Andrew, there are those of us quiet ones out here that believe you when you tell us that you are doing the best you can for us. We appreciate you and the team and are very excited about the product. We are patient and will wait this out! Best of luck friend!

I rec'd this unsolicited email from them today if it helps any...

Hi *****,
Your order is safe with us and we are aware of the details of your order. We are hard at work here to make sure we can get out as many machines to as many customers as quickly as possible. The progress of the production has been slowed by the difficulties that we have faced and the transition period that we have undergone in the change of ownership/management. We are on course now to really ramp up production so we can meet our stated goals of as many machines as we can as soon as we can. As we have more parts in we will be able to produce more machines at a faster rate.

We will be featuring more updates on the production as it progresses both in terms of text updates and other forms of media such as our YouTube channel. We have been sending out an update for the past few weeks via email, you should have received these updates as you are on the email list. If you have not received these updates please let me know and I will make sure you that you receive them in the future. They could be in your spam folder perhaps.

In regards to the updates please find the latest update text below. Thank you again for your time and I hope to hear from you again soon.

Ditto. Stoked. #125. Looks awesome!

Thanks Mark, this helps Helps!

There is no resolution yet. Heighway has yet to announce what will be done. Various people have ideas of what should be done but Heighway has not finalized anything yet.

I gotta say, delt31, that it's nice to see your fresh enthusiasm on here. However, having read this thread for a year now (and only posting 3 times, including this) - prepare to have your expectations squashed... again. (I do so want to be wrong though)

Mark, hang in there buddy. Your comments have been so positive for the past 8 months while I've been worried, etc. You and a couple others on here have kept me (and others) interested in the game - which I'm now positive will turn out in our favor. I can feel your frustration now and wanted to encourage you as you have done for me so many times. I believe your Christmas present will happen. Mine too!

Were those pirates from the Caribbean by any chance?

Spoke with Morgan today. He reassured me on my LE purchase. It has been 13 months now. We did not discuss details as I did not want to nag him. But his reassurance that they are going as hard as they can to meet the many demands left me with a positive impression. It's interesting that this is how I always feel when I speak with them, including when talking with Andrew. I will continue to be patient even though I agree with many of the digruntled folks on here. Wouldn't it be great to have an LE by Christmas, but not holding my breath...

Does anyone know what the current price of SE and LE are at this time?

Inconceivable!

Communication from Morgan this morning regarding my LE (ordered Oct 2016).

“Thank you for contacting us today and thank you for the support of our company. We are hard at work here at Heighway Pinball to get machines produced and into the hands of customers across the World as soon as possible. I do not have a specific update on your machine at the moment and can instead say that we are aiming to get machines produced and out asap.

I thank you from all of the team here at Heighway and we hope to be in contact again soon with more substantial information for you.”

Does anyone know what happened at the insolvency meeting? Next steps for LE pre-order people?

I realize any $$ is unlikely and hope is last to die but will still try.

Super stoked to enter the community with ya’ll. Look forward to contributing and talking with many of you. Cheers!

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Sorry for the long post.

This is the culmination of a 2 year saga with this game for me. The game has tons of meaning to me that goes beyond pinball and Aliens (including learning piano with my children, experiencing and learning about opera, studying Norse mythology and enjoying all thing JRR Tolkien – yes, this game ties into all those and more for me). So, I am finally have some satisfaction with regard to this crazy game. And I am not gloating – just sharing with you.

Here’s the story on acquisition:
EXPO 2016 when Alien debuted there. I was dead set on getting the next JJP b/c WoZ was so wonderful. I was watching via Periscope when DI was introduced, I was initially surprised and did not like the theme so basically bailed on that plan. Alien debuted also. Well, that night, Heighway’s company website was listing the LE for 7100 DOLLARS. It was supposed to be listing for 7100 EUROS. Due to that error, I made the purchase at the DOLLAR amount and thought I was going to score a deal. This was my first NIB game and I was not as knowledgeable about the industry as I am now. Well, KARMA sure did bite me in the ass, because I was one of the hold outs who lost it all. Lesson learned for sure and will not be greedy with this hobby ever again.

Fast forward about 2 years (during which I have been following the threads on pinside) and I saw an LE for sale from Sweden – private seller. Contacted him but could not figure out payment/shipment. I then contacted pinsider MK6PIN (knowing he had purchased from Sweden) who put me in touch with pinsider Royneblom who sold me AlienLE #69 NIB and shipped it to me, for which I received today. The timing on when MK6PIN contacted Royneblom was some kind of gift from the Norse Gods (reference to Alien Covenant song played by David “Entry of the Gods Into Valhalla” written by Richard Wagner who based his Ring Cycle opera on Norse Mythology as did JRR Tolkien with LoTR) because Royneblom was in a bind trying to get his AlienLE #426 (reference to LV426 – the planet where Aliens is set). Royneblom had to get a couple extra LE’s in order to get this specific number (I hope he did end up getting it) and one of those extras is the one now sitting in my garage (soon to be moved to the proper place in the home). Through this transaction, I have also met pinsider Ulmpharmd who has been helping me as well.

This transaction was meant to be – evidenced by the fact that the shipping dude in Sweden who picked up the game (he had no idea it was a pinball machine and only found out through discussion with Royneblom) had a huge frickin Alien tattoo on his chest!!! That’s crazy!!! (see pic below)

Many, many logistical issues had to go right in order for me to enjoy this game. Thank you to all involved that post on this site. I can’t thank pinsiders MK6PIN and Royneblom enough for procuring and shipping it - and MK6PIN and Ulmpharmd for the assistance thus far. I know there are many others who I will be thanking as time goes on. I am grateful to those of you with so much technical knowledge, as well as those who developed this masterpiece.

The game seems to be playing correctly. Other than some rust on the ramp entry flaps and the stickers delaminated a little (for which is fixed already) it appears to be seamless plug and play.

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@colonel_caverne: great advice. Will do. Thank you.

Sorry all. Can’t get pics attached to PM. This is specifically for Logger: the backbox does not fold down. See attachment bolts (there are a couple other attachment bolts and a flap that are not shown here.

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Nice work. Looks great. I'll be in for a set too.

knockerlover (I love that name by the way), do you by chance have ramp entry flaps? Mine were rusted upon arrival of NIB. Thank you.

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To fix this 80% to the left problem (mine is properly leveled and was more of an estimated 70% left eject problem) I adjusted the bottom bumper to be less sensative by increasing the gap of the switch - meaning the ball had to hit this bumper harder to activate the bump. This lets many of the balls in that area hit that bumper without activation and now more often than not the ball has a right eject for upper right flipper feed. Makes game more fun indeed.

I have my game on carpet so it has finally settle down in. Seems like the game was getting harder and I checked the leveling. It settled a little too steep. Now I have put the playfield at -6.5, with the glass at -13.8 (LE version). Has anybody played around with it and found the ideal leveling for their game?

Wow. Some of you guys are too advanced! I hope I don’t have to be to own this thing long term...

Anyway, happy new year to the Alien community! Y’all are great!

Played again tonight with my kids. Too young for the movies (so game bleeps the swearing). Will be so neat that their introduction to the Alien universe will be through the game. My boy hit the hyperspace multiball and accidentally punched me in the face when jumping for joy after that shot (currently my favorite shot in pinball). When the game ended, he said “game over man, its game over” in perfect Chet voice. (Yes, I know Chet comes from Weird Science). This game is amazing.

The shaker definitely enhances the game even though it’s quite selective. IMHO

Mine too. Flickering blue.

The proper audio makes all the difference!

I still am not the best at using pinside (unable to link a post here), but there is post #697 in the support thread for both Alien and FT, that discusses weak flippers and a solution. I have yet to implement these changes but it's on the priority list somewhere. Hope this helps.

Uhhh. Interesting is an understatement

Thanks for asking. I was going to as well. I’d be in for a set of plastics.

@jvspin, I emailed freeplay.se. Will let u know what I find. Thanks as always MK6PIN!

I love the insert design! It’s one of the first thing that anybody comments on when game is powered up.

And I love the audio! An amazing choreography package!

Yep

I continue to be impressed with y’allz skills. Alien is amazing even without these upgrades. I very much look forward to having some time/energy to put into upgrading it to what you guys have done. I think I will get that time come July. I’ll humbly be requesting assistance from the community even though most of the steps are documented. With this upgrade, I’ll be testing the waters of my abilities and your assistance will be much appreciated!

You won’t be disappointed. The game is amazing!

I wish royneblom the best regarding this sale. He kept his promise to me after Heighway wouldn’t and I appreciate him! Anybody wanting this Alien from him can deal with absolute confidence. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to make up for his losses by offering what the market would potentially provide. I believe there’s still people out there that want this most amazing machine and this seems to be where the prices are across the pond. Good luck!

Good question. I’d be curious too. Mine is Default setting. Magnet stops the ball in its tracks for Ambush multiball about 9 out of 10 times. If stopped, mouth catches the ball every time.

Lots of things being said here lately. Just wanted to quickly add that this game, Alien Pinball, is amazingly fun, intensely immersive and downright bitchen to play. I thank all of you that have been involved for making the actual physical game what it is!

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CO Alien appears to be sold?...

The machine has rewarded me for not abandoning it. Not often I get a score anywhere near this. thanks to Mark and Aaron and Bob for talking me off the ledge!

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Wow guys! Thank you so much!

My thought process is: just make sure I’m having fun doing this stuff. My family is having fun and so am I. When it is no longer fun for me and them, I’m out and won’t look back. Just move on to the next fun thing. Good luck with you!

+1 for Per_. That’s sick!

I’m in. Thanks guys.

+ 1 just in case someone thinking about doing a run of these.

I’d volunteer for that @tomdk, if those others above give an affirmative. I count four in the US and one in Canada (so far). Of course, it would be first come first serve basis. This community has been so good to me, it’s time I give a little in an area where I can...

Thanks much TomDK

Awesome @Faust, look forward to it! Thank you!

+ 1. Really fantastic stuff guys!

Congrats! It is worth it. The people in here are amazing and have made this Little community so great. And the machine itself just keeps getting better thanks to them! I’m mostly a bystander but read every post. Good times...

In the open egg video, there is a lot of background white noise. Is that your Alien machine making the white noise? That's loud.

There’s an Alien for sale NIB. Get it!

Hi guys. Anyone in US get their panels yet? Been now three months since shipped according to @Faust. Thanks!

Has not been the case with my machine. Occasionally a USB will loosen and will need to be plugged back in. Other than that, cross my fingers but no issues. I think this is the case because it is a late model build(LE Version but I don’t think that matters). There are a few in the community with similar late builds that have bullet proofed theirs, including new power board and changing their data cables, but to my knowledge that was for prevention. If you’re like me and you’re not as handy as that, I would say look for a late model build when you’re in the market.

It seems to me like there are earlier model builds that have issues, but those owners get those issues fixed and they don’t necessarily recur?

appreciate the insight...

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Thanks much for the update @Faust, and for getting back to me PM. I appreciate it! This update sounds promising. I apologize for any miscommunication on my part.

Best Regards

Totally

... and this Alien thanks you!

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Thank you for the advice. I love a good project that I’m capable of completing. Converting to a new power supply and adding the 70v caps is unfortunately out of my league to complete. If I were to break something in the process, I would be SUPER bummed. Plus, I just don’t see the need to do it on this particular machine as it plays just fine without it. I’m okay with the tiniest bit of lag on the flipper action. I have another machine with “improved” flippers (upgraded coils) and they are too responsive. Will need adjusting. Plus, I’ve never had a power failure, and I don’t want one, but have weighed the options and decided for now just leaving as is b/c it’s super fun/challenging the way it is. Has a couple of my favorite shots in all of pinball and I’m afraid if I start messing with things, I’ll lose that “favorite” Feel.

With regard to audio, up until your post, I was under the impression that this machine has the best stock audio out of any that I’ve ever heard. I’ve other machines with upgraded sound systems and Alien still wins. I’m not a complete dunce when it comes to audio as I have separately a nice calibrated Macintosh system as well as upgraded system in the commute car, but I’m surely not an audiophile either. The sounds coming from this machine are crisp. The bass is perfect with the recommendations of amp settings aforementioned in this thread. I wouldn’t want any more draw being pulled from an already taxed power supply so again, in my situation if it ain’t broke...

I really do appreciate the advice though. I may call upon you to help me someday in the future if things change. Seeing as how ugly and unhappy the ownership experience started out (Heighway ripping me off), the people in this community make owning this particular machine a happy experience for sure! Thank you!

Now with regard to MK6PIN temperature control mod, well that’s just a no brainer. That may end up being the single most important thing to “do” to this machine.

Love this hobby!

I think delt31 did. He seems like a reasonable enough guy to give you some advice.