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Obey Your Pinball Master with Stern Pinball’s Metallica Remastered!🤘⚡

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Stern Pinball Unveils the Thrilling Metallica Remastered: A New Era of Pinball Gaming

Stern Pinball, Inc. has just announced the launch of Metallica Remastered, an exciting upgrade to one of its most iconic pinball machines, originally released in 2013. This new version not only retains the spirit of the beloved classic but also enhances it with cutting-edge technology, making it a must-have for pinball enthusiasts and Metallica fans alike.

Whatā€™s New in Metallica Remastered?

The Metallica Remastered machine boasts significant upgrades, including a vibrant full-color LCD display featuring all-new animations and stunning live concert footage. Powered by Sternā€™s modern Spike 2 electronics, this game elevates gameplay and presentation, allowing players to enjoy an expanded tracklist with 22 songsā€”eight more than the original.

The game also includes exciting new features like an Expression Lighting system, improved artwork by renowned Metallica artist Rhys Cooper, and enhanced mechanical devices that add to the overall gaming experience. The original playfield layout has been preserved, but players will benefit from new geometry, improved gameplay toys, and dramatic UV lighting effects.


source: Stern Pinball – YouTube

Metallica: A Legacy of Influence

Since its inception in 1981, Metallica has redefined rock music, captivating audiences with their electrifying performances and groundbreaking sound. Their cultural impact extends far beyond music, creating a massive global fanbase. This new pinball machine pays homage to their legacy while offering a fresh take for both old fans and newcomers.

Design and Features

Stern Pinballā€™s design team, led by John Borg and software engineer Raymond Davidson, has meticulously reimagined the original game. Theyā€™ve introduced three stunning new sculptures: Sparky, the Hammer, and illuminated Skulls, along with a new Metallica logo on the back panel. Enhancements to the iconic Lyman Sheats rule set add two new game modes inspired by Metallicaā€™s latest albumsā€”72 Seasons and Hardwiredā€¦to Self-Destructā€”alongside a new ā€œBlackenedā€ Wizard Mode.

Players can expect an immersive experience with over 1,000 new speech calls from the band, new sound effects, and seamless integration of additional Metallica tracks, complete with HD-quality concert footage.

L to R: Premium & Limited Edition

Limited Edition Highlights

For collectors, the Limited Edition (LE) model is a treasure. Limited to just 500 units worldwide, this version features exclusive elements such as the Expression Lighting System™ and custom-designed artwork. Other perks include upgraded audio, anti-reflection playfield glass, and a numbered plaque with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Get Yours Today!

Metallica Remastered is now available in Premium and Limited Edition models, with a range of accessories set to launch soon. Pinball fans and music lovers alike wonā€™t want to miss out on this exhilarating new chapter in pinball history.

Marvelā€™s Days of Future Past Comes to Life with Sternā€™s New The Uncanny X-Men Pinball Machine❌

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Enter the (Jack) Danger Room: Stern’s The Uncanny X-Men Pinball Brings Classic Marvel Action

Stern Pinball has unveiled their latest creation, The Uncanny X-Men pinball machine, designed by Jack Danger. This highly anticipated release dives deep into the beloved “Days of Future Past” storyline from Marvel comics, bringing a thrilling new experience for X-Men and pinball fans alike.

The game features a stunning playfield, with the Premium and Limited Edition (LE) models including standout features like the animated Sentinel toy, which rises from the playfield to challenge players, and Beastā€™s Lab, a vari-target feature exclusive to higher-tier models. The Sentinel head is a major focal point, capable of interacting with the ball through bash toys and even altering gameplay with its hands on the Premium and LE versions.


source: Stern Pinball, Inc.

Visually, the game shines with comic-style artwork from Jeremy Packer, aka Zombie Yeti, which perfectly complements the X-Men theme. The soundtrack, composed by Charlie Benante of Anthrax and Pantera, adds a dynamic and immersive layer to the action.

The gameplay is packed with interactive features. The Danger Room section, located near the left outlane, provides a high-risk, high-reward environment, while the Cerebro Lock offers a unique magnetic mechanism that holds and releases the ball, allowing players to shift between past and future missions. For tech-savvy players, Sternā€™s Insider Connected platform introduces game-specific achievements, mutant powers, and online quests, adding a fresh layer of connectivity to the classic pinball experience.

The Uncanny X-Men models L-R: Pro, Premium & Limited Edition
The Uncanny X-Men Pinball Designer, Jack Danger, threw everything at the playfield, including the kitchen sink!

With only 811 Limited Edition units available worldwide, a nod to the Earth-811 timeline of the storyline, this machine is set to be a highly sought-after collectorā€™s item.

Whether you’re a seasoned pinball enthusiast or a die-hard X-Men fan, this machine offers an exciting blend of nostalgia, advanced gameplay mechanics, and connectivity that promises to keep you coming back for more.

Pricing:

  • Pro Edition: $US 6,999 / $AU 11,950**
  • Premium Edition: $US 9,699 / $AU 15,500**
  • Limited Edition: $US 12,999 / $AU 20,500**

** $AUD pricing to be confirmed

Happy Codesgiving From Stern Pinball

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🦃 Gobble up all new game code with a Stern Codesgiving! 🦃

With the American national holiday of Thanksgiving fast approaching, Stern Pinball have done us a solid by releasing new code updates for over 20 of their pinball titles – how awesome is that!

Check out whatā€™s new on your favourite Stern Pinball machine right here!

Right, we are off to fire up our Star Wars Comic Art Premium pinball machine and letting Insider Connected do its magic šŸ˜‰

image source: Stern Pinball

We didn’t have to do anything, Insider Connected was already downloading the latest code update!

That was quick!

Woohoo, we have success! Time to play!



Step-By-Step Guide: How to Install Stern Pinball’s Insider Connected Upgrade Kit

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If you are like us, a step-by-step guide to install something foreign or something you have never done before is absolutely priceless (plus a guide saves you from tearing out your hair)!

There are plenty of video guides on how to install Stern Pinball’s Insider Connected upgrade kit, however we couldn’t find any for our specific use case – what do you do when there are no spare RJ45 ports on the Node board near the arch (under the playfield) on the Star Wars Premium pinball machine? Well, we break ground by writing this step by step guide (with heaps of images!) in the hope that it helps someone out there to install Stern’s very cool Insider Connected (IC) system.

NOTE: At the time of writing this step-by-step guide, the Star Wars Premium / LE Replacement Arch was not available to purchase in Australia, so we improvised where to install the IC QR Reader, as these machines do not have the space to accommodate it on the arch.

Tools Used:

  • You will need the Stern Pinball Insider Connected Upgrade Kit – For (SPIKE 2) Premium / LE Models (part number: 502-5420-01) which retails for AU$395.00
  • 11/32″ Nutdriver – we used this Wera 395 Hollow Shaft 11/32″ Nutdriver, which retails for AU$26.35
  • Clean cotton gloves – use these when removing the playfield glass

Stern Pinball INSIDER CONNECTED Upgrade Kit (Premium/LE)

The manual is a good resources, but not much use as it did not meet our specific use case

You will need this quick start guide right at the end, so save it for later

The 11/32″ nutdriver

Pre-step:

Before you begin opening your machine and installing the IC kit, make sure your machine is on the latest game code. Please go to the Stern Pinball support page to check, and if required, download the latest code and install it on your machine. Each code update has a READ ME file, make sure you download it and follow the steps to update your game code (if required). If you are already on the latest game code, then you are ready to proceed!

Step 1:

Before opening anything on the pinball machine, make sure it is turned off! Then grab the keys for the backbox (keys are usually stored on the other side of the coin door) and open the backbox by unlocking it, remove the translite and then lower the LCD/speaker part down towards the glass. You are now ready to go to step 2!

The backboard keys are usually on the other side of the coin door

Opening the backboard reveals the main CPU board

Step 2:

From the IC kit, get the microSD card and insert it in (label up) the slot just below the CPU/heatsync – make sure it clicks in. Then get the WiFi dongle and insert it in one of the spare USB ports to the right of the CPU/heatsync. If unsure, check the below photos. Once you have inserted the microSD card and WiFi dongle, you are ready for the next step.

The microSD that came with your IC kit is inserted in the SD slot just beneath the CPU

The WiFi USB dongle is then inserted in the spare USB ports to the right of the CPU

Job done – microSD and WiFi dongle installed on the main CPU board

Step 3:

This is where things deviate from the IC manual, so please pay close attention! Since there are no spare RJ45 ports on the node board near the bottom left arch, you will need to run a long Ethernet cable (CAT5 or CAT5e) from the front of the machine, all the way to the backbox to connect the cable to the spare port on the main CPU board (in the backbox). Once you connect one end of the CAT5/CAT5e cable in the spare RJ45 port on the main CPU board in the backbox, tuck the rest of the cable behind others, ensuring it is not intruding/pulling on any other cables running down to the cabinet. Push the cable through the left hole on the bottom of the backbox, ensuring it goes behind the playfield. You have done well so far, so take a little break, as the next step involves removing the playfield glass and lifting up the playfield!

The IC manual states to use the spare RJ45 port on the node board, but as shown, both ports are already taken. So a long Ethernet cable is required to reach the main CPU board in the backbox

Forget the ethernet cable that came with the IC kit, it is way too short! Get yourself a long (at least 6ft) ethernet cable (we used a 2.5M CAT5e cable)

Connect one end of the Ethernet cable to the spare middle RJ45 port on the main CPU board in the backbox. Then tuck the rest of the cable (allow some slack!) through the bottom of the backbox and into the rear of the cabinet.

Step 4:

Are you rested? Did you grab a drink? If you answered yes, then you are ready! This step is probably the toughest, as it involves removing the lockbar, playfield glass and then lifting the playfield up towards the backbox.

First thing, make sure the LCD/speaker panel on the backbox is in the closed (up) position – make sure you lock it! Don’t worry about the translite, that can stay off for the time being.

Open the coin door and unlatch the lockbar from the two latches (one on the left and the other on the right) that hold it down. Once that is done, remove the lockdown bar by pulling up – don’t worry, the glass won’t slide out!

Once you open the coin door, there are two latches on either side that need to be unlatched to free the lockdown bar (the bar that holds the glass in place)

Remember how we listed cotton gloves in the ‘Tools Used‘ section above, well this is when you will need them – go and put them on! Once your gloves are on and with the coin door in the closed position, gently pull the glass towards you – make sure you have enough room behind you! When the glass is fully out / cleared from the cabinet, stand it up on a carpeted (or rubber) surface, ensuring it is leaning on a blanket instead of directly on the wall (or any other vertical surface).

Take the glass off with care!

With the glass off, you can now remove the balls out of the trough so they don’t go flying and damaging stuff once you start lifting up the playfield. Through the coin door, you will notice a big solenoid to the right – this is used to kick out the balls from the trough. Using your index finger, push up rapidly on the round flat part on the bottom of the solenoid to kick out the balls. You will have to kick out each ball individually, so make sure you keep kicking out till the last (6th) ball is taken out of the machine.

Remove the balls from the machine by ‘kicking’ them out (of the trough) by pushing up rapidly on the solenoid as pictured

This is your chance to inspect your balls – if they look ok, give them a thorough wipe, if they are dinged/scuffed up or they have lost their shine, it is time to replace them! If you do replace them, make sure you get the right ones, as machines with magnets require balls that do not magnetise / stick together!

Now comes the lifting! Grab the bottom of the playfield near the apron/arch and lift up slowly. Once the playfield clears the cabinet, pull it towards you. Rest the handles of the playfield on top of the cabinet. Now grab the handles and start lifting and tilting the playfield back towards the backbox. The playfield should be resting up against the backbox.

The whole point of this step is to run the CAT5/CAT5e Ethernet cable from the backbox, behind and underneath the playfield! Pull the Ethernet cable through from underneath the backbox and ensure it is run as close as possible to the back of the cabinet. Once the cable is inside the cabinet, run it through to the front of the machine – wrap it around the handle of the cashbox.

Now put the machine back together by lowering the playfield and pushing it back into the cabinet, ensuring you do not snag any cables behind it. Give the balls a wipe or replace if required and then put them back in the machine. This is also a good opportunity to clean the glass – give it a nice wipe down and then slide it back into position over the playfield.

Reinstall the lockdown bar, ensuring the action button sits properly on top of the electronics required to actuate it. Lock the lockdown bar with the two latches and then you are done! Phew, that was a lot of work! We are almost on the home stretch now!

Step 5:

Now the fun part – connecting the Ethernet cable to the IC QR code reader to ensure it works as intended. Once connected, it is time to power on the machine! You will notice the machine doing its thing in updating itself (Node boards etc), so be patient and wait for the updates to complete. Use the images below as reference to show you what to expect, as certain messages could make you panic, like “Nodes Not Found”!

Connect the Ethernet cable into the RJ45 slot on the Insider Connected QR code readerĀ 

Power up the machine! You should note that the IC QR reader is drawing power (blue-ish light)Ā 

Do not panic if you see this message. Just close the coin door and the update will continue to completion.

Once the machine updates itself to get IC integrated it will reboot.

Once the machine reboots, open the coin door so you can use the buttons to navigate the menu – go down and select “Stern Insider Connected”

First things first – setup the connection. We went with WiFi.

Select your WiFi network and then enter the WPA/WPA2 (WiFi) password

Once your WiFi connection is set, you should see a similar screen as below

Login to Insider Connected via your phone’s browser. You’ll need this to setup and register your location, machine and game room details with the Insider Connected ecosystem.

Once your location, game room and machine details are registered, you’ll be greeted with the below screen in the Stern Insider Connected Setup menu item

We are finally ready to play some pinball with Insider Connected enabled! Don’t forget to scan your player QR code on the IC QR reader!

Step 6:

At this stage you can call it quits, but that means your IC QR code reader is sitting on top of your coin box, which means every time you want to scan in, you need to open that darn coin door and scan your QR code – this may be ok if you only play once in a blue moon. For those that prefer to have their IC QR reader accessible any time, read on!

Since the IC QR code reader could not be mounted on the apron of our Star Wars Premium (and LE) machine, we had to improvise and fashion a spot for it. Even though Stern did release a replacement arch (that has a slot for the IC QR reader) for Star Wars (Prem / LE machines), it is very difficult to find as it is constantly sold out.

So, what did we do? Well, you know that bill acceptor slot on the coin door? Well, we used it to house the IC QR code reader! We learned the hard way that the coin door on Australian Stern pinball machines is quite different from their US counterparts. We ordered a mounting kit from the US, only to find that it did not fit at all on our Star Wars machine! This is where we putting our thinking cap on and improvised. Since we did not have a 3D printer, nor the skills or equipment to create a nice black metal plate, we ended up getting some black hard-board from Officeworks (stationary supplier) that artists may use. Was this the best product? Probably not, but it did the job for well under $10!

If you have come this far, congratulations, you can now pat yourself on the back and play some pinball as your reward!

This is not where the IC QR reader should remain! So what to do?

The bill acceptor space will never be used (by us), so why not use it to house the IC QR code reader……

Once you cut out that black hard-board to be fastened to the coin door, you’ll then need to mount the IC QR code reader, with the RJ45 slot pointing up! It is important to have enough slack in the Ethernet cable connection so there is no snagging when you open/shut the coin door.

The job is done! It isn’t the prettiest of solutions in mounting the IC QR code reader to the bill acceptor slot, but it works, and that’s all that counts!
images (c) 2023 ausretrogamer.com



 

Get the Stern Experience at the Pinball Hall Of Fame

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Vegas Baby! If you ever needed another reason to visit Las Vegas, then Stern Pinball Inc. has you covered!

The new Stern Experience at the famous Pinball Hall Of Fame (we visited the old Pinball Hall Of Fame in 2015) will showcase all the hottest and latest Stern pinball machines featuring the award-winning Insider Connected platform! The Stern ExperienceĀ will offer players brand new high score leaderboards to compete on, the ability to earn exclusive achievement badges, and participate in exclusive Stern events and tournaments only available in this one-of-a-kind interactive exhibit.

Don’t forget, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!


source: Stern Pinball



Stern Pinball’s James Bond Pinball Machines Are Shaken, Not Stirred

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SternPinball Announces New
James Bond 007 Pinball Machines
Featuring the Award-Winning InsiderConnected™

The world’s most famous British Secret Service agent gets the Stern Pinball treatment, all shaken, but not stirred! The world’s largest pinball manufacturer has unveiled their latest pinball machine: James Bond 007, celebrating the iconic James Bond films.

This new cornerstone series features the original 007 actor, Sean Connery, available in Pro Edition, Premium Edition, and Limited Edition (LE).Ā  Stern Pinball will also release a special James Bond 007 60th Anniversary Limited Edition pinball machine featuring all six James Bond actors!


source: Stern Pinball

In Dr. No (1962) Sean Connery propelled 007 into the cultural zeitgeist, bringing the legendary literary figure to life through adrenalised action sequences, ground-breaking gadgets and effects, memorable characters, and timeless villains.

Sternā€™s James Bond 007 cornerstone pinball machine highlights film footage and iconic music from the films that built the 007 legend: Dr. No, From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), and Diamonds Are Forever (1971).Ā  Players are immersed into the world of espionage in this action-packed pinball experience, tackling assignments, teaming up with key allies, and stopping SPECTREā€™s villainous schemes.

Gather gadgets from Q Branch as pinballs get ejected through the roof of a custom sculpted Aston Martin DB5.Ā  Break through the Osato Chemicals drop targets to battle SPECTRE at the Bird 1 rocket base.Ā  And hold your breath on the gravity defying, magnetic jetpack as it transports pinballs across the playfield.

All James Bond 007 pinball machines will include Sternā€™s award-winning Insider Connected™ system, which enables players to interact with the game and a global network of players in a variety of ways.Ā  Through Insider Connected, players can track progress, earn new game-specific achievements, engage with the player community, and participate in promotions and Challenge Quests.Ā  Insider Connected also provides an operator-focused toolset to drive location play through Location Leaderboards, build player loyalty, analyze performance, make adjustments remotely, and maintain the machines. Ā Registration for Insider Connected is available at insider.sternpinball.com/.

Limited to 1,000 machines globally, the highly collectible cornerstone Limited Edition includes an exclusive full-color mirrored backglass inspired by Thunderball, masterfully adapted cabinet artwork, custom high gloss and powder-coated pinball armor, a custom designer-autographed bottom arch, exclusive inside art blades, upgraded audio system, anti-reflection pinball playfield glass, shaker motor, a sequentially numbered plaque, and a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Stern Chairman Gary Stern and President Seth Davis.

Sternā€™s James Bond 007 60th Anniversary Limited Edition pinball machines will immerse players in the history of 007.Ā  Limited to 500 machines globally, the highly collectible 60th Anniversary Limited Edition offers players a retro-inspired playfield packed with exciting mechanical action.Ā  Control the chaos from Oddjobā€™s kinetic spinning disc hat, survive tactical precision shots against 10 drop targets, escape SPECTREā€™s evil henchmen navigating pinballs through 4 fast-flowing optical spinners, learn assignments through an in-playfield LCD screen, and rack up high scores on classic-style score reels.

Fittingly, the new James Bond 007 pinball machines will be on show for the first time to media and public in London.Ā  On September 26th the games will be on display and available to play as part of the Bond-themed Christieā€™s Late, a public event celebrating the forthcoming Christieā€™s Sixty Years of James Bond Charity Auction.Ā  Shortly after, they will be a part of the James Bond at 60 weekend at the British Film Institute on the South Bank, September 30th-October 2nd.

Pricing and Availability:

Manufacturerā€™s Suggested Retail Price (ā€œMSRPā€)*^:

*MSRP for sales to USA end-users, before any VAT, GST, Sales Tax, Duties, or other taxes.
^Australian pricing has not been announced at this stage

  • Pro Edition: $US 6,999
  • Premium Edition: $US 9,699
  • Limited Edition: $US 12,999
  • 60th Anniversary Limited Edition: Price Yet to be announced

James Bond 007 pinball machines and accessories are available now through authorised Stern Pinball distributors and dealers around the world. Pro and Premium Editions will also be available at the 007Store.com

PS: We love the retro inspired artwork, as it is in keeping with the time-based theme. George Gomez (Lead Designer) always makes extremely playable pinball machines, and this one looks to be in keeping with his design philosophy of making it unique and fun!

Limited Edition

Premium Edition

Pro Edition

image source: Stern Pinball Inc.



Stern Pinball Inc. Flexes Their Vast Pinball Muscle

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There is no doubt that Stern Pinball Inc. has played a huge part in the renaissance of pinball, so it is great to see the world’s biggest pinball manufacturer not sit on their laurels and bask in their success. Stern keeps striving and pushing the boundary of innovation, events and supporting the pinball community around the world with thousands of competitions.

Stern announced their The Godzilla Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational in partnership with Toho International Inc., owners of the Godzilla franchise, which is on August 10, starting at 7pm (CST local time). Catch all the action on YouTube!

The other announcement Stern made last week (August 3rd) was that they were launching new Insider Connected features, like mobile ID and Home Teams – which was great to see. However, we were quite excited to see that Stern had released the replacement arches for Insider Connected for their Batman 66 and Star Wars (Premium/LE) pinball machines. These replacement arches have quickly sold out, so we are keeping a very keen eye on one for our Star Wars Comic Art Premium machine! Go team Stern!

image source: Stern Pinball



Stern Pinball Launches INSIDER CONNECTED™ Leaderboards

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Global Stern High Score Tournament Starts Now!

Stern Pinball keeps innovating and expanding their Insider Connected service with the worldwide launch of leaderboards. By connecting the universe of Stern pinball machines, the award-winning Insider Connected platform continues to enhance and extend player engagement with games across both home and commercial environments. Through Leaderboards, players can compete against each other across connected Stern pinball machines.

Do you have what it takes to be the worldwide King of the Monsters? Test yourself by competing in the first ever global Stern Leaderboard on any connected Godzilla pinball machine! Starting now through June 30th, log in with your Insider Connected account to any Godzilla pinball machine at your home or at a location near you (must be logged in to Insider Connected account to view). Climb up the ranks, follow the action throughout the month here to see who will emerge victorious, earn ultimate bragging rights, and receive global Stern social media adoration.


source: Stern Pinball

For those looking for an in-person challenge, local leaderboards will be available at an entertainment location near you. Insider Connected Location Leaderboard functionality is now available to all Insider Connected Professional accounts. Location Leaderboard competitive play will drive increased gameplay and new player participation. This will extend any Insider Connected Pro operatorā€™s location entertainment experience which will drive revenue and excitement. For more information on how to set up your own custom Leaderboard, visit Stern Pinball’s FAQsĀ where you will find:

  • Leaderboard Set-up Video
  • Leaderboard Set-up Guides (PDF)
  • Leaderboard Set-up Guides for Location Displays (PDF); and
  • Leaderboard Player Discovery Guide (PDF)

Registration for Insider Connected is available at insider.sternpinball.com. Players can register at a connected game by scanning a QR code or at the Stern Pinball website. Once a player registers, they are issued a unique QR Code that can be used to identify that player at any connected Stern pinball machine anywhere in the world. When a player logs into the machine, they can track progress, earn new game specific achievements, engage with the player community, and participate in promotions and Challenge Quests.



Press release supplied by Stern Pinball Inc.

The Force Is Strong With This New Stern Pinball Code

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For those of us that have been consumed by the beautiful silverball game, Stern Pinball has kept spoiling us with some brilliant innovations, including their new online platform, Insider Connected.

When launching Insider Connected (IC), Stern Pinball announced that they would roll out the platform to all of theirĀ past SpikeĀ® 2 LCD games, dating back to late 2016 with the awesome Batman 66 pinball machine.

Well Stern have been quite busy in updating the code on their previousĀ SpikeĀ® 2 LCD machines so that they can take advantage of the new Insider Connected platform. With that said, we were quite excited to see that Stern have finally released the new v1.20.0 code for their Star Wars pinball machines!

We can’t wait to update our Star Wars Comic Art Premium machine with this new code, but we still have to wait a tad longer to procure and install the Insider Connected kit (they haven’t reached Australia as at the time of this post) to unleash the full online potential of the Stern Pinball Insider Connected platform. The FORCE is indeed strong with this new code!

PS: If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to sign-up for your free Insider Connected account here.



The Future Is Here – Stern Pinball Launches Insider Connected Online Platform

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The world’s largest pinball manufacturer, Stern Pinball, have launched their new online platform, Insider Connected!

According to their press release, Insider Connected is a comprehensive technology initiative to connect the universe of Stern pinball machines. The platform is designed to enhance and extend player engagement with the games across both home and commercial environments. It also presents operators of pinball machines with a robust set of tools to drive location play, build player loyalty, analyze performance, make adjustments remotely and maintain the machines.

Registration for Insider Connected is free; players can either scan a QR code at the games or go to the Stern Pinball website where they will need to enter an email address and create a password. Once players register for Insider Connected, they are issued a unique QR Code that can be used to identify that player at any connected Stern pinball machine, anywhere in the world. When a player logs into the machine, they can track their progress, earn new game specific achievements, engage with the player community and participate in promotions and Challenge Quests.

Challenge Quests can be issued by operators to drive play at their locations and build player loyalty or by Stern Pinball to highlight a game title or engage the community. When players complete quests, they receive loyalty rewards.

Key launch features of the Insider Connected platform include:

  • Gameplay up to 4+ players – friends or foes
  • Game achievements and promotions
  • Stern authorized Quests and Operator authorized Quests
  • Loads on loads of free play, pay to play games, rewards and treasure chests


source: Stern Pinball

All Stern SpikeĀ® 2 LCD games produced after the September 2021 launch will ship with the Insider Connected system installed; this includes new runs of previously released titles. Any existing Stern LCD game can be added to Insider Connected by installing a simple, inexpensive retrofit kit available from Stern distributors, dealers and the Stern StoreĀ® – we have asked Stern to provide more details about this kit. We will update this post once we receive their response.

By the end of the year, all 17 Stern Spike 2 LCD system titles will be added to Insider Connected, which means we’ll be able to connect our Star Wars Comic Art Premium machine! At launch seven titles will be supported, with the remaining Spike 2 LCD machines added over the next year.Ā  with full system with added features will be rolled out. Once again, we have reached out to Stern to confirm the seven titles that be supported at launch – we will keep you posted!

We have written about internet connected pinball machines in the past, so it is great to see Stern Pinball finally enter this new age of online pinball play and cool tools to interact with pinball machines. This is a game changer for sure, so we will keep an eye out on the evolving feature set and will report back on what more we can find out from Stern Pinball about their Insider Connected platform – so stay tuned!



PS: We have reached out to Stern Pinball with a number of questions relating to their Insider Connected platform, so look out for a future update!