I think the LCD screen is crap and should be replaced by a hologram projector. In a certain mode a full scale queen is projected that dances next to you to make you feel happy. Enjoy the holidays and a happy new year to all of you

no need for a distro in australia, if you are shipping direct to customers yes ?

Technically this is wrong as Homer was the sole designer... He was the only ONE made happy....

There are enough of us to warrant a local distributor when it comes to after sales service etc.
Hopefully the machinations will be finalised soonish and we get a local contact to liaise with directly
We're all fans and think this could be a damn fine pin!

Andrew, I have a question regarding the LEDs you are using as it would appear in this clip the inserts under the playfield screen are showing signs of ghosting can you please explain what is causing this?

Feburary?

Heh, true, but at least you got the reference!

Had a really helpful call last night with Kelly and Joe and Brian last night to discuss details of the new airlock LCD. All the talk about it in this thread was motivating, discussion is definitely not a bad thing! It's just, can we keep it to discussion, and not make it all personal?

The call was at 10pm west coast time, which means Brian and Joe were sitting there at 1am trying to make sure this all made sense. People are working hard on this. I promise you we all make more money from our day jobs, no one is going to get rich off pinball. This is a passion project, through and through. Don't get me wrong, we all hope it sells, but that's not why we're here. We get just as frustrated as you, trust me. But we're still here, still pushing to get this game out.

Anyways. Talking it through was super helpful, we came up with a couple use cases that hadn't occurred to us already. I'm now really confident that this screen is the answer to some problems we had, and not just something flashy for the sake of flashy. It will make the game better, and clearer, and hopefully more fun too.

When you shared earlier, Aurich, some of the examples of How to use the screen, where it is an "Animated Target"
along with "info" has great opportunities, and in my mind could be an amazing part of the experience!

See, the Peppers Ghost in GB is cool, but the code is stopped at about 9-12 Animations, The explosion part is a "Reaction", to the shot, hence an animated target.

JJP in Dialed in, appears to be adding more.

In this game, where you have purpose for the shot, the Animation to make the shot, plus the resulting reward, if done in the way you have described actually blows me away a bit.

(Think about the animation sequence for Multiple hits, Rewards for Kills....It can serve as the best little mini video game in a Pin in terms of
reactionary display!)

Id only suggest that for some of these you have a variety of clips to keep it interesting for the same purpose, if Possible.

Sounding like this has been tweaked to a Gem of a game I would want next to TWD or AC/DC.... A top shelf Game that brings 100% of Pinball into the Experience!

We decided this shouldn't be the book from Hobbit, it's going to stay more directly tied to the scoop, and be informational more in the sense of showing you useful info, but not in a "here's some text to read" sort of way. It's not that big a screen, things on it need to read 'large' to be easily visible.

Again, the discussion here is helpful, I do welcome people's thoughts. People are right in that there are already potentially two other screens. We don't need another place to showcase animation per se. But if the airlock doors are closed by default, and you light Weyland and Yutani, then they can slide open to reveal an animated icon letting you know the airlock is lit and ready to start a mode.

We can flash an eject icon when the scoop is ready to push the ball back out, that along with David Thiel's sound cue will make sure you're ready for the ball.

The screen can show the mode timer, but we also thought it would be handy to show you the currently selected weapon, since the main dashboard is not visible during a mode as the screen gets taken over with mode stuff. And if you finish the mode objectives you want to end with an airlock shot, so we can light up an icon letting you know that shot is ready.

That's the kind of thinking we're focusing on in terms of big picture gameplay use. Not something distracting or competing, but something useful, that contains quickly parsed information, but is more dynamic and interesting than a simple LED lighting at the scoop.

This is going to be great, I really think the airlock will be a great combination of functional design enhanced by impressive visuals. This, combined with potential for software enhancements and the passion the Heighway team has for this project, makes me believe this will really be an amazing pin.

Best be on finding out about shipping time frame would be to contact heighway directly, anything else is speculation.

absolutely

Not much to say now till the 16th and hopefully that week something will be shipped, do I believe that? nope, but I hope I'm wrong.

just pointing out that it appears to have been him as that account is now gone along with the posts.

nothing wrong with calling out the obvious...

I do have thoughts to your questions but mate, it was just a suggestion.........not sure I deserved that!

...................

i was happy with the coffee can i am happy with the lcd. build this pin already.

I like some of the ideas about the new uses for the Airlock LCD, but I really feel like things could be more strategically implemented going forward if they made the large backbox screen standard and then designed each of the dedicated screens for specific uses. I have to imagine that the overwhelming majority of people get the large screen, and duplicating the playfield screen is pretty much pointless outside of needing to do it for those that don't have the backbox screen. If the large backbox became standard, then the development team would be designing around known quantities rather than accounting for contingencies, not knowing what configuration users have.

There isn't a single other instance in all of pinball where the game designers are faced with not knowing whether a user's machine has a feature this integral. Everything could be optimized and strategically used if there was a fixed core configuration that they were designing to.

Aurich mentions the large readability of the design for the airlock LCD, but that mentality should extend to the playfield display as well. If it didn't HAVE to be designed as potentially the only display, it could be used in much more helpful and readable ways than a mini version of the full backbox.

I would just like to see the Queen modes on the backbox LCD I don't care if there on all 3 screens at once but the queen up on the big 27" display and the playfield LCD in the players eye line would just be pure immersion especially if there is a mode from the end of Aliens trying to escape her lair and the countdown till the nuke gets dropped having that on the big screen would be awesome, with the queen looking down on the player!

A 'classic' cabinet is what I'm waiting to see. Having swappable playfields are great for those who want to go that route. To me, Alien is a stand alone theme that deserves a dedicated cabinet for it. Full cabinet artwork on the cabinet sides and head is what I'm hoping for. When Heighway comes out with the next must have title, I'll want a dedicated cabinet for it too! I'm getting an Alien pin either way though!

Agreed 100%. I'm wondering if someone should do a poll about this? Just curious how many others feel this way? Because I'm also not interested in a swappable playfield title and will probably prevent me from buying a Heighway pin. But I would so love to own an Alien, so I may have to reconsider.

why? Just because the playfield is swappable doesn't make it any less of a game than any other full game...? It's still a full, completely functioning Alien pinball machine. They don't "make" you swap playfields and the game doesn't cost more because it's swappable.

Why would a playfield that CAN be swapped stop you from buying a machine? Just don't swap it.

I guess others can chime in here as well, since I'm not the first to express that I wouldn't buy this or would prefer a dedicated cabinet. Or maybe I am? For me, I like the look of the cabinet to fit the theme. I think the swappable unit makes it look swappable even if you never plan to swap it. I just would prefer the cabinet art in full blown detail to be part of the machine.

I suppose it's just a personal preference... and of course I finished by saying I may have to reconsider. So not set in stone.

... and if WOOLY happens to be the next Heighway pin, then it would it be a no-brainer for me to ignore the swappable cabinet.

The look of the cabinet has zero effect on gameplay...

Right, but it does have an effect on the aesthetics in your home. This is essentially a huge piece of furniture on full display.

Toys are not furniture, no matter the size.

I was interested in what others thought, so I'm going to start a poll in a separate thread. But in researching to make sure this hasn't been done before, I found a thread with over a hundred responses about swappable playfields. Only read the first page, but was mixed opinions (as I would suspect). However, it was very telling that the two posts with the most upvotes were discussing how people wanted permanent cabinet art in all its beauty. Not a poll, but definitely supports my thoughts.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-pinball-entering-a-new-era-of-swappable-games#post-2999587

Nobody has EVER argued that gameplay is a reason to not buy a Heighway or other swappable pin, but many of us see these games quickly approaching 10k as a piece of art for our living rooms, rec rooms or other.

I guess we're all in this hobby for different reasons. Some are pinvestors, some are art collectors, and some are just here to play.

I think it will be cool to have the lit strips on the side rather than an old style cab, it will look unique in my game room. Also the headbox looks great.

The LE will have a gloss black cab I belive and look pretty high end.

Right, and everyone is entitled to their opinion of course even if it differs from yours.

Poll started...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/poll-swappable-playfields-or-permanent-cabinet-art#post-3514756

Exactly why I'm stating mine.

Looks pretty bad ass to me.

1 (resized).jpg

As stated multiple times before, there is NO need for a large oversized head now that the boards have gotten much smaller. Have you even seen a Full Throttle machine in person, because the lit side art looks stellar in a darkly lit gameroom. Heighway is trying new designs & fresh ideas, and this is why many of us support the company. Again....you cannot please everyone. Have faith in your vision & your product

The lighted side art looks great, I don't give the head a second thought. Unless you NEED all your games to look EXACTLY the same, this is a non-issue. I have different sizes, shapes, eras so my Full Throttle looks completely at home in our row of games.

I could see someone preferring "more" cabinet art, I guess, if they had this as their only game sitting in their dining room or something. For me I have 2 rows of games so you see the side art on exactly 2 games...and 1 of them is Full Throttle because the lighted art looks cool.

The question is would you pay more for non swapable side art?

The swappable vs non swappable side art is less of an issue for Alien anyway, since both the frame and the Alien image background is black. You'll barely notice that it isn't non-swappable.

It seems fairly clear to me that someone will come up with decals for the cabinet that would alleviate any concerns about the art not being wrapped all the way around. So... where's the issue? I'd even pay a premium for static stick decals that you could remove if you *do* choose to do a playfield swap.

“There’s a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse’. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."----Steve Jobs

Stick to your vision Heighway. Your ideas are changing pinball for the better

^^^^^this

This has already been addressed by others earlier in this thread...but what a customer service minefield that would be for Heighway. Someone convinced they want a single dedicated game....and then next year Heighway announces their ultra OMG!!!! dream theme, and they start wanting some way to change their machine to a swappable cabinet. The cabinet looks great - keep it dedicated if you want. This seems like such a complete non-issue.

I think the pinball community has always been pretty traditionalist and resistant to change in design and play. It's like we want more depth and innovation, but not too much or we freak out. That's why there was resistance to Pin2K, there is resistance to Heighway's cabs, resistance to Jersey Jack's pins and why Dialed In has a bunch of people annoyed. Personally, I think it's all great, I love people pushing the envelope and embracing technology, new ways of doing things, and keeping things interesting and exciting in this hobby.

I don't see why you can't have a dedicated cabinet that is still swap-able, the only issue would be mismatched artwork. I agree that Alien done correctly would be a showcase machine, completely deserving of a dedicated cabinet.

I dont have a problem with how they look but i do understand why some people would just want a standard cab. Like nwpinball said that the pinball community is slow to like change. They want the latest and the greatest but when it has big changes its too much!

Heck there are probably people who didnt want a dmd on the back box, or wire form ramps, or maybe some are still mad that they added flippers to the machines!

In the end they should still make a standard cabinet for those who want it to match their decor

The pin looks totally "Badass" in that pic Poakey posted.

I'm just waiting for a video release before sending in my next "production payment".

I've waited this long, if it moves me further down the build list I can live with that, still want to see the final package.

Copied from the poll thread:

Swappable playfields or permanent cabinet art? Why not have both at the same time? If you have 10 minutes, the physical cabinet front and sides can be replaced easily.

Here is something Andrew had to say a year ago in the quote below. Remember, Heighway has smartly designed in modularity and with that idea, swappable full cabinet panels are possible (not talking about the swappable lighted art panels). I think we could have the best of both worlds by having dedicated full cabinet art replacement panels with pemenant dedicated art decals and the lit up interior replaceable light signs on both sides of the cabinet at the same time that could change with theme for people that just have to have themed art all over the cabinet sides. As a bonus everything remains swappable so no one would get left behind with a fixed cabinet if a dream theme comes along and space is a factor. As for as a traditonally shaped backbox with dedicated art on the sides... leave that to the Heighway team should they decide to design a traditional back box but with swappable side panels. Just thinking out loud...

Here is the quote about replaceable cabinet side panels (that could be covered in themed art possibly)

If Heighway should decide to design a traditional back box but with swappable art side panels for it I vote they should be liighted like the lit swappable cabinet side art panels. Innovation!

Does anyone know why there's no artwork beneath the flippers?