Quoted from VividPsychosis:SOOOOOO glad I got out of this train wreck while I still could. Thank goodness. Dream Theme, but not worth a 8k brick.
(Topic ID: 106728)
Linked Games
Alien (Heighway Pinball)
Heighway Pinball, 2017
Topic Gallery
Quoted from legionsoup:Number 1 - this is a great idea. Gonna have to steal it.
Number 2 - "another"?? How many times have you used this? lol
My guess ... about 10 times so far. 
Menifee, CA
here is a recent two week old [April 9, 2018] stream of Alien from London.
perhaps one of the newer production models delivered to Europe.
Quoted from Rensh:Playing Alien tonight and for the second time in 2 weeks the 50VAC 6.3AT fuse blew with no apparent reason.
Quoted from NeilMcRae:the one we have in London its doing that. put lower fuses in the other slots in the hope one of those blows so fault can be traced.
Wickford
Praha 7
It's interesting how many Americans are declaring Heighway is done/over and how many Europeans keep posting about being happy with the new game they just received. I'm still pulling for them to succeed and hoping the Euro sales and success will help them stay on track and that the container or two ready for Cointaker gets worked out and shipped. This is a great game, a killer art and sound package, and I want it to succeed.
Quoted from nwpinball:It's interesting how many Americans are declaring Heighway is done/over and how many Europeans keep posting about being happy with the new game they just received
It's not that complex... The US is ran through distribution that has put their foot down to HWP and the European buyers are coming through other distribution not constrained the same way. Plus, we know Europe just got a big batch of games... those games are now trickling out.
If the Europeans were getting games CONSISTENTLY... then there would be something to talk about. But this seemed to be the 'some here, some there' situation and now the US funnel has been choked completely. Until that is resolved... there will still be a huge queue of US buyers who are sour because they are in line with no game in sight.
NICE GUY ALERT!!
Many thanks to 
Ilushka85 for taking the time and effort to tear down his Xeno mech so he could scan the gear. Want to know something crazy? My gear isn't stripped in the center - because there is NOTHING holding this gear to the motor other than some glue. Yep, just glue. Take a look at the pics below. The first is from my machine, and you can see how the motor shaft is notched on one side. Now look at the second picture Ilushka85 sent me - the center is completely round. There is no 'indent' or 'tab' that would seat against the notch on the motor shaft - it's just glued on there.
I was tempted to try and re-glue mine, but Ilushka85 is researching a better alternative. I'm sure he will post his results here in a bit.
Quoted from SunKing:NICE GUY ALERT!!
Many thanks to ilushka85 for taking the time and effort to tear down his Xeno mech so he could scan the gear. Want to know something crazy? My gear isn't stripped in the center - because there is NOTHING holding this gear to the motor other than some glue. Yep, just glue. Take a look at the pics below. The first is from my machine, and you can see how the motor shaft is notched on one side. Now look at the second picture ilushka85 sent me - the center is completely round. There is no 'indent' or 'tab' that would seat against the notch on the motor shaft - it's just glued on there.
I was tempted to try and re-glue mine, but ilushka85 is researching a better alternative. I'm sure he will post his results here in a bit.
Wow. $8k for a glued together toy.
That's insane...wtf???
I mean did they truly expect glue or epoxy to hold onto it forever. Or just glue back as necessary for the life of the machine lol!? Terrible thing is, someone had to have ok'ed this on HPs end.
Quoted from SunKing:My gear isn't stripped in the center - because there is NOTHING holding this gear to the motor other than some glue. Yep, just glue.
A case of 'building to work' vs 'building to survive fail cases'. It may survive all good use cases, but if software or switch fail.. I'm sure it can self-destruct.
Yes so as stated above it is glued on. As you can see from the pic @partyking posted of my gear, i scratched it up quite a bit in trying to pull the stupid thing off. Glue covers the entire shaft and thats what essentially hold its in place. The gear is a tight fit originally to begin with, but that will not hold it in place alone so they used glue instead of a proper gear with a set screw.
The shaft is designed with a flat side which is designed for gear with set screw to go against the flat side. I have ordered a bunch from china with set screw and with the gear made of metal instead of plastic (the drive shaft its teeth connect to is also metal). All in all it should be fine once they arrive.
For those who are interested in a replacement gear. It is a standard stock gear that is 0.8 MOD with 28T. I believe the bore diameter is 5mm but will double check it today.
I highly recommend whoever has this game to replace this glued on piece of crap.
Quoted from MrBally:Check the game manual and parts diagram to see if that is the correct part supplied on all games.
Hahahaha! What game manual? What parts catalog? ... 
Better yet, just call HP and order the parts direct. I'm sure Morgan can take payment and box should arrive at your doorstep in about two weeks. 
just celebrating my post # 5,000. Probably had five good ones in the batch, for a .001 batting average.
was about to comment about how a 3d printed gear might not hold up long term.. and then i saw the glued axis instead of D shape.. well, a ABS or PETG correctly mounted will hold up longer than that for sure. that's ridiculous. out of money and time to do anything correctly it seems.
Quoted from VividPsychosis:SOOOOOO glad I got out of this train wreck while I still could. Thank goodness. Dream Theme, but not worth a 8k brick.
I couldn't disagree more. I want to be in it. I want my machine. I don't mind working on pinball machines if I have to. Even the most bullet proof of companies has faults, and if there's a community of great owners willing to share info and help, it'll never be a brick.
Considering the title actually plays so well (from what I've seen here, and the 1 time I got to play it at a show), I think there's a good chance this becomes a rare collectors item. At that point, $8k will seem like a deal.
whos responsibility was it to get a manual out?
the game designer has been there the entire time.
is he continuing to work over one of Barry Ourslers designs for HP#3,
or has he been relegated to assembling alien machines?
Quoted from sd_tom:was about to comment about how a 3d printed gear might not hold up long term.. and then i saw the glued axis instead of D shape.. well, it'll hold up longer than that for sure.
As long as the final plastic isn't brittle it will likely be stronger than original.
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:As long as the final plastic isn't brittle it will likely be stronger than original.
If it's printed in ABS, I'd suggest putting a little bit of teflon grease on the teeth. If it's PLA, it probably isn't necessary. In any case, I'd print a bunch of spares. It's SO much easier to have them handy when they eventually wear out.
Quoted from gliebig:Take the old gear and slap a supreme logo on it. Sell it for $3k.
That is currently my favorite thread on Pinside. No exceptions!
Quoted from MrBally:Check the game manual and parts diagram to see if that is the correct part supplied on all games. If the glue was that rough to break, it was designed and verified to work long-term.
Must be new here lol JK. Maybe that was sarcasm!
Quoted from Roostking:Must be new here lol JK. Maybe that was sarcasm!
Yep!
Quoted from greenhornet:here is a recent two week old [April 9, 2018] stream of Alien from London.
perhaps one of the newer production models delivered to Europe.
» YouTube video
Just to be clear, this is one of the original early ones whilst andrew was still at Heighway. It’s a shame because there is a good game underneath trying to get out. I was going to buy one but only if I could go to the factory pay with my credit card and take it away the same day but having seen the unreliability of these games, including Full Throttle, I personally just don’t have the patience to cope with the customer service crime that’s going on at Heighway right not. Ill never forget the first dead machine at pinburgh, no not a 60s EM, a 2014 Full Throttle after one round!
But there are also some massive gotchas. The cabinet for example its just unwieldy, trying to get the glass off is non-trivial. The boards appear to be well made but they are hugely complex. Then the power board at the bottom scares the bejeezuz out of me. The way its so exposed in the bottom of the cabinet. Sound is great; screen should have been great but the surfaces are just stupidly reflective making it hard to see unless you live in a dark room in Wales.
It was good when Andrew went - I thought - cool someone with business sense will hopefully take over, new leaf and all that, but then I see the Dutch Pinball style Ponzi scheme happening and people who paid in full a long time ago not getting their machines; I simply couldn’t deal with a company that has poor business practise like that. One set of crooks has replaced another. My hat is off to cointaker, they held the faith and put up with a huge amount of shit, and Mellisa is such a great person to deal with, that doing this was no doubt a very hard decision for them but in my view the right decision for their own reputation. I hope they end up net positive out of this. Heighway need to put right all the people who have paid in full and haven’t got their machine as a priority, and get parts out to those waiting nothing less is acceptable.
I’m at Flipout London (UK’s biggest pinball centre) on 5/5 and I’ll have another go at streaming on https://twitch.tv/NeilMcRae/ Alien (and hopefully won’t have to scratch any nuts lol).
So there is a working Alien on location in London? I’ll be there in a few weeks, even if it looks like I’ll never get a game I’d like to see “what could’ve been” and I’d the game actually flips/sounds as good as everyone says.
To echo what Neil said, I've played on a working Alien (the ball launch wasn't 100% reliable, often needing more than one attempt to get the ball in play) and it's a damn fun game when you can actually play it. A lot of nostalgia wrapped around a solid ruleset. The callouts, animations, etc really feel Alien-esque.
It is a crying shame really because this game in the hands of a decent pinball company, one you can trust to provide spare parts, manuals, schematics, etc would be a big hit.
Given that CT has bowed out (at least for now) and HW's financial position, what are the odds that HW is actually sitting on that container of games? More specifically, what are the odds that the recent blast of games showing up in Europe are the USA CT games? Doesn't seem like it would take much to swap an LE plaque.
Isn't it pretty hard to prove one way or the other if someone gets someone else's LE number? I mean, it relies upon both the person on here (assuming a US customer) saying what theirs was, and the recipient (likely Euro at the moment) posting photos of theirs too. It's possible, but statistically improbable.
Not sure why they would even bother changing the plaque on orders they appear to have little or no intention of fulfilling.
Quoted from Ilushka85:The shaft is designed with a flat side which is designed for gear with set screw to go against the flat side. I have ordered a bunch from china with set screw and with the gear made of metal instead of plastic (the drive shaft its teeth connect to is also metal). All in all it should be fine once they arrive.
For those who are interested in a replacement gear. It is a standard stock gear that is 0.8 MOD with 28T. I believe the bore diameter is 5mm but will double check it today.
Quoted from Ilushka85:For what its worth i 3d printed this thing on PLA and ABS and have a perfect fit including the notch! No more glue required
You sir, are a Rockstar.
What are your needs? I know you don’t expect payment but I have a parts bin full of all kinds of stuff, across a broad spectrum of machines and manufactures. I have new and used items and some hard to find parts. I'd be pleased to send a man like you whatever you need. Serious offer, PM me.
What a S-show. I really feel bad for you all that got in early and got scammed. Typically this type of loss happens with a venture capitalist investment, not the direct customers.
Really impressive the community of effort on fixing these issues, and kind of shocking/telling that the games are this screwed up. What else lurks under the playfield?
Pretty awesome despite all this. Hope to play one some day!
Quoted from Pale_Purple:So there is a working Alien on location in London? I’ll be there in a few weeks, even if it looks like I’ll never get a game I’d like to see “what could’ve been” and I’d the game actually flips/sounds as good as everyone says.
Just check website for opening hours - usually Thurs pm /Fri/Sat but do check before turning up 
File a complaint if you've paid and not received your machine:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/wales/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/
https://www.econsumer.gov/en/GettingStarted/1?NextQID=1&SubID=1#crnt
Quoted from mufcmufc:New shit has come to light
She kidnapped herself?
Nidderau
Quoted from mufcmufc:New shit has come to light
hahaha your not kidding.
If your reading this guys (You know who you are), thanks for the heads up about the 'special' meeting last week, nice one
Looking forward to seeing a 'new and exciting' pinball manufacturer pop up somewhere round Northern Europe any time about now 
Total fiasco from start to finish
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