Dang that Playboy game looks pretty far along.

You still see the Data East Playboy at every bowling alley, nobody even bats an eye.

So either it's so PG13 that no one cares, or nobody notices pinball anymore.

Are there games in strip clubs? If there are I never noticed.

If more than 50 people would have bought that game then yes I would habe been surprised. But then again I'm often surprised by what "people do".

They might be in a break room for employees, so you wouldn't see them.

LTG : )

See post 58 in this thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/can-you-make-money-putting-machines-on-location/page/2#post-3916174

Ugh, what a turd. Makes the Stern one look classy.

Further proof AH was a total buffoon. Not impressed with the layout & that huge view blocking upper playfield either. Company was always doomed to fail with the muppet running things.

So was one of the concepts to make shots to build up a timer, that eventually gave you time to view a nudie peep show of Playmates on the playfield LCD??? It's comical how dumb that idea is.

Someone spill the dirt on this misguided project please.

Probably stepping on somebody's toes here but the LCD at least looks more straightforward than the tiny dark font Alien.

License is beyond dated though. And it's completely antithetical to the current zeitgeist in culture.

Zeitgeist is the southern hemisphere's version of Poltergeist.

Robert Maxwell Multiball.

He still is.

Café Risque?

http://gainesvillescene.com/cafe-risque-gainesville/

To be fair that was in 1980

Er,I actually like that idea...

Three more:

Crazy Little Thing Called Love
I’m in Love With My Car (my personal favorite)
Another One Bites The Dust

Queen is, by most measures, a better choice for a musical pin than ANYTHING Stern has ever done.

And Vid, every heavy metal hair rocker looks and acts more gay than Freddie ever did. They just didn’t have the guts to walk the talk! And Freddie sang better too. Way better.

Or melody, harmony and talent just mean something to some people.

And metal bands are so macho? And yes, MJ and Prince are better than Iron Maiden. On just about every measurable level. Unless you don’t appreciate melody, harmony or talent.

Nice. Who are the girls on the Poison album? They look too pretty to be groupies.

It actually doesn’t suck. Good layout, even if you don’t appreciate the theme. Better than the two previous Playboys.

I think there’s some misplaced outrage here too, re: theme. Playboy is an antiquated brand to be sure, but subject matter wise, there’s potential here for a niche pin.

Yeah, don't blame Barry for the content of the demo game there. The only thing that's really his is the layout. The 'demo' was put together with whatever limited clip assets, images and stock music as a sample - no more than that - of what such a game could look like based around Andrew's idea. Not *intentionally* bad enough to change Andrew's mind (it didn't), but eh, it's not like we'd have cared. If anything, it made Andrew more convinced we could do the whole art and media package on the cheap.

Pop-metal bands were super gay. The 80s were the absolute low point for popular music in general, but especially metal.

MJ had no musical talent at all.

His **singing** was just peeps and cooing.

He had no range, his voice was thin and strained.

His whole 3 album career was based on hype, and that hype funded the continued molestation of little boys.

Here is your hero's bedroom when they carried out his corpse:

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Yes, Barry had no input in the demo at all, beyond designing the original layout (which I had to slightly modify for the demo). It's all my work so I take full responsibility. I protested against this theme from day one but I did what I could. And had some fun along the way, making it as cheesy as I could.

Andrew had a hard on for an adult themed game. I agree with him, there aren't enough adult-only themed pinball games, but that doesn't always mean soft core pornography.

Personally, I would've gone with horror - Evil Dead, Saw, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween...etc. With the money he wasted on Playboy we could've had anything we wanted.

As usual your work is top notch. Anyone that can make that look good (except the cheesy stripping) is doing well. Wasn't Alien Adult enough?
Yes and Evil Dead game needs to me made commercially

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).

This entire statement is highly laughable. yeah the glam metal guys looked like woman no argument there but thats a small piece of the metal puzzle and it vanished pretty quickly. Queen is a good band and Freddy was a fantastic singer and front man, I hope you guys who want this theme get it but please don't talk foolish.

Wow is that stupid.

The Alien franchise has serious enduring appeal, despite the latter films. It's a testament to how passionately people feel about it, and coincidentally sadly how easy it was for people to get scammed. Everyone wanted it to succeed, and having played it the design and immersion of it is really good.

It's just a shame that Heighway was at the wheel, as in more capable hands it would've certainly sold a lot.

As for Stern resurrecting it - think there are a lot of obstacles. There's the obvious comparisons that would be made between the two games, as well as the usual licensing issues.

Welp, what’s your measure then? Queen has sold more than 200 million records, and basically stopped making them 30 years ago. Of Stern music pins, only ACDC is close in album sales, and they still trail Queen.

Queen has had multiple #1 hits and albums, and yes, in the USA too. For a brief time, Queen was arguably the biggest and most successful band in the world.

Queen has played to some of the largest crowds in concert history, and was heralded for one of the best festival performances in rock history.

Queen has had at least TWO iconic songs that people of all ages all around the world know: Bohemian Rhapsody and We are the Champions/We Will Rock You. We are the Champions has been used regularly in stadiums and on TV as the anthem to celebrate the victors in major sporting events. For decades.

Most people can name at least 3 Queen songs.

So yeah, Queen is a “good band”. Lulz.

"Hmm...what do I want to do today? I KNOW! I'll get on a pinball website and flex my keyboard in an internet fight about old music bands."

I personally don't measure how good a band is by their ability to appeal to the lowest common denominator to generate sales.

Alien IS an adult themed game.

Quality of band = irrelevant to pinball.

"AC/DC is trailer trash music... OH MUH GAWD THE RULES!"

"Metallic sucks and killed Napster OH MUH GAWD LOOK AT THE ART!"

"Aerosmith sucks... OH MUH GAWD LOOK AT THE ART!"

"Iron Maiden sucks... OH MUH GAWD LOOK AT THE ART!"

Kind of. The original concept was much darker and scarier than the final game. I wanted to scare the player shitless.

I'd be very interested to hear more about the original concept if you are willing to share.

I think a great mod would be something thumping around inside the cabinet....Like 6 knockers placed in succession

WTF are you going on about? Queen was the next Heighweigh title. It’s being discussed, and some ignorant person was suggesting that Queen was some fringe band.

Now this is funny. Queen’s pioneering operatic approach to rock, arguably unique to industry, is a “lowest common denominator” approach? That they ultimately got VERY popular and catered to that somewhat is a badge of dishonor?

How do you measure good bands then? # of albums released that most music lovers have never heard of? How many members the band can cycle - and recycle through? Album art?

Do tell.

BTW, I think I only own one Queen album. Not close to being my favorite group but have always liked their music. I just don’t like seeing ignorant takes being perpetuated as fact.

What is your point? It is important in pinball for manufacturers that do games in volume such a Stern to have themes that cater to large groups of the people that buy pinball machines. It is obvious that AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Metallica resonate with a decent portion of the pinball buying audience. The art and/or code help but they would have sold ok initially without those aspects.

I really like every one of these games. Because at the end of the day, they’re all really fun to play.

My point is the quality of the band has no effect on the resulting pinball.

I don't think Queen's music fits pinball. Neither does the Beatles. Guess we'll see.

I don't understand what people mean when they say a certain music does not fit pinball. Beyond the rock band and heavy metal pinball machines we have seen released in the last 7 years, there are tons of different types and styles of music in the non-band games. Some of the music is very subtle and some is on the hard side. The music provides the background ambience for the game. Just about any kind of music works if the game is coded well. Go listen to LOTR, Spiderman, and TZ to hear some examples of what I mean of variety of music types/styles (soft, hard, moderate).

Even if you don't measure how good a band is by their ability to generate sales, it is still a potential indicator of how many people would be interested in owning a pin based on that band.

Could we have gotten our Aliens with the wasted money?

If I like 'em, they're good. Most of what I like is not mainstrean.

My opinion is all that matters, not the opinion of millions of fans of a lame band like Queen.

I know it is useless but I want to fill in the proof of debt document received from Mark Hunt.
As English is not my mother tongue and that it's the first time that I have to fill in this kind of document, can someone send me an example of what he has completed ?

Add DP to the pile of busted dream themes

Even the Rolling Stones couldn't save a very bad pin. Mick on a stick anyone?

Highly unlikely. He found many other outlets to pour money down the drain. IMO the finances would have gone on something other than judicious applications, and the result would have been the same with Playboy out of the picture - just the details different.

If you're asking if it could have worked with others at the helm *much* earlier, quite possibly. I dont get the feeling there was a lack of talent, sense, or even commitment on the team, despite the miserable conditions and pay, or lack thereof.

Couldn't agree more! Love the band but the game was poorly executed. It doesn't matter about the theme as much as it does about how the game is put together. CFTBL for instance...a "B" movie that most could care less about but a very well executed theme with a lot of humour and great game play. Why didn't Diner have the same following...same sort of nostalgic theme...kinda. Well executed themes mean more to me, and probably most, than poorly executed great themes...just sayin'.

Attention Alien owners
Final code is now available.
Message Helmut on Facebook for a copy!

Thanks again to Brian, David, Helmut, and Joe for getting this final release out to the owners!

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I thought the 'aspirational lifestyle' aspect to the demo game, a la Williams Millionaire, worked pretty well. This is very much a 'toys for boys' industry anyway, so there's no reason a good 'lifestyle' game couldn't be popular... just not *that* one.

I remember Andrew wanting a hidden 'adult' mode in Circe's Animal House, with the central hostess showing her cleavage to get the punters in. I told THAT where to go in a big hurry.

Can someone download and please put the code anywhere but Facebook.

Shouldn't laugh ..... but ... LOL.