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Stern Insider Connected

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.



Godzilla Pinball – The King of Monsters Is Unleashed by Stern Pinball

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The King of Monsters is back and this time he is conquering pinball! 

Stern Pinball and Toho International have joined forces to take Godzilla from the swap to pinball, and boy are we glad that they did!

This awesome collaboration between two powerhouses has resulted in the creation of three Godzilla pinball machine models; Pro, Premium and the already sold out Limited Edition! Before we get into the nuts and bolts of this new cornerstone title, Godzilla pinball marks the debut of Stern’s Insider Connected system, which includes a QR code reader (bottom arch) that enables players to interact with the game and other cool platform features in a variety of new ways.


source: Godzilla Official by TOHO

As already mentioned, being a cornerstone title, Godzilla Pinball will come in a three model range, starting with the street level Pro, home collector Premium and the Limited Edition for the hardcore collectors – as at the time of writing, the LE is sold out! From what we have seen so far, this is a monster-packed pinball machine straight from the mind of Keith Elwin, arguably the hottest contemporary pinball designer on the planet. Coupled with Zombie Yeti’s gorgeous and eye-popping hand-drawn artwork, this complete package will satisfy Godzilla and pinball fans alike.

From the video and images, we reckon that Keith Elwin has been dreaming a lot about Kaiju and has captured the essence of Toho’s Godzilla, pulling material from the ten earliest, campiest and most iconic films. In this game, the players takes control of Godzilla, ridding the earth of the evil Xiliens, while rampaging and trashing cities along the way. The game consists of classic Godzilla sets, including a skyscraper that has a virtual lock for one of the six multi-balls. According to Stern, this title has an industry first ‘Magna Grab’ magnetic Newton ball directing the ball from 5 different directions, often setting the ball up for the upper (3rd) flipper – pure chaos, as it should be! Godzilla also has a scoop to change cities, 3 spinning targets, mind-blowing chrome wireform ramps, 13 RGB lights, and a new return lane chase lights that strobe as balls return to the flippers, just to name a few. The theme immersion is complete with movie scenes and audio from ten Toho Showa Era movies, the original 1954 Godzilla film score, iconic title song “Godzilla” by Blue Oyster Cult and custom speech in English and Japanese (with subtitles).

But wait, the rampaging isn’t over yet! The additions and changes on Godzilla Premium and LE models are substantial. The aforementioned skyscraper is motorised to collapse down multiple levels, with 3 balls locked on its roof by a vertical upkick skyway ramp. A breakaway bridge ramp that collapses to drop pinballs onto the playfield. The Premium and LE models have another motorised device – a rotating 3 bank of targets that reveal a spinning target and jump ramp. There is a 2nd magnet in a sculpted Mechagodzilla to catch the ball. Oh yeah, the game wouldn’t be complete without the star itself, so there is a Godzilla sculpted toy on the playfield too. You can check out the full feature matrix of each model here.

Pricing and availability:

  • Pro Model: $US 6,899 / $AU 10,650
  • Premium Model: $US 8,999 / $AU 13,250
  • Limited Edition Model: $US 10,499 / $AU 15,500 (limited to 1,000 machines – sold out!)

The Pro model will start rolling off the Stern assembly line next week, with the LE model to follow and then the Premium machines in October – these should start arriving in Australia in early Jan 2022.

If you are interested in grabbing your very own Godzilla pinball machine, please contact the good folks at Amusement Machine Distributors or Zax Amusements.

Now, enough words, time to feast your eyes on the awesome Godzilla pinball machines – scroll slowly and please mind your drool 😉

image source: Stern Pinball



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!