As mentioned here at PGM last week (see: Stern Insider Connected – Turn it on, Owners!), it seems odd paying $7-10,000 for a pinball machine (or leasing from a vendor for hundreds of $$$ a month + profit split), putting it in your business and not having *all* features that will help you drive repeat business. Stern’s Insider Connected feature is one of those features that, at least to me, is essential. I don’t want to play machines that can have this feature, but don’t have it registered on the network, as much, which means this is hurting the business from gaining more $$. Players like me won’t be at their establishment as long (or at all) and patronizing.
Talk is cheap, right? I agree, so rather than just whine on a webpage where these businesses probably won’t ever see or reply to, I need to take the feedback to them directly: in person, on their official website and social media pages.
Here’s what I’ve done so far in my area:
- Targeted two businesses that had Stern Spike 2 Machines but the Insider Connected wasn’t registered on the Stern network when I personally checked at their business. These two local businesses I found through PinballMap and the Stern Insider Locations mentioned. One is a newly opened arcade and pinball called Flip Off Arcade and the other is CaskCades, a barcade located in downtown Puyallup, also about 8 miles from our home.
- Flip Off Arcade – I wrote and shared a review Saturday 7/29/2023 here including the feedback in the review that registering Godzilla Pro on the IC network was needed. I also left this comment on Flip Off Arcade’s official Facebook and sent the owner/operator a message politely requesting this be fixed. I noticed it was added (see picture below). They also added air conditioning inside vs. the big portable A/C units they had previously.
- Caskcades – just called the store 7/29/2023 and asked them to get added. Waiting for response to see if any/most/all get registered on the network. Below pictured are Stern machines they have:
Starting yesterday, 7/29/2023, my son and I have started a father-son play pinball somewhere event together. We are going to go out on Saturdays for an undetermined number of weeks and play some pinball. Yesterday, we patronized Flip Off Arcade, but we have other businesses in mind that have pinball. Here are some of the pins we flipped yesterday:
- Family Guy (Stern 2007) – Stewie mini-game had no little ball, so no way to play that mode/minigame 🙁
- The Sopranos (Stern 2005)
- Tron Legacy (Stern 2011)
- Scooby Doo (Spooky 2023) – my son was somewhat interested in buying this one, but changed his mind after playing it
- Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle (Spooky 2018)
- Iron Man (Stern 2018)
- Starship Troopers (Sega 2007) – we really dug this one, see the PlayGamesMore Tiktok post below
- Alien [remake] (Pinball Brothers 2021)- right flipper was semi-broken and at times failed to function, grrr, spoiled the fun
- Godzilla (Stern Pro 2021) – played several games, we like this one a lot, too
- Iron Maiden (Stern Pro 2018) – Insider Connected was “offline” argh, but it is registered, at least
@playgamesmore Starship Troopers (SEGA, 1997) – “the only good bug is a dead one!” This pin is a lot of fun and definitely calls out to the movie. #sega #starshiptroopers #pinball #1990s ♬ original sound – playgamesmore
Do you have any family or friends regularly scheduled gaming events together scheduled? Share it with us in the comments.
UPDATE 2/29/2024 @ 12:24pm PST: Success! Caskcades now has registered two machines at their location: Godzilla Pro and James Bond 007 Pro.
