I really hope we find out who the Aussie distributor is before all the LE's are sold out

#86 here. The year Aliens was released!

That's why refundable deposits are great! Get in, get a chance to check it out and get out later if it isn't for me. Just like TBL I was in within 10 minutes of the announcement, show my support for a new and exciting manufacturer and am 100% happy I was and get mine earlier now which is good because I don't want to wait to have this bad boy in my basement once it's out!

On that note #6 LE here for Aliens. That number has significance because.................ok it has no significance but I am excited nonetheless.

Great # choice!!! I actually got another confirmation order copy from Oti, copying Andrew today. They seem quite fluent w communications......just trying to put it out of my mind until next Spring

Thanks! Of course 79 was gone as well as 426... But was surprised that no one had 86 yet. Score!

Gee 79 would be a cool number, the year that Alien came out.

I wonder who got that number.....

very smooth!!!!! my #212 matches another LE game I own (1 of 400...hmmm) which will not be leaving my possession unless I abandon the hobby or die.....figured I would set the bar high....

A tally of what numbers have been taken and the significance would be cool. I chose 057 because Ripley was in stasis for that many years until the events in Aliens

223 the Prometheus planet here
Birth of an Alien
-Jeff

Ohhh...excellent!!!!

Hi Andrew and Heighway Pinball. Any idea of when we can expect another significant update; e.g. Whitewood status? I thought that Preorders might be getting access to a Aliens LE development blog. Has anyone heard if that is still happening?

-PinBalt (057)

Great news, very excited to see the update.

Excellent!!! Thank you for the communication.....mark

Wow... Thanks for quick communication .. excellent news

I couldn't be happier with the communication from Heighway thus far. Every question I've sent them via email has been answered in a timely manner. I really hope this continues throughout the entire development phase. So excited to see this one through.

Awesome!
Thanks

I noticed that it's been 10 days Any update on the preowners forum? Not trying to be prodding but just excited for the table.

PinBalt (57)

Hooray!!!! Thanks Andrew and Team.....mark

For those still on the fence, updates on pinside would be great too!

I'm waiting for my Full Throttle so I'm not pre-ordering this till my game shows up, but I'd appreciate it to see any updates. No need to go "jpop" on it and snuff out the interest to the general pinball public.

That's so funny cause I'm waiting for you to get your Full Throttle too!
: )

Oh, and Andrew... My advice on keeping on the good side of Pinside is to keep the communication open. Especially with your aggressive April release window. I'd keep updating on how things are coming and how much is left and how that affects the release date.

I think everyone will be understanding of whatever news you bring, but you've got to keep the updates coming, especially now that you've taken deposits. This is where the other pinball projects have lost the Pinsiders. They disappear when the fantasy portion of the project is over.

You know I'm rooting for you, so I hope you take the advice to heart.

Andrew will be diligent in updates, its the polite thing to do, and the British are almost as nice as us Canadians so he wouldn't want to offend anyone.

This ++++

Seriously, posting even little tidbits often will really help you right now, people are gunshy with all the pre-order stuff going somewhat sour, so keeping people feeling connected will do a lot to ease fears.

People like to feel involved, and know things are moving. Even minor updates or photos are appreciated. IMHO you should be doing that already with Full Throttle.

Pre-ordered the LE, #11.

The theme is unbeatable and it will be interesting to see how things pan out. Hoping for a bullseye from Dennis Nordman in this project.

And I guess everyone agrees that it would be preferable if we could have som tidbits every now and then to keep up the interest and maybe even get the cautious buyers on board. Even if Predator turns out to be a hit in the end, the information updates could have been slightly more frequent as people have jumped that ship like rats during long periods of information shortage. Let's hope for professionalism and steady stream of proper updates during the Alien project.

Thanks for the update Andrew and I concur with other Pinsiders on the importance of updates on the Alien project - small or large.

Actually, this is a good example. I emailed Andrew asking for an update, he replied.

Andrew, you should post that update to Pinside. You've got your own forum here.

I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that I'm going to have a predator and Aliens pinball machine in my house with in a year, hopefully. Its just something special, with TWD finally some cool themes, man its exciting.

Screw that, we need ninja scroll like your avatar!! That movie rules...

Yep.

Another +1 for communication. Frankly, I'd never ever have considered buying a Heighway game just on Full Throttle...once the chain drive thing was removed, any interest I had was gone. Art and theme just didn't appeal to me on that one. But Aliens....that is a knockout theme, with a knockout designer. VERY interested to see what the art package on this game ends up looking like!

I'm saying this somewhat tongue in cheek and meaning no disrespect to anyone as people's choices are their own but Heighway pinball has offered a pre-order that is 100% refundable at any time and looking for backing and support from the pinball community to help gauge the production for this machine. The formed a forum to keep those pre-order people up to date on something they have put their money in to support(I myself being one). I am all for keeping people updated on here as well and hopefully it spawns new excitement leading to new buyers and customers but if you have such an interest in it, put some money in on a pre-order and get it back if it isn't something you care for later. That's what I did, hopeful it is great and meets/exceeds every expectation I had, if not I know I can back out. I get it if people say they don't have the money to put on a pre-order but then the reality is they probably don't have the money to buy the game later anyway. Just a point, I am all for supporting new companies and pinballs that get me excited, was day one on TBL and on this new project as well for Aliens, exciting times and I hope to be able to support many new titles and companies that come out with great ideas and games.

Honestly, forget that. I'm not putting money down on a product just to find out more about it.

We're a huge customer pool, you can either cater to us or not. But I'm not reading the PPS forum to see what Rick is doing, I'm not giving money to someone for access, be it Heighway or Jpop, you either tell me what's up in the hopes that I'm interested or you don't.

Bingo.

bemmett,

I think your twisting your philosophy into a scenario that doesn't exist and creating animosity towards Heighway Pinball. The creation of this thread and leveraging the user base shows that pinside.com is an obvious asset to Heighway Pinball. If Andrew said he won't make anymore updates here and will only update on the preorder forum that would be an appropriate time to say what you said. In the meantime your just pissing off non-preorder folks and making them pissed at Heighway Pinball.

I have to agree w this take.....don't think ( I hope anyway) that bemmett meant to alienate ( no pun) non preorder guys w not having access to the forum. I can say with 100% confidence that this is NOT what the forum was created for ( based on how Andrew has been extremely forthcoming so far). Believe it was created for people who want to keep up w " latest and greatest" Alien info without having to scour Pinside. I'm sure anything worth noting will be made available for the entire Pinside community ( he started his own Alien thread, let's not forget).
Registered today, and Full throttle on there as well, but all pretty introductory/ redundant stuff in nature.

Have never preordered a pin before, and have seen lots of weirdness in this arena. From strictly a BUSINESS standpoint ( an area that I do understand) it seems Heighway is already up, running, making other stuff, and this is simply a cool product being added to their line. I have 0 concern that I will get the machine ( that's why I preordered), and if I don't like it...well..it's gone. Pretty simple.

Could be wrong, but I believe Andrew and gang are " good guys" and have a great deal of the manufacturing shit well under their belts by now....we shall see....mark

He was the most impressive guy at Expo along with DP and he appears to have a team of people in place, from his website, to actually represent a real business.

I've done my fair share of "supporting pinball companies" with many pre orders. Not that its the case here but it doesn't make sense to alienate anybody like some others we know.

Thanks Ice...don't know you, but reading your posts, and knowing you were there to get the same take on the guy and his team reaffirms my confidence. The interview I saw showed a regular business guy, going in a hallway to accommodate a Pinside interview, having extreme passion for the Alien theme, and sort of " matter of fact" that it was going to kick ass.

He didn't even remind me of a salesman, actually, and suspect he's got the goods to back it up ( there was a working full throttle w 85% code DONE AND PLAYING as well, correct?)

Besides, is there really a way that a licensed version of Alien can really suck?....maybe, but highly doubtful...

The link in the email opens up heighway's forum.
I joined this forum weeks ago.
Its an open forum and any one can join.
Unless I have the wrong link, there is nothing new about it.

I think Heighway was simply inviting the people that were "invested" in their Alien Pinball theme. It makes sense to attract the people who put their money where their mouth is to get genuine authentic feedback that would be more useful and constructive for their creative uses on their own forum.

I joined as "Hudson" and started a couple threads on the Heighway forum earlier which I will post over here to attract perhaps a broader scope of perspectives.

Alien Pinball: Movie Quote Call Outs
Alien Pinball: This is What we Want

Again that's twisting what I said, I said put an investment in a company and the game if you like what they are doing. Just as you went on about "investing" in TBL and DP after meeting them. I am not saying they hold information hostage to a forum, I am saying people that have some interest in the machine, put your money up to show your support and interest and judge as you go. Some people view the pre-order model as insulting which is fine, I don't as long as they offer me 100% refund from day one until production of my game begins, I believe that is extremely fair and while not for everyone again opinions are what they are

We get a lot of people on these forums complaining and offering criticism and critiques on everything but yet they never have any skin in the game. I am saying if I was Heighway Pinball my most valued critique is from those that have trusted in me and put some skin in to show their interest and support and excitement for my company.

I read that, some good ideas for sure. The plunger rod without question has to be the glowing egg, how could it not be?! Although that could be quite a cool playfield toy as well with little alien popping out of it. There is so many cool ideas. I have been gathering a lot of mine as well and look forward to posting as you did. I do hope the guys are active and responsive to things on the forums as ideas and critiques and brought up.

Yep....commented on the post......I think w lit side box art, I'm going to have to find a place where it stands alone...my mind is going nuts w ideas!!!...

I think that's fair, but I need to at least see the art at the very, very least. This is a game that could look incredible, or end up really disappointing. It's hard when you pick a theme that comes with great expectations.

The word was expect photorealistic art. That could mean a lot of things, so definitely curious to see how that goes down.

Lit side box art? I didn't see that on Heighways teaser page:

http://heighwaypinball.com/?page_id=1231

35 years after ‘Alien’ first came to movie theatres around the world, Heighway brings this terrifying title to pinball. With an all-new playfield layout, designed by industry design legend Dennis Nordman, this pinball game focuses on the first two movies, ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’. The player is submersed into the depths of outer space to play through multiple modes and stories featuring some of the most iconic storylines from both movies.

The widebody game, currently in development, features

◾4 Flippers
◾Alien Xenomorph Models
◾Facehuggers
◾Chest Bursters
◾Space Jockey
◾Pulse Rifle Gunfights
◾Robot Sentries
◾+ Much Much More!!

’35th Anniversary Edition’

In 1979, the release of ‘Alien’ made movie history and to celebrate 35 years of cinematic terror, Heighway Pinball will be releasing 500 ’35th Anniversary Edition’ games.
Available now for pre-order, and scheduled for production in April 2015, this special ‘Limited Edition’ game will feature:
◾Black Gloss Cabinet Finish, with Bright Lime Green Powder Coated Metal Trim (including legs)
◾Pinball Topper With Yellow Beacons
◾Exclusive ’35th Anniversary Edition’ Backglass And Sideart (+ Standard Edition Artwork Package Also Included)
◾’35th Anniversary Edition’ Game Plaque With Allocated Number (from 001-500)

◾Fibre Optic Ramp Lighting
◾Shaker Motor

◾Exclusive ’35th Anniversary Edition’ Alien Pinball Goodie Bag, With Magnets, T-Shirts, Posters, Badges + Much More!

Awesome update!!! Can't wait to see the updates...thank you!!!