Well, got my alien yesterday. It is in the garage for the moment. Had an interesting time looking at it though. We fired it up, fan was making a lot of noise that I will have to look into. Try and play a ball and first thing I do is put it in the saucer on the left. Game doesn't register it and won't kick it out. Game wasn't registering a lot of things and numerous coils were out. Look it over, reboot it, works fine. Anyone run into that before?

Need to get the plastic that covers the back of the playfield, mine has a break. Also need a new magnet core as this one is worn. Any parts I should try and stock up on? Need to figure out how to convert this to work above .94 code. I know the lightboards. I need to check the io boards. This game is full throttle number 100. Not sure how many aliens got out without an alien serial.

Third owner.

Thanks for the info. Guess mine is a bit earlier. It does at least have the xeno, although I am told the tongue does not always retract. I remember that thread and had been looking for it.

I guess I need to go home and start looking to see just how bad the bill will be to upgrade everything. Looks like the most difficult will be upgrading the xeno head unless I want to shell out 400 bucks for a new one.

Alright, game is setup. Let the headaches begin.

It is running version .94.
I have at least 10 leds out. At least 4 switches. I can start investigating those at some point.

Now the fun stuff.
It is on free play, but requires credits to play, guessing upgrading the code should fix that?
The game freezes on the skillshot quite often and requires rebooting.
The main display is showing the small display on the right side. This just started and doesn't do it every time you turn it on.
The xenomorph locks its jaw open while booting. I disabled it in software so after booting it stops where as before it just made a horrible noise the whole time.

It has red io boards 1.4b assuming these have to be upgraded. That is a cool 1k :/
It has the old computer so I will order a new one 240 there.
The xeno has a metal gear for the jaw which surprised me. Have not seen the stepper motor yet guessing it is the old style?
Need the back right plastic.
Need the leds replaced to the new style.

Hopefully I can get it to play correctly before I make the call on upgrading it. Do like the theme integration so far, but with so many switches out and it freezing 50 percent of the time its not much fun.

Freeplay was fixed by a software reset.

I have all switches working except 4. One is the right ramp and it seems like i need to replace it and adjust the armature (does not always work when depressed by hand). The drop targets register in test, but not in game. They register as active when up instead of down, which is weird? APC lights do not come on, ever, no sounds in game. I will have to test the apc lights in test to see if they work but I wasn't paying attention when I was doing it earlier.

The display issue was that the power for the airlock lcd comes from a usb hub under the playfield (really terrible design). I reset the connections and that is fixed.

The leds are a bigger problem. The center pcb for the game has one spot target soldered directly to it. Several of the lights in the game (mostly around the side ramp) flash white and pink when they shouldn't. The rollover lanes do as well. This happens in test, attract, and in game. Something is off and wondering if the boards has issues.

I will fix it and I am in it for the right amount to be happy, but I have an inkling that had I been in less of a hurry some of this would have been pretty apparent when I picked it up. When we first tried it switches and coils were out. After that I was tossing the ball around to see if it was working and said good enough since I had 10 hours driving ahead of me. Oh well.

Anyway to get hold of the .96 code to test this theory? I know 1.2 is out there, but would be nice to update and test this for now.

I have a one board design. Making a wiring harness is not a big issue for me. I will look to see how many/what length usb are needed and ordered replacements. Xeno will be an expensive upgrade as ordering a whole new one is 400+. I might see about a new mount for the motor.

I will probably just do a bulk order on everything at once. I think I have all the parts bookmarked now.

Game is sorta better. all switches save drops are working. On starting a ball half the time the game senses a switch going off and then autolaunches the ball. I put it in edge test and pounded the crap out of it for five minutes, but nothing is going off.

I have 5 spot targets and two inserts (C in apc and the right inlane) that are not lighting. I have lights on the center pcb and upper pcb that are showing the wrong colors at times.

Next step will be ordering new usb cables. I just need to figure out what lengths to order first.

That alone seems like a good enough reason to get rid of the computer. That hub was a serious wtf when I saw it.

Was going to do amazon basics, figured they would be fine. How many are there? 5? Not at the game atm, but figured I could order today.

Does anyone know if a stern or williams part will work for the magnet core? Mine is a bit beat up.

Alright, still working on getting my game updated. I have all the parts save the display cables, the leds (waiting on timebandit to get back from vacation) and the wiring harnesses for the alien head.

Does anyone have pictures of the wiring harnesses for the dual board xeno head setup?

What connector does the airlock screen use? I know the backbox and playfield are dvi to dvi, but not sure if that is the same for the airlock?

Thought so. Think I saw a picture where someone had to shave the cable down to fit, but cannot find it.

Also, does anyone know where to get the chip for the stepper motor pcb? Digging through pics in other threads I realized I am missing the chip, but have not seen a source?

Stepper PCB (resized).png

Thank you for this!

Stepper PCB (resized).png

Has anyone heard from TimeBandit? I sent a question to him over a week ago asking about getting a 64 pack of leds, but not a word back.

Upgraded my computer tonight, spent a bunch of time on cleaning up the cabling.

My drop target board is inverted. Does anyone know how to change it or where to source a new board from?

Board appears to be a copy of the williams system 11 drop target board. I can invert the outputs by running a bunch of jumper wires and cutting traces, but would be better if i could find a chip that would do it instead.

Don't really get the le obsession on this title. Artwork for the cab and backglass and a different powdercoat? Seems a but moot.

Uh, might check my collection...

You asked if I've played a game I own. Rub more than two brain cells together before typing a reply next time.

The troll aside...

For anyone with the older style inverted logic drop target board Freeplay has a couple full drop target assemblies. Bit pricey at 130 shipped, but after recieving pics it is very obvious that it is not using a williams/bally drop target board like mine is. Have not found another source for that board and wondering if once they sell out anyone else needing it to upgrade will have to design their own?

So, I spent some time on this. The problem is this. The game see's the drops as down when they should be up. At the start of a ball the game fires the drop target coil raising the drops. With the inverted board the switches are marked as active ie down. The game does not recognize this, probably the loop you are referring to.

So, if you pull the board off the drop target assembly, and then start a game you can break the opto's line and trigger the drops correctly.

Digging further a friend and I spent an evening searching google for schematics of the chip and tried to find one that would do the inverse, did not find it. Reading around the net we read that you can switch the inputs (ie cut the traces and run jumpers so that the inputs are opposite) and I tested it on one opto, but it just fails to work now.

Had I not found a source for the correct board my next step was to talk to Ed at great plains or possibly someone who makes an aftermarket version of the bally style board that was in my game. My guess is they would know how to invert their product.

Eh, I am mixed. Part of me wants them to move on to the next thing rather than revisit the past. Part of why I don't get the hype over Chicago Coin's remakes at this point.

Disagree, but I collect all sorts of odd ball games. Mystery Castle for example is a stellar game hobbled by a company that was dying as it was built. Pistol Poker even more so as the playfield design was excellent, but the code is so bare bones its kinda moot.

Alien is a great game. I do wish it had gotten more code, but for the time a company could spend to remake it, they could design something new. I'd rather see what that something new was.

Jealous of all the plastic covering. Mine has none of it
.

Waiting for what? To hear that a game that got a production of 200 isn't as fully fleshed out as Houdini? Any JJP? Some stern's depending if they sold well or if stern just dropped the ball (ghostbusters). The game is fun, its got some legs, but if it had been in prod longer the code would be deeper. Think early hobbit vs 3.0.

Again, ifs a good game, but its not perfected. Shaker implementation, beacon implementation, usage of the airlock lcd. We are going to have to just disagree on this. It is however an effort to be proud of and should hold up over timr vs a lot of titles

I have the zotac from the earlier ones sitting around that I'd sell. It has .94 installed on it right now.

Doubtful, the rumor was that it was going to be announced awhile ago, and then no announcement.

Then its not for you. Stop asking if unfounded rumors are suddenly true so you can land a cheaper game.

Cost would be prohibitively expensive. Wiring would be a nightmare. At this point i dont think you could get all the parts. A few months ago, maybe.

Because then you have to reprogram the game from scratch? At that point its not really an alien anymore.

As a software dev, the amount of work for just programming the game from scratch is no small feat. You also won't perfectly replicate it. There will be some differences regardless due to timing on the different hardware. Chicago coin remakes are emulating the original hardware and unlike arcade emulation pinball isn't as specific to its output. So no, this is a very easy armchair exercise to think about but the reality is, no one is going to do it.

Interested in the speaker holders as well, but guess I have to wait and see.

I have my old head I was going to sell if you cannot find any other source. Not gonna part it out unless someone else wants the shell for a custom paint job.

Also, what kind of plugs do the boards on these use? Need to order some for my new jaw/tongue pcb as well as the new drop target.

Is anyone sitting on some spare leds boards? I keep waiting for them to be remade, but so far nothing. Would like to finish converting my game and play it.

Got my leds in. Now I just need to know what kind of plugs this game uses? The small little molex ones?

Got my speaker panel holders in. Looking forward to installing them.

Keep us posted, would be interested in this.

Those look awesome.

Can anyone confirm these are the belt driven? I want to replace my gear driven as they are loud as all get out.

In which case I have a bunch of the noisy gear ones on hand.

Ouch, actually feel bad for that one man.

So, there is no reason you couldn't. The trick would be to fit the new screen inside the existing mount. Given the cost of the game I am pretty sure I'd just stick with the oem and eat the cost. Upgrading to the later prod spec was about a grand tho not sure if your io boards are 1.4 or not which would add another 500 last i looked. This is assuming everything is available. Took me months to get everything so no idea on the current parts supply. In any case whoever gets your game is going to be dropping a lot of funds.

I think I am only going to do the lower 2. Besides at 82 shipped for the pair these are not exactly cheap for a pair of lights. Don't wanna put them somewhere your average ball will hit.

I wonder if the 1:12th would look right? I don't think they would work on the upper, but on the lower ramp plastics maybe?

I would be in for that. Terrible design, but it looks cool in game.

Eh, if it was the same deal you were trying to sell me on there was profit. Good for you, but as i thought tbl's are trickling out again. Good time for you to get out.

Maybe but at that point people will ve looking for other options again. At 171 usd for a single plastic this one jumped the shark for me.

Yeah. sorry but we lost each other. I am not some diaper wiper who thinks everything has to be perfect. things break and being someone who collects the rare and obscure, so what?

This is a toy. A big, expensive, toy. It is nothing more. It is not an art piece. It is not a museum piece. It was an amusement device intended for kids to beat the snot out of. The only thing we can agree on is that only the weirdest pinheads will understand you.

No, vivd did not do that. We disagreed on value but he was up front the entire time. No harm in him wanting for his game and there was no sob story.

Well til. In any case I did not pay up because of the chance TBL would hit production again. I was right and while time will tell how many more get made it certainly wasn't the 10 percent chance I was incentivized with.

You said less than 10 percent that anymore get made. More are being made period. Don't bother trying to talk your way around it. Don't care if production is slow. It doesn't matter because end of the story is more are being made which you said would not happen. It is why I balked at your price and frankly I was right. If you ended up taking less it seems I was not the only one who thought 18k was ludicrous.

-edit- going to be nice and just let it drop.

On topic: Still don't know the name of the style plug that goes into the replacement jaw and tongue control boards.

Problem is the replacements will break very easily too. I had a spare set get ruined by forgetting they were in the cabinet and placing something ontop of them. Long term would do us well for someone to make a mold of them.

Oh god, not this song and dance again. I had a buddy call me a week before expo saying that it was going to be announced. That their source had already put in a pre-order. Expo came and went and again no announcement. Either put up some evidence or shut it because the horse is not only dead, its corpse so damn decade there is nothing left to hit.

The game that has been just around the corner for months on end? So confident you just bought one? Makes total sense when the new one would have been cheaper.

Start drinking your own Kool aid. Till then keep on topic or start your own thread.

Thing is he wont put a date on it. Its gotta br somrwhat nebulous so he can wiggle out. Anyone want to dig up the kaneda thread?

Anyone got a drink around here? Too bored with this inane bs to deal with reading anymore of it sober.

The never ending speculation is why digging through threads for actual information sucks on here. Go make a thread if you want to talk about this promised remake and keep it out of here.

Had the game in attract mode tonight a d the damn mobo died. Mobo does not power on ay all when plugged in. Power bricks indicator light goes off when you plug in the mobo so guessing the comp shorted.

Nope dead, ordering a replacement

Got the replacement motherboard. Have not tested it yet. I think the problem was the psu I used. Can anyone send a pic of their psu? I know it is 12v, but how many amps and what size plug is what I am trying ot narrow down.

That is not the power supply I am talking about. I am talking about the one that powers the computer in the bottom of the cabinet. Unless you mean to tell me they run the computer off that with newer style computer? The old style computer had a seperate power brick like a laptop.

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.

Computer is easy to get, I already bought a new one from the manufacturer. Failed to know when upgrading from the old style comp to the new that the power requirements were different and after a few months it fried so ordered a brand new comp. Easy enough. Was smart enough to correct the power problem though.

Can someone take a pic of their drop Target opto board plug? I swapped in the correct style but it just says opto 1 is active. Wonder if i wired the plug wrong.

Sadly no. I need to see the plug wires on the green board mounted to the drop Targets.

Sure

IMG_20200318_135337 (resized).jpg

IMG_20200318_135347 (resized).jpg

I agree. The previous board had a different orientation for the plug (as well as a different style altogether). I will reverse the wiring this evening and cross my fingers. Thanks!

Hrm, no luck with my drop targets. Plugged in or unplugged it now registers all three as active. Worse i think one of my io boards failed. Game is cursed....

I do and swapped it in. However 1 io board and 1 computer failed on this pos and not making much progress on getting it working.

I did, and I repinned the plug, but it does not work.

I had one of the machines with the incorrect drop target board. This inverted the logic and so there was a special code release for this to work on. In order to upgrade past 1.0 I had to buy an entirely new drop target board. This has a different plug and apparently the wires are in a different order.

The problem being there is no schematic for the drop target board and Heighway in their shitty build quality did not use individual colored wires so its a guess as to what the correct wiring is. I might have fried the optos when they were reversed. I have verified I get 12v and ground off the board. Due to the opto design I cannot see with my camera if they are on or not.

Yeah, except that would require a schematic which I do not think exists. Figure out what wires are ground and 12v are easy and can be done at the plug, but I am not even sure what pins are supposed to be 12v or ground on the drop target board.

A bit difficult due to rarity.

Can you do me a favor and measure the ground and 12v on that plug you took a pic of? That would eliminate a lot of this. My current guess is I have it wired correctly, but fried the optos when I wired it up the first time.

Very nice, so per the pics my center black pcb that holds the io board is different. I have an extra plug on it where my power wire goes. It is 12v and not 5v. I will switch it, but chances are the optos are fried and will need replacing.

My game is supposedly the first production game. I will look over the board in a later and take pics.

Considering someone listed one at 13k that sold in a day recently, disagree.

Buddy came over today and after 5 hours we now have all the leds in the game running except one. There is a single led board to the left of the alien jaw. If you put an led in it, it fries the led instantly. I ended up just disconnecting it.

Also have a dead io board. Does anyone repair them or is it trash? Still don't have working drop targets, but at least something is done.

Ughh, spent 3 hours working on my drop target opto yesterday.

Replaced all the 3. Board shows two working, but one was activating at the wrong spot. Unplugged the opto board with the game on, optos failed to work after that. Replaced them again, 1 working. Turn game off, try moving the signal wires around, opto no longer works. Really want to say f* this game. I am close to getting it 100 percent, after this it is just putting in the new alien head, but so sick of it. Half tempted to get it 100 percent and throw it out as trade bait least I have to fix it again.

I finally got my drop targets working. Next big step will be replacing the alien head with the later style, but I am going to need to find out what the wiring looks like. Have not found it yet. If anyone is willing to help let me know. This would be the last major hurdle to making this one run the current code.

That is what i am after. If you could post id appreciate it. If i can build that and figure out why my leds on the upper board went out (leds test fine in a different board) then this would be done.

14k seems about right especially with the extras.

V is probably bad and locked on. L is probably down stream of it. Need a new led. I would pull that pcb. Then fire up the game and use one of the single led board off the middle pcb as a tester, test the bulbs.

I hope he makes more. I would buy another 64 pack of them.

Eh, I debate that tbh. Upgrading this has been a headache, which is part of why its been such a slow process. Fixing my leds alone was 12 hours of work between two people, one who is a professional tech where as I have a decade of repair experience. For the ones who upgraded an early game while having a second grade on hand I am sure its been much easier. Most of it hasn't been that its hard, just that the information is not easy to find.

Blowing up one of the new computers because they changed the input voltage 350 loss. One brand new io board dying randomly 300 dollar loss. Fighting with the drop target opto board because the wiring was different. 20 dollar loss.

The leds on the upper pcb randomly failing after fixing them with less than an hour of the machine being one. So far does not look to be an led issue which means board issue and might be money.

Once I get the game finished it might be a different story, but I have seriously debated throwing it up for trade once its done just because I am tired of working on it and hate the led/pcb setup with a passion. Lotta cussing at this game and wishing death upon the ones who designed the electronics.

Thing is, look at what ive owned. Plenty of rare, obscure, and frankly games others don't want to deal with maintaining. The physical assemblies on alien aren't bad. Electronics are the biggest steaming pile of shit.

The issues i have with the machine going forward have nothing to do with it being an early game. The led design and pcb board setup is idiotic. One led goes bad, disables the rest of tbe column, and requires a fair bit of time to fix. The ability for leds or proximity switches to wiggle loose also adds to this. The use of usb for io boards means they will come loose randomly. The pc and power supply in the bottom is a risk in and of itself. The wiring job is crap as well but might be better on later games. Frankly the way it was designed is why i believe it will never get remade. Its a ahitshow under the playfield.

Compare it to say jolly park. That has no parts support and very little posted on it. But once working its easy to maintain. It doesnt blow 300 dollar io boards for fun. It is logically laid out and small issues like bulbs are easy to get to, wont wiggle out, wont take out a column if they burn out. It doesnt have connectors that will come loose disabling a 3rd of the game. The same could be said of cosmic carnival, usa football, etc.

Apron is fine to me. I'd rather it than America's Most Haunted. It is flimsy and can bend if you lift the playfield with it. This causes you to have to bend it back so the ball will go down the outlanes. It also would gouge the playfield so a common mod is to cut the outside corners near the out-lanes.

Alien's electronics look less like a production machine and more like an amateur's later prototype iteration. The fact that it was their second game is just baffling to me. AMH to Rob Zombie saw changes to the electronics and AMH electronically speaking is a much better designed game. It still however has a great theme, art, pf layout, and toys (when working).

Disagree, this is tbeir second game, not their first. Cosmic carnival was more thought out than alien.
As for all the "dung was warned" bs. Early vs late does not fix the terrible led design. Does not fix the io boarda fragility. The use of usb in lieu of something with a locking connection. It does not fix their use of an under powered power supply.

I like the game but comparing it to anyone other conpanies first machine from the last 30 years, electrically its trash. Hands down, the worst. And anyone pulling g the you were warned dung go look at my collection history. I've got plenty to compare it to.

I will get this running at some point. I might keep it, might not, doesn't change the terrible design under the playfield. if it wasn't a dumpster fire the game most likely would have been remade by now.

Spent some time working on mine tonight. Leds are fixed. Game seems to play correctly minus the head not being connected and the switch for L on the upper roll overs. Did manage to drop the pf on my hand from 4-6 inches, do try to avoid that.

Has anyone had the magnet blow the fuse? Just tried to play a test game. If the magnet is briefly activated, no issue. IF the magnet tries to hold the fuse it blows. This is for section 2 and takes out the upper flipper and drop target reset. My game had a 4amp fuse in there. Not sure if that is the correct size, but I can replicate this on command.

Update: so guessing just a bad pack of fuses. It is no longer blowing. The game is however kicking in the circuit protection of some sort. I need to bypass it on my lower pcb and power supply pcb still. After that my next guess is that the leds to the right of the magnet do not detect the ball and leave the magnet on high power? Game kills the circuit so it doesn't melt anything? That is a guess only.

Magnet fixed. Side loop no longer recognizing and swapping the switch had no affect. Will mess with it more but question.

The upper right or it shot in switch test, does it exist? Mine has none. Has anyone made a map of the switch locations?

So, problem is not the protection circuit. The problem appears to be a weak power supply.

Magnet hold works fine in test. In game it would disable all coils on circuit 2. Reducing magnet power to 25 percent weaker, no issue. Further play showed that the pop bumpers cause similar problems. On normal power, one or two hits will cause some lights on that board to go out. Some coils will temporarily get disabled. Multiple hits to the pop bumpers, firing the coils, turns off the io board. Sometimes it will come back on after a few moments, sometimes not. Reducing coil power increased the number of pop bumpers firing to 3 before it would start having issues.

Early game so i do not have the 70v power supply. My power setup looks like this. I do want to try replacing the 12v with an upgraded first to see if my upper pcb io issues go away. After that dunno. Maybe try adding the caps people talk about?

e730c549cc0b5dffff36a17eccee1f98f54dc63d (resized).jpg

Would be interested in buying some i/o boards if we ever get a group buy going.

Did you miss the *if*?

As for where, if someone figured out where the original manufacturer is and requires a minimum order, that would be something with a potential group buy,

Thinking the 75 percent repair rate is a number pulled out of thin air. I have one that is dead and no repair source.

The games are only a few years old and its already a hard to find part. These will eventually start failing to age, we haven't even gotten there yet.

In time this will get worse so unless someone like clive starts offering repairs it will become a real problem.

Should compare it to an RZ, that had a nice kit. Could shake the house.

Short answer, no.

Long answer, not unless a company wants to:
Re-engineer all of the electronics under the playfield.
Update the code to work with the all new electronics.
Redesign the playfield and its art to use normal switches instead of the induction switches.
Build the original cabinets or modify an existing cabinet to fit the new playfiield.

All this to re-release one machine where you already have a number of people who already own it and won't rebuy it. So no, its not being reintroduced stop asking.

It has nothing to do with being scared. It has to do with being SICK of mouthbreathers claiming they have the inside scoop about the soon to be announced remake that never materializes. They crop up *knowing* but can never provide a lick of evidence and when the announcement fails to materializes they shut up only to reappear with a new rumor a few months later.

When someone actually reveals something start a new thread. In the mean time stop polluting this one because when you are actually trying to dig through and learn something from the post history, filtering out this shlock is ridiculous.