Stern Insider Connected Setup - Getting Your Pinball Machine Online (SDTM & Flip N Out Pinball)

Flip n Out Pinball·video·10m 35s·analyzed·Oct 21, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Stern Insider Connected setup tutorial: account creation, Wi-Fi linking, and achievements tracking.

Summary

Zach Minney from Flippin' Out Pinball provides a comprehensive walkthrough of Stern Pinball's Insider Connected platform, demonstrating how to set up a new Godzilla machine with online connectivity. He covers account creation (free and paid tiers at $39.99/year), Wi-Fi setup through the machine's menu, QR code registration, and the achievements/XP tracking system that displays gameplay statistics and player progress across locations.

Key Claims

Insider Connected enables Stern games to go online, earn achievements, win promotions, and unlock exclusive content
high confidence · Zach Minney's opening explanation of the platform's core features
Insider Connected QR code decals on game boxes and machines are new to Stern pinball
high confidence · Zach states: 'I've never seen this on a Stern game before' when examining the Godzilla box decal
Free tier requires no payment; Premium 'All Access' tier costs $39.99 per year
high confidence · Zach demonstrates the signup page showing '$39.99 a year' for all-access membership
Games that came factory with Insider Connected apron have code already up-to-date; add-on aprons require a final code update
high confidence · Zach explains: 'if your game came factory with the apron...your code should be up to date' vs. 'if you had to add this Insider Connected accessory apron, you'll still need to do one final code update'
Only games played at public locations earn 'verified' points on leaderboards
high confidence · Zach notes: 'The only way to get verified points is on location' and shows 'verified zero' for his showroom play
Godzilla Pro version has 39 achievements total with 900 XP points to earn
high confidence · Zach demonstrates the achievements page showing '39' total and '55 XP out of 900 XP points'
Wi-Fi setup includes option to scan Wi-Fi QR code, manually find networks, or use USB Wi-Fi adapter
high confidence · Zach walks through menu showing 'scan the Wi-Fi QR code, or reset our USB Wi-Fi adapter' options

Notable Quotes

“Insider Connected is going to enable your Stern games to go online, to earn achievements, win promotions, and much, much more throughout this year, next, and so on.”
Zach Minney@ 0:44 — Core value proposition of Insider Connected platform
“This is no longer your grandparents' pinball machine. This is the 21st century, and pinball machines are now online.”
Zach Minney@ 9:04 — Positioning Insider Connected as a generational shift in pinball gaming
“The only way to get verified points is on location.”
Zach Minney@ 8:34 — Explanation of leaderboard verification mechanics, distinguishing location play from home play
“And that's just the tip of the iceberg as to what Stern Pinball's Insider Connected will bring in the next month, the next six months, the next year, and beyond.”
Zach Minney@ 9:11 — Teases future Insider Connected features and continued platform development

Entities

Zach MinneypersonFlippin' Out PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyInsider Connectedproduct GodzillagameStraight Down the Middle (SDTM)organizationPinball NetworkorganizationFlippinOutPinball.comcompany

Signals

?
community_signal: Insider Connected integrates social/competitive elements: leaderboards, achievements, XP progression, and location-specific verification mechanics
high · Platform shows user profiles, achievement counts (39 total on Godzilla Pro), XP progression (55/900), play history, and location tracking
$
market_signal: Stern positioning Insider Connected as multi-year feature roadmap ('the next month, the next six months, the next year, and beyond'), indicating ongoing platform development
medium · Zach teases: 'that's just the tip of the iceberg as to what Stern Pinball's Insider Connected will bring in the next month, the next six months, the next year, and beyond'
?
announcement: Stern Pinball's Insider Connected platform officially announced with QR code integration, achievements, XP tracking, and tiered membership (free/$39.99/year)
high · Zach demonstrates live account creation, Wi-Fi setup, and achievement tracking on new Godzilla machine with factory-installed Insider Connected apron and QR code
?
product_strategy: Insider Connected appears to be hardware/apron accessory that can be factory-installed or added retrofit, with associated code requirements for functionality
high · Zach notes games with factory apron have updated code, while add-on aprons 'require one final code update to qualify and enable Wi-Fi updating'
?
technology_signal: Stern implementing connected leaderboard and achievement system with location verification, differentiating location play from home play through 'verified points' mechanic

Topics

Insider Connected setup and configurationprimaryStern Pinball online connectivity and digital integrationprimaryAchievement systems and player progression trackingprimaryGodzilla pinball machinesecondaryWi-Fi and network setup for pinball machinessecondaryFree vs. premium membership tierssecondaryQR code registration and machine linkingsecondaryLocation-verified leaderboardsmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Zach is enthusiastic and excited about Insider Connected features throughout; uses phrases like 'super pumped,' 'super eager,' 'How cool is that?' and 'Way cool.' No critical commentary or concerns raised about the platform.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.032

Hello Hello everybody, I'm Zach Minney with Flip N Out Pinball, straight down the middle and the Pinball Network. I'm super happy you guys joined me today because Stern Pinball recently announced what they're calling Insider Connected. And I want to go through it with you today and what that means. Essentially, Insider Connected is going to enable your Stern games to go online, to earn achievements, win promotions, and much, much more throughout this year, next, and so on. But first we gotta figure out how to do it. I did notice, I'm super pumped to open up this Godzilla by Stern Pinball. Oh, I wanna play it so bad and I wanna get it online. The only thing I noticed about this, that's another video if you guys wanna watch an unboxing. So if you guys can see this decal here, this is new. I've never seen this on a Stern game before. But on the box it says, Insider Connected, scan this code to join. Don't scan my code. I don't know about you, but I am super eager to get online, get connected with Stern Pinball, and start opening up a can of Wabass to all of my friends out there and foes. Bink! Here we go. So I've got my phone out. Go to your phone's camera feature, and then we should be able to scan that QR, and then the link comes up at top. As you see, the browser will then link you to Stern Pinball's Insider Connected homepage. page. From there we can open up our own account, look at the forums, track scores, Team Stern, get started, sign me up! You can sign up for free using basic access, you can sign up for $39.99 a year, bye bye bye, using the old access, this will enable you to sneak peeks into the world of Stern, access to behind the scenes content, access to exclusive LE merchandise, on and so forth. Right now, I'm just going to sign up for free and ask you the country that you're living in, your birth date. You'll go next and boom! I'm connected! Check it out Boom Flip and out Zach Go ahead and follow me if you want to I also under the handle Zmini But once we get this wonderful Godzilla unboxed on the apron or the arch as they call it there's going to be a QR reader. All we have to do to get this game linked up and online in our database is scan that QR code right on the game. Now before we jump into Insider Connected and start battling fools, first we need to you jump online with this pinball machine. As a reminder, if your game came factory with the apron and the QR reader already in it, then your code should be up to date where you can jump in, hook up that Wi-Fi. However, if you had to add this Insider Connected accessory apron, you'll still need to do one final code update to qualify and enable Wi-Fi updating in the future. This one came from the factory with this Insider Connected apron. So we're going to go into the menu settings using the coin door buttons and set it up to our local Wi-Fi here at the showroom. We'll go to Stern Insider Connected Setup and press enter. We have Setup Connection, Test Connection, Stern Insider Connected, and Software Update. Let's go to Setup Connection, Wi-Fi or Wired. We are going to establish a Wi-Fi connection. We can find a Wi-Fi network, scan the Wi-Fi QR code, or reset our USB Wi-Fi adapter. We're going to go ahead and find our Wi-Fi network. for networks. There's me, the minis. I'll press enter and I will enter my password. Now that my password has been entered, it's trying to hook up to, okay, so it did. It hooked up already. That was simple enough. It's showing signal strength at a 73. I guess that's good. I I don't know. But the status is running, and it shows that we are connected. It also shows a QR code that says, use this code to set up any other games on this Wi-Fi network. We can test the connection if we'd like. Let's see how long it takes for a server ping and what speed we are running here Now after I tested my connection go down here press enter for Stern Insider Connected It says connected now Now you can exit the system, and you're ready to scan your QR code. I went to sternpinball.com, went to login, and asked for your login. Done. Done. Done. We are in. Flip it on, Zach. I'll press this QR code. Scan your QR code at the bottom of the machine to track your gameplay. I don't know if you all can see, but up here it now says, New machine registration pending. Complete registration. Okay, everything is filled out. Now I will agree to the terms of use. And, of course, I sent them off to my lawyer, and they read all of them. She said it looks good. I will complete my registration. We're good to go. Now that I've registered the game, I open up my Stern Insider profile, find the QR code, and scan it into the system. Now you'll see me up there, ZLM, and my username flipping out, Zach. I press start to start the game. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special report. I can't believe it. The enemy has arrived. Godzilla Multiball. Thank you. Okay, so I put a couple games on, went back onto my phone into the insider connected profile, and you'll see here it shows my last score, when I played it last, my user profile showing my player experience points achievements that I gained how many times I played it where I played it and then shows the latest achievements I can go to view all This is really neat So it shows how many achievements are on this game, 39 using the pro. I've got eight of those, 55 XP out of 900 XP points. I've got a long way to go. And then it highlights and gives me points for what I have achieved. How cool is that? Yeah, I didn't do very well. You don't have to rub it in. And you'll see up here it says verified zero. The only way to get verified points is on location. So, I'm playing here at the showroom. Not a public location per se. How cool is that? Now I'm going to want to go back and try to capture each of these achievements. Way cool. Well, there you have it. That's just a little taste of Stern Pinball's Insider Connected Online. This is no longer your grandparents' pinball machine. This is the 21st century, and pinball machines are now online. And that's just the tip of the iceberg as to what Stern Pinball's Insider Connected will bring in the next month, the next six months, the next year, and beyond. Just wait. Just, just wait. You still there? You thought I was going to close this video down without reminding you that if you're ready for a brand new Stern Pinball machine, there's one place that you should go. It's FlippinOutPinball.com. That's Flipp, the letter N, OutPinball.com. 812-457-9711. We would love to earn your business and to help you out for years to come. What's next? Are you going for the Godzilla? Call me, let's do it. Stern Pinball recently announced that they're calling Insider Connected. Insider Connected is an online program that gets your Stern machines... Okay, the first thing we're going to do is get out your phone, put it to the camera feature we're going to scan that QR code and by doing so it's going to do nothing the hell oh no