This will be very interesting, who's writing the new rulesheets for the new ALIEN.
I guess, the rules are very similar to the original machine, but there're some details that have to be modified or descriped differently. Also some pictures of the playfield have to be changed and it's unsure if the menu and all the settings remain the same.
But I promise, a rulesheet like that made for the original machine was unique in the entire Pinball world.
Now it's up to PB what they get by.

PB would be well advised to get out the schematics for the Heighway ALIEN.
What is the problem there... this is simply poor service?! People are supposed to buy spare parts but can't do any guided troubleshooting. Replacing parts on the off chance is unprofessional.

Haaahh, this "new" ALIEN rests upon by 95% of the original machine!
Do you believe that PB redesigned all from the scratch?

There's someone, somewhere that is responsible for the technical documentation. In my opinion the customers have the right to get all needed schematics, drawings and spare parts lists to be able to maintain their machines!
It's a shame and I'm upset about that lousy support.
For instance... PB sold the playfield PCBs with their logo on it, after Heighway got bankrupt... but why on earth, there's no schematic or else for these parts available?

Yes, you're right... this is a serious problem today and in the near future.
They should support us because we are the next possible customers and they need us for further more projects.

That's all what we want... spare is nice to have, but we need basic material, schematics and all that other stuff.
Oh yes, new IO-Boards... very nice.
Mmmmh, there's something wrong with the last version... soldered bridges.
What about more information... PB and friends are calculating on our costs until our IO-Boards are burned again?!
Again an excellent support!

I don't care about STERN.

Interesting feature is the jingle sound while the machine is stand by.

I would like to have this in our Heighways', too!

Haahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,

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Check your Airlock and Magnets and place Cliffys there to prevent damage!

Yes silicone.
Go to Cliffys website and get in contact with him: http://www.passionforpinball.com/protectors.htm
And possible here: https://www.ecflipp.fr/fr/

You have to cover the edge of the airlock scoop and use a ring on both magnets.
If not, your playfield will be damaged after a few games.
Here you see only one magnet, PB-ALIEN has a second at the chestburster right next of the right scoop with the wire ramp.

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The main problem on Alien is the magnet in combination with multi balls.
Often 2 or 3 balls get into the airlock.
The other issue is a magnet that is not adjusted and mounted to deep, so edges and surface of the playfield near by the magnet will damaged.
It's just a suggestion and experience on HW-Alien, but I'm pretty sure PB-Alien is the same.

MK6Pin made some...

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On the original ALIEN the Beacon power was reduced to ~7 Volt PWM-current.
That was decided to reduce the noise from gear driven version.
In the meantime belt driven versions were available but I never got a pair... but I got new beacons with a screw cap I use now.
This version is much better for maintenance and it use 12 Volt LED with less power consumption.

Order this version: ebay.com link: itm

Congrats

I cannot believe that PB didn't learn from Heighways' issues with the Xenomorph microswitch!
It's totally wrong to bend the lever arm... what a bad support.
Just rework the bracket to have the choice to adjust the switch via elongated holes step by step.
And if you take a closer look to these microswitches you will see that the lever arm can be used in two positions... that's the first thing to check.

Is there a manual or any other information included?

You should use the latest version available at IPDB.

No, there's a second entry below... Version 1.2.

So that's the Pinball Brothers quality assurance!
Same issues we already had with the HW-ALIEN and PB is not in a position to turn this off in advance?
Even better high-tech switches that work even crappier!
In Germany we often say: "Less is more", but this machine seems to be busted in many ways.

This is unacceptable, but what can we expect... production in Italy, as cheap as possible.

In my opinion they had their chance to make a big theme even bigger and famous - but they failed in many ways.
PB haven't done their homework and the customer pays the price again.
If the community hadn't fixed the many problems on the HW-ALIEN ahead of time, the PB would be even worse than it currently is - that's what it looks like!
I'm not impressed about the results.

OK, we will see...

Check the motherhole... if the metal is screwed the same like HW-ALIEN, sooner or later the metal gets loose and the playfield gets damaged by teared out screws!
The playfield should have been drilled beneath and the metal should have been fixed with two drive-in nuts outside, the wood screw in the middle can remain.
It's just a suggestion, but experienced by many other pinball machines with same issues, for instance WMS Indiana Jones.
A Cliffy is also available and should match from HW-ALIEN, too.

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I don't understand "grab"... mine takes every ball that's frozen on the magnet.

Ok, that's true... PF magnet gets nearly 75 % of the balls - correct.

Check the settings and compare with the recommendations in the rulesheet.

I will start my mission this evening to raise the value of the original ALIEN.

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Waiting at Gibraltar...

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Just kidding...

Found the container yesterday while heading with my sailboat.

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Glad to read that the hammer is working now!

Second ALIEN is still in progress...

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One in the basement...

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... and another one in the living room.

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Me too

No grease, just right adjustment of the driver board to increase gear power!

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In my opinion it's a mechanical problem with to much tolerance between the sliding parts.
PB should replace the sliding parts with plastic, similar to what it used on the Heighway ALIEN, nothing jams and the material is very stable against wear an tear.

No, it's just a suggestion, HW-ALIEN is different to the needed spare in PB-ALIEN.

Hello,

can someone tell me what thread the Phillips screws have that attach the flipper assembly to the playfield?
Heighway uses screw-in sleeves here, where the Phillips screws are screwed in.
Where can I get these?

regards
Averell

That's much better... available for HW-ALIEN but sold out.

Maybe there's a chance for a second run for PB-ALIEN?
Just write to Vimtoman...

I cannot believe what I saw in the video... still the same otpo-emitter-boards from Heighway in version 2 installed in the PB-machine?!
So keep an eye on the really bad connection of the emitter board.
And broken posts are a new level of quality... whow, what an improvement, well done Pinball Brothers.
I'm not impressed!

Every Pinball Machine gets dimples, more or less, sooner or later.

What nonsense is that... function of Xenomorph only depends on the mechanic, reinforced servo with customized connector, adjusted driver board, corrected height of the assy, metal gear and a fixed magnet in front of the tongue.
Once these improvements are done, it works properly... what is an ALIEN without Xeno tongue working?

Guys, it's the same assembly used in HW-ALIEN and it always works noisy... and don't lubricate anything there.

Remove the glass and go into the menu to calibrate the Xeno and monitor the switch' status "active" and "inactive".
Push and pull the tongue by hand from edge to edge.
As you see on the picture at the beginning and at the end the switch is "active", between (marked with red arrow) the switch must be "inactive".
At the end the switch MUST switch to "active" BEFORE the stepper motor reach the end of the gear!
Otherwise you get different errors... Retract error, SW. Stuck error or Extend error.

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Don't use the original PB/HW protector for the Airlock, use a CLIFFY, they fit much better and be more resistant against wear and tear.

Go to Cliffys' Homepage, there are all Cliffys available, they are all the same and fit on PB either.

Exactly the same behaviour like at the HW-ALIEN, if a metal sheet for the wood rail is mounted.
Remove it and you have no more issues in that case.
You will get more problems if Cliffy's for the shooter lane are installed.
In combination with the wood rail protector it's nearly unplayable.
Once a ball will reflect into the trough, the CPU will increase coil power in the same way as at the airlock scoop, so it's getting worse.
My recommendations is to decrease coil power for the ball trough, as I said the CPU will increase the coil power automatically if a ball is reflected.

Even to keep the facehuggers alive, coil power should be reduced to the maximum... Egg-Bumpers as well.
"Egg destroyed" can happen really and it's not funny to repair these damend Data/East-Assies.

There's version 1.2 available...
Version 1.3 will be released if we get a final update on HW-ALIEN!

Download link for Rulesheet version 1.2:

https://www.flippermarkt.de/community/howto/cms/media/pages/pdfs/anleitungen/Rulesheet_Alien_V1_2.pdf.pdf

No problem with magnets, but game flow and ball spin is different!

I have included lines from Ripley, Ash and Lambert in HW-ALIEN.
Mixed into the remaining ogg-files

Ripley
"It's not our system"
"Get away from her you bitch"
"Because just one of those things managed to wipe out my entire crew in less than 24 hours"
"Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew, Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain Dallas, are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off."

Ash
"I can't lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies"

I also swapped the ALIEN background music to the original theme.

If the file structure is the same, it should be possible.
I'm not sure if the system is "open" like HW?
If it is like HW-Linux, yes.

Does this PB-ALIEN have a knocker assy or do they simulate by sound?

I must say, to use these nice convolux-plastics that it works much better on PB-ALIEN because they use other screws.
At HW-ALIEN it's not so easy and a lot of rework... some spots doesn't work properly caused by stucked balls.
My recommendation is to check again and again, that no balls get stuck under the plastics, before reassembling all parts.

If you have one, keep it.
If you can get a HW, buy it.
Never swap the original with the remake.

I have an early machine here right now and it took 6 month to resurrect it.
Yes, a long time and much effort to get the parts and we made it to reproduce a lot of missing spare.
It was a whole bunch of work but the entire community had a benefit of it.
I share all information and I'm not interessted in profit or anyting else.
In my opinion the HW-ALIEN is the better choice if you have.

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I'm not afraid that the original one may loose it's value.
The resurrected machine will leave next Sunday back to it's owner, and he's so happy to have this game back in the best condition as possible.
But the real treasure still remain in the basement.

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@McDoom:
There was no customer support at all.
I bought this LE from a Pinhead in Austria... in a good condition.
All the customizing was done by myself with the support by the community.
Heighway was bankrupt and PB just gave their permission to Brian for a software update.
But later on we had software support by Brian Dominy and help by Joe Schober for the Rulesheet I wrote togehter with Per Herrman.
We also tested a lot and made a lot of spare parts via 3D printing, etc.
And not to forget the amazing Apron made by MK6Pin and this cool Motion Tracker from Vimtoman and other mods.

Maybe they should read the entire ALIEN topic?

Maybe we should take a brake?

The second magnet was a feature that should be available on HW playfield, but they later get in trouble with the space beneath the playfield.
There was also an idea to use a drop target in front of the switch, designed as a chest burster... sad it wasn't realized on PB-ALIEN, too.
You can see this feature on early drafts of the playfield.

Just my suggestion, if you order these lamps, try to get the newer version without screws in the caps.
They are much better for service and keep in mind that the HW-ALIEN use PWM-voltage approx. 7 Volt.
They made this to reduce the noise of the gear.
You have to adjust the setting for the beacons in the service menu, but if you have problems that they don't rotate you need to modify the wiring harness using diodes and capacitors, otherwise it doesn't work properly.
And if these beacons have normal bulbs, remove them and use LED to reduce the power consumption.
Very early version of these beacons had a belt driven gear, but it's nearly impossible to get them. They had the advantage of low noise and very proper functionality.
Good luck

Beacons at HW-ALIEN are activated:

• Attract Mode (after 1 game is played - remaining software bug) and if setting "Amode Beacon" (ON)
• Sentry Guns
• Queens Nest
• All Out War

Could be, it's a long time that I checked this... but Loader Battle should be implemented, too.

Yes, you're right... I remember Self Destruct during test period with software version 1.4 - Beacons on.