Pat Lawlor really should have stopped after Twilight Zone. This game is Lame. Cellphone interaction??? I guess it lends itself to the adhd world we live in. Fail.

Out of the 5 pins in my collection,This is the one I keep going back to play,Very hard but enjoyable game ,Lots of excellent shots and things to do,Excellent flow,Sometimes you will have very quick ball times and than you will have a very long ball which I like,Excellent build quality,Some of the call outs can be a bit annoying ,The overall theme is excellent as it’s definitely a 21st century experience,Play field layout and colors are excellent and having the upper right flipper makes it that much better and gives you more to do,JJP and Pat Lawler really hit a home run with this and its one of the best pins ever made.

For me the best Pin ever !

JJP's third game is one they can be extremely proud of.

All the hate about the theme at the time of release of this game, I find it laughable. "Oh, so it's about a phone? How lame." Oh come on. First of all, welcome to the 21st century. Second of all, look a bit further, will you? DI is not just -about- a phone. The phone is just a very cool way to ignite this game's top class features.

This game is just awesome. Exciting shots, original toys, great layout and immersive gameplay. Add to that the colorful artwork and the beautiful animations and you've got a clear winner.

A lot has been said about this game in earlier posts. I'll share my thoughts as well, but I feel very opinionated about this game:

PROS:
-Great layout. It's a Lawlor, what do you expect?
-Very high build quality
-An overall fun game that demands "one more play!"
-I dig the theater projection screen. Cool toy.
-The lasers shooting the flippers is a trip! Love it.
-LOTS of shots on this deck that demand sniping abilities.

CONS:
-The theme is so lame. I was literally standing next to Gary Stern when Lawlor unveiled the theme. Dude smiled, shook his head, and just walked out of the room in triumph.
-IMO, WAY too much going on lighting-wise. It's a bit of clown puke to me.
-Youssi has done such great art packages, but IMO this isn't his best.
-Selfie-mode is obnoxious. I don't want pics of myself thrown up on a screen for everyone to see.
-Anything relating to my cell phone is just...meh. Why would I want to play pinball with my cell when it's right in front of me? Worthless tech IMO.
-No wizard mode. Pat, I know you're tired of this thing you started, but it's what people expect.

OVERALL: It's a really good game! Not a great one (esp considering the price), but a very fine game.

It's probably the "game of the year" but I just don't have fun playing it. I don't like the theme or art at all and and I don't enjoy the game play style of Pat Lawlor other than Addams Family and Shrek. I greatly respect his work but prefer the gameplay style of Borg and Ritchie.

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UPDATE January 2022:
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So, after owning this game for several years, I had to unfortunately nerf my rating by a bit. My original was 9.14. Here are the reasons why:

THE RULESET

This game has the potential to be in the top 5 of all time, but JJP refuse to see issues with the rules. Here they are:

- The lower BOB shot is almost impossible to hit, so BOB modes and multiballs are rarely part of the game.
- The standup lit states need to rotate like Pinball Magic's do.
- The game pushes the ball left like crazy, making the BOB issue worse as you can't relight kickback
- Theatre multiball is also rarely seen as the collections are set too high

Hear me out on this one: the game rules NEED to be adjusted to make this game shine.
- Nerf the BOB requirements to allow for more BOB modes, multiballs and kickbacks.
- Nerf the requriements for theatre modes, which will allow for theatre multiball now and then
- Allow for Sim carry-over as that shot is very difficult as well.

For me, it's tough to get past the psychology of nerfing rules as I don't do this on any of my other machines. I was about to sell this game because of left drains related to the BOB design issues. The code changes made me love it again. After these adjustements, the game actually feels like an older W/B machine: it's not crazy difficult, but it can still kick your ass if you're not on your game. Still, the BOB target states absolutely, 100% should rotate due to design, but they won't fix it...

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Dialed In represents the ultimate culmination of Pat Lawlor's design skills, refining all the good and ditching all of the bad. This game will go down as one of the best playing pins of all time. The game is just that good.

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DESIGN
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-- This game utilizes the standard playfield size as well as TOTAN, maybe better.
-- The ramps flow very nicely, even the side ramp.
-- The theatre is integrated well, as is the phone and mechanic diverter.
-- There is a trapdoor and real sewer! Thank god JJP didn't go with stern's cheap eject pothole strategy.
-- There are 5 magnets, but the center 3 can be adjusted to suit the player's preference. Medium (one above default) is a blast!
-- Flipper manipulation via "attacks" during multiball works very well and can prevent cradling, which is a nice change.
-- The selfie camera is great fun and doesn't get old. The high score images are a great idea.
-- When working correctly, the bluetooth app is super challenging and fun. Great for tournaments!
-- The precise adjustment of coils in the settings is a treat!

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THEME/LIGHTING/SOUND
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-- It's great to see a non-licensed theme in a high-investment pin. JJP is willing to take risks and push the market in new directions.
-- The theme of the player's crazy-Bob phone having issues and causing disasters is a cool idea. The disasters are great modes.
-- Crazy Bob's cheesiness adds a fun aspect to the game, and the channel 8 newscaster narration is perfectly integrated.
-- The cell phone dude is not the greatest art idea, but the playfield looks awesome, as well as the cabinet art and backglass.
-- The lighting for this game is close to the best, if not the best, in pinball. The use of RGB LEDs is top-notch.
-- The animations on the LCD and smartphone are amazing. These guys have a talented team of animators. Stunning.
-- The standard music suits the theme of "a day in Quantum City." The mode music is wonderful, especially EMP Strike.
-- The initial call-out and music in Chaos in Quantum City multiball is intense!

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GAMEPLAY (1.50)
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-- The modes are wonderful to play, and the integration of Big Bang is intelligent design, not natural selection.
-- Sim card is an intense carrot, seeing that it is worth so much. Avoid setting it to remain lit after drain to keep it intense!
-- Having the first multiball a 2-ball and easier to achieve is great for early momentum.
-- Crazy Bob modes and multiballs are a nice addition. The left loop is sometimes oddly difficult to hit when it counts.
-- The theatre modes and hurry-ups, if planned correctly, can coincide with important side ramp shots.
-- Chaos in Quantum City multiball is very, very intense, possibly the most intense multiball in all of pinball.

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CRITICISMS
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-- Theatre modes that release the ball downward (EMP etc.) can cause frustrating SDTM drains.
-- Phone can reject many shots with the JJP protector in place. This can be considered a good thing for difficulty.
-- Sim card shot is almost impossible to get dialed in. It is often based on fluke, which is not a good thing for skilled players.
-- There is an imbalance in scoring with the modes and all else. To crush: light bang, start mode, BANG!, get sim, rinse, repeat.
-- The wireform for the left ramp return is flawed in design and can cause the ball to bounce out in random directions.
-- The playfield is more difficult to seat than other pins due to design. It would be nice if it was like the old Williams machines.
-- The first version of the app worked great, but the new one is laggy. I Raised the bluetooth dongle, which helped.
-- Only half the character scenes in the phone are animated. Hopefully this will be fixed with new code.
-- The Crazy Bob plastic sign and lights do not face the player and are hard to see. I've already seen player mods for this.

In the end, the criticisms are very, very minor when compared to the positives. Dialed-in exceeds most if not all other pins out there, and the build quality of JJP exceeds all other manufacturers. Get out there and play Dialed In; you won't be disappointed.

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UPDATE
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After owning the pin for four years, I had to unfortunately knock down the score a tiny bit for ruleset. The lower BOB target is almost impossible to hit reliably. This could have been fixed in software, but they refused to do so. I did find a workaround that actually makes this game much better:

1. Lower the requirement for theatre modes to one. Eg. one drone collected to start the captive ball.
2. Lower the BOB difficulty to leve 2.
3. Raise BOB stacking to level 10.

These adjustments allow for easier kickback lighting to account for the target flaw, and it allows for more BOB modes and multiballs. It also means you can now really focus on bonus because the theatre often has a mode going. It also means that you can play theatre multiball about every second game. Stacking it with the main multiball and/or BOB multiballs is crazy fun.

These adjustments make the game feel a lot like TZ: it's not crazy hard, but finishing it is still a big challenge.

This game is so fast and a great shooter.
If you can get over the theme you will have a lot of fun with this lawlor game.

Superb layout, smooth, with a nice variety of shots.

Great lighting, not too bright. Just right.

Theme is a bit of a miss really. And the guy holding the phone just doesn't look cool.

Game is fun to play but it feels strangely lack lustre as the call outs just aren't that inspiring. Music is not great either.

Enjoy playing it but no desire at all to own one.

Will update rating if I ever change my mind.

Pat's best game yet.

Simply, one of the best games ever.
Modes are fun and varied, Sim Card just about the right amount of difficulty to hit for the reward, flutter flippers are clever and well implemented, looks beautiful.
The ONLY gripe I have is the callout for CRAZY starts to get annoying very quickly (I can see this becoming the modern version of OK,OK,OK on LW3).

Every time I play this game I often wonder what Pat Lawler was smoking when he thought of this title. Aside from the theme, which sucks ... game play is SLOW, flippers seem weak and just an all around boring game. The JJP large display don't do much for me either. My only question is what the F is this game doing in the top 10 (at the time of writing this). Holy crap ...

This game seems to really get it all right. The game, together with the large screen in the back box and the smart phone completely pull you in to the game play and never distract – you are in Quantum City. The layout seems new, yet so clever, the use of playfield space so economical. Tucking 3 different targets for the upper flipper (stand ups, a scoop and a ramp) under the left ramp basically leaves a full fan layout to shoot from with the lower flippers.
Dialed In has a great array of features, toys and shots which affect game play. Firstly you have the Theatre which depending on what is being shown determines what the shot is – I know of no other game in which one shot has so many different functions. Then there’s the moving target QED – sometimes he’s the target, sometimes he is in the way of the shot you want to make so you have to knock ball to the other flipper or shoot something else. Or sometimes he’s moving so you have to wait till he’s out of the way to make your shot. He’s basically changing the layout of the game, depending on game situation.
Many of the main shots also send the ball to different places depending on situation and/or how hard you hit it – this via diverters, magnets or trapdoors into the subway system. The layout is so flexible, sometimes offering up surprise shots like hitting the phone scoop with the upper flipper.
Then there’s the Sim Card shot. Really really hard to hit directly with the upper flipper when you are trying, but often it just rolls in when the ball is moving around in front of the Theatre when you’re not trying. Reminds me a bit of some EM games which have important shots which are extremely difficult to hit on purpose. Basically you try to keep the ball in play as long as possible and eventually the ball goes in by accident.
Dialed In has a cool theme with lots of humor. The theme, being unlicenced, allowed the creativity of the designers to flourish unfettered and it really shows. From the amazing layout, to the original music to the backbox animations and everything else. The backbox is kind of like a normal lit backbox except the view of the city is changing slightly depending on situation. The game has a lot of tongue and cheek humor – like the anouncers of the disaster modes in the phone or the BOB modes – maybe not all completely cohesive with the main theme, but they are wacky and add to the charm.
My only complaint might be a bit rulewise that playing the modes seems to be the only way to rack up points. All the BOB modes, the multiball modes and the theatre modes seem to be more of a distraction than being integral to gameplay.

What an amazing game. The sounds are fantastic, even though the speakers are a bit tinny-sounding. Light shows are incredible. The screen is a HUGE improvement over WOZ - it's much more clear on what to shoot. Love it. I could play it over and over again and not get bored. (The phone connection is a bit of a gimmick, though.)

I don't like dialed in because of the theme and rules I just find the game kinda easy but it has some cool toys.

Man I hated this game when it was revealed and thought it was the biggest WTF? I had ever seen.....I feel completely different about it now. The theme is still not something I'm into (but has grown on me some) but the rules are outstanding. The scoring is balanced and difficult to score well. Anytime I play this with a first timer they are always impressed and have a great time. The toys are awesome, the layout and shots feel great! It's just plain fun and I've even found myself quoting the callouts. To go from thinking they missed the mark to they nailed it is such a gap but I'd own one and I definitely never saw myself saying that.

Innovative pin

Dialed In has been a controversial game from the moment it was released, but whether you like the theme or not, it is hard to deny what a fun machine this is to play.

The playfield layout has really nice flow to it - it is awesome when you string a really long combo together. There are lots of shots, some on the easier side, and some really hard (I am looking at you, SIM Card hole!). I really like the toys on this game - the QED moving target, Quantum Theater, 5 magnets, ramp diverter, drones with spinning propellers, physical ball lock, etc. It is a nice balance of stop and go, but mostly go.

As of version 1.13 (when this review was written), the code is not necessarily insanely deep (ala LOTR, TSPP, WoZ, etc), but there is still a lot here and it does not get boring. The main objective is to start disaster modes by charging up the phone via QED target, then hitting the phone scoop to start them. There are 11 modes, and they all feel unique. There are various other objectives - Bob modes/multiballs, collecting drone mystery packages at the theater, regular multiball, collecting SIM cards, and so on. Hitting the Big Bang shot while a mode is running has to be one of my favorite shots in all of pinball and it is SO satisfying! (it is even more satisfying when the ball immediately ricochets into the SIM card hole for an instant SIM collect). Again, the game is just a joy to play.

The machine is built incredibly well, the LCD is integrated nicely, and the art package is spot on for the theme. Regarding the theme - this is probably the games most divisive aspect. While there is a cell phone element, the game is more of a disaster theme, which I really enjoy. I get that it is not for everyone, but I feel sorry for anyone who refuses to give the game a chance based on theme alone.

Dialed In is one of the best games made in the last decade, and in my opinion one of the best of all time. Pat Lawlor is back in true form here. The game is just super fun to play, and I can't remember the last time I was this obsessed with playing one of my pinball machines.

Pro:
Outstanding playfield layout (one of the best of all times!), Great flow and speed.
Lots of things to do.


Cons:
Odd theme, ruleset is not intuitive, slow learning curve.

I wanted to love it but just could not. My wife and I played and played and we just could not get into this machine. There is one sited near us so we will go and give the machine another go. We have beeen visiting a few arcades while we have been in the USA and did notice that this machine does not have much love on route.

Played it many times at Manchester Exp. Can't get enough of it. Will be part of my collection for sure. One day!!

Just picked this up and have put on about 20 games. This is my first JJP game and I love it. The layout is great, the build quality is fantastic and it speakers are really nice. The game is so much fun to play. Still trying to pick up a bit of the rules. I will update the review once I have more plays on it.

As modern as it gets. A little too much for my taste.

I was a DI hater.

I am now a DI owner.

Unbelievable flow to this game. Best pure shooter I have every played. This is pinball magic period. Theme actually works well. JJP just did a terrible job introducing it as the cell phone is not the game. The theme is actually a disaster theme and the cell does a great job telling you what it is.

EDIT - I wish the game rules were more varied. Got repetitive hitting the phone scoop, shooting the same shots and then repeating. They need to mix in more. Ended up selling not b/c it was bad but b/c I just wasn't playing as much as expected. Will pick up again later date. Great game still

Bluetooth is garbage and a complete fad, but we're talking about the best pinball machine I've played in some time.

Jersey Jack adds to their incredible lineup of games. Dialed In has many great shots to make and a decent rule set. The shots flow very nicely together and the sound effects are great. Can't go wrong playing it.