(Topic ID: 106728)

ALIEN PINBALL - Game Over, Man, Game Over

By HeighwayPinball

9 years ago


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  • Latest reply 22 hours ago by Averell
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Topic index (key posts)

53 key posts have been marked in this topic, showing the first 10 items.

Display key post list sorted by: Post date | Keypost summary | User name

Post #9151 Insight from Alien's programmer on tournament mode Posted by Ferret (7 years ago)

Post #9234 Update on distribution Posted by HeighwayPinball (7 years ago)

Post #9660 Here we show you a short clip from the 'Ambush Multiball' mode Posted by HeighwayPinball (7 years ago)

Post #10128 Photo of Alien at UK Trade Show Posted by unigroove (7 years ago)

Post #10230 game play video from EAG UK tradeshow Posted by Join_The_Cirqus (7 years ago)

Post #10231 game play video from EAG UK tradeshow Posted by Join_The_Cirqus (7 years ago)

Post #10914 Alien ships Posted by ZenTron (7 years ago)

Post #10916 Alien ships Posted by HeighwayPinball (7 years ago)

Post #11230 Key posted, but no summary given Posted by ezeltmann (7 years ago)


Topic indices are generated from key posts and maintained by Pinside Editors. For more information, or to become an editor yourself read this post!

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider sonny_jim.
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#5880 7 years ago
Quoted from accidental:

Those statements were all true when they were made. What's the problem? Have you not experienced your own difficulties and delays with any projects before and had to push out deadlines?

He's already made one pinball table, that was hilariously late. So he understands better than anyone else just how hard it is to make a pinball table. Why do you think Nordman left? Perhaps he did not want to be associated with this particular 'advertising' method.

It just feels disengenios for him to keep annoncing dates that he knows full well won't be met, just to keep pre-sale money coming in.

What was that Douglas Adams quote "I love deadlines, I love the whoooshing sound they make as they past by"

#5883 7 years ago
Quoted from MK6PIN:

he gives ( granted overly optimistic ) updates, and has stated the whole game will be released, per FOX directive

So not why just say "It'll be done when Fox lets us release it?"

#5885 7 years ago

I trying to remember of a single pin license before that has had this problem (apart from TBL, that couldn't show things weren't from the advertising), and that was from a film that hadn't already come out (t2) and they weren't allowed to show the T-1000.

#5887 7 years ago

So I guess, the answer to all of this mess is 'pre-order license pins' means a shit storm on forums?

#5892 7 years ago

Personally, I just don't trust him when he says "It's Foxs fault we can't show anything" and I have strong reason to believe that.

5 months later
#8520 7 years ago

So what's this I hear about Hydrofoils?

1 week later
#8760 7 years ago
Quoted from HoakyPoaky:

Until then, just wait for them to announce that production has started.

They announced that over 2 weeks ago:

Capture (resized).PNGCapture (resized).PNG

6 months later
#13416 6 years ago

It takes TWO MONTHS to process a refund??? Why does the move toward production effect how quickly refunds can be processed?

#13420 6 years ago

But we are talking about 5 machines worth of refunds here out of hundreds of orders, that shouldn't be a bank breaker?

#13422 6 years ago

I guess they are worried that people are going to pull their money out and go for the new Star Wars pin?

#13469 6 years ago
Quoted from Pinballgeek:

Its uk law that we "don’t have an automatic right to get money back if you just change your mind about something you've bought and there’s nothing wrong with it.
It’s the same no matter how expensive the item was - it’s really down to the seller whether they offer you anything."
However in order for a refund to happen you actually have to have recieved the item hence the 14 day cooling off period which starts when you have gained possesion of the item, one you have told the seller you want a refund then you have to return the item in 14 days after mentioning. Yet as soon as the deposit was sent you essently signed a legally binded contract and the seller has the right to decline a refund or not.

Whilst that is true, there is this section on the Heighway Pinball terms & conditions:

Before receipt of goods, if you have not received your item then your money will be refunded, minus transaction fees, within 21 days of receiving the written cancellation instruction.

That says to me that they should be getting their refund within 21 days, not 60. Note that this only applies to EU residents, though.

http://www.heighwaypinball.com/terms-and-conditions/

As mentioned before, this is only 5 refunds we are talking about out of an order book of hundreds. If they can't afford to refund such a paltry amount (in comparison), it makes me wonder.

#13521 6 years ago
Quoted from cooldan:

give the guy a fucking chance

They did, and he missed deadline after deadline after deadline.

Quoted from cooldan:

now you want it all back?

Not all, just 4-5 orders out of hundreds. That shouldn't be a burden at all and shouldn't take 2 months to sort out in my opinion.

3 weeks later
#14708 6 years ago
Quoted from spfxted:

We just need to see who the new investors are....

Don't think it's new investors.

#14738 6 years ago

They all use different software, cabinets, mechanics, wiring, development and marketing strategies. How would that even work?

#14953 6 years ago

Part of the process of Andy leaving will be the handover and changing of passwords to any social media accounts that HP have.

#15043 6 years ago

Yeah I was with them up until the '100 per month in August' part. How about they start putting out 20 games a month *first*, rather than the 20 games in ~3 months they have done so far.

#15045 6 years ago

Even if they do magically start producing 100/month, how long is it going to be before your workforce is going to have nothing to do except stand around with their thumb up their arse? 3 months? 4 months?

Sounds very unrealistic to me :\

#15048 6 years ago

My point is right now no one is going to be placing orders with them due to the negative image they've got. Stern sells games because they've got a good working relationship with their distributors and have been the heads of the pinball industry for over a decade now. JJP has a network of distributors and experienced industry professionals working for them.

HP has none of these (well, apart from David Thiel), hell they haven't even got an Australian distributor sorted yet, a surprisingly large market given the amount of people who live there. They aren't even close to being at the same scale or industry presence as Stern right now and I think it's going to take more than a few months for that to change.

Quoted from Astropin:

If it works like it should and they provide support

FTH has been out for what, 2 years? It still doesn't have a manual. Operators who buy in big numbers like manuals.

10
#15051 6 years ago

At the moment, they haven't even produced 100 machines yet, that's FTH and Alien combined, over the 3 or so years. I think it's a little early to be saying that they'll be pumping out 100 a month in the space of 3 months, with an unproven factory and no skilled workforce to speak of.

-1
#15076 6 years ago
Quoted from Wolfanoz:

I would have to gather a guess that the increase for that game is most likely from being a Disney based game / license.

The Disney license wouldn't have been cheap, especially considering JJP would have been in the running for it as well. Also they've just launched a new cabinet/hardware design and those development costs have to be soaked up.

#15114 6 years ago

There's no way in hell that Stern managed to get exclusivity rights to Sigourney Weavers image for use in pinball. Her Ghostbuster character, maybe.

#15147 6 years ago

Heighwayfoods and Heighway Group is almost certainly something else, but the whois on playbetterpinball.com is a bit weird.

EDIT: Heighwayfoods? Erm.

#15201 6 years ago
Quoted from athena:

I'm surprised it's as low as 24.

I'm not. Remember, no matter what Andy was saying at the time, they were no where near the 100/month production numbers and even those 24 that were delivered could be considered 'sample' games, not built to final specification.

#15209 6 years ago

Remember that about 10 playfields were ruined by an badly trained employee, but I am surprised that your playfield is numbered that high. When did you receive yours?

#15224 6 years ago
Quoted from TheLaw:

People would be blowing Alien 3 if Fincher put it out now

I think at that point in time Fincher had directed a couple of music videos and not much else, the story I heard was that development was extremely rocky (wooden monks fighting aliens) and the executives plumped for someone they could boss around (Fincher). You can't really blame him for what got made, I really do think he tried the best he could. There is another cut of the film, made without Finchers involvement which fixes a few of the issues, but it's still a bit wonky:
http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Alien_3_Assembly_Cut

EDIT:

Which reminds me, there was a purported screenplay written by William Gibson of Neuromancer fame. This is much more in the vein of Aliens, with lots of gung ho action. Shame they didn't go with it but I guess it was deemed too expensive to shoot:
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/files/scripts/alien-3-william-gibson-1988-01.pdf

#15315 6 years ago

I think he is alluding to the fact Aurich was supposed to be getting payment (in the form of a machine) + percentage of machines sold.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-official-game-thread/page/298#post-3800533
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rebirth-of-heighway-pinball/page/13#post-3809397

#15337 6 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

It is sad and disgusting what so many of you are insinuating regarding the team that worked to put this game together!

Just so we are clear, what *exactly* did you think I was insinuating that was so negative toward the team?

#15340 6 years ago

The only reason it was brought up in the first place was that there's been a few staff members now who have felt 'short changed' by the business under Andys rule. Personally, I don't think that the comment asking if he had been rewarded was a dig at them, quite the opposite. They wanted to make sure they had been rewarded for their hardwork.

1 week later
#15446 6 years ago

Just curious Russo121, did he say to turn up to the factory and pay cash?

1 week later
#15572 6 years ago

At the very least they've been working their way through refunds, which can only be a good thing and shows good faith. Whether they can get to 150 more delivered by August (or whatever their revised timescale was, I forget) is another matter.

1 month later
#16042 6 years ago
Quoted from Pinballs:

They've also chosen a renowned expensive dealer to sell through, rather than one of the better dealers such as Pinball Heaven.

TBH I'm a bit puzzled why they went with HLD and not Pinball Heaven. But in any case the UK market is quite small, comparatively. Not a huge operators market, especially when factoring in JJP/Stern. I guess their thinking is to focus on CT in the USA.

Didn't they say they'd have 150 machines shipped by now?

#16079 6 years ago
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

Don't get your point. Kits are £2.5k ($3k USD) less than a full machine, and that seems fair. A populated / wired playfield offered at 65% of cost.

It might add up for some people, others not so much. As an operator, I wouldn't want to be paying 65% of a full machine price for something that's not going to be generating any money for me. I get that it'll cut down on downtime, but I'd rather have 2 machines making money, rather than 1 machine that cost 65% more but had its downtime cut by a few hours.

In any case, it's a decision that isn't going to cost HP themselves that much money, the only difference is that they have to design and build the storage/shipping container for the kits.

8 months later
#21099 5 years ago
Quoted from simon:

Had some good people to be fair

And most of them left due to Andys management. I've got a few stories about it myself but there's no point at twisting the knife at this point. I'm sure people who are owed money/machines aren't going to feel any better reading about just how incompetent Andy was behind the scenes.

Fingers crossed for the ex-HP employees, as others have said they are great people, very passionate about what they do and the main reason why Aliens turned out to be such a great table.

#21337 5 years ago

I'm slightly disappointed he didn't go forward with his 'Heighway Foods' brand instead:

Domain Name: HEIGHWAYFOODS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2001397037_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: www.enom.com
Updated Date: 2016-02-25T03:50:03.00Z
Creation Date: 2016-02-09T11:49:00.00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-02-09T11:49:00.00Z
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 48
Reseller: NAMECHEAP.COM
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: ANDREW HEIGHWAY
Registrant Organization: EURO SCREEN MEDIA

29
#21456 5 years ago
Quoted from Mr68:

Andrew was 0-8 with his ventures when I posted that information. During my back and forth with Andrew at that time, I pointed out his 100% failure rating.

Looking back on old posts with hindsight is always revealing. Note I have edited this for brevity, I encourage you to click on the link below to read the posts in full:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-official-game-thread/page/141#post-3301083

Quoted from fishbone:

What a sad attempt of digging up some dirt.

Quoted from Mr68:

could you please explain all of the dissolved company's from your past going back to 1995 with Heighway Leisure LTD?
Those website don't show anything successful or even sustaining for any length of time.

Quoted from HeighwayPinball:

To you, sorry - no, I'm not going to explain my life story.

Quoted from Mr68:

That's your prerogative but it's more than just me you'd be explaining to. I'm not the only one with concerns here. And I think these unanswered questions will linger for you and create doubt. What a pity.

Quoted from PinballRulez:

Let it go, you got answers. It was just not what you wanted to hear, not enough drama for you

Quoted from Travish:

Down vote me if you want but I think $h!t stirring will create doubt. It's not like they are asking for full payment up front. They are shipping games for pete's sake.

Quoted from way2wyrd:

Its real, its being made and its coming fast and IMHO you are just here stirring the pot for some unknown agenda

Quoted from Whysnow:

why the witch hunt all of a sudden Kim?

Quoted from Aurich:

Kim, grow up. Tell me to my face if you have problems, it's pathetic to go around trying to trash talk me on a forum, you're just making yourself look bad. And trying to drag a pinball company down is just low.

Quoted from CheapTrick33:

Mr.68 I'm know talking directly to you...what's your problem? Not enough hugs as a child? You come into this thread, take a verbal dump in the middle of it and wonder why people are not happy???

Quoted from nman:

Seriously though, Andrew, don't waste your time responding to this kind of crap. Go get Alien ready to show!

Quoted from OLDPINGUY:

Id trust Andrew to run any Business I had the opportunity to be involved in.

Quoted from Mr68:

In my opinion, Alien will be successfully made and delivered. It's the long term viability of the company that should concern people.

12
#21458 5 years ago

As I said, hindsight makes things clearer and I do encourage you to read the posts in full to get a better understanding of the general mood at that time, rather than my selective editing. Also try to note the upvotes/downvotes before it gets too skewed from people re-reading the posts.

Andy is a bullshit artist and managed to pull the wool over many peoples eyes, so you can't really blame people for being 'enthusiastic' and ignoring the warning signs. But at the same time people shouldn't be accused of having a 'hidden agenda', 'being just a disgruntled ex-employee' or 'being part of a witchhunt' when they are simply providing evidence that all is not as it may seem. I hope members of the forum bear this in mind in the future.

17
#21462 5 years ago
Quoted from Mr68:

Posting this list makes me feel very awkward and I don't feel it's necessary at all.

Let me clear up a few things:

1. I'm not 'calling out' anyone in particular or trying to shame people, that chain of comments would still read fine if it was totally anonymous. My intent is to highlight the behaviour we've seen on Pinside at least 3 times now, where people are speaking up and being shouted down. This needs to stop. This is why I feel it's necessary to glance back on what happened, to make sure it doesn't happen a 4th time.

2. You shouldn't feel awkward about it, you should be championed as you stood by what you said. Personally I experienced the same backlash and retreated from pinball entirely due to what happen when I spoke out. I'm sure there are others reading this who had a similar experience. You shouldn't have to feel shame because you were trying to protect a fellow pinhead.

3. That post was not meant to be a 'told you so'. As I've said multiple times now, hindsight is always 20/20. People change and learn from their mistakes and that's a good thing. Yes it can be painful to read what you wrote a year ago and I do agree we shouldn't wallow in the past, but sometimes to move forward you need to look back a little bit, to see what new direction you should take.

#21532 5 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

Bullshit. Your intent is clear, esp since you opted to edit many of those quotes to your liking.

Quoted from Whysnow:

Many of the quotes said entirely different things before he edited them down.

I think it's quite amusing that you are trying to give me shit about pulling quotes out of context, when you yourself failed to notice the times I said this:

Quoted from Sonny_Jim:

Note I have edited this for brevity, I encourage you to click on the link below to read the posts in full:

Quoted from Sonny_Jim:

I do encourage you to read the posts in full to get a better understanding of the general mood at that time, rather than my selective editing.

We all make mistakes, but how about you actually listen to valid criticism rather than trying to make a pariah out of anyone who says anything bad about the thing you like. Shit, you are still trying to do it now.

#21601 5 years ago
Quoted from RyanStl:

Why is it when this shit goes down with rotten companies it comes down to Lord of the Flies with fellow Pinsiders?

Because people are pissed off about being lied to and having lost money, the culprits usually run off, so that anger gets turned inwards towards members of the pinball community. Like I said, this is the 3rd (maybe 4th?) time this exact scenario has played out, so maybe in the future it'll be different. Let's have a little less cheerleading and a bit more critical thinking.

It's interesting to note that the whole 'transparent screen' debacle wasn't mentioned in that TWIP article. That was another example of multiple people, with a technological background, being paid by Andy to provide technical advice being completely ignored and money being flushed down the drain. Andy didn't like it if you said 'No' to him, even if you had very good reason to do so.

15
#21605 5 years ago
Quoted from Astropin:

And I think that's bullshit. You lose money you can blame yourself

And the cycle continues.

Quoted from RTS:

It is beyond ridiculous to blame any random idiot on Pinside who stupidly, blindly, ridiculously cheered on HP.

For what it's worth, I agree with you. But when people are pointing out obvious issues they shouldn't be hounded and downvoted into oblivion because the cheerleaders didn't like to hear it.

1 week later
#21984 5 years ago

Her Majestys Revenue and Customs AKA The Taxman

#22038 5 years ago

It all depends really, I would have thought Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper wouldn't sell at all, but Spooky made the right choice to start small and sell in 50-100 quantities, rather than saying '200 per month'.

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