I have to say lit side blade art came as a nice surprise. It is shown with a blue hue. Wonder if the LE's might get a green or some other hue to match the 35th Anniversary artwork when it's done? That could further differentiate the LE art from the SE.

Didn't Andrew say a couple months ago there were three secret features they were keeping under wraps that had to be "bolted" on yet?

If the lit side blades were one of these features, what were the other two?

No difference, you can see it well in any light.

How about Alien's art for LE customers? Then we would have Alien & Alien's art work to swap out between. Seems like a neat idea.

You are correct, I stand corrected. It was so isolated, I didnt bother to consider it.

Ill amend my thought with on earth, "in a populated area".

The story line of Subways, Sewers, cellars, all our subterranean places, as nesting areas.

Because the LE is the "35th Anniversary" edition of Alien...

For you guys that keep bringing up old questions about the backbox LCD & multiple translight art packages....

Makes sense to me. Make the backbox LCD mandatory on all games & create 2 art packages (hopefully Alien standard, Aliens LE...both fit for backbox LCD). Just simplify & reduce confusion. Everyone's price will go up $550 with the LCD standardized. But buyers shouldn't fault them if they decide to go that route. It's a better business decision & will future proof upcoming games if everyone has the backbox LCD. Plus it's pretty sweet. And everything subject to change anyway until production starts.

Give them a couple weeks post Expo. Get those playfield details finished, finish cabinet art packages, decide on the LE trim color, lock in all the various option pricing, finalize the production model, etc etc. They're not quite there yet, but getting pretty close. Until then, just wait for them to announce that production has started.

Only 3 years late.

It's the 38th Year Anniversary.

rd

Could push it back a couple more years for the 40th...

They announced that over 2 weeks ago:

Capture (resized).PNG

What probably has started is the production of sub assemblies.

As far as I know they still have to fine tune the pin as a whole so I don't think complete pins are already build. But that is based on personal feeling only.

I think Andrew will tell in time what the current status is.

production is not assembly (necessarily). Give them a chance to let the dust settle from Expo.

Probably production of parts which would take time/money

Andrew explained what he means by "production":

Makes perfect sense. It would be foolish to order many components until the whole thing is signed off and locked in.

I think people are confusing the word 'production' for 'production line'. Production is the entire process of implementing/realising a design, not just the assembly.

The team is regrouping to figure out what was learned from having the games at Expo. Lots of solid feedback, lots of watching people play the game. Definitely super helpful, we want to take advantage of it all.

Just bringing this up because we might all be heads down for the near future making sure we're getting things right, might not be any news for a little bit, but doesn't mean we're not working.

Forgive me for not reading all 176 pages...I'm just curious if anything official has been said about whether I'll have to get a new CPU in my Full Throttle in order to get Alien to work. Do we have details on that process?

Paraphrasing but Andrew said all FullT customers would be taken care of for a new CPU. IF? They are needed.
THey are still figuring things out but not to worry. They value FullT customers and will make sure we are able to upgrade and swap in any future kits.

P.s. Hang tight. They are slammed with Aliens, which is a good thing. they will get to us in due time. Need to remember this is still a new company, they are getting things worked out, and they deserve a little patience as thye have already delivered one great game.

Aliens is the big title they need. We should give them a little slack while they get it going and things hopefully take flight for the long haul.

Did I miss something? Why would FT need a new cpu to run the Alien kit?

You must have heard wrong. Fish Tales and Alien are completely incompatible.

Not sure. I remember something being said about when the LCD turns into the motion tracker and you have to shoot at randomly appearing zeno's in real time which requires more processing power to pull off as your hits or misses affects different outcome scenerios? I can't remember why more processing power was needed honestly, but I thought the motion tracker was mentioned at the time.

Edit : Thanks for finding the quote Nephasth.
What I meant to say was for the real-time rendering.

not sure of the real reason, but my understanding is the new CPU will be a future proof state and something easily available in the longer future off the shelf.

thanks nephasth

No problem whysnow...

So the very first time that Full Throttle owners have an option to add a kit (Alien) to their lineup, it won't work without updating the CPU?

Not sure what the cost is of upgrading, but I wouldn't be too happy if I were a FT owner. That upgrade should be offered for free IMO.

Yep.

I'm an owner , I'm not jumping to conclusions, I'm not panicking . I will patiently wait and find out , I'm confident I will be taken care of .

From what I heared it will be a significant upgrade over the exciting Utilite.

Probably something like this:
Intel Core i3
4 GB RAM
60 GB SSD

This should make the platform more futureproof. I think they overestimated what they could do with the current CPU so an upgrade seems logical at this stage.

I am an owner and I find you must see things in the right perspective. This is a new company doing their best to deliver a top quality future proof product.

This means choices made in earlier stages might need to be reconsidered and components need to be improved to support new features. This is what happens now with the CPU.

As an early adapter I do understand that this kind of things happen and have no problem with this if a structural solution is offered.

I am also confident that the price of the upgrade for existing customers is not that high and good value for the money.

Settle down ROb.

Are you a FullT owner?

I am and most importantly I am willing to sit tight and wait it out to see what Heighway offers up before going crazy. I assume I will have to pay something, but it will be a drastically reduced rate. I am also under the impression that it will be a huge upgrade and bring lots of added value.

As an owner, I expected some kinks along the way from being a first game adopter. I am very happy to see they are working these things out now with #2. I am also happy that Andrew has said he wil make it all work out.

While sometimes a little delayed (while they ramp up for Alien/s) Andrew has ALWAYS come through on his word.

I don't think hes going crazy, you guys that bought the first game from Heighway and have helped finance this second pin should be given the upgrade for free but for me it wouldn't big a big deal if i had to pay a little bit, still shouldn't have to though, especially when buying the Alien kit, include the new board in my opinion at no additional cost.

Does anyone have a sense for how
technically difficult it will be to swap out the CPU?

About 5min and almost no technical know-how needed.

For all you guys who think this "kit" ideas is good.. How do you store the kit that is not in use? Does it have a special box? I just can't see how cheaping out on a full game and a kit is a good fit for the kind of people who buy brand new pinball machines for home use. Can someone point me to a thread where this has been hashed out? I really want to learn how this is NOT one of those ideas that sounds good on paper but not so much IRL.

The CPU is that little white box in the bottom of your cabinet. Should be plug and play. And you might be able to turn the old one into a Chromebox as a bonus.

GTFO with this crap. I'm tired of people like you who think that you can only have an opinion if you have bought the product in question. It's complete BS, and you should be ashamed for throwing crap like this around.

I bet if I made a post saying something to the effect of "this is no big deal, it's part of growing pains of a new company and I'm sure that Heighway won't charge too much for the upgrade" you would not have replied to my post asking me if I were a FullT owner, would you?

Hypocrite.

Isn't the right perspective to expect the company to deliver on what was promised in terms of compatibility with future kits?

I understand that things change as you develop the platform, but that should not be to the detriment of your customers.....*especially* the early adopters who took a chance on your first product.

I'm not sure why Andrew felt the need to mention that a CPU upgrade will be required for Full Throttle owners at this point when the game isn't shipping. There are other details of higher importance that could of been shared.

When purchasing a Heighway pinball they don't have a personality application process and some customers will take things differently. Some people will panic when they just spent $6000+ on a pin and are told the CPU's are obsolete. Some people will take "production" as about to ship.

I don't understand why Heighway has such poor communication. If someone tells me they are a new company, this a poor excuse. Andrew has ran multiple businesses in the past and has JJP and Stern to mimic what works and doesn't work.

Andrew should publish a features matrix and a rough timeline of whats going on with Aliens. He can have weekly updates on twitch where folks can ask him questions until the games ship. JJP showed Dialed In! on Saturday on Twitch, answered questions, called up Pat Lawlor etc. A pinhead near Andrew with a camera rig can't set something up on twitch that occurs once a week?

yes and yes. Research heighway threads...there are search tools for keywords...click heighway pinball at the top, it will show all heighway threads, type in kit or store etc. There's even a thread w/video of a play field swap.

You are entitled to your opinion and I did not mean to insinuate differently.

I will say that this is one of those times where your opinion holds very little value if you are not a FullT owner and hence not impacted at all.

you are correct about this. It does not appear to be a big deal and relatively low on the priority list. It also seems most FullT owners feel similar to your sentiment which adds some value to this opinion.

I personally just see little reason to get so worked up about something that is a non-issue for the majority, Heighway has proven they take care of customers, and heighway has said they will figure out in the future.

As someone who owns neither...would make sense to buy Aliens and then add on the FT kit. Seems cheaper/easier that way. Hmmmm.....

Welcome to the internet.

Agreed, very valid point

Completely clueless.

Despite not owning FT, seeing how the company handles the situation with FT owners has an impact on whether others will consider being future owners.

Get it?

I didn't say that!

You are really something.

yup, completely get it. However, how about chilling out and actually seeing how they deal with it.

I am confident they will make it right and take care of all us actual owners.

Why is it so tough to just relax for a bit and then see what they do? THEN form your opinion and decide if you want to slam or praise them.

You were the one that took it upon yourself to escalate this discussion with your initial response to me by telling me to "settle down Rob" when my post was pretty even handed and pretty non-controversial. Only a fanboy would have taken offense to it.

And I don't have to wait for anything before having an opinion. To repeat myself, it is my opinion that Heighway should offer the CPU upgrade free of charge to all Full Throttle owners. Maybe even you!

sorry, I read your intitial post as negative. Likely the syntax and writing style plus knowing you have not been real positive on many of the newly revealed games recently. My appologies. text does not always come through with intent or meaning.

I am not a fanboy of Heighway, but rather appreciative of what they have currently done, their customer service, and excited for what Alien/s appears to offer.

I am of a similar opinion but will wait to make any jundgement until I hear of the details. Pretty odd that so many people are jumping to conclusions and ideas. Just listening to yet another podcast where people are assuming that it will cost them hundreds of dollars to update the CPU. I think the lesson here for Heighway is no need to even announce this untill they have the details worked out and can lay it all out to the actual owners. There was no positive for them to even post anything about it.

hoping that's what happens...I can't imagine they wouldn't. Either way, it'll be a while since they haven't started shipping Alien yet. The swap kit will be after the LE's I would bet.