Pinball start-up disasters. Zidware, SKitB, Heighway Pinball and Dutch Pinball. Would make a nice 45 minute documentary. Hopefully no preorder for it.

This is a very glass half full take. The guy didn't know what he was doing, spent everyone's money and lied about status, doing "2 week" schedule slips for a year. To the point where he was not just bailed out but needed to be removed from the company to proceed forward. It would not be a success tale of Andrew but the people that saved it from him.

You know I never noticed the lack of Sigourney Weaver in this game until someone pointed it out recently. I guess it shows how the films have enough great scenes and content to stand alone without her.

Sorry, I shouldn't have used that word - I meant that it's a transaction for a previously undocumented relationship between entities - I'm not sure what the proper banking term would be

What risk are you talking about?
From my experience, the client provides the wire instructions. They typically receive that info from the bank that's to receive the funds.
They then confirm the numbers (account numbers etc/instructions) before the sending bank transmits the wire payment.
With the customer signing off before it's submitted, the bank takes zero risk. Especially since the wire authorization that's signed by the customer waives the banks liability.
Banks transfer huge sums of money routinely. It's what they do. Even more so when you get to the Commercial/Business side of things, vs the Personal side -but many, many clients transfer what most of us would consider "large" sums of money frequently.

Millions of units pushed internationally are tracked at a very different level than up-to-100,000 which is what most banks will do. The bank takes a huge bite out too, so they have an interest in keeping the hassle low. When you're transferring that much money, lawyers can get involved if there's an issue

I agree. She was there in the first movie. The first hit. But the idea so strong. Much stronger than one person.

Alien became a universe and joined Star Wars and Star Trek as a premiere title.

I believe gigers vision fueled it all, with alien. They have the whole franchise to thank him. It is still running. Beyond his death.

I bet he smiled when I saw it. The other day. Giger. His art and vision so powerful.

Giger probably smiled when you watched it too.

Aliens is a top 5 favorite movie of mine, so needless to say I want to own the pinball someday, but the sad state of the Canadian $ prevented me from getting involved in pre-ordering, even though it had worked out very well for me with WOZ and Hobbit.

With no money at stake, but very much wanting the pin to get made, I can honestly say at this point I'm cautiously optimistic that I will someday have the opportunity to own an Alien.

These new investors sound like they have a plan, and a very solid product that at lot of people want to buy, if they are smart and have the resources to get past what is going to be a rough transition period, all of us may someday have the Alien pin we want.

Wire transfers, Documentaries, refunds, and new management...a lot of denial in this thread.1000 posts 2 weeks later this has become the "Afterbirth of highway pinball" thread.

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Well at least it earned him one helluva impressive up/down ratio

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The way things ended with Andrew and Heighway Pinball is pretty damn consistent with his prior business adventures/experience. People may remember the examples posted by Kim (Mr.68) that caused such an uproar here.

Let's see:
Heighway Leisure Limited, dissolved
Modeinput Limited, dissolved
Leamington Go-Ball Ltd, dissolved
A1-Boss Limited (as company secretary), dissolved
Andrew Heighway Racing Ltd, dissolved
A1 Shopping Malls Ltd (as company secretary), dissolved
Twenty Twenty International Limited, dissolved
Cross Atlantic Marketing Limited, dissolved
Heighway Pinball Limited, still trading...

EDIT:
Mr68's post is here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-official-game-thread/page/141#post-3301083

My personal assessment of the man I worked for: Great salesman, lousy businessman. I hope he never does it again.

After the first week in charge, the new owners have already made their mark. What follows in the weeks ahead is how a company should be run by smart, experienced people. All refunds paid, all issues fixed, all games built and shipped, full support for owners, new games developed...it's all happening.

But I'm with you guys.....talk is cheap, show me something. We will.

What are you talking about, dude? The game is an absolute disaster right now. If by solid you mean "bricked", then yes.

I think you're missing the point dude; it's themed after Alien & Aliens. Do you get it now? TOP 10 BABY!

That's a little dramatic. The guys that actually built the game say it's 99% done. The people that actually have the game have spoken to any lingering issues. If you have kept up with things you'd know there are only a couple issues to address as far as the game being 100% done.

? Have you read the thread?

Kulek said that about Predator. A "popular" poster here backed him up for months. Poof! Money's gone.....

Said what? The game is 99% done? This is a company that has already produced and delivered Full Throttle. I don't think the situation is the same at all. How many Predator's were made and delivered to people? How many games did they produce before Predator?

What are you contending? They have invested a bunch of money to take over this company that currently is bringing in ZERO money because nobody is buying the game, they are waiting for the game...what would be their scam? They are tricking everyone in to not asking for refunds so they can lose a little less money?

Please explain in detail how they are scamming because it sounds like a terrible scam plan.

Let's be real. Heighway is not scamming anyone. They actually delivered Full Throttle. Alien has potential to be produced. Unfortunate there have been issues/delays and it is debatable of the causes and mismanagement of the company. There is no reason anyone should stay in at this point. Everyone should get refunds immediately. The Alien pins that have been delivered are not complete production games and we all know that they have issues. This re-birth of the company has a lot to prove and win trust of consumers. They have a great opportunity to do this and be successful. Hope the best for everyone. But currently no one should give this new management any credit until they follow though. If they do then it will be great for everyone that wants this game. If they fail it will be another lesson for others to learn from to not follow again. We as a community need to quit being the start up capital for new pin companies...unless they offer you ownership and profits.

Now a proven company such as Stern is perhaps different....people are giving money to distributors to secure a game...not finance a company to start up and build a game. Don't agree with the practice of that but it is what it is.

That sounds like any new pin in the last 10 years.....

Vid....I agree and you could easily compare issues of the new Sterns but they are complete games. But i will say it really seems they continue to increase price and reduce features.

But I truly hope Heighway makes it. Competition is a good thing. It can drive innovation, new features, and possibly stability in prices. Also higher quality games may also result.

Funny how the op made one post in this thread and then abandoned ship.

Good. Hopefully means they are getting shit done instead of wasting time on the internet!

You blame him?

The new owners have not even taken possession of the company yet, and the whole thread is "Hey, I emailed them this morning for a refund, and I STILL have not heard back. Same old Heighway!!!!"

Smartest thing that Heighway 2.0 could do right now is abandon Pinside and let actions speak for themselves. By not commenting further shows me that new management is smart and they have quickly learned the Pinside lesson. We eat our own here.

New management have introduced themselves along with some goals and that's all they need do at this point.

Like Ritchie said , it's a cancer here and you sure don't want to get that
So they left.

Sometimes it's better not to stick your foot into a polluted lake to begin with.

Three simple things to avoid that.

Don't lie or obfusicate facts.

Respond to and address concerns/problems before they become bigger issues.

Be transparent. If xyz caused a delay, say xyz caused a delay. Don't make something up and do some hand waving.

If you are honest and direct with people and actually listen and address their concerns, that will go a very long way even if there is a production delay. If you are dishonest, ignore people, or brush off concerns, then credibility, patience, and goodwill go out the window.

It's my personal opinion that most manufacturers who used to post here failed at one or more of those things, which resulted in negative reactions from people in return.

Completely agree. They've reached out to me ( and suspect others who have ordered) directly...I'm very comfortable with their statements and approach at this point. I'm actually more excited, optimistic than ever that these things will actually get made and thrive.

Them posting here is poison, period.

I think these are all valid and accurate objectives...suspect conveyance on a public forum is nearly impossible at this point. Go straight to the end user with the good, bad, ugly....this generally leads to a positive outcome. Take the same info, post it on a public forum allowing speculative interjection is business suicide, imho.

They will not get a " win" on here, period, by posting anything. The company and machines will speak for themselves in forums based on performance criteria alone

I stand neutral as a bystander at this point. But my being neutral is a 180 degree turn for me from the completely pessimistic mindset I had just a few weeks ago.

Interesting times.

Full throttle flat out doesn't work. Alien isn't done. They've not shipped any complete non prototype games. There are MAJOR issues with it. Have you ever played one?? I have. It's not a commercially viable machine. It's very poorly made and it's can't be trusted on route. Game over, dude.

Odd. Been on route for a few months now. Aside from ocassional and intermittent light inserts flickering or going out in certain modes, it is VERY commercially viable. That GOTprem next to it is sold and Alien is still there. You do the math on which one is dominating at the location and which one was not...

We have not had anything but a few minor issues IMHO. All mechs have been solid and dealling with flakey lights is really jot a big deal for the vast majority of people playing on route. i actually just got a text from a stranger five min ago telling me thanks for putting out the game and they are loving it.

But what do i know... we only operate 33 games now... so I guess i Don't have much of a reference for if a game is commercially viable or not, lol.

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How's that xeno head going, working well?

Quite an admirable stance, actually, imho...

Hence the point of my previous post.....amazing the lack of memory retention on here....a now landmark machine had the most monumental problems upon release....seemingly a death blow for both the machine and the company....obviously not.

Pinside isn't going to "save" or " destroy" Heighway, they will do that on their own ( and may not even need saving, regardless).

Being involved or not is a personal choice...but if you enjoy our small, niche hobby, not wanting them to succeed is ludicrous.

Actually our xeno mech works fine. I have it disabled as it can ocasionally stick out while in multiball and that could cause an issue cause I would then have to stop out and power cycle to bring it back in. Xeno mech is not necessary and the game functions the same without it. Better safe than sorry.

Your first sentence contradicts the second sentence.

The xeno mech is the main interactive toy on the game.

If it's not working in a commercial environment where people are paying to play a game, it should be turned off with an out of order sign.

lol. I have 1 fully working in my basement. Swing by if you are in Denver. We can place a wager on it if you like

"game over dude."

Lol. It is a neat toy but you obviously have zero idea on any of the game play in the game and now are just trolling for effect. The xeno mech when turned on grabs the ball exactly once in a game, when you start ambush mutliball. Ambush mutliball works just fine without the xeno tounge grabbing the ball. Ambush is only one of four main multiballs and a small part of the total game. You obviously also have no idea how operating works or that the majority of people are stoked with the game even how it sits. I have games on route where all sorts of options are tweaked in the settings to make them play better or reduce stuck balls.

I didn't realize the xeno mech was only used once - seems like an opportunity in the future to improve .. this could be adjusted with a code update to make the mech more frequently used, yes?

It still growls and has other action. Only physically grabs the ball once in the currently running code.

Understood - I just meant that this is probably something that would potentially only get better once Heighway gets on its feet again

Absurd. You could not possibly have played the game.

From post # 951

• Playfield Toys – a lot of work has been spent on this over the last few months. We felt that the current toys did not do enough justice to the license and so we have reviewed this. New toys are being worked on now. In particular, we have a very exciting xenomorph toy that is intended to become the main toy for this game.

You may have missed it... they are improving (have improved?) the xeno mech over what went out on the first 20 or so games.

I mean, I know you are just a hater trolling for reaction and effect... but you are starting to look silly with this.

The kings of pinball disagreed with you and that's why the games are written to compensate and have major assemblies be disabled. Demo claw... wcs ball... bsd mist track... taf magnets... and the list goes on and on. Alien plays fine without the xeno and still is viable in the home and route with it disabled

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