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THIS WEEK IN PINBALL – 8/30/21: Stern Announces Insider Connected, Elwin Game Coming in September, Gomez Interview, Ben Heck Talks Deeproot, and Halloween and Alien Updates

THIS WEEK IN PINBALL – 8/30/21: Stern Announces Insider Connected, Elwin Game Coming in September, Gomez Interview, Ben Heck Talks Deeproot, and Halloween and Alien Updates

August 30, 2021 • Time to Read: 13 minutes

Stern Launches Insider Connected Platform

Last week Stern Pinball announced their Insider Connected Platform, which will launch a new era of pinball and change how pinball enthusiasts can interact with pinball machines! Check out the videos below:

George Gomez was interviewed on the Stern Insider Pinball Podcast where he discussed more about this new platform:

It includes features for players and operators
You’ll log into the machine using a QR code
On the display you’ll see your avatar and your info
Track achievements
Forums will be part of the new platform
Privacy settings are set by the user
Games can be connected to wifi or hardwired
Games will download and do automatic updates
17 games that can be connected to the new platform
Kits will be available to buy for previous games, you’ll get a new bottom arch for the game
Moving forward, all games will have this built in
Achievements will be like a new ruleset on top of your existing ruleset, and will be custom for each game
“Verified” or achievements with a checkmark will show for games on location
At launch, 7 games will be achievements-ready, hoping for all 17 games by December
You can earn profile badges (example: played 100 times you get a shirt or something)
Games will have treasure chests eventually (both virtual, and physical – example: you win a free Stern hat)
Many possibilities for partnerships with locations
Operator alerts for issues

Click here to listen to the full episode on Stern’s website!

New Keith Elwin Game Coming in September

During the interview on the Stern Insider Pinball Podcast, Gomez also dropped some information about the next Stern game:

“The September game is going to knock you on your ass. The September game, which is an Elwin game is just, I haven’t seen anything like this in a while. It’s pretty cool.”

Very exciting times at Stern Pinball and we can’t wait to see more – we’ll keep you updated here at TWIP as we learn more!!

Pinball Expo Announces Schedule of Events

Pinball Expo released their Schedule of Events and it is packed with interesting seminars based around exciting announcements coming in the next couple months – check it out!

Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast: Ben Heck Talks Deeproot

After news broke last week that the Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Robert Mueller and deeproot in a $58M investment scam, Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast interviewed Ben Heck to share the story of when Robert Mueller tried to buy Spooky Pinball. Here are just a few interesting parts of the interview:

Ben Heck: [Robert Mueller] gave us a deeproot notebook and a pen, and he also gave us his prospectus – his plan. It gave us all his numbers, his sales expectations. I want to say this was March of 2015…all Spooky had was America’s Most Haunted, I think they had just signed Rob Zombie, they had not announced it yet, it was before America’s Most Haunted really took off, which was at TPF [Texas Pinball Festival] 2015. So Spooky was still a little nebulous as far as its viability. Obviously Charlie [Emery] was there, I won’t say who else was there, just to be discrete. But there were other people there as well…

…it was just Robert the first time…he set up a meeting, it isn’t like he just walked in uninvited…I was still doing my corporate show back then…this was when Spooky was in a business incubator…we get the conference room to have this business meeting, and…Robert is…freaking obsessed with JPop. It is just ridiculous…

…his idea was that he wanted to buy Spooky Pinball for $0. We would become his employees…sweat equity, that old bullshit. And then he was going to move Spooky into a 40,000 square foot facility, even though there were no games to build. And the idea was we would fix and build the Zidware games…he’s obsessed with John [Popaduik]…

…Robert is one of those guys…that is like…put 10 Sterns in my basement, and then becomes a pinball fan…

…I still think John [Popaduik] is huge part of this, the whole company was built around him…

…he [Robert] was offering real money, even though he was basically going to take the company from Charlie, he was offering real money and real salaries. So it was tempting…he offered me about 120,000 a year for pinball, which was pretty good…

…we would basically become his employees, that was the plan…we actually considered it…I would have considered it, but John [Popaduik] was a constant, no matter what he was going to hire John…and for that…we’re out…none of us wanted to work with John…

…no matter what, John was a constant….and then look what happened…you could not underestimate how obsessed Robert was with John, it was like an infatuation, it was mind boggling…

They also discuss:

the Fire and Brimstone title
Robert wanting Disney quality animations
his recollections of Robert Mueller’s sales predictions
Robert looking into patenting everything and being a “patent troll”
much more

Start Your Quest on PINQUEST

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