I am really looking forward to seeing the populated playfield. I like the PF art that Aurich has done.

FYI: I denounce and condemn whoever flagged Aurich's picture. This action or fake Pinside accounts is an act of cowardice.

Man up.

Yeah I don't quite get that one. Weak sauce

I thought was just me,I almost put down the crack pipe because instead of seeing things I wasn't seeing things.Anyone who didn't have an account wouldn't be able to see it.

I haven't played it, I was never a huge MK player after the second one, stopped keeping track. When the first one hit the arcades though it was something else. A lot of other games tried, but MK actually kicked Street Fighter off the throne for a bit. There was nothing else like it.

I watched a little MKX play at West Coast Warzone 5, but I was there for Street Fighter V. Played some casuals, rooted for some friends who were competing, and watched some of the smaller tournaments, and they had a bank for Mortal Kombat. Eh. I mean, it's shiny, the backgrounds look pretty cool, the fatalities are over the top, but I didn't actually get the sense it was a fun game, or a particularly good fighting game.

Street Fighter V has a bunch of rough edges still, but the fighting engine and character design are really solid.

The irony is the Street Fighter community sounds like the pinball community now. Grumbling about unfinished software, updates, lack of communication, etc.

Bah, give me a new Darkstalkers and I'll be happy.

Virtua Fighter 5
best fighting game

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Virtua Fighter 5 final showdown for sure!

For 2D mechanics/gameplay i like KoF XIII & SF 3rd Strike a lot.

MK was always more trash than a real good/deep fighting game IMO.

Nice, darkstalkers is my sons' favorite game in mame. Would love to see a new version.

http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NC51604AA&utm_source=Criteo&utm_medium=Display&utm_campaign=Lower%20Funnel#.V0sjU5ErL4Y

A bit easier on the eyes

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Dankjewel

Looks good, which ramps are going to be the fiber optic ones?

The platforms running down the left and right edges of the playfield.

Hi Dave, can you say something about why the ramps have a milky looking edge above them. Is that to create a reaction to UV light?

a center post? does it mean the flipper gap will be wider like on GB?

however, i really like the layout of this one even if i regret that Fox did not allow another playfield artwork.

Here you go

thanks buddy.

so i hope no center post.

when you use to play a GB, you can play any other machine!

Outlane drains? no problem, if that is the case i'm sure that some mods will correct them.

I love a good center post:

hey Dave, not to be off topic, but when is the next software update coming for FullT?

Dont forget to support us while also working on Aliens.

Just got off the phone with Melissa at Cointakers....reserved an LE.

Heighway----I will purchase an LE on one condition:

When the ball drains, I want to hear the callout from Hicks, "forget him, he's gone!"

Looking forward to this machine!

Bam!!!...congrats....make sure to post your # on my other thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alienle-are-you-in-whats-your

I'd be curious how many LE's are left.....once the proto shows, it's " game over man, game over"...

I was getting a question about the Alien rules from a fellow Pinsider that is very enthusiastic about Alien. So I tried to consolidate all the info I could find about the rules. So here it is

Introduction

(Info gathered from posts of Aurich and Dave on Pinside)

Programming of Alien by Brian Dominy and Joe Schober, with a lot of input from the whole group.

This is a mode based game. With real modes, not just shoot all the blue arrows, now shoot all the red arrows, now shoot all the green arrows. Every mode has its own feel, with broader strategies about collecting things and incentives to actually try and finish the modes. It feels like that 90s style mode play, married to modern thoughts on pinball rules, and of course we have LCD screens and RGB lights etc. Plus 4 flippers, with dedicated shots for all of them.

Not to mention at least 6 multiballs. There's a lot to do outside of modes, and the game isn't about crazy stacking. The modes for Alien play differently than the modes for Aliens. There will be a lot of ways to play it. Every single mode is an iconic scene from the films. Even the cat is in there! Jones gets his own mode. But basically the goal is to immerse you in the movies.

Both motion trackers from both films will be featured on the playfield LCD screen. The one from Alien is used in more of a tense/eerie mode, focusing on Dallas in the tunnels trying to find the Xeno. The one from Aliens is more balls out and frantic.

The game will have toys for all the iconic Alien stuff. Eggs, facehuggers, a big Xeno with a bad ass magnetic tongue, the queen herself, and the chestburster will even be part of it with the controlled drop target. There's a physical ball lock for the hypersleep chamber. You can get the rotating beacons on top. For the LE and the upgrades we'll have fiber optic lights.

The Xeno head model that sits around the mech is the same size one that's been shown before, and yes, it will 'eat' the ball. What you don't see yet on the CAD is the mini-subway that will take the ball behind the backboard, to be ejected back into play onto the upper corner of the right platform, to drop onto the end of the habitrail and down to the return. In front of the backboard re-entry is where the Space Jockey will stand as a large upright plastic, so it should look like the ball is emerging from behind his turret. The LV-426 area is also the most natural place for him to be.

The Hypersleep chamber is a physical three-ball lock, the 'fourth' ball drawn on the CAD is a visual indicator of how the dispenser works, dropping the foremost ball onto the level below while holding the others back.

We're going to blow up the playfield at least twice if you look at the wizard modes, and you know everything including all the RGB lighting is going to go nuts for that. Oh yeah, and the LCD screen embedded in the playfield. The pace of the animations is going to be fast, the game will keep moving. No sitting there watching something play out for 20 seconds or anything. This isn't watching TV, it's playing pinball. I'm really thinking about the display like a high rez DMD. Show the score, show objectives, play cool animations to reward you for shots, and no sitting around. The approach for the dashboard on Alien is really more about keeping the data we display really encapsulated and contextually relevant. Keep it in the spirit of a DMD, in how and what it displays, but with all the advantages of an HD display, for high resolution art, numbers and text, and of course video. And that means both in the backbox (small or big or not at all, your choice) but also the playfield. And it has to work for both.

There are 5 weapons to collect, each with their own animation, representing all the important guns of the game. There are more than one way to collect them, I think finishing modes awards them, and you also get them from hitting the 5 weapon standups. Let's see, it's pistol (Vasquez), shotgun (Hicks), flamethrower, pulse rifle, and smart gun off the top of my head.

David Thiel is doing the sound design side, he's also a great composer, the original songs he's doing for the game are awesome. They feel like Alien songs in spirit, intense and eerie, but they're better to play pinball to.

And all the sounds are being synched to the animations, so everything will feel like it works together. Kelly is doing the most grimey edits and animations for this. It's like high resolution clips from the films have been sucked inside the world of MU/TH/UR. Where everything is a little analog and dirty. And then spit back out into HD, with our HUD rendered around it with the vital info.

Modes

As known for now there are:
- 4 modes for Alien
- 4 modes for Aliens
- 1 mini wizard mode for Alien (mutliballs in this mode)
- 1 mini wizard mode for Aliens (multiballs in this mode)
- 4 big multiball modes
- 1 Wizard mode

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So moving on, let's take a look at the mode inserts.
As was correctly guessed earlier there are 3 branches, all laid out with the motion tracker layout. We're going to use the RGB LEDs to do a blue "pulse" through the inserts to simulate the tracking, maybe just for the attract mode or something, should be cool looking. Each branch has 4 modes or multiballs, and then a wizard mode.

At the start of the game you pick your film, Alien or Aliens. You're then locked into that film until you finish it. Each film has four main modes, and then a mini-wizard mode. You need to finish the 4 modes for that film (just start them, not complete) and the wizard mode before you can move on to the other film. This then opens up the film you didn't choose. So you can start with Alien, and then try and beat Aliens on the same game. All of the modes are based on parts of the stories. Each one will have video clips and lighting and sounds and rules to capture the feel of that part of the story. I think the pops randomize the next mode, you don't pick like in Stern Star Trek once you've picked your film.

There are also things to play outside of the modes. The Chest Burster controlled drop target / magnet combo for instance, not a mode, can be played during either film path. The APC drop targets on the right are like an old school Bally, you have to hit them in order to get the better reward. There are definitely a lot of cool combo shots. Some things will stack, but this isn't a big stacking game, the modes are about atmosphere and the film, so they won't all jumble together. The Weyland Yutani inserts are the inlanes, and you need to light both to qualify the mode shot.

Color is definitely going to matter too, it's not just window dressing. Modes use color in their rules. Color will matter for communicating other information on the playfield. And of course, we're going to have sweet window dressing.

Generally speaking that's how the modes break down in this game, Alien is a little bit more on the atmospheric side, Aliens a little bit on the faster side, as is befitting the films. We're going to try and make the scoring balanced so that there's no reason to always pick the same film first, but I'm sure someone will find a tournament strategy that maximizes points while minimizing risk, people always do.
To beat the game you have to play through both films, so for home users I don't think the order will be that important, pick based on what you feel like doing, or the opposite of what you did last time or whatever.

The mode order isn't fixed, there are out of mode things to do, and a lot of multiballs, so really at any given point in time there should be a lot to do.

Multiplier Count

R1_(resized).jpg
R2_(resized).jpg

Multiplier count in the middle of the playfield. It reads 426.
You light them with the LV lanes up at the top right of the playfield.
And the trick is it's actually 4+2+6, and it counts up by 2s to a max of 12: 2, 4, 6, 2+6, 4+6, 4+2+6

Life Cycle inserts
There are shots with Life Cycle inserts, where you can advance from egg, to facehugger, to chestburster, to xeno.

R3_(resized).jpg

The first of them is an Egg. There are two Egg inserts, at the orbits.
This of course makes sense because the pops have sculpted eggs on top of them, and there are pop up posts that can divert the ball into the pops, so the orbit shots become part of the rules with the pops.

Standup targets

They are used to collect weapons. Right now we have an idea that will use different colors as part of that.
Weapons will play a part in the rules, we have the pulse rifle, smart gun, flamethrower, Hicks' shotgun, and Vasquez's pistol. You collect them with the standup targets. Each will have an animation.

So Team Heighway.....anything to add

Holy crap....very nice! Thanks for putting this together!

What's an APC drop target?

Would it be possible to implement some sort of trophy system? Similar to Pinball Arcade or PlayStation? These could be updated/added in future code updates to create additional challenges. I don't know the rules to be specific, but you could have something like collect all guns, or destroy all phases of the alien with one ball.

Drop target bank on the right, the three drops are A-P-C (armored personnel carrier).

Sorry if this has been discussed, what details are known about the cab art? Will it be different between the 2 versions?

^This is long overdue in pinball

Standards will come with the basic artwork (Egg backbox, Alien Head cabinet) that has already been revealed. LE's will come will an exclusive LE artwork for the backbox & cabinet, which has not been revealed yet. There also needs to be a 3rd alternate backbox artwork with a window area for those who are getting the large LCD monitor, but not sure if there will be two versions (standard/LE) of that.

It was once said that LE owners would get both sets of artwork, but as far as I understand it nothing has been set in stone & all is subject to change. Most of the info on the website was written long before they offered the big LCD for the backbox, and had to come up with the 3rd backbox version.

Personally I'm not worried about it. I'm hoping the LE's feature artwork for the Aliens film. That makes sense to me.

Agreed. It would be awesome to add value for home gamers with these trophies. And as with console systems, hearing fans talk about their trophy escapades builds interest in the game for outsiders.

What's more, a profile system for location players that tracks their trophies and possibly awards them with free credits for earning the tough ones would be awesome too.

Meh. As a home gamer (PS4, Pinball Arcade, etc), I have zero interest in seeing achievements/trophies applied to real world pinball machines. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

What's long overdue in pinball is automatic wifi connectivity for code updates, and the potential for World High Score leaderboards & tournaments. I believe this part of the future plans for Heighway, but not sure when it will be implemented.

thats_what_she_said_(resized).jpg

I have no interest in trophies for video games either. I'm also long-time gamer but more of a Nintendo guy so I never really got into that achievements thing although I owned a PS3. Seems like it was a bigger deal last gen.

What I'd like to see implemented isn't necessarily a trophy system like Playstation or Xbox, but more of a global set of objectives to shoot for. There are many examples of this in modern games. Some games, particularly mobile games, give you sets of three objectives to complete at a time, with a new set of three appearing once completed, and they get tougher every time.

How cool would it be to start a game and have the LCD screen show three objectives: "score a jackpot with all 3 balls in play", "max the bonus multiplier", "shoot 20 total ramp shots". The game shouldn't award game points for these but could simply add score/level/xp to your profile.

It would be cool to see a marine package on the art work. Not faces, but armor, the apc...stuff like that......on the LE

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Yeah that would be interesting for sure. I'm just thinking this pin is basically two themes in one package (Alien & Aliens). The standard art has classic images & green hues of the first movie, then it only makes sense that the LE artwork would focus on the second movie & feature blue hues. Space Marines is one way to go, but personally I'd prefer to see the Queen featured on the artwork.

Yes definitely! Sorry for any confusion, this is what I meant. I don't care about trophies... more like random objectives/achievements to strive for... to keep things interesting. You could even get a gameplay reward for each one implemented in a game (score or ammo or alien bomb or something).

I've been consuming Alien content in preparation for Heighways release, hoping it'll help get me to the Wizard modes.

This is a really great series about all the people behind the creation of the movie...

http://www.zen171398.zen.co.uk/Alien.html

If I had the cash (or even the space!!) I would kill for one of these. They look awsome!

Can't wait to play one.

I think it is cash or kill...you don't need both. You need the space in either scenario

Maybe I do not understand the "Trophy / Achievement" thing in newer games systems since I'm a pinball person. But don't these already exist in pinball?

Besides the GC and top player lists there are many other lists in pinball -

AC/DC has a complete set of champions for each of the modes.
LOTR keeps a DTR shortest time
TOTAN has a sultan's table
SS has a Scared Still table and a Spider MB table
WH2O has Insanity Falls champion

There are lots of these or am I missing something? Obviously with the newer games having a complete computer system inside this could be expanded.

Yes but I think an online server that is automatically updated with this data is what people are talking about here. I don't see it happening unless a third party manages the software and servers. Maybe like Farsight?

Dutch Pinball is doing what you're talking about.

You can even watch live DMD footage if a game is in play.

Bop2.0 live stats http://www.dutchpinball.com/bop2/live/

If you click on game, then a person's player profile, you can see the trophies they have earned.

Oh cool didn't know that. I think a neutral third party with a subscription model would attract the maximum participation. Otherwise interest will die off if there's not a lot of activity. Cross promotions at tournaments or live twitch feeds would help create the buzz necessary for this kind of thing to survive.

What about the fact that games are different in each location? Not just software setting for difficulty, but pitch and even how well the games are maintained. The remote tournament thing on different tables always sounds like it has issues.

that is likely a big factor on why it's not being done on the production line. there are no level playing fields to work with. if you want trophys play video games.

Yes exactly this, but expanded with many more. It wouldn't even need to be something that is tracked in the leaderboards, just whether or not they've been accomplished. And I don't think it needs to be synced online or anything. Each machine could keep track of their own.