I played several games on FT at Pintastic, and spent some time with Romain Fontaine having him show me the "guts" of the game design. Top removal of the glass is very easy (saves a ton of space, as you guys know), then the side art panels are able to be lifted out of their channels - effortless. Then the playfield is ready to come out after 3 very simple electrical dis-connnects. The inside cabinet and under playfield engineering are clean and very impressive. While the FT racing theme is not my cup of tea, I completely agree with Oldpinguy - the machine plays fantastic. I am not a great player (I think my wife whipped my butt just about every game on FT but maybe one), but even I can appreciate that the flow and speed are terrific.

I am a huge Alien fan, like many of you, but have been reluctant to pre-order an LE after having watched those other train wrecks here on Pinside (I truly feel really bad for all those affected). But, after listening to Andrew's presentation, having Romain walk me through their design tech, and knowing that Aurich is working to insure we have terrific art - I am going to grab an LE slot this week. And, if any of Star Gazer's toys make it into this pin - well, talk about over the top!

Last time I watched Alien I noticed that's a grammatical mistake on that panel.

It says "INSURE" instead of "ENSURE"

Still a good movie

Priority one
Insure return of organism for analysis.
All other considerations secondary.
Crew expendable

One of my favorite franchises!

Not sure if anyone pointed it out yet, but I think "insure" here should be "ensure":

alien_(resized).PNG

Edit: as anthony691 and TimeBandit pointed out, I'm wrong

Eh. "Insure" v. "ensure" is a minor point of debate among grammarians (a minority of whom will advise the use of "insure" in both instances).

To me personally, "insure" does connote Zurich, etc.

Not a big deal one way or the other.

The two words are homophones, which is probably why some people don't realize there is a difference between them. Insure has to do with obtaining insurance. Ensure basically means "to make certain".

It's like the difference between "buy" and "bye" or "break" and "brake".

Yup, just looked back on some screenshots and they use "insure". That doesn't necessarily mean it's grammatically correct today, but it's true to the original appearance in the movie, at least.

Nah. NYT style guide, for example, advises the use of "insure" in both instances. Your understanding is the more dominant usage.

Edit: I checked and I was wrong. NYT switched over to recognizing "ensure" in 1999. Broader point remains valid.

PRIORITY ONE:
INSURE RETURN OF ORGANISM
FOR ANALYSIS.
ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY.
CREW EXPENDABLE.

Special Order 937

It says "insure", but then again corporations of that size are notoriously risk averse, so maybe they meant it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-official-game-thread?tq=insure&tu

Agree the CPU thing is an annoyance but $150 in the scheme of things isn't the end of the world. The cabinet change is also annoying but not a deal breaker. I'm not going to sell my Full Throttle because of it. That said, how many Full Throttles are there? If there are 100, how many of those people are going to buy a kit...take those numbers and extrapolate what it would take to give people these items free of charge. That would insure 100% product loyalty.

"insure return of organism for analysis"

err, ensure?

I’m worried for you, as you’re getting in deep. Is there a schematic included w the game? It sounds like things are getting worse, rather than better, in your troubleshooting efforts. I’m in agreement that you need one of their techs on the phone pronto, to insure your efforts are not damaging other stuff. Remember, they are 8 hours ahead of us on east coast.

Good luck, but I wouldn’t dig much deeper in there until you’re comfortable having proper information. Definitely keep Melissa in this loop.

I would strongly suggest a " before and after" look at the plastics, to insure nothing broken and makes it to playfield during use. This acrylic is thick and extremely brittle...very similar to glass.
If it starts to crack, or you notice a piece missing try desperately to find the pieces...

(2x) things :

a) Flipper/ coil VOLTAGE is not the issue, it's the existing switching PS to keep a constant 70v supply at proper current during MB action. This can be cured with existing P/S (70v, not the 12v one) w Kneissl recommended cap mod. An absolute must for all games.. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/heighway-pinball-support-full-throttle-and-alien/page/14#post-4579625

b) On to the 12v P/S (right in front of 70v one) - factory version is a mere 12.5a @12vdc. Considering CPU, all video screens, rgb lighting, EL invertor and a variety of components run from it, the low amperage can (and will) cause hard reboots w the CPU, and some odd video reaction as the supply sags. The HRPG-1000-12 that I recommended and installed in my game - http://www.meanwellusa.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=HRPG-1000, has 80 amps available @ 12vdc. Granted, a bit of overkill, however, I also run full LED underglow strips, and a couple other things.

Have not had a single reset or video weirdness since installing, and the extra amperage will do no harm (in fact, ensuring no 12v sags). Given there is no (known) manual for this machine, had no way to know what it actually pulls on the 12v side, amperage wise. The machine doesn't even blink an eye now...suspect a 40a version would suffice, but this one put a permanent stop to the power needs, and easy to find. It will live a very long, untaxed life.

I've put similar horsepower in a few of my games that needed it, and ALL my machines get p/s boost at least 7.5a on the 12v and 5v side to insure stability w the mods (color DMD, light strips, toppers, etc.). These game ps's in general are just not made for all the power some of these mods suck out of them.

Learned my lesson, and highly encourage pursuing "a)" and "b)" above....

Only occasional hiccup w tongue is it " floats "above the drive gear, and will occasionally drift down a bit. I'm drilling a small hole in the back of mine and using a tensioner to insure the teeth stay engaged, and detent remains in reliable fashion ( crucial to my strobe working correctly...)

After years of sitting in storage, I finally got my OG HW Alien home. I need to order an I/O board and a playfield LCD for it to get it working again. While I'm at it, I figure I should order some spare parts. Can anyone recommend what I should get to insure that I can keep the game running even if PB goes out of business?