You need to think outside the box a little, no playfield lcd is no major lose, the ammo count inserts are actually a pretty good idea and on sentry gun modes those inserts could be great! Plus the lcd in the playfield was only mirrored from the backbox, put the motion tracker in the apron and you have the best of both worlds maybe even an improvement? No one can say that for certain until it actually gets build and hands are on it though.

Airlock frame is a non issue, old users and new users can and will have it, no one looses out there.

Traditional cabinets would be a good idea and would surely keep costs down compared to a bespoke cabinet.

Either way there’s a good amount of original aliens out there, if the new one does get made WITHOUT any pinheads pre order money (pinball bros you gotto get this one out the door yourselves!) and it brings a revised Alien to the market there will be old owners who want the newer version, freeing up original alien games, hopefully a win win for everyone interested in an alien original or new. Endgame, more pins is never a bad thing.

I would kind of miss the playfield screen a bit - hopefully they will implement it in the apron then, so that we could have the radar there.

I wonder if they have changed the build of the facehuggers - didn’t the original ones have tails that would break off?

The hydrofoil company seems to be doing well.

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The answer to this forum appears to be Yes...

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Wow, that's an interesting twist and at least they are supposedly going to try to do something to help those that got burned, 50% is a lot better than nothing. I've only played this game once and will reserve judgement until I see and get to play this relaunced version but I think the loss of the in-screen monitor will be significant. Maybe they can contract the pinbar from DeepRoot and put the tracker on it.

Certainly is better than nothing. The game is exceptional, I hope they can pull it off.

Is there any idea on when the remake may see the light of day?

2122.

2 more weeks! Oh wait that was a different company...

If this new iteration works out, I'm in.
I got to play Alien at 2017 TPF and Lodi 2018.
To me it's the best theme integration until R&M.
Good luck Pinball Brothers.
And offering the 50% voucher to those who got left out, is a great move.

Cheers.

Message from the Freeeek Kingdom.

Given the current 25% tariff being imposed in Europe for pinball machines made in the US, there might be even more demand in Europe for this game if PB can get it right.

This is good news. I've played the alien pin and although a bit chunky in some aspects (the ball got stuck several times on its way to the shooter lane for example) but the theme/mood were great. Hope this version actually gets out and is as fun as the old one.

I have played Alien a few times but not enough to form an opinion, how is the shots/layout and code?

How much it was the price back in 2017?

They’re not even taking preorders and they’re gonna actually work with those who lost money! That’s fantastic work and I’m glad they’re doing something they have ZERO legal obligation to do, but something that is morally right (and looks great for PR)

LMAOOOOO so ya gonna forward me a Benjamin now? Cry some more!

I held my tongue and now PB is delivering. Too easy Levi BAHAHAHA!

Paging iceman44

Why would a company with no customers that actively distances itself from another company offer a voucher to another company’s customers?

Goodwill which does couple things:
1. Puts out a good vibe to the pinball community - so there is no dark cloud over them because of Highway - smart move
2. Allows them to put at bay any thoughts of a law suit (if it was possible for game content) - another smart move

These guys are thinking....let's see if they can execute now. Like what I see / hear so far - time will tell.

Another startup pinball company in a bit of different circumstances - however, is playing is smart is Dutch Pinball with Big Lebowski. Trying to make the EA's whole over time is smart if they want longevity in the industry. Oh yeah - another great theme integrated pinball game. What these companies both have in common is a good-great pinball machine to start with - with great theme integration. However.....Deeproot....not so sure about RAZA.

Why? Do you have one? No? Hmm. Until they are coming off the line....nothing changes. But congrats on your slow year win I guess?

If this is an "open" offer, ie: no forced deadline to make you decide on something that doesn't exist yet, I think this is a great goodwill offer to clear some of the bad juju around this game.

To compare to how it shouldn't be done: Deeproot's offer for the zidware customers ENDED in 2018. They made you sign a wall of legal text before they showed anything, or you get nothing. Most people chose nothing, because of the forced nature of it.

edit: Just saw that they want people to apply by Feb 2021, redeem by 2023. My suggestion to PB is to extend the initial application process. Not sure why the need to abruptly end it, if their intention is to create goodwill and not a "hand washing" gesture.

It's a cool pin so this is good news. I've actually played Hilton's a good deal when he had it on location. So here's my thoughts on things I'd expect/hope to see:

1) No more modular cabinet. Nobody wants this, plus it adds cost and makes game look worse.

2) Alien grabber jaw that works AND is easy to qualify. Like one two three bashes, ball gets grabbed.

3) Do something with the screen in the back. It's right above a scoop so it should indicate what next scoop shot does. Else get rid of it. Right now it has a static graphic, wasteful.

4) Get rid of PF screen. Personally I never even noticed it.

5) Pull a TBL and raise the price to help cover early adopters.

same scamming thieves making it?

a guy who is owed a ton of money from these crooks on another forum put it like this:

"We robbed your house but you can buy it back for 50%"

just think how you'll be treated if you are mental enough to buy one of these games and you have a problem?

pinball the hobby that just loves the sucker punch.

Biggest problem imo is going to be having any confidence that they’re going to stand behind it, or even exist for long enough for owners to maintain it. It’s been noted on the UK forum that their latest accounts show them being £1 million in the red.

How is this goodwill? They’re not the same company. They don’t owe anyone anything, right?

I think this is the ultimate corporate goodwill. The path thus game took to market, the people that were ripped off, promises made etc. offering a discount is something you would expect from chick fil a or a company for the 50s before everything for so bottom line

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Good to see them acknowledge it.. but now let's hear their actual plan...

Step 1: Social Media Hype
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!

Anyway, I'm beginning to think that so many people have been skeptical that they are rethinking their strategy, which is good.

I just hope it isn't a 9k game that delivers half of what the original has.

How long has it been? I think almost 2 yrs now since I said this redo was coming

Lost a couple of bets on poor timing. Thx PB!

It’s a great game. Best sound and immersion of any pin I have. David Thiel

Code is fantastic and now improved upon

The price? I heard in the $11-12k range a while back

that's pretty steep. I think they need to be around $7500... probably a hard-ish sell to get rolling, and much harder if it's nearing 10k

They saw how much $$ Deeproot had to -actually- pay out at the end of the day. ?

Through the rumor mill I heard less but I guess we won’t know until it’s released. It would be cool if they did a Standard and LE of this as well. Perhaps a future run with the LCD back in the playfield. My LE has the feel of a high end pin, at least at the level of JJP LEs at $9500. I prefer it over the the JJP LEs actually. Feels closer to the CE level imo, but we will have to see how it all goes down. Will it have EL side and back art? Quality sound? Shaker, etc? I’m guessing $10k, but Lebowski is moving at the level of JJP CEs, so this is just speculation.

I don’t see how. They see Stern LEs going for $9500 and JJP CEs and TBL’s go for $12,500

This game, with everything in it, unless they strip it way down, is gonna end up in that range

And I predict people will line up to buy it once they prove the ability to produce them

I love The EL side art and pf monitor.

They don’t make it into the final version I think but they better get that sound and immersion right!

Getting to the proving their ability part is why.. if they can get there, then yes, they'll get the lines with fists of cash.

How come Alien is rated so low on the top100 list?

Probably because so few people have actually played one...

Or played early Standards on location that had technical problems.

It might not be the same person at the helm, but the financial partners (who took over late in the game and made Andrew step down) weren't able to get things to work after a period of time. So they decided to dissolve the company and bought the assets to make new one. At least that's what I remember happening, please let me know if I'm wrong. They were in charge when I asked for my refund, which never came. Luckily I only had a deposit in, I would of been pretty pissed if I lost 8500 or whatever it was.

If it's brand new people with no affiliation to the old company, I wouldn't expect them to refund anything either. Andrew obviously made a lot of bad decisions, but it's not like he was the only one with power (there is blame to go round).

It absolutely does indicate what the next scoop shot does, nothing if it's the closed door of course, but when lit it has the mode title written large with a bouncing down arrow above the scoop. What more could you want?

The only time it has the static door on there is when it is unlit in regular play, the rest of the time (when lit for mode, or during mode) it displays useful information, including time remaining in timed modes, and which weapon is in your hand (since this isn't on main screen while in modes). It certainly isn't wasteful with the current code, in fact it works very well imho.

Glad to read that PB really try to bring the ALIEN up again.
I just hope that all the ALIEN owners with the first "real" ALIEN will have support for assemblies, PCBs, software and all that wear and tear?
Still the game is not finished at all.
Even though, Brian did a very good job on the code with the last updates, but there's video sequences missing, concealed by star field animation... hopefully PB will improve this later?

If they sell 100 @ 10k a pop and in this hobby we know that’s achievable, one strong release can help right the ship somewhat. And then game 2 and 3 get the ship sailing again, I hope they don’t try and do that with Alien off the bat and try to charge 10k plus!

But as you say they also need to prove longevity and that they are not just in this as a one hit wonder in an attempt for them to solely recover some of their lost money. The fact they are making so many changes to Alien might suggest they are in it for the long haul but we need a little solid proof of that.

Why would they do that? "Pinball Brothers is not Heighway Pinball"

They have sold the latest PCBs and IO-Boards under PB, that's why I thought it would be nice to have further more spare parts support!

This.
They were also at the Dutch Pinball Expo in 2017 at Evoluon presenting the game (and trying to get more presales ?), when Andrew was already out of the picture..

I guess that’s ultimately my point. These people played inside baseball by seemingly selling themselves intellectual property from a bankrupt company to a newly incorporated company while screwing people out of cash.

“We aren’t heighway but we’ll give ya $4,000 for the trouble of giving another company money”

What business in any other industry would do such a thing? I suppose it’s nice they’re “making an offering” because “they don’t have to” however pinball people clearly don’t give a rats ass as long as the game gets made and they can get it.

I wonder how the sausage was made when heighway went down? To be a fly on that wall.

Regardless what happened, if they hadn’t sold off assets to themselves, we likely wouldn’t be seeing this new 2.0 version of Alien.

While not ideal from the outside, if this was their intention when Heighway collapsed from within and formed PB, it’s certainly a better outcome than letting everything under Heighway just dissolve into nothing, especially if they are going to look after those who lost money with Heighway.

Plus the big point here other than the fact they have said they will do something for those who lost out with Heighway, is their statement about no pre-order money being taken until physical games are with distributors.

They just need to get their pricing right, trying to get the ship sailing again on release one is not going to work for them with the baggage they have from Andrew, this needs to be priced to right the ship and prove they are genuine and it’s not Alien 2.0 with Heighway 2.0 and use games 2 and 3 to get the business out the red and into the black.