If the company is strong enough to stand tall until the second title (the smash hit) hits the market, this sounds like a very solid plan.

And for the record, I believe Heighway is that kind of a company.

If a company's life is dependent on their first title, the odds of survival is slim, even if it sells ok.

Btw. Nice of you to drop in, Dave. I love the design work you have done so far and I can't wait to see what you have in store for us in the future.

Great video, thanks for sharing. This is a very impressive first effort from Heighway! I love the display location in the playfield. I'd love to play this if I get the chance, and I could see me owning this title. I actually like the offbeat theme of motorcycle racing.

Yes, I actually applaud Heighway's business plan. You don't see a bunch of disgruntled pre-orderers with pitchforks, no broken promises, no over extending themselves.... just nose to the grindstone, carving out a different success model, building and selling.

The playfield swap platform will be brilliant if they can pull it off, and make the price discount appreciable for it to REALLY be an incentive.

There are so many ways to spend new pinball dollars now, with a market that expanded about 5 years ago and has since leveled out (but the number of pinball makers/titles keeps expanding!). The playfield kit may be what keeps Heighway around when the inevitable pinball market decline begins.

+1 on the PF swap, I'm limited on room but not as much on cost so swappable PF is a brillant idea.

This is exactly why Heighway made the perfect choice of a neutral theme for their first game. I think fantasy/comic book themes appeal to a hardcore subset of potential customers. At the same time those themes turn off the average person that walks up to a game in a bar. If pinball is to make a comeback it needs to appeal to the widest possible audience.

Final Challenge is one wizard mode, World Championship (or Race Final or whatever it is called) is another, and was not seen in the video.

In person the cabinet is VERY nice quality/ construction/ engineering.

To me the thing I was much impressed with was how well thouhgt out many aspects are on FullT (and for future state).

I see no reason to degrade anything Heighway has done. The theme doesn't do it for me either but like Bowen said, you would not think this one the first pin of a startup company. Gameplay looks like fun - tons of shots, modes, and interesting features. Platform is well thought out with modular design, liftup glass, and dual color display. With all that, the price is the same as a stripped down Stern pro. I didn't pay much attention to FTH before but can't wait to play one now.

The price is much more inline with a premium stern. 6K for the game then additional for the extra screen if wanted plus shipping. So expect $6300-$6800 depending on what you want. Stern pros ship to your door for $4600-$4800. A 2K difference is substantial in my opinion. I think Full Throttle holds up very well against stern premiums.

World Champion is lit at the scoop after you've played all 7 race modes. There are a few bugs in the 1.0 version that was used at PAPA, which have already been fixed and will be part of the 1.1 update that is being finalized now.

It is more difficult to reach than Final Challenge, and it's more difficult to play, but it has the potential to be a much higher scoring mode.

I have known Andy H for a number of years on the UK pinball scene, long before he ever had the idea to start making games. Believe me, Andy not only *loves* pinball, he *knows* his pinball. Chatting to him recently , in particular about Alien, the passion and enthusiasm he had for it totally convinced me they are not gonna drop the ball with this one. Exciting times ahead for Heighway Pinball !

I see. That's pretty good because it seemed a bit easy to get to.

I thought the 2nd screen was standard but I see now that it is not. I don't know what the "street" price is of a standard FTH but you are probably right in that it's closer to a Stern premium than pro. In the end, I think Heighway has a lot of potential if they can get games out the door in a timely manner.

Game was fun to play at expo, and the rules look like a blast here. I still have hardware / QC concerns. I had issues when I played one, and watching here, there seemed like some issues. The flipper hold needed adjusting (probably minor) and the inner right loop never made it to the left return lane the way it is supposed to. This was the case on some of them at expo too. I would hope these can be adjusted, but the inner loop being off seems to be common on this machine and a bummer since this is one of the most fun and unique shots on a game in a long time.

$5950 with no screen in backbox, add $350 for "small" LCD, add $550 for 27" super fly LCD. Reminder, this is a wide body machine, and will allow you to swap in new wide body titles for 60% of full price in the future. This smashes Stern's pricing in my opinion for the amount of machine you are getting and future titles in same cab.

Agreed. Similar to the P3 model, you cannot base per game price solely on game 1.

Final Challenge would be the equivalent of Royal Madness in Medieval Madness, both in terms of approximate difficulty and the means of getting there.

World Champion would be more like defeating the King of Payne, probably more difficult than that because each race is a mode, and if you shouldn't time them out if you want World Champion to be worth a lot.

A strong left-flipper shot should make the loop, and I think it happens at least once or twice in the video. I avoid aiming for the inner loop from the left flipper, because if you miss, you've got a good chance of losing the ball without being able to recover. I haven't seen this an issue on either of the Full Throttle machines I have played on location.

I was considering a Full Throttle, but after seeing the guy playing it it looks a bit to easy. Perhaps I'll wait for the next one and it might be a bit more challenging. Just pulling your chain. Even the first out of the box plays amazing. The one at Expo was entertaining and so smooth. I hope they continue the formula and knock it out of the park with Alien, as I am confident they will.

Bowen is so casual while being such a great player!

I still haven't flipped this yet, but it looks very engaging from the video, a smart layered ruleset. I'd expect nothing less! Good stuff Brian!

I don't think Bowen is the norm on how easy a game is based on his play style. So reconsider and buy that Full Throttle I think you will enjoy it

LOL. Try to replicate what's Bowen is doing and we'll talk about too easy.

"Just pulling your chain" is an American saying that means "Just kidding"

I didn't notice that sentence......

Your pulling my leg!

Final Challenge isn't where the key to the challenge modes lies; it's in maximizing and collecting the score potential. As Bowie has demonstrated, the challenge trophies are their own reward, and the difference between a basic Final Challenge itself and a well-played stacked set of challenge multiballs and trophies can be immense. THAT'S where the real skill and tactics come into play, in a similar vein to starting and stacking all the monsters on Monster Bash, and pausing the timers in a bid towards achieving Monsters Of Rock.

Bowen is the Mr. Miyagi of pinball. I love his tutorial videos!

Love the tutorial, I've only had a chance to play this title two times and had no idea what the objectives were. It was awesome to see how polished the code is and how engaging the rule set is! Can't wait to get a chance to play this title again.

I swear every time I watch his videos he does more to make we want to buy that pin more than anything else beyond playing it myself even though his skill is way above mine. Absolutely love these vids.

I put a fair number of games on FTH at ReplayFX and I'd definitely put the toys/ramps/materials/lcd above a STERN pro. Not quite JJP level, but certainly some competitiveness with JJP in terms of features such as the hinged glass and modular playfield. Actually, I was surprised at the price around 6k. I think that's a very good price for what they're offering in the current market.

I have to also admit the prospect of buying an alien package later and having "two" games of this caliber for around 10k has got me thinking.

I played FTH at ReplayFX and impressed Mr. Heighway with my pinball prowess! I was feeling like a bit of a badass until I saw this video. NOT SUCH A BADASS NOW, ARE YOU CORN