Quoted from Wanderers:

Ok can someone please help, I have a chance of buying a Ghost Busters Premium for £6600 which I really wanted, but also have a soft spot for the Alien brand having grown up watching all the films. Do I go for the GBs or buy a LE Alien NIB for the exact same amount of money. Would be very interested to hear of your comments of anybody that's played both pins.

Quoted from Dee-Bow:

Canadian dollar is pretty bad! They'd have to stuff euro's in that goodie bag to make it worth it! Haha.. i do know that there will be 2 alien (s) pins on free play at YEGPIN in 3 more sleeps!! Cant wait!

Quoted from foureyedcharlie:

Show me a fully functioning production Alien SE.

Quoted from Knx873:

What's missing in this pic?

Quoted from Ferret:

Thanks very much for this bug report. Actually had nothing to do with the skill shots themselves (the code for which hadn't changed in ages) but a totally unrelated buffer-corruption bug when switching players. Happened pretty recently. A fix has been checked in.
And thanks for the excuse to play more of those two-player games with my wife, it had been a couple weeks... (Although when we replicated the bug this afternoon, she was player 1 and was the beneficiary of the 68.5M skill shot, and promptly gloated about how badly she was crushing me...

Quoted from tp:

I need help from the alien crowd. Please stop me from buying as pro. I sold a few pins a ways back to fund alien. With money in my pocket and no definate answer on when I can buy alien se I'm getting weaker by the day. Knowing that as pro is only an hour drive away is not helping. Please reaffirm for me the reasons I must hold out. Anyone? Andrew? Ferret? Guy who just received his?

Quoted from HoakyPoaky:

Also does Heighway include a manual for their games, or does the diagnostic menus on the LCD basically make that obsolete now? The old manuals are nice for parts lists, diagrams, etc. Hoping they include one.
Basically I'd like to know a specific list of all the rubber sizes used in the game, in case I swap out.

Quoted from Ferret:

There's an inductive switch under the playfield just below the standup target in that lane. On older software, it required inductive switch -> standup target in quick succession to award the Chestburster lane shot. On newer software (probably what you have), there's an operator adjustment, "Chestburster Lane Diff.", that can be Easy or Hard. If set Hard, it follows the original behavior, needs inductive -> standup in quick succession. If set Easy, it only requires the inductive switch, and the standup is basically unused. I made this change because I was seeing on streams, as well as my own game, that many shots to that lane were just making it to the standup target without enough oomph to fully trigger the standup, and thus not registering. Frustrating for what's already a hard shot. So the Easy setting makes it, well, easier. The flip side of the Easy setting -- some may even consider this a benefit -- is that sometimes the pop bumper can kick the ball over the inductive switch and award the shot. Personally I consider that an acceptable tradeoff, but that's why I made it an adjustment, so owners can select the behavior that feels right to them.
All this means that you should also use Switch Edges to verify the inductive switch in that lane.

Quoted from dirkdiggler:

Hey Libtech. What game was yours at yegpin? Left or right? I put 10 to 15 games on both and felt they both played differently. How different does it play now that it's set to the proper pitch then at the show?
Thanks to you and pingod for sharing your games with us.

Quoted from libtech:

Ill be checking and will report back, probably wired to the harness for the head on every game, then the pins are just put in place and beacons installed for games that have them - Ill be ordering some and installing and try and document it for those interested.

Quoted from Shadrac:

There's only 4 ratings now, i'm really interested by this pinball, saw all the videos on YT but i don't know if i pull the trigger and buy one, a few more ratings from fresh Alien's owners will be greatly appreciated.
I'm a afraid about the flow of this machine, it's seems a bit weird on videos. Also i don't like the flow of the ball in the right inlane after the ramp, it seems very slow and "jerky", is it normal? Maybe a little adjustment can repair this?
Also just one more question, they remove the third LCD screen? On some videos there's a lcd screen next to the Xenomorph head, but on Heighway website there's an Alien in a box.
Thanks

Quoted from J85M:

I'm sure I remember seeing a vid with Andrew discussing a machine they had in one of his mini factory tour videos, that has enabled them to print the games plastics in house, sure he holds up a sheet of the games plastics and says something about a few extra plastics/key fobs
It's always nice to get a few promo plastics with a NIB game to use as a keychain. Anyone with a production game able to confirm what's in the Alien "goodie" bag?

Quoted from jwilson:

Since I've never once modified a game, I'm not a serious collector? I've owned almost 300 games but because I don't glue plastic dolls to ramps and fill machines with clown puke LEDs, I'm a filthy casual.
Got it.

Quoted from libtech:

Don't suppose anyone with a game could be an hugely awesome dude and make me an ISO of their Aliens hard-drive? My game is dead, and Heighway hasn't responded to emails

Quoted from libtech:

Thanks Dan, I appretiate that, I was thinking what I could do is buy a drive dock/duplicator and mail it to you, then all youd have to do is pop out the hdd, and put it on the dock and press a button, then mail it back - super easy.

Quoted from libtech:

Thanks for the kind offer! No worries though I don't mind paying for it - Dan's a good man thanks for helping me out!

Quoted from TheLaw:

Missing the goddamn alien head mech

Quoted from libtech:

Didnt you get you get your playfield swapped? Or did DT get your playfield for now?

Quoted from libtech:

More good news - my Xeno head and parts are on thier way along with the update above, guys reciving refunds, things are looking up!

Quoted from FlipperFreak:

Yours is shipping to Nitro! You won't need it...you're taking the David Thiel model...complete with autograph! Lol

Quoted from Hazoff:

Lets keep everything as is and gets the games out the door. Amazing sound work by the way, audio is top notch sir.

Quoted from libtech:

Just got a care package for my Alien from Heighway/Nitro pinball. Sweet! Can't wait to get this bad boy in there thanks to Helmut and Tommy!

Quoted from libtech:

sweet. and as soon as those molex connectors arrive, your beacons as well
Sure here are some pics of the mech, pretty simple, one limit switch on the tounge, one motor and a small motor for the jaw. Dont know what changes they made.

Quoted from libtech:

Thank you, yes I thought it was an electromagnet, but its just a permanent magnet.
There were a few guys on here that put an aliens on route correct? Just wondering how the Xeno head wears over time, there is a fairly local airbrush guy, I was thinking of bringing it over to him before I install to give it some detail!

Quoted from daudioguy:

I gave a talk at Pintastic. 52 minutes into it I talk about Alien pinball audio. There is an "Alien Autopsy" of the Ambush Multiball music that might interest some here. This link should get you there:
» YouTube video
ddt

Quoted from daudioguy:

Yes, and yes.
I continue to test and refine the audio package while I have an Alien pin here. Invoking callouts well is a time consuming task. Joe and I continue to find opportunities to use the wealth of clips from the movies and Muthur to make playing Alien more understandable, immersive and fun.
At this point we have shifted from making sure that everything does something to polishing and refining everything and that feels great.
ddt

Quoted from Dee-Bow:

it's cool to see your game being put to good use Dan! That's pretty bad-ass that your old pin is being used to improve ALL the future alien pins as well! (just too bad it wasn't in Calgary this weekend!!) can't wait to see the updates!!

Quoted from ezeltmann:

They really need to fix this buffalo machine. For the record , there are three different people reporting the reset / shut down issues with the same game recently on this thread.
As more games ship , i am hoping to see this as an isolated incident or something to learn from.

Quoted from MikeHogue:

Make that three.
I've been waiting for my refund for three months too!

Quoted from onedeath:

No the mech is not registering right and the servo must have stripped a tooth or two. Got a new unit on the way...

Quoted from spfxted:

These are the old ones, right?....not the new batch...

Quoted from libtech:

No they are the new ones, the servo is a sg90 servo amazon has them, 3 or 4 bucks each, you have to swap the wire order on the connectro but its not a hard change.
It gets dammaged if you try moving the mouth when powered on, when its off it moves smoothly

Quoted from spfxted:

Anybody else losing their Facehugger Tails yet or is it better?

Quoted from cosmokramer:

I hope the bad playfields are not the end of Heighway, the theme is so cool it would be a shame if this is the begining of a catastrophe...

Quoted from Whysnow:

curious what the airlock scoop issue supposedly is?
After hundreds/thousands of plays on our Alien the scoop is still rock solid and very consistently shoots the ball to the flipper. Was something changed from the initial prototypes to the production machines?
I know some complained that the scoop is t-nutted in place which means little room for operator adjustment of it and it is so solid construction that it is tough to bend it if you need to redirect the eject.
I would like to see photos of what is different or causing the issues on the scoop.
I know on our game, i put mylar at the scoop eject and magnet almost immediately and the pf looks just like it did when we got it.
i do wish that they have chamferred (sp?) the scoop as the square edge is less than ideal.

Quoted from tezting:

Was the update for the prototypes? I thought they needed some kind of upgrade?

Quoted from Agent_Hero:

Got off the phone with Helmut today. Really nice guy. Looks like there's light at the end of the tunnel for getting my prototype game up to date. Thanks again, Helmut!

Quoted from VividPsychosis:

ferret I ran into an infinite sentry gun mb just now after an incredible game of 6 modes and mini wizard on ball 2, that totally locked up the game. When sentry started, I had lost a ball and used the smart gun to start the mb so I would continue on. No balls were released and the game just stuck there.... I attempted to release 2 balls manually and let them drain to end the MB and nothing happened. I couldn’t move forward. I saved the debug and audit after that. Can you shoot me the email to send em to?

Quoted from tdiddy:

Has anyone replacement there Alien head? Because the service bulliten the helmet sent me 6 months ago doesn't show the switch on top of the head being wired? Can someone confirm that it's not wired

Quoted from VividPsychosis:

in your photo, it looks like your mech tongue doesnt return home either....

Quoted from bobukcat:

Have you seen this thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/upgrading-the-heighway-alien
Perhaps you can join in the fun and have one thread for others to use as a reference?

Quoted from QuickSilverShelby:

Waaaaaaaa? You sold both your games Dan?
I think that speaks volumes about this game.
QSS

Quoted from violinfather:

I have to admit that HP definitely does not help out their cause on Pinside. I contacted them to to buy a new airlock scoop. I think that I have the original design because if you inadvertently shoot two balls in there during multiball it has a great deal of difficulty kicking out the balls. So sent a message to sales at Heighway Pinball and they responded the same day both times. When I emailed customer support, and when the sales guy sent my message to customer support, I got no reply.

Quoted from Dee-Bow:

I still want one dammit