So far meh. Seems like an over engineered implementation and the achievement stuff is pretty lame imo.

Sounds like it’s capable of more.

Seems geared to location play, not home play. I wonder at home do I have to do the awkward scan thing every time I turn it on or will it just remember me?

Probably great for operators and running up comps on location though.

You’re an ideas man epthegeek

Just trying to logic why they would have the scanner on the game and not just the QR code. Can’t think of a reason.

Maybe it was in development years ago when phones that could recognize QR code’s were still new/rare? Are Stern worried some people won’t have a qr capable phone? The fact they mention printing it out seems to indicate this.

Do we know whether it’s going to be a standard feature in all games going forward or an optional add on?

If this was was revealed 10 years ago it would have been cool. What’s been revealed now just seems like 10 year old tech now.

At least they finally got to the plate. Let’s see what these cool features zombieyeti is talking about.

Playing against friends in real time (eg. a challenge based format like heads up) would be fun. Or 4 player games with chat etc.

No doubt it’s been a huge effort to get all this up and running, so full credit to everyone who has worked on it.

Lol. Triggered.

What’s worse than someone whining on Pinside?

Someone whining about the whining on Pinside.

Did Gomez say you can update code over the internet?

I love new technology, probably too much.

But this isn’t new technology. This just brings them to 2010. It’s the bare minimum tech wise.

From my perspective what they’ve shown so far is pedestrian at best - I’m not an operator, I rarely play on location. Pokémon collecting was never my thing.

So I’m waiting to be wowed. And I realize they haven’t revealed everything. Show me something truly groundbreaking or something that improves on the original and I’ll be there with bells on.

Agree, bare minimum, but still a great feature for home use and operators alike.

That’s the spirit. Sounds like you need to find a new hobby if you're that jaded Levi.

Don’t worry, the entire system seems to be designed for dinosaurs like you.

The achievment/trophy stuff is lame. That appeals to the pre-teen video game/app market and i doubt it will have any impact on the current or even future pinball market.

But the whole connected idea has huge potential (well, it's really just a pre-requisite for ANY object these days) - heads up, co-op, and tech for operators is invaluable etc. As a marketing/data tool it's great for Stern, but that all depends on whether they can engage the customer with it. Achievements wont be enough. Kind of odd to launch with the worst selling point.

Im fine with this as long as it doesn't mean the original shipped game is deliberately stripped down, or incomplete, in order to milk more out of us at a later date.

In fact, done in a fair way, it's a fantastic idea to get more value out of this $7-$12k object sitting in my house.

EDIT: I love the way P3 makes use of exisiting layouts with completely new games.

ACA5F2B6-A8DA-4279-B60A-55DAFE8D8CD6 (resized).jpeg

So you have to scan the QR code to register, then using the QR code you get you then show it back to the built in scanner in the game???

Why not just have one unique QR code on the game and no scanner necessary??

But my phone has all my information and the scanner inbuilt. I scan the QR using my phone, it registers me on the game. Why do I need a scanner on every game?

I guess Stern are thinking some ancient players may not have a camera on their phone? Maybe 5 years ago.

That’s what I mean - why not just print the unique QR code on each game and the player scans that? Bingo. No new hardware needed except the WiFi adapter (which is needed either way).

But either way, all players need to either scan the QR code with their phone, or use the game scanner to scan their own QR code.

If the QR code is on the game, I scan it with my phone, my phone tells the server I’m playing game XYZ20394, then the server gives the game my details.

If I show my QR code to the games scanner, the game takes my code, asks the server who player 3448721 is, then the server replies with my details.

Same same, just one less piece of hardware in the first example (assuming everyone has a QR capable phone already).

Maybe (probably) there’s a technical reason why Stern have done it this way I’m not aware of?

The way code will work from now on....... what you get at launch is "feature complete" - meaning all modes/features etc are at the point that Stern deems complete.

Only bug fixes will be "free" from then on.

Any more modes or gameplay enhancements will be behind the paywall.

The days of getting nice big "free" code releases down the track that change the way a game plays are finished.

It ill also mean any future modes that are behind the paywall, and therefore optional, will only be "add on" modes/feartures. Meaning they wont be integral to the game otherwise how do you compare game scores if all games dont have the same add ons? So the add ons will be like mini games in a way.

Launch will be "everything works" and the game is "playable". What you see is what you get.

After that point you will pay.

It just encourages Stern to release the game at a bare minimum (and why wouldnt they - the games sell out before anyone has played or even seen gameplay anyway) and then just sell you a bunch of meaningless fluff modes later.

Where will in go? In the instruction card slot?

For home use I hope they allow a default player option so you dont have to keep scanning in every time you play. That would severely suck.

Also had another thought...not sure if this has been raised before...with this system Stern could effectively force all payments for location games, ie coin take, to go through their platform and take a cut of every game played. Like Apples App store purchases/subscriptions.

Not sure they would be that brazen but it is Stern.

They could do it that way also..... though it's more hidden and theres no payment problems (ie declined CC etc) by just taking a cut before remiting payment to the operator.

Depends if there is value in it for operator I guess - if Stern could prove it was driving increased coin take and simplfying their business model the operator might be happy.

The other problem for some operators is that it takes out the cash element.

I actually wasn’t aware it was already happening in the Arcade space. Sounds like a likely outcome at some point.

If it can show a benefit to the players and through that increase operators take, it makes sense. Like everything, there has to be value for everyone or it won’t work.

They need to introduce something more than collecting trophies and leaderboards, otherwise it’ll be a flash in the pan - lots of curiosity at first followed by “couldn’t be bothered”. Apart from the free games and promotional stuff has anyone given any hints as to what else is coming?

Wonder how long until we see what are all the amazing features that have been teased for Connected?

Spoken like a connected insider. Spill the beans chuckwurt …… what are we to look forward to? As it stands I wouldn’t buy a single kit for my older Spike games. But I guess I won’t have a choice for new games going forward.

All I can remember so far is leader boards, challenges, Pokémon stuff, free games at bars and pay for new modes.

Is there any actual talk of head to head live connectivity, or even just remote multiplayer games, or is that just wishful thinking?

Can you just move the other 2 players to positions 1 & 2?

There’s no reason Stern can’t allow existing games (Spike but pre IC) to connect using just a WiFi dongle and a unique QR code for the machine. Surely, in the early stages, the goal is to get as many people as possible connected, not to make a few bucks off the IC kits. All new games from now on will be ic connected by default, so there’s no harm in grandfathering older games just to grow the online community as much as possible.

Cross posted - Not sure if this has been mentioned, but they've nicely integrated the IC scanner into the apron art for the RUSH PreLe -particularly on the LE. Hopefully this is the way going forward. Did they do this on GZLE?

newic (resized).jpgnewic pre (resized).jpg

Nice, much better than the retro fits.

Is there an option to turn off the sound for in game notifications…..super obnoxious.

true - it’s always super obvious and annoying on the Stern streams because it’s a new game. I guess after a while it might be a good sound, if you’re chasing an achievement.

Get the coin door adapter?

So IC is still just chasing achievements and painfully slow updates? Nothing new?

What about operators? Can you do remote code updates? Can you set up remote comps/challenges for your games? Can you change gameplay settings remotely? Do you get malfunction notifications? Etc etc?

I think there was talk earlier about buying a travel adapter- One that you can plug in to the wired IC Rj45 that then connects to the unsecured WiFi.

Edit: there was talk about using a Wi-Fi repeater also: start here….

Love how in one breath Stern are telling us Home Leaderboards wont happen because they want to encourage location pinball, and in the next breath they're releasing a $20000 collectors game and pushing one of the main selling features is that it's Insider Connected.

stern (resized).jpg

Good to know. I thought he originally said it wouldn’t.

Is IC delivering remote game diagnostics for location games yet?

AFAIK you have to be a location?

Is there any update on home leaderboards or worldwide/country wide leaderboards for home players?

Off to a flying start here. Stern Insider Rejected.

100% agree - I get some people enjoy collecting those badges but it’s a pretty lame use of what could be a great platform. I can’t believe they haven’t at least implemented home leader boards yet. Is it an attempt to give operators some advantage over home users?

Apparently Spike 3 will have greater capacity for IC innovation, but still doesn’t explain why home leader boards aren’t already implemented. I have less than zero motivation to sign in to IC at the moment.