Alien (Heighway Pinball)
Heighway Pinball, 2017You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider razerx.
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Quoted from thedefog:I like the backbox. Natural evolution that needs to happen. No need for giant bulky heavy backboxes anymore.
There's a lot of wasted space in a pin cab/backbox. I wouldn't mind seeing them trim the backbox down even further and find a creative way to have it collapse into the cab, so that's it's easier to transport.
Quoted from Whysnow:Thought this may also be a good place to ask...
wondering if anyone has swapped coin doors and put a DBV on their Full Throttle?
So Heighway games do not come with a coin door that has a DBV slot??
Quoted from Whysnow:nope. At least currently they come with the same crappy door that Spooky uses. 2 coin slot and no space to even install a DBV.
given the price I am not sure why both Heighway and Spooky are not using the 2 slot w DBV slot that Happ makes. about $100 and I bet they can get a bulk buy discount to bring the price way down.
Seriously?!? While I can cut a boutique shop like Spooky some slack for this, Heighway is a different story. If Heighway wants to compete with the big boys and be more than just a home model pin maker, then this is a necessary change they need to make to get their games out on location. Can you imagine if Stern or JJP pulled this kind of thing?
Quoted from Whysnow:I do believe the change is coming for heighway to a 2 coin door WITH a DBV. We are game #41 so I am still OK with cutting them a little slack. They did reengineer the trough to be positioned differently so a DBV will fit (at least that is how I understand it). Lats I was told, Alien will come with a door that accepts a DBV.
I think coins are the more common thing in UK so I can understand them not having them at the start. Heighway has been AMAZING about making adjustments so I am sure this is something that will happen also.
Really good to hear because I'm very close to springing for an Alien to put on route.
Quoted from redundor:Not sure why you are getting down voted for politely stating your opinion, but I'd tend to agree with everyone else that for the vast majority of people the large screen is the way to go. Maybe there will be a way the place the backglass over top of the lcd when it's turned off?
Because when you down vote a post, it means you don't agree with it. What's wrong with disagreeing with someone's opinion?
Quoted from accidental:I personally don't mind the lack of manual plunger. Sure, they're nice, but TBH on Stern games they feel like throwaway elements for the most part because they usually just go straight into a pop nest anyway or hold the post down for a full skill shot — both don't make use of the manual plunger at all.
Just look at the shooter lane for Alien. There's nothing to be gained by having a manual plunger. The ball just shoots straight up a short wireform and drops onto the ramp return platform. Just like i500, for example. There would have to be significant layout tradeoffs that reduce the total shot possibilities of the playfield in order to make a manual plunger worthwhile. I think the design team knows what they're doing an they've made the right tradeoffs for he betterment of the game as a whole.
While I get what you're saying, sometimes you strategically want the option to soft plunge to keep it out of the pops if you've got other modes and things running but that's hardly a deal breaker and is fine with me either way.
Quoted from PinballRulez:As far as I know the ball will never plunge to the pop bumpers but always to the right flipper
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-official-game-thread/page/159#post-3388899
Ok, then there certainly would be no need for a manual plunger then, cool.
Quoted from Fytr:Yeah, but where's the queen...
Quoted from Whysnow:I should mention that any pinheads which seak this place out for the game, please be sure to buy a beer/ nachos at the bar and specifically tell them thanks for having pinball. I have found they really appreciate this feedback and we are of course very thankful that they let us take up space with pinball.
Well said Hilton! Please do this at any place you find a good location that you enjoy, so it doesn't disappear. BTW, I plan to put Alien on location at Brixies when I get it but not really sure when it's coming yet since the dates have moved many times. I'm sure Hilton's will get here before mine does though plus I like to try to shake out the ball traps and bugs before I put it out, so if you've really got the itch, you'll need to hit his place up first.
Quoted from billsfanmd:game is playing great except for the xeno toy. frustrating that the magnet has to be shoved in the rubber grommet just right and then that fits over the metal teeth. my motor stops with about half in of where it should. not effected by switches just stops short of retreating into the plastic that knocks ball off.
on another alien thread im getting help and we are tweaking the strength of the motor to keep pulling the weight of that ball i’m making progress turning the tiny screw on the tongue board
anyone else have their xeno work great with no ball but stop short when ball attached ?
I had this problem with mine for months and it would only work maybe 20-25% of the time. It actually never worked 100% out of the box and seemed to get worse over time. I think part of the problem I was seeing is that you have 2 fairly strong magnets fighting over the ball. This probably isn't good for the stepper motor in the long term. I put a new motor and gear in and it still acted the same. One thing I noticed on mine is how strong the magnet is on the end of the rod, so I just cut a couple of small strips of electrical tape and put them on the end of it to put some space in between the magnet and the ball. This essentially makes the magnet on the rod a little weaker and it's worked perfectly like 10 times in a row now. I'm still hesitant to call it a success yet but so good so far.
Quoted from SunKing:Here's a standard retrofitted with homebrew EL blades.
What did you source to use to for the EL blades?
Quoted from Damonator:Kills the mood IMO.
Agreed. Installing the EL blades helps a lot and it enhances the mood, IMO. It's a pricy upgrade though and it's only available DIY now too.
Quoted from Lamprey:*knock on wood* I haven't had any major issues yet. Simple upkeep shouldn't be any worse than any other machine. But, if something goes wrong it could be harder to diagnose and/or repair without schematics. Alien is a bit similar to the new Sterns in that there are "node" boards that can fail. So, having a backup would be a good thing.
Alien is just such a unique experience, I really hope that I can keep it going for many years to come!
I love my Alien, but I had 2 bad IO boards out of the box that needed to be replaced. Thankfully that happened prior to HP going under. Also bought an extra for if/when another fails.
Quoted from MK6PIN:Caps are more for keeping proper current to the flippers, coils etc. to avoid sagging during multiball (this is for the 70v switching ps). My resets were coming from lack of juice on the 12v switching PS. ALOT runs on 12vdc in this game, including all lighting and the CPU, to name a few.
So is the capacitor mod even necessary if you have the transformer in there instead of the switching PS?
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La Grange Park, IL