I agree. I personally don't feel glossy, polished ramps fit the game. I feel the tarnished ramps are a perfect fit for the theme and feel of the Alien world.

QSS

Sure, but I don't want to have unfinished parts in the game and the untreated stainless steel can cause corrosion sooner or later.
In addition, the surface is not compacted and more and more unsightly scoring and macking occurs.
This results in abrasion, which damages the pitch of the playfield the more the game progresses.
Was there any game in the past as final release with unfinished ramps?
It's not a discussion about high glossy, black chrome or similar galvanizing processes, it's a matter of protection for a long lifecycle of the entire game.
Electro-polihing is the most effective process referring to workload and costs against all others.
Let's take a closer look when all the parts are finished and rebuild into the ALIEN, then we can start a new discussion.

You have a good point. I was only looking at the visual aspect of the raw looking ramps. I hadn't really considered the long term effects it might have on the physical wear and tear on the game. I may have to reconsider buying the new ramp set for the game.

QSS

Surpring me, today the stainless steel parts came back... it took only one week incl. delivery.
I'm very happy with this result and can hardly wait to reassemble all the parts.

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Looks great!

Probably the rarest Alien for sale by far: Alien without backbox screen and with full translite. I could be one of a kind...

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/89271

New Eject- and Scoop-Cliffy...

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apologies for this VERY late post - but does anyone have a spare set of the acrylic speaker panels produced a few months ago on a limited run - happy to pay a premium - I was working away and have completely missed this high quality item. if anyone had bought a second set or has a private stock of +1 , I am happy to make you some xmas $$$$ or Euros .

many thanks

also - please could someone advise me which LED's to purchase as stock for any future failure of the Alien egg pop bumpers. Are these the same as the rest of the playfield or are they the 'Tower GI LED's'? Just looking to future-proof here....

Acrylic Speaker Panels were produced in very limited number, no more available and no reroduction in the future on my side.
I'm sorry but it's too expensive due to costs of material and secured delivery.

https://www.free-play.se/en/led-lamps/misc/alien-full-throttle-pop-bumper-led.html

Good luck with that. It was very expensive for what it was (not complaining, I paid in because it was worth it). IF someone was willing to part I can't imagine what they would want.

Update on the “IO-board 1 missing” error:

I used 3 different USB cables: no effect. All 3 different brands and 2 out of 3 were high quality shielded, ferrite core etc. But no effect.

I stabilised the end of the cable and the connector on the IO-board with a cable and a plastic spacer like the ones you use to route cables under the playfield, but once again no effect.

Changed all IO-boards in different locations and even bought a fifth and tried that one also: no effect.

If any Alien owner has a flawlessly stable running Alien please let me know how to do This. I just played 4 games and 3/4 the error occured which meant end of game.

I would like to play This game one evening without errors and maybe try to get to “All out war” but in This condition that might never happen.

I'm not sure that only the connection of the IO-Boards cause these errors.
As you mentioned the interchange of the IO-Boards will not help at all.
In my opinion it's a problem of much more circumstances like weak thin wiring in the cabinet and low power of the power supply.
And I know that well running ALIEN Pinballs also detect and save these errors, but with no effect to the gameplay.
If the data logging is working properly, the CPU should have time to compensate faulty values and replace them?
But if you have trouble due to powerloss it may have serious problems with the communication in the entire electronics.
I'm still working on my ALIEN but I hope to complete the machine in January. Then I can do more intense tests.

Hi there,
yesterday the airlock-display started flickering and then completely went off.
Now the game won´t start and the message "IO board 1 missing" appears.
I´ve changed the IO board but with no effect.....(guessed No.1 is the one located in the top of the playfield?? )
Any ideas?

Despite the time consuming x-mas social interaction I was busy and completed the assembly of all ordered Xeno Flasher Mods!
Next week I will send them away to all buyers.

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Good job, but why it took so long?

Change the USB cables and reroute them. Might make a difference.

Just charge more.

The airlock display controller (this one is used: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-tfp401-hdmi-slash-dvi-decoder-to-40-pin-ttl-display) receives its HDMI video signal directly from the mainboard. Flickering could be caused by a lost video connection. But this wouldn't affect the I/O board.
So the second guess is the display's power supply: It needs 5 volt, which are typically delivered by the I/O boards (outputs 5V or 5V LED). Check the power wiring and the green 5V control LED near "TP3 5V" on the I/O board #1 (which should be responsible).
In the worst case there might be a failure of the display controller or a shortened power supply wire causing an overload on the 5V line and explaining the I/O board error. This can be ruled out by disconnecting the airlock power connection (I expect there is some connector used).
I hope this helps - I can do a closer inspection of the power supply arrangement using my alien if needed.

To clarify, year end 2019.

Okay Ice, I'm going to choose option #2.

It was done by the factory to disable the individual coil overload protection circuits that caused trouble, and for some reason replacing them with zero ohm resistors didn't work, hence the addition of the wire. There's still a protection circuit for the whole board that works.

He still has four hours over here!

Went out the window 14 hours ago here!

Game over iceman..game over

He was wrong about his claim.

But he was correct about looking foolish.

Good luck selling this clunky routed pin with so many broken parts. Alien was always marginal in quality and should have been in a low play environment like HUO.

I do wonder what it could earn on route!

Wonder how long it would stay 100% fully functional on route.

Any more rumors about this pin being remade? I heard mumblings about it on podcasts a couple months ago but nothing since.

Never!

Call to anyone remaking Alien pinball!

Brian Allen would indeed do an amazing job on this.

I like his style, and its a tough sell for me as he only had 3 days to make the ones he did, so i understand its not a perfect representation of his capabilities if he had more time....but I did not like them at all in anyway. I actually hired another artist to make me my own that paid tribute to Ripley and all the cast and crew of the first and second films. Cost me $800 but its a 1 of a kind. Should not have "interpreted" the queens original design into his own and should have kept to how she was portrayed in the film if he was redoing the Queen. I actually asked him first to make me the one off and we talked back and forth for a while, but I didnt like his direction he wanted to take it.

Not a fan sorry. Actually I already own one so it’s just my opinion. The other art looks much better for me and I’m glad it was the one for production. It was done by Aurich i believe with an amazing job.

Wow!

https://www.flippermarkt.de/community/forum/threads/alien-naechster-pin-von-heighway-pinballs.148238/page-31#post-1714347

Edit:Misslead by previous post

These days I began with first tests of the reassembled ALIEN.
Doing some settings and updates without imbedded playfield, only Cabinet IO-Board is connected to the mainboard.
Finished calibrating the electronic coin controller, upgraded illumination for coin door release button and some other things.
For instance the hardware knocker is working properly and much better then the sound simulation.
I also swapped the Cabinet IO-Board with a bridged version and keep the other one as spare.

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Are u an alien?! Haha, seriously tho!

I created an image of the game version 1.3B3 (B for Beta) which one very late German Alien buyer found on his machine. Only the core game code has been changed, no new videos, sounds or other media - i.e. no changes of the user experience, only some (smaller) bug fixes. We discussed if this is worth the risk of an update, especially if it is an "unknown" Beta version.

So Averell asked Brian for a list of changes of this version and Brian promised to clarify in the near feature - with approval from PB. Many thanks for this!

But this doesn't prove any work on a new Alien or other pinball. If there is a new Alien, it will need a completely different code - as it will never be an exact copy (as already discussed here).

Thanks for confirming and also squashing once again all these BS rumors of another remake lol. Tired of explaining the 1000 ways its not happening.

Thanks for the clarification. The post I read on this forum was a bit misleading. It would be interesting to see the changes but I wouldn’t risk any update for minor fixes... the last one is enough stable.

Kaneda keeps saying this game is getting remade and will be at TPF. Putting all the rumors, hopes, dreams aside... does anyone have proof this game will be for sale at TPF? If so who's doing it? Is this all speculation or will someone have the games for sale on the showroom floor of TPF..

Kaneda is full of shit.

Who is gonna remake it ? Santa claus?

If you take a week leave and read this post from the beginning ... there will be no remake ! Maybe the PB will make some single games from NOS parts. This is what happened in the past, also withi the machine with the SW 1.3B3 ... it looks that they have plenty of spareparts and can make, time by time, some more machines. The machines with the SW 1.3B3 comes from a german dealer who is in contact with the PB, therefor this machine "slipped out".
I do not believe that there is a remake in the pipe. As PER told, the platform from Heighway is gone, a reproduction would need a new platform and new programming. This is not done within some weeks !

I agree. With all the new spare parts available ans so on, it seems like they are still around with that.

You are amazing!!! Thank you for doing this!!!