Oh boy. There was likely a better way for Heighway to handle this, than to further reinforce the negative perceptions about what is going on over there.

There's probably a photo of Andrew up in their office with darts in it, and they probably blame him for everything, but at some point they have to own how they've managed this from the day they took his keys.

the black in that photo of the factory also has silver legs, so those must just be used for testing in the factory and keep the actual ones safe.

is this actual information?

Wow. This is an incredible statement and certainly an indictment of what all went on there, that these thoughts would even rattle around in your mind.

We're talking about SPARE PARTS. They honestly can't produce SPARE PARTS, and if they can't produce and sell SPARE PARTS then yeah... what is there left to do?

It's sad. Just last night my wife was showing her Alien queen tattoo. We would love this pin. I'm sure a lot of people would. It is killer. So wtf went so wrong, especially in the last 10 months since Andrew left the building. Or is it still his fault they aren't producing spare parts today or supporting their customers?

Definitely feels like a slow motion car wreck unfolding. What is the path forward at this point?

ouch.

That 2014 Expo was really something.

Are the Alien LEs that are arriving more reliable than the last batch?

I think the only thing that would give me hope at this point is by now with the LEs they've ironed everything out. If there is still snafus going on with delivered machines, then what hope can there be?

So who is left in Wales?

Seems like a big part of the problem is spare parts, and a manual/schematics. Some way to support the machines post sale.

I suspect if Heighway did this:

-produced service manual
-produced and delivered a batch of spare parts
-had a dedicated tech support person on a dedicated system (some sort of ticket system)

A lot of good could come of that. And in all seriousness, how can anyone continue to deal with a company that did not have the above in place?

Not sure how this was going to end up with any other outcome. When things were in such disarray people couldn't even get responses to their inquiries of BUYING a machine.

I have zero inside information but I hope your story isn't something like you've been living in a empty pinball factory for 3 years and no salary.

You're a talented designer, I'm sure there's other opportunity for you out there.

oh boy. what a coincidence.

Why change what (didn't) work for them and start communicating now? That never helped things.

Hearing stuff like that, the "you can have a green LE", makes it impossible to feel sympathy for the investors. They can blame Andrew all they want, but those choices were on them.

I suppose someone can buy the IP and stock and parts and whatever else for pennies on the dollar, and then try to ramp up producing machines again.

There IS a finished game that exists (2 actually, and maybe others). This isn't a jpop diorama of a non-functioning game. People who have "working" Aliens really enjoy them. So... who knows.

I'm just going to say I don't agree with some of the narrative that the Heighway system and hardware is cheap junk. If they had a working support system, and spare parts available, I think no one would really have anything bad to say about it, compared to the major pinball companies.

The engineers that put all this together should get full credit for their success. Working through tough conditions, no less.

My Full Throttle has run without a dark day since the day it first arrived for me in 2015. And from what I've seen online of support issues, some spare parts would solve any of the problems people have.

I know the piling on is going on and there are a lot of burned people, but just wanted to offer that up.

Considering I'll likely never have an Alien kit for my Full Throttle, that would be a .... "no" .

Even better:

ALIEN PINBALL - Game Over, Man, Game Over.

I love when the community can rally like this. Props to everyone involved.

Dave, as a Full Throttle owner I have admired your work. You are very talented. There is something great waiting out there for you, even if that is not known to you at this time.

Link re-posted for new page. £2000 passed!

I know it's easy to suggest to someone to just move or change their life or whatever, but I hope Dave does find a home in the industry. It seems to me the passion for pinball is still there, so just needs to find the right outlet.

Well, that's the the thing, they did put that statement on Pinside. Everyone was told they'd get their pinball machines. Obviously Andrew was told the same thing. I do believe him when he says that was most important to him.

Re-reading their announcement is pretty illuminating. Combined with the fact that the "new" investors were the "old" investors, who had been involved the whole time.

Then of course was how they ran it from that day forward, and this whole thing about "Pinball Brothers" that was incorporated right at that same time and then the apparent gut and transfer of materials started. WTF is that all about.

Here's an article dated August 7, 2015 about the investment.

https://www.app.com/story/money/business/main-street/2015/08/07/jersey-jack-pinball-investment/31302953/

These dudes were the "old" investors as well. They were involved for years.

Pinball News article dated 2009:

https://www.pinballnews.com/news/sternpartner.html

So the rumor was Stern wanted the Alien license as well. With the Heighway game being shitcanned and only a handful of them out in the world with no more to come, I wonder if we might see a Stern version down the road? (not a re-release of the Heighway version, but an internal Stern design Alien).

It seems like that was what Andrew was betting on, trying to make it across the finish line.

The insane thing is the Pinball Brothers totally ditched marketing the game. They no showed the 2 most important pinball shows of the past year (Expo '17 and TPF '18, let alone all the other shows) with no Aliens on the floor at all.

I'm not saying they should have taken more pre-orders, but if they saw that there was potential for the game to sell, maybe the company could have been better resourced with cash, instead of the hard line they drew apparently.

Now as more people actually play the game, it will likely change everything, but too late now.

lol. I took a time machine. Edited my post.

I get it. In the end the factory had to actually ship something (that works).

Aurich, whatever you do with it, glad you got it.

I see lots of money being spent. That's the easy part.

There's no way that should be the customer's problem. That's a Cointaker problem.

I hope in this case the delay is a falling through the cracks issue. Months of delay is unacceptable, especially in light of all that has happened.

People rate games with beta software even though they will evolve over time, you can only rate what you've played and had your hands on.

The broken Aliens are part of its legacy, unfortunately.

I do believe though that Joe, Dave, and everyone on the team would benefit from real feedback on what worked and what didn't work, and don't need people to pump the ratings, or try and dismiss people who had a less than stellar experience from a broken game. I believe (and they can correct me if I'm wrong) that is all they are looking for, just some feedback to learn from.

Has anyone just tried adding a couple of spotlights to Alien?

When I've done that to any game it makes a huge difference, and might be all Alien needs.

So what is the consensus on those last Alien machines that were shipped? Are they working/reliable?

From my observation it seems that they are, which makes it a bigger shame that they pulled the plug on everything.