Unfortunately no. You can't even get into the IC menu without all three hardware components (scanner, micro SD card, wifi dongle). Seems like logging in as a home team player is exempt since that bit of functionality is outside of the IC service menu.

Would love to be able to update without the (seemingly irrelevant) scanner.

I think there's a much greater likelihood that this "bug" is fixed in the next round of code updates.

Sad but true. I suspect the “accessory revenue maximization” team already has this in their sites.

When guests scan in, I hopped they would appear in the list of guest users on all games in the venue. It doesn’t work that way. They need to scan in on each and every game.

Anyone know if this is just a setting I need to change?

I guess you just need to add them as full-fledged home team members and then just remove them later.

IC down right now?

It is for me

Planned maintenance. I think they had a twitter post about it yesterday.

Would be nice if there was a little notice box on their IC site that had the current status of IC on their end.

Also a notice on the machine display. Currently, when I hold left flipper button, simply nothing happens. Better feedback needed.

I'd like to think that they have it down so that they can install the Home Team leaderboard functionality. A guy can dream, can't he?

I ran into the same issue and was really confused, only realized IC was down because I then tried to scan my QR code and got the "Machine is Offline" message. Which still didn't alert me that IC itself was down, thought it was connection issue, finally came to this thread and saw that IC in general was down.
Would be nice if they could at least return a friendly message to the machine to say "IC is being updated and will be back shortly" so we don't think it is something on our end.

I have an insider operator account (pro account) with a few machines on location. When I look at the advertisement for this pro account, is boasts about a number of things including: Access machines remotely to change settings, collect audits etc.. Is this just fluff for what features the will have some day? I don't see any of this stuff on my pro account. Anyone else?

“Futures”

Today you get play counts and leaderboards.

Mmmmm. Glorious. Thnx.

This was my experience which is why I thought you needed the hardware on each one.

For those that don’t already know: only Wi-Fi dongle and SD card is needed on each participating machine, with one scanner attached the first time logging on. Then after that with a home team setup, only the Wi-Fi dongle and micro SD card is required.

SD card is to download and store new updates till installed on Spike 2 board SD card for game play.

Wi-Fi dongle is always needed to communicate with Stern IC servers.

Scanner is not needed after first login scan ever again using Home Team option.

I know this could probably be found in like 10 minutes but can anyone tell me if there is a way to get my scores at home verified?

Not possible currently. "Verified" requires a commerical installation, which is cross-checked by Stern. They don't verify home locations.

So if you hardwire via Ethernet, you would only need the SD card and a scanner to use once?

The whole “verified” thing seems overboard. What is really at stake here? If some idiots cheat their way to achievements, who cares? And not like location games can’t be cheated by operators and their friends. Maybe I am missing a need for this level of scrutiny in what is just a gaming/entertainment product.

Does anyone know if insider connected all access is still a thing? The paid version of insider. I signed up last year and when I go to my profile, all access is still highlighted and check marked, but it says it expired back in May. I don't seem to be able to find anywhere where I can sign back up or renew my membership. Did they discontinue it?

It still exists. You get access to some "paywall" content on the site - podcasts, pictures, etc. And they sent me a commemorative token in the mail.

Right, I want to sign up again but theres nowhere I can find to click to do so. Its not in their shop and clicking my membership does nothing. I swear I'm not a boomer I've searched all over but it seems like theres nowhere I can renew or even sign up again.

I thought someone else mentioned that they auto-renew.

I see a $39.99 button at the bottom of this page below the free button. https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider

GF finally asked to play the new pins last night which was awesome. Got her signed up on Insider Connect, go to scan in, and... Rush locked up. Like the backbox screen stopped updating, the lights went out, and had to power cycle it. OK, weird bug, try again... Same thing. Next try scanning into Godzilla... Same thing. Anyone else ever see weirdness like that? My account seemed to work just fine still.

I haven't gotten a charge for it that I am aware of, and you'd think it wouldn't say that it was expired. Plus I haven't gotten any fresh swag!

Unfortunately when I'm logged in that link no longer works it just brings me to my normal insider page.

I dunno maybe I'll just have to call Stern or something but this seems like a really silly problem to be having

stern (resized).jpg

Same thing here. I think it's because the credit card expired. It's weird that it doesn't revert back to basic version.

I think it's just a bit of incentive to get people to play on location. It's good for operators and pinball in general.

Honestly, I've been shocked by the lack of cheating on the leaderboards. Pretty much all the high scores seem legit. Nobody is getting 300 trillion or something.

Home leaderboard vs. location leaderboard looks about like I'd expect, with home users putting more time on machines, so scores are usually a bit higher. But not crazy.

Anyone have any luck getting portrait mode to work? I have a Sansui 40" androidtv (ES40V1FA), and the display options don't include changing the display orientation. When loading the 'Portrait' option from my IC Pro account, it aligns he leaderboard as if it would fit a portrait setting, but it still comes out in landscape mode.

Because it separates the men from the boys. Anyone can remove the tilt and have a game tweaked to get huge scores in their home. It takes much more skill to be able to get high scores on location with games that aren't set up consistently and there are distractions etc. It's a completely different game which is why I'd wager you'll see lower overall scores verified vs the home leaderboards.

Ran into this last night at a local tournament. Anybody that had an account already was good to go but one guy was trying to signup and every time he scanned it locked up the machine and reset it. Must be a glitch on sterns end.

Don't confuse the content orientation with your device+display settings. Your issue depends on your android broswer being able to operate with the TV in a portrait orientation. You need to find the display settings about display orientation and hope that the smart TV functions play along with it.

It's not so much about scrutiny as it is about 'incentive'.

Stern is making no effort to validate the condition of game (even location games) before submitting entries. This isn't a question of authentication really.

What they have done is give players another type of trophy to chase.. and in turn encourage location play. For the achievement hunters, now they have additional incentive to go play a game.

There is the additional benefit that a location game is generally going to be setup in a way that isn't so easy.. and will generally be more consistent with other examples of the game.. so there is more of a level playing field.

Can an op remove the glass and cheat? Sure.. but so can someone at home. This isn't 'verification' or 'authentication' of results.. It's just a more shared reference point and more incentive to go play onlocation.

No confusion here. The browser Stern recommended (Odin) doesn't offer screen orientation, only upscaling the current display size. The TV settings only provide display options regarding picture quality (e.g. brightness, tint, etc.). Have you successfully enabled portrait view for the leaderboard?

The setting wouldn't be in the browser - it would be if the smart OS would orient itself to the display in portrait mode. This is a hardware compatibility setting - not so much the app or content. Stern just provides a webpage formatted for a tall narrow display area. The portrait mode from Stern isn't a rotated display - it's a webpage formatted to be displayed on tall narrow display area. It's your monitor that needs to be configured to run in portrait mode.

This is about your monitor having a rotated display option. And yes, I've used portrait mode - but I don't have your TV. Looking at the manual, it does not look like your model has a portrait mode.

That makes sense and I think it's good. I might not agree that "verified" is a good way to present distinction but yeah the spirit of the thing makes sense.

Yes, that’s my experience. The SD card must remain in the bottom slot on the Spike 2 board however. Every new update will be stored there. If using home team, scanner is no longer needed.

I broke down and just installed the official kit. Love the coin door mod so that my AIQLE artwork stays intact.

I noticed the documentation says, "An optional Wired network kit (502-8007-00) is available for a convenient port at the bottom of the cabinet," but that part doesn't seem to exist anywhere. Looks like it is a keystone jack which would be nice to prevent accidentally moving a machine and ripping the jack off of the node board. Has anyone made their own?

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AIQ is such a great layout! Code, artwork, comic book theme is over the top. Would not have felt the same if it were the movies. Movies become dated, comic’s never do.

New feature: Badges

Not sure why they are releasing this feature with just three milestones, but I guess this is par for the course for ic.

Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!

Sorry everyone. It had to be done.

You gotta start somewhere. I'm just happy to see multiple additions in the last little while vs the dormancy that was before this. Hopefully a sign of many more things to come.

Eh people cheat all the time and folks who care about stats and competition don't want to deal with cheaters. The verified thing is attempting to try and reduce the cheating and lying that can easily be done on pinball machines.

For folks that care about scores and such, this is a big deal and if they didn't attempt some form of "anti cheat", it would make it all pointless

I'm digging that on Stern Insider Connected website it shows
the GC & top 4 high scores on each location game that is updated to the newest code version.

1KegHighscores (resized).png

If you never updated your code (like for me with JP, which is now code complete) would it not still work if Stern closed the loophole?

They could potentially close it on the server side when you try to sign in or it registers your accomplishments if they have a way of knowing if the module is present or not in the info sent. All speculative on my part, they might not even consider it an issue.

I would hope they don't care - especially since all new machines will have it anyway.