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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 operator’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 FAQs 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 their past Spike® 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 previous Spike® 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.



Discussing the Stern Pinball Insider Connected Platform with George Gomez

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With Stern Pinball’s recent announcement about their new Insider Connected platform, we wanted to find out more about this new and exciting pinball innovation and player experience, so we sat down for a fireside chat with Stern’s Chief Creative Officer, George Gomez, to chat about Stern’s way of enhancing the experience of playing their pinball machines.

AUSRETROGAMER [ARG]: How long has Stern been working on the Insider Connected platform?
George Gomez [GG]: Since late 2018.

ARG: Will this new platform be open (APIs or the like) and be able to integrate with other online systems, like Scorbit?
GG: It is not an open platform. Interaction with other systems is possible only in tournament environments where the Insider Connected server would provide an API for integration of services.

ARG: Could you please tell us a bit more about the key Insider Connected features for each of the following user types;

  • Casual Player
  • Tournament
  • Tournament Director
  • Home Collector; and
  • Operator

GG: Player features like Achievements, Profile Badges and Challenge Quests are balanced across the spectrum of player skills; some things are easy, some things are harder and some are really hard. Treasure Chests are random and are not influenced by player skill. Available promotions can vary based on location and sponsors.

Tournament Players and Tournament Directors will interact with features that are scheduled for release in ’22. There is an entire suite of Tournament related tools, event features, leader boards, challenge ladders, etc.

Operators will get a very specific toolset designed to help them drive traffic to their locations, build player loyalty, analytics tools for location and game performance, service tools and notifications and other diagnostic features related to operating pinball machines and interacting with their routes.

ARG: When will the retrofit kit be available, how much will it be (retail price) and how easy will it be to install (will there be a firmware update or is it plug and play)?
GG: It is very easy to install. On PRO games; swap the bottom arch, plug the supplied RJ45 cable from the QR Node to Node 8(near the front of the playfield) and open the back box and either insert the Wi-Fi dongle into a USB port on the Spike 2 CPU or run an ethernet cable from your router into the backbox and plug it in. You will install a micro SD card supplied with the kit and then you will update the code via a USB stick for one last time. Once the game is connected, code downloads can be automatic via the network connection. Then enter the Insider Connected menu and connect to your network. The system will prompt you through each step.

On Premiums and LE machines set up is the same except you will remove the bottom arch and replace the right side corner plastic with the supplied QR module assembly.

The kits are expected to begin shipping around October 1. The price has not been released yet but the intent is to make the kits very affordable.

ARG: Could you confirm the seven titles that will be included at launch?
GG: Not at this time because we are still balancing features.

ARG: Do you have a roadmap of when the remaining 17 titles will be supported on the Insider Connected Platform?
GG: All titles will have the launch feature set by the end of December of this year. The platform is expected to get updates routinely throughout 2021 and 2022. The updates will contain both player and operator focused features.

ARG: Are there future features you can share with us now to whet our appetite a bit more?
GG: Right now we don’t want to reveal those features because we want the audience to enjoy the surprise.

ARG: Will the quests, giveaways and rewards for players be available worldwide or are they US only?
GG: It is dependent on each country’s laws.

ARG: We love trophies/achievements/rewards on our online gaming systems, so how will Insider Connected implement these (just like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Network)?
GG: The implementation is similar but unique to pinball. It is designed specifically around the nuances of the games and yes, all of those things that you mention play a role.

ARG: Will Insider Connected always be free or will there be some / premium features that will only be available via a paid subscription?
GG: Insider Connected will remain free. Insider Connected All Access will be a subscription based service just like the existing All Access loyalty program has been. Insider Connected All Access will have specific premium features on top of everything that has been described above.

We thank George for making time to speak to us about their new Insider Connected platform. For more information and to keep up with all of their pinball machines, hit the Stern Pinball site now. It is definitely an exciting time to be playing pinball – the future has finally come to the silverball game!



Internet Connected Pinball Machines – The Future Is (Almost) Here!

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*This article was nominated in the ‘Favourite Pinball Publication or Article‘ category for The 2020 TWIPY Annual Awards*

The future has caught up with pinball. No longer will this pop culture mechanical icon operate in the old world ways. The online reckoning is here!

The time for real pinball machines to be online has come. The current crop of pinball manufacturers like Stern Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball are surely tinkering away to have their machines internet ready and connected in the not too distant future. Actually, Jersey Jack Pinball have been beta testing hardware dongles to allow some of their back catalogue machines to connect to the internet via WiFi, but this is still fiddling around the edges of the true potential of pinball machines being online. Companies like Multimorphic have shown the big boys of the pinball world how it’s done by announcing head to head play on their P3 machines, as part of their campaign, so the precedent has been set.

image source: Multimorphic via Twitter

We published a speculative feature a few years ago regarding pinball innovation, specifically around the implementation and use of technologies, like utilising telemetry via IoT (Internet of Things), however, this particular editorial explores the possibilities of internet and online pinball and its applications and services manufacturers could potentially use to deliver their online capabilities for the player, collector and operator.

When it comes to online services, there are really two main options, free or paid subscriptions. No one likes to pay for an online subscription, but the precedent has already been set by Microsoft and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) with their respective XBox Live and PlayStation Network (PSN) subscription platforms. These platforms have a decade plus head start and provide a myriad of services for their subscribers, so the value proposition of having an annually paid membership is enticing. Pinball has a lot to learn and catch up on in this regard, so careful consideration must be given when creating an online service, ensuring it provides everything pinball players have been craving for, and more importantly, what players have been complaining about. Studying the two video game online service platforms from Microsoft and SIE will definitely give pinball manufacturers the edge in delivering an online platform rich with options and services for their subscribers straight off the bat, thus giving them value for money. But, things are never clear cut or that simple!

image source: pinballandmore

Pinball manufacturers implementing a paid subscription for their online service must tread carefully. When users pay for an online service, their expectations (of what is offered), must come close to being met, otherwise there will be a backlash which will be difficult to recover from. Meeting users’ expectations of an online service is no small feat and is quite unrealistic. If an online service is priced reasonably and competitively, then expectations will be tapered down, but users will still want to see value for money.

The flip side to the paid subscription is offering the online service for free. One thing we have all learned over the years is that nothing truly is for free. If pinball manufacturers (the providers) offer their online pinball services for free, then rest assured that you will be bombarded with online ads and the data collected (by the provider) will be sold to interested parties to recoup their costs in keeping the lights on and ensuring the service keeps running as expected – pretty much what Google does when you create an account to use their services, like Gmail. If you don’t like ads popping up while using an online service, then you are out of luck. Free (or freemium) services still cost money to run, so the provider will do what is required to ensure their services can keep running and investment being made for new and improved services.

Enough talk of free and paid online subscriptions, we want to throw around some ideas of what applications and services could potentially be offered by pinball manufacturers to home collectors, players and operators in connecting their silverball playing beasts to their online services.

We gazed into our crystal ball and came up with a few applications, but you be the judge if these will be of value to you when choosing to subscribe to an online pinball service (free or otherwise) to connect your pinball machine:

Underpinning all of this online connectivity is security, from secure login to ensuring users do not cheat or circumvent online services. How these online pinball service providers ensure that your data will be secure in transit and at rest? How will they ensure someone isn’t cheating in tournaments? This is fundamental to any online offering, as the implementation of the security construct needs to be at the heart of the online service and its many applications. A good start would be to use multi-factor authentication or one-time pin (OTP) services like LastPass’ Authenticator. As for ensuring a level playing field (pardon the pun) for tournament play, service providers could ‘push’ tournament settings with a checksum to ensure all participants are playing to the rules –  levelling the machine is another variable here, perhaps a digital level display on-screen could be used, ensuring everyone participating sets their level per the tournament rules, otherwise they will not be allowed to compete.

The one thing we do not want to see with an online pinball service is the enforcement of downloading the latest software code and updating your machine before you are able to play it – that would be the fastest way to lose subscribers and put the fan base offside. The online pinball service should allow freedom in how it is to be used and it’s interaction with the machine. A fine balance that should be tweaked and set right from the start.

There is precedent already set by video game providers in how and what to offer to their players when it comes to an online gaming service, so pinball manufacturers can learn from these providers to ensure they strike a good balance of offering services, be it free or otherwise. In an ideal world, an online pinball service would offer all users to register for free and provide a number of basic services free of charge, including software / code updates and social media integrations as a minimum. A paid or premium level service should be compelling and provide value to the target users, otherwise, they would not be worth pursuing.

The time has come for pinball to enter the 21st century and join the internet age. Pinball is in a unique position where it can definitely be fun in its current format or provide the means for its users and players to go online and unlock new ways of playing and interacting with their machine and others around the world. The future of internet pinball connectivity is now, so the silverball is in the pinball manufacturers court – make it happen!