# 042 - Are You Connected?!

**Source:** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-04-06  
**Duration:** 44m 59s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://share.transistor.fm/s/5335ee08

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## Analysis

Mike and Stephanie from Punk Rock Pinball Podcast discuss Stern Pinball's Insider Connected (IC) app in depth, highlighting its innovative features like play tracking, location-based leaderboards, badges, and saved progress mechanics. They emphasize how IC has been instrumental in reviving their interest in pinball and praise it as potentially the most innovative development in pinball in 30 years, while also proposing future enhancements like average playtime tracking and head-to-head online play.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Insider Connected is probably the most innovative thing to happen to pinball in the last 30 years — _Mike and Stephanie, in discussion of IC's impact; stated as opinion but emphasized strongly by both hosts_
- [HIGH] Stern does not get nearly enough credit for Insider Connected and what it currently does — _Mike speaking early in the episode about industry perception_
- [MEDIUM] The IC leaderboard feature drives people to put more quarters into location games — _Mike citing confirmation from Electric Bat podcast; referenced as podcast discussion, not direct verification_
- [HIGH] Stern is a small to mid-sized company with limited resources, not a behemoth like Walmart or Amazon — _Mike providing industry context on Stern's actual scale relative to public perception_
- [HIGH] Pokemon launch party was Stephanie's first open tournament victory (not women's-specific) — _Mike and Stephanie discussing tournament results at episode opening_
- [MEDIUM] D&D saved progress features have been significantly updated since early code — _Stephanie noting they played early code version and features differ now; uncertainty expressed about current D&D updates_
- [MEDIUM] Fallout pinball is rumored to be coming from Stern — _Mike: 'if the rumors are true, Fallout comes out?' — stated as speculation/rumor, not confirmation_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky is working on Planet of the Apes — _Mike mentioning this alongside Fallout rumors; context suggests both are rumored/anticipated releases_

### Notable Quotes

> "Insider Connected is probably the most innovative thing to happen to pinball in the last 30 years."
> — **Mike**, ~04:20
> _Core thesis of the episode; emphatic endorsement of IC's industry impact_

> "I think Stern does not get nearly enough credit for Insider Connected and what it currently does and can do."
> — **Mike**, ~03:50
> _Frames the episode's purpose: defending Stern's innovation against industry perception_

> "If we're going to go down, we might as well go down doing what we love... keep on playing pinball."
> — **Stephanie**, ~02:20
> _Community moment during tornado warning at tournament; illustrates pinball passion_

> "I would guarantee that like Joe Sharp averages more per game on Jaws than me... but I would like to see is my game time comparable to Joe? Which would mean I'm doing most of what he's doing, but it would indicate that your rules knowledge is insufficient."
> — **Mike**, ~18:10
> _Articulates how granular IC data could improve competitive analysis and skill development_

> "All you've got to do is just turn that back on. You don't even have to probably write new code."
> — **Stephanie**, ~28:50
> _Practical feature request to restore session activity view that was removed in a prior IC update_

> "Stern is like a small to mid-sized company. They're not Walmart. They're not Amazon. They're not Meta."
> — **Mike**, ~31:20
> _Reframes industry expectations; contextualizes Stern's development constraints_

> "Head-to-head online play... I can see Joe's score somewhere up on my screen and what ball he's on, and he can see mine."
> — **Mike**, ~32:45
> _Describes most-requested future feature; acknowledges technical feasibility but resource constraints_

> "With D&D especially, they're kind of bridging the gap between, like, video gaming and pinball, where, like, you've got a character and you can level them up."
> — **Stephanie**, ~38:10
> _Highlights Stern's innovation in integrating persistent progression mechanics into pinball_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Mike | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; numbers/data enthusiast; plays pinball competitively and at home |
| Stephanie | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; Pokemon pinball launch party champion; competitive tournament player |
| Joe Sharp | person | Birthday celebrant (episode aired on Easter); noted as #1 ranked Punk Rock Pinball Association player; subject of skill comparisons |
| Stern Pinball | company | Primary subject of episode; manufacturer of connected pinball machines; developer of Insider Connected app |
| Insider Connected | product | Stern's connectivity/tracking app for modern pinball machines; enables QR code scanning, leaderboards, badges, achievements, play statistics |
| Punk Rock Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by Mike and Stephanie; covers pinball culture, tournaments, machine reviews |
| Pinball on Perry | venue | Location in Attica, Indiana; features multiple Stern machines with Insider Connected leaderboards |
| Tilt Amusements | venue | Located in Indicator, Illinois (Mike initially misspoke as DeKalb); hosts pinball events; has IC-tracked machines |
| Pokemon | game | Stern pinball machine; features saved progress (Pokédex), leaderboards; recently launched with launch parties |
| Jaws | game | Stern pinball machine owned by Mike and Stephanie; used extensively as case study for IC tracking; hosts competitive leaderboards at locations |
| Venom | game | Stern pinball machine; features saved progress; Stephanie shot 3.1 billion points (her best modern Stern score) |
| Dungeons & Dragons | game | Stern pinball machine; advanced saved progress features (character levels, items, trinkets, story progression); bridges video gaming and pinball |
| John Wick | game | Stern pinball machine; features IC leaderboards; used in competitive play and feature requests discussion |
| Led Zeppelin | game | Stern pinball machine; referenced in IC statistics and playtime comparison discussions |
| Evil Dead | game | Stern pinball machine available at Pinball on Perry; visited specifically to play |
| Dune | game | Stern pinball machine available at Pinball on Perry; visited specifically to play |
| Winchester | game | Stern pinball machine available at Pinball on Perry; visited specifically to play |
| Beetlejuice | game | Stern pinball machine available at Pinball on Perry; visited specifically to play |
| Avengers Infinity Quest | game | Stern pinball machine; featured in IC Grind/Grand Prix event; Stephanie played 200+ times in one week |
| Matt Richards | person | Regular player at Poor Bros location; consistently ranked #1 or #2 on IC leaderboards; screen name 'M Richards' |
| Electric Bat | person/content_creator | Podcast host (Electric Bat podcast) cited for discussing how IC leaderboards drive location revenue |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Competitor manufacturer; lacks Insider Connected equivalent app; machines feature cameras (mentioned in context of potential accessory upgrades) |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Competitor manufacturer; rumored to be working on Planet of the Apes pinball game |
| Fallout | game | Rumored upcoming Stern pinball machine; speculation about advanced IC features (saved progress, etc.) |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Insider Connected app features and functionality, Location-based leaderboards and competitive play, Play statistics tracking and data analytics, Saved progress mechanics in pinball (Pokemon, Venom, D&D), Proposed future IC features (playtime tracking, online head-to-head, messaging), Stern Pinball's innovation and industry recognition, Pinball community events (IC Grind, badge challenges, community leaderboards)
- **Secondary:** Tournament play and competitive strategy using IC data

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[product_strategy]** Stern investing in connected features (IC) and persistent progression mechanics (Pokemon Pokédex, Venom saved progress, D&D character progression) as strategic differentiator vs. competitors (Jersey Jack, Spooky) (confidence: high) — Extended discussion of IC's competitive advantage; multiple machines featuring new saved-progress tech; hosts emphasize Stern's innovation leadership
- **[product_concern]** Stern removed session activity view from IC homepage in prior update; hosts want this restored as it reduced insight into play patterns (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'There's one feature that it's not really a feature... that I so wish they would bring back' and Mike's clear frustration about finding session data
- **[community_signal]** Location-based IC leaderboards driving player engagement and repeat visits to arcade/bar venues; competitive drive to top leaderboards increases quarter spend (confidence: high) — Mike: 'the location leaderboard is just revolutionary for pinball'; Electric Bat podcast cited as confirming revenue impact at venues
- **[competitive_signal]** Tournament players using IC data and historical results to inform game selection strategy (looking up opponent average scores, playtimes, prior tournament outcomes) (confidence: high) — Mike and Stephanie describe 'competitor research' using IC stats during league finals; comparison to MLB scouting practices
- **[community_signal]** IC community events (Grind/Grand Prix, badge challenges, leaderboard competitions) creating sustained engagement and skill development; one-month Grand Prix drove intense play sessions (200+ plays per game per player) (confidence: high) — Stephanie played Avengers 200+ times in one week during Grind event; both hosts credit event with improving skills; multiple challenge formats mentioned
- **[rumor_hype]** Speculation about Stern's Fallout pinball with advanced IC features; Spooky's Planet of the Apes mentioned as competitor release (confidence: medium) — Mike: 'if the rumors are true, Fallout comes out?' — framed as unconfirmed speculation; no concrete announcement cited
- **[design_innovation]** Stern pioneering saved-progress mechanics in pinball (Pokemon Pokédex, Venom boss progression, D&D character leveling/story) that bridge traditional pinball with video-game progression; hosts credit this as major innovation (confidence: high) — Extensive discussion of D&D features; Stephanie: 'they're kind of bridging the gap between, like, video gaming and pinball'; Venom and Pokemon examples
- **[product_strategy]** Stern's resource limitations acknowledged by hosts; small-to-mid-sized company despite market dominance; constrains feasibility of ambitious features like online head-to-head play (confidence: high) — Mike: 'they are like a small to mid-sized company... limited resources and money and person power'; framing future features as budget-dependent
- **[content_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast dedicating full episode to Stern IC advocacy; hosts promoting underrated industry innovation; educational positioning for casual players (confidence: high) — Episode entire focus on IC; Mike: 'I know a lot of people... don't really utilize it'; educational framing throughout
- **[sentiment_shift]** Hosts credit IC as primary factor in renewed pinball interest; IC stickiness directly tied to game ownership and location visits (confidence: high) — Mike: 'I feel like it is also a big reason why we started playing pinball again before we got this the jaws machine'; repeated emphasis on IC as engagement driver
- **[venue_signal]** Multi-machine venues (Pinball on Perry, Tilt Amusements, Poor Bros) investing in IC setup with centralized leaderboard displays; supporting competitive community and casual engagement (confidence: high) — Hosts mention leaderboard displays at multiple venues; hosts travel specifically to play machines at certain locations; IC as location differentiator
- **[business_signal]** Stern's IC ecosystem positioning as competitive moat vs. Jersey Jack and Spooky; lack of equivalent app in competitor machines creates adoption lock-in and user preference (confidence: medium) — Mike comparing IC favorably to Jersey Jack/Spooky alternatives; noting IC as unique advantage; no apps mentioned for competitors

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## Transcript

hello uh hello welcome to the punk rock pinball podcast episode 42 stephanie i'm mike this is the show we're the hosts of the show we're the hosts of the show and did you know if you're watching this or listening to this on this show we're featuring the pokemon pinball champion of bloomington illinois the launch party champ thanks honey stephanie pokemon pinball launch party champ the only launch party that's happened yet in bloomington illinois in central illinois In Central Illinois. I think. She's the Pokemon pinball champ of Central Illinois. No one better than her at Pokemon, unless you look at the GC on our Pokemon at home. Doesn't matter. Did you do it in the tournament? I did, and I failed. So, yeah. Pressure got to you. I didn't even make the final. No, you didn't. No. I went into Friday's tournament with, like, I don't know. I mean, I really wanted it, let's be honest. If there's a plaque involved, launch party plaque, I want it. It's my third one. And I do believe this was your first open tournament victory. This is not a women's tournament. This is an open tournament. Yeah, my other two I got in women's launch parties for King Kong and X-Men. And I think it's the first open tournament victory for either of us. I've never ever – well, I won the pin golf, but I don't know if that really counts. That wasn't – no, that doesn't count. I mean, it was a punk art pinball tournament. Well, I guess it does. And I won it. It was open. Was there a plaque? There was no plaque. Well, then it doesn't count. It was a plaque-free tournament. We don't have plaques for every tournament. I'll tell you what, though, and then we can get into the show. But when I was playing my last ball, I thought I was going to faint. I think I stopped breathing. I think I was holding my breath. Well, we both felt woozy coming out of there. We both were feeling dizzy. But I think I was holding my breath. You might have been. Like when I do when I have to get a shot. Or blood drawn. I hold my breath for too long and almost pass out. And I feel like I was like, breathe, just get through this. You can do it. And I really felt like I just left it all out there. You did. You put up a good number. That game was playing tough. You shot. 178, I think. 178 or 180 something. It was a good game. Solid game. Funny story about that tournament. at the beginning of the tournament, as everyone's playing their ball one, the alarms on everyone's phones and the whole place go off. Like, the boop, boop. There's a tornado warning. Did we care? The tornado was, like, just west of us, and everybody kind of pulled out their phone, looked at it, like, oh, there's going to be a tornado, put it back in their pockets, and, like, nobody was phased, really. Nobody stopped playing pinball. We all kind of looked like, oh, tornado warning, and then back to pinball. I mean, what are you going to do? Yeah. You can't do anything. Keep on playing. Just might as well play pinball. If we're going to go down, we might as well go down doing what we love. That's right. Today is Easter. It is Easter. We just went on a road trip up to northwest Indiana to my sister's house and back. You know what else today is? What? Joe Sharp's birthday. Happy birthday, Joe Sharp. Happy birthday to our friend and pinball pal, Joe Sharp. The third. Number one ranked punk rock pinball association player in the world. That's Joe. Joe Sharp. So happy birthday, Joe. Happy birthday to you. We're glad you were born. And I'm going to apologize ahead of time if I end up like repeating myself or stumbling or something through this episode. I'm on back-to-back nights of like gnarly insomnia. I've had very little sleep, so I'm going to do my best. Yeah, if anybody has tips for Mike on how to overcome sleep issues. Or better yet, if any of you are a medical doctor and want to write prescriptions for Lunesta, email me. If you want to write questionable prescriptions for the sleeping medication Lunesta, I would love to have some. Well, I know you have no safety net right now. You could email me at mike at punkrockpinball.com. Or no, that's not my email address. It needs to be. Mike at livefromtherockroom.com. See what happens when you don't sleep. I don't even know my email. Who are you? Mike at livefromtherockroom.com. Email me a prescription for Lunesta, two milligrams. Call it into the mire. Or you better yet phone it into the mire in normal Illinois. way. But today we're going to talk about Stern Pinball's Insider Connected. I always call it Insider Connect. It's Insider Connect. I dropped my phone. You did. You should get it. Do you want me to get it? I'll get it. To look at the Insider Connected. You got to get a case on that. So if you're unaware, I do got it. I ordered a case. If you're unaware about what Stern's Insider connected is on any of the modern stern pinball machines you'll notice there's a little deal there where you can scan a qr code if you're a long-time pinball player you know all this this is old to you this is the boring part but people need to know but on the app you'll have i don't know if you can see that but you got your own qr code to scan that in it registers you on the game the game knows you're playing it and then it keeps track of things for you it's awesome and i feel like it is also a big reason why we started playing pinball again before we got this the jaws machine yes i agree i i think i think stern does not get nearly enough credit for insider connected and what it currently does and can do there's a lot of cool things it could do in the future but it is probably the most innovative thing to happen to pinball in the last 30 years. I agree. It's super cool. Because what it does is it gives you data on how you have played all of the Stern Insider Connected machines. For instance, Jaws, I can look up how many times I've played Jaws. Hey, let's look that up. Let's look it up. Who do you think has played more? You might have beat me at this point. So this is what I love about it, because I am I'm a numbers person. I'd say data nerd. I'm like a data nerd, so I love to just play, you know, I have fantasy sports teams. I like looking at the numbers. I like looking at our podcast numbers. I like looking at the comments. How many comments did we get? How many likes did we get? I just like seeing numbers associated with the activities I participate in. Okay, I'm looking at my JAWS Insider Connect. Connected. Insider Connected. My IC, my Stern IC app. Okay. Looking at JAWS. Let's compare our stats on JAWS. Okay. My games played. Yep. So this takes into account the pro we used to have and anywhere else that I've scanned in outside of our house. Yep. And I would also say there's a lot of times I play JAWS and I don't scan in. Same. So like our actual plays on JAWS are more than this. This is how many plays we've had scanned into the game. I'm 1,459. I have 1,415. Oh, I got you still. You've got me on that one. And my average score is not that great. You would think it would be better. What's your average score on Jaws? 101. My average score on Jaws is 120,767,586. Okay. What's your high score? My high score, this is so frustrating. My high score is 929,196. And I've been there and just below that like a dozen or more times. And every time it's like, this is the time I'm going to get the billion. Yeah. Haven't done it. What's yours? 869,000, which is pretty good. But it's funny that my average score, I mean, it has been creeping up. Yeah. But a lot of the, when we first got the Jaws Pro, we played a ton of games every day. Tons. And I struggled to get consistently over 50,000. Million. That's what I meant, million. I mean, a lot of times, yes, our average scores on Jaws represent hundreds of games played when we were brand new, and we would shoot routinely like 20 million to 30 million points a game. And if you'd got 60 million, you're like, whoa, you killed it. Yeah. But that's part of our story. It is part of our story. So Insider Connected. Connect. Whatever. I just can never remember. Sorry. IC, which also is like interstitial cystitis. Yeah, which I have. It's an autoimmune disorder that Mike has. I guess it's an autoimmune disorder, but something like that. It is. Anyways, there's so much more. you can look at your individual games yep you can earn badges there's badges there's achievements but i love that this is so awesome every game you've ever played scanned in is in there you can go see your high score your last score your average score on every game and it is and oh go ahead oh and i feel like they're well you finish your thought sorry i'm gonna say if you're like into pinball and learning the rules of pinball like you're probably into numbers and data yeah so there's nothing else even close to this like you know there's other things like scorebit and iScore where you have to like log scores it's not going to tell you your average score on these games how many times you played all these games this like you scan the thing and because like we got our pokemon a couple weeks ago and then i take a screenshot of my Pokemon numbers, send them to our friend Jeff who just got his Pokemon. Like, how are you doing? I've got 198 plays, you know, and these are my scores. You can't do that. You know, if you've got like a Jersey Jack or Spooky or whatever else, you can't. They have nothing like that. They don't. But there are things that you can do to have like a shared leaderboard because that's how the Stern leaderboard is also, if you go on location, it's based off of the scans into the IC piece of the machine That another beauty of Insider Connected The location leaderboard is just revolutionary for pinball, which is kind of a competitive game. You go to a place that has multiple stirring games, there's usually a big TV and it's got the leaderboard for each game. It's happened multiple times where we'll go to an arcade or a location to play pinball machines because they've got something we haven't played yet, like at Pinball on Perry. And then you look at the leaderboard, the Stern leaderboard that they have up, and sometimes they're so juicy, you're like, I could be number one in all these games. So you end up jamming on games that you play all the time just because you want to get on the damn leaderboard. Yeah. Like every time we've gone to Pinball on Perry in Attica, Indiana, we go there like we went there explicitly once to play evil dead we went there specifically to play dune we went there specifically to play winchester we went there to specifically play beetlejuice and we did play those games when we went there and they have a lot of other really cool games that we don't own or don't have around but then you see these scores on the leaderboard and you're like well, I've got to take down that Jaws score. Yeah. I've got to take down that John Wick score. Like, John Wick score is $120 million. Pish-posh. That can't stand, you know? Yes. So I think the leaderboard for locations, if you own a location, and this has been confirmed if you watch, like, the Electric Bat podcast, they talk all the time about how they're having the IC leaderboard really drives people to be putting more quarters into the games. Everybody wants to get on the leaderboard. And when you get on there, it's like you celebrate it. It's a big deal. Yeah. High five your friends. Or you congratulate your friend. We have a leaderboard set up at our HQ. And every time we go there, the first thing I do is check the scores. Everybody does. Sometimes it's like, oh, Kev shot 400 million or whatever on The Walking Dead. Good job. Or Joey just shoots a billion on Guardians. So it's cool to just see people's progress. Especially if you have a local place where a lot of people know each other that play, and you go there maybe on a different day, and you can see, like, oh, that was Joe, and he put up all these scores. Wow. Or you go to a location. like we before we started going to poor bros a lot you see names up there and you're like who is this person and then you finally get to meet him and it's kind of cool like i've seen your name up on the leaderboard all the time yeah because yeah poor bro is like uh that matt richards his his uh i think screen name is like m richards or something we call mr richards because that's how i read it me too but he's usually like number one or two across the board at poor bros and it's like who's this guy okay it's that guy it's that guy uh-huh yeah pretty cool so that's a that's a a cool part of insider connected um the other thing that i think is cool and i'm sure like the other pinball manufacturers can also do this in a way is I know Stern looks at how people are playing, because pretty much every pinball machine, new pinball machine is connected to the internet. Yeah. They can see where people might be struggling with shots, or they can't really see struggling with shots. They can know this mode, nobody gets to this mode. They have the ability to look at the data, so as they're evolving the code, they can change things, which I think is cool. Because they can also, with Insider Connected, it isn't just general either. They could say, like, all right, these people who are, like, clearly very good, these specific people have an average of 500 million or more, and they're also struggling with a shot or not a shot, getting to a mode. They can really, really nerd out in the data. Yeah, and I think they can see, like, how long the average, like, ball time is, like what are playtimes like and that talking about we'll get into maybe some features we wish that it had there's one right there i think they could add i would love to see so there's you go into the app on the home screen you click games and it has every game there you click the game shows you how many plays latest score top score average score right below that what would be awesome if they would give you is your average play time on the game. Ooh. Like on Jaws, it typically takes you 15 minutes to play a game of Jaws. Would you use that to decide what game you're going to play? I just think it would be a cool number to see. It would also be cool if you knew a lot of other people as like a tournament director to see how... I know those numbers would be variable from people. Some people are good at this game, bad at another. But it's like if everyone you know takes a half hour on Jaws, but like 10 minutes on Wick, maybe you have a tiebreaker round. It's like it's going to go on Wick because everyone plays long on Jaws. Or maybe to see like a community average play time, like which games play the longest, which games play the shortest. And they have that data. and they could spit that to you. I think it wouldn't take a lot of code to be able to spit your average playtime and kind of where that stacks against the... Like, if you go to your top scores, it'll tell you if, like, top 5%. Yeah. And kind of where you rank in the playtime of the game. That'd be interesting to know. Just as a numbers nerd, it doesn't mean anything, but it would be cool to see. That would be cool to see. Like, how long does it take me to play Jaws vs. Led Zeppelin vs. John Wick vs. Pokemon? Because I don't know. i think that would be really interesting and to compare because i mean usually the longer you play the better your score yeah what i would love to see what here's where the numbers nerd really comes in do tell i would love to see like because i would guarantee that like joe sharp averages more per game on jaws than me and his high score is probably double mine but i would like to see is my game time comparable to Joe? Which would mean I'm doing most of what he's doing, but it would indicate that your rules knowledge is insufficient versus the player. Like, let's say we both average 15 minutes per game on Led Zeppelin, but my average score is 115, yours is 90. That would mean I probably, you're as good at it as me. like you're playing as long, but maybe I know some where to go, where to shoot. So when, if you could compare with like better players to see like, okay, well his game time is like 10 minutes more than me. So I just need to make more shots or am I making enough shots, but I'm not making the right shots at the right time. Yeah. It's data you could use to improve your skills. Okay. I would like to hear, see that too. Mm hmm. Mm. you can also friend people in insider connected yeah you can follow them i i think that's a feature they could make a little more robust yeah we were a little like we had we were a little sneaky at our our um league finals yeah because we had to choose games to play against people and so we looked up what like the games available and looked up our friends to see what was their average score on those yeah i mean we know you can shoot better and worse but getting an average score is kind of interesting to look at and compare there was also a little other data digging that some other people were doing as well which was very interesting looking at the tools of um previous results of different tournaments and stuff to help help guide your choices i don't think that's against the rules no that's like competitor research yeah i mean all like college and professional sports have scouts that go watch the other teams and in the major league baseball they have data there's like a spray chart for every batter and if you go to like a live mlb game when a new guy comes up to the plate you'll see the outfielders all move infielders remove because they know where that guy's most likely to hit the ball yep because they've done the competitive research and crunched the numbers so that's what we were doing that is what we are doing we're looking in my case it failed i lost well you know what sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but anyways it is you can um you can look up you can look up people they also give you a list of um names of people from stern that you'd like some of the designers you might want to follow and that's kind of interesting to just see their scores on things yep you can also use it now i will say the pinball map app is the best way to find pinball locations oh yeah totally but if you want to find a specific stern machine near you like there's a feature you can search it and it will tell you where it is yeah so you can use the insider connected app to find locations for that sole purpose i would recommend the pinball map app over insider connected but you can use insider connected for that yeah that's cool if you're like where's a pokemon near me you can search that and it'll show you bing bing boom bing bing boom It's at the theater or your house. It's at Bloomington Owl House. Stephanie's a champion. It felt so good. It wasn't the high score either on that machine. Not even close. It was just the high score of the moment. High score of the moment. That's all you needed. It was the high score of those four players in the final match. That was great. It was so good. What's another thing that you like about the app? Because I have one that I hope you say. You do it. Okay. So they do these community events where you can earn badges by playing different machines and completing challenges. But like a year ago, December, they did this thing. I don't even remember what it was called. The Grind. Oh, yeah. It was like a Grand Prix. It was so fun. It was races where every game, there was a maximum you could earn 50 points per game or so by completing objectives in the game. I really did grind on that and I was near the top of that for a while you were like the number one person for a moment for like a day or two and these other guys flew past me and it was all Avengers Infinity Quest because I could pop you maybe could get 75 to 100 points if you did everything but I had a way on Avengers Infinity Quest every game I could get 50 points pretty quickly and then I would drain my last ball and then start again and get those 50 points. I played Avengers like- Hours. Probably 200-something times in one week. Well, we got better at Avengers because of a lot of the games, actually. We got pretty good at it because of that. I forgot what it was called. Something to do, some kind of Grand Prix. I just call it the grind. The stern grind. It was almost like pin golf in a way. Totally like pin golf. Because there's specific objectives. Like if you start the carnage multiball in Venom, that's 20 points. If you get the extra ball, that's 10 points. And the objectives for each game and the games to add objectives would change every week. so like this week on jaws it might be like start scars and and start the night swim mode but then next week it's going to be a different thing yeah and they ran that for like a whole month i feel like it was a month three or four weeks and it really gave you a reason to just hammer on these games oh my god we went bonkers on it like it was it was insane uh-huh and like people were coming over and playing and uh yeah we were a little obsessed with that yeah well we really did learn the shots on avengers infinity quest really well and i got better at venom i think that around that time is when i shot three billion points on venom because venom was my second go-to in the so i was playing venom like a hundred times a week and then it was after that it ended and i was just playing for score i got like 3.1 billion points on venom which is my best score on any modern stern but i was coming off of fresh playing venom like 30 times a day i want to do more of those i know they have like community challenges like beat this score where if you have a high score you can submit it and then you are part of the badge yeah you're you're in the badge. That's cool. I think Dory had one from Dory. Retro Ralph had one. I think Kale, the electric bat had one. I submitted one. They didn't pick me. I submitted a really good one. I submitted one for $580 million on John Wick. Well, maybe they'll do it again. If they do it again, I'm going to try again. But it's got to be a score you shot right now. Right. Because you have to take a picture. Get your picture made with it. Get your picture made with that score. So, yeah, those events are really cool that they do on Insider Connected. There's one feature that it's not really a feature. It's just a way where this information was that used to be that they took away in an update previously that I so wish they would bring back. Do tell. So on the main home page, you used to be able to scroll down a little bit, and it would be like your activity. Oh, yeah. And then it would show me, our setup here is called Sharky Pearl's Game Room. And it would tell me the whole session during that period of time. You have four plays on Jaws, six plays on John Wick, seven plays on Led Zeppelin. And I just loved to see that. We would go over to Tilt Amusements in DeKalb for a couple of their events. And on the ride home, we'd be like, okay, how many games did you play? and be like, I played 55 games. And I played Foo Fighters nine times. I played Godzilla three times. So you had your whole session there, recap, like how many plays in a game, your high score, was right there on the homepage. Now you have to, that session info is not really there anywhere the way it was. No, and if it is, it's very hard to find. If it is, I can't find it. So that's in not a good enough place because I've clicked all over trying to find also tilt indicator not decalb did i say decalb to see i'm this is why i've apologized beforehand with the lack of sleep i know tilt amusements is indicator illinois not decalb illinois no thank you for correcting me it's all right but yeah i miss seeing like the i think it was just like your activity or whatever and it would give you like your session like if you had a session of playing for a couple hours it would tell me how many total. Because we used to sit at the end of the day even at home, like, how many did you play today? Oh, I played 17. What was your best game? It's all right there. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Yeah, maybe, I mean, the data's there. Maybe they will bring it back because there's going to be an update to the app. It's got to be. There's going to be. Because they have to integrate the Pokedex. Yeah, I've got to get the Pokedex. Not in there yet. It will be, though. It has to be coming soon. So that's probably my top feature request to bring back one that was previously there. So all you've got to do is just turn that back on. Turn it back on. You don't even have to probably write new code. You just have to put that back on the homepage. Hey, Stern, turn it back on. But what else would you, what future, because I feel like kind of the sky's the limit. I know they're limited by budget and resources. Again, everyone in pinball thinks Stern is this behemoth. because they are the biggest pinball manufacturer, yet they are like a small to mid-sized company. They're not Walmart. They're not Amazon. They're not Meta. They're not Kroger. Like, it's a small company with limited resources and money and person power. so given that like what would you what would you love to see added to insider connected that might be feasible hmm i didn't even think about this didn't think about it did you no i know like one feature a lot of people have been calling for and i would love to see i just don't see them being able to do it based on It's a fantasy world. This isn't a fantasy thing because I'm sure the financial investment to this would be monumental. Which would be head-to-head online play. Oh. So like we have a Jaws here. Joe and Shelly have a Jaws at their house. And maybe even like messaging through the app would be, but we could text them. It's like, 9 o'clock, let's play Jaws head-to-head. I'm going to challenge you. And so, like, in real time, like, I can see Joe's score somewhere up on my screen and what ball he's on, and he can see mine. That's cool. Now, I don't think, what they're lacking, this is where, like, if Jersey Jack had this kind of app, like, they've got the camera in the game already. So I could see Joe's face. These games don't have cameras in them. But I'm sure you could get a camera accessory. I bet there's somewhere in that game you could plug in a camera on the board. And that's more accessory money for Stern. Get your $100 camera or whatever put on top of your game. But yeah, head-to-head play remotely. That'd be cool. Would be really super awesome. I just feel like the server bandwidth and everything they would need is probably way more in terms of money and and developer needs probably bigger than what they can do but that would be cool that would be really cool i mean it's totally doable like absolutely doable the technology is there and you know in the world but that would that That would be really cool. Yeah. Be like NBA fast break, but virtually. Yeah, like in real time. I'm playing against Joe or Shelly. Another feature they do have on a lot of the games that we didn't talk about was a lot of the games feature like saved progress. Oh, yeah. Like Pokemon. Also very groundbreaking in pinball. Pokemon has it. It remembers how many Pokemon you've caught so far. venom i've caught 40 i've caught 29 i don't know venom has it so as you progress through venom you're trying to fight the different bosses and it would be extremely hard to get to fight null in a three ball game of venom but it saves your progress dungeons and dragons has it like way upped over what Venom has, where you have your levels on your characters and items for your characters. There's like trinkets. There's like a hundred-something trinkets you can get for your characters on D&D. It remembers your progress in the story on the game. Oh, really? Yeah. I've never really played that in a place where I can really get into it. I know we've only really played D&D kind of in... A competitive environment? I mean, we did go when it first came out to the comic or to the game store. Yeah, but we're just learning the game there. I know. And they didn't have a lot of these features then that they do now. Yeah, it was real early code. I don't even know if they update the code on that machine. Who knows? But that one, so there, with D&D especially, they're kind of bridging the gap between, like, video gaming and pinball, where, like, you've got a character and you can level them up, and it saves your progress towards the main quest line. And I just don't think in general they've gotten enough credit for the innovation behind all of that stuff to bring that to pinball. It's pretty awesome. It's awesome. It's really awesome. And I think everything that they've learned on those games, like you said, the Venom and the Wick and Dungeons and Dragons, it seems like they're applying the potential for more into Pokemon, which is really cool. And if the rumors are true, Fallout comes out? Mind-blown, because that's going to be bonkers. Yeah. What they could do with Fallout is insane. With Insider Connected. If they take... Because what they do with D&D is really cool already. And then if you kind of up that, what they do with Fallout could be incredible. I mean, between Fallout potentially coming, Spooky working on Planet of the Apes. We need more money. Gotta make more money. Oh my God. Oh my God But yeah hopefully this was fun to listen to I know a lot of people that listen to this are probably like yeah i know what insider connected is but well i think don know or like why should i do it i don't really utilize it and it was a really sticky feature for us super yeah and also the other thing that i really love is they kind of do the end of the year rap like spotify and they tell you how many i think they tell you how many hours you played how many games you've played, how many different games, how many locations. I might be making some of that up. And let me know in the comments below. I've yet to see anybody that played more games on Insider Connected All Access than me in the year 2025. Let's see. I've seen some good numbers. I haven't seen one that was – I'm sure somebody – I'm not the number one in terms of games played. What did Kat Davis do? She shared it, I think. I've played more. Maybe she doesn't scan in all the time. I played at 31 locations last year. Let's see. Where's the locations? I don't know. It was my very first one. Okay. I played at 44 locations. Where were you? I went on, I did some shows, I think, in 2025, didn't I? I don't think so. I played at 44 locations. Where was I? I don't know. Not where I was, I guess. I played 30 out of 32 connected titles last year. Where are you seeing it? On the third one. The third one. I played 31 out of 32. Wow. I wonder what I'm missing here. I won 270 multiplayer games. I won 135. I lost 224. I lost 184. I played with 97 different Insider Connected All Access users. How many followers do you have? 13. What the hell? I have five. I don't know. Where are my people? I don't know. I've got 13. Does someone else follow me? How many followers does Retro Ralph have on Insider Connected All Access? I don't know if you can see that. Probably a lot more. Probably. Probably a lot more. I don't even know how to... Well, he's probably Retro Ralph. And then if you go to the milestones, year in review, games played. I had 1,839 games played. Insider Connected All Access 2025, 3,236. You almost doubled mine. If you've played more than that let me know in the comments below. And if I was better at shipping I would send you a Punk Rock Pinball t-shirt. Maybe we will. I could do it. Maybe we will. Let us know in the comments below. I still have the one for Ralph in a bag. I need to... it's coming Ralph. It's coming Ralph. We just... we are terrible at returning movies. Back in the day library books. Man, the overdue fees at Hollywood Video and Blockbuster. Oh, my gosh. Do not give us a video rental card. No video rental cards here. Whoa, so bad. Terrible. Oh, man, I forgot about that. Oh, God, the worst. I played 328 days last year. Oh, my God, I played 291. You're nuts. So I was hardcore. Well, you're still hardcore. 3,236 plays. Let me know if you've played more than that or know anybody that's played more than that. Now, keep in mind, that's only Insider Connected All Access games. I've probably played at least close to 2,000 other games. So I've probably played over 5,000 games. This is very interesting, the network. I know we're like a quarter of the way through 2026, and we're doing the year of review of 2025, but I don't give a shit. Doesn't matter. So year in review, days played, the average Insider Connected All Access community average for days played in 2025, 17. Yep, and I had 328. I have 291. How about Stern XP? You can earn XP by earning achievements and stuff in the games? Mm-hmm. Community average, 1,173. I had 17,137 XP. Wow, I had almost 11,000. Huh. Yeah. It's just cool, super cool data. And I know there are people that want it to do more, and I'm sure Stern wants to do even more with this. But I love it to just have that data to see what I did. It's just fun to know. It's just really, it makes you feel good about your nerdery. Yeah. Doesn't it? Uh-huh. It makes me feel real good about my nerdery. It just is like, all right, I did something. Uh-huh. Now you have a record of that. Yeah, it's great. Because if I go play Bally System 11 machines at the HQ all day for four hours, I've got no record of that other than what's in my memory, which clearly I said Tilt is in DeKalb, so how much can we rely upon my memory? We can't. We can't, but we can rely on the app. That's why I love the app. I don't have to remember. It's right there in the app. It's just so interesting. It is very interesting. You can also buy your Stern gear right in here. Good move, Stern. But there are announcements. There's just it's interesting stuff. You should do it. Yep. Become a nerd. Maybe I'll put our our Insider Connected All Access names up here and people can friend with us because I'm as a nerd enough into this. Like, it really makes it... Pinball machines are very expensive and it makes it a challenge for me to want to buy any modern pinball machine that is not a Stern. And there are some others that I love. Would love to have an Elton John pinball machine. Would love to have an Evil Dead pinball machine. I would love to have a Dune pinball machine. Would love to have a Beetlejuice pinball machine. There's so many good ones. So many good ones. But you're spending, you know, $10,000. That's a lot of money. If I had any of those pinball machines, I can't look here and see what I did for the whole last year or the last day on the machine. And I like to have that info. Now that you know it's possible, you want it. Now that I know it's possible. You want it. So I lean towards wanting a Stern. That among other reasons, but that's a big reason. They hooked you. They hooked me. You've got me with the IC. George Gomez, you mad genius. Uh-huh. It's pretty awesome. It is probably the biggest innovation of pinball. Like since the DMD? Since flippers. It's flippers because you had the flippers, you had the EMs, and then going to solid state was a big jump. Multiball and then higher power multiball. And then you had ramps. Then you went from solid state machines to the DMD. But you have a display. Mind blown. Then you went from that era to the LCD display where you have real video clips and stuff. That's the next huge to me. Well, you also had like the ramps and the subways like some subways and stuff. And kind of blows your mind. I think. And yeah, Fun House. Different mechanical. But if you're talking about like kind of technology, technological innovations, going from like EM to solid state to the DMD displays to the LCD, I feel like technologically that Insider Connected, it is the biggest thing since like the LCD display. Totally. And to me, like more important than the LCD display, I would say. Also, I mean, part of LCD is also the uh connectivity to the internet. Yeah, where you can update the code online. Yeah, that's kind of big deal. Kind of stuff. And like, they all, like the Spooky games that you can update over the air. Yeah, but I'm just saying that's a cool innovation. It's a great innovation. I mean, like we want we wanted to update the Ripley's and had to get a ROM. I still don't even know what that is. Take a thing out of the game and put it... I mean, the Stern or the new Spooky or whatever, you just go on the menu and update it. There it goes. That's kind of cool. Bingo. But I agree. Insider Connected. It kind of modernizes the whole thing a little bit. Yes. Yeah. Also, sometimes Stern... Stern did a thing for Jaws last year where there was a game. Yeah there was like a Shark Hunter game. Yeah. Um, I forgot how it even went. I can't remember either. But it was like a game in the app. Yeah. I want them to do more of that. Maybe they'll do some of that with Pokémon. Yeah, a little Pokémon game inside the app where like you can only catch it in the app. That'd be cool. Like a Mimikyu. They catch it in the app but then you have to scan in on the game to register it. It makes you complete some kind of shots in the game to do it. Oh, okay. That'd be really cool. Like you scan it and it knows, like, because you plunge ball one, it's like, you've got the Mimikyu. Now you need to hit the right ramp three times and then hit the left ramp if you want to keep them. Otherwise, you're going to go catch them again and start the whole process over. I can't wait for the challenge modes. I call them the little bonus games. I can't wait for those because that's also part of your Insider Connected All Access. It gives you access to the challenge modes in their games that have them. Well, you can play those without Insider Connected All Access. Can you? I don't know I don't think you can. What do you mean? I don't know, I don't think you can. You just go up and hold the two flippers. Hold the two flippers. Like every Jaws, you can go play all these modes. Oh, I didn't know that. I thought you had to scan it. No, they're in there. Okay. So you can go play The Shark is Broken on every Jaws. But here's what. But you can't play the Jaws, the Shark Hunter Challenge. Oh. Or the 4th of July. You have to be logged in. You have to be logged in and you have to have shark teeth. Oh, you need the shark. Yeah, in Jaws you earn shark teeth. That allows you to play these modes. Another cool thing on Jaws. I have a lot of shark teeth. Me too. It's like ridiculous. I have shark teeth. Anyways. All right. We're rambling on here a little bit. Sorry, Kev. But it's fine. It was light out when we started, and now it's dark. Yeah. Thank you for listening and watching and doing what you do. If you comment, thank you even more. Thank you. If you've got anything else you'd like us to talk about on future episodes, let us know in the comments below. We'd love your input. Yeah, we do. Yeah. We take it to heart. Yeah. We read the reviews. We read the comments, read the reviews. Try to make adjustments accordingly. Yeah. Unless it's Kev yelling at me about rambling, and that's like, well, this is how we are. This is how we are. You know that. You went to lunch with us the other day, you know. Yep. But, yeah, thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v4)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 697eba1b-ad0b-48c1-bfae-c6379b1c840f*