I couldn’t miss the chance of writing a personal tribute to the missing game.

Thanks for the memories, GOLDENEYE pinball machine.

Nicolás Suszczyk,

Editor, THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER