Very nice write up! Did you share with pinball brothers?

Can anyone be a mensch and post the dimensions? This is going to be my first pinball and I gotta scope out where it's gonna go. Cheers.

I sent them an email with the stuff that they might be able to resolve (bugs, malfunctions, broken parts etc) this morning. They have a support site set up but it seems like you can't register yourself, they need to add you manually(?). Hopefully I can at least get a few replacement parts for stuff that was damaged, and the next code update fixes these bugs

56x28x75

I have several of those same issues. Sounds scary but most of my issues are very minor.

Why use Williams flippers and then slightly redesign them? What is the point?

Yes... I am aware of some of those issues, but they are minor. There is a huge software update coming soon... I do know that. I'm not concerned about the one issue I have with the opto.... My friend who has purchased multiple JJ machines says he had to lift the playfield over a hundred times before it is stable.... so I think for a first-run machine, we are looking pretty damn good!

BONUS !

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I'm still waiting for Cointaker to find a pallet for me.

Wish I could somehow give my pallet back to them. I just put it up on Craigslist.

new pinball prices:

7777+shipping+pallet.

Just delivered!! What a start to a hopefully great weekend!! Got it downstairs and time to set it up. This game is actually pretty light for being a wide body.

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Curious if the legs were banging around in the top like some others have said?

Mine was delivered today. As a former OG owner, I can already see a number of differences besides what is obvious.

Here’s the problem though - my Alien head says switch error and gets stuck trying to get the ball. Won’t even work right in first boot. Any owner experience this yet before I reach out to PB? I’ve tried calibrating like OG but no luck

Edit- seems like someone else experienced this as well

Edit 2 - it now comes out and goes in with no error but man the gears grind, mostly in test. Is that normal for pb? Update - seems like it is but you can adjust strength by turning the screw per Averell

Edit 3 works. Under tests run calibrate and then it fixed the error

What about the warning light type flashers Ive seen on original Alien games? Anyone doing that mod?

Edit resolved

Where's the pallet?

The beacon lights came on the Heighway LE model but could be added to the SE. Believe some of the new owners are looking at whether the same beacon lights that fitted the OG can be added to the new PB machine - no info on what is possible as yet

The legs in mine were properly wrapped and tucked safely inside the top of the box. Packaging was quite good. I’m having a lot of switches not working, like 10 or 12. 1 coil not working. Left and right speaker sounds are reversed. Tried to play several games but with many of the switches not working, you can’t really progress. Trying to diagnose as I type this. Oh the pleasures of tweaking NIB games. Lol.

What is the best way to contact PB to open a service ticket? How do I initiate communication with Cato? Thanks.

I get this is a new venture for Pinball Brothers, but man, every single person that has opened up there game and played it has had a plethora of issues. Some being a real pain to fix or tweak. I have one on order and I am really having second thoughts. People can come at me for these comments but I really am concerned. It’s a lot of money to have multiple issues opening it up. Some people can’t even start a game. This is a tough start to this new adventure if you ask me.

I had the same feeling but decided to roll the dice. It definitely is frustrating but part of the fun is getting the game dialed in. Hopefully it’s just a bad connection/s somewhere. I’m sure PB will take care of it.

Still can’t find the back box key. Not on the coin door like it should be.

Edit: you have to look closely but they are in the side of the coin mech. Duh.

Until they run out of money and can't re order parts to build the new ones.. never mind supply ship extra parts all over the world to all the widebody paper weights out there! Starting to seem like a deja vu. Sure hope not! Appreciate the honest and educated reviews.. not just talking about how shiny the ramp is and where to plug in the beacons.

Oh they hear you! I'm sure Andrew is reading this too

If you bought this expecting a perfectly working game, that's just not how it works for these pinball machines. I would never recommend that anyone purchase a pinball machine who isn't willing and capable of resolving issues... yes, even when it is brand new. Ask the experts and they'll tell you that there *will* be some problems to resolve. I was not surprised in the slightest that I had a few issues to resolve on this NIB game.

I think I’m back in business. I just pushed every connector I saw on the under the playfield boards and one or more must have been loose or something cause all my switches are now working. The coil for my bottom pop egg bumper had a bad connection. I was able to pull the pins out of the connector and just insert them directly into the other end and it works. Temporary fix until I get a better connector.
Trying to switch the left and right speakers but I can’t get the back box cover off. How do you remove this plastic translite?

I’ll add another PB whoopsie on mine. My left flipper didn’t work! Looked under the hood and the wire was broken off. Maybe it happened during travel - who knows but I soldered it back on

For those skeptical, I can understand. We all went into this eyes open and expected some immediate challenges up front. Too tired to summarize but there are a number of nice additions I’m already appreciating - and that doesn’t include those shiny ramps! I’m sure there will be a few more gremlins and no doubt it’s frustrating opening a 8k game and your left flipper doesn’t work but this is also a crazy hobby.

Btw the open pop bumper egg that was sold separately by Matt at back alley creations for OG fits this one perfectly. Nice to have one of the eggs diff than the other two.

On a complete side note, go Canadians as those damn lightning beat the islanders tonight. No one cares about Tampa. Would have been one hell of a Stanley cup if it were NY vs Canadians

If your ownership history is correct, this is your first NIB buy. While what you are parroting is technically true, you’ve gotta understand that there’s credence to what more experienced collectors are feeling. Yes, NIB box games can require some tweaking... and sometimes they can require a major fix. But the ratio of games that are good to go and games that need a minor tweak (adjusting the leaf switch gaps) versus needing major repairs necessitating new parts is usually tilted in favor of games that are generally good to go.

You’re seeing quite a few folks perfectly capable of rolling up their sleeves and fixing issues express concern because of type of varied and fairly significant issues being reported on a very small sample size of games. That’s all. No one here expects perfection out of the box, but given the history of Heighway and Alien, not to mention PB’s role in that fiasco, and the fact that a manufacturer that’s never built a pinball machine is pushing this latest version out the door, there’s definitely cause for buyers in line to reassess their decision to buy.

And if you’ve ever bought a game NIB that limped along for months as a troubled machine, you know it can quickly go from “eh, it’s really no problem” to a constant annoyance.

I can’t speak for others, but I’ve been intently watching the roll out of this second batch of games, looking for indicators that the factory manufacturing this machine made positive adjustments after the first machines were received and played by customers.

This is cool game, no doubt. But it’s also a game born from an older design that had significant issues. PB appears to be operating fairly reactive customer service, but we have no real knowledge of how it will operate if the business grows, nor do we really know how healthy they are as a business. And, of course, there’s always a concern of parts.

Given the circumstances, I think it’s totally legit for any buyer with money down (me included) to (a) want a game but also (b) watch this situation and carefully analyze what’s happening.

Yeah, the simple response is “well don’t buy it then.” And while that might be the wisest move (I, for one, am glad glad that Cointaker is offering a 100% deposit refund... frankly, that’s the ONLY reason I put money down without having seen a single game shipped), I think we all know that it’s not quite that simple.

How does it work for " these pinball machines"?

Reading all this and finally watching the streams is not encouraging as there could definitely be some major pain ahead.

I really hope things get sorted for those that bought these......

Hopefully their issues are more qc and minor tweaks than something like the jjp rgb lighting. They did bring this baby back from the dead with serious improvements/changes. I give ‘em good odds from the issues I’ve read.

The easiest way to get those connections is to fold the backbox down.

You did amazing things w a very early Heighway rev....hope you're right, for the owners sake...

Well said. That RGB lighting fiasco was painful... and as I later found out, so was the poorly designed power driver board.

This is a little beyond tweaking. The quality control from the factory obviously sucks. U think they would be making them as close to perfect as possible to get more people on board. If these were coming in with little to no trouble I'd probably grab one. Not good.

The game is very good, theme integration is amazing like hobbit and unlike hobbit the layout is also awesome. The big collectors i know can fix or have someone that can fix issues.. if all i have to do is solder a thing or two and maybe finangle with a mech, I’m not deterred. If it’s like the jjp led issue and it’s never ending electronics failures then we’ve got problems.

From my experience thus far, that’s what I’m seeing. Solder, tweaks that I need to do (alien gear) etc. I rather not but also not surprised. Comparatively speaking, happy with this purchase as you said - game has been brought back from the dead with a company who still picks up the phone and a fantastic price point (assuming you weren’t an OG owner expecting to only hold onto it as an investment). I expect drama / catastrophe pumping from those that don’t actually own it but what’s new. I’m excited to hear more impressions from owners of the PB version. I should be posting mine later.

Just like I don't have any experience with NIB games in general (except for friends who have purchased NIB games), the people who are raising all these red flags and complaining do not seem to have personal experience with PB's handling of the situation. I am extremely impressed with the build quality of the game and I expect a few issues. So far, I have encountered far less issues than I thought I would... so I'm pretty happy... that's all I'm saying. i think a lot of people are raising red flags in here extremely prematurely and unustified. For a first run of a game, I am extremely impressed. When I talked to PB, they are extremely interested in any issues people have so they can fix them for future runs.... so as far as I'm concerned, it is all good news.

Thank you for bringing up this point too. When I talked to PB's, I expressed my appreciation to them for all their hard work to bring this game back from the dead. More people should be grateful rather than complaining and negative.

One more comment I want to make about my Alien machine.... When I found I had to disassemble the lock mechanism, I got a bit nervous just because I was unfamiliar with it. Well, I found it to be extremely easy and straightforward, so I am also impressed with the maintainability of the game. It seems most parts can be swapped fairly easily.

My switch problem came back again and was hoping someone else here had the same problem. It’s hard to trace exactly which connector/s it is because there are so many from board to board. I want to know exactly which connectors are causing this if anybody knows.

Someone earlier said they had a bad RJ45 cable. Those are pretty easy to swap out just as a test.

Another thing I am experiencing is that my Xeno magnet has not caught the ball once at the start of ambush so it can eat the ball. I think they positioned the magnet too far away from the targets. Any suggestions there. Really takes away from that huge feature if it’s not gonna work reliably or even at all.

Isn't it part of the challenge to hit the ball in a way that the magnet catches it? Did the OG eat the ball every single time? On mine, it eats the ball about 50% of the time. One time, the magnet didn't catch it because the ball was just moving too fast and I flipped the ball up just in the nick of time and the Xeno ate it.... so awesome! I love Ambush mode!

That being said, there is an option in the menu to increase the center magnet strength by 25%.... I haven't tried that yet, but maybe increasing that would increase the Xeno-eating percentage?

did you test this with the glass off?

My OG eats the ball 95% of the time but I had to set the coil power to +25 % and the fling power also up 2/3 steps

Try that as when in the beginning my OG was also not grabbing the ball

She gets hungry, and highly recommend not putting your finger in between the magnet and ball if testing w glass off. Adjusted my fling a bit as it can really whip the ball around, but left strength at factory on mine....high kill ratio...

Someone with your experience should know that it's referred to as a Zenomorph ..not an Alien gear! Honestly, I don't recall you ever adding any technical advice as to how to fix anything on the OG.. except repeatedly asking how to hook up the side art lights and
strobing beacons. When they took over, PB promised to only put out solid working pins and so far they haven't done that. Flipper issues, faulty parts, QC issues from a factory that has never built a game..(never!) This is turning out to be just like the last time. Honestly, these pinball brothers should of just gave Andrew the cash he was short to keep pumping out the OG's ..except he lied to everyone and lost their trust.

No.....