Responsive layout changes, yep. Resizing a desktop browser window narrower until it shows up also works.

I too, upgraded to All-Access with Insider Connect. A notification was sent providing a delivery from Stern tomorrow; I'd bet it's the items related to the membership.

I could just read through this thread but theres a ton of pages, but like what would make this interesting for me to add to like my Maiden or JP2 for home use?

Collecting Achievements and points for friends to see/compare. It will give you specific goals to achieve and add longevity to your home games if youre able to complete those tasks. Most game will have 60-70 achievements from what was shown last week

Good to hear. My account finally shows All Access. That took several days to reflect on my profile page. No shipping notice yet.

I'd love someone to make a dollar bill coin door slot mod to house the connected scanner so I don't have to look at it atop the apron.

Got my shipping email today. Swag arrives tomorrow. Woot!.

Not a bad idea. Bit of an eyesore on a home game.

Would imagine from an operator perspective that red QR instruction card needs to go so pricing cards can be in place like every other machine.

I didn’t get my hopes up but I am disappointed the “6 games supported at launch” is really only one since the wifi kits and code aren’t available. Anyone have any intel on that?

Anyone know how to connect Godzilla to Stern Insider Connected?
Anyone done it yet?
There're only 10 GZs listed so far on LOCATIONS.

I'm un-boxing tomorrow and I hope its as east as Gomez says.
We have wifi and hard-wired internet available.

Any advice on setting it up on location is appreciated.

Contact stern and get a verified operator account.

Enter network details.. Scan QR code of the account you are linking to and confirm game in online profile. It's brain dead simple... except actually having the Operator account to start. That requires manual intervention at stern still. Having your location defined in your profile first will also make things easier. But still need 'pro' account first to create a location.

Welcome to the nebulous 'well what is the launch?' -- Presumably this is Expo.. not Godzilla launch.

but people need to buy / get shipped / install the hardware on the older games.

JJP is just get internet on to the game.

I watched a friend set up his Godzilla. During power up you get a screen to enter your wifi password and create one for the game. That was it. It added one minute to the set up. Later I set up my insider connect on my pixel 4. Even this pinball senior citizen got it all working in a minute.

Launch is when it opens or becomes available aka when all of us were able to get logins and see the achievements, but yea Stern must have their own definition.

I helped my friend set his up today on location. There is a screen on the operator pro section that prompts you to confirm the location for the machine. This confirmation didn’t save with an iPhone safari browser. We needed to confirm the machine on a laptop. Then it went online and worked.

Another thing we noticed is that some of our early achievements didn’t seem to post to our profiles. The play count was also way understated. Seemed to be working better as the night went on.

Stern need to workout how to turn the scanner off during a game, surely it can switch off or dim similar to the back box settings during gameplay.

worked fine here all via iphone. Both personal and pro mode to confirm a game. Maybe you didn't set the location drop-down when you were trying on the mobile device? You must set the drop-down choice and confirm the game. (assuming the location was already setup before trying to confirm the game).

Personal will ask you for an address if its your first game added...

Yep did the drop down multiple times and hit confirm. All good we finally got it going.

Scuttlebutt I've heard is the kits aren't ready, it isn't a code problem. Don't know anything beyond that, although I suspect it's a labor/supply problem like the rest of the tech world.

That's what I suspected. Making sure they have the wifi kits to make Godzilla before depleting their stash. Good to hear code is ready to go.

i am not into modding / craft making, but is there any "decal" material that is see through? could someone make a decal that covers the scanner, but still allows functionality for home use?

No - it's purely optical so it needs to see unobstructed. You could move the module, but it's still gonna be a camera that needs a decent field of view.

Played Godzilla today. Sign in is quicker and just seems more seemless than Scorbit (which I have). I also saw two players after me sign up and login pretty quickly. The achievement notifications weren’t as distracting as I thought they would be. I’m a fan of how it works. Just a bummer its only Sterns.

https://sternpinball.com/2021/10/14/stern-pinball-announces-hiring-of-new-president/

He "served on the executive team responsible for the highly successful subscription-based streaming services, Disney+ and ESPN+ and Disney Corporate Financial Planning leading business transformation projects; as Head of Product Management for Connected Experiences within Disney Games and Consumer Products as part of Walt Disney Imagineering; as leader of Disney’s Digital Games Console and PC line of business; and, as Director of Disney Games’ Strategy, Market Analytics, and Product Planning."

Oof - I hope this doesn't mean Lootboxes for pinball

George Gomez has mentioned that there will be "Treasure Chests" that can randomly be awarded, but I also think they mentioned being able to redeem Stern Coins for them. This could be coming sooner than you think. As to what is in these is anybody's guess.

But will they pay ops for any free games given out? Or is that an op local thing?
Also contest laws?
One price listed was an full pinball machine just for getting entries into an price draw pool for things like that they need to have some kind of non need to buy something route and they may not be able to do that in all 50 states.

Seems like a weird match to me. Calling them highly successful streaming services is a bit of a stretch. They had the properties but their transition to digital was a terrible. They just had a lock on the content so the consumer had no choice. The basically got left in the dust and then finally realized they better get on board. Their gaming division is pretty much non existent. If you looking for a guy from gaming this is kinda the bottom of the barrel.

It's a press release. They're not going to say "completely average streaming services" or "middle-of-the-road streaming services".

Seth, if you're reading this, welcome to the madness. Get ready to be blamed for every change going forward. We fear change.

Yeah that's true, I just can't figure out what I a guy with this background would bring to the table for Stern.

You should fear this change... you guys are freaking out about simple DLC... this guy comes from a company that has dedicated itself to 'increasing yield' - aka how to extract more money from every customer and comes from the financial planning (aka winning by spreadsheet) part of the business. Not success through better product - but success through more revenue generation and minimizing cost.

It's great Stern is growing up enough to pull in these kind of outside Execs - but you should be afraid of this guy's background.. very afraid.

Bingo. You will be paying for content. A guy coming from the Mouse Company should know how to squeeze money out of the user. Insider Connect could very well be the vehicle. As Hans Solo said - "I have a bad feeling about this"

Yep, I'm usually a "wait and see" type of person but I've got to admit this was my first reaction also. Between the GE six sigma garbage (look how far GE has fallen) and Disney's pivot to nickel-diming the customer experience over the last 10 years it's a resume that has red flags of implementing the flavor of the day financial management strategy. Fingers crossed that he's an outlier from those two companies who will manage and maintain the customer experience along with managing the balance sheet, but I have doubts about that. I guess now we wait and see.

I think you guys are overreacting to the Disney thing. They are not at all involved with DLC, Lootboxes, or any kind of Free to Play model. Their streaming service has been weird with the whole pandemic but they were literally the last to give up on physical media and go digital. You guys are acting like Disney is in the gaming space.

I’m looking forward to the competitive aspect of this as well as the ranking and achievements.

I should be able to put some points on the system tonight. We shall see, at Ayci Gogi.

Connect as used for a promo tool (trophies, prizes etc) & a way for owners/operators to interact with their machines is cool. The second they treat these $10k machines like free apps & try to make paid DLC a norm, I’m 100% out. I’ll look forward to someone with the hacking skills to jailbreak Spike 2, and will only buy jailbroken games with all features available.

It is all unknown but George did mention that any promotions and such would comply to local laws and regulations. I do not envy Stern in navigating those laws but I am sure there is enough precedent from other national and international companies.

Mouse Company you say. He's ruthless!

I guess my thought is that if this QR thing brings in a younger crowd that was not there before, it is a good thing.
I know that a lot of millennials seem to be fixated on their smart phones.
Perhaps the app will make them more interested in playing and making achievements and such.
However, if it is a way to extract more money from the average player, I think that could be an issue for some people.
Right now, having the QR code is free, so I am as happy as a clam.

He oversaw the ESPN+ subscription platform. The same platform that has increasingly put their best content behind paywalls, but only after the consumers are used to the content. Got people dependent on their fantasy football coverage and Berry's love/hate list and free agent waiver suggestions? Now it's behind a paywall. Like Mel Kiper's draft analysis and mock drafts? Now it's behind a paywall. All over ESPN they have articles which briefly touch on subjects and for the detailed analysis/reporting - yep, you have to login to ESPN+. Have ESPN and want to watch a college game? Yea, that 1 game is there - you want the other one though? Behind a paywall.

That is what is coming to pinball. A future Jurrasic Park game might end when you get to Visitor Center. Want to do this "Escape Nebular Mode?" Here it is behind our IC Sub. Hey, you don't HAVE to buy it - this game is plenty fun just getting to the Visitor Center isn't it? This just makes it "better!". All those wizard modes in pinball games that get shipped unfinished and later flushed out with code mods - those are all going to be behind a paywall - you can bet on it. As was mentioned before, it's no coincidence they hire a guy with this background right after announcing IC. The 2 announcements are hand-in-hand.

Maybe it will be like ESPN+ where we'll get a free subscription packaged with your Verizon cellphone plan

also with ESPN+ home and commercial use are billed differently.

stern can make it that way as well. For commercial use games the ops may need to pay fees (may even per game) to unlock stuff. But for home use maybe just need to have the owner and or 1 play pay for it? or an home own can have all the games they want for 1 flat fee?

and now need to buy ESPN+ and AN A TV SUB to get ALL in market NHL games (at least bars can get them all on directv need to pay for espn+ commercial)

I would pay for an MST3K Godzilla mode.

ESPN+ is so shit it’s not available in Canada so I don’t know anything about it. When it comes to micro transactions, DLC and loot boxes I have done it all. Stern may try it but the only thing it makes sense for in pinball is licensed content. Let’s be real we all know how cheap Stern is when it comes to a license. Stern is so risk adverse and old school I just can’t imagine they touch the core experience. A monthly subscription sure but anything more than that they have to know how easy it would be to cook that golden goose.

Extra challenge formats like team play, escape from nublar, etc are all perfect fits for an optional subscription access.

Making some achievements exclusive to paid opportunities, etc… also natural fits.

The storm is coming… return to your homes

I don’t know if anyone has made the following suggestion for insider connected, but I would love to have an ability to review what occurred on a game after the game is completed. During the game, you can hold flippers down to see where you are on some features/modes/achievements, but as soon as the game ends all of that information is lost. I would love to evaluate a game to see what I completed, a breakdown of where points were scored, how balls were drained, etc. This would be so valuable to get better and learn how to succeed in a game.

This information should be available to digest after the fact.

-How far did I get in completion during that game?
-which modes were started/ finished?
-what was the breakdown of shots that made ?
-how did the ball drain?
-what was the score breakdown?

How wonderful would it be to see this information for any game you play?

Even more interesting and meaningful would be to evaluate how someone else did what they did. Look at someone’s achievement and see how it was accomplished.

The only way to do this now is to video a game and re-watch it and take notes. Laborious and time consuming.

All of this information should be there for us to see. Will this be implemented? Does anyone else want this?

Also this community hates when things don't change and adapt with the times. So it's a really damned if you do damned if you don't.

I had high hopes for that too and was excited when this was first announced because of those same thoughts, but at launch they don't even have static game guides (at least none that are deeper than the rules card in the lower left corner of the pin.) If they can't deal with the static stuff that an intern could work on for the months leading up to launch, what are the odds we see something to the level you are describing? Especially since there will be no money in it for them, versus say spending that effort to open up a particular game mode if you are subscribed to the premium service.