Totally Excited!

Although I am not a "downpayment" member yet, I definitely plan to buy a custom standard - will add the power-loader lights on top of mine. Now that it's clear there will be 2 LCDs on/in the PF, no need to upgrade to the big one in the backbox to me.

This is looking to be a major release. Wishing the Heighway Team huge success on this one!

This feels like a comfy space for lovers of pinball and all things Alien/Aliens. I like the 3rd screen too.

Gave me the idea to look for quotes from the movie. One I liked:
"Ash: I think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie."

Yeah, i have a bunch of the various "tweaks" posts saved so I can probably just repost them her later tonight when i have a sec if people think that would be helpful.

On the ones we got here,we did a couple of things right out of the box.

1 level the play field LCD plastic
2 Flush up the magnet.
3 Check end of stroke on flippers.
4 Check all connections.

Day two at the show we added mylar in front of the airlock,Hello Cliffy
Mine shows wear already,good chipping.
Needed to bend the scoop back a bit.
Around the magnet is lifting the art a bit,it has factory mylar there already.
Check all fasteners underneath the play field.
Changed out the plastic washers on one game,switch over ramp keeps coming off.
Plastic washers were only good for one time use.

Set the pitch a little higher then normal,better feel to the shots I think.
We had them set up at 6.5 for the show,felt a little slow.

Love the shots on this game when you hit them,upper left flipper to upper right flipper to ramp.
Back to lower left.
Or upper orbit to lower right flipper.

One of my Summer goals is to finally play one...

Going to move over to this thread since the other one is mainly about delivery timelines. A few tips for guys getting their games, stuff I've had to tweak:

-First of course mylar on the airlock - a must, also optional on mother in front of the invert ramp and an bit in the shooter lane
-some switch tweaks as necessary
-game plays great at 6.8 degrees
-check the tightness of all the screws for the flipper mechs Ive had a few fall out, and am missing a few.
-check level of the screen and mag, again a screw fell out of my screen, no big deal but if I wasnt checking it would have been
-all but one flipper mech EOS switches were stuck closed, no big deal (apparently the game may not use them yet)
-bend down the switch arms on your spinners, mine were super stiff and slowed the ball, now very fast! (Just make sure to be in your switch matrix to see that they still register)
-Two of my eddy switches were NFG (one wouldnt register at all on the chestbuster shot, and the other on the yutani lane is 50/50) so check all of yours to make sure the shots your making are registering! Love not having switches though.
-plastic washers replaced as so:

z1.jpg

Ball guide on right orbit needed to be bent back, the end was sticking out and when you hit the left orbit it would nail the end and slow it down (yes I managed to accidentally break a plastic while adjusting, hopefully Highway can sell me another ):

z2.jpg

Chestburster shot, hard shot, you may need to adjust the guide to hit it properly - and this one you can set to easy or hard (just eddy switch or eddy then standup to clear the shot) your call.

z3.jpg

Also approx every 1/4 shots on the left ramp instead of going down the Weyland lane, bounces out I think its hitting the stainless lane guide but need to watch it more carefully to figure out a solution.

z9.jpg

Hopefully my Xeno head comes soon, but so far a really great game, great sounds give it a great ambiance - the game reminds me of playing IJ-TPA for some reason but better, great theme integration and shots and sound and art. I have great plans for future powder coat, and do want to put some beacons on. Thanks guys for all the hard work you put into this game!

z5.jpg

OK DIY Beacons - coming soon!

The ones used from the factory are these: order 12v in the colour of your choice (I could see all looking sweet, I ordered yellow, but was actually really tempted by green...)

ebay.com link: itm

Youll also need some molex pins so you can pop in in the wireing harness and disconnect when you take the head off, I bought these since they have a connector also in case I ordered the wrong size but it appears to be .063

ebay.com link: itm

I also ordered some LED lamps for the beacons, I didnt have any 'tower' style ones in the tickle trunk

http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/8smdg18tower.htm

Youll also need two rubber grommets for the holes in the metal for the wire, some heat shrink and some wire and solder. Also a can of black spray paint in your choice of gloss.

I'll post some install pics in a month or so once everything arrives (parts come from china and usually take 2-6weeks) The only other part we may need is a power relay but I doubt it - I have to check the max current for the transistor used, the beacons should draw 1.6A each/3.2A total.

Also - this is honestly the first game I've ever considered hooking a sub upto, the speakers are already very good, and having a separate amplifier sounds much better than the ones EG stern puts on their boards.

I have one of these for my main home theater (have kids so it doesnt have to be super loud) very nice and small and sounds great, going to order another just to hook upto this game!

http://www.visions.ca/Catalogue/Category/Details.aspx?categoryId=162&productId=581&sku=PSW111

I'm in.

And I solved the problem of the ball not going in the return lane 100% from the ramp. The ramp exit hole is a teardrop shape. It is so big, the ball comes out at and angle rather than a drop and rattles out sometimes. My fix is gonna sound cheap and stupid, but it has worked 100%. I cut some thick black cardboard from my gopro box and used black electrical tape to tape it to the underside of the ramp. It is just enough to cover the 'tear' part of The hole, making it smaller. The ball now drops into the lane perfectly every time.

Thats awsome, thanks, post a pic if you have a chance just to eyeball the size.

Anyone have a favorite mode?

More pics!

Here are a few

IMG_2925 (resized).JPG

IMG_2928 (resized).JPG

IMG_2927 (resized).JPG

Congrats Man!!
Welcome to the Club!
Now go play the hell out of it lol

Here's the best I could get.

IMG_2326 (resized).JPG

Here are the tweaks I did on my very early production Alien: (re-posting from official thread)

1) Playfield LCD - You MUST make sure the LCD is level in the playfield, as you risk playfield chipping on that edge if it is not. The issue I had was despite making the adjustment (just four screws holding the LCD), it would not hold it's position. After 20 or so plays, I'd lift the playfield, and one of the LCD mounting screws would have fallen out into the bottom of the cabinet. The easy fix was to use small lock-washers between the playfield and the LCD mounting bracket. My LCD has been level and stable since.

2) Pops and slings - As with any new machine, you will want to gap the leaf switches for the pops and slings.

3) Airlock scoop - This is a very important shot in the game, as it starts all of the modes. Mine was firing SDTM more than 50% of the time - not fun. There are several ways to adjust a scoop. I loosened the mounting screws and tried to 'twist' slightly - but there really wasn't much room to adjust, so I went overkill - removed the mech and used a drill to slightly enlarge the mounting holes. That gave it enough play to adjust the trajectory of the ball.

4) Shooter lane ball kickout - About 10% of the time, my game had some trouble getting the ball into the shooter lane. I found that the lane protector (mounted on the shooter lane with two screws) was slightly overhanging the ball trough launch. I didn't want to try re-mounting it farther back fearing I could mess up the shooter lane. Instead, I removed the protector and tested that indeed it was the issue. I then took a dremel and ground it down just a bit to remove the little bit that was overhanging. Re-mounted it, and haven't had an issue since.

5) Upper rt flipper - was not returning to rest position 100%. I installed a slightly stronger spring - fixed.

6) Playfield switches - My top rollover lanes were not registering. This was because one of the PCP's was not mounted completely flush to the playfield. The proximity switches that are under the playfield need to be completely inside their mounting holes. Tightened everything up - easy fix.

7) Ramp feeds to inlanes - I made a tweak to almost completely eliminate the frustrating 'ball hopping out' when it should feed cleanly from the ramp to the in-lane. The ramp exit hole is a teardrop shape. It is so big, the ball comes out at and angle rather than a drop and rattles out sometimes. My fix is gonna sound cheap and stupid, but it has worked 100%. I cut some thick black cardboard from my gopro box and used black electrical tape to tape it to the underside of the ramp. It is just enough to cover the 'tear' part of The hole, making it smaller.

8 ) Leveled the machine. Yep - that helps.

9) Mylar around the airlock scoop

10) Xeno mech - currently disabled...waiting on new Xeno mech/board.

have a photo of this? Id like to see

great write up BTW!

thanks for the pic, have to rig something up - stop the bounces!

Thanks. Here's a few pics from my shooter lane fix.

IMG_3353 (resized).JPG
IMG_3354 (resized).JPG
IMG_3356 (resized).JPG
IMG_3357 (resized).JPG
IMG_3360 (resized).JPG

thanks!

Giving this idea some more thought, I'm probably going to go with just one beacon. I think I'm going to tie it in to the airlock scoop. My game room is full of other light sources and I'm afraid the beacon running full time will be too much. Watching game play videos, the ball spends plenty of time in the scoop for 5-10 seconds at a time. Tied to the scoop the beacon would light up to coincide with the alert tone and MU/TH/UR's callouts. Since the game lacks flashers a somewhat interactive beacon light could be a cool addition.

On a different note, I have it in my mind to design a topper that looks like a P-5000 loader. I envision a single beacon on top with a little PVC pipe painted yellow to simulate the top of the protective cage. Maybe a graphic or something that extends down the sides of the backbox, which are bare an unadorned as shipped. Just thinking...

20170525_235006 (resized).jpg

Ok so beacon V1

Low profile, I ordered these ones because they are smaller and would look better (once installed) than the tall ones, they strobe off and on in approx 1s intervals look nice.

(not installed but just testing the look for anyone interested)
f1 (resized).jpg
f2 (resized).jpg

Also hooked a sub up to the game - awesome, highly recommended!
f3 (resized).jpg

That looks pretty great. Might look into some like that myself when (if? ) i get my game. Was thinking about downgrading my le to a standard anyhow.

Very cool! Can you tell us what voltage is used for the beacons? Did you use an existing wire designed for the beacons or did you have to tap in somewhere?

For sure, 12v, and yes it ties into the wiring harness for the head so it can be connected/disconnected with head removal, I havent gotten the molex pins yet but will let everyone know the size and pin numbers on the connector once I have it all installed and confirmed.

I'm getting a set of full size beacons as well, see which I prefer before I install.

The low profile are these ones if your interested:
ebay.com link: itm

To follow this up with some install pics to help guys out you can see where I drilled, routed the wire and then attached to the molex connector.
b1.jpgb2.jpgb3.jpg
Added over 6 years ago: For reference you will need to swap the screws in the bottom of the beacons to 35mm ones of the same size/thread (dont remember if they were M4 etc but are metric)

Added over 6 years ago: Also you need to paint the bases and solder on longer wire.

So those connection posts should go to brown (from purple and white) and yellow and brown (from solid purple) on the female? I am trying a multimeter and getting nothing in the lamp test. With brown being positive? or did you reverse your stripe sequence?

Which lamp test works the beacons I don't want to assume anything

Yes you got it right, it will be in the coil tests as beacon topper, however it only pulses - best to test it right when the game boots (and every once in a while after) it will run for approx 5 sec.

Any ideas why a solid Brown is a positive in the wiring on Heighway's side? Is this a standard thing in this machine?

it can be positive, but its not your hot, the yellow wire is your hot and the brown wires are your transistors to ground

How'd you figure out which pins? Lucky guess, trial and error? Were the holes on top pre-stamped but not drilled yet? Looks awesome and the taller ones look the best! Thx!

Curious too, with how you have them wired how frequently do the beacons come on during game play? Lots, little, every game, some games? Thx?

On Power up then cycle for a while
On Attract the cycle when going through the videos on the first part
On Loader Battle
Haven't hit the all out war or self destruct in a while I'll have to watch for it

I read somewhere else they are coding for them to come on more.
They really aren't overwhelming and are not over done.

I was having trouble with bad ball launches and I just removed that plate altogether (insert Airplane! joke here).

It seems to be working a lot better. You can kind of see how this plate pushes the ball to the right slightly in your picture. I'll update if I am still having problems with it. I may dremel it down on both sides and see if that works.

Also my plunger doesn't look like yours I wonder does that tan head on it came off? Mine just has a plastic pin not like yours

IMG_0814 (resized).JPG

They are not pre-drilled or pre-stamped. However, he did such a good job it looks like it! Mine looks like garbage, but it's under the beacons so who cares.

I just wrote on the three screws which hang out of the bottom of the beacon with a sharpie and pressed down a piece of paper. This makes a nice template to use for drilling. You are going to need a cobalt bit as that metal is solid stuff.

Awesome, Thanks! Still patiently waiting for mine...

Awesome, thanks for the template tip!

FYI,

A nameless benefactor has shown me the way in regards to upgrading the audio without going full power subwoofer -> LP-168HA.

Huge difference. I also changed out the speaker on his guidance.

Had to modify the shooter lane on our Alien too. ball would hang up on the gap. "mind the gap" type thing. did it differently than above though. added a piece of plastic to the ball arch to fix that problem.

So how do i get an Alien head??? We've had this game for some time, and it arrived with no head. Been emailing them, and it largely goes ignored. Occasionally they say they'll ship it, but of course it never comes. Any ideas on this??? thanks!
[email protected] (direct email best)

lol, nameless. Hey I got a name! You can get the amp at Parts Express for like $29. It's the same one that Spooky uses in RZ. Also already had a cheap $10 Eminence woofer which sounds better than the stock Lanzar too. $40 well spent!

I ain't no snitch. Snitches get stitches.

Can you snap a pic of this?

Oh, I'd like to know more. Is this a drop-in replacement for whatever ships with the pin? Sound like it has a single speaker? Are you planning to ad any sub? Post some pics as you make progress
Thanks!

Dropped it in already. screw holes diff. just nailed one of them down as it isn't going anywhere.