Good grief you are correct...my bad on that title ( and physical ball lock in the chest is awesome)...guess I'd have to replace w AFMLE next to go...not having the physical lock.

Bourbon night, so a toast for hoping a solid, supported, and readily available Alien is on the horizon....

Compared to Guns n Roses, even Stern needs some marketing lessons. Pinball companies have been historically terrible at marketing their products, they let the company owner or one or two old guys with little experience in modern marketing run their marketing campaign. Pinball shows as well. It finally feels now like that game is changing and some companies realize that a good investment in marketing, advertising and promotion will help them sell 1000s more games. As someone that does promotions and marketing, I cringe at how bad pinball companies are at this stuff.

Everyone who might actually buy a pinball machine needs next to zero persuasion in the way of marketing. If they thought great marketing would expand sales then they would do that. Its the same old farts buying these games for the home and route. That's it. U might get a SW freak who grabs the game even though hes not a pinhead, same for some music pins etc. The core however that keeps it alive is here, its us. How much more marketing do u need?

It’s because of poor (or no) marketing that pinball is not expanding beyond the same base that’s existed for 30-50 years already. The average person under 35 has never played a pinball machine.

No its not.

Why is it so hard for some pinsiders to accept how small and limited to a niche group this hobby is. Young people have no idea about arcades and don't care about this at all. They play video games and multi player online games. Its a nice thought but ur delusional if u think great marketing is gonna expand pinball. The only reason its so hot right now is us arcade old timers are in a position to buy 5 to 15 000 boxes of lights and toys. Come on man.

1) My son brought one of his 20 something old friend over to pickup tools who had not been there before. His eyes just about blew out if his head when he saw the game room. He actually thought the pins were 10k a pop minimum. So right out of the gate the public perception is pins are expensive.

2) To the average joe pins ARE EXPENSIVE. The idea of spending 5k on a pin is totally insane. Like it or not the average consumer is going to compare a pin to buying an x box or playstation or some other form of entertainment.

It's a niche hobby and I'm fine with that.

They are.

Ur sons friend seems highly confused if u ask me. Most people are very suprised at how much these things cost and usually any thought of owning dies with even the lowest priced NIB.

Why wouldn't u be? I'm glad its a niche hobby. The masses would only ruin it. I don't think we would see the greatness of modern code if the main market wasn't home buyers now as apposed to arcades and routed pins. Its a perfect time and I'm happy to be part of it lets just stay grounded in what it is, thats all I'm saying. Then again I don't particularly care.

You are completely out of touch if you believe this. I've been to enough barcades to know that the younger people do indeed play pinball. The issue is, they probably can't afford to own them.

I have 3 children in their 20's who had unlimited access to pinball machines for the last 4 years.

99% of the time they would rather play on their Nintendo devices or Xbox.

Younger people may play pinball time to time but implying it's more than a niche group is ignoring reality.

I doubt anyone can argue it isn't niche.

Even if they were $5 a machine they still require a bit of dedication. Multiple people to move in and out, and a lot of space, and most likely some form of technical knowledge.

WGAF. Take it to another thread.

Saw all the new posts and thought we had an Alien update

Yeah! Back to dead silence about nothing! Burn the witches! (but not before I add to the nonsense by complaining about the nonsense).

An arcade in Mesa, AZ is supposed to be getting an Alien soon. The FB announcements shows the new Alien, but surely they arent getting a new? I said hope this isnt some sort of April fools joke(Like we are getting it April 1st or something) and he said no, April first is 2 weeks away. Not sure what that meant. Either way I hope its one of them. Come to find out there is a guy locally who has an Alien, but never plays it. Seems he more collects anything related to Alien or something. Has the Arcade games too. Oh well, his money. I just want to play Alien lol

I never said they don't play pinball, but its thriving due to home buyers and sorry kind sir but the 20 something's at 40 something aren't buying games. Does it really matter? Personally I don't care if pinball goes once I'm done.

Anyone know if the backglass is a true back glass or is it a acrylic sheet like the original?

Maybe this is a regional thing, but here in Seattle there are plenty of pinball collectors in their 30s and 40s. Lotsa younger people with tech jobs and disposable income that have gotten into pinball through barcades and the tournament scene then bought a bunch of new Sterns. They aren't on Pinside and take a while to show up in the collector scene, but there are plenty of them.

Ok. I knew that. I'm mid 40's and know a few mid 30's guys with pins, but "plenty" is probably a stretch. Here's the main thing. Who cares. As long as they are makin em and I can buy them I don't give a shit if Gen Z buys pins or not.

I just want an Alien so I hope this works out. Its looking like Godzilla is next from Stern thats my 2021 pin. I'm gonna wait on this till next year, if its still around and doing well, beautiful. I'm in.

I've bought games off people 20 years younger than me...so you'd be wrong - and I'm 45 (damn bdays). That's all I'm saying.

in the age of people want what they are beaten over the head with and all their friends have, there is no reason that mass advertising wouldn't actually increase the niche some.

Anyone here with an original Alien pin have experience with editing the callouts? I'm curious if there is a way to "soften" the callouts and reduce the number of four letter words for younger players. I'd like to do this to my new Alien pin when I get it from Cointaker.

They probably are getting a new one, and I doubt they get one by April. They were probably led to believe they would, but I don't think we are anywhere near final shipment....maybe CT is going to send them the proto for testing?

I'm pretty sure I saw a "family friendly" mode in the Heighway version. Hopefully the same thing exists in the new version, because I don't want the four-letter words blazing either.

There is a family mode setting on the original

Family friendly mode in original, but not gonna stop the screen action. Mine gets turned off when grandkids come over

( sorry...saw this posted twice in front of me)

Listen I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I don't believe its gonna be enough to keep it going down the road. Maybe. Again immaterial to my current situation when it comes to pinball and that's not gonna change. As for marketing expanding the hobby, does it really matter. We are getting new games almost constantly now. There are what 4 reliable manufacturers. The option of 4 to 5 new pins a year to choose from, give or take. Not to mention for me the best pinball machines that have ever been. Man JP is a god damn marvel. Some people seem overwhelmed by GnR, not me but some people. I guess what I'm saying is..............who cares. If it all dies tomorow theres more than enough out there to keep us all fat and giggly.

OK to take that narrow view? Bit like the old indian saying.It will be only after the last tree is cut down,and last river poisoned,and the last pinball is made,then and only then some will realise than one cannot eat money,or be selfish enough to not care.

I too expect to play 18/R rated film tie-in pinball machines with children.

The four letter words are probably the least of your problems if you’re letting them experience xenomorphs etc. I would’ve been terrified of that stuff at a young age.

Remember when this came out they were trying to market toys to kids!

Those were the most badass action figures. I wasn't allowed to see the movie but a friend of mine had the toys and they kicked ass.

Take it easy. Its pinball. U see this is the problem. Its fine to love pinball but some of u guys take it a little too far. The pinball shirts and conventions and all that shit, I mean award shows? Take it easy. It dies with us, embrace it. ur kid or kids might love pinball, u know why? cause u have them around. its a very very very small part of the culture kind sirs. Yeah everyone loves to play my pins but not one over 12 yrs now went out and picked one up as a result. Again. Take it easy. Were quoting Indian folklore now?

Sorry, back to Alien. Oh wait...............

That was me, and yes I personally do play it a lot. I was the creator of the mini beacon mods for it and many other environmental mods. I just dont let anyone else play it. Mike and Steve at Starfighters wanted my standard Alien Pin but they did not want to put a pin this rare on route at the going cost they sell for. When I have parties, my LE is off and not playable to anyone besides myself and family given my history with it and how much I lost over the whole ordeal.....I dont want kids or others (not knowing what it is), slapping it around. When its something thats not theirs....people can care less about it. Kids are innocent, but parents dont parent them and just let them be as they're putting approx 20,000 flips per ball on my coils. So off it goes for others. These are investments as well as toys, and I've spent well over 3x the pins price on it from loosing all my money with Heighway, so I tend to baby it a bit more. Same goes for Big Lebowski. The rest of my arcade and pins are always on.

First rule..these are NOT investments...guarantee in 10-25 years when the nostalgia crowd starts going into retirement homes and selling off their collections, we'll all be losing a lot of money on them.

Otherwise, I understand.

Given the history and collection value of it....how is it not? Pin prices are skyrocketing, and collectors are paying top prices for rare pins such as this. With little over 150 made of this....hard to make that claim they are not an investment when MSRP was 8700 and now 15k.......

I wonder if some guy in pinball said the exact same thing you just said 10-25 years ago. Lol.

Haha, very possible.

They did and it's probably one of the most overused statements in pinball. No point in debating it anymore, people keep repeating the same old shit so much that it becomes truth. I think everybody has a right to view their pinball machines how they choose.

So Starfighters isnt getting an Alien, since the deal fell through?

Oddly I agree with you view lol. In 20 plus years of collecting from co-workers, general friends, and thousands of clients I have Yet to run into another person say "Hey, I collect/own pinballs also!" Not once. Add to that any of said groups that come over to visit all Love the games Until they ask "how much does one of these cost?" then they look at you like you're a nut and simply just enjoy the play time. Marketing outside the underground channels of the hobby would be a Huge waste of capital that only We would pay for in purchase cost. (Cargument) May be why we don't see many Ferrari commercials or magazine adds lol. Elite collectables.

New Pinball is in rolling stone magazine, tons of gaming web sites, rock n roll websites...I mean what do you want them to do, buy a Super Bowl ad?

Pinball in the modern era - growing as it is - is ALWAYS going to be a niche interest. The "average person" is not the audience for pinball and wasting time and resources trying to force that to happen is not feasible.

Hmmm...

IMG_20210323_123335 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210323_123439 (resized).jpg

Man these games don't even exist yet and already dreaming of cheap plastic crap to hot glue all over them?

Take it easy!

That's nothing, I've got a room full of crap from 30 years of collecting Alien/s paraphernalia

Already been done, the sentry guns are too tall to make work. The rest are too small and look tangy to put everywhere. AVP sentry gun miniatures are right size, but require painting on your own part.

The deal on my original standard fell through with them, they were talking about getting one of the new Alien remake pins. Which isnt happening either, because they arent even made yet and I am pretty sure its Melissa at Cointaker doing what she does best as always....which is Lie to their customers and making false and fake promises just like she did during the initial fiasco. But thats just my speculation........

Hey "Take it easy" is mine in this thread.

This might be a regional thing. My town has a dozen barcades, multiple pinball leagues, multiple tournaments going on every night of the week in non-pandemic times, a big local show that draws 5,000 people, we do classic arcades at other big drawing events, we do a packed Game Collecting 101 seminar at the local Comicon that draws 60,000 people of a weekend, and there is a ton of younger people with high paying tech jobs. Pinball and 80s arcade games are all over here and everyone plays them out at bars, our collector and tournament community is huge, as it the casual player crowd. All my friends play pinball and a bunch own games. There are lots of young people, lots of women, and these days more and more people of color. I definitely think pinball is catching on with younger generations right now more than it has in the past 20-30 years.

No question its catching on in "interest" but as Buyers/owners I suspect very few. Great for operators and bar owners no question.

I hope this is not true this time around. Melissa has never lied to me but then again I was never in on the original game. The thing that gets me is why PB is not showing off a real working game. If Cointaker has a prototype game then surely they have one as well. They should be advertising the shit out of this game so when the LV hits people know it’s a legit thing. At this point we have game play video of a prototype game. What is going to be different in the production models?

Hopefully she didnt tell Starfighters "Soon" or hope they didnt interpret soon being 2 weeks..

What Melissa does best is take care of her customers and she does a hell of a lot for this community!