The "explore" orbit (I believe its arrow will be blue) should divert the ball into the pops. The "boost" orbit (green) increases pop value and adds time, but does not divert to the pops. The colors alternate after each orbit shot. Instructions on the screen should remind you which is which.

I suspect that bar is an artifact of the positioning tricks we used for the main screen vs Airlock screen.

All Out War is qualified by playing all the movie scenes from both Alien and Aliens, and also playing all 4 multiballs.

Right, All Out War is the final wizard mode.

I'm going to guess that you're talking about Rescue. This is started by shooting the APC targets in order (A, P, C)... their inserts will turn yellow as you hit them. When you start Rescue, a hurryup point countdown will start... quickly shoot the Xeno to start a switch frenzy and lock in the hurryup value as the frenzy switch value. The frenzy is timed; hitting the Xeno adds time. Here's the catch: the frenzy points aren't actually collected until you complete the APC drop targets (doesn't have to be in order). If your ball ends or if Rescue times out before completing the APC drops, the entire frenzy pot vanishes. Rescue can be stacked on anything. There are a couple more rules subtleties, but that's the gist of it.

When this happens, does it go through a partial startup, like the blue-background screen with the code version number? Or all the way back to the black PC power up screen? Or neither of those, it just switches to attract mode instantly?

I'd be in for a PETG plastic set.

Easier to qualify Sentry Guns MB. Easier to light Sentry Gun Super JPs. Higher Rescue scores. Possibly a couple other things I’m not recalling right now.

Please don't forget Kelly Mazurowski, who IMHO did an absolutely stellar job with the video assets in the game.

(I'm just presuming I don't need to similarly mention Aurich, since he's RIGHT HERE... )

The 10+ LEDs may or may not be truly out. These are on a serial chain, so if one lamp fails, it takes out all the lamps downstream on that same chain. The chains are identified in the Lamp test with a designation like "2B4" -- that's I/O board 2, chain B, lamp 4. So for example, if you walk through the lamp test and find that 2B4 and all the following 2Bx lamps are inoperative, suspect that 2B4 or 2B3 is problematic, which could mean an actual failed lamp, or just that it's not firmly seated in its socket. Fortunately, if a lamp(s) are actually faulty, TimeBandit has produced replacements. These will also help with replacing your 5-element GI towers with individual lamps when you're ready to try moving to newer code.

I/O boards are probably fine. I wouldn't jump into replacing them.

You don't even necessarily need the new computer. Although we didn't do tons of testing with the production code builds on the older computers, there isn't much end-user difference between the PCs. The change was more about pricing and availability.

The thread that SunKing mentioned is long, but has tons of incredibly useful, detailed information by the cool cats who successfully revitalized machines similar to yours. Grab your favorite beverage and settle in for the read.

Good luck with your new game... you've surely got some work ahead, but hopefully it winds up being a game that you love.

He pokes his head up here on Pinside from time to time. He's @ealadubhsidhe.

Airlock LCD has an HDMI input if memory serves.

http://pinballbrothers.com/updates/hpa12-rn.txt
http://pinballbrothers.com/updates/hpa11-rn.txt

Hey @megaladon, glad you got out of your boot failure... you did that via @weirpinball's instructions?

Howwwwever... you said you were moving from software 0.94 to 1.02. There are two major problems you may have with this:

1) I strongly suspect that the problem you're reporting with the lights is because your game has the 5-element GI "towers", which were not on the production machines and not supported by 1.x software. Your physical lights do not match the software mappings, which is why some lights are no longer working -- your GI lamps are gobbling up 4 more "places" than expected; the exact effect of this varies from one lamp chain to the next. There is no solution for this in the 1.x software... however, TimeBandit has reproduced lamps for the Heighway system, so your best solution may be to buy a bunch of those and replace all of your GI lamps with 1-element devices, and then the lights should work as expected.

2) You may find that your APC drop targets are not recognized correctly, because their polarity was reversed between prototype and production machines. Not quite sure of the best solution for this one.

I believe that's a neutral proposition ... either computer should be fine, and if the Zotac is working, no particular reason to upgrade now.

For the lighting issue? No. The change from the 5-element to 1-element GI was part of the last production push, and was done in sync with the 0.x to 1.x code. You can even kinda verify it in single-lamp test mode in the operator menus... if you walk through the problematic lamp chains, you should see that each facet of a 5-element GI gets individually lit as you progress through the lamps in the test.

Sorry for the answer, I'm sure it's not what you were looking for. On the plus side, 1.2 is soooo much better than 0.9!

AFAIK this should all be OK. With the shaker, it's possible for that to stress your power supply, so if you find yourself getting system resets when you're expecting shaker effects, you might need to back off on that (or upgrade your power supply).

The shaker is used in several areas around the game... don't remember all of them. I wanna say Combat Drop, APC, Queen's Nest, Self Destruct, Loader Battle, and Sentry Guns?

If you haven't already, I'd start with disabling the shaker and the beacon, if you have those add-ons. Resets often seem to be related to excessive power draw.

Yep.

Sorry, no idea. That magnet should be just like any other similar playfield magnet. Yes, it can be strengthened through coil adjustment in the software.

Yes, those are the ones. They're Mini-USB connectors on the I/O boards... that's not too commonly used these days, but it's a standard nevertheless.

(Sorry, I don't have a specific brand recommendation to offer for replacements.)

No. For one thing, that is a MICRO USB cable, and you need a MINI USB cable. For another thing, 3 feet may be sufficient for the cabinet I/O board and one of the playfield boards, but probably won't be long enough for the other two playfield boards. And you certainly don't want to be stressing the connectors by having the cable be too short.

I think Dung was saying he doesn't see much difference between the "standard" and the LE. Which is pretty legit.

What do you feel it's missing in the code department?

The answer is "probably".

IN THEORY, there's no reason why v1.2 shouldn't work on the Zotac computer if v1.02 is working properly.

IN PRACTICE, we didn't do much testing of the later software releases on the Zotac, because of the expectation that most/all production units would have the HPraise computer.

If you want to try this upgrade, might be a good idea to first make a backup image of the existing hard drive, if you know how to do that... then you could get back to that image if you had a problem with 1.2. (Actually, I think you already used an image to get your machine up to 1.02, so you're probably already set in that regard... just re-image again using the same steps as before if you run into trouble.)

Nope, the problems with the company had nothing to do with the code status. The overall code experience in the 1.2 software is pretty much exactly what was designed for this game. Reaching the mini-wizard modes (Self Destruct and Loader Battle) is attainable, though not a gimme, for many players. Doing so with high shot values (i.e. having won several scenes along the way) is harder. Getting to All Out War is pretty tough for anyone. Along the way, there are plenty of stacking opportunities to try to blow up your score. (Combat Drop + Rescue + Hypersleep MB + Sentry Guns MB + 2X Playfield is a pretty good stack.) Using weapons well is a bit of icing on the cake for advanced players.

The point of Alien wasn't to throw everything and the kitchen sink into a game, it was to create a game that took players into the Alien/Aliens universe with strong theme integration and fun modes and multiballs. Obviously I'm biased, but I think the team achieved that wonderfully. Is the game missing some "gotta have it!" scene from the movies that would've translated into an amazing mode or multiball? I dunno, possibly, but I can't recall any of our team (most of whom are very devoted Alien(s) fanatics) saying "I can't believe the game doesn't have <blah>!". And adding dubious tie-ins to the game just to say we have 12 modes instead of 10, or 8 multiballs instead of 7, or 4 wizard modes instead of 3, seems worse than pointless: I think it would stand out like a sore thumb if some features had crappy links to the movies.

If you can reach All Out War every game: congratulations, you're a far better player than most, and it might be time to pass your Alien on to someone else. For everyone else, I'm completely satisfied with the experience we provided, and the balance of easier and harder features and goals.

Err... do you have the shaker motor accessory?

(I'm also a little sad about the lack of flashers.)

@cyber-greg, TomDK ... yeah, the Quake shaker is kind of lacking oomph. If you haven't already done so, the 1.2 software offers a "Install Quake" preset that tries to improve the vibration experience with the Quake motors, but in my experience it's just not as feisty as the Cointaker Red Tremor shakers that were previously shipped from the factory.

You should experience shaker effects in Ambush and Sentry Guns multiballs, and the APC, Combat Drop, Queen's Nest, and Tunnel Escape modes.

Actions > Presets > Quaker

If you haven't already replaced the factory USB cables, that's certainly a good first thing to try... pretty easy, pretty cheap, and it'll likely be helpful sooner or later.

Cointaker Red Tremor shipped from the factory for many/most of the games... that one has good oomph.

Reduce the strength of the trough eject coil?

I just want to strongly agree with what Aurich said. I can't and don't speak for anyone else on the team, but I was contracted to do coding for hire, that code to belong to Heighway Pinball, not me. Fortunately, eventually, I was paid the compensation that was promised (including a game). But even if I hadn't been paid, it would've been my own damn fault for continuing to do work when payments were in arrears... I wouldn't get to arbitrarily decide on some sort of vigilante justice. You know the cliche about two wrongs not making a right. AFAIK, Pinball Brothers is the owner of that IP now, so whether they choose to use that IP to make more Alien pins, sell it to another company, or print it on toilet paper, that's their choice, not mine or Brian's or Aurich's or David's or Kelly's.

Hey, I’d be in for those speaker panels if they become a product. Great idea.

I/O boards have nothing to do with game audio. The sound on Alien is always incredible, between decent sound hardware and David Thiel's INCREDIBLE audio work. If you haven't already, make sure to follow David's instructions for adjusting the amplifier to make the audio pop as much as possible.

If we missed the ordering window yesterday, that's the end of it?

Novus?

If you manage to send several balls into the Airlock before it kicks them out, this is possible. Shouldn't need to reset the game completely for this, though... a telescoping magnet should be able to pull them out. Where to put them afterwards is a bit of a hassle, but you could try one in the Airlock, one in the launcher lane, one in the Vent 1 saucer, and I guess throw any others in the trough. (All this because of the high power interlock that prevents you from just putting them all on a raised flipper... though perhaps you can do that if there's a nearby friend to help. The glass cartridge is a serious PITA in this situation though.)

Can you tell if the ball doesn't half enough oomph to reach the launcher lane, or if it has so much oomph that it's hitting the side wall and bouncing back into the trough? In the former case, try nudging up the power of the trough eject coil by one notch (5%); in the latter case, nudge the power down one notch.

And yes, game level and slope can affect these sorts of things too. 6.5 degrees of slope and level side-to-side is ideal.

Kickers like the Airlock do make themselves stronger automatically if the first couple kickout attempts fail.

Man, you seriously have a jinxed Alien, don'tcha?

You might check the fuses. It's been quite awhile since I've had to lift the playfield on mine, but if I remember correctly, every fuse has an indicator LED, so if any of those are not illuminated, start with that. If those are all OK, then @Roostking's suggestion is solid. Either way, if you're swapping fuses or tightening connections, make sure you do it with the power off. (If you're not sure if the power's off, pull the cord out to be sure.)

I'm not in front of my game right now, but I believe Adjustments > Standard > Knocker Sound > OFF will allow the knocker coil to work during gameplay.

@Averell: I received my package, just won't be able to install it for awhile. Thank you very much for your work!

Thanks, yeah, I was really happy with how that GI beacon effect turned out.

Used in Self Destruct also BTW.

And BTW, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a hat tip to bcd for his great platform lighting schemes that made that beacon effect pretty easy to implement. Cheers, Brian.

YES, factory balls get easily magnetized, which can cause goofy trough problems. Swapping out the balls is an easy solution to many common glitches.

If I remember correctly, Aurich threw those apron graphics together in like 5 minutes shortly before the game was first revealed at Expo, because we wanted to communicate how the weapons worked... it was basically a placeholder. And then, well, you know...

Looks amazing, congratulations!

Yes, you can adjust the coil strength of every coil via adjustments. You can reduce the power of the Trough Release coil to help resolve this problem. Much easier and safer solution than bending any physical objects.

It was a Queen figurine hidden behind a metal curtain that could rotate away to reveal her. Very similar to the Joker reveal on Batman Dark Knight. The LCD is a much better use of the space.

Not "shipped", but that toy was on the early Aliens that were revealed at Pinball Expo 2016. I think the motor for the reveal even worked. I'm not sure what happened to those three Expo 2016 machines.

I have a prototype dated January 2017, and it already has the Airlock LCD.

I'd be up for a PETG plastics set.

Shoot the upper (Hypersleep) ramp.

No. It should be lit when the ball is ready to launch, and when you have weapons available.

Yes.

Yes... via a ricochet off the post that protects the bottom of the upper right flipper.

Complete X (adjustable) Lifecycles
Complete LV lanes when you already have 12X
Mother Mystery award

No, it's +1X for the first and then +2X through 12... this allowed us to tally using the digits of "4 2 6".

It worked for me in gameplay on 1.2, AFAIK.

The I/O board discovers that from the thing it’s plugged into on the hardware side (e.g. one of the lighting PCBs)

If you go into Switch Test and roll a ball over the Revive switches, do they register? There shouldn't be anything magical about that... if a Revive lane is lit and the corresponding switch registers, you should get the ball back.

One possible point of confusion is that the switches are located just below the tips of the "Revive" inserts... so it's possible for the ball to roll over a lit Revive insert but then bounce to the other (un-lit) side before passing over the switch, which would not result in a ball save. If that's the case, it's working correctly, but is certainly a bit confusing.

Not quite sure what you mean by "community" code update... the 1.3 release was done by Brian Dominy, who is a member of the original design team.

Beyond that, totally agree

Gossip flying around? Where?

What?

Okay, but you said to avoid the entire company. You know that American Pinball has two games besides Houdini, right?

David Thiel has done lots of great work throughout his career, but his effort on Allen’s audio package is truly remarkable.

It should flash briefly when the ball comes out of Vent 1 during single ball play. Vent 1 -> Chestburster lane is a "Host Combo", which accumulates from other combos (somewhat like the End of Line Jackpot on Tron) and also from egg hits.

I'm liking this... talk about a great game AND dust off my very rusty French.

I appreciate the intent, but please, credit where it’s due: that manual is Averell’s outstanding work, not mine. He kindly gave me credit for borrowing text that I’d written here over the years, and I offered some editorial feedback on his drafts. But accolades for creating the book should all go to him.

I love all the community support for this game!

Actually, the active weapon can be changed at ANY time by pressing the Extra Ball button. This has always been the case, although it is true that previous code versions had a bug where sometimes you weren't able to switch weapons. When possible, the display advises which weapon is selected. There are also unique audio cues for each weapon, so it's actually possible to choose a specific weapon without even watching the screen.

I always figured there would be three tiers of how players used the weapons:

- Novice: doesn't even know that weapons exist. That's fine, for these players the weapons just give some extra bonus points.
- Intermediate: knows about weapons but just pounds the Launch button when they drain, hoping for something good to save the ball.
- Expert: carefully manages their weapons, using the right ones at the right time.

While not easy to do, it can be immensely rewarding when you intentionally use the Flamethrower to save a draining ball, fire the Pulse Rifle to start 2x scoring right when you start a big stack, or use the Smart Gun to collect that Vent 3 Ambush Super Jackpot that you just can't seem to shoot.

Did you do Install Quake under (I believe) Utilities > Presets? (Sorry, not in front of my game right now.) That changes some settings to try to add some oomph to the Quake shaker, although IMHO it's just not as good as what had been used on earlier units (Cointaker Red Tremor, I think?)

A friend gave me those coasters as a gift a couple years ago... they’re fun.

IOBoards have been remade?

As I recall, the coin slot lights were coded to work that way intentionally, to help signal whether coins were necessary to play.

Right... it’s kind of a silly expense to have those be controlled lights, so that’s not often seen.

I’m kinda remembering that doing this also diverts coins to the coin return on (some?) international coin doors.

Congrats on the game, bemmett ! Hope you love it.

Next to a JJPOTC too... nice pair of rarities.

The .upd package should be fine for you. There are different images available if you have a complete hard drive failure and need to start from scratch, but the .upd should work since the game system is up and running.

All this talk of choking ferrets makes me squirm.

USB Mini on the I/O Board side.

Gee, thanks.

Upgrading your I/O board firmware to 0.9 should minimize the LED flickering when you flip.

Making Vent 2 from the upper left flipper should be quite doable. But as you mention, I do find it easier to shoot from a lower flipper and intentionally ricochet off the post beneath the upper right flipper. Not magic, just geometry and physics.

You earn Scene Bonus by winning modes. Scene Bonus is a percentage of the total score earned in each "won" mode on that ball. If you're legitimately getting 30 weapons (!) and getting to All Out War twice (!!), and getting 12x bonus along the way... you probably won quite a few modes, perhaps some while 2X scoring was running... getting a huge Scene Bonus is certainly plausible. At a high level, the idea is to make it be important to win modes, while also making the value of bonus significant so that tilting can incur a serious penalty beyond just loss of ball.

Ummm... those are compiled binaries. Modifying them would be a significant undertaking.

Trust me, it is not Python.

The person who did the 1.4 update was one of the original programmers.

I'm the other original programmer.

Averell has produced the most comprehensive rule sheet that I know of for Alien... it doesn't list every single target value, but it's a pretty thorough guide to the game.

https://images.pinside.com/d/39/d1/d39d17aa279f8afe6ffa3782a58b751f1440ae0e.pdf

There may be a more recent version, I'm sure he will chime in if there is

Check to make sure that the shooter lane switch is registering properly.

Just to avoid any confusion: there was never a mini playfield in any released version of Alien. A playfield SCREEN (with identical content as the backbox screen) was removed and replaced with lit inserts.

That’s likely the only correct answer. If you just compare the underside of the Heighway Alien vs the Pinball Bros Alien, it’s clear that there is little in common between the builds.

Sometimes you get anomalous sales just because there’s a buyer who really really wants a particular game, whether due to rarity or condition of the specific game, etc. And many buyers aren’t interested in dealing with shipping, so the successful pairing here doesn’t have a similar match over there.

No doubt there are issues to be worked out with Alien 2.0, but I'm feeling good that the Pinball Bros team will get those issues cleaned up soon. I do think the OG machines will remain somewhat special and magical, especially with the playfield screens, but I'm excited about having many more people be able to enjoy Alien pinball!

bcd is an under-appreciated treasure.

I really wish everyone would just love their games. Original Aliens are fantastic, once you get 'em working as intended. I'm sure the Pinball Brothers Aliens are fantastic too, though a little bit different. Whichever model you have, you've got a great playing game based on iconic movies, with stellar theme integration, amazing soundtrack, cool animations, fun shots... I'm just so happy that both models are out in the wild to be enjoyed by lots of people. Hopefully everyone who owns one of these (EITHER model!) is super happy too.

If I remember correctly, the F.E.M.S. number tells you how many bugs are left to kill before you qualify Super Jackpot for the current attack wave. The C.K. values are player number / ball number.

(I have no idea what F.E.M.S. or C.K. mean, but they're on the Motion Tracker in the movie, so they're on the Motion Tracker here. )

Sorry: Bugs = Aliens, as in Hudson's line about this being a Bug Hunt.

For Ambush MB, it means the tracker dots, which correspond to Jackpots. So the F.E.M.S. number tells you how many Aliens you need to kill by shooting shots in one of the four quadrants, before Super Jackpot is lit.

As a reminder, the key to big scores in Ambush MB is preventing any Aliens from reaching the center -- if they do, your Jackpot value gets reset back to baseline. So you always want to focus on whichever quadrant is closest to the center.

(Sorry, chucky87 -- I wish I could describe this in French for you, but I think my high school French is inadequate.)

Yes.

All Out War is the final wizard mode. You'll need to play all 10 movie scenes and the other 4 multiballs to qualify AOW.

Don't overthink that text. The concept is that balls are revived from deep sleep if you drain out a lit left outlane. Those lanes are lit by shooting the Hypersleep (upper) ramp. That's it.

The game rules and choreography are basically the same on the Heighway version and the Pinball Brothers version. The hardware is very different, though. Keep the PB software on a PB machine if you want it to, you know, work.

Weapon info should always be available on the Airlock screen whenever it's not on the main screen. I know, not exactly what you asked for, but it was a deliberate choice to keep the main display clean.

LOL at the "Inspected by Averell" sticker, nice touch.

Easier? Errr, no. Stabler? Probably not. That would entail rewriting the entirety of the game's code -- rules for dozens of modes, multiballs, and misc features; all the choreography; etc. Huge undertaking.

I monitor this thread constantly... I just mostly don't have much to say... y'all actually understand the hardware and electrical issues far better than I do.

I'm just happy that lots of people get to enjoy the game, whether the Heighway version or the Pinball Brothers version.

That sounds fantastic. I hope you -- or someone -- offers a service to do that, for those who aren't capable of doing so.

I don’t think that harassing Brian is the right approach.