Quoted from brado426:

I totally agree... there are certain bells and whistles I want... but I'd rather get the SE and just pay for and add the ones I want. So far, the only thing I really want beyond the SE is the beacons.

Quoted from TinyBlackDog:

Here are some comments on my Day 1 w/ Alien SV.
Packing: The machine is packed very well and arrived without any damage. The legs are placed on top of some thin styrofoam sheets at the top of the box, and the styrofoam didn't really hold up (it was in lots of tiny pieces). Nothing got damaged but I think PB needs to find a better way to pack the legs.
Cabinet: The cabinet is made from 3/4" plywood with black laminate on both sides. This seems to be used on all sides of the cabinet and the backbox, and should hold up really well. The build quality is excellent. There are clear plastic leg protectors attached to the cabinet - I kind of wish they were metal but they do the job and keep the legs from touching the cabinet and digging into the decals. Some have complained about the artwork (I don't agree - I think it looks just fine) - the decals are high quality and installed professionally. There is really not a single blemish on the outside or inside of the cabinet. I checked the speaker/sub wires before raising the head and they were plugged into the correct connectors.
Playfield Bottom: The slides on the bottom of the playfield run from front to back and allow you to pull the playfield out just a little or almost all the way. The playfield also rotates and stands vertically so you don't need to rest it against the backbox when working on the bottom side. Really nice clean design, with much of the wiring being zip-tied on the upper side of the rails. The bottom of the playfield is really clean (see Retrocengo's awesome unboxing video if you haven't already). There are no exposed boards - they are all enclosed in black metal cases either on the cabinet floor, attached to the bottom rear of the playfield, or in the backbox. There are 3 fuses in one of the boxes on the cabinet floor. More later on why I know where they are located
Setup was much like any other NIB pinball machine. There were 3 screws rattling around in the cabinet - two of them from the coin mechanism (these fall out of Sterns all the time) and another from one of the light boards. I installed the balls, put the glass back on, and fired it up for the first time (on off switch is under the cabinet where it belongs, though not in the typical Bally/Williams location).
“CABINET I/O NOT FOUND. CHECK DIP SETTINGS = 0. AND USB CABLES CONNECTED"
None of the playfield lights came on. Great. So I turned it off for 10 seconds and back on and this time it booted up successfully. The Xenomorph went through its power on test and I was able to play my first game. My first few games I was just getting a feel for things. The flippers felt a bit different from your typical strong Stern flippers. The slingshots are noticeably weaker than the Stern "outlane cannons". I noticed a couple of issues within the first game or two:
1. The MUTHUR eject was bouncing balls off the ball guide and not feeding cleanly to the upper left flipper. Need to tweak the angle of the coil bracket underneath.
2. Balls can get hung up on the hyper sleep ramp as they make the U turn at the back of the playfield. Need to take the plastic off and look closer.
However, before I could look at those minor issues I ran into a more significant one. I was in the middle of a multi ball and the MUTHUR and Airlock eject coils stopped ejecting balls. They eventually got ejected by a ball search but got stuck again. Shortly later my left flippers stopped flipping. I powered off the machine and back on and could not get it to boot up cleanly. I tried 4 times, with slightly different messages on the screen. At this point I called Melissa at Cointaker and she fired off an email to PB Support. Melissa suggested reseating the connectors in the backbox so I did that as well as connectors on the black cases in the cabinet and back of playfield. Nothing seemed to be loose and it didn't get me past the boot issue.
It was already mid afternoon (i.e. evening in Europe) so I added some details to her email and assumed I wouldn't hear back from PB until the next day. Much to my surprise I got an email about an hour later with a link to sign up to the PB support site (which is powered by Freshdesk). As soon as I logged in I saw a couple of FAQ messages - one that matched the error I was seeing on the screen and indicated it was due to a specific fuse blowing. I found the fuse had blown, replaced it, and was able to get it to boot up successfully. A few minutes later I got a very lengthy email from Cato at PB support addressing everything I pointed out in my email (about 6 different items). It included an offer to do a Skype call to walk through my problem, which I didn't need cause the fuse had already fixed it. It turns out that several of the items I brought up are already known and they are in the process of fixing in a future bios update. Moral of the story - if you see the message "Volume 10" on the screen during boot up - that means replace the rightmost fuse They'll clean that all up I'm sure - pains of being an early adopter.
From that point onwards, the game was trouble free and my son and I played it all night and he has been playing it this morning too. I still have occasional issues with the MUTHUR eject that I'll look at, as well as the hyper sleep ramp hangup. I think all of my switches are working properly.
Xenomorph: So far the Xeno mech seems to be doing what it is supposed to do. The mouth opens and closes when it is supposed to and the inner magnet does what it is supposed to. The only issue, and I think this was an issue with the OG as well, is that the playfield magnet doesn't always grab the ball. If you hit a slow shot right into the center of the target it always works, but a really fast shot or one that glances off the side and doesn't roll near the magnet, gets missed. I'm not sure how this could be resolved without increasing the size/power of the magnet. I know that the TWD prison and well walker magnets work similarly and seem to be more reliable. Not sure. Anyway I think the Xeno itself is working properly.
The game is such a BLAST to play. I'm going to try and get some gameplay video this weekend. I also want to take a look at the backbox extension connector with a multimeter and see if beacons might already be supported. The bass level is really good - you can feel it on the lockdown bar - so I will probably not worry about a shaker motor anytime soon.
Let me know if you'd like pictures or videos of anything in particular. Besides gameplay - I already know about that.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the screen. I absolutely LOVE the display location and size that was chosen. It is considerably larger than a Stern display (18.5" diagonal vs. 15.5" diagonal) and I prefer it being located at the bottom of the backbox vs above the speakers as in a JJP or the OG - much easier to glance up and see things. The display is really high quality. I think this is my favorite LCD display (quality + size + location) I've seen from any manufacturer. Some may wish for a bigger display mounted higher up but this is just PERFECT in my opinion. If I could get a no-cost upgrade to a JJP style display I wouldn't do it.

Quoted from TinyBlackDog:

I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on the game until Saturday. I decided to pull the glass and look at some of the things I’d been noticing. Some notes in no particular order:
1. I had balls getting stuck on the hypersleep ramp. I pulled the plastic off the top and found that one of holes in the plastic was drilled slightly off. When attached, it torqued the ramp in a way that narrowed the top slightly and caused balls to bind. I drilled the hole a bit wider and the problem is fixed completely. PB was aware of the issue and is sending me a new corrected plastic.
2. Several of my weapon stand ups were not registering. I took them all out and adjusted them but I have to say I’m not a big fan of their design. They are transparent and have a micro switch and rgb led attached to the backing plate (the led is not currently hooked up to anything). The micro switch on half the switches doesn’t “click” anymore when pressed. I was able to get them working again but I’m not sure this is a very bulletproof design - there is a reason leaf switches have been used for so long. I’ve asked PB to send me some replacement switches for the ones that don’t click properly. Is this the same design that was used on the OG Alien? Image attached below.
3. Fixed some other minor things - bulb had fallen out of the START GAME button, the tilt switch wasn’t working due to a loose connection, I adjusted the angle of the MUTHUR kick out coil to make it a cleaner feed to the upper left flipper.
4. There are tests in the settings for BEACON and TOPPER 2. I wanted to test the “Backbox Extension Out” connector to see if those pins are wired for beacons, but there is very little space at the bottom of the PC board in the backbox. I’m going to need to order a 2x5 molex connector (think it is .062”) and build a breakout cable to be able to test properly.
5. There are obviously software glitches. I get the CABINET I/O MISSING message on power on occasionally and it sometimes takes 2 tries to boot successfully. Sometimes the MUTHUR or airlock scoops don’t detect a ball until you hit a flipper button. I’ve had two balls ejected into play by mistake. I don’t think the logic for the upper posts that divert into the pops is always working properly. Xeno playfield magnet does not seem to grab the ball as it should. FYI PB was already aware of pretty much all these things and are working on fixing them.
6. I’m getting ball trails after not very many plays, suggesting that they are using rubber and not silicone or polyurethane on their bands. Except for the flippers which are yellow. I’m going to do my usual Titan rings and Cliffy post sleeve swap. I’ll ask PB for a rubber list and share it here.
I don’t mean to sound negative by all of the above - these were all things I expected as an early adopter and I’ve reported everything to PB so they know about them and can do a better job on future builds. The game is so much fun to play - this is a dream theme for me and the immersion is off the charts. PB is proactively reaching out to me for my experience and are obviously listening to everything I tell them. I’ve asked to be a part of their beta firmware program to help test new versions of code.
Sorry no gameplay video yet. I got another toy yesterday (a 22l Ultrasonic Cleaner) and spent the evening cleaning everything I could fit in it from my Shadow tear down. Hopefully soon.
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Quoted from BlackFlag:

TinyBlackDog Many thanks to you !!
Hell no, ALF is not a cat, ALF eats cats !! That's the reason why we asked him a hand to find Jonesy :p
The video is (unfortunately) impossible to translate as plenty of dumb references to french movies, culture and so pop all the way, all the time !
The only "serious" things that should make sense for non french people are the explanation of the rules as missions comes up, the overall rating from my friend Julien who made the video, and the thanks mentions to the french distributor (France Flipper) and my friend Cato Paus Skrede (PB lead programmer) for his help and patience
Concerning my MUTHUR lane kick, it used to be much powered until a screw became really lose and fell into the cab. Since i re-tight everything it became smoother. Maybe your have not a perfect alignement between coil and plunger ? and with coil power it blocks until a sudden release when a certain spot is reached ?? ... or mine is too underpowered ?
Now, heres the other adjustments done on my machine :
Right + Left Flip = +10%
Upper Right Flip = +25% (as the Hypersleep ramp is pain to climb!)
Upper left Flip = Factory default to avoid drop targets destruction.
Lowered the kicker to -5% as sometimes the ball pulls out like hurricane.
Now, concerning the up posts by the bumpers, we have the same feeling here. It seems they don't always come out but not easy to check while playing.
I bet on a code issue for that.
My main issues are/been :
Random Xeno initialization scheme
Random Xeno work : sometimes i feel like the xeno and the magnet are not working synchronioulsy
Lock 1 (opto) in Hypersleep chamber not perfectly aligned, now Opto 1 is fine but move to opto 3 (certainly after after re-assemblig the ramp)
Sometimes a ball step between reserve and shooting lane, due to the small plastic part which preserve the playfield but just shaking smoothly the machine pull the ball either back inside or in the lane.
And rarely randomly either the machine don't notice the (last) ball is drained or on the opposite consider you've lost the last ball then shut down flip and ... "You failed" ! :p

Quoted from Lethal_Inc:

Any updates from the ones who got machines already? Playing better? Replacement switches doing the job? Having some anxiety from people posting the game still has issues. I hope these get fixed.

Quoted from brado426:

I also replaced the puny bulb that was in the Launch Ball button with a nice bright 2-LED bulb. Wayyy better!
Question: Can someone tell me where the key for the backbox is? I have the keys for the coin door, but I see no keys for the backbox. Did they forget to include?

Quoted from AMSNL:

Cool! Now also do the chrome trim in green

Quoted from kciaccio:

Has anyone done the pinstadium NEOs on their new game yet? Thinking about ordering them before it arrives.

Quoted from Oneangrymo:

Does anyone have a video of that upper playfield magnet in action? Does it freeze the ball to setup for the ball lock shot?
Thanks

Quoted from rockrand:

Have owners noticed the soft flipper buttons on this game,I can breathe on them and they will activate yes you can adjust them but the problem is the switches them selfs,the blades are just thin week and soft,I just did not like the feel of them.
Changed to Bally Williams switches,much better with the flipper feel you you are use to,
Just need longer screws and it’s an even swap,well worth it.
It makes a difference in my enjoyment of the game.
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Quoted from billsfanmd:

found a local guy to powder coat. Anyone have the color green name they used to powder coat their armor?

Quoted from Utesichiban:

Can you post a few pictures of yours with that color?

Quoted from billsfanmd:

Looks great! How hard is it to get side rails off? Looks like one screw and adhesive? pry off carefully?

Quoted from mettle64:

Usually this means the balls (or the trough) are magnetized, but if they're brand new balls I'd be surprised. Might be worth trying another set. You can get around this in the trough with this kind of accessory.
https://littleshopofgames.com/shop/playfield-plastics/playfield-plastics-single-plastics/trough-anti-magnetic-shim-williams-bally-pinball-machine-upgrade/

Quoted from Zablon:

[quoted image]
Check the posts in the last couple pages that talk about an alternative way to rubber that post to make it hold up longer.