Joined the club yesterday! My buddy Mageek came over and helped look it over before we turned it on. He was an early adapter and knows the game well, and made adjustments to the coils plus some tweaking.

I installed his airlock mod which is awesome and really makes the screen pop. Easy to install, too. Remove screws and attach over existing plastic so your screen is protected.

We checked all connections before powering on and everything looked good.

Turned the game on. Game powered on, press the start and ball wasn’t kicked from trough. Went in switch text and discovered ALL coils on right side were not firing. My heart sank. Kevin figured it had to be a fuse or a connection. We tried to check fuses, but the middle one will not open. Have to raise a ticket for that. Was able to check other fuses and reset the connectors on top of the black box. Turned it on and she worked! Played for hours, stopping to tweak the game and then play again.

Still have some tweaking to do.

My habit trail from the shooter lane is slightly bent and causing the ball to fail every now and again. It will keep kicking until it serves the ball so not a big issue. Will need to remove and bend.

From factory the right orbit is “clunky”. If you shot the ball from left orbit, the ball will catch the right target as it exits. We assume this is factory as his game had the same behaviour that, too. We tweaked it a bit by bending target and moving rail out a bit. It worked for awhile, but we may not have tightened the screw enough as it returned. I’ll look at that tonight. Hoping I can just push the metal rail out a bit and tighten screw. Kevin drilled a new hole for his and I have to admit it plays great. Will see.

Common issue on the saucer still exists. Even turning down coil, the ball sometimes hits the bottom of the ramp. Need to put some material under the ramp to soften the hit.

Some tips for new owners:

1. Go over connectors from cabinet to head. Just do a quick look and push them in. Mine was good. We also did a visual check under playfield. Note, there are connectors on switches that are not connected to anything.
2. Double check nuts under playfield and make sure they are good. A few were loose on mine.
3. Double check flippers and make sure they are tight. I didn’t and one flipper had to be adjusted as it wasn’t tightened
4. Revise coil settings per Magkeek:

For Xeno in V2.4 set Adjustments > Coils> Adjustment 20 > Center Magnet +30 AND Adjustments > Alien(s) > Adjustment 42 > Magnet Capture Time 10 or higher , I have mine at 13

Turn down coil strength for trough and lane coils

I want to say thank you to Pinball Brothers and early adapters. Kevin and I noticed several improvements on my game from his early run game:

1. They must have added an extra foot of cable for the connectors to head. Early games are really tight. Lots of slack on mine
2. Phillips screws! Early games, like Kevin’s, have torque screws. They have gone to mostly Phillip screws and it’s a welcome improvement.
3. Improved boards. My game shipped with 2.4 code and version C board.
4. Latest and improved switches
5. Improved mechs. Kevin noticed some mechs were improved on my game. I cann’t recall all of them, but I recall he pointed out the tongue on the Xeno has something covering the tip to protect it.
6. Hypersleep ramp is smooth and looks great. Early games have bend lines. That’s the only way I can describe it.

What a fantastic game. Really happy to add it to my collection.

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My experience went well. Hopefully yours does as well.

In my case, he offered to put in the garage. We then chatted about pinball for a few minutes

In my case, I told the driver just leave it on driveway and opened the garage to get the dolly. He offered to put it in my garage. Who was I to say "no" . We ended up chatting on the drive way for a bit which was nice. I told him about a few spots in Ottawa to play pinball.

Very generous to throw $20 his way, Drain-O. Good karma coming your way You are certainly right, we are very fortunate to be able to own these amazing games. And I certainly remember when $20 was a big deal.

PM Mageek He makes both and they are awesome.

Opps he beat me to it. That guy in post before mine

Probably a good decision for you.

Honestly, the problems being reported are no worse than I'm seeing with other manufactures.

Buddy bought a Rush and the screws were over torqued. A TON of screws feel out and he had to move mechs and make new screw holes. I see Stern games needing flipper fans as they are over heating. Playfiled issues at JJP, etc.

Knock on wood, my SV is working well. I had an issue and raised a ticket. I also let Tommy at Nitro know and he called me! That's amazing support.

This is my approach for now as well. I've got 2.4 dialed in and the game is playing great. Mageek has updated to 2.5 and said the sound and video are even better with some additions. I'm excited to see those. He also mentioned he's had it freeze up which was an issue on earlier code. Turning the game off and on again resets it and it works again.

At this point 2.4 is excellent. I have an issue with the left flipper dropping if ball hits it. Happens most frequently when ball is shot from air lock. Going to check settings tonight and see if I can address that.

Anyone on the fence, this game is killer. And PB support is outstanding.

Cheers,
Duane

That's what Mageek told me Maybe I'll change my mind when I next play his game. At this point, I'll stick with 2.4. Other than flipper issue, it's really solid.

I just used my hand. Just bent a little which made a big difference. I didn't want to use pliers and scratch the metal.

Had a group over on the weekend. Alien was on for 6 to 7 hours non-stop and worked flawlessly. Everyone agreed the game is awesome!

Just spoke to Mageek. My mistake. He says 2.6 is good.

I thought he said he was still having issues with 2.6, but it's good.

So scratch this: "Mageek and I are sticking with 2.4 for now. He went to 2.6 and found a few bugs. 2.4 with some coil adjustments is fantastic. PM me your email and I'll check with Mageek. I suspect he has 2.4."

Sorry my mistake, just spoke with Mageek. All is good with 2.6 at least with Kevin's testing and he plays Alien alot .

2.6 is excellent. I'd suggest you upgrade. I held off on upgrading and then did it as I had one lingering issue in 2.4 even after adjusting coil strength. My left flipper would drop from a solid ball hit if it was in the up position. 2.6 took care of that. Before updating to 2.6 remember to reset your coil strength if you have made any adjustments.

You were right. Start button selects the gun. Seems overkill to drill a hole in the lockdown bar, insert a push button, and wire it up. Pretty easy to hit the start button when you want to select a gun.

Cheaply made? The ramps are a thing of beauty. The sculpted Alien head looks amazing. If made by Stern, the ramps would be plastic, it would be a narrow body, and there would be no molded Alien head w/ a tongue that comes out and grabs the magnet.

I love the game! I cann't stop playing it. A buddy and I have one and I still play it when I visit his house.

BTW, ALL playfields dimple. Even Williams. I originally didn't think so, but on closer look at my Williams games, I see the dimples, but there are so many it looks flat.

And you won't knock your nuts or accidentally hit the gun HARD with your head when you get up after picking up a screw, drop to the floor and get a big bump on your head for a few days. Ask me how I know...LOL