Quoted from RandomGuyOffCL:

I hope everyone understands that this is heighway's "halo" pin. They are going above and beyond on this thing to attract major awareness to their brand. You've got rotating beacons, neon ramp, extra interactive toy being added because they felt the other one just wasn't enough, a freakin smoke machine hookup, Aurich on the art! and this thing hasn't sold out of this GIFT of only 500 LE spots yet!?!
A couple years ago this would have pre-sold thousands but the pain over those 2 years has been without precedent. And those vapor pins of pain were expected to be the next BBB, tron, Cactus Canyon, etc...I think Alien Le might just fall into the A+++ class!

Quoted from Yipykya:

Why would Heighway want to announce the LE being sold out? (If it were) My take on it: It would only provide some relief to 500 people and a bummer to the rest that are interested... and remember, this is a title with "World Wide" appeal - the Alien franchise is still growing more relevant and stronger after 35 freaking years. And such an announcement sends a big heads up warning sign to competition. No sense to announce "it's over" to the collector community that are on the fence or those just waiting to see the first image of this "sleeping giant" of a title. I bet that announcement comes from the community when people start posting they couldn't buy the LE and instead settled for the SE and have to put a dress on it with the LE accessories.
Sure, you can always throw an Alien playfield in an SE cabinet but it won't be the same as the satisfaction of owning "the real deal" and something original and unique. The Pinball collectors should know what I'm talking about.
And while I'm ranting, I suspect many people that buy the LE aren't going to use that cabinet as "the swap out pin." Face it, if your an Alien fanatic and your buying into the Heighway system, your going to want at least 2 Heighway pins. Am I wrong?

Quoted from Yipykya:

I think it is wise for Heighway to wait on anything Alien until Full Throttle has made its mark. A showing of Alien might just overshadow Full Throttle a bit.
When Alien gets the green light and Heighway has shown it off and is then tasked on building toward demand I think they are going to have their hands full for some time thereafter. Best to use this time now to get their ducks in a row and learn what they learn from the initial Full Throttle runs because once Alien breaks out... it's all gas ...no brakes!

Quoted from TigerLaw:

I'm actually taking a wait and see approach on Lebowski. I'm more into fantasy and sci fi themes but I'm certainly going to give Lebowski a shot.
Alien is such a great theme and the coloration scheme for the art is going to look unique (dark green and yello is going to be hot).

Quoted from BoozeMarlin:

This has likely been answered before, but are all the Alien LEs sold out?

Quoted from WIKED:

Playfield looks great. Shame there is a screen going into it.

Quoted from nephasth:

We recently had some news about Alien. Just because Stern announced GOT doesn't mean Heighway has to release more info on Alien at your command...

Quoted from Damonator:

Andrew didn't say what the price was to add the backglass monitor. IMO, this should be included with the LE versions from this point forward. Or at least on Alien LE and after...
But thumbs up on the change - it looks much more polished than just the static art.

Quoted from PinballRulez:

http://heighwaypinball.com/Gamenew/
The following can be bought as an upgrade for the Standard Edition also:
- Beacons
- Fiber Optic ramps
- Shaker motor
So in the end the difference is all cosmetic.

Quoted from dannunz:

The trim will be different as well. Also you get a different back glass art work and side art work that can not be purchased after. As well as the standard art work included.

Quoted from rai:

By your logic, only people who have FTH in their hands list it, but anyone who has AMH on order can list it as in collection. Don't you think if someone has FTH on order they'd put it in their collection?
If it makes you feel better 24 people have FTH on their wish list 238 people have IM on their wish list, 53 people have Mustang on their wish list.
I'm only interested in Alien, I'm not saying FTH is bad but it has one quarter as many owners on Pinside as WWE.
Art and theme probably are not a big hit, maybe they're selling a bunch of FTH to ops IDK.

Quoted from karl:

Full Throttle is my first encounter with lcd screen vs dmd/color dmd, and let me tell you that even though Full Throttle does not have lots of fancy video clips and and also has pretty simple animations, just having all the info, animations, etc in sparkling HD makes a huge, huge difference. Not only the graphics but also the way that you can show much more info on the screen is just remarkable. All in Chrystal clear colors. (This is just with small lcd in the playfield) It truly is a gamechanger.
I would never have guessed that it would have such an impact on me. I have GOT pro standing side by side with Full Throttle and it's like going back in time, 20 years or more when I play that game right after Full Throttle. And you also have full spectrum rgb leds on every bulb on Full Throttle. It looks fantastic. Just think what those leds can do to the mood of a game like Alien, if used right.
It's not like I can't play with a dmd. When you have good, simple animations, like on TWD, where the red color dmd actually suits the theme, it is ok. But on GOT it is horrible, with the incredibly bad video clips being shown all the time.
Not being negative towards Got here. Still a fun game, but the difference is huge.
Just sayin'

Quoted from rai:

That's fine, I'm just saying FTH is not a sales juggernaut hit or else people would list it on wish list and in their collection, the fact that 2x more people have WWE on their wish list tells me that FTH is not wished or dreamed about when Pinheads go to sleep. I know a guy who owned one and sold it in a couple months. Not saying it's bad but if was OMG the best game I'd think he'd have wanted to hold onto it.
I agree FTH is more about getting the wheels in motion, but don't tell me it's more popular than AMH even, because it's bearly talked about.
Alien on the other hand is a much better theme, but still hasn't gained the traction of Predator even, I think we need art and gameplay video before people get too excited about it. Right now it's a cool theme but other than that I'd like to see the gameplay and DMD animations etc..

Quoted from jgentry:

There are a lot more people in the US that care about motocycle racing then there are that care about pinball. All racing themes tend to do well on any type of game from pinball to arcades to home consoles. The theme is easy to understand and follow and fun. Just in my small area alone I know 2 pinball folks that are diehard motorcycle racing fans.
Looking forward to seeing how Alien turns out. Hopefully everything comes together for a nice game.

Quoted from jgentry:

Any proof of that or are you just making up things based on what you like?

Quoted from Chosen_S:

I don't care for ghosts, and I don't see them anywhere 0o
ummmmmm... http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/motorcycle-racing/motoamerica/
you're silly, I read your statement outloud to my wife and my 4 year old said "there's something wrong with that guy if he thinks nobody in the states cares about motorcycle racing"
seriously

Quoted from rcbrown316:

Where are your supporting numbers? Why do you think just because motorcycle racing is that popular that this cool ass pin wont sell? I have an indy 500, Shadow, sttng. I don't watch any of that stuff. Still bought the machines though. I did watch BSD but it was after I got the game. Decent movie but no impact whatsoever on how I feel about the game. These arguments may apply to how you FEEL but with regards to actual facts your statements seem empty.

Quoted from rcbrown316:

you can't guarantee that. shit makes me laugh man...

Quoted from rcbrown316:

I dont have facts in front of me so no I don't bet. I am not going to sling around erroneous and unsupported guarrantees either. My argument with you is you predicting/guarranteeing sales of a machine based on what you feel to be a bad theme.
How did you feel about centaur when it came out? Wait hold on let me put on my Kaneda helmet "well you know there's not a preponderance of man-beast-motorcycle hybrids here in the states and that tells me that..."

Quoted from GravitaR:

My first pledge of 2016 is to not respond to, or even read a Kadeda thread or post. Who is with me?

Quoted from Wickerman2:

a real meeting of the minds here lately

dude, they JUST started shipping the game!!! 1 small shipment has made it across the pond---and not because of demand, because they JUST started making the effing game. What color is the sky in your world!!!?? It makes ZERO sense to speculate on any numbers at this point.
"Ghostbusters is a failure!!! Zero people on pinside list it in their collection!!!"
Stop
The
Madness

Quoted from shovelhed:

Why do you care? Your not buying one go troll somewhere else.

Quoted from colonel_caverne:

Thanks. I saw The 2nd screen can be 10" or 27". Does it exist a pic of these screens on a FT? If i'm sure it worth to take it now, is it possible to order later?
Nobody knows about The clearcoating of The pf?

Quoted from Aurich:

Essay incoming!
I did not have complete freedom to do whatever the hell I wanted, it's true. I had certain tools in a box, and I had to build using those tools. That's okay, it's the nature of the beast, it comes with the territory. I'm utterly comfortable working like that, I'm a commercial designer, my clients often provide me with assets that I need to incorporate.
Part of the process taking so long was it's an old film, and the assets for it took some hunting down. There was a lot of back and forth. It was a slow process. Approvals took longer than expected. But we persisted and we've pushed through to a major milestone now.
If I had complete freedom would I have done it differently? Sure, why not. But the whole team is really excited about where we are now. There's a lot that was depending on these approvals, and now we're free to push forward.
This is a game that's going to be heavily about atmosphere, it's dark, we want to do a lot with the lighting and LCD screen, it was important that the playfield be moody.
But at the same time no one wants things in pinball to be too dark. So I tried to strike a balance. It's about space, and stars, but it's also about claustrophobia. It's dark, but it needs colors. There needs to be military elements, and the artwork and style of the marines. And it needs to be not just all black and green. We've done that for the Standard side and backglass already, no one wants a monochrome game.
I worked in Photoshop and Illustrator. There are assets straight from the film, assets pulled from original HR Geiger concept drawings, i did original paintings and original drawings (digital on my Wacom tablet), and even bits taken from Alien comic books that I was allowed to use as resources. I basically pushed out where I could, wherever we were able to document our sources, so that what we submitted was backed by the assets we were allowed to use.
I'll say this: while it took a really long time for Fox to approve it, and I'll admit that I was getting nervous, they didn't ask for a single change. Not one. We really carefully documented everything, showed the origin of everything, and in the end after running through the process they said "good to go".
So even though the waiting was a little nerve wracking, and it's one of the reasons this thread has seen so little updates lately, in the end the process was actually very fast. Could have easily been a lot longer even with faster approval times, but lots of back and forth changes.
Summary for too long reading:
The playfield is a real mix of assets and drawing and whatever I thought I could get away with. I know some people expressed a little disappointment that the egg backglass, while a classic image, was kind of a "known" element already. The playfield doesn't look like any Alien product I've ever seen before, it's a wholly new look. I hope people are happy with it.

Quoted from rubberducks:

They're not going to 'launch' it on Pinside on a Friday evening when they're attending a major arcade and commercial amusements show in London from Tuesday to Thursday next week ...

Quoted from Aurich:

Essay incoming!
I did not have complete freedom to do whatever the hell I wanted, it's true. I had certain tools in a box, and I had to build using those tools. That's okay, it's the nature of the beast, it comes with the territory. I'm utterly comfortable working like that, I'm a commercial designer, my clients often provide me with assets that I need to incorporate.
Part of the process taking so long was it's an old film, and the assets for it took some hunting down. There was a lot of back and forth. It was a slow process. Approvals took longer than expected. But we persisted and we've pushed through to a major milestone now.
If I had complete freedom would I have done it differently? Sure, why not. But the whole team is really excited about where we are now. There's a lot that was depending on these approvals, and now we're free to push forward.
This is a game that's going to be heavily about atmosphere, it's dark, we want to do a lot with the lighting and LCD screen, it was important that the playfield be moody.
But at the same time no one wants things in pinball to be too dark. So I tried to strike a balance. It's about space, and stars, but it's also about claustrophobia. It's dark, but it needs colors. There needs to be military elements, and the artwork and style of the marines. And it needs to be not just all black and green. We've done that for the Standard side and backglass already, no one wants a monochrome game.
I worked in Photoshop and Illustrator. There are assets straight from the film, assets pulled from original HR Geiger concept drawings, i did original paintings and original drawings (digital on my Wacom tablet), and even bits taken from Alien comic books that I was allowed to use as resources. I basically pushed out where I could, wherever we were able to document our sources, so that what we submitted was backed by the assets we were allowed to use.
I'll say this: while it took a really long time for Fox to approve it, and I'll admit that I was getting nervous, they didn't ask for a single change. Not one. We really carefully documented everything, showed the origin of everything, and in the end after running through the process they said "good to go".
So even though the waiting was a little nerve wracking, and it's one of the reasons this thread has seen so little updates lately, in the end the process was actually very fast. Could have easily been a lot longer even with faster approval times, but lots of back and forth changes.
Summary for too long reading:
The playfield is a real mix of assets and drawing and whatever I thought I could get away with. I know some people expressed a little disappointment that the egg backglass, while a classic image, was kind of a "known" element already. The playfield doesn't look like any Alien product I've ever seen before, it's a wholly new look. I hope people are happy with it.

Quoted from drinkduffbeers:

Approval the first time of asking is testament to the effort and attention to detail that must have been put in. Made up for you and cannot wait for the big reveal

Quoted from rubberducks:

A lot of people have unrealistic expectations and think the licensee and artists can do whatever they like. Dealing with those people is as much a part of marketing and CS as those who want to hear untamed, relentless enthusiasm or those who think it'll be another clip-art art package. A lot of us like to hear both sides of the developmental process.
Anyway, they shouldn't need too much help on the marketing front. It really is huge for them that they had approval before the show on Monday. Doesn't mean the machine will go into production much sooner than if it took another 2 months. But they get much more 'free' industry and media exposure.

Quoted from Aurich:

Whoever you're talking to is on my ignore list, so I don't know what the question was and probably don't care, but you're dead on with your answer.
Look, the world is full of awesome illustrators. Lots of people with more raw drawing talent than I have. I enjoy drawing, I do my own work, but I don't think it's my strength.
I'm a creative director. I manage people and assets and styleguides and rules and all the considerations. I've been using Photoshop for over two decades, and I'm good at what I do.
But dealing with a license means that you're playing in someone else's sandbox. You can't do whatever you like, it simply doesn't work that way. There are project managers and lawyers who have to approve all your moves.
You can't please everyone. I'm sure there will be people who wish the playfield looked like something else. That's life. All I can do is work with what I have, do the best job I can given the circumstances, avoid the things that I'm personally critical of and not a fan of, and hope that I make the majority of the people happy.
If you don't like it feel free to say so. I have thick skin, and I can take it. And I'm happy to engage in a dialogue or explain things. That's the fun of a forum. As long as it doesn't violate something I'm not allowed to talk about I'm easy.

Quoted from Aurich:

Whoever you're talking to is on my ignore list, so I don't know what the question was and probably don't care, but you're dead on with your answer.
Look, the world is full of awesome illustrators. Lots of people with more raw drawing talent than I have. I enjoy drawing, I do my own work, but I don't think it's my strength.
I'm a creative director. I manage people and assets and styleguides and rules and all the considerations. I've been using Photoshop for over two decades, and I'm good at what I do.
But dealing with a license means that you're playing in someone else's sandbox. You can't do whatever you like, it simply doesn't work that way. There are project managers and lawyers who have to approve all your moves.
You can't please everyone. I'm sure there will be people who wish the playfield looked like something else. That's life. All I can do is work with what I have, do the best job I can given the circumstances, avoid the things that I'm personally critical of and not a fan of, and hope that I make the majority of the people happy.
If you don't like it feel free to say so. I have thick skin, and I can take it. And I'm happy to engage in a dialogue or explain things. That's the fun of a forum. As long as it doesn't violate something I'm not allowed to talk about I'm easy.

Quoted from iceman44:

You can probably imagine who that might be!
He wants to give you the $500 difference you would have paid on the SMVE
And he has this question for you,

Quoted from RandomGuyOffCL:

Anyone else find this disturbing? This was compiled from this one page alone, imagine if someone compiled every single one from this thread and all other threads...It would be enough to compose a multi page thread itself.

Quoted from jgentry:

Do what half of pinside has done and use the ignore feature. After doing that the RZ thread shrunk in half. If people would quit quoting him I wouldn't even have to see the "ignored user comment"

Quoted from iceman44:

You don't really annoy me Kaneda. You definitely have a bad case of "diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain" like most of us at times, but you just have A LOT more challenges in that department.
I'll say this, you take a LOT of shit pretty well. That of course you bring onto yourself when you talk out of your ass mostly but hey I find it entertaining and it takes all kinds of people to make the world go around. You sir, are on your own island!
Why don't you just paypal Aurich the $550? Even though he has you on ignore I'm sure he'd appreciate the gesture.

Quoted from Kylo_Ren:

As a big Alien fan I'm looking forward to this pin. Hope we get to see more next week.

Quoted from RandomGuyOffCL:

I'm in.
Surprised someone hasn't started one of those lists yet..

Quoted from iceman44:

I like it! Great attitude.
And I'm with you but I doubt it "sells out fast"

Quoted from iceman44:

Hehehe. It's a good thing you live on the West coast. A LONG way from Krapneda, that's all you need to know.

Quoted from Aurich:

I know everyone focuses on callouts, but I'm actually really looking forward to the music and sound effects more. This is a game about atmosphere, it's hopefully going to be bad ass in a darkened room. Good sounds and lighting are going to be key.
Good sound is what elevates a game. I think it's one of the prime reasons Data East games get so much crap. They just straight up have lame sound effects, and they recycled and reused them over and over, and it makes all their games feel totally similar. You can play good games, like Jurassic Park, Tommy, Last Action Hero, Tales from the Crypt, all games that are cool, but have this similar sound to them.
Compare any of them to a game like Tron. Which is fun, I love mine. But it's the sound that makes the game so amazing. (And the lighting, gotta have fiber optic. Which, by the way, we're doing for Alien. Stoked about that.)
Sound matters a lot, and I'm 100% confident that the sound on this game is going to be amazing.
We're also really excited about the lighting opportunities. Full Throttle only scratched surface of what these lights can do I think. On a game like Alien, where it's moody and dark and scary I think the RGB lighting has a real chance to shine.
Color is definitely going to matter too, it's not just window dressing. Modes use color in their rules. Color will matter for communicating other information on the playfield. And of course, we're going to have sweet window dressing.
Our animator is coming by in a couple hours, we're going to work on refining some older videos into a newer style we've developed that's better, and storyboard out the next group of animations we're going to work on. We're having a great time collaborating.
I think we're going to be the first game that has a high rez DMD, meaning the DMD era school of information display, as opposed to a dashboard full of tons of data at once. You'll pretty much always have access to your score, ball #3, number of extras balls (I added that, always wish I could just see that clearly), credits, and the other player's scores. All the vital stuff. And then we're doing animations in the DMD school way.
But now the film clips aren't crappy like OG Spider-Man or Indy 4, they're in high rez, and we have 3D animated text, and it's all nice and modern feeling as far as the screen and resolution, just with an old school spirit. And it's punchy and quick, you don't have to sit through long film clips. This is a pinball game, and it's going to be a challenging one, with 4 flippers, magnets, a ton of toys, lots of shots — you need to be watching the ball, not someone's YouTube channel of their favorite bits from ALIEN and ALIENS.
We're not ready to show animations yet, but to me it's what I want to see on these screens. And not saying anything bad about Hobbit just to be clear. It looks amazing. Really, really nice. I just personally like the approach of a more DMD-like focus, but with all the detail you can bring to a high rez screen.
For the record I think it will look great on the 27" backbox screen if you go that route. Definitely keeping in mind making it work on both screens from the very beginning, which is something Full Throttle didn't have the chance to do.
Andrew, I hope you don't mind me telling them we have a second programmer working on this with us now, and he's bringing awesome energy and good ideas to the rules. He and Brian are friends and I'm already confident they're going to be a great team on this. I spent probably a couple hours of my Saturday talking with the US side of the team, talking rules and animation and lighting and how it's all going to work together, and synching the music and sounds to it all as a cohesive package.
I don't want to mention any new names on the team, that's Andrew's role. But they're great additions, and I'm very excited about it.
I hope you like my art. But there's so much more to make this game great. I just have to not f—k it up!
(I really don't think I did for the record.)

Quoted from colonel_caverne:

I think aurich is only talking about what he is allowed in accordance with progress.

Quoted from robotron:

you need to go see a therapist if you dont already. you have 2 user accounts here you use and i wont offend a troll by calling you one cause you are much worse. you were thrown out of klov twice. you are thrown out of every facebook forum you join. you destroy every interesting thread. when people block you, your constant posts makes it hard for them to follow threads. smh. at the very least change your avatar pic. just so friggin annoying!

Quoted from BillySastard:

Like you've done with this thread?
Pot, meet kettle.

Quoted from Zampinator:

Makes me Not want an Alien!

Quoted from MK6PIN:

He didn't order one, just making fun of another Pinsider who did......needs an eject....

Quoted from colonel_caverne:

a look of whole playfield should tell us more about the atmosphere of this pin.
we have all such hopes about artwork...
sorry, is there an hour in particular or it's during this afternoon (for us in europe)? thanks

Quoted from rubberducks:

I'm not sure if you're recently out of kindergarten, but not everyone is looking for pointless melodrama and willy waving. I can't speak for Aurich (or Heighway) but somehow doubt he was put out. This was and is not priveleged information. They're sales flyers. A couple of the staff had stacks of them to give away to anyone who was interested. Andrew didn't press it into my hand, making me swear on my mother's life not to show or tell anyone. It's not under NDA. It had already launched. You and more than 99% of the people looking at the thread aren't or won't be at the trade show. People are constantly begging for more information. I was in a position to share what they did have at the show, which people were obviously interested in given the short time since approval. If I'd posted about what was (and wasn't) at the show without the flyer (which I made sure was a decent enough photo to show detail) I assume you'd have been crying and calling me a liar. If you have no idea what a 'leak' is, try not to expose your stupidity.