"Enjoy your new phone!"
- "What would you do with THE POWER?"
Dialed In! is Jersey Jack Pinball's third pinball machine. It was released in 2017, after The Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit. However, unlike many games, which were released as Licensed Pinball Tables, Dialed In! is completely original, designed by none other than Pat Lawlor.
The game takes place in a SimCity-like location, Quantum City, where the player happens to stumble upon a phone that controls or starts any of 11 disasters. Pinball players were quickly skeptical based off of the theme of the game when it was revealed at Pinball Expo 2016. However, Dialed In! became more universally appreciated and loved based on Pat Lawlor's clever design and creative freedom—something that was lacking during the late 90s and 2000s after the major success of The Addams Family and Twilight Zone.
"Hello. I'm calling from Dialed In Electronics. We have detected a problem with your trope page."
- 555: Right when a mode starts, the phone displays an incoming call with this area code.
- Alien Invasion: One of the game's disasters. Shoot the roving shot to spawn aliens at every major shot on the field.
- Alphabet News Network: The display is presented as a news broadcast from JJP Channel 8.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The kickback will stay on when the ball save is running, and will not deactivate the kickback if used. The kickback will only deactivate after being used, when the ball save is not running.
- If the kickback light is activated and a mechanical issue with the kickback post causes the ball to drain (or quick drain direct from the kickback) instead of being thrown back onto the playfield, the game gives you your ball back instead of treating the drain as an End of Ball.
- The first lock will be lit for free after the first disaster has been played, instead of having to light it manually. The first Multiball can also be played after a single lock.
- Appeal to Novelty: At the time of release, this is the only game to feature Bluetooth connectivity with smartphones.
- Big Bad: Dialed In Electronics, who seeks to reclaim the player's phone and must be fought directly in the Wizard Mode.
- Chekhov's Volcano: The Volcano disaster, and it can erupt at will, provided that the correct sequence of shots are made.
- Combos: Along with having several normal combos that light an extra ball when enough are made, the "Whirlwind" disaster awards a bonus if all four shots in the sequence are made as a single combo.
- Company Cameo: The main display is presented as a news broadcast from JJP Channel 8. The Alphabet News Network alludes to Jersey Jack Pinball, the company that made the game.
- Creator Cameo: Pat Lawlor cameos whenever you tilt.Pat Lawlor: "Hey, it's only pinball!"
- Creator Thumbprint: "The Power" returns. This time, it's in your hands.
- Death from Above: The Meteor Storm disaster. Thankfully, no one is harmed.
- Emoticon: "Emoji Overload" is a mode where emoji rapidly fill the screen, and the player has to make shots to clear them all out.Phone AI: "I hate emojis..."
- EMP: The EMP Strike disaster. Hit the Quantam Theater, but be prepared to "Feel the Power".
- Energy Weapon: Two (three, counting the QED figure) lasers on the playfield can attempt to attack your flippers during the main multiball mode, provided enough Jackpots are scored. Hitting the source of the laser scores a Super Jackpot.
- Evil Laugh: Prompted upon a successful laser impact on a flipper.
- Excuse Plot: Whatever story there is exists just to provide context for what's going on in-game. After that, you're just free to cause as much destruction as possible, like a Wide-Open Sandbox game.
- Fun with Acronyms: Dialed In Electronics.
- Golden Snitch:
- The Sim Cards, lit by completing certain features of the game. Not only do they award 100,000 points (a hefty amount of points in this game), but they also advance the Disaster scoring multiplier by 1 for each Sim Card collected. However, drain the ball when they're ready to be collected, and they'll go away, depending on how many are lit.
- The Big Bang. It gets harder to light each time, and the shot that activates it is tough, but if a mode is running when Big Bang is ready, it will instantly complete the mode for you and light a SIM Card at the risk of not scoring the normal points from the mode. During other modes like Under Attack Multiball, it will collect all the currently lit shots for you.
- Interface Screw: During "Under Attack Multiball", failing to repel attacks from Dialed In Electronics will cause your flippers to stutter.
- Let's Just See What WOULD Have Happened: If you tilt, the game shows how much bonus you would’ve obtained, had you not tilted.
- Match Sequence: The last two numbers appear in the clouds Bat Signal style from the Quantum Theater.
- Painting the Medium:
- How are the modes displayed in the game? On the playfield's phone as apps!
- Tilting the game also leaves virtual cracks on the phone, as if you've just dropped your new phone.
- Pinball Scoring: Downplayed. Good games are in the millions, even though scoring starts at a slow rate.
- Shout-Out: A staple of Pat Lawlor's games, they return here.
- Two disasters include "Earthshaker!" and "Whirlwind".
- EMP Strikes and some multiball modes activate magnets underneath the playfield that can propel balls randomly.
- Crazy Bob appears once again.
- The laser layout bears a striking resemblance to Lawlor's unreleased Pinball 2000 machine, Wizard Blocks. The Quantum Theater also implements a video display in which the ball can destroy objects.
- The final phone upgrade from SIM Cards is 9.2, a reference to the release date of one of Pat Lawlor’s most famous machines.
- The official Scorbit achievement for getting a Super Skill Shot is "I'm Super, Thanks for Asking," the catchphrase of the South Park character Big Gay Al.
- Signature Style: The "bumper shot" to the target for a Super Jackpot, the dual inlanes on the left side, the upper flipper shots, and the many playfield gimmicks all fit Lawlor's established style.
- Skill Shot:
- Plunge the ball behind the Quantum Theater to score one. The award chosen on the plunger lane varies.
- Shoot either the Sim Card hole or the side ramp to score a Super Skill Shot, which is usually an enhanced version of the award originally collected.
- Smart Bomb: The Big Bang, provided that a phone is connected to the machine.
- Spelling Bonus: B-O-B lights Kickback and Crazy Bob's for one of his modes, and D-I-A-L-E-D-I-N lights the Showdown Wizard Mode.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Everywhere in Quantum City, courtesy of many of the game's disasters.
- Supernatural Phone: The central item in the game's premise.
- Timed Mission: The disasters and Crazy Bob's modes.
- Title Drop: "NOW YOU'RE DIALED IN!"note
- Unrealistic Black Hole: The Singularity disaster. Shoot the shots from left to right, in order.
- Villain Protagonist: The secretive Dialed In Electronics created a Quantum Cell Phone that can cause natural disasters, attract aliens to attack the Earth, and even cause Armageddon to occur for apparently no given reason; but you, the hapless person who bought the phone from the phone salesman's store, is causing all the disasters with your new phone and your job during the game is to create even more destruction for a higher score.
- Wizard Mode: Two of them.
- Armageddon: Start all 11 disasters to ready this timed multiball mode. Major shots are lit for Jackpots, while portions of the town get sucked away.
- Showdown: Collect 8 Sim Cards by completing disasters/other features to access a final battle against D.I.E. themselves. This is very similar to duels in other pinball games, such as Tales of the Arabian Nights and World Cup Soccer, except D.I.E. constantly attack you with their lasers. If their lasers hit the flippers, your life bar depletes. Deplete their life bar first, by scoring Jackpots and Super Jackpots, to win.
