I have recently picked up a Black Knight 2000 as my first pin. I didn't see a club for it so I created this one.

Please post your Black Knight 2000 Pictures, stories, mods, issues or anything related to Black Knight 2000.

Here's My Black Knight 2000. It's currently a work in progress. I have some mods planned to light the drawbridge and add some lighting above the lanes under the upper playfield.

EDIT: And I need to remove that crappy diamond plate sticker on the sides from the previous owner.

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_{Post edited by NextoPin: Changed topic name}

Thanks Wayout. I searched but it didn't show up, it's even tagged with Black Knight 2000. I guess I'll remove this topic if I can.

EDIT: I see no option to delete the topic. Maybe a moderator can merge or delete them.

Well, I think I'm going to stick with this thread, Tried to edit my previous post but can't.

I'd like to see what other owners are doing with their BK2K's and how they handle some of the issues with the machine.

Some of my issues are:

The ball doesn't always start lightning wheel when dropping in from the hidden hole on the upper playfield, it's about 50/50 whether it comes out the spin lane on the lower playfield.

Sometimes, if there is alot going on, or modes like Knights Challenge start when another sound is playing, I get weird audio, is this normal for a system 11 or could there be issues with my sound board?

I need to take a picture of this but at the upper right corner of the upper playfield I have 3 pegs with a rubber around it but I looked at another BK2K and it has 3 pegs but the rubber is only around 2 of them on the pop bumper side and the 3rd, by the loop switch is a rubber peg like between the lanes on the lower playfield. How is this supposed to be set up? Currently loops are hard because the ball sometimes (most times) hits this rubber and drops the ball in the WIN lanes, usually 'N'. As a consequence getting multipliers and RANSOM letters is easier than I think it should be, this rubber also stops the ball from going around the loop to the upper flipper when the ball is launched.

According to Steve Ritchie himself (Attached), the ball should come out of the wireform and around the bend and pass in front of the upper flipper on launch. This happens maybe 1 out of 10 times on a full plunge.

I love my BK2K, I don't think I'll ever part with it. Please share your BK2K pics,stories and questions!

Williams_1989_Black_Knight_2000_An_Important_Message_To_Operators.pdf

Link Please! That's awesome!

SilverUnicorn, That's a nice looking BK2K!

Anyone else have the issue where kickback hits the drop target and goes immediately back into kickback then back into the target then back into kickback?

Also, reading the PDF from Steve it says that there is an adjustable post on the right outlane near Magna Save, has anyone adjusted this post?

My 7 year old son asked me this last night and I didn't know the answer, we are going to try it next time we have the glass off.

If you get 3 ball multiball and spell WIN and light RANSOM and you have RANSO and jackpot is lit, what happens if you make the drawbridge ramp? Do you get anything extra for getting jackpot and RANSOM at the same time?

So what settings does everyone use?

Since the kids play a bit we have it set to easy with magna save set to 3 seconds, ransom disabled on the lightning wheel and ransom mode set to 30 seconds instead of 25. My son commented the other night that he would like to change it to medium. Special is set to extra ball with a max of 3 extra balls.

Eventually we want to set it so you have to earn kickback and magna save and no free spin. Redeyes machine was set up like that at allentown and for some reason the kid wants ours like that. It will make the games shorter for sure.

Has anyone pulled their Mylar off? I hear there are some restorers who won't even attempt it on a BK2K.

After visiting PAPA we decided to set it to hard.

No Magnasave at start
No Free Spins
No WAR memory
Drawbridge closes after every lock
Magnasave set to 3 seconds
Replay and Special set to extra balls, Max 3

The BK2K at PAPA was unplayable and arguably in the worst condition of any game that wasn't already turned off. I was very disappointed. In speaking with some folks there it appears it's been like that for years. Lights were dim and the upper flipper was so weak you couldn't lock a ball. On Sunday I was able to get a tech to look at it, he believes that the upper flipper has the wrong return spring but wasn't interested in changing it out.

I get that they like to make the games challenging at PAPA but this was unplayable and had none of the flow that BK2K is supposed to have. If they want to make it more challenging, using the settings above would be a good start (I believe it is already set to the above settings), there is a movable post by magnasave that can make the outlane larger also.

It's a shame, It's such a fun and exciting game when it's playing right but it seems like they almost neglect it on purpose given it's condition, it really just needs a good shop job and have the flippers properly rebuilt and maybe a little board work. As it is now, it should be removed from the floor as it's a horrible example of the game.

The default auto replay is 10% and works just as SilverUnicorn explained. If you make it, the next game is 10% more, if not, it's 10% less, I think there is a minimum though.

I changed my settings to hard and enjoy the game much more now (and it pisses me off much more now also).

Download the manual, you can see what all of the settings are, and what they do.
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/311/Williams_1989_Black_Knight_2000_Manual.pdf

I also lowered my magnasave time from the default 5 seconds to 3 seconds to try and reduce the wear on the magnasave graphics, not sure why they didn't put a circle of mylar there.

I know this is somewhat ghetto, but I took a small piece of aluminum tape and traced around a dime with an exacto knife and placed it in the center of the magnasave to keep the ball from wearing out that spot any worse until I could get to restoring it. The sticker would do pretty much the same thing, but I didn't want to have issues removing it once I went to restore it.

I don't think the sticker would alter play any more than the edges of the mylar do.

Here's one I can't find an answer to:

Did they ever come with black legs?. I have the illuminati plastics version and black legs. I thought that someone had replaced them, but the legs on the BK2K in pinball arcade are black and it also has the futuristic plastics.

Is there any way to see how early in the manufacturing run a machine was made using the serial number?

Since we are comparing, take a look at this pic. See how one of the legs on the ball track is longer than the other by about 1/8th inch? Mine were even. I think this adds rotation to the ball twards the sling as if falls off the end of the chute.

I think this change happened when the plastics were redesigned. This pic is from the BK2K at PAPA HQ that has the castle plastics. Mine as I said, has the 'Eye' Plastics.

Sorry for the blurry pic.

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Sorry, I didn't mean it went into the sling, just twards it. Do you have the castle plastics?

Strange.

I was able to locate a technical drawing of this part in an attempt to recreate it and the blueprint shows these as the same length.

Are all of your star posts clear? Mine are blue except for the ones behind the left targets, a couple next to the knights challenge hole under the upper playfield and the 2 behind the drawbridge.

Funny all the little differences.

If you can't find them, you might be able to make a set, there are a few guides on making them with a color laser printer and water slide decals.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/my-guide-to-making-your-own-reproduction-plastics

it should go in line with the ball guide. if it's against the wall it won't have enough travel to get the ramp the way it should. You should be able to put it into the bumpers with the upper flipper, though you might not be able to with how fast the new flippers will rip the ball around the loop, but on a plunge or out of the bumpers you should be able to get it to both sides of the ramp.

Here's a setup guide (I think I posted this above)

http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/311/Williams_1989_Black_Knight_2000_An_Important_Message_To_Operators.pdf

It show's the flipper against the wall, but that's not how I have mine, but I haven't upgraded the upper flipper.

You will have a bit less travel until the stop breaks in a little also. It might get better as it breaks in.

Chris,

Is there more to the operator guide than what I posted?

I'm still using stock flasher bulbs but I found these, maybe they will help.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/led-flasher-question-on-system-11-pinbot

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flasher-problemquestion-system-11

5 ball is only a default on older ROM's. What ROM are you running?

I have mine set up a little harder than default. installed medium hard, Set drawbridge to medium so it closes after each lock. No free spin, no magna at start. no free balls for replay or special, you have to get an extra ball by 2 skyway loops then drop down and hit the skyway ramp within 6 seconds I think. Then it's 3 loops and 4 seconds for the next one. My high score is currently 13mil and my friend who's alot better than me has the current high score of 19mil.

I don't know what the other differences are other than 3 ball instead of 5 ball. I've never been able to find change logs or anything for the ROM's.

One thing that I think would be cool is if you could restart knights challenge by hitting the scoop again within a few seconds of losing a ball. It always seems like I can make that shot right after the ball drains.

This is a known issue. I made a post about it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bk2k-jackpot-question

I don't know what the fix is, I suppose you could goto switch test and manually lower the drawbridge and sling balls into the lock and see what switch it is.

Please post if you find the cause or fix. If you smack the side of the cab when a ball goes into the lock it seems to help.

I just ordered a bunch of stuff to spruce mine up and make a cool lighting mod idea I came up with.

Here's a question for the Black Knights in the hizzle:

On your own BK, or ones that you have played, on a normal full plunge does the ball fall into the WIN lanes or make it around to the flipper?

Lighting mod, not lightning mod lol.

I'll post pics, it's for the drawbridge and ramp.

I've thought about a lightning mod, but it takes alot of equipment to make tesla coil. I played around with sound activated lumniglass that I was going to put over the pop bumpers but decided against it.

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I have a mix of LED and incandescent. All my flashers are incandescent. I just installed the LED bumper cap rings, they look cool and when the bumper rings drop the reflection of ring's bottom light's looks like a flasher inside the bumper body.

Pinsider Jean-luc-Picard sells some stickers for them that block your direct view of the LED's. I think now that I see them in person I'm going to get them along with a set of new caps.

I have a lighting mod that I'm going to do for my drawbridge. I'm going to light the targets and tie them to the 1,2,3 lights. I'm also going to light up the drawbridge ramp with the Jackpot and Ransom lights. I'm going to add another roller switch to the drawbridge motor so the drawbridge lights only work when the drawbridge is up and the ramp lights only work when the drawbridge is down.

I have league night in a few weeks, so I'm not going to mess with it before then, but it's on the list.

I like the incandescent flashers because they kind of fade as they turn off so not as much of a strobing effect.

Has anyone powder coated their wireforms?

I was thinking yellow or blue, there's already alot of red in BK2K. Maybe even the purple color that's in the playfield.

This was discussed in this thread
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/mylar-is-dull-and-cloudy-can-it-be-polished-can-it-ever-shine-nice#post-1846559

I don't know if there's a correct answer, I think it may have varied during production. I have looked at a few BK2K's both in person and looking at pictures online. It appears there should be a black rubber on that post, but some of them have the white rubber going around all 3 posts there.

I got to thinking about this. I just recently learned that my camera has a slo-mo option, I think I might try to set it up and record the ball going around this corner. Sometimes the way it bounces back it seems like it's hitting the loop switch mounted right above that area.

I don't think there is much you can do. Mine does the same thing. If the drawbridge isn't down all the way then it's going to bounce off it like a speedbump. I can't think of anything you could do that wouldn't interfere with it's operation and prevent if from happening since the ball is in play when the drawbridge goes down. I don't think it would break the glass but it does scare the shit out of me when it happens.

The only ones I have are broken, but you should be able to make some pretty easy.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/my-guide-to-making-your-own-reproduction-plastics

There's one other thread like this, but I can't find it at the moment.

I will try to take a look tonite. it's hard for me to get to the backbox without moving some pins. Where is the part located, behind the lock on the side?

Here are some pics after we did some modifications on that corner. The green posts are supposed to be black, but it was all I had at the time. It's a little easier to loop now but JJJ is still the loop champ

It' seems the problem on mine might be with the metal ball guide throwing the ball into the win lane dividers. I still need to set up a slo-mo recording of the loop so I can see what's happening there. It doesn't seem to hang up in the WIN lanes when the ball is coming from the lower playfield, only when it goes around the upper playfield loop.

I'm also still trying to decide on what color to powdercoat the wireforms. Blue, Purple (lavender) or yellow. Kinda leaning toward yellow at the moment.

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It sounds like the lamp matrix. Go into the diags and goto single lamp test. Document all the lamps that are on in addition to the lamp tested. Check the back of the manual for the lamp matrix chart and you should be able to determine what row or column is having the problem. Report back and we can assist, the lamp matrix on mine was borked when I got it, turned out to be a resistor pack on the CPU board, but that's not as common as some other issues.

Lamp Matrix.JPG

I replaced one of mine by cutting a section from a Bic ball point pen. It's just to support the plastic and you can't see it. Nice thing about the original ones is that they stay in the plastic when you remove it.

This is the one I want to get.
ebay.com link: BLACK KNIGHT 2000 TOPPER MOD FOR WILLIAMS PINBALL

bk2ktopper.jpg

I started a Black Knight Group on Facebook for those interested. Strictly Black Knight Pinball related posts.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlackKnightPinball/

Sucks about the board.

The backglass scratches are likely from someone not putting the retaining screw in the backbox insert latch and it fell on the glass when the head was down.

The broken flasher socket , if it's the one I'm thinking of, over the skyway ramp, is caused by the socket rotating and getting crushed by the ball guides on the lower playfield. If not, it's from a ball hitting it. I'm going to get LED flashers for mine, some of the ones under the upper playfield are pretty exposed to the ball.

Are your red rubbers the same diameter as the yellow ones? The lane shots are supposed to be hard, that's why they used the yellow ones. Mine came with these skinny green ones, maybe the previous owner thought it was too hard with the yellow ones, dunno, I replaced them.

One LED change I made that I love is put a red or bright red 555 LED in the center of the lightning wheel where the knight is.

Your game looks great. I payed $2100 for mine in about the same shape, though it was sold to me as it was in better condition also. I think this game will hold it's value so you should be ok if you ever decide to sell. Also the subwoofer makes a huge difference with this game and sounds great.

RANSOM is the wizard mode for this game (one of the first, if not the first game with a wizard mode). It does not end the game and is repeatable. The Black Knight decides when the game ends.

It's in the manual (top of first page of this thread) in a chart but I believe the difference between the multi ball difficulty is medium and harder goes up after each lock. hard puts the drawbridge up for 2nd jackpot and ex. hard puts the drawbridge up for all jackpots.

This guy get's it. It happened to me at 17, I got to play it brand new in the arcade. It was all I played when I went there. Once I got multiball I was hooked.

The power pins in the interconnect will sometimes cook and need to be replaced along with a new connector. Did you have any luck fixing it? This is the area, and this is a picture of the wrong way to fix it.

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This could be a few things but it's likely the pins in the connector. It could also be that there is a lamp nearby shining into the opto's. Not usually a problem with incandescent but if you have LED's around there it's possible the light is making the opto think that the target is down.

What Mod are you referring to?

Those shots are great! I just ordered a playfield protector, I'll document the install once I get to it.

Thanks, Great info there, I assume it applies to system 11 also?