Aww man I replaced my pop bumper skirts and bodies and now the pops don't work. The switch does not register in the switch test but the coil fires when in ball search. I did all the work with the game off and did have to cut and splice the LED wires together but they work fine. Ive even lifted the pf up with a game running to manually press the pop bumper switch but nuthin.!@# Anyone have a clue or tip?

Im getting ready to buy my second pin and am waiting on the new stern announcement. But after watching a lot of gameplay of black knight I am really torn. This game looks awesome. I love the theme and the idea of a brutally hard pin. I havent gone thru the whole thread but whats the consensus on pro vs premium? Im not a huge fan of secondary playfields. But if the premium is better I am ok spending the money.

I played both at a convention recently and albeit the extra playfield doesn't seem to add a whole lot I had a lot more fun on the premium and I have absolutely no idea why...

Thanks for that. Another question buying pins in general. Are distributirs willing to negotiate on nib pricing? When i see a BK premium for 7600 shoukd i expect to do better?

Best prices for new seem to be happening at conventions usually as they don't want to take the machines back. The bigger the convention though the easier they sell them anyway. So, results may vary.
You can always give them a call or shoot them an email and see if they have a better price than advertised - maybe picking it up by yourself and paying cash so they don't have to eat the credit card fees if they are local.

Good advise thx. To trll you the truth i most likly will buy and want the distributer to deliver and setup. Maybe I csn negotiate that part. I did that with my deadpool but that was from a pinsider who bought one and never opened.

I do not know which distributors offer a white glove service, you'll have to look, but I would assume that they would have to be local to you for that and may charge extra but that is pure speculation.

You may always contract the setup out yourself or see if either somebody here may be willing to help or if you have a local pinball league or association member that could help out.

For me, the ability to stack Triple Knights' Challenge multiball and Catapult Multiball to earn an in-game non-wizard mode 6-ball multiball alone made the Premium worth it for me. Plus I liked the art package on the Premium the best out of the three - and it's the only one of the three where the Black Knight is brandishing the Sword of Rage on the backglass. While I like the translite/mirrored backglass on the other two and I know the big thing on the playfield is the flail, the game is named Black Knight Sword of Rage, not Black Knight Flail of Rage.

I've played the Pro and it's great too (LE is pretty much the same as the Premium except for cosmetics.) They are each great in their own ways. If there's any way you can go someplace and play a Pro and a Premium/LE for about 30 minutes each before placing your order, you'll be glad you did as that will ensure you get the one you like the best.

And if there are things you like about the LE over the others, you can add a lot of the same stuff later (like a shaker motor) for less than the cost of the LE.

That's the best advice and the way to go I think.

It's quite a bit of money and if you're unsure between the two - make the effort to spend some time on both. You'll then make a decision you're 100% happy with.

thanks to the above and good advise. none of my main spots around me(im in NJ) have a black night yet. So I need to find someplace to try it out. Might just need to make an appointment at distributers showroom

I usually buy pros but in this case it's a total game changer with the upper pf. Imo it changes the game for the better. I could say play both and decide but I personally think that's a waste of time stating the obvious.... I'm never really fussed on cosmetics either but if you can still pick up an Le it's one of the best looking games I've seen in the flesh. The LE backglass in particular is stunning.... a true backglass, way better than the premium and pro translites.of you have the coin go premium on this title and get another title in pro which is less stripped down.

What’s the latest on the topper ? Will Santa or Hannuklause be able to deliver

If you can try them in a distributor's showroom, by all means do it. That way you'll be playing games that are far closer to what you'll get NIB than by finding ones on location that may not have had the best upkeep - even if it's not initially visible. You don't want someone's lack of attentive maintenance tainting your opinions of any or all models. Distributors are far more likely to have very well-functioning and well-maintained games to play on their display floor since it will hurt their sales if they don't.

Damn 16 new posts I thought we had a code update or topper info

I thought the exact same thing!!! Was ready for the new code.

I agree on this. There are games I love playing but cant stand playing them setup wrong(or just much different pitch) or in bad shape. Sorry to make everyone think theres a code update! Just wanted to pick brains. Im torn on my next purchase and this one is right there. Really depends on how stranger things looks if that is indeed the next stern.

Ok. So here is my .02.

I own an LE. but do REALLY enjoy the pro due to speed and NO upper playfield. But add the shaker, better sound, powder coated armor, and magic glass and I might as well go all in on an LE. But both versions are fun to play!

There's some wiggle room for sure. My local distributor has a large showroom and 100 NIB pins in his warehouse. I've never bought anything there before. I walked in two weeks ago wanting to buy a BKSOR Premium and started playing the Pro, Prem, and LE machines in the showroom. When the sales guy came up to ask if he could help me with anything, I asked him if they'd discount the $7499 any if I paid in cash money. He said unfortunately no, and we continued to talk pins for a while. After a bit of chit-chat, he could tell I was serious and said he could come down to $7200 and he'd throw in a shaker motor. Sold. And he also knocked off $100 from the optional $199 delivery charge (for $99, it was worth it to have their two guys take it down to my basement without me and my 17yr old having to navigate the 3 corners down the narrow stairs). Brand NIB BKSOR Premium with shaker, delivered and set up for $8000 including sales tax.

The dealer installed the shaker onsite for me and I updated the .94 code to 1.00 before they left in case something went wrong.

The only downside (and it's no big deal) is that while it's NIB, it's an older manufacturing date (June) which means I need to do a few things:

- Install the Plastic Assembly #43 Replacement Kit for the upper playfield (actually did that this week)
- Install the missing washer in the upper flipper stack that causes the ball to occasionally get stuck on the ironing-board-looking-plastic (slated to do this weekend)
- Install a smaller rubber ring around the post to the right of the "R" at the top of the bottom playfield so slow balls don't get stuck there (slated to do this weekend)

As I understand it, all of the above have been corrected on the assembly line with the later machine builds.

Any chance you could share some pics of that? Hoping to possibly do the same thing.

Can't help you but maybe you can help me. Can you tell me what type of LED and Sockets are used in the bumpers?

The thing is Stern NEVER promised anything or made official announcement that Black Knight SoR topper would be delivered or available to ppl for X-mas (unless i missed something). The only thing stated by S. Ritchie was they HOPED to get it ready for X-mas and that's all.
All in all they can't be blamed or take the piss for something that was never announced in the first place.

Thats helpful. Thx

That's exactly, precisely, unequivocally spot-on correct.

The grumbling (mine included) stems from Stern teasing "Black Knight Friday" and then only releasing a second pressing of the soundtrack album on a different color wax.

Traditional Black Friday instantly creates thoughts and images of big doorbuster announcements and discounts. Given that so many of us have been absolutely drooling for the topper since images and video of it were released at Pinball Expo in October (me too: I was one of the many who first saw it on the Stern tour) and the new code that would be released to go along with it (topper integration plus many other new game features), it was impossible for us NOT to presume it would be released that day. And it was impossible NOT for us to grumble when our expectations were dashed.

But as gkralicek noted: Steve, Tim and the team only said they were working TOWARD and HOPED that it would be ready in time for folks to order and receive by Xmas.

In the end, while slightly disappointed because of the whole Xmas-present thing, I'm happy to wait. The BKSOR topper is clearly quite far along and we've already seen something close to its final physical package if not already the final physical package itself. I'd rather they take their time and make it the best topper of all time from an operational/game play integration standpoint as well as physically.

Compare where we are with the BKSOR topper with where the Star Wars topper crowd was with their topper nine months after their game's release. Then compare what we are going to get with what those fine actually folks got after all the intervening time. And we're going to have ours in far less time.

So again, I'm happy to wait for the best BKSOR topper possible. That said, please hurry up!!!

The pops have little LED boards so no bulb or socket.

That's what I feared. So there's no way to change that "meh" soft warm white...

Just pull the board out and put another in. Or replace it with a socket.

I agree, Stern certainly didn't make any promises. But a Black (Knight) Friday tease for just a vinyl when we're all eagerly awaiting the topper and new code isn't doing them any favors I've wondered if the topper release was originally planned for Black Friday, along with the new code and the vinyl as an unexpected bonus. However on the lead up it had to be delayed for various reasons. Rather than cancel the vinyl release, the marketing team decided to run with the same tease on the lead up anyway for just the vinyl. The vinyl is cool and if it wasn't for the over the top shipping costs for international buyers, I'd have grabbed one without a second thought. But the vinyl alone is not worthy of a Black (Knight) Friday tease. Or any sort of tease really.

I found it interesting too that the topper and code didn't get a single mention in the Stern December address. That makes me think possibly a late December / January release.

Still a few days left between now and Xmas though. Maybe we'll see their social media team put a post up in the next few days along the lines of "I hope you like it cold! Christmas at the Black Castle - December 24th - Come and get it!". Then surprise us all with a Black Knight key chain in the shape of the topper as a last minute stocking filler that has call outs from the game

I've spoken to Marco's Specialties and they had a program where they would sell "demo" games that they bring to the shows at a significant discount.

My wife emailed Stern today about the topper. Their response was, it goes into production in two weeks so there you go. She got a response right away, probably because it wasn't playfield related LOL.

You mean you can ask the hotline things and they answer?!

What is this concept called?

Why'd most pinside users never heard of that but insist to speculate their **** ***?!?

SCNR

When ever I hear "two weeks", that translates me to as indefinite

Unrelated to code & topper - I'm curious what you guys have your game level (bubble) set at. What incline have you found works best for you in terms of playability?

Well, Christmas is 2 weeks from today. Perhaps they'll start production that week and maybe even open it up to place orders ... maybe even in time for another reason to celebrate New Year's Eve. But that's a lot of perhaps maybes, so I'm hoping for it but not counting on it.

Regardless, we know it's still not that far off in the grand scheme of things.

Got the new BK album!

20191211_202019 (resized).jpg

Dang!!! I just went to order this and it is sold out! Crap.

There are already several on eBay for $100+.

I want the original baby blue one now. The blue ones were on ebay i should have got it back when i saw it

There is! replace the pop body with transparent yellow (thats what I used) orange or red transparent pop bodies by zitt. Then I used tranparent red skirts too. I will post a pic tomorrow. Mine look sweet, they just dont work

It's more the Warm White LEDs that bother me, but I'm curious to see yours.

So I could buy some Red colored boards? where?

Mathazar - thanks for this list. I just picked up a NIB LE that has a May 2019 build date, so I'm fearing that I'll need to do all of this on my machine as well. One other question I've got - did you also install an add-on capacitor harness that addresses some GI lighting and shield flailing issues? I've read about this earlier in this thread (see post #1569 - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/black-knight-swords-of-rage-club-honourable-knights-only/page/32#post-5306113) and was curious if you had this installed as well? If so, do you have a Stern part number for it?

Thanks.

FYI, knock on wood, replacing EVERY upper GI bulb solved my error and she issues with node board 8. Either was a bad bulb or a whacky wire that got “fixed” by jostling things around changing bulbs.

Anyway, I ended up not needing the capacitor, at least after a solid month of testing.

EightBitWhit - I don't have that add-on cap harness installed on my Premium. I had read that post last month but I'm not experiencing any GI lighting or shield flailing issues (have about 70 games on the clock now). I figure I'll cross that bridge if/when I get to it.

Got the pops working as the new skirts were pushing down the switches. Here's a pic of the transparent yellow bodies and transparent red skirts.

bk pops (resized).jpg

bk pos 2 (resized).jpg

Thanks for that Mathazar - greatly appreciate the insight. I've sent a note over to Stern and am awaiting to hear back on getting those parts.

ezatnova - that's good to hear, but it seems a bit odd that it would be required. Did you swap out for all new LED bulbs, or did you pull them all, do a rotation and then install the stern-supplied bulbs back (but with different bulbs in different sockets)?

Does anyone know when this topper is getting released? Will it be on Sterns website?

Hopefully they work and are better than Star Wars topper.

Reportedly going into production around Christmas. See like 5 posts up.

The capacitor I got from my distro fixed mine, but gi replacements also seemed to fix others. Its a weird problem to say the least. I would be more concerned with the likelihood your pf art is a sticker not screenprinted…. watch carefully around the posts for wrinkling etc.

All new bulbs.