Make sure to upgrade to version 2.2 software. In 2.0, both the lower and upper loop switches had to be seen to score the shot. In 2.2, only one of the two is required. Many times the ball is moving so fast that one of the two switches won't hold active long enough for the magnetic switches to register.

Yes I have version 2.2 installed.

Welcome to the situation for everyone outside of US, only this time it's the opposite way.

When I started with pinball I had to buy lots of tools for inches as all my gear was for metric. Also, we only have M screws in stores here so all pinball screws have to be ordered. Sigh...so much hassle and extra money on shipping.

Welp… thought I was gonna get to play today. Guess not. This issue is listed on the PB forum but the workaround doesn’t work for me. No matter how many times I turn on/off the game I still can’t get past this… no LEDs, no starting a game.

AAF2CEC9-3FF4-4658-B755-99779A2BED2A (resized).jpeg

HurryUpPinball - Alien - Pinball Brothers Jul 28, 2021

Oh man, thats rough. Pinball in general has forced me to buy so many tools, which isn’t a bad thing. I feel you on shipping that can be unnecessarily brutal.

My shipping costs are in the order of US$60-200, often more than the components I'm buying. End up using freight forwards to consolidate multiple purchases from various suppliers to save of shipping, although that service is not free either. Just something we live with to enjoy our hobby

I'm noticing the same thing on 2.2. Was worse on 2.0 but still an issue. I have an open ticket about it, Cato says they're looking into it

Zac - are all of the build complaints that Ron and Bruce talked in their last Slam Tilt echoed by you?

I really didn’t like hearing such a long list.

Most of them are things I pointed out to those two, but a few they misunderstood or got wrong, definitely made it sound a bit worse than I think it is. I've tried to document everything I've noticed in my posts on this thread for others to reference against so I don't think anything they said should be new, unless I forgot something here. I am a bit let down by the general quality and design. I expected better from a company, especially one that's already had a previous go at it to reference, and some of the stuff is just plain tacky, even if it was on a Stern pro or something. I like the game though, and wouldn't dissuade someone else from buying one if they like it too but "it's an alien" is about all you're getting for your money, everything else is cheap and/or rushed to the extreme. The lack of even an led strip behind the backglass in the giant empty head is probably what peeves me off most though. Super visible. Stuff like internal construction only I'll ever have to deal with while others can play my game and enjoy it

There's an LED strip all the way around the screen in the backglass. It looks cool! Not sure what you mean by no LED strip.

The biggest problem I had was with playfield PCB 8 opto was bad. I did hear some other people had bad optos on PCBs, but not PCB 8. Once I got the PCB 8 replacement, things worked great! Here's the list of issues I've dealt with so far:

1. Ball getting stuck in right ramp - Easily fixed by slightly bending the rail
2. Sticky flippers - Fixed by sanding down the plastic flipper grommets. They were rough from manufacturing. Hopefully PB has fixed this issue on yours already.
3. Stand-up targets not registering - This is a well known issue that PB is working on. They sent me redesigned targets, but my understanding is a new version of the targets is in production that they will be sending out. The good news is they are super easy to replace.
4. Ball Lock Mech not working at all. This was because of PCB 8 that I mentioned above. After replacing this PCB, I have had no problems with the Ball Lock mech. This was by far my biggest problem with the game.
5. Alien not grabbing the ball all the time. I believe this is because the ball has a tendency to hop over the magnet. I believe they are addressing this in the replacement drop targets
6. Mother scoop not ejecting ball consistently. Every once in awhile, I do notice that the ball gets launched in an obscure direction. There are some instructions on PB's support site of how to address this, but I haven't tried to fix it yet as it hasn't been much of a problem.
7. Some white LEDs in screen unit not illuminating. These are the LEDs around the screen/cpu unit that light up the backbox. PB sent me replacement LED modules... I found that two were bad.
8. Game locks up occasionally after losing ball and only solution is to reset. I recently sent a couple logs to PB that were extremely revealing of where the problem is. They are currently working on a software fix for this. I'm pretty confident they'll be able to fix it based on my logs.

Sounds like a lot of issues, but it is actually a lot less issues than I thought there would be. The real good news is that most of this stuff is really easy to fix. The game is so modular and clean that replacing a part is pretty darn simple. There are some issues others have reported that I did not experience and some thing I experienced that no one else did (like the backbox LEDs).

So far, I'm super impressed considering this is the first run of this game.

There's Leds around the edge of the screen, yes, but they don't illuminate the top half of the translite at all. The whole egg is completely dark. A single strip across the back wall or something like other manufacturers would have illuminated it perfectly fine.

For anyone having issues with the skinny stand ups, I put together a temp fix while I wait for the Gen3 targets. I have emailed back and forth with Cato and he has been very helpful. I purchased a set of 5 green standup targets from Pinball Life and cut the exist wire connector in half to use for the new targets. I added some extra wire as well. I spent about an hour to do all five and they are working perfectly. I know PB will ultimately fix this issue and they are currently working on it with the Gen3 targets. I just wanted to share this temp fix with everyone in case anyone want to do the same. As an FYI, with the playfield in the upright position, the wire on the right (on the board) will connect to the metal blade on the stand up target in the non-stripe side of the diode and the wire on the left of the node board will connect to the blade without the diode on it. The extra wire I added is 20 or 22 gauge, I only had 18 gauge and it worked. They work perfectly and it is really nice to be collecting a lot more weapons. Here is a link to the Pinball Life targets I purchased. They may have other colors if you don’t like green. You will need 5 if changing out all of them. Once the Gen3 targets arrive, it will be easy to switch. I did ask Cato for replacement connectors with the Gen3 targets.

https://www.pinballlife.com/williams-green-transparent-standup-target-3-ddeep-rectangle.html

8A64B4E0-471A-4A2A-A22B-2497CBEEFC31 (resized).jpeg

FDDFE79E-8508-4813-A21F-738607534BA2 (resized).jpeg

0B40F921-67AB-4AF3-A0DC-5518CC54757C (resized).jpeg

3630543F-3995-433E-938B-909A76FB3C69 (resized).jpeg

7F30B1F2-F507-4C4F-B4E4-D1C0C584A727 (resized).jpeg

A123E5D2-13E8-4016-A60B-3171BA4F0836 (resized).jpeg

741F016C-C1E7-47BD-89F9-52B9A16B4382 (resized).jpeg

Strong work!

I’m going to take a wild guess and say this solved the issues with the targets not always registering. Nice work!

They all register and no longer get stuck. The standard edition has connectors on the PB skinny stand ups for RGB lighting but they are not connected. I suspect the LV will have RGB the on the skinny stand ups. I figured since I don’t have to worry about the RGB lights on the skinny stand ups, a standard stand up target would be sufficient. Cato at PB actually recommended them as a temp fix while Gen3 is being worked on.

Since I dont expect PB to ship games before the stand up fix, did PB share a timeframe?

Yeah I agree, amazing work on the targets. I actually like the green color over the grays that come with the game.

I’m still stuck here. Just the main game screen and airlock boot up, nothing else. I get the LEDs for a split second when rebooting then they go dark. Was working fine before now I’m getting this with every reboot. Fuses are good, USBs are routed correctly and everything is still connected (nothing came loose) I’m stumped.

Have you logged a support call with PB to troubleshoot why the workaround isn't working and help get you back going? From all the posts I've read PB have great customer service, so hopefully they'll be able to sort it out for you.

Yep, I've got an open ticket and working with Cato (who is awesome) just sent a video and a few pics. I thought for sure it was a USB issue like another owner experienced and posted here but my USBs are all going to the correct terminals. This seems to be a bit more complex than the general issue with the error code. I'm sure we'll get it sorted - just a bummer since I was finally hoping to play it this weekend after I got my care package parts all installed!

I believe they mentioned about 30 days for the Gen3 targets. I’m sure that can change but they have done a great job so far on the CS end with my submitted tickets. Looking forward to seeing Gen3.

While I don’t own an Alien pin, I thought I would revisit the Alien and Aliens movies back-to-back tonight since my family is out of town. I haven’t seen either since the ‘80s, so I queued up the director’s cut of each and had a 4-1/2 hour Alien marathon.

So much I can say, but I’ll leave it at both of these movies stand the test of time. I had forgotten so much about the storylines and details. If you’ve not taken the time to watch them in some time, I highly encourage doing so (and be sure you’re in a dark room for both the suspense factor and the overall dark settings of both films).

I watched both recently too.
Great movies, although I don't think the second Aliens stood the test as well with the marines.
But, both are awesome movies.

Hudson: "I don't know if you've been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked pal!"

They need to put as many of the great sayings in this game with subsequent updates!

I actually think Aliens is the better of the two movies and stands the test of time better.

Very much agreed. This game need more quotes and sounds from both movies.

Has anybody else had issues with a lot of the end of ball quotes getting muted. I thought this was fixed in the latest software but mine still does it quite a bit.

Have you reached out to PB about both of these? End of ball quotes or random quotes from the movie/s injected into game play for appropriate modes would send this game to the ultra cool stratosphere.
If not I would please ask you do. I still haven't received my game.

Were there unused assets? I highly doubt anything new can be added...

There are already a ton of quotes from both movies in these games.

I haven't tried it yet, but if you want different quotes, my understanding is you can just update the OGG files. Maybe add Ripley calling MUTHR a bitch??

Yeah! MUTHR you bitch!

And fighting the queen in Aliens, "Get away from her you bitch!"

Was at Pinfest this weekend talked to Melissa from CoinTaker in the flesh regarding Alien LV. She claims the details / announcement will be made prior to the end of the year of officially what will be included. I'm really looking forward to adding this game to my collection. I hope that they include some nice goodies with the LV (It's assumed that beacons are coming *likely confirmed* for sure). I commend you guys as the first testers people to receive the standard edition Alien games for keeping your cool on the brand new revision of this game as they work out some kinks. From the surface it looks like Pinball Brothers are committed to standing by their products / customer support to make sure things are rectified. I'm not expecting the LV's to be perfect, but hopefully they address majority of the known initial issues prior to those shipping, as badly as I want it now, I'd rather wait for them to work things out.

Agreed 1000%!!!!!!!! I go in to the machine tinkering around will blow it up with my luck. LOL

End of the year and then a few months to ship.....so 2022 for sure...

Todays update on the second batch of Quarter one deliveries..

melissa cointaker.com
2:03 PM (1 hour ago)
they are on the water, just waiting for them to hit port

So the big question then is..should we contact and order the new switches before we get them?

You might need your machines serial number.

doubtful since you will need to provide the serial number of your game for the care package so they can keep track of what parts are going to which game. Also you may want to wait and see if there are any other missing parts or issues first so you get that all in on the same care package.

I thought they were shooting for summer announcement on LV. Must be running behind!

No, Not yet. Tried a few things today that didn’t work unfortunately. I’ve been talking to Cato every day now. Hopefully we’re getting closer to finding a solution. Fingers crossed.

I just got my shipping notification from CT, no tracking number, but I'm assuming the second container is being distributed?

I haven't heard anything yet. Will keep an eye out.

I hope so. Melissa Emailed me yesterday and said they were on the water..

it's either on a boat or they received it .. although i guess its possible to start processing shipping info before they actually have the game.

i am anxiously awaiting my notice .. bought 2 machines yesterday to make up for it .. lol

I am 61st in line on SPooky's new Halloween machine. I am starting to think I will receive that before Alien.lol

After I got the tracking info with the ship name, it took another week for the ship to make it to Italy to pick up my game. Get ready for days of watching a slow ship stop at port after port... further delaying the delivery of your beautiful machine!

I waited 18 months for my ACNC!
And then sold it after 18 months.

Heard today that mine should be received in about 2 weeks. So not entirely sure if that means still on a ship, or just in process to go from container thru all the steps to be delivered here..

Ship shipping is hard!