(Topic ID: 181373)

ALIEN On It's Way To Starport In Morgantown, WV!!!

By SkeebWilcox

7 years ago


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There are 80 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 2.
#51 7 years ago

Awesome. How has the game been doing after a week of being on location? How has feedback been from players?

#52 7 years ago

Yes, would live to hear more on this topic.

13
#53 7 years ago

Hi guys.

Great question. Alien is the top dog in an incredible collection of games at Starport. It has beat out the likes of Batman 66, Rob Zombie LE, Ghostbusters LE, Game of Thrones LE, Tron, Totan, X-men LE, Mustang, Star Trek, Iron Man VE, and other titles to name a few.

I have had some customer interaction with their thoughts on the game. To me if a location game looks the part, that is half the battle. Almost the other half entirely is theme and relation of the theme to the player. The cabinet and screen on Alien make it an absolute winner as an earner.

This game has been played heavily and I have heard only one played say he doesnt like the game play and even he can not deny the Alien stands out in a line up.

I have a lot of hard data that I keep on everything I operate. Obviously this is not a Redemption piece or earning on that level. It is earning well enough to justify it's existence. Now is the ever difficult battle with pinball, what is the maintenance schedule like.... if all goes well this will be a very good earner for a long time because of the uniqueness of the game play and the over appearance of the game vs our other titles in this collection of games. Starport gets each and every new game so this also will be a test for alien on a monthly basis.

Also on its way is Cruisin Blast and The Walking dead Environmental Shooting Experience. Which I am sure will also be great for the crowd at this location. We also mix in some classics and novelty games, not positive on what is there currently but I can guess some, dig dug, track and field, pole position cockpit, pacman, donkey Kong, missile command, centipede, after burner, space invaders, karate champ, metal slug, rush 2049, quick and dirty crash (great earner) even after 17 years, so others and some pvp fighting games. We also plan to be more involved with the fighting community by having weekly console tournaments but that doesn't really help at the coin box. Just helps get people in the door to check us out and have a brew.

Thanks again for the questions. As you can probably tell I'm not big on the Internet and checking the forums so I apologize for how this is written and the delayed response.

Best,

Chris

#54 7 years ago

Travis will be around tonight. Everything is free for one more day.

Have fun.

#55 7 years ago

Here are some pictures of Alien. I will get some better quality ones tonight.

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#56 7 years ago
Quoted from cjmjmm2006:

Hi guys.
Great question. Alien is the top dog in an incredible collection of games at Starport. It has beat out the likes of Batman 66, Rob Zombie LE, Ghostbusters LE, Game of Thrones LE, Tron, Totan, X-men LE, Mustang, Star Trek, Iron Man VE, and other titles to name a few.
I have had some customer interaction with their thoughts on the game. To me if a location game looks the part, that is half the battle. Almost the other half entirely is theme and relation of the theme to the player. The cabinet and screen on Alien make it an absolute winner as an earner.
This game has been played heavily and I have heard only one played say he doesnt like the game play and even he can not deny the Alien stands out in a line up.
I have a lot of hard data that I keep on everything I operate. Obviously this is not a Redemption piece or earning on that level. It is earning well enough to justify it's existence. Now is the ever difficult battle with pinball, what is the maintenance schedule like.... if all goes well this will be a very good earner for a long time because of the uniqueness of the game play and the over appearance of the game vs our other titles in this collection of games. Starport gets each and every new game so this also will be a test for alien on a monthly basis.
Also on its way is Cruisin Blast and The Walking dead Environmental Shooting Experience. Which I am sure will also be great for the crowd at this location. We also mix in some classics and novelty games, not positive on what is there currently but I can guess some, dig dug, track and field, pole position cockpit, pacman, donkey Kong, missile command, centipede, after burner, space invaders, karate champ, metal slug, rush 2049, quick and dirty crash (great earner) even after 17 years, so others and some pvp fighting games. We also plan to be more involved with the fighting community by having weekly console tournaments but that doesn't really help at the coin box. Just helps get people in the door to check us out and have a brew.
Thanks again for the questions. As you can probably tell I'm not big on the Internet and checking the forums so I apologize for how this is written and the delayed response.
Best,
Chris

What was the issue with the bottom pop bumper and right loop inserts not lighting up? I noticed that in the stream last time.

#57 7 years ago

Looks absolutely great, and seems like it requires a sharp mind to navigate all the fun shots.

The only major drawback I noticed with this live stream of Alien is the lack of actual "pinball sounds". I heard one pinball sound:

1. spinner rips (thank goodness)

and nothing else.

The Hobbit suffers from this same epic fail. (At least it did 1 year ago last time I listened to it carefully.)

Is there any way to crank up the "pinball sounds" so that we can hear:

1. Alien themed movie scenes / modes
2. Pinball sounds (like every single 10pt switch, rollover switch, pop hit, sling hit, etc...)

I realize this is all "fixable" later -- but I'd sure like to hear what is possible now before hearing what "might happen" in the future. Pinball sound is everything to me -- not hearing JUST movie scenes, and playing "silently" along.

-mof

#58 7 years ago
Quoted from mof:

Looks absolutely great, and seems like it requires a sharp mind to navigate all the fun shots.
The only major drawback I noticed with Alien is the lack of actual "pinball sounds". I heard one pinball sound:
1. spinner rips (thank goodness)
and nothing else.
The Hobbit suffers from this same epic fail. (At least it did 1 year ago last time I listened to it carefully.)
Is there any way to crank up the "pinball sounds" so that we can hear:
1. Alien theme
2. Pinball sounds (like every single 10pt switch, rollover switch, pop hit, sling hit, etc...)
I realize this is all "fixable" later -- but I'd sure like to hear what is possible now before hearing what "might happen" in the future. Pinball sound is everything to me -- not hearing movie sound effects.
-mof

There's a stream going right now where you can hear every sound.

https://www.twitch.tv/dead_flip

#59 7 years ago
Quoted from Manic:

There's a stream going right now where you can hear every sound.

Thanks - that's what I listened to from 30 minutes or so -- without looking at the screen. I heard a movie, and a spinner, (and flipper clacks)

-mof

#60 7 years ago
Quoted from mof:

Thanks - that's what I listened to without looking at the screen. I heard a movie, and a spinner, (and flipper clacks)
-mof

Well I think this was about indeed replicating the movie sounds for an "authentic" Alien experience. This may not be the machine to get for traditional pin SFX. In fact you won't even hear "jackpot" yelled during multiball. I like the spinner sound also... has some kick to it.

11
#61 7 years ago

If you want a game that sounds like Firepower, you'll probably be happier with a Firepower. (I say this with much love for Firepower, not just a great game, but IMHO one of the best examples of early solid-state pinball sound effects.)

The Alien design team had a very clear mission: we wanted to produce a game that would take players into the Alien/Aliens universe. Everything we did, audio, video, rules, we were challenging each other with "is that right for these movies?" (Sometimes this led to interesting trivia time... on several occasions, I asked David Thiel "what the heck is that weird sound effect?" and he cheerfully responded something like "that's the sound of the computer as heard at 01:22:41 of the Director's Cut of Alien"... ooookay.) But we all firmly agreed that this game should not be generic sci-fi pinball... it needed to be ALIEN. And ALIENS. Having sound effects from, and strongly inspired by, the movies is a big part of that. With that goal in mind, I think David Thiel did a brilliant job of the audio on this one. Hopefully fans of the movies will love the game for that, and players who couldn't care less about the movies will still love it for the overall experience.

#62 7 years ago

Yeah, I don't need to hear all that pinball-centric talking nonsense during pinball, I won't miss those words. I don't need TAF2 to get excited about sounds. (callouts for everything)

Quoted from Ferret:

If you want a game that sounds like Firepower

Great example, and you are absolutely right, I consider Firepower and it's 80-82 counterparts the benchmark for sound. If I am in your shoes, I offer three options to handle everyone that fall into the various intersections of the venn diagram: (allow your customers to dial up and down 1 and 2)

1. movie-only sounds
2. pinball-only sounds
3. a wonderful mix of both

As you've guessed I am most definitely listening for #3

I play pinball primarily for that pavlovian feeling of *unlocking sounds* when I strike various objects... Nothing surpasses the sound of ripping a good firepower spinner for 80+ rotations. I do feel the best games have a sound for EVERY ball strike... And every strike sounds like pinball.

I like your general idea to make everything sound like its from Alien, that's a great principle to start with. I would challenge you to make every 10pt switch and other switch on the game have a pinball sound, even if that sound is inspired from the movie... (but not an entire movie scene worth of sound). Some laser, gun, computer, door-opening, sound -- whatever those sounds are that are specific to alien, but short and bright enough to warrant belonging to switches.

My review of Hobbit is, "While I play, (if I close my eyes) absolutely nothing sounds like pinball, it sounds like a cat wrestling with a DVR remote." every 3 seconds, I have to hear another 10-seconds of a movie with no intelligence behind the sequence of clips. If I want to hear movie scenes, I'll go watch the movie. I want to hear pinball when I play pinball.

My first impression of Alien is another sound-mistake like Hobbit. I'm hoping that some manufacturer will listen to (one type) of potential customer like mof, and consider "Does this game still sound like "pinball" when you close your eyes?" If the answer is no, I challenge you to keep at it until it sounds like pinball...

And of course this isn't an either/or request, it's a both/and... Can we have awesome pinball sounds (even if inspired from the movie) and various movie scenes/clips going on to help us understand the modes... but darnit -- make EVERY switch count sound-wise!

-mof

10
#63 7 years ago
Quoted from mof:

Can we have awesome pinball sounds (even if inspired from the movie) and various movie scenes/clips going on to help us understand the modes... but darnit -- make EVERY switch count sound-wise!

I would certainly argue that we've done that. I think every switch in the game has at least one distinct sound, and most have several. If we missed something, it's probably my fault, not David's. The important-yet-incidental switches (e.g. top lanes, inlanes/outlanes, pop bumpers, slings) have sounds that are (IMHO) pinbally but still Alieny. (Pause while my auto-correct's mind explodes at the words "pinbally" and "Alieny".) The lanes are even stereo-biased, and have different sounds depending on whether they were already lit or not. And as another example, the spinners have distinct sounds for different game modes.

Of course, in the end, aesthetic choices like artwork and audio cues are in the eyes and ears of the beholder. If you're not happy with the work we've done, I'm truly sorry. But, in my only-somewhat-biased opinion (because I have no qualms about challenging the rest of the team if I'm not feeling the A/V assets they've provided), we've got a really great balance of Alien-ness and pinball-ness. I hope you get a chance to play Alien in person and decide that it's not a "sound mistake", because I truly don't think that's what we've created.

#64 7 years ago
Quoted from mof:

Yeah, I don't need to hear all that pinball-centric talking nonsense during pinball, I won't miss those words. I don't need TAF2 to get excited about sounds. (callouts for everything)

Great example, and you are absolutely right, I consider Firepower and it's 80-82 counterparts the benchmark for sound. If I am in your shoes, I offer three options to handle everyone that fall into the various intersections of the venn diagram: (allow your customers to dial up and down 1 and 2)
1. movie-only sounds
2. pinball-only sounds
3. a wonderful mix of both
As you've guessed I am most definitely listening for #3
I play pinball primarily for that pavlovian feeling of *unlocking sounds* when I strike various objects... Nothing surpasses the sound of ripping a good firepower spinner for 80+ rotations. I do feel the best games have a sound for EVERY ball strike... And every strike sounds like pinball.
I like your general idea to make everything sound like its from Alien, that's a great principle to start with. I would challenge you to make every 10pt switch and other switch on the game have a pinball sound, even if that sound is inspired from the movie... (but not an entire movie scene worth of sound). Some laser, gun, computer, door-opening, sound -- whatever those sounds are that are specific to alien, but short and bright enough to warrant belonging to switches.
My review of Hobbit is, "While I play, (if I close my eyes) absolutely nothing sounds like pinball, it sounds like a cat wrestling with a DVR remote." every 3 seconds, I have to hear another 10-seconds of a movie with no intelligence behind the sequence of clips. If I want to hear movie scenes, I'll go watch the movie. I want to hear pinball when I play pinball.
My first impression of Alien is another sound-mistake like Hobbit. I'm hoping that some manufacturer will listen to (one type) of potential customer like mof, and consider "Does this game still sound like "pinball" when you close your eyes?" If the answer is no, I challenge you to keep at it until it sounds like pinball...
And of course this isn't an either/or request, it's a both/and... Can we have awesome pinball sounds (even if inspired from the movie) and various movie scenes/clips going on to help us understand the modes... but darnit -- make EVERY switch count sound-wise!
-mof

Games like Alien, The Hobbit, Spiderman, Tron, etc are simply not going to sound like a system 6 pin from 1980. All 4 of those games have one thing in common in terms of sound and that is David Thiel did the audio for them.

I think The Hobbit has some of the best audio ever created for a pinball machine and that David did an incredible job on it. I would consider Hobbit a sound masterpiece with how David Thiel incorporated the 30+ Two Steps from Hell music tracks, the "Old Friends" theme (multiple versions he created) and then mixed it all with other audio effects / sound stingers. Alien is sounding great too and will sound even better once David Thiel gets his game can work on the audio more.

Pinball sounds are all synthetic (besides the mechanical sounds for mechs, flippers, etc) or use music tracks so I think what "pinball sound" is will greatly vary from person to person.

#65 7 years ago

mof, you need to play this in person to form a better opinion on the sounds.

Like you, I am big on sounds in pinball. Just trust me on this one. Play it for a full night in a sound friendly environment before you judge more. I get the impression the stream mic was not picking up much until jack made some adjustments part way through.

There is LOTS of exactly what you are asking for. It is subtle but in a good way. The sound package on this game is amazing and I assume only getting better!

#66 7 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

mof, you need to play this in person to form a better opinion on the sounds.
Like you, I am big on sounds in pinball. Just trust me on this one. Play it for a full night in a sound friendly environment before you judge more. I get the impression the stream mic was not picking up much until jack made some adjustments part way through.
There is LOTS of exactly what you are asking for. It is subtle but in a good way. The sound package on this game is amazing and I assume only getting better!

I think there is a good chance mof may have left (the stream) before you guys moved the mic and you could hear the subtle sounds more clearly.

#67 7 years ago
Quoted from ezeltmann:

I think there is a good chance mof may have left (the stream) before you guys moved the mic and you could hear the subtle sounds more clearly.

after the mic adjustment, was the sound better on the stream?

#68 7 years ago

Wrong thread: But ill leave it here too. Going to hiltons thread

I have to preface this comment by saying i think the game is coming along great and i am really impressed with the attention by the entire team to answering questions and putting in their best effort to make this game great.

Right now the Alien head is the most underwhelming part of the game. Of course, except for the Heighway produced videos, I have only seen the top down perspective for most scenarios. I am expecting the reverse will be true by the time you guys are done with it.

My observations and suggestions (feel free to tell me to be patient and shut up):

1. There appears to be no indication as to how many hits you have left on the Xeno head (to start multiball) displayed on the LCD screen.

2. I would like to see some sort of feedback on the screen for each Xeno head hit. My suggestion is a very quick static-interruption style menacing Xeno appearance overriding the standard "status" screen. The ball will most likely be rolling right past the playfield screen at the exact moment this animation appears.

3. It's been mentioned before, that the Xeno head would benefit greatly from having a dedicated spotlight and /or flasher strobe. I would suggest that each hit would spotlight the head (again very briefly); which would inspire the player to shoot there often for the coolness factor. This is the No.1 mod i would want should Heighway not change anything.

4. From what i have seen when the head has grabbed the ball in videos, it seems to happen all too quick. My suggestion to be to drag it out with movie clips related to the scene ala "sparky Multiball startup" , which is way too long actually. The main point is that it should be a spectacle (IMO) , especially at the current level of difficulty. The wow factor of this toy has yet to be shown to it's full potential. Please let me know if you disagree or support this (pinsiders and developers).

I mean this all as constructive criticism and fully realize that part or all of what i suggested might already be planned. I have in in my (not Xeno) head that this feature should be the main draw and selling point of the game (again, think sparky) and as we are seeing in these streams, it has been underwhelming , if not confusing. The sound it makes when you hit it is great , i must say.

Thanks Heighway team , Hilton and friends, and Jack Danger for all your hard work and attention on last nights stream and overall in bringing us a great game. I want it to be the best game of all time.

**EDIT - Heighway responded, saying the Xeno head (currently) is only a shadow of what's to come. Flashers are to be integrated as well. ** See Hiltons thread for more details "Aliens have landed"

#69 7 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

after the mic adjustment, was the sound better on the stream?

Infinitely better.

BTW i watch these streams on a 6ft. projector screen with full stereo sound and sub.

#70 7 years ago

edited and left in other thread.

#71 7 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

mof, you need to play this in person to form a better opinion on the sounds.

Hey it's entirely possible that the way the game was mic'd up last night it was only picking up movie sound track and spinner.

Either way, in my ideal world you can dial switch sounds up and movie sounds down to cater to each customer.

Mof

#72 7 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

mof, you need to play this in person to form a better opinion on the sounds.

Perhaps you can take the glass off and shoot a quick 2 minute example of what all the switches sound like...

That would sincerely help people like me in the "pinball switch sound" camp...

Even when games are on location, frequently, hearing the sounds of the game is near impossible with all the background noise of the establishment.

-mof

#73 7 years ago
Quoted from mof:

Perhaps you can take the glass off and shoot a quick 2 minute example of what all the switches sound like...
That would sincerely help people like me in the "pinball switch sound" camp...
-mof

I will work on that once I get the new light/switch boards in next week.

I dont have a good rig for it but can try.

14
#74 7 years ago
Quoted from mof:

in the "pinball switch sound" camp...

I take into account the "acoustic war zone" that pinball games go into. First the sound from the speakers is trying not to be masked from the sounds made by anything driven by a coil (flipper, pop, sling, eject). Second the ambient sound is usually high and only the aggressive sounds survive.
It is too soon to evaluate the Alien SFX set as I have not refined it by testing the sound suite while flipping it. What is there now is my best first guess (which after 30 years is decent).
Soon I will have an Alien pin to flip and I will refine the existing sound package so that everything 'works'.

Let me assure you that very few of the event sounds in Alien were just cut out of the movie and installed. I augment them to be pinball worthy, adding sound elements to increase their presence. With Alien I am constrained to stay 'in character' for the most part as it is a very strong and appealing metaphor. When given a choice I have erred on the side of staying with the metaphor as my first pass.

After I have evaluated the sound package by flipping and tweaking I will revisit all these decisions to make the audio package as communicative and rewarding as possible.

ddt

#75 7 years ago
Quoted from daudioguy:

rewarding as possible.

Sounds very promising! Neat to hear from the people working on it...
-mof

#77 7 years ago

Some pictures from the launch party.

For footage of the game, we have it archived at

Twitch.tv/HeyPlayThis

We will be streaming again tomorrow night as well. Probably some ALIEN probably some Aerosmith

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#78 7 years ago

This game loooks so sexy. And so cool to have David chime in! Thanks man!

#79 7 years ago

Yeah that shiny, glistening Xeno head sure looks badass zoomed in up close! As do the eggs.

Damn and I was DONE buying pins after TWD... as much as I hate to sell anything I may have to bite the bullet so I can justify to myself buying this game. Not to mention my stuff has spilled over into my folk's basement quite a few years ago.

Such first world problems... we're sure a privileged bunch aren't we?

#80 7 years ago

Just a quick point I want to raise about the xeno head, since it's an important one that's flying under the radar: the head is the machine's main interactive showpiece and central feature, but if it ceases to activate for any reason, the gameplay *does not break*.

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