Hey I'm glad I found this thread as I was just about to post a Heighway bash thread..

Sorry, but these guys are a F______ joke. I have been trying to get parts for my FT from both Helmut and Morgan with nothing but empty promises about when they will get back to me etc..

The worst part? This started in MAY of 2017!!! So yeah.. *8* months and I *still* haven't gotten any parts information or pricing!

And of course since there are NO manuals I can't even look up a part number on my own. I have to depend on them to get the right part. Assuming they even respond to their emails.

Just ridiculous. Plain and simple.

So, I would really really like to elevate this beyond Morgan or Helmut. Anyone know who I can contact above them to try to get some parts?

Thanks.

Buying this game has been a real regret for me. These guys *have* to know they are losing out on potential sales and customers because of the woeful support. If not then they are completely clueless.

I am halfway tempted to take a big loss, fire sale this thing off and be done with this company.

So frustrated.

At least you *can* play yours. Mine is basically a big pretty box to look at right now.

I bought mine used. The game is fun and the theme is right up my alley being a former motorcycle road racer. But the parts support is really making me regret the purchase.

At this point, I don't think I could recommend any Heighway product with a straight face.

Edit: Forgot to say that if some way some how HP gets their &*it together and starts to support their products then I might be willing to follow through on the original plan I had to purchase an Alien kit to put in my FT cabinet.

They are? Congratulations to those who have managed to get parts.

I've been trying to get parts for my FT since May of 2017. Doesn't sound like help to me.

Right.. Which is why I have switched from being nice and patient to complaining on the forums every chance I get.

It's really ridiculous. If you can't - or won't - support existing customers how do you expect to generate further sales?

You're probably right. I only have 2 of their email addresses. Helmut's and Morgan's and I am getting ignored on both. Do you have other addresses you can PM me?

The problem with bombarding their FB page is it's easy for them to block me, so it doesn't do much good unfortunately.

Too bad I don't have a good friend living near them. It's a LOT harder to ignore people who are there in person.

That's next.....

If only that were the case... :/

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.

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!

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

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.

So now that Heighway's status is "stick a fork in them" I wonder what the chances are of Ferret or "someone" releasing FT code that's been ported to run on a PC instead of the failure prone Utilite?

Isn't that what the I/O boards are for? The Utilite is just a small form factor ARM processor based PC running Ubuntu..

JJP machines run PC hardware also with an I/O board.

So really FT software could be ported to run on i386 architecture running Ubuntu as the OS. The issue is getting the source code in order to make it happen.

I understand there are legal ramifications regarding the code on these games. I'm hoping that something can be done since the Utilite's are prone to failure and NLA.

Hopefully the new owners of Heighway's IP will allow some work on this front and even possibly game updates. All HP games are basically orphans at this point, but especially FT.

Another suggestion on this note. Granted this is rare and likely not the issue, but it doesn't hurt to check as I have run into this once before with a flipper blowing a fuse. It's possible the coil didn't get enough windings when it was manufactured or it was mis-labeled (my case) so it's impedance is lower, causing it to draw more current. With the game off, measure the power and hold coil resistance on the suspect coil and compare to the rest of the flipper coils in the game. If you find the resistance is the same or very close then all is well. I would also check to see how hot the coil is versus the rest immediately after the flipper stops working.

Any more information on this? Would love to have a pathway to replace the Utilite.

Thanks!