Just listening to the podcast now, so maybe some of this is answered, but my initial thoughts/concerns:

1) You'd think Spike 2 would've been designed with WiFi on board for future proofing. Only reason I can think it wouldn't be is because some bean counter said "let's just charge for it later!!!".

2) Agree with Joetechbob, not sure of the need of a QR reader on the game. Seems like an unnecessary point of potential failure, and an additional expense. Maybe there are some feature workflows they have in mind where it is necessary, but I am dubious.

3) What is the monthly fee going to be to have your machines hooked up to this new revolutionary system?

Off the top of my head, a unique QR code is generated on the screen when a player "logs in" to the game. They scan it with their phone, and away you go. There are always multiple ways to skin a cat. To be fair, I haven't been looking at this problem for a couple of years like the the Stern team has, so I am sure they have thought everything through more than me.

I just think an additional hardware requirement would've been the least desirable design outcome, unless selling the hardware was a potential revenue stream you wanted.

Just heard GG mention on the podcast that "full access" insiders will potentially have more "play stuff" (starting at around the 43 min mark). Not sure exactly what this "play stuff" will be, but it is pretty obvious that one of the end goals of this is to create a solid subscription revenue stream for Stern.

Good for the business, sucks for the players. I don't want to end up in the situation where the 10k machine I just bought needs another $4.99 a month to get a complete game experience.

With the rumored price increases I might be out anyway. Its getting harder to justify the expenditure even to myself.

If the licensor gets pissed about it because they think Stern did it, or is allowing the user to end run around the license agreement, it could go bad. Not sure what Stern would legally be liable for, but lawsuits aside it would be bad enough for a licensor like Disney to say "screw you" to Stern because of it and just not grant them anymore licenses.

Not even a blip on a blip. They probably make more selling souvenirs from one shop in one day at one of the parks then they make from licensing pinball.

Yeah, but:

Agreed. And to quote myself:

So both in the podcast and in the video he alludes to gameplay features being tied to this system in the future. What is unknown yet is how much it will cost. If this were all free I would be all sunshine and rainbows. But it is not free. All new machines going forward will have this system price baked in, which coincides pretty nicely with the rumored price hikes. Where the fun will really start is if/when they decide to paywall certain gameplay features behind it. Woohoo.

Plus, static QR code is worse for player security.

"Look, I printed off a QR code so I don't have to use my phone!".

Three beers later:

"Fuck, I lost my card!"

Now some dingus has your card. Maybe not a big issue in the scheme of things, but a dynamic security QR code that the pin generates and displays on the screen has other benefits, not just eliminating a QR reader from each pin.

And who made the decision to not include WiFi in Spike 2? WiFi existed for about 20 years before they started the design of it, so it would've had to be discussed. I think the conversation went something like:

"We could include Wifi on Spike 2 for $x a CPU to future proof it and have it ready for our online plans!"

"No way, let's just sell a dongle when we are ready, and be able to charge $4x!!!!"

Bah. Starting to rant and go negative. I am a big Stern supporter, but I just get a bad feeling from this in general. I really don't want to have to spend extra bucks for a system like this, whether I want to use it or not the cost will be there for future pins, and if they designed it slightly differently from the get go no one would have to.

Fair enough. Never thought of the region thing. I know they have had way more time to think about everything than me and have some smart people there. As I mentioned, I know I am getting negative.

Just not looking forward to having to decide whether or not to shell out cash for features for a pin I have already paid thousands for.

To be clear, the poster (me), isn't really concerned about the specific implementation. I fully concede that a USB dongle or some other modular way of doing the Wi-Fi is better. You made good points.

If I changed my original post to say "out of the box" instead of "on the cpu" would that make my problem clearer? Having Wi-Fi is now going to be an additional cost added on to a system that really should have had it out of the box. I don't think it is a hindsight thing, Spike 2 was designed in 2015 or so. Wi-Fi was pretty ubiquitous. There must've been a decision point to NOT include it back in the design phase, and I would have to guess that the option to sell it as an additional addon at some point was somewhere in that discussion.

When this was announced my first thought was that all Stern was going to need to do was enable the Wi-Fi through the firmware because the hardware was always capable and this was going to be a no brainer kinda thing. Just flabbergasted it wasn't already part of the platform. Now I am going to have to order some kit, paying the MSRP, plus exchange, plus shipping plus tax just to have even basic hardware capabilities that $100.00 DVD players had like 15 years ago. As an added bonus though I also get a QR reader! So, worth it?

At the end of the day, I will have a decision to make as to whether or not to adopt this system on my existing pins and now there is a barrier to entry that didn't really need to be there.

Yeah, and it scares me. If the Premium features are gameplay things like extra modes similar to the topper dlc then I will not be happy. If they are just extra tracking and marketing things for operators on the backend then not as concerned.

That's a terrible analogy.

A computer's main function is to run other software packages. You don't even get an OS unless you pay for it. That is understood when you buy the computer. You buy the computer to later install software on it to do what you want. If you want to add more RAM, you have to pay for more. But you understood 100% when you bought the computer that this would be the case.

With a pinball machine, the common understanding is that you buy the hardware (pin), and get all software that runs on it (game code) for free. Now, it is very possible that Stern will release new features for something like Deadpool and will require you to pay $300.00 for the Connect hardware/software and $40.00 a year to access it. That completely changes how pinball has worked since, forever.

As far as defining "complete" after the game leaves the factory, it is pretty simple. "Complete" means all game code ever released for that particular pin, ever. Topper DLC modes, Insider Connect gameplay modes, whatever they come up with.

But you always knew it was free. Whatever they came out with you could just download. That is the difference, and it is a big one.

The Judge Dredd case is again, not equivalent. No one who bought Judge Dredd had to pay more to have the super game functionality in the machine. Yes, a player would have to pay an extra quarter or whatever to play the mode, but not even close to the same thing.

Thank you for the condescension and the pedantic explanation of value add through software. I get it. My career was in the software industry, so I am well aware of what happens in the digital age. Any attempt to compare what happens in software products that someone pays $60.00 for to $6000.00 pinball machines is a stretch at best.

Your comparisons to 15 and 20 years ago are also not relevant. This did not change in the pinball industry 15 to 20 years ago, I am not pining for the good old days. I am defining what is 'complete' in a game (assumed everyone knew I meant "pinball machine" when I said game) developed in 2021 based on how commercial operated equipment (pinball machines) ran the day before Stern announced Insider Connect. Which was a few weeks ago, not 1994 ffs.

Disagree. Gomez has mentioned everywhere he has talked about this that there will be future features locked behind "All Access" subscriptions. Gary has mentioned it. It is coming.

Not sure why Stern wouldn't offer a non-QR reader workflow for Insider Connect. Would allow people with pre-Insider Connect pins to just buy a wifi dongle for $20 to get the Insider Connect features, and would provide an alternative workflow for if/when a QR reader on location is broken. Maybe that is on the roadmap for the future.

While I think it would be fun to have achievements, spending a $1000.00 to upgrade my existing pins to Connect is not something I am going to do.

As of right now, there is no fee as far as I am aware. However Stern has announced that there are two tiers of accounts, the "Insider Connected" (free) and "Insider Connected All Access" (paid, currently $40 a year I think). Exactly what will be in one tier vs the other hasn't been made clear at this point.

From what Gomez has said the delay is due to making sure they have all the privacy and security concerns addressed. Don't know specifically what the concerns are, but it is something they are planning on releasing. Some day.

I've had it happen to me a couple times. On mine it seems to be related to how quickly you hit the start button when the match screen appears. If I wait 2 or 3 seconds it seems okay. Haven't fully tested to confirm though.

Standard Adjustment 55 - Display Message of the Day

Wondering if at some point operators will be able to put their own video in for "message of the day". Upload something that is max x seconds long to their insider account and have all connected games display it as part of the attract mode.

Yeah, that's the thing that boggles my mind. It isn't like this is a complicated system. Login, throw down some static data and a bit of user data. Shouldn't be hard to scale to the relatively small number of users.

Basically this:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-insider-connected/page/74#post-7063311

Each none IC game needs an internet connection (wired or buy a wifi dongle), 16GB micro SD or larger. Run an ethernet cable from a game with a scanner to one without and register the game to your account. Once registered you can disconnect the scanner and just use Home Team on the game with no scanner.

There are lots of posts in this thread with info, just search for home and scanner should get you good results.

Your steps are mostly correct, except after you setup the network connections on JP you have to register it to your Insider Connect account, using the reader on Foo. Once registered your Home Team should automatically show up.

Yes, he means the reader.