I haven't been following Heighway that closely until recently, but man, I like everything I'm seeing/hearing. Alien in particular sounds like it could be pretty great. Can't wait for the reveal.

As someone with limited space, I really like the swappable game concept. I've been following the P3 for the same reason (plus it has some other cool features and a ton of potential in general). I think their swaps are actually even faster, depending on how many different modules you have to swap for a given game (just back of playfield, or others like the flipper area too). But that looks pretty slick for a full playfield swap! Even if you go a bit slower, <5 minutes is short enough to swap it on an impulse, or in the middle of a get-together.

I could see potentially buying into both of these systems and having way more games available than I'd otherwise have space for.

Also on the topic of swapping, this would make sharing games with friends so easy. You could all buy different games and trade occasionally. It would be so easy to move and swap them out.

Too bad none of my friends are into pinball!

Yeah, it's not quite to the scale of a video game console, but similar concept. There may be a "killer app" that triggers the initial big purchase then it's much easier to bite on smaller incremental purchases afterward (e.g. a game competitive with a Stern premium for less than $4k).

No one buys a new Playstation or Xbox for every game they buy. At least I hope not.

Wow, that looks awesome. I was just thinking how more games should do something involving purposefully launching the ball in the air. NGG and the LOTR ring were the two other examples I could think of but that bullseye looks really fun to shoot.

Heighway should look at adapting and building this. I see enough space in the middle of the PF for the LCD...

Wouldn't the video/UI content that was designed for the small screen in the playfield potentially look really bad when blown up on the big screen? I'm guessing the small screen is a smaller resolution...

Also, does this mean Heighway is changing their philosophy regarding how they approach the video content? I remember reading about how they weren't going for a JJP approach with constantly looping video clips, but more of an atmospheric and helpful UI approach for the player.

Saw the big LCD in one of the Full Throttles at expo and it looked nice and crisp, so no worries there.

If it's just going to mirror the playfield LCD, I don't see the point, though. As a player, the playfield LCD works great. If you want something for onlookers or for attracting attention on location, I think the small back box LCD serves that purpose while being able to keep the translite.

As mentioned, having even more individually addressable screens would create even more work when I'm sure creating the video and UI content is already a big effort. And if the screen is not standard, is it worth it? Doesn't seem realistic.

Plus their whole philosophy has been that the screen is primarily for the player. The fact they have been introducing these backbox screens seems like they are just trying to give options to buyers who like the traditional back box display location for whatever reason. Not that they are going to suddenly switch to a crazy (though potentially cool) system with different screens all over the place doing independent things.

I like the sound of everything you described about the UI but I'm curious why you say this. Honest question: what is the logical reason for looking away from the playfield and playfield screen to look at the same image on the backbox screen? The only answer I can think of is, "because I've played a lot of pinball and that's what I'm used to."

My non-hardcore pinball friends struggle to look up at the DMD while playing; they've said so. It's something that does take some getting used to because if you look at the wrong time or for too long, it can negatively affect your game. The playfield screen location really is better from a player's perspective. Speaking from personal experience playing Full Throttle and the P3, it doesn't take that long to adjust to it, either.

Kudos to Heighway for offering options so I'm not trying to hate. If you think it looks cool in your game room, or will make the game earn better or whatever, that's fine but I don't understand the benefit of the upper screen to the player (assuming mirrored content).