I am a little concerned that the lighting on FullT is daisy chained like WOZ so if an LED or board fails, everything downstream goes dark. For those with FullT, how robust has the lighting been? Can a bad LED or board be jumped to keep the game mostly operational?

I'm curious as well, I wonder what each of the a la cart menu items cost.

From earlier in the thread:

That was posted about 6 days ago, so another week at least.

Andrew,

Do you send these replacements with the game by chance?

Thanks

Sorry, I don't have any special knowledge here, aside from knowing that every light on the game, GI or insert or otherwise, is RGB. I couldn't tell you how it compares to JJP. I do know Hobbit has some nice insert lighting effects, but they went back to white GI. We definitely plan to use color changing GI effects as part of the atmosphere on the game. But since I don't have a proto yet and haven't seen anything in person I can't speak to how it will all work out exactly. That's the kind of thing that takes some in-person balancing and polish.

Yeah, I feel JJP made a mistake removing the RGB GI. The mood changes were awesome in WOZ...there were other, better ways to improve the GI. Shame. I look forward to Alien's GI! Can't do rainbow type stuff obviously, but greens and blues and purples...reds! All will look awesome!

Huh, I didn't realize they changed the GI in Hobbit and agree the effects in WOZ are fantastic. I'm guessing this was to address the complaints about the dark playfield but think they could have found a better fix. Can't wait to see some Alien lighting action!!

Come on Andrew...let's see some video! I'm beyond ready!

They changed the whole lighting system in the Hobbit to get away from daisy chaining the lights (like on a Christmas tree). Maybe it was just too much wiring to connect all the GI in parallel too.

Also, light failures on WOZ were usually due to driver IC and connector failures rather than LEDs going bad.

I've chased / repaired enough light board connector issues so I can appreciate that!

Still a bummer about the GI but that will be another differentiator for Highway now.

It's not too bad on the hobbit. They can kill the GI and get a some good mood lighting from the other play field LEDs during the game. Smaug MB and the arkenstones modes (so far) have very cool lighting effects.

Black Armor or Black Nickel gets my vote!

I think Hobbit is a beautiful game, and the insert lighting looks great. I do think colored GI is a really great tool though, what Lyman achieved on Metallica with just red, blue, and white alone for instance is awesome.

WOZ is just too rainbowy for me. Makes sense for the theme, but it's not really "mood" lighting the way say Fade to Black is. I'm hopeful that with Alien we can find that sweet spot, it's a theme that lends itself to serious atmosphere.

ebay.com link: STASIS CHAMBER FACEHUGGER LED Lights Neca Aliens Creature Pack 2016 LOOSE

Wow...just went to Ebay and typed Facehugger. Plenty of cool stuff came up!!

With the announcement from Stern of $8.7K MSRP on up for Batman66, the $6100 price of an Alien SE is starting to look better and better...

Later,
EV

Nuke From Orbit (resized).jpg

check this out

ebay.com link: ALIEN 16mm CinemaScope Feature Film Print HORROR SCIFI RIDLEY SCOTT

Nice. Too bad I sold most of my 16mm collection years ago....

Never too late to start again

not sure..maybe people will flock to a 15k game....the price of an Alien kit to drop in the Heighway cab if you already own it looks even better!!

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price:

Premium Model:

$US 8,599

Limited Edition Model:

$US 9,999

Super Limited Edition Model:

$US 14,999

I'd say Stern has lost their goddamn minds, but people are apparently happy to line up and pay those prices.

If Andrew's not an idiot he's going to raise his prices too. Why not? The frog is perfectly happy in the bubbling water.

This is me just talking personally, I have zero insight into Alien prices or plans. And I'm not trying to push anyone into pre-ordering just to lock in a price point. But if the street price on the base Batman 66 game is around $7700 and people are opening their wallets? Andrew would be a fool to leave money on the table he could use to grow his company.

Expect a price increase, that's my prediction. Up up up, that's the trend.

Until the big crash comes pre or post election, either way.

I'd say people who are apparently happy to line up and pay those prices have lost their goddamn minds.

I hope Andrew keeps his prices were they are. People will see the value and buy Heighway instead.

Stern are heading for major, major problems.

They're developing a pretty awful reputation, and one that's going to be very difficult to shake. Other companies would be well advised to steer clear of their cost-cut-everything-and-simultaneously-double-prices-in-4-years model.

As I said elsewhere, the only way it makes sense is fattening up the books for a sale. Their current direction isn't remotely sustainable and in the medium to long term may prove ruinous for both them and the industry as a whole.

Heighway's model was always "get pinball back on location". I don't see raising the prices because Stern did helping operators buy machines.

If Pinside and home collectors can sustain the ENTIRE PINBALL INDUSTRY then Heighway could/should raise his prices for that easy money.

Something tells me, for long term business interest, that would not be the way to go.

Same thing we said aboot Stern when JJP prices came out.

Well, I'm not saying they won't, but I would suggest it is contrary to putting pinball back on location and selling machines outside of Pinside and pinball shows. I know that is the "easy money", but that pie is real small and getting sliced up more every day.

Is it? JJP's whole schtik was JJ is an operator and wants to operate games.
Gary keeps telling us you need operated machines to make a living, & people are making videos for the right to buy their machines as we speak.

I am surprised at the sustained feeding frenzy. I can only speak of my personal situation, that I've had good business success these last years, which allows my indulgence in pinball. I didn't think there were that many of me out there, but if there are enough of us to sustain the entire pinball industry, have at it I guess.

Yeah me too..., eXpecially with all the issues going on. I guess that's my main point is that nothing would shock me now.
Just hoping Alien is kick ass.

Alien price stays the same...with some more aggressive marketing that could steal a lot of Stern business if they are going to smoke rock over there when pricing pinball machines. They just need to pump them out faster since people seem to run fast to the new shiny things.

I will never pay those ridiculous prices for a machine......oh wait, their making Blade Runner? That's different.

Given the large pinball population there always seems to be enough fans (with deep pockets) of any good theme to sell out of LE's, super LE's, etc... Doesn't seem to matter much what's in the game or the price.

The timing on Super Pricing couldn't be worse from Stern's perspective. Just as they make the belated jump from dots to LCD and just as they increase their prices, they are plagued by QC issues. They are facing a hideous cost to address their playfield issues, and fixing them will impact new game production capacity as factory and labor assets are diverted to repopulating returned playfields.

All of this is casting serious doubt on the wisdom of currently ordering what should have been two great titles - GB and BM66. This is a window of opportunity for Heighway, Spooky, JJP and others. Andrew could not ask for a better climate for launching Alien(s).

When do we get to see alien aurich?

No, they are not.

It depends on what the post-66 game prices are. If they are pumping the collector on this one and then go back to what GB prices were, then things won't seem too bad. SMVE was MSRP $7500 (I think) and that was a premium range machine. BM66 is how much for a premium again? If they kept the DMD size as the LCD, then there's issues. Let's see what a 15.6" monitor does in a game. Pinside had been saying that they have been baking in the LCD change into the price since MET or before. Now there is that slow increase and then this one. Do they have buyers, sure. But I'm laughing at a 9k Stern because they don't make things anywhere near other pins in that range. What happens when they have a $7k MSRP Pro and drop WWE on us again. Can they survive flops if nobody buys them because the game and the price sucks? Who knows.

I'm really liking my GB pro and really looking forward to the Alien reveal. Content in pinball is great right now, but this race to the top price war will have me out of the NIB market pretty soon.

The approval process with Fox has started, but I couldn't possibly guess when it will be finished, because that's entirely out of my control. Obviously we're all pulling for soon.

All I can say with 100% confidence is that Andrew will show things as soon as Fox allows him to, he's so ready to get people genuinely excited about this game.

Have they shot the promo?

I don't think they want to risk that until they know that FOX won't mandate any changes.

I have been convinced for a long time that the money is coming in from other hobbies. Anyone who can afford a jet ski can afford a pinball machine. Anyone who can afford a trail bike can afford a pinball machine. The markets for those two things alone are many multiples of the pinball market. Those guys are still waking up to the fact that they can even buy a pinball machine.

Aurich, I'm excited to see the 30th Anniversary art package. ...and to hear your enthusiasm behind its creation!

Quit holding out on us, we want to at least hear about it! Any emotion you care to share yet?

Not yet, as Aurich said, we are submitting files to Fox for approval. Next week we start shooting the promo and you guys can finally see (and hear) everything.

I know these prices aren't firm yet, but if the new standard has become roughly $8.6K for an LCD Stern Premium, and Heighway is charging roughly $6.3K for their standard model, then there's a HUGE gap in the market that Stern has left for Heighway to fill.

I think once these pins are revealed at Expo, it will be clear to see that a Heighway Standard packs more features than a Stern Premium, and runs roughly $1.5-2K less. If the features & gameplay of Alien meet expectations (looking likely), and if production schedules & build quality meets consumer demand..... then Heighway is well positioned to fill this new market gap & sell a lot of machines.

Competition is a great thing At least that's how I see it.

Looking forward to making that first payment when production begins!

Thank you for that, I can now ignore this thread for another week.

I say hold off on putting those type of thoughts into Andrews head...this could be a trick to make everyone raise prices just so they can drop them back down on the next title to undercut everyone again.

This is a pinball war as far as I can see.

Soooo it's maybe looking like a big reveal could happen as soon as next weekend (Sept. 24th) at the Vancouver FlipOut Expo!

(http://www.vancouverflipout.com/)

...Ah crud! I just noticed that Andrew is no longer on the Speakers page (he was until recently).

No one knows what the next Stern will be priced at, this is a specialty item from what I'm getting and a theme that the comic book, pinhead, lets build a robot geeks love to death so why pass judgment before we know for sure? If Stern starts doing great themes and making better pins then I'll pay more with a big god damn smile on my face. I mean Aliens LE shipped with tax and all available add on's will cost me in and around 12,000 with the current exchange but I must have it due to theme I haven't seen it nor played yet I'm in 100%

Bummer! I was concerned this show was too close to Alien reveal, which is probably the most important moment of their company, so much rides on Alien. I'm sorry Andrew won't be coming apparently.