Backglass too.

For those that want art on the sides, those panels remove and you can get em plastidipped, painted, or decaled... I don't really care what's on the sides though. Once it's in the row, it's in the row...

Sounds like you have an opportunity to throw one of your side art pieces in a shadow box with some LED's behind it to hang on the wall.

I was referring to the poster who said the airlock was being redone. But in going back to quote his post, I see he's talking more about how it's constructed, so I retract my concerns about external delays with that. (below)

I was just put back by the comments that LE art hadn't been started based on previous comments like these..

I guess the press will be to get games shipping by christmas. Maybe some UK buyers will get their xmas early

But if the large LCD is standard what is the backglass, just the edge trim? Thanks.

Game looks awesome! What's the timeframe to ship standards in US?

This game looks great and is the best theme in newest production right now IMO. Congratulations HP, I wish you guys much success! Can't wait to play one if the opportunity arrives. Peace.

Think altogether Alien is a very solid package, like how the art works together with the light effects. Also these animations a very nicely done with respect for the old school monitor feel...blueprints to explain stuff..simply brilliant! Think the left ramp could have a nice sticker or something, it looks a bit to clean compared to the rest of the playfield. and yeah that airlock is a one mother*** BIG toy! (could use some lightning though..)

Also...what's up with the non HD footage..was there ANYONE at the expo with a better phone then this ?...

017ed558f94f76f8e6e33563bedee40e31437a08 (resized).jpg

From what I have read on the official page - it is an upgradeable option.

Maybe it is "the norm" on the LE, but on the standard edition it is definitely an upgrade.

Being able to lift the glass is convenient, but let's not pretend it is something new, I have machines from the 70s that do that.

Right you are. How about that swapable playfield system though? Sure it was tried once in a limited fashion, but innovative I do still profess.

Congrats on getting your games to Expo.

When the the part testing be completed?

A friend has a Fireball that does this. It is kinda flimsy though so I'm guessing this old method was scrapped because it wasn't very tamper-resistant on location?

There is no doubt that Heighway's cartridge system has benefits all round. It's objectively the better way to do it. The only downside is subjective, that it 'looks different'.

I always have to remove my car from the garage to have enough room to remove the playfield glass from my games. Which means that I can't be bothered to fix minor issues or do regular cleaning most of the time. Heighway's cartridge system solves that issue. And makes the issue of finding a safe carpeted spot to set down the glass go away as well. The glass is very well protected in the cartridge so if you do have to fully remove it (lifting it up isn't enough) you don't have to worry about it smashing. Something I've had happen once — enough to make me nervous every time.

You told him to talk to you in person.. he found you and did just that and you ran off. But you still keep posting about it. Keyboard warrior indeed.

I'd love to see a lighting effect with a flasher or two when the airlock mode is active. Or is this already present?

It'd have similar lighting to the final battle between Ripley and the alien queen.

Yeah, he was confronted by a real class act. He really showed Aurich didn't he? Tough guy? What a joke. A guy that is trying to go out of his way in tortiously interfering with a company and its ability to do business with nothing at stake while the many Pinsiders have $$$ at stake in the project, not to mention the jobs and livelihoods at risk with Heighway.

Stick to pumping and dumping AP

No clue about any of that. I dont read pinside religiously and dont keep up w drama during expo. Just observing that when given a chance to talk in person per his request, aurich instead bolted. Appears to prefer forum communication only. Kim is a great guy and doesnt deserve aurich keyboard commando crap, bringing it up again here where kim cant even reply. Lame.

He shouldn't reply, walk away, let it go, butt out, he has no stake here and crossed WAY over the line. Write him a letter if he wants to. This isn't 3rd grade here. Either way, good riddance and let's get back to talking about Alien and feedback from people that matter, like Aurich.

Thank you

So what's this I hear about Hydrofoils?

Not trying to derail the thread, but I just wanted to say you made my night lol. I'm shocked that this is the first time I've seen a Dunning-Kruger reference on Pinside and its so fitting. Fantastic reference good sir!

FYI, Aurich didn't want to talk. He wanted him to take this personal shit off Pinside. Hopefully now that he's ranted at his face he might actually do that? That would be nice.

Great job Andrew and the Heighway team!!!

Yes......looking forward to getting the game

Agreed. There's lighting inside the airlock that might make sense to use for that. Also needs more feedback when it's about to eject.

We took a lot of mental notes while watching people play.

Grab the one on Dialed In...

Great job with the team.. Andrew get some rest.. Thanks for keeping pinball in the right direction ..

Alien looks great, but how's the game play? Did anyone have a chance to play this and dialed in at expo, if you put the theme aside how did they compare?

Wow, I just caught up on a few hundred messages from the weekend. Glad to see so much excitement about the game. Thank you to the many people who came up to me at Expo with feedback on the game... it's an extraordinary thrill to produce something like this and hear/see what people think about it.

A few random comments...

Someone asked what Lifecycle was. If you examine the playfield, you'll see that many major shots have an additional insert besides the arrow, with icons for Egg, Facehugger, Chestburster, and Xeno. These inserts light up in that exact sequence (representing the lifecycle of an Alien). Completing that 4 shot sequence (no timer or combo requirement) completes a Lifecycle. Your progress is indicated on the playfield inserts, and also shown on the on-screen status when nothing more important (modes, multiballs) takes priority. The on-screen status also tells you what happens when you complete X Lifecycles. The biggest reason to complete Lifecycles is to progress towards Save Newt Multiball, one of the four primary multiballs in the game. However, completing Lifecycles also has other side effects, such as increasing the spinner value, increasing the value of Ambush Multiball, and progressing toward Extra Ball lit. And the Lifecycle shots award points, of course. Lifecycle progress can be made pretty much any time you're not in a multiball.

I've been trying hard to ensure that every game rule has value beyond just points. I dislike game features that just award nominal points that no one cares about. So I've tried to build a meaningful web of interactions between features. As an example: when you hit X number of pop bumpers (eggs), an egg is destroyed. (Think "pop level completed" in other games.) Yay. But each egg destroyed also boosts the scoring in every mode that specifically uses the bumpers... so if you're trying to maximize your score, you might not want to start an egg-based mode until you've racked up some sweet pop bumper action. It's important to me that these sorts of rules exist for advanced players to strategize about (because I totally geek out on complicated rules interaction in pinball, without needing a 45 minute game to do it all) but not act as blockers for more casual players who just want to shoot around and have fun with the game.

Overall, I'm proud of the rules we've done for the game. I think no one will be disappointed in the breadth or depth of rules. Incorporating feedback from the entire team, Wales and US, I've written and maintained our internal rule sheet for the game (that I use as a task list / checklist, and David Thiel and Kelly Mazurowski use as their guide for what A/V assets they need to provide), and it's about 20 pages long, filled with, hopefully, interesting subtleties. 90%+ of this rulesheet (that's an educated guess, not a scientific analysis) is completed and was available on the games at Expo.

A word on lighting effects in the game. If you thought they were nice at Expo, thank you, but you literally have seen nothing yet. I've intentionally been deferring "decorative" lighting (the cool swooshes and sweeps and explosions of lights that we all love) until my physical game arrives. Brian's simulator is fantastic, but it's not able to represent things like lamp diffusion, blockages by plastics and metal, etc. Brian and I have done some decorative effects anyway, but there is much more to be done to really make the game sparkle (literally!). Once my game arrives (maybe this week, fingers crossed!), I expect to spend a lot of time focusing on lighting effects, because the whole team agrees those are a big part of providing the great atmosphere that the game demands.

There's still some work to be done in all departments, but getting to experience this game for real for the first time this weekend, I'm really optimistic that the end result is going to be amazing.

Codegasm

Codespurge!

rd

Would be cool if you get an extra bonus for doing all four in a row, a la super vengeance...

Wow, you sound really passionate about your work, I love it!
Really looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labour, I have a feeling it's gonna be epic

Thank you for the video!!

At some point of the game you see on the lcd a blueprint of the playfild showing you where you have to shoot. That has never been seen before! Great idea! Love it

I
Am
Freaking
Looking
Forward
To
This
Game
!!
!

Maybe this question is better suited to the Full Throttle thread, but has anyone tried to edit or replace associated that game's sound/video files or are all the assets locked down?

As i posted earlier, if its running on linux i can't see a problem changing files. And if its powered by python even better..

The rules sound great. I have great confidence in those who handle that part of the game.

No concern at all, regarding the rules for Alien. I love the intelligent use of the popbumpers on Full Throttle. Also the innovative use of the challenges in that game.

Alien is looking really impressive in every department from the small sample I have seen.

To me, it looks like everyone has done a fantastic job with the licence. Art, Design, rules, Sound and lights, all look very promising.
Edit: I love the Alien inserts that Aurich did, I love that they show up on the screen when you hit them.

The only small concern I have is with the smoothness of the far left ramp. From what I could tell out of the few gameplay clips I have seen, the ball seems to be almost stopping and losing momentum, before the ramp turns downwards. This could of course just have been a coincidence or that the game was set up wrong. But it might be something to check into? No a very big concern, though.
Otherwise, all good. Looks like a fantastic machine to me

You can see what I am talking about in this video:

Also did anyone here play much of the 'Alien' game as opposed to Aliens? In the videos so far it looks very much like Aliens is dominating the theme... that said it's hard to go by the audio alone as the videos upload have games playes side by side with some FT thrown in for extra measure!

Someone must have. There was talk of getting to Jones the cat mode. I saw a picture of the cat on the screen.

I noticed that too, but I'm pretty sure it will be fixed. Let's see what Heighway says.

Dave Sanders confirmed yesterday that this is a known issue on the prototypes and a fix is already in the works for the production games.

Like the sound of lifecycles. Nice to have things to shoot for outside of modes. It makes me think of MET lighting hurry ups. Love that.

This game looks like fun. I may be in for one once shipping begins. As I stated before, I don't think it will be ready until 2017. But I also say, let's not rush them. If it takes longer so be it. Get it right.
Love the swapping playfield idea. Can't wait to see what Game #3 is. Too bad Predator is such a sore subject as it would be a perfect third game.

I got games in in both modes suffice to say that the Alien mode is every bit as Alien as the Aliens Mode is Aliens.

As for production im pretty lax but i would like to see games start shipping this year

Come on, cat
--Jeff

Glad to hear they are fixing this. I was commenting all weekend that I really HATED the design of that ramp. The ball goes up, hits the target, loses all momentum, kind of get caught in the crease toward the return ramp, and then dribbles down. Horrible flow. I would hope they put an actual curve in the upper part of the ramp and change the switch to a leaf or something. Anything to keep the flow of that ramp would be a good thing.

Lots of other parts were pretty clunky as well, but I chalk them up to it still being a proto. Looking forward to this game as the theme integration was amazing.

And to anyone interested, Full Throttle really is awesome. The one they has at the show played like ass, but in the few games where it was working correctly, it is a blast. I'm not into motorcycle racing at all, but it was more fun to me than Alien. I will no doubt be adding it as a kit.

I have to say I am SUPER impressed with the Alien team! GREAT job so far and they are all really great guys to talk to as well! Andrew was a great sport and I had a blast talking and joking around with him! Don't forget to enter my cash deposit onto the books! haha!! You can really tell they truly care about this project and really want it to be great and very successful. They did a great job getting the proto games to Expo and for that I thank them! I was looking forward to seeing this pin the most at expo....hell, I walked out of the JJ presentation 5 minutes after the reveal so I could get to the Alien launch party on time!
I LOVE the theme and even now as a proto, the game is awesome! I can't wait to see what it is like when it is 100% complete! They did have issues with balls getting stuck, i.e. the left ramp "flow" issue, center scoop kick out issues etc, but these are all things that happen when you ship a game that is just finished the week before to a big show where it will get constant play. I bring my games to the show and talk about a perfect testing ground to find any issues and bullet proof a game...this is it! Hell, they are 16 years old with a proven design and they still have issues sometimes that need tweaking!
The small issues on the game will get fixed....take for example the scoop kick out issues they were having at the Thur night launch party. Those were completely gone the next day and all weekend! I saw absolutely no scoop kickback issues after that.....so they will tweak the games and fix the minor issues....and it will be even better still!
My favorite mode by far is the ambush mode with the trackers where it shows you where the aliens are and what shots you have to shoot to kill them and when you make the shot the alien on the tracker screen disappears. VERY cool integration of the tracker!! Second favorite is the sentry gun multi ball!! BAD ASS!! I am trying to figure out how to scrounge up enough money as we speak so I can put a deposit down and eventually buy one of these bad boys! Very well done Alien team and it was a pleasure meeting you at the show and I really enjoyed being able to play your machine! Thank you!!!
Brian

f yeah, Drop the mic, I want to be able to put Ferret up in the same category as Lyman and Keith some day!!! Passion and detail goes a long ways.

I honestly don't think many people were intentionally picking a movie, they might not have realized they even could. You know how it is, you're at a show or a party, you step up to a brand new game, and there's a certain amount of pressure to just jam the launch button and play.

I actually was thinking we might need to spell it out just a little bit more. For home use it's totally fine, but location players might be missing it. On the other hand you can't force people to read instructions, it plays just fine if you jam it. I *think* Joe has it set to switch between films as the default selection every other game.

Thanks that's good news to hear.

I'm hoping that they alter the SFX to suit each film, for example the xenomorph head targets which prompt the alien getting blasted sound effect from Aliens - it would be nice if this was better suited to the vibe of Alien.