Following the first pictures of Big Buck Hunter Pro from Stern, we can now bring you the first pictures from the secret test location, courtesy of Andrew Barney.

The first picture shows the whole upper half of the playfield.

The top half of the playfield

There are seven main shots - the left orbit, the left moose ramp, the ram kicker, the bird lane, into the pop bumpers, the super jackpot lane and the right orbit.

The pop bumper area

The pop bumper and top rollover lane see the return of the familiar cow. Not exactly a staple of big game hunting, it's more a nod to pinball fans who are aware of its provenance.

The upper rollover lanes

It's worth pointing out at this stage how various components may change before the game goes into full production. The pop bumper caps may be different and there will no doubt be a suitable decal on the spinner, while the bird lane sign will probably be redesigned so the rivets don't obscure the words.

To the left of the bird lane is the ram kicker which operates much like the raptor shot on Jurassic Park, firing the ball back at the player while activating a period of double scoring like the M-V-P targets on NBA.

The ram kicker

Moving down the playfield a little, we come to the central area.

The central playfield

The dominant feature here is the deer track and the big buck which travels along it.

When at rest, it sits behind the hide but when activated it saunters across the playfield, just inviting you to shoot it.

The buck's hideout

The buck on its track

Strapping the buck to a lump of plastic is not the most elegant solution and of course it may change on the final production version, but it does the job. The buck doesn't have a specific destination like the mist ball in Dracula. It just moves across the playfield and then goes back to its hideout again.

The left side

This produces a large "dead" area on the left side of the playfield which only the three mystery targets to provide some distraction. Over on the right side, there 's a little more going on.

The right side

The elk sits on a moving diverter which either opens to send orbit shots into the shooter lane (as illustrated above), or closes to permit shots to the right orbit.

The lower part of the playfield includes the feature grid - showing the tasks you have to complete to get to the Open Season wizard mode. They are: buck multiball, jackpot, double jackpot, super jackpot, monster buck, buck, moose, elk, ram, bird and bonus round.

The lower playfield area

Thanks to Andrew for the pictures which give us a good idea how the game works.

We'll be back with much more about Stern's new Big Buck Hunter Pro very soon here at Pinball News.

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