Queen are so hot right now.

No reason CGC can't do a lcd on the pf and/or backbox but only the pf one is really needed IMO. Alien cabs are fugly so going traditional is a step in the right direction. New pf artwork would take it over the top but I don't see them spending money to update that. Getting this title in giving CGC a licence to print money.

FWIW, I heard this rumor about a month ago. It may have some teeth to it. Supposedly The Pinball Bros. Re-upped the 3 year license for Alien and has contracted CGC to make it. I also heard it would be the very next game they produce, in a b/w cabinet with a new art package.

I heard Homepin is about to bring Harry Potter to TPF. I wish I had a paid rumor site of my own

The real question is, if I show proof of the $1,500 I lost on my Alien LE deposit will they take that off the cost of the game? I wouldn't seriously expect that to happen, but with Deeproot stepping up to help the people owed games by JPOP some people might.

They are mega in Asia

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/12/06/films/blockbuster-queen-biopic-reignites-japanese-fans-passions/#.XJEoGy2cakY

A pinball maker that can get hold of this pin to make or remake would be wise to do so. The market has spoken, used pins of Alien sell for $13k for regular and $17k for LE versions. There were about 200 made, and many of them work just fine. The details of things to be adjusted or modified are readily available for anyone to see, so I don't think there is much "re-engineering" that would need to be made. Far less work than making a pin from scratch. More work than a remake of say TAF or TZ? Maybe, maybe not. But the demand is there and it is high, so it would be a money maker for whomever took it on.

Aren't grail themes like the staple of the pinball industry? I would also argue that a good portion of pinsiders would say that Alien was a grail for them, and overall the license has an appeal to most.

Plot twist: What if CGC paid the money to get Sigourney Weaver added to the art package. What does this do to the value of the original Heighway copies?

Not Happening.

Simply given the fact that they would have to get the license again ($$) makes me think not a chance.

Pinside

Several. To name a few:
IJ
Tz
Cv
CC
SS
BBB

If this turns out to not be true K said he will get a tattoo on his ass.

Nothing for me. Art is best now without slapping character faces all over it and f*cking it up.

that would be F-ing awesome. but totally not the job of CGC... I am still so pissed about that whole fiasco (and I started asking for a refund early when the signs were showing it was going to tank...) but I still lost my 1500.00

every time I hear about Alien, or see one for sale, or see the "Game over man" thread rise to the top, I want to bloody Andrew all over again... Hey it was an expensive lesson, but I guess one that I had to learn... grrrrrrrrr...

sorry for the rant.

Yeah, true. And since its "rumored" to just be a contract build, CGC wouldn't be involved with the license cost anyway.

If true, I would think they are getting some good money to make the game for PB or wouldn't even bother.

Between this and TBL, I'm betting there's some little twerp in NYC pleasuring himself to the angst he has caused to the people that put down deposits on these basically vaporware machines.

I will now actively cheer for DR to release MG to those that JPOP screwed; I really hope they come through.

Jesus, what a fucked-up, bizzaro world thread/day on Pinside it has been.

I'd buy a CGC Alien.

MAGA

Make Aliens Great Again.

I hate to be that guy, but I’m confused as I haven’t really been able to follow the whole drama of the Heighway Alien story. Last I had known it was working out and I saw Heighway made Full Throttle.

So now they’re bankrupt and defunct and some guys called the pinball brothers own it and are trying to find new companies to produce it??

I’d really appreciate anyone who can keep it simple and to the point with some actual history, please no snarky comments, I understand it’s basically a huge clusterfluff but I am genuinely curious how it got to this point?? Same with Dutch Pinball to be perfectly honest..

X2

I would like to think they would, but i just don't see it happening.

Aren't they supposedly working on a Totan remake?

Well, after listening to the K-man himself say not only that he is "100% positive" this is happening, but also added the machines are about 30 days out from being ready. we won't have to wait long to see if its true.

If he is wrong, he will have absolutely zero credibility. Seems strange he would make such a strong statement if he isn't right.

I guess we will all know soon enough...

You have the best way with words . I have to respectfully disagree though ... I don't think it'd take much to re-engineer the game. This is all opinion ...

As far as mechanical assemblies, the pop bumpers, ball trough, and flippers (with the exception of the way the whole flipper mounts to the playfield) are all based on existing designs. I think the slingshots could also use WPC-like assemblies w/o much modification. They used the old Data East style of pop bumpers (I actually like those).

Alien's big weakness is the IO cards. They're over-engineered CPU and solenoid driver wise (though much of the overcurrent detection circuits are disabled ... all of that stuff could be replaced with a fuse). I tend to think that the CPU they chose on the node boards was picked to handle driving the lamps (just a hunch ... that CPU is a lot of horsepower to simply read switch states, fire solenoids, and drive lamps). The game requires 4 of those ... that drives up the cost significantly.

The mini USB connector was a bad choice too ... that's a frequent failure point. The big-ass PCBs to mount lamps and switches isn't all that good too (some of the trace widths are supposedly very narrow ... that is not good in a pinball machine where there are lots of vibrations and you have a 6 mil trace connected to a via ... the trace can easily be broken at those kinds of connections). Plus throwing a USB hub into the mix isn't all that good for reliability (vibrations mean that you have a pretty good chance one of the ports could make intermittent contact).

However, I don't think it'd take much to engineer something reliable + you wouldn't need to touch the main computer that runs the whole show. When the Alien computer talks to the IO cards, it is talking to a USB chip that converts the USB packets into UART signals. The node CPU reads these like any other UART. It checks to see if the packet is destined for a particular node by checking some node address bits tied to GPIO on the CPU. You could, and I don't think this would take much, make a single board almost like a WPC driver board, to accept all of that information, translate it, and fire the proper solenoids, lamps, and switch reads without having to touch the game's main software ... this wouldn't be that difficult if you had access to the USB packet protocol Heighway used.

One final note, I wouldn't be surprised if Alien could run on any AMD A10 based computer ... they seemed to pick the motherboard they chose since it had 4 DVI ports. You *really* only need two display outputs (the in-playfield display is a mirror of the backbox display ... the other port would be for the airlock display). That opens the door to using a far less expensive CPU mobo.

I think it would all come down to sales projections overall ... the game is ripe for cost reduction and, ironically, the cost reductions would make the game as reliable as any modern Stern or WPC pin out there. There would be upfront engineering costs, but they wouldn't be all that bad. It all comes down to the number of people that would buy the game ... they'd still have to sell MM and AFM numbers to make it worth their while.

any indication on whether the LCD screens are included (PF, backglass)? Would be a first for a b/w cab.

I wonder if the sensor based switches will be thrown out and replaced with traditional switches? I suppose CGC will build whatever Pinball Bros want but I bet CGC provided input and recommendations for the rebuild.

monkeys might fly outta my butt...………..Madonna!

I wouldn't do that. They seemed to have used a (relatively) expensive microcontroller to detect the presence of a ball on the playfield. That's why the switch is $11. TI has an inductive switch sensor device that's very inexpensive in quantity and works great. Your cost for switches would drop significantly if they'd switch to the TI chip. Plus they'd be more reliable in the field.

This is pretty close to that:

Who would have thought.

So CGC would have to pay for the rights to build Alien from Heighway and then pay for the Aliens license. All that to re-engineer a pin that bankrupted Heighway? That or pick another popular non-license WPC game that they already have the means, the experience, and success manufacturing? One makes sense the other does not.

Andrew Heighway bankrupted Heighway Pinball, not Alien. Alien is a killer game that will sell well if remade.

I have no idea there. My information is not first hand, so take it with a grain of salt.

Sorry but there are some pretty dumb people on these forums... sometimes people need to use common sense. There is a TON OF REAL FAKE NEWS in the media today and obviously in pinball as well.

Some people understand better than others how to drum up attention for themselves and in the pinball World Kanada does that for a living. I wouldn't trust him because hell half the pinball manufacturers hate him with a glowing passion. Why would they tell him anything? Why wouldn't you tell someone else first, or make even a fake account here and leak something?

Every single one of these podcasts, or posts on these forums is just speculation, rumors or just down right FAKE NEWS.

Unless you hear from Stern directly as an example I wouldn't believe anything.

For example Kaneda says Dialed In is a FLOP well its sold between 1500 and 2000 copies and in the end will probably generate 20 million in revenue. That is more than every original title ever made for the past decade combined, or more than every game Spooky has ever sold combined. The game is ranked the 11th best pinball game so people obviously love the game, every operator tells me its consistently the #1 money maker, and it holds it value big league. How is the game a flop?

The point is people publish their opinions, and most of the time they're just that opinions not based on fact. Unless you have access to JJ books to know exactly number of games sold then you're speculating.

We heard JAWS was around the corner 5000 times, only then to hear NOT HAPPENING. We heard Superman 1978 was Sterns next game then we heard oh wait its not. Now we're hearing oh wait Chicago Gaming who's knee deep into Cactus Canyon and their own original game are going to make Aliens.

LOL

I can assure you that Chicago Gaming is already planning their game after CC and their own original theme... probably Theatre of Magic. So they're wrapped up for the next what 2 years?

Where does Alien fit in?

So even if it was TRUE when does it come out 3 years from now?

Lots of things change over 3 years so here is what I would say...

THIS THREAD IS JUST FOR A LAUGH!

Get a good laugh out of it, and move onto what you KNOW is happening. Focus on the right here and right fucking now!

Black Knight 3000 (you know you got that) Willy Wonka and Guns and Roses. Cactus Canyon. American Pinball is going to start selling Octoberfest and Spooky keeps making Alice Cooper. Blah, Blah... apparently but no one but Stern knows for sure Jurassic World is coming right, or is it Jaws, or is it Elvira 3, or is it Superman or is it WHO CARES! Rumors are always going to be 90% FALSE!

BTW sometimes people spread FALSE RUMORS because they want to see what people will say or someone leaks rumors to gauge interest. I can imagine someone who was involved with Alien leaking that utter non-sense to get a thread like this started to then point to the interest in why someone should give them more money, invest, help get something dead in the water going again.

Don't fall for it... there are some really dumb people buying into fake news because it draws in more listeners to podcasts, their website or whatever.

TOTALLY FAKE NEWS!

I hope this is true...........FAK IT.......

vasquez-lets-rock (resized).jpg

Alien is awesome but CGC would have to make so many modifications to their current process, it seems unlikely. TZ isn't even on the radar for them given how complex it was to make. So Alien...doubt it. Prove me wrong, that would be excellent!

guise, my uncle works for cgc and told me this is all true. also mmr price will drop to 4700 to compete with stern. alien will be priced at 5700 cause of licensing. you heard it here first.

Like we heard from Stern directly about GB code update...How many months (years) ago?

Cant wait to get my 4700 dollar MMR! Woo hoo!

**deleted***

If he has no credibility to begin with, does it matter?

Won't effect me and I'll still listen. Rather have him make bold predictions and be wrong sometimes instead of being scared to make any predictions at all. He has been right at times as well so give credit where it's due. He also doesn't charge any money and shares the information freely.

Kaneda has Credibility????

I'm sure he'll live stream it as well. Is there anything that guy won't do for attention?

Seems to me the licensing would be a killer at this point.

I'm not saying any prediction is right or wrong, or that any rumor is true or false. What I'm saying is this forum aside from talking about a specific game like how do you fix this, where do you get that, hows the game play stuff.. aside from ALL OF THAT this forum is what 98% guessing, assumptions, predictions, rumors and more rumors. Am I right about that?

You have a ton of people also using the forums to promote a podcast, promote a website, or whatever. If we add up every rumor from these boards accuracy percentage what would it be?

I'm guessing 10% correct maybe less.

This thread was started talking about Chicago Gaming doing Aliens. I'm saying even if its remotely true Chicago Gaming has their plate full for the next two years. So even if they are to make the Aliens game you probably wouldn't see it for 3 years from them specifically. Over 3 years lots can happen including a total nuclear annihilation of the entire planet not the pinball. LOL

So speculating what might happen if the rumors are true is pointless its 3 years away... between now and 3 years Stern will release what another 152 new pinball games.

Just a guess, and rumor, and speculation.

I do NOT believe what I hear from a Kanada pinball podcast because as I pointed out nearly every single person who makes pinball games hates the guy... they wouldn't tell him, he'd be the last person on the planet they would tell. Doesn't mean he's WRONG, but speculation, going by rumor, hearing something second, third hand isn't the same as hearing from the owner of a company.

When an owner of a company tells you then you can speculate.

So you're saying that Spooky has predicted that the world is going to go up in a ball of fire and piss soon ... and they wanted to jump into the rumor mill by releasing that pin! You heard it here first ... Spooky has predicted the end of the world by releasing TNA ... amazing. (this is how rumors get started ... ).