Quoted from brian-allen:

Hi - hope I can post this here. My name is Brian Allen, I'm the artist who illustrated the backglass Alien Queen for the LE. I thought you guys might be interested in seeing this speed-painting video of how the artwork was created: » YouTube video
THANKS SO MUCH for all the positive feedback I've gotten for about the design. It was truly one of my favorite projects ever.

Quoted from Buju:

Despite immense verbal insults/ frowns/ and general naysayery from my buds in the league, looks like my se with shaker and pdi glass will be sent end of August.

Quoted from nman:

would love to know if it got sorted out

Quoted from Bryno:

Holy Hell. In the UK, Home Leisure Direct price is now £9000 for an LE if you want the 27" screen in. Wow, that is an increase of almost £2K from what they had it up for before the Heighway fiasco!
Even the basic SE without the 27" screen or any other additions is now £7499 which is £350 more than the LE WITH the 27" screen used to be!
I think that is going into the too rich for my blood territory..

Quoted from Wickerman2:

People aren't going to start buying in quantity unless they hear that any lighting or xeno head issues have been resolved

Quoted from jonesjb:

Based on his workflow video, it looks like there is an original hand drawn piece of artwork that is scanned in and worked over digitally with the software.

Quoted from SunKing:

...and now they are taunting me with new code. Ohhhh - I want to update SOO BAD!! From Heighway's Facebook page:
Alien V0.99 (available later this month)
Changes since 0.98:
- Fix All Out War not qualifying after all requirements met.
- All Out War insert now lights after it has been played.
- Increased power to the hypersleep lock-up device
- Improved ball search for the hypersleep lock-up device
- Xenomorph tongue will now extend a little further in ball search
- Increased flipper power settings slightly
- Remove flipper coils from ball search
- Ball search outside of a game, or while tilted, will not display a message now.
- Updated burnin test to activate more coils, similar to a ball search.
- Ignore some spurious switch activity during bonus, while queued up display effects drain out.
- If a spurious switch occurred at game start and validated the playfield, this would lock in your choice of which movie mode to play. This is now changed so that the movie is not locked in until launch is pressed, or until the right inlane is triggered.
- Fixed some system display effects (which use the blue test mode background) from not showing correctly while a video was running. In particular this bug was hiding the volume adjustment screen sometimes in attract mode.
- Increase main HSTD table to 5 entries, and added more team members' initials onto the defaults.
- Mode timers now pause briefly while the ball is in pop bumpers
- Playfield GI changes color during movie selection
- Multiball grace period now pauses while ball is being held up (for example, while the Mother award is being announced).
- Add multiball resurrection rules. Starting Sentry Guns will now restart any other multiball that was in its grace period. Likewise, starting any other multiball will now resurrect Sentry Guns from its grace period.
- Mother add-a-ball award now resurrects any multiball(s) in its grace period.
- Fix occasional pauses at endball before bonus started.
- Fix centre ramp not spotting letters towards SHIP if double scoring was already running.
- Fix occasional incorrect skill shot value display (it was correctly added to score)
- Fix mode going into grace period not displaying its timer or its hurry-up value correctly
- Boosted priority of beacon effect during wizard modes, so that it is not interrupted as often.
- Adjust scoring for Sentry Guns to prevent some outrageous scoring possibilities.
- Ambush jackpot value now increases gradually as you progress through Lifecycles, rather than increasing all at once when a Lifecycle is finished.
- Added Scene Start Difficulty adjustment. Default now lights the scene start for free at the beginning of a game.
- Derelict Ship shots are now indicated by the main arrows, not the symbol inserts.
- Added more beacon effects
- Fixed lamp effect for combos lit disappearing on ball launch.
- Revive lamp effect increased from 1 sec to 2 sec.
- Improved Rescue mode more and added some display effects for it
- Many updated sounds/callouts:
- Fixed truncated Hudson callouts
- Add new audio clips to Loader Battle
- Added correct sound for ball saver
- Added new endgame callouts
- Added sounds for weapon use
- Adjusted volume for orbit shots
- Added sounds for Super Pops
- Improved sound on ball kickout from the airlock scoop.
- Added new callouts for "mode not ready".
- Added callouts on revived ball
- Added audio and more lighting effects with more progress towards Ambush MB.
- Improved stacking/priority of some callouts
- Added callout for Save Newt ready to start
- Added callouts for Chestburster Combos.
- Added new pop bumper sounds and mode fail sound to Derelict Ship.
- Added more orbit sounds
- Add sounds to centre ramp
- Add many callouts to Rescue mode
- Add more Mother callouts
- Misc. sounds updated/cleaned
- Modify timing for callouts related to xenomorphs hits remaining for Ambush.
- Add sounds to recharge
- Changed egg bumper explosion sounds
- Exclude some sounds when in family mod

Quoted from Wickerman2:

Need a re-review of Alien from a recent owner. People aren't going to start buying in quantity unless they hear that any lighting or xeno head issues have been resolved.

Quoted from Ferret:

daudioguy specifically did the audio so it would have extra pizzazz with an external subwoofer.

Quoted from budroosker:

Does anyone have a good but on the cheap suggestion for an external subwoofer to buy?

Quoted from luvthatapex2:

Polk PSW10 .. they go on sale from time to time for less than $99
https://www.adorama.com/pkaam1055c.html

Quoted from luvthatapex2:

Polk PSW10 .. they go on sale from time to time for less than $99
https://www.adorama.com/pkaam1055c.html

Quoted from SunKing:

...and now they are taunting me with new code. Ohhhh - I want to update SOO BAD!! From Heighway's Facebook page:
Alien V0.99 (available later this month)
Changes since 0.98:
- Fix All Out War not qualifying after all requirements met.
- All Out War insert now lights after it has been played.
- Increased power to the hypersleep lock-up device
- Improved ball search for the hypersleep lock-up device
- Xenomorph tongue will now extend a little further in ball search
- Increased flipper power settings slightly
- Remove flipper coils from ball search
- Ball search outside of a game, or while tilted, will not display a message now.
- Updated burnin test to activate more coils, similar to a ball search.
- Ignore some spurious switch activity during bonus, while queued up display effects drain out.
- If a spurious switch occurred at game start and validated the playfield, this would lock in your choice of which movie mode to play. This is now changed so that the movie is not locked in until launch is pressed, or until the right inlane is triggered.
- Fixed some system display effects (which use the blue test mode background) from not showing correctly while a video was running. In particular this bug was hiding the volume adjustment screen sometimes in attract mode.
- Increase main HSTD table to 5 entries, and added more team members' initials onto the defaults.
- Mode timers now pause briefly while the ball is in pop bumpers
- Playfield GI changes color during movie selection
- Multiball grace period now pauses while ball is being held up (for example, while the Mother award is being announced).
- Add multiball resurrection rules. Starting Sentry Guns will now restart any other multiball that was in its grace period. Likewise, starting any other multiball will now resurrect Sentry Guns from its grace period.
- Mother add-a-ball award now resurrects any multiball(s) in its grace period.
- Fix occasional pauses at endball before bonus started.
- Fix centre ramp not spotting letters towards SHIP if double scoring was already running.
- Fix occasional incorrect skill shot value display (it was correctly added to score)
- Fix mode going into grace period not displaying its timer or its hurry-up value correctly
- Boosted priority of beacon effect during wizard modes, so that it is not interrupted as often.
- Adjust scoring for Sentry Guns to prevent some outrageous scoring possibilities.
- Ambush jackpot value now increases gradually as you progress through Lifecycles, rather than increasing all at once when a Lifecycle is finished.
- Added Scene Start Difficulty adjustment. Default now lights the scene start for free at the beginning of a game.
- Derelict Ship shots are now indicated by the main arrows, not the symbol inserts.
- Added more beacon effects
- Fixed lamp effect for combos lit disappearing on ball launch.
- Revive lamp effect increased from 1 sec to 2 sec.
- Improved Rescue mode more and added some display effects for it
- Many updated sounds/callouts:
- Fixed truncated Hudson callouts
- Add new audio clips to Loader Battle
- Added correct sound for ball saver
- Added new endgame callouts
- Added sounds for weapon use
- Adjusted volume for orbit shots
- Added sounds for Super Pops
- Improved sound on ball kickout from the airlock scoop.
- Added new callouts for "mode not ready".
- Added callouts on revived ball
- Added audio and more lighting effects with more progress towards Ambush MB.
- Improved stacking/priority of some callouts
- Added callout for Save Newt ready to start
- Added callouts for Chestburster Combos.
- Added new pop bumper sounds and mode fail sound to Derelict Ship.
- Added more orbit sounds
- Add sounds to centre ramp
- Add many callouts to Rescue mode
- Add more Mother callouts
- Misc. sounds updated/cleaned
- Modify timing for callouts related to xenomorphs hits remaining for Ambush.
- Add sounds to recharge
- Changed egg bumper explosion sounds
- Exclude some sounds when in family mod

Quoted from brian-allen:

Hi - hope I can post this here. My name is Brian Allen, I'm the artist who illustrated the backglass Alien Queen for the LE. I thought you guys might be interested in seeing this speed-painting video of how the artwork was created: » YouTube video
THANKS SO MUCH for all the positive feedback I've gotten for about the design. It was truly one of my favorite projects ever.

Quoted from libtech:

Finished customizing my Alien, beacons check, powder coated check, my idea was have it be a colour that looked black in most light but green in direct light, but had some silver flecks to give it a spacey feel lol, I like it

Quoted from libtech:

Finished customizing my Alien, beacons check, powder coated check, my idea was have it be a colour that looked black in most light but green in direct light, but had some silver flecks to give it a spacey feel lol, I like it

Quoted from libtech:

Finished customizing my Alien, beacons check, powder coated check, my idea was have it be a colour that looked black in most light but green in direct light, but had some silver flecks to give it a spacey feel lol, I like it

Quoted from libtech:

Finished customizing my Alien, beacons check, powder coated check, my idea was have it be a colour that looked black in most light but green in direct light, but had some silver flecks to give it a spacey feel lol, I like it

Quoted from O-from-DO:

I was wondering, if the featuresheet from early 2017 is still up to date. So I sent some questions to Heighway, because I wasn´t sure to keep my LE-order or better to go for a SE. I got a response from Morgan within 48 hours with all information I asked for. I´m really surprised in a positive way, that they listened to their customers carefully and changed some features to optimize the theme-fitting. Looking at it the other way round the only difference left between a LE and a fully equiped SE seems to be the trim colour and the additional art-package. Here are the answers:
Q: Will the LE really get a glossy cabinet (like mentioned in the featuresheet)? If yes, is it possible to change the order to get a matt cabinet aswell?
A: The cabinets for all versions of Alien Pinball are with a matt finish and not a glossy one. We did in the past have a glossy finish to the cabinet but we came to the same conclusion that you have and thought that the matt finish was a better fit for the theme.
Q: Will there still be three trim-options: green, blue or black? Is the black LE-trim glossy aswell?
A: We are still offering the three trim options and these will also have a matt finish.
Q: How about the fibre-optic ramp lightning? Will they come with the LE? If yes, will the colour fit the theme like blue or green (in Andrew´s video it was pink)?
A: The fibre optic ramp kit maybe removed from the machine because we have had many customers who say that it not a good fit for the machine and the theme. When this decision is final we will inform all customers of the outcome.
A: Will the standard-artwork be included (SE sides and backbox)?
Q: As an LE customer you will receive both art packages from the SE and the LE.
Q: Is there anything else new or different to the already announced LE-features?
A: In regards to your question if there have been any new features added to the machine there have been some improvements. As I have stated we may be removing the fibre optic kit from the machine and we would replace this for customers if we do indeed decide that this is the case. In terms of improvements we have made a lot of improvements to the functionality and the build of the Xenomorph head mechanism.We have also made many improvements in the software of the machine.
Q: Will you offer a factory-installed playfield-protector as an option?
A: In answer to your question about the installed playfield protector I am unsure about this option but I can find out for you.
Maybe these answers help you aswell to make a final decision. I will keep my #055 of 500 in totally matt black and I´m fine with it, as I planed to put on a shaker, the beacons and the illuminated sides anyway. The LE-production should start in September, so the Alien is coming before x-mas. That´s most important...

Happy waiting to all of you and have a great weekend!
Greets from Dortmund
Olli
btw: Big "thanks" to Morgan for this great customer support!

Quoted from onedeath:

Alien inbound! Just got off the phone with the shipping company and it is scheduled for delivery Monday afternoon.

Quoted from spfxted:

Is that one of the CoinTaker machines?

Quoted from onedeath:

Yes it is from CoinTaker.

Quoted from spfxted:

Is a Box Opening Event in our future??

Quoted from neurokinetik:

We just got one locally on location at Pocketeer Billiards in Buffalo NY.

Quoted from Jdfitzy-in-Aus:

That looks freaken awesome mate!
Congrats, great colour (color) choice

Quoted from libtech:

Thanks guys, you have no idea how many colours I tested before I got the blend right.

Quoted from brian-allen:

OH MAN! Thanks so much everyone for the positive feedback about the backglass art!

Quoted from budroosker:

I would suggest getting an external powered subwoofer because the one in the machine doesn't do it justice. However, it could just be I am configuring something wrong.

Quoted from nman:

So they are for-sure offering real pdi/roman glass as an option now? I recall there was some mixed info about this back when Andrew was around so i would love to know if it got sorted out.

Quoted from the_one:

Would be interesting to know if they will decrease the price if they going to remove the fibre optic ramps ..... I guess it was a add on of nearly 600 USD (within the LE package) compare to SE.

Quoted from daudioguy:

Let me clarify. The speaker in most pinball cabinets is not a 'subwoofer'. At best it is a left/right mono mix coming through a 6-8 inch speaker trying to push audio through a metal plate with holes in and sometimes additionally through wood slots. This driver is pointed at the floor. It produces low midrange and high bass audio. To be fair there are a few machines with better stock cabinet speakers. The Dialed In speaker is a dual-coil wonder driven by both channels of a stereo amp. I am speaking about the average pinball cabinet speaker.
A real subwoofer's contribution is usually 80-160 Hz which (for those musically inclined) is the bottom octave where thumps and bass drums live and there is little overlap with the cabinet speakers output.
Most games have some content down there and a subwoofer will make those real (for better or worse).
At the beginning of 2016 I added a subwoofer to my studio so that I could review the content that I was creating down there (knowing that some home owner were enhancing their pins with subwoofers). It is easy to put unintended content down there that isn't appropriate at the time and could even be distracting.
Both Alien and Dialed In have had the benefit of audio design with a sub-woofer in mind. There are times in both sound packages when booms and frequency swoops and other spine tickling content are present that should make a scoring event or mode completion that much more tangible. It takes a little more effort but for those who avail themselves of it they will be rewarded.
I hope this clarifies this issue. Audiophiles....lock and load.
ddt

Quoted from Jarbyjibbo:

I don't have the screen grabs or my numbers around anymore but it wasn't a cheap upgrade for the fiber when I was doing the math to decide which to buy.

Quoted from brian-allen:

OH MAN! Thanks so much everyone for the positive feedback about the backglass art!
We've only got about 20 prints left after just a day (limited to 100)- I'm just blown away by how fast they went!
If you still want one, you can grab them from my website http://www.flylanddesigns.com/shop/ for $38 plus shipping.
28" on high-quality matter paper shipped in a tube. International shipping.
THANKS FOR THE KIND WORDS!! ryanstl joncrox valgalder ezeltmann joelreeves !
--
To address your questions/comments dennisdodel jonesjb dano jeffspinballpalace :
Yes, the finished design was drawn digitally on a tablet display monitor called a Wacom Cintiq with a pen. Something like this would either have to be done digitally or airbrushed on paper. Since we only had a few days to complete this, airbrushing wouldn't have made sense. The drawback of painting digitally, of course, is not having an original on paper. But I did start this as a concept on paper with pen and marker - I'll have to dig that up sometime and share it with you all if there's interest.
--
Again - HUMBLED everyone, thank you!

Quoted from PinballRulez:

Can you tell us what the ideal crossover settings for the sub are?

Quoted from daudioguy:

It is easy to put unintended content down there that isn't appropriate at the time

Quoted from daudioguy:

Let me clarify. The speaker in most pinball cabinets is not a 'subwoofer'. At best it is a left/right mono mix coming through a 6-8 inch speaker trying to push audio through a metal plate with holes in and sometimes additionally through wood slots. This driver is pointed at the floor. It produces low midrange and high bass audio. To be fair there are a few machines with better stock cabinet speakers. The Dialed In speaker is a dual-coil wonder driven by both channels of a stereo amp. I am speaking about the average pinball cabinet speaker.
A real subwoofer's contribution is usually 80-160 Hz which (for those musically inclined) is the bottom octave where thumps and bass drums live and there is little overlap with the cabinet speakers output.
Most games have some content down there and a subwoofer will make those real (for better or worse).
At the beginning of 2016 I added a subwoofer to my studio so that I could review the content that I was creating down there (knowing that some home owner were enhancing their pins with subwoofers). It is easy to put unintended content down there that isn't appropriate at the time and could even be distracting.
Both Alien and Dialed In have had the benefit of audio design with a sub-woofer in mind. There are times in both sound packages when booms and frequency swoops and other spine tickling content are present that should make a scoring event or mode completion that much more tangible. It takes a little more effort but for those who avail themselves of it they will be rewarded.
I hope this clarifies this issue. Audiophiles....lock and load.
ddt