Are we only seeing the vocal few here with issues with PB Alien? Are there fully functioning working machines in the wild? Love to hear a positive experience to give hope to those waiting for their dream pin.
(Topic ID: 284032)
Linked Games
Alien (Ellen Ripley Version)
Pinball Brothers, 2023-
Alien (Limited Version)
Pinball Brothers, 2021
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Alien (Standard)
Pinball Brothers, 2020
Topic Gallery
Ottawa, ON
Quoted from DreamTR:More like third machine.
Wow I musta been away for awhile or something, what are the other 2 Games Pinball Brothers made again ?
Kellogg, IA
Quoted from Baggerman:Are we only seeing the vocal few here with issues with PB Alien? Are there fully functioning working machines in the wild? Love to hear a positive experience to give hope to those waiting for their dream pin.
There are some QC problems for sure , there are some software problems which they are continuously improving on, maybe even some poor design choices but they do provide excellent support. They are providing software updates Yes I have had to fix a number of things but You will never be sorry you bought this pin , trust me when you have it dialed in it’s pure joy.
Quoted from Baggerman:Are we only seeing the vocal few here with issues with PB Alien? Are there fully functioning working machines in the wild? Love to hear a positive experience to give hope to those waiting for their dream pin.
There are some, but what you are mostly hearing about is people who had to be at the front of the line and if they are operators, should know better on not only this machine, but in pinball in general. There aren't that many games out there, and you are going to hear about the ones with issues the most.
I'm sorry they are having issues, but mine has been pretty problem free. Is it stable enough for on location play? I don't think so, at least not yet. It's been fine for home play.
I find it hilarious that someone is going to throw out that 'Stern doesn't have these issues' when there is thread after thread with just that. Different issues, still issues, and downtime issues at that.
Just letting you all know that I've left the club today - just sold my SV to a local Atlanta collector. Fortunately it is just temporary, as I've decided to buy an LV.
As one of the earlier recipients of a machine (mine was delivered on May 5th), I have had my share of problems. I have witnessed the many improvements that have been made since those earliest "prototype" machines. I have replaced all the boards, the CPU, the monitor, all coils, wiring harnesses, flipper bats, weapon/xeno targets (multiple times). Almost everything under the playfield has been replaced with "upgraded" versions. The machines shipping today are vastly improved from the one I received - and that is the reason I'm in for an LV. This time I'm going to go with a "later run" LV - just to be sure that somebody else is working the kinks out first 
FYI my machine has been playing awesome since the last batch of upgrades (v3 targets). I have finally been able to just play the game and enjoy it - and it truly is one of the greatest ever. David Thiel's sound package is unmatched.
Cato is the only reason I'm still a PB customer - from the first time he responded to a support ticket at well after midnight his time - I've had nothing but first class service.
Best of luck to everyone still waiting for their machines, and see you back here when the LV starts shipping.
Quoted from TinyBlackDog:Just letting you all know that I've left the club today - just sold my SV to a local Atlanta collector. Fortunately it is just temporary, as I've decided to buy an LV.
As one of the earlier recipients of a machine (mine was delivered on May 5th), I have had my share of problems. I have witnessed the many improvements that have been made since those earliest "prototype" machines. I have replaced all the boards, the CPU, the monitor, all coils, wiring harnesses, flipper bats, weapon/xeno targets (multiple times). Almost everything under the playfield has been replaced with "upgraded" versions. The machines shipping today are vastly improved from the one I received - and that is the reason I'm in for an LV. This time I'm going to go with a "later run" LV - just to be sure that somebody else is working the kinks out first
FYI my machine has been playing awesome since the last batch of upgrades (v3 targets). I have finally been able to just play the game and enjoy it - and it truly is one of the greatest ever. David Thiel's sound package is unmatched.
Cato is the only reason I'm still a PB customer - from the first time he responded to a support ticket at well after midnight his time - I've had nothing but first class service.
Best of luck to everyone still waiting for their machines, and see you back here when the LV starts shipping.
Welcome to the LV club.
Quoted from TinyBlackDog:Just letting you all know that I've left the club today - just sold my SV to a local Atlanta collector. Fortunately it is just temporary, as I've decided to buy an LV.
As one of the earlier recipients of a machine (mine was delivered on May 5th), I have had my share of problems. I have witnessed the many improvements that have been made since those earliest "prototype" machines. I have replaced all the boards, the CPU, the monitor, all coils, wiring harnesses, flipper bats, weapon/xeno targets (multiple times). Almost everything under the playfield has been replaced with "upgraded" versions. The machines shipping today are vastly improved from the one I received - and that is the reason I'm in for an LV. This time I'm going to go with a "later run" LV - just to be sure that somebody else is working the kinks out first
FYI my machine has been playing awesome since the last batch of upgrades (v3 targets). I have finally been able to just play the game and enjoy it - and it truly is one of the greatest ever. David Thiel's sound package is unmatched.
Cato is the only reason I'm still a PB customer - from the first time he responded to a support ticket at well after midnight his time - I've had nothing but first class service.
Best of luck to everyone still waiting for their machines, and see you back here when the LV starts shipping.
Start buying your mods...lol
If you need help ask Red_Devils , he is a addict.
Once they start going, I’m wondering how long it will take them to satisfy the orders for the LV. They bumped it up to 1000, what’s Pinball Brothers production capacity ? Spooky can make a comparable roughly 1250 machines in 18 months with about 70 games per month. Are they first starting the “LV” builds / shipment in Q1 2022 or will any of them ship in Q4 2021 ?
Quoted from TinyBlackDog:Just letting you all know that I've left the club today - just sold my SV to a local Atlanta collector. Fortunately it is just temporary, as I've decided to buy an LV.
As one of the earlier recipients of a machine (mine was delivered on May 5th), I have had my share of problems. I have witnessed the many improvements that have been made since those earliest "prototype" machines. I have replaced all the boards, the CPU, the monitor, all coils, wiring harnesses, flipper bats, weapon/xeno targets (multiple times). Almost everything under the playfield has been replaced with "upgraded" versions. The machines shipping today are vastly improved from the one I received - and that is the reason I'm in for an LV. This time I'm going to go with a "later run" LV - just to be sure that somebody else is working the kinks out first
//<![CDATA[
window.__mirage2 = {petok:"7ea690535f97e50ea16879f4629cea94a0bd4972-1634607146-1800"};
//]]>FYI my machine has been playing awesome since the last batch of upgrades (v3 targets). I have finally been able to just play the game and enjoy it - and it truly is one of the greatest ever. David Thiel's sound package is unmatched.
Cato is the only reason I'm still a PB customer - from the first time he responded to a support ticket at well after midnight his time - I've had nothing but first class service.
Best of luck to everyone still waiting for their machines, and see you back here when the LV starts shipping.
Awesome, he asked for my address so I assume he is sending v3 targets. I am buying mine used and it’s from the first run as well. The previous owner never registered it and it has about 200 plays. Did yours gradually have problems and you had to replace all that? Or should I be ordering some parts?
Quoted from Zablon:There are some, but what you are mostly hearing about is people who had to be at the front of the line and if they are operators, should know better on not only this machine, but in pinball in general. There aren't that many games out there, and you are going to hear about the ones with issues the most.
I'm sorry they are having issues, but mine has been pretty problem free. Is it stable enough for on location play? I don't think so, at least not yet. It's been fine for home play.
I find it hilarious that someone is going to throw out that 'Stern doesn't have these issues' when there is thread after thread with just that. Different issues, still issues, and downtime issues at that.
I run numerous Sterns, JJP, Spooky, and even Dutch machines along with all the other stuff I have.
The arcade I own is the largest in the South. Probably 3rd or 4th largest in the country and we put these through the ringer in tournaments as well.
I can tell you Stern games bang for the buck are better at holding up. Is their customer service great? No. Spooky and PB have way better service but just because you have great customer service does not mean your games hold up.
To say it is "my fault and I should know better" is asinine. People don't put a lot of plays on these in their house, so of course they aren't going to have issues.
I am not some random person regardless of thread after thread of game issues with some of these. People complain about coil stops and dimples on the pf when Spooky has opto madness in TNA on a daily basis even to this day in some places and fuse after fuse after fuse holder after wiring after coil after wtf else on Rick and Morty.
Not even going to get into how Pirates of the Carribean was by JJP and that game isn't made for a reason but you know, people still believe JJP for why it is not made when they knew 100% that game was a nightmare for everyone and is a house of cards.
Quoted from DreamTR:I run numerous Sterns, JJP, Spooky, and even Dutch machines along with all the other stuff I have.
The arcade I own is the largest in the South. Probably 3rd or 4th largest in the country and we put these through the ringer in tournaments as well.
I can tell you Stern games bang for the buck are better at holding up. Is their customer service great? No. Spooky and PB have way better service but just because you have great customer service does not mean your games hold up.
To say it is "my fault and I should know better" is asinine. People don't put a lot of plays on these in their house, so of course they aren't going to have issues.
I am not some random person regardless of thread after thread of game issues with some of these. People complain about coil stops and dimples on the pf when Spooky has opto madness in TNA on a daily basis even to this day in some places and fuse after fuse after fuse holder after wiring after coil after wtf else on Rick and Morty.
Not even going to get into how Pirates of the Carribean was by JJP and that game isn't made for a reason but you know, people still believe JJP for why it is not made when they knew 100% that game was a nightmare for everyone and is a house of cards.
I owned a early build standard POTC. It was route for 2k plays and the only issue was playfield chipping. Not a bad experience at all with my Potc and it’s an awesome playing pin.
This is getting super off topic. You sold your alien because of the issues. If you’re still that pissed go start a thread on the crappy build quality of PB Alien. Then you can have other folks to complain about it instead of trying to convince owners they have a shitty pin. If I start having a bunch of issues with mine I will come join you
Quoted from Happy81724:I owned a early build standard POTC. It was route for 2k plays and the only issue was playfield chipping. Not a bad experience at all with my Potc and it’s an awesome playing pin.
This is getting super off topic. You sold your alien because of the issues. If you’re still that pissed go start a thread on the crappy build quality of PB Alien. Then you can have other folks to complain about it instead of trying to convince owners they have a shitty pin. If I start having a bunch of issues with mine I will come join you
Negative people are useless.
Quoted from DreamTR:I run numerous Sterns, JJP, Spooky, and even Dutch machines along with all the other stuff I have.
The arcade I own is the largest in the South. Probably 3rd or 4th largest in the country and we put these through the ringer in tournaments as well.
Is it Game Terminal ? If not whats the name of your spot ?
Quoted from DreamTR:I run numerous Sterns, JJP, Spooky, and even Dutch machines along with all the other stuff I have.
The arcade I own is the largest in the South. Probably 3rd or 4th largest in the country and we put these through the ringer in tournaments as well.
I can tell you Stern games bang for the buck are better at holding up. Is their customer service great? No. Spooky and PB have way better service but just because you have great customer service does not mean your games hold up.
To say it is "my fault and I should know better" is asinine. People don't put a lot of plays on these in their house, so of course they aren't going to have issues.
I am not some random person regardless of thread after thread of game issues with some of these. People complain about coil stops and dimples on the pf when Spooky has opto madness in TNA on a daily basis even to this day in some places and fuse after fuse after fuse holder after wiring after coil after wtf else on Rick and Morty.
Not even going to get into how Pirates of the Carribean was by JJP and that game isn't made for a reason but you know, people still believe JJP for why it is not made when they knew 100% that game was a nightmare for everyone and is a house of cards.
All that experience and you don't know to not buy the first games off the line of an unproven company? Come on man. Even I know that. I was VERY hesitant to even buy the end of the first batch. I'm not trying to be a dick about it, I'm just stating the obvious. There's literally around 40 games in peoples hands. Surely you didn't think they were going to be problem free? I get what you are saying about Stern, but that was my original point. It should be expected because they've been selling 1000's of games a year for decades. Expecting that from what was already a problematic game from a new company is very optimistic. *edit: don't misunderstand, I too think companies really need to have better QA before letting these things into the wild. Some of the choices PB has made is baffling and can only be explained with cost cutting. The thing is, we already know that isn't happening because most games are selling out sight unseen within hours, and companies are finding they don't need to worry about it.
I've still had LESS problems with Alien than I had with R&M. *knocks on wood*.
Quoted from Zablon:I've still had LESS problems with Alien than I had with R&M.
This doesn't bode well for me since I have a Halloween on order, and it's my first Spooky.
Quoted from mrclean:This doesn't bode well for me since I have a Halloween on order, and it's my first Spooky.
Nah, R&M is solid once the code was worked out and a few...not minor adjustments to the orbits were made. Hopefully they've been learning. I love the game. If Alien hadn't come out just before, I would have bought HWN or ULT.
Melbourne
Quoted from Happy81724:I owned a early build standard POTC. It was route for 2k plays and the only issue was playfield chipping. Not a bad experience at all with my Potc and it’s an awesome playing pin.
This is getting super off topic. You sold your alien because of the issues. If you’re still that pissed go start a thread on the crappy build quality of PB Alien. Then you can have other folks to complain about it instead of trying to convince owners they have a shitty pin. If I start having a bunch of issues with mine I will come join you
You should be able to say what you want here about PB Alien, good or bad. It's being very "woke" to not accept criticism and saying to make another thread about it.
Quoted from Happy81724:I owned a early build standard POTC. It was route for 2k plays and the only issue was playfield chipping. Not a bad experience at all with my Potc and it’s an awesome playing pin.
This is getting super off topic. You sold your alien because of the issues. If you’re still that pissed go start a thread on the crappy build quality of PB Alien. Then you can have other folks to complain about it instead of trying to convince owners they have a shitty pin. If I start having a bunch of issues with mine I will come join you
I didn't sell my Alien. I still have it. Running in my arcade.
So yes, I can say anything I want about the topic. This isn't some gestapo shit here. I own the game, I run it on location for people to play on free play.
You fail to see I am trying to keep this running so people can PLAY IT PUBLICLY.
Sorry, the fact of the matter is the game has issues. The company is dealing with it, but this romanticizing of boutique stuff needs to stop.
And you are very lucky on the POTC. Every one of them ends up having the same issues eventually.
Quoted from Zablon:All that experience and you don't know to not buy the first games off the line of an unproven company? Come on man. Even I know that. I was VERY hesitant to even buy the end of the first batch. I'm not trying to be a dick about it, I'm just stating the obvious. There's literally around 40 games in peoples hands. Surely you didn't think they were going to be problem free? I get what you are saying about Stern, but that was my original point. It should be expected because they've been selling 1000's of games a year for decades. Expecting that from what was already a problematic game from a new company is very optimistic. *edit: don't misunderstand, I too think companies really need to have better QA before letting these things into the wild. Some of the choices PB has made is baffling and can only be explained with cost cutting. The thing is, we already know that isn't happening because most games are selling out sight unseen within hours, and companies are finding they don't need to worry about it.
I've still had LESS problems with Alien than I had with R&M. *knocks on wood*.
I bought the game from someone who played it 50 times, already had the CPU and stated there were no issues with the game. We can't get the game until next year sometime at the least so I figured this would be fine from that, but slowly but surely there were small issues not detailed about the game which led to the more common big issues people need to be aware of.
I just bought someone's SE order spot, supposed to arrive within the next month or so. It's the first time I've bought a game without ever playing it. Hope it's a good replacement for Dialed In!
Quoted from DreamTR:I didn't sell my Alien. I still have it. Running in my arcade.
So yes, I can say anything I want about the topic. This isn't some gestapo shit here. I own the game, I run it on location for people to play on free play.
You fail to see I am trying to keep this running so people can PLAY IT PUBLICLY.
Sorry, the fact of the matter is the game has issues. The company is dealing with it, but this romanticizing of boutique stuff needs to stop.
And you are very lucky on the POTC. Every one of them ends up having the same issues eventually.
Great! Glad to still have you in the club.
Quoted from DreamTR:this romanticizing of boutique stuff needs to stop.
Why?… Romanticizing new games, including new themes, new mechanisms, new art packages, etc - no matter where they come from - is practically the reason for pinside. Wishing success to boutiques is positive for the hobby. Boutiques open doors for new possibilities and push larger manufacturers towards a better product.
Are we going to be able to connect a shaker to the SV or are they going to purposely limit to the LV?
Quoted from javagrind888:Are we going to be able to connect a shaker
when there is a will there is a way !
Quoted from SDpinballer:Why?… Romanticizing new games, including new themes, new mechanisms, new art packages, etc - no matter where they come from - is practically the reason for pinside. Wishing success to boutiques is positive for the hobby. Boutiques open doors for new possibilities and push larger manufacturers towards a better product.
This is absolutely right. We need more people with positive "we can do it" attitudes instead of negative, "life sucks" attitudes. If I operated with the life sucks attitude, all my games would be broken and no one would be motivated to help me out. No wonder your stuff is broken if your attitude is that everything just sucks and can't be fixed.
Quoted from SDpinballer:Why?… Romanticizing new games, including new themes, new mechanisms, new art packages, etc - no matter where they come from - is practically the reason for pinside. Wishing success to boutiques is positive for the hobby. Boutiques open doors for new possibilities and push larger manufacturers towards a better product.
You can wish them greatness but be realistic.
Predator and Magic Girl and who knows what other mess are calling with others money well spent.
I called out the Predator mess on here years ago and was shunned for not being positive.
On here I am shunned for BUYING the game because "I should know better" and you guys are defending that but glossing over issues that need to be addressed?
Ok pot meeting kettle.
I'm for if you own the game (or owned) you can speak your mind positive or negative. You aren't doing it in a vacuum. We all know this game is problematic to begin with.
DreamTR I don't thnk anyone is glossing over the issues. We are all very aware of them..mostly prior to getting our games. I've been trying to balance the negativity in that I have one of the latest games and am not having many of the issues others are. To me, this points to things improving on the builds - or maybe I just got lucky. Hard to tell because only a handful of people are posting. I think we all know it is still far from perfect but PB do appear to be trying to fix things.
Quoted from DreamTR:I didn't sell my Alien. I still have it. Running in my arcade.
So yes, I can say anything I want about the topic. This isn't some gestapo shit here. I own the game, I run it on location for people to play on free play.
You fail to see I am trying to keep this running so people can PLAY IT PUBLICLY.
Sorry, the fact of the matter is the game has issues. The company is dealing with it, but this romanticizing of boutique stuff needs to stop.
And you are very lucky on the POTC. Every one of them ends up having the same issues eventually.
Your concern on issues is fair, we are also seeing improvements.
The ironic (& confusing) part of your comment on "romanticizing on boutique" games is...that you went and bought one (used) for public location.
I have to ask - you had to be romanticizing a bit here - thinking this game would be cool to have in my collection on location.
Being the realist that you claim to be - why in the heck would you even buy a boutique game in the first place based on your comments.
Seems like a double standard.
What you need to do is stay away from the boutique games period - anything you put on location should be mass produced (in 1,000's of) games.
You then should be good - for the most part.
Quoted from Zablon:I'm for if you own the game (or owned) you can speak your mind positive or negative. You aren't doing it in a vacuum. We all know this game is problematic to begin with.
DreamTR I don't thnk anyone is glossing over the issues. We are all very aware of them..mostly prior to getting our games. I've been trying to balance the negativity in that I have one of the latest games and am not having many of the issues others are. To me, this points to things improving on the builds - or maybe I just got lucky. Hard to tell because only a handful of people are posting. I think we all know it is still far from perfect but PB do appear to be trying to fix things.
I believe only early adopters have had the majority of the issues. So PB has been resolving problems... and very well in my opinion.
As for the negative Nellies, if someone wants to discuss the problems they're having here, that's fine, but rather than just posting, "My game has problems, life sucks," post the solutions like I and others have done. When someone is just bellyaching all the time, no one wants to listen because it is not helping anyone.
Quoted from brado426:I believe only early adopters have had the majority of the issues. So PB has been resolving problems... and very well in my opinion.
As for the negative Nellies, if someone wants to discuss the problems they're having here, that's fine, but rather than just posting, "My game has problems, life sucks," post the solutions like I and others have done. When someone is just bellyaching all the time, no one wants to listen because it is not helping anyone.
Mine was one of the first ones. There has never been a issue big enough to register it with Cato. Now I have done it to get the v3 targets. It did sound like many had issues in the first batch because he said he was very happy that this is the reason I put in a ticket. I’m moving it down to the basement here in a little bit hope I didn’t jinx myself 
Quoted from DreamTR:but this romanticizing of boutique stuff needs to stop.
Quoted from cpr9999:you had to be romanticizing a bit here
8F45F5C8-78D8-4B41-9267-5B2C5B8909F6 (resized).jpeg
Sandhurst
Quoted from brado426:I believe only early adopters have had the majority of the issues. So PB has been resolving problems... and very well in my opinion.
As for the negative Nellies, if someone wants to discuss the problems they're having here, that's fine, but rather than just posting, "My game has problems, life sucks," post the solutions like I and others have done
I know of games just delivered in the past week that are having issues out of the box and need replacement parts. Cato is providing them, sure, but it's not just 'early adopters'. The biggest issues on this game still have no 100% solutions either (games crashing and locking up, xeno not grabbing ball reliably, etc). You can't just shut down discussion because there's no solution to something yet...
Quoted from KrisGonzo:in-depth discussion with an owner of Alien
Nice interview! Thanks for sharing
Quoted from brenna98:Nice interview! Thanks for sharing
nice guy.. he got a lemon.
Quoted from zacaj:I know of games just delivered in the past week that are having issues out of the box and need replacement parts. Cato is providing them, sure, but it's not just 'early adopters'. The biggest issues on this game still have no 100% solutions either (games crashing and locking up, xeno not grabbing ball reliably, etc). You can't just shut down discussion because there's no solution to something yet...
I never said shut down discussion... I said share solutions with a positive attitude.... not just "It's broken and I'm hopeless" complaints.
Quoted from zacaj:I know of games just delivered in the past week that are having issues out of the box and need replacement parts. Cato is providing them, sure, but it's not just 'early adopters'. The biggest issues on this game still have no 100% solutions either (games crashing and locking up, xeno not grabbing ball reliably, etc). You can't just shut down discussion because there's no solution to something yet...
I'd say we're all still early adopters.
So do we have people with a confirmed working game that doesn't need restarted every now and again and is doing what is supposed to do for long periods of time? I was under the impression we did but I dont see a whole bunch speaking up.
Quoted from Chalkey:So do we have people with a confirmed working game that doesn't need restarted every now and again and is doing what is supposed to do for long periods of time? I was under the impression we did but I dont see a whole bunch speaking up.
What’s a long period of time? I played mine for an hour with no issues. I’ll play it tonight as well.
Quoted from Chalkey:So do we have people with a confirmed working game that doesn't need restarted every now and again and is doing what is supposed to do for long periods of time? I was under the impression we did but I dont see a whole bunch speaking up.
I played mine problem free for hours upon hours for a 3-4 days after I got it. Then on the 5th day, it locked up 3-4 times within 20 minutes. And since then, it's 95% been fine, with occasional glitches that require reboots, and a few balls stuck in odd places. The most problematic thing has been the Xeno mouth/tongue randomly deciding not to set itself on boot up (which requires a reboot) or not working properly during a game.
Supposedly, many of the glitches may be related to interference, and I haven't moved cables around yet, but it hasn't been bad enough to take the time yet.
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