If only that were the case... :/

Look at that facebook rant where they sent that guy part(s) to your country and it got lost in transition and the customer discredits heighway to the fullest on facebook. A two front war (his post and facebook).

In their shoes this guy wont get his head before I get mine. So he wont.

...couldn't agree more. I've had my FT NIB for just under a year...great game. I think I'll weather the storm and wait on baited breath for the new regime to resurrect this already great game with some much needed video and audio upgrades. So, what I'm saying is, yes, I think for the money it's hard to beat the value for this game. Jersey Jack machines don't offer much more bling or playability for a hell of a lot more money.

A friend has a more or less proto Alien (was one of the last units produced when Andrew was still in command) which is having issues. He has already replaced the playfield and so but he is no longer in the mood to work on it. Tired of it.

So it’s now staying temporarily with another friend very close to me (don’t have any more room myself) and he asked me to update it and see if I can test it and see if I can get it working close to 100%. It’s dropped of today, haven’t inspected it yet.

First matter is to update the software. Apparently 0.96 is on it (last update was done like oct 2017). How to get it updated to 1.10? Website says update only possible if first 1.00 is on the machine so how to get 1.00 on it?

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The reason for the can’t-update-Pre-1.0 prohibition is that some game hardware changed between early games and production, and the post 1.0 software doesn’t drive the old hardware correctly. So work with Helmut at Heighway to get the required production hardware for the game, and current software will come along with it.

A new hardware play field plus PC was installed start November 2017. Don’t know how current that is. Already reached out to Helmut but no response yet. He knows this game as it was on DPO same booth as his.

Sorry, I’ll have to defer this one to Helmut, since I don’t know exactly what you’ve got... I’m really at a loss to understand how you could have code 0.96 on a current CPU and playfield. (And Nov 2017 should certainly be current for both.)

I am not thankful for a damn thing related to this game and company, constant BS, excuses and lies and I am sitting here waiting for a game when I was one of their first orders in the door. So congrats on getting yours together and honestly glad I'm not their test case on early game with multiple problems like you have had to deal with, that would be worse to me than anything. Cointaker is awesome as always and good you get to deal with them but unfortunately I can't, I am stuck with the faint hope of Heighway and new team getting their heads out of their collective asses and getting people reliable games that have had money in and been waiting for 3 1/2 years like myself.

So had a look at the alien today. The pin was at rel 102 so an update to 110 including IO boards update was easy.

Than with help of Helmut and some spare leds fixed the broken leds. If you know it’s easy to do, would recommend alien owners to stock up on these. Had three broken ones which also take out the leds further in the string. Than also had to fix wire issues at the back of the sound amplifier. Man, that is crappy stuff those connectors there.

So now up and running and ready for testing. For sure more will pop up but for the moment we can enjoy playing it

One question for owners, had a xeno Multiball starting where the ball went so fast that the magnet didn’t grab it and than the tongue remained out during the rest of the multoball. Is that normal? All other plays it was fine.

Should be fixed in 1.2, currently in testing.

Did some more alien testing tonight and we had for the second time the following

Balls goes into scoop and isn’t detected. During ballsearch it comes out of scoop, reshoot scoop and not seen again. Than you activate service menu and have a look at the active switches, it isn’t there as expected. Now comes the strange part. If you go in switch edge test mode you can trigger it. Go back to active mode, not seen again. Switch system off on and scoop works again. Softwarebug?

What isn’t a softwarebug it that I could add my name in the ranking, number 3

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Rensh
There's a known bug where switches with lots of bounce can get in an inverted state which results in what you describe. The dev guys are aware of it, i'm sure a fix will be in the next rev.
If you get a log of it, send it to [email protected]

Yeah, the weird inverted switch glitch is (we hope) fixed in v1.2, which should be coming along soon.

So. Had a stretch of 5 hours alien being played. Tough work but someone has to do it

It brought to light that from the factory the switch in the right ‘ramp’ was mounted on the wrong site of the bracket thus the ball on the wire form rarely touched it. Easy fix.

Also twice we had what appeared to be a multiball with more balls (up to 6 I think) which lasted some time and than stopped and drained all balls and next player was on. It this a special mode or are we looking here at an (software)issue ?

For the rest it played fine without issues.

Flaky switch behavior is not restricted to airlock scoop alone. Had it today in mystery scoop. Switch pin off on and worked again

Hope release 1.20 comes quickly

Is release 1.2 supposed to fix the flaky switch in airlock issue? Didn't realize that specific situation was related to the inverted switch being addressed. Sounds like it is though, so waiting for code to drop.

Coming soon!

So. Testing moves along. What is happening quite frequently is that the pin freezes during startup. See below picture. Only solution is off on and than it usually boots normal.

Also yesterday have a blown main fuse in the 70V circuit (6.3A slow). Switched with another fuse (the top one on the array of 70V fuses) as I didn’t have correct fuses lying around. Everything seems to work OK now, apparently a fuse of a not used circuit? Only fuses I have lying around are 6.3A fast, 5 and 8A slow. Will try the 5A slow at first, than 6.3 fast as only worse what can happen it blows to early. Putting in 8A can cause damage. Any suggestion otherwise (besides getting proper fuse..)?

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This is on my queue to fix in a future code update.

I am really glad to hear you are getting taken care of by CT.

Personally, I *still* cannot get HP to even answer my emails regarding parts and support for my FT. I have owned the game for 11 months and I can't get any parts.. That is seriously messed up.

Posting here because title says full throttle/alien support. Does anyone know if Heighway sells replacement plastics for full throttle? I have a plastic over a ramp entrance that cracked from an air ball. Super glued it but it didn't hold and broke again. Thanks.

I hope you have better luck than I have had. My experience so far is that after owning a FT for 11 months I can't even get them to answer emails about parts, let alone actually purchasing and having them shipped.

I swear if I was going to the UK for any reason whatsoever I'd be seriously tempted to pay HP a visit in person.

Sorry, didn't mean to rain on your parade. I'm genuinely happy you got your Alien issues (mostly) resolved.

Unfortunately, at this point I think HP is having enough trouble just trying to get Alien bugs worked out, parts shipped, games made, etc. Right now, in the state the company is in, I don't think they could care less about issues FT owners are having. At least my game boots up and plays. I have read other posts about FTs that are dead.

I'd be tempted to sell my game and be done with HP but I suspect I'd be lucky to get 50 cents on the dollar for it. Besides, I really do like the game and I have fun playing it. I'm just afraid to play it much in case it breaks.

Hey! Maybe HP has seen my bitching and moaning and has blacklisted me!

We had a .094 software and worked 100% then updated to latest code and weird stuff going on, Io boards drop out, continuous multiball , games terminating during play etc

Who is working on this software, airlock should kick ball out quicker

It doesn't make it any better at all. Sorry to hear you are in the same boat I'm in.

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HP sells *nothing* for FT...

Go ahead, email them looking for parts. If you get answer please let us all know.

That's kind of the rub isn't it? In order to have parts to sell you must have money to buy the parts to put into inventory. As it is, I suspect every part HW buys right now is going into Alien production or updates to Alien customers with machines that don't work right.

It's unfortunate as I would be willing to dump some more $$ down that rabbit hole called Full Throttle.

Why?

Cause I actually enjoy the game and it's fun. Plus the theme is right up my alley.

As it is I rarely play the game because I'm afraid that *this* is the time I switch it on and something breaks that I can't get a replacement part for. Now THAT is sad.

Well, maybe this...... Most people know they are getting machines that will probably have some kind of trouble. CT can tell Heighway they will take the machines COD. They can also tell their customers they take machines "as is"..... Just a thought....

This is a sad day. Been patiently sitting back while the guys at Heighway had a chance to rebuild. Helmut leaving and CT suspending orders is not what I hoped I would be reading. Starting to look like I'm going to take a serious hit on my FT someday when I want to move it...bearing I never need any parts. Ugh

Company is doomed - CT should have done this ages ago.

As it is the support thread. Playing Alien tonight and for the second time in 2 weeks the 50VAC 6.3AT fuse blew with no apparent reason.

Replaced it this time with a 8AT fuse as I had none other lying around. Anyone else experience the same? Is it under fused perhaps ?

the one we have in London its doing that. put lower fuses in the other slots in the hope one of those blues so fault can be traced.

If any of you are having issues with the Xeno mouth opening/closing as I did. Here is the part to order. A 5 pack is pretty cheap, or if you are not in a hurry a single unit is even cheaper.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B015H5AVZG/ref=yo_ii_img

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Having problems with the left flipper losing power. Sent the logs to Brian but no word back yet. Also broke the launch wireform and have yet to hear back about a replacement, but it has only been 2 days.

Well didn't manage to get our game fixed before Helmet left... was getting some decent continuous support from him. Fuses keep blowing on new io-boards. Gone back to old io boards (old Software - and can't be updated on these) the game no longer blows fuse. Anyone have any idea what this could mean? Helmut had tested and installed latest software on the new IO boards, before sending out.

Even on the old boards and SW, the first ball of every game won't be shot onto playfield via shooter lane coil. Game has to manually do it after going through checks.

Anyone know what could be causing this - the shooter lane coil definitely works - ball 2 and 3 works 100% of the time, just ball 1 has the problem. It's like it almost seems to forget to eject once the launch button is pressed.

We're obviously quite a bit more worried now Helmut has left and can see us never getting FT working properly and updated to latest ver. any help is appreciated.

Have you checked your I/O board for the "error" light when the flipper goes week? Are the dip switches in the correct spot? I had something similar and it turned out they had the dip switches wrong from the factory. Once I adjusted them I never had the issue again.

How do I know they are correct? Is there a manual somewhere I don't know about?

Think I found the problem both flipper switch stacks were loose, no pressure plate on either. The left was so loose it was barely making contact. Think I'm going through the whole game and making sure everything is tight.