To paraphrase the Joker “What happened? Did his balls drop off?”

Sorry, but these call outs completely ruin the image of the Black Knight for me. When I want humor with my knights and castles, I’ll play Medieval Madness.

So perhaps another adjustment can be created in the next code release. Call it Black Knight Persona. Options are Evil Badass or Bully Wuss.

To each their own.. i havent installed the new update yet but ill be sure to voice my opinion as well.

Pro vs Premium. Is premium worth the extras?

100% this. Not a fan of the soft callouts. Really like the polishing the game got everywhere else, but I’ll likely revert back to .94 if 1.0 goes unchecked. I was totally turned off by it last nite!

Re: spinner not settling. Make sure the spinner arms are square as well as the bracket and that nothing is binding. I put a little bit of graphite lube on a q-tip and applied sparingly to the two arms as well as the flat of the switch lever where it contacts the activating arm and my spinners are super juicy.

I am ok with the call outs add some nice variety , but I get the argument .

Thanks, Chalkey! Really appreciate it.
Got a few things to tweak on the playfield so I will definitely check everything and do as you suggest.

I'm totally serious about the adjustment (well ... OK ... name it KNIGHT HUMOR with a YES/NO option) and let the owner/operator choose based on their location(s.) Like I said, for *me* the humor ruins the image of the Black Knight from the first two games. But I totally understand that others like it and would (and should) be allowed to keep it.

The easiest way to keep everyone happy now that humor has been introduced is to give us the option to choose via an adjustment. That way if/when I get tired of evil Mr. Meanness kicking my butt, I can always press the secret buttons to give him a humorous persona. Vice versa for those who prefer the humor too.

Agreed. Phenomenal update in every other regard.

You know what we need...... adult mode callouts. Make it so, Tim and Steve. Instantly makes it a cult classic

Bahaha this is a much better idea than mean knight mode.

Rage over the knight getting progressively less confident is a pretty bold take. Just get pinball browser and copypasta the mean sound files you want over the other ones.

I don't want redundancy - I want depth. Of course if Steve would be willing to record some additional "confident knight" callouts, I would gladly install them. Then again, if Steve would record those additional callouts, why not just put them in the game in the next code release with the afore-suggested adjustment?

So if in Return of the Jedi Darth Vader said "C'mon Luke ... let's put down our lightsabers and chat about this" you would have been fine, would you? (said at the risk of giving Disney any ideas.) I want to play against Black Knight Evil, not Dr. Evil (plus there's already a game for the latter if/when I ever do.)

I love the new humourous callouts. I'd totally keep it set that way if given the option to switch back to serious.

Sold my pro to get a premium. I’m happy with the decision.

Pro is still a great game though.

**Spoiler Alert**
What happens when you beat the black knight.

I’ve been messing around with powering up the sword before going into modes. It takes a LOT of drop target completions to qualify it.

Is there some way to make this easier that I’m unaware of? A combo shot or something?

I really love this game.

I updated my LE with no problems today. I used a sandisk 16 gb usb stick. I unzipped file using macbook pro. Here is how the file looked on the drive if this helps anyone.

65001910-872B-4564-822E-941C849F7ED9 (resized).jpeg

F4AEA58B-915F-4C79-B695-EA0193B10878 (resized).jpeg

Never played the prem. I really enjoy the pro though!

I would love an Adult Mode (more aggressive, profanity-laden insults, less g-rated) on this game!

Game on location is like that the whole time.

Wow. I really like the new code. The game is much more balanced now and the upper playfield is blocked by the flail and the drop target more than before. Seems like a little more on the light and sound end of things too. Hopefully a couple more polish releases, but this game is pretty complete at this point.

I did have a minor bug tonight. The game awarded me an extra ball and followed that by saying extra ball is lit. I must have hit the extra ball the first instant that it was available and the effects go reversed!

I encountered that quite a few times over the weekend myself. Often when hitting the shield VUK to complete a mode. I'd get the mode complete screen, extra ball awarded screen and then extra ball lit screen. I sent an email to the Stern bug reporting address (listed in the patch notes) in case they weren't aware of it.

Is it essential to put the playfield protector on the upper playfield? Will it eventually “fog” up over time if not? Just got a premium over the weekend. Thank you

I’ve asked about this before and didn’t get any responses. I will tell you that the play field protector actually caused marking on my upper play field. I am not sure if this is better or worse than it would have been. My theory is that it is better because the ball can’t cut into the plastic, but I don’t know. I would love to see some pictures.

Anyone with extended, extensive play have any issues? Curious to know.

Our home use BKSOR has a little over 500 plays so far and there are no real issues as of yet, just minor scuffing.

Really enjoyed finally getting a chance to play a bunch of BKSOR pro this weekend on location. I don't really understand the complaints about it. Challenging and rewarding for sure. I'll put this machine on my radar now if I see one come up at a decent price.

I knew there would be at least a few people in this camp. I would agree if he were being a wuss right from the start, but it's cleverly programmed so he only loses confidence as the player gets closer to his castle. He is as cocky and evil as ever in the beginning, only wavering once he sees your power. I think it helps tell a cool narrative.

Just received my Premium and really loving it so far. Can't wait for some upgrades to be available. And I would also love an adult mode.

Sorry, are you saying that you have a location game that behaves the same way?

My game wasn't like this before, but I only noticed it after I did the 1.0 update. Just wanted to make sure nobody else saw it after they updated code in case it was a code issue somehow.

Yes.

Try to install the update again. The thing I wanted to say was only that I think it's propably pretty easy a cable shakes loose so the the fire Panel won't work as it should. So I would check that if reinstaling the update won't change anything.

Ah I see. Well I did a Full Update with Verification so not sure if re-installing will do much. I also had a quick look at the wires going to that LED panel behind the backboard and all I noticed was a simple 2-wire power feed to it. I might have missed someting but it seems the fire effect is created via board in the panel itself, which maybe fails after extended use on location.

I'll give Stern support a call.

To reiterate an apropos comparison: If Darth Vader started getting scared of Luke leading up to his final lightsaber battle with Luke in Return of the Jedi in this same way, you'd have walked out of the theatre.

I don't recall a big evil boss getting scared of any protagonist in any movie, video game or real-life story. To me the narrative is conflicted: on the one hand, you're building up towards that final battle with the big evil boss, but on the other hand the big evil boss is getting scared of you - and is blatantly telling you that he's getting scared of you. Totally deflates the importance of the final battle. That's why I named this persona the Bully Wuss persona. A bully really IS a wuss right from the start; the wuss just doesn't emerge until the bully is called on it/challenged. Then they quickly (to borrow the callout) run home to mommy.

If his balls suddenly grew back when final battle begins, that's inconsistent too. Sorry, but I wouldn't buy the explanation that the Black Knight is just pretending to wimp out either.

That said, I again have no issue with having the humor as an option now that it has been introduced. My beef is it was introduced WELL AFTER they sold hundreds and hundreds of the games based solely on the Evil Badass persona in both the game itself and the marketing of the game. But now those of us who want to maintain that Evil Badass persona are stuck with a Bully Wuss. And that really sucks.

I've said many times in other postings that my BKSOR isn't going anywhere. Now, I'm not only considering dumping it, but replacing it with a JJP game. The next update of BKSOR code will make the decision for me when I see if I've got a choice or if I'm going to be stuck with a Bully Wuss.

You don't like it. I understand your reasoning. I happen to like it, but I enjoy a bit of humor in my games. I am sorry you feel so strongly about it that it's ruining the experience for you though. I personally can't see something like that driving me to dump a game I otherwise enjoy (much less driving you to purchase JJP instead). Have you thought about using Pinball Browser to replace the callouts you dislike? You could simply reuse a few of your favorite taunts. Even though you'd be reusing, I am guessing it wouldn't be any more redundant than the earlier code was (before the wussy callouts existed). Just a thought. Hate you see you sour on such an awesome game over it!

It's not the game play/layout/features that I'm souring on. Those are actually what's making me hang on until the next code release. It's just hard for me to have a humorous version of the Black Knight sitting next to the first two Black Knights and a Medieval Madness (which already covers the knights-and-castles humor thing for me.)

The hardest aspect, however, is still that I bought the game in significant part because of the Evil Badass persona it was marketed with - perpetuating and intensifying the evil persona of the Black Knight that I grew up with. When Williams shut its pinball doors, I never thought there'd ever be a third Black Knight game, let alone by the legendary designer of the first two. But the miracle of miracles was formally made real back on March 26th. Instant pre-order.

I enjoy humor in my games too. But not at the expense of character. For an equally disconcerting (and hopefully hypothetical) example, imagine if the next code release for Deadpool suddenly REMOVED all the humor and cast him as a totally serious character. I'd be pretty danged perturbed about that too.

I'd also welcome an adult persona. But since the humor was sprung on us well after the game was being marketed and sold, the best way to keep everyone happy is to offer an adjustment to change the persona of the Black Knight to fit a given mood and/or location. Make the option choices HUMOROUS, REGULAR EVIL, and SAMUEL L. JACKSON.

I was going to buy bksor. I need to watch on YouTube the new code callouts. I liked the evil taunts...they got rid of that?

Why would they?

No - the evil taunts are still there.

But in version 1.00 they included additional callouts where the Black Knight begins to lose that persona and say some humorous things indicating that he's becoming afraid of your strength/power/abilities as you progress in the game.

I hope you get your wish and they add a setting. I totally get where you are coming from. Options are good, and it doesn't seem like too big of a setting request (then again I am certainly not a programmer, so no clue really). And for real LOL at Samuel L Jackson setting.

No, they didn't get rid of the evil taunts. They just added some humorous "maybe we should talk about this" second-thoughts-about-fighting-us comments during the later battle qualification. Basically the better the player is doing against his minions, the more BK starts worrying about getting his butt kicked. Some like it, some do not.

Been paying the crap out of mine for a couple weeks now. The call outs are a pretty minor component of the game, even after the code update.

I know we are a picky bunch, but using this as a reason to not buy the game seems pretty extreme.

Uhm,... you do know that the main goal & backstory in the game is to fight the Black Knight because he hoards all the arcade quarters he earned from pinball? Even being evil he is just obver the top funny and Steve Ritchie talked for 18 months about wanting to creage a "Beige Knight".

There is a skeleton with a 2-skeleton driven flamethrower.

How could anyone ever think of this as a serious game?! XD

Especially when you can swap the callouts in pinball browser.

Same thing happened to me a couple times. All having to do with the extra ball. Once it played the extra ball acquired screen twice in a row but i only got one extra ball. Another time it played the acquired extra ball followed by extra ball lit but extra ball was not lit.

Premium all the way. Not a fan of the pro ( seems a bit simple and not true to original theme. )

Uhm ... by the way it was marketed.

Perhaps you never saw any of the marketing, but take a look at the teaser trailer that kicked off the anticipation:

Then again, perhaps you saw it and it made you LOL. And that's OK if it did.

No pinball game is ultimately serious. But, just as in movies, video games and other fictional stories/worlds, you suspend your disbelief when you enter. But there still needs to be a fairly consistent and logical set of parameters established and followed to allow us to continue to maintain that suspension of disbelief.

Steve may have talked for 18 years about creating a "Beige Knight." Cool. But the game I bought specifically says "Black Knight Sword of Rage" not "Beige Knight Sword of Miffed."

For those of us who grew up with Black Knight and Black Knight 2000 and love the lawful evil nature of the character, suddenly giving the Black Knight in Sword of Rage an increasingly cowering sense of humor in a code update is not Black Knight 3 - it turns the game into a Black Knight reboot. And that's not what was advertised and why I bought one.

But again: just make it an adjustment along with adding an adult option and everyone will be very happy because whoever comes to own a BKSOR can select the Black Knight's persona based on where they're operating the game, thus tailoring it to everyone from HUO family with kids to adults-only locations.