All the LE we got to Sweden have come with green trim and all the leggs is in green .

No silver leggs as showed in this picture.

Maybe they just use this leggs when they are in production and donl like to scratch the "new leggs" .

So i hope you all got the games with right conitions.

Just needs all new black leg bolts and carriage bolts.

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.

A lot of these delays are down to Andrew putting the game into production when parts like the scoop, xeno and other mechanical aspects weren’t 100%, hence the redesigned mechs being sent out to existing owners.

At this point before game 3 is announced, they would be wise to change the company name and distance themselves as far from Andrew Heighway as possible, having his name above the door after this shambles certainly won’t help even if they have everything in order and streamlined to deliver game #3 in large quantities quickly with QC in check.

Sending updated parts plus shipping from UK has to add up, I imagine it makes sense to slow roll games till they have confidence in these new parts.. with 100+ machines out there, rolling out something like an updated vuk is an easy 10-20k up in smoke.

They are NOT communicating with loyal customers. THAT'S how you keep your doors open!

That was kinda my point the game took way too long to develop and then it was put into production with prototype parts or simply parts that where clearly not up to scratch.

I still think a name change to distance themselves from the name Heighway would be beneficial especially if they can have production of game #3 up and running smoothly why have all the baggage that goes with the Heighway name? If game #3 is fully developed and isn’t simply a prototype rushed into production like Alien they could turn this around, if they don’t they will surely go under by the end of the year?

I wonder how long they have the license for? It seems like it would potentially be up for renewal.

Could be for a certain number of games.

What is the theme of Heighway’s third pin? Any idea when it will be anoounced? Maybe Allentown next month?

Nice to finally see my shakers in a oem fit.

It is a very good shaker compared to the shaker in sterns walking dead.

Most sources seem to say Queen.... though not confirmed afaik.

I have also heard Playboy mentioned in rumours of future Heighway licences.

Queen? Personally if they could have made Alien a hit, then I’d have gone for the holy action trinity - Alien/s, T1/T2 & Predator!

Queen license may or may not have been paid for when the new owners took over. Unsure. Also unsure if they kept it on or not. Quite likely however as I think Barry continued the work on the initial layout and theme he'd done.

Playboy, money definitely had been paid to secure the license a long time ago. However I think the chances of the new owners doing a Playboy machine is less than nil.

Since staff are now paid, it no longer leaks like a sieve. So we'll see when we see.

Didn't Dave or Barry say that 3 was licensed and 4 would be original, some time after the takeover?

I would love Aliens, Predator and Robocop myself but they better just concentrate on getting Alien to a point of mainstream acceptance as a viable and reliable pinball machine that is shipping on time, I mean who the hell would take a chance with heighway #3 at this point? Alien is a dream theme and I'm not even close to considering that as a option yet. I hope they get it together and keep making games but it doesn't look good.

Ooh good call Haz, make it a 4 sided trinity, hell screw it 5 way the thing and throw Die Hard in there, after all it is one of the best pure action movies ever made.

But like you said and it’s is the reality after this entire mess, if they don’t sort out the mess that is Alien then it doesn’t matter how many awesome dream theme licences they have lined up, who’s going to take a chance on their next game!

I wouldn't think they should be discussing ANY new theme other than Alien and while they're at it, perhaps build up some (real) trust so that they can be a viable and trustworthy company. At present time they are neither.

Who gives a shit. Seriously. Who cares at this point? Not many in North America, that’s for sure.

See previous response.

Bingo.

Yep. Now that I’ve finally played it firsthand, I’m ready to drain thread. I just want to see preorder guys get their games or their money back.

It is a shame really, all things considered, because having played it myself it is a good game. Of what I've seen of it the tech involved looks like it's decent too, the redesigned bits anyway. A small Welsh company designing & building bespoke pinball components, boards, etc. It should be something to crow about in the UK, but the way things are it's just embarrassing.

I really feel for those who have skin in the game, particularly those that paid in full years ago. I don't know what stomach the current investors have for all of this, or even for pinball in general. There must have been some enthusiasm for it beyond making a profit because what they bought into was a company that had been drained financially and reputationally.

It would be nice if Heighway would at least start releasing schematics so that people who are actually getting machines (new money it seems) can maintain them in 5-10+ years time.

Last time I spoke with Helmut he told me a manual was coming. That might be on standby if they're still tinkering with production parts.

What's the alien topper

It's that thing that goes on top of the machine.

Got the chance to play this yesterday, it is an awesome game, great fun and the theme is very well done. Wish I hadn't played it really as I'm now quite tempted by one (despite the issues)! It is a very dark playfield - took me a while to realise there was a flipper bottom left!

Thought I would post a quick update on my Alien pin.

The other night I went downstairs to the mancave and decided to play the Alien pin. If you read this forum long enough, you REALLY start feeling paranoid about getting, or better yet, staying with your order on Alien.

But DAMN, I love playing this pin! I can't put in mere words how fun it is to play! The lights, sounds, theme, shots, and monitor interaction just makes you feel like you're fighting for your life thru the Alien universe. I can't get enough of the hypersleep lock shot. On bad days, I will play 20 games in a row if that what it takes for me to get hypersleep multiball! ( I know, I'm persistent) Like I said before, I got Alien around the same time I got SW Premium and let me just say I just sold my SW Premium for an ACDC Luci. Thanks Zach and Greg from SDTM. More on that in a minute.

Do I still have minor issues with the pin? Yes, yes I do. Does it bug me somewhat? Sure it does. The left flipper is still a little wonky, every once in awhile after playing a couple of games the playfield monitor turns a light green color (which goes back to normal once I power down the pin), the ball still doesn't eject every once in a while (even after tweeking) and the alien mouth rod will every once in awhile get stuck on the jaw as it tries to snatch the ball during gameplay. But after all these minor gripes, I still can't muster up the courage to sell it because it's just a blast to play. After all, when I unboxed my Luci pin I had some minor problems with the Stern NIB (ball getting caught up in the lane under the cannon, LED lights won't stay in place behind the lightning bolts, etc) I don't remember these kind of problems when I originally owned the ACDC premium version out of the box. Not to Stern bash, but I guess every once in awhile a NIB pin will cause you headaches.

That being said, Heighway pinball really concerns me though. If you didn't know my story, I had an LE on order for awhile, but decided to change over to the regular version because the container coming in to Cointaker had an extra regular version on there. I ended up having to pay more from the original LE payment to the regular version, but I just wanted to end the waiting game. Heighway obtained an absolute beautiful licensed/theme with Alien and a huge fanbase and it bugs me knowing why this pin isn't in deep production by now. I would be lying to you if I told you the fear of being stuck with an excellent pin that has mechanical problems I can't get fixed because of hard to get replacement parts or a support cast from the company later down the line. I mean, I appreciate the software guys coming on here and doing their work on this pin, so a HUGE thank you to you and your hard work. It is appreciated! If I ever decide to sell my Alien pin, it would be for this reason (partially because I'm not that mechanically inclined and would rather avoid the headaches and trade it towards a NIB pin). Flame suit on!

One last point. I'm a HUGE Star Wars and Alien fan, so it was a no brainer for me to get these pins because of my fanboy attitude. While I did like the SW Premium, it just didn't "side" with me and I don't know why. Now Alien on the other hand just clicked with me and made me feel like a part of that universe and I found myself playing that pin more. Maybe it's because I felt like SW was more for pin players who was more of a "professional" player than I was (going for mulitpliers, etc), where Alien felt more mode based to me which I like more in pins.

I would sometimes think what would have happened if this Alien pin was built and distributed by the other pin companies mentioned above? Buyers will (and have) jump ship for other titles being released by Stern, JJP and Spooky, and it's a shame because, in my opinion, Alien is a blast to play if given the chance to grace the confines of a home arcade.

Even after all the setbacks and earned sour attitude about heighway. I think there is a path for heighway redemption, simply because the game is exceptionally good.

All great stuff..............IF....you are able to even get one.

That's the big thing right now, and sadly, by far, Heighway's biggest obstacle.

Where is that boat with 20 or 25 of them coming to the US again....?

I mean, the US is supposed to get a boatload of them, and nothing - but then some guys over in Europe just get them out of no where with zero communication leading up to it (at least what we've seen here on the forums).

It's just way too much a complete random guessing game. I, as well as many others here, don't feel like playing Russian roulette with $8000+. Now, IMDN Premium on the other hand.....

The boat isn't leaving until sufficient people have paid in full, and I doubt many people with any clue about the situation are keen to pay in full knowing how flaky the promises are. Bit of a chicken & egg situation.

As said before - Heighway would do themselves big favours by posting updates of pins going out the door, "blogs from the production line", etc. Just stuff to show all the doubters that things are moving along. If it wasn't for the fact people such as @neilmcrae, @royneblom, @aeonblack, etc were posting their own experiences on here everyone else would be none the wiser.

Normally I would say that what pins are going out the door to which distributors is privileged information, but these aren't normal times - Heighway's reputation is such that they should be the ones proactively posting these photos, to their social feeds, etc, to start building back confidence in their business.

They really need to cut out the whole "if you pay in full maybe you'll get a cancelled LE order" mail spam too, that is really disingenuous behaviour. Same goes for Schrödinger's boat that simultaneously set sail/is sailing/will sail - there should be no talk about a ship "just about to leave", "leaving soon!", etc if that patently isn't true, which clearly it isn't.

The president/chairman/CEO of Alien Enterprises. This is per an article in Replay Magazine.

I told them about a month ago that i would gladly send my remaining payment if they could confirm that my LE was ready to ship. They basically responded "stay tuned." At least they responded

You know, one last thought and it might sound crazy.

What if Heighway Pinball (or it's new investors) could make contact with Stern to see if they could help in the production of the Alien pin? I'm looking at what Planetary Pinball did in terms of Stern manufacturing the remake versions for them. That way, Gary gets a couple of bucks in his pocket and Heighway gets these pins moving on the assembly line. If nothing else, maybe just for the North American market to save time waiting for shipments from across the ocean.

I know the factory is probably crazy busy, but how hard could it be to possibly produce (5) Alien pins a day and ship it out the door?

Okay, I'm putting back on my straight jacket. Just a thought before I go back to playing dominoes with the pink elephant in my padded room.

PS He ALWAYS wins.

I know. That pin does look awesome.

Are you going to make them without getting paid first? If not, how would it be any different to Heighway fessing up for all the parts to build them themselves. Why would you finance a competitor?

I thought there were a lot of people who have already paid in full with Heighway.

Not enough I guess. And Heighway 1.0 customers don't count at all, unfortunately.

Anybody else have random flipper power loss during a game? Just happens to one flipper and usually returns the next ball.

Or heaven forbid actually support existing customers.

I'm officially out of my LE. Thank god I went with CT (and not HW) years ago, so that I actually had this option available to me. Payment now moved over to IMDN premium. I wish the best for you guys still sitting on this. As of yesterday, the container is still empty and was supposed to leave out over a month ago...WTF? I just reached the limits of my patience (finally). Hopefully HW gets a handle on this someday, because it does look like a fun game and a personal dream theme. Its really looking like I'll have an IMDN premium in my gameroom before these even hit the water at this point.

HW isn't going to release the container because CT isn't paying for machines that keep coming back broken and the lack of parts. It's really sad to see HW got the Alien license and was only able to fumble the whole operation. It's seems like the series is cursed with bad films, bad video games, and now a bad pinball machine.

is this actual information?

Yes. Its a F'd up situation to say the least.

Sadly, yes. I was looking into placing an order for a machine but there was so much that didn't add up.

I really don't care for the lack of information on the different versions, inconsistencies of the product images, and of course all the chatter about the machines here. Fortunately, CT is a legitimate business that understands not taking care of your customers is a great way to lose them. Until HW gets their program back I order, this ones gonna have to sit on the wish list.

Interesting as multiple people here were told by CT to pay up and games would be shipping soon 4-6 weeks ago

Even MORE interesting is that CT told me that "if I stuck it out, (as opposed to requesting a refund) that I would get delivery on my Aliens within 2 weeks"
That was July of 2017. They have GOT to cut this shit out. Stop making promises that simply aren't in your control. It strains my credulity and frankly turns me off to both HW and CT.

Good for you man. Very happy to hear another guy was able to get his money back on his purchase. With so many other reliable, less-risky pin options out there, the decision is a no brainer at this point.

You should have been more clear. If you didn't have the game delivered or a tracking number showing progress, refund your money on that day. Time for you to cut and run. Request your money back. If there comes a time when TBL games are in CT's warehouse and they are available, you are guaranteed to be able to buy one, by tuning in here. Getting your money back takes a lot of pressure off.