It’s Taken Almost 50 Years but We’re Finally Getting a Jaws Pinball Machine

Stern has announced its latest pinball machine, and collectors around the world are realizing they’re going to need a bigger game room. Stern’s next release looks all the way back to 1975 and turns the first modern blockbuster film into a pinball machine for the first time. Yep, get ready for Jaws pinball later this month, one year before the movie’s 50th (?!?) anniversary. (Yes, there was a European pin called Jaws back in the late ’70s, but it wasn’t based on the movie.)

Based on the trailer released today, the Jaws pinball machine definitely won’t feel 50 years old. It’s full of the modern tricks and gimmicks combined with classic pinball game design that define pinball in the 21st century, with an HD screen showing footage from the movie, newly recorded audio clips by Richard Dreyfuss, and audio assets from the film alongside the kind of playfield toys we’ve seen in pinball since the ’90s, the ramp-heavy playfield layouts that took over in the ’80s, and classic shots that have been the backbone of the game since it first added flippers.

According to Stern’s press release, players assume the role of Quint, Robert Shaw’s grizzled shark hunter, as he and Matt Hooper and Martin Brody track down the giant great white terrorizing Amity Island around the Fourth of July. (Given that pinball games are rarely “beatable” in the way videogames are, it makes sense that you’d play as a doomed character.) Among  the many movie references within the game, Sterm promises a “Shark Fin” target and “blood in the water” lighting effects, as well as an upper playfield based on the Orca, the boat Quint, Brody, and Hooper use to hunt the shark. Upper playfields are almost always a great addition to any pinball machine, so I, for one, am stoked to see one here. And of course you can’t have a Jaws pinball machine without Jaws itself (or whatever the shark’s name is); at some point a shark toy pops out of the bottom of the playfield, taking out a fishing boat, no doubt triggered by some elaborate series of shots players will have to pull off—or maybe after ramming the ball straight into that boat a few times in a row. (Pinball can be elegant, but at the end of the day it’s still about slamming and jamming little metal balls all over the damn place.)

The Jaws machine will be available in Stern’s typical three-tiered production plan, with a Limited Edition retailing at $12,999, a Premium Edition going for $9,699, and the Pro Edition coming in at $6,999. Expect the Limited and Premium Editions to have more elaborate and complicated playfields than the cheaper Pro Edition, with the Limited Edition coming with a variety of cosmetic and performance upgrades. Just looking at the photos released by Stern, I can tell that the Pro edition doesn’t have the upper playfield (boo), and that its shark toy doesn’t come up from beneath a boat on the playfield, so once again the most affordable option, and the one most likely to be found at bars or arcades, is a fundamentally different and less complex game than the Premium and Limited Editions. The Limited Edition will only have a single 1000 machine run, so if you want to get in before the secondary market sends the price up, you might want to buy one straight from Stern. All three machines will debut at Stern’s booth at CES in Las Vegas this month, and Pro and Limited Editions are expected to start shipping out to buyers and locations by the end of January.

Find some photos of the machines below, as well as the official trailer showing the machines in action.