Where can I get a topper ? Anyone know ?

Thanks

Mine came this afternoon, but I can't install it until tomorrow.

I'd love to hear about any play/earnings percentage differences the game audits show post-topper vs. pre-topper i.e., "topper bump." I expect more people will pump a few coins into it now just to watch topper do its thing, but it'd be nice to see if that's what actually happens and to what degree. Of course, I would also bet the number of coins in bars/other more adult locations would increase even further if a fourth setting was added to the knight's speech adjustment: Let's call the setting "Samuel L. Jackson."

Just check with a nearby pinball supplier or check on websites if there isn't one nearby. You may have to be put on a wait list for it since many have placed their orders on it.

I ordered my topper the day it came available and just shipped yesterday.

Who from?

Game Exchange of Colorado

Thanks, Chalkey!

Fortunately I didn't have time to install mine today (he said for the first time ever in his entire pinball existence) and got to read your post before I do it. Definitely going to check that out up front.

Discovered a few high-spots in the wire-frame ramp while cleaning. Flattening the weld and replacing the balls provides a better future, but I wonder if a ramp replacement is best. The balls were, without a doubt, ready for a swap.

WireframeWeld (resized).png

I was looking at that same wire-frame ramp on my machine earlier this afternoon-- instead of high spots, mine has low spots in multiple places, which are a bit more difficult to do something about. I've had a ball or two get stuck on them.

Never noticed this....will have to look at mine now

Going out on a limb that the 6 ball multiballs, smacking into a spinning flail, VUK’s kicking the balls, and whipping into a metal catapult on the UPF all have a lot more to do with shortening ball life than rolling over a ramp that had a bumpy weld.

For you lucky guys that have the topper now, what are your thoughts on it? Does it enhance the playing experience? How many custom call outs are there for topper owners?

I don't think the Aussie shipment is arriving until late April and curious to hear what people think of it now they actually have it on their machine.

While I'm far from experiencing most of it, it's a wonderful addition to the game. Gameplay-wise, He's pretty active although you don't always have time to look at him. At the same time, it feels like he's really "up there" watching you and waiting for you to screw up. Gives me the creeps, especially when playing in an otherwise dark room. I love it!!! He also does his thing here and there in attract mode and whenever the game is coined if not on free play.

Per @Chalkey, I did check my DIP switches before putting it on top of the game. Fortunately mine were set correctly (1st one ON, the rest OFF), but the peace of mind was well worth the minuscule amount of time it took to check.

Finally, I did make one "mod" to my topper before mounting it up top too. Since my Black Knight is never one to backpedal if he finds himself at a bit of a disadvantage in battle, I thought I'd bestow a feather on him to better match the size of his ego:

BKSOR Topper Feather (resized).jpg

Hi Houourable Knights,
Im waiting patiently downunder for our topper to arrive.
Does anyone has an topper installation video or tips.

Regards

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No video is needed - installation is EXTREMELY simple and quick. You literally unbox it, read the instructions (let’s super-generously call it 6 pages of text that are predominantly pictures and white space), remove 4 screws on top of the backbox and the access hole cap, install the feather, put the topper on the backbox (shipping weight was 12 lbs/5.5 kg) while feeding 2 cables through the access hole, screw the topper down using the 4 screws you removed, plug the 2 cables in (1 to the power distribution board, one to the remaining open RJ45 on the CPU board), close everything back up, and play!

Two tips are:

1. Check the DIP switch settings per Chalkey first. Should there be an issue, it will be less fun to fix it after the topper is mounted.

2. Make sure your feather is firmly held in place before lifting the whole thing up top. Poke around with a needle-like screwdriver or some such to probe the (shallow) depths of where the stem will go to feel how much room you have. Then thicken the stem with electrical tape and/or whittle it down (in the case of after-market feathers) to ensure a good fit before tightening the screw and little bracket.

Really easy!!!

The large feather looks great. I felt my feather was less-than-substantial too. A package should arrive today with a variety of Black, Red and Gold feathers. The plan is to mix the colors, then replicate the arrangement on the play-field knight. Should be fun.

The topper makes the machine feel 'cathedral-like'. That sensation of walking into an old church and looking up at the features above. At first, it distracts game-play. In time; it become's part of the experience and the machine will feel naked without.

I also don't believe any video is really needed. That said I installed mine and played it for a while on Twitch. You can see it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/568630686

Flippin' Feathers. Yeah, it's a bit excessive. Lots of room to play.

Feathers (resized).png

My topper arrived today. What a great Topper, well done stern !
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Here are some videos, that topper is so awesome, best Topper out there !

tanx Walter
of course this is GREAT !!!

but i still think having a "animated" backglass with lights/flahers is better
as in the old time, this was giving the feeling pinball was alive (which indeed this BK topper does)

and as an ask, which was the last pin to have lights/flashers in the backbox ? i know in recent ones, ST PREM/LE have few but...

While under house arrest, I spent about 3 hours installing plastic protectors and Cliffys throughout the game.

This game isn’t very difficult to shop, just time consuming. There was zero wear after 1300 plays at the two VUKs, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend taking the time to install Cliffys in those locations.

The only disaster was literally the last thing I re-installed. I overtightened a hex spacer and broke the thread. Other than that, the game is looking nice and protected!

I love the new code. I just really really wish that it didn't end the mode I'm in if I start knight multiball in the middle of a mode. It's more of a punishment if you're trying to get to the black knight. I wish it would just put the mode on hold and continue the mode after the multiball has ended.

Had a killer game last night, first time breaking a billion and finally hit RANSOM. Such a fun mode! Just wish it was a little more accessible. Was able to battle the Knight again in the Black Castle which is always a good time. This is the first time I have done it on anything other than my last ball, and was a bit disappointed to see the fight does not carry over to your next ball like all the other battles do. No RAGE for me. Would be nice to see this be a setting in the future (or maybe it is and I never noticed it??)....kind of like Jericho on Iron Man. Either way...it always feels great to get this deep on such a brutal game.
E7EC1A02-FCCB-48A3-97B2-B3E95B5F70D6 (resized).jpeg

Ugh. Why do they make those stupid hex post screws so weak? Snapped one of mine too. Luckily found a proper bolt that fit the threads exactly and works even better.

Totally agree. Makes you avoid the cool retro knight.

Wow. Holy cow. Any general summary of how you got that score?

Totally agree that it’s crap that the final fight doesn’t continue if you have balls left.

Why did you delete the videos?

Wanted to show & persuade my wife to get one.

i'm far for being 100% on understanding the code (didnt have the pin home, while only played it few times)
than i understand it ends the mode, and you have to restart it from the begining (than not hold where you were already), right ?

while i know Tim is reading here, and surelly he may have some ideas about that...

what about this one, quite simple to code, and tactically interesting from a player point of view :

- you're in a mode, and than KNIGHT became available
- you start it, and this will complete/succeed the mode you were playing
- could be nice if you've just starting playing the mode and finish it in 1 shot (for example as "BIG BANG" in Dialed In)...
- could be bad (and losing that kind of "joker") if only 1 or 2 shoots were remaining to finish the mode...
- and more : to add some more tactic, ending mode like that should NOT give points

!?

Wish I could tell you something magic...but really I just had a lucky game and didn't drain.

My strategy is super basic...just concentrate on modes, take WARs, supers, and multiballs as they come without really concentrating on making them happen. I try to do WAR hurry-ups when they come, but they are usually deadly. In mutiball I concentrate on supers (they are too deadly to focus on during single ball for me). If I am in the right mood I will try to boost the mode values, but that is usually playing with fire. I might have done that once or twice during this particular game, but not often.

I would love the Black Castle battle to have a status/health bar so we could see how many hits remain. Every time I get there, I swear I got dozens of hits in (realistically probably like 3, LOL), and no idea when it will end. So nasty making you hit those center shots so often!

Just finished a very minor bit of surgery on the knight's head on my topper similar to what I did back in October for his head on the playfield toy.

In both cases I found the knight's eyeball LEDs just too intense for my personal taste because of their pitch matching my 5' 10" height. The ones on the playfield seemed to be aimed straight into my eyeballs while playing and the ones on the topper seemed to be targeting my eyeballs whenever I looked up at it.

So after getting a bunch of weird looks from both the staff and other customers at a couple of fabric shops (JoAnne Fabrics and in the sewing section at Walmart), I found some black spandex material that fit what I needed, so I had them cut me a 6" square of it (barely cost a buck.)

The weird looks, were the result of them watching me going through all the bolts of suitable black material they had for sale (suitable = material that might actually have chance of working, i.e., no reason to test vinyl, flannel, canvas, etc.) using the flash(light) on my phone to see how much (and precisely how) the light came through each one, sometimes folding the material 2x or 4x thick depending on its regular sheerness.

I was seeking a good amount light still showing through while taking the sharp edge off the laser beam focus by diffusing it in more or less of a small circle with a more intense red dot still visible at its center. That's what I found with the spandex material I finally went with. Along the way, I discovered various materials that did everything from random dispersion to very crisp 90-degree lens flares (think four spokes emanating from the sharp center dot in the form of an x or a + depending on the orientation of the fabric.)

In addition to dampening the LED harshness, it also conceals the bare LEDs giving both knights far less of a mechanical look and more of a mysterious look.

Here's pics of my topper post-surgery turned off and on. Pardon some of the glare in the pics ... snapped them quick and posting from my phone. Zoom in to get a better look and separate the glare from what the eye openings look like now.

BKSOR Topper Dark Eyes OFF (resized).jpg

BKSOR Topper Dark Eyes ON (resized).jpg

I would love it if any mode had a Hit Count or Status bar of any kind!

It's an issue for me too; it's blinding. Thinking about installing tinted plastic lenses.

Give him some sunglasses!

That'd be awesome!

I haven’t seen one in person yet, but I’d think frosted window film might be cool. It’d totally fill the eye cavity, and give a washed out but filling red.

Hmmm. I wonder if there's room to re-purpose sun-glass-lenses into the outside eye-sockets. Perhaps a colored polarized lens. I wonder if the reflection would be a nuisance. Hmmmm.

My apologies in advanced if this strategy has been discussed before, but ... what is the strategy necessary to reach "Black Castle?" I got there the other day for the first time, but I have no idea of how I got there. Is this strategy been posted anywhere? Thanks.

Ya just have to beat all the monsters. Which at least on the pro, isn’t easy to do. I’ve only gotten there once
My first strategy is to set everything to easy! Lol

I went with the fabric on the inside of the eye sockets because of the smaller eye-shaped openings within the recessed areas on the helmet and it was an effective quick solution for me.

But now you got me wondering: if you diffused the LEDs with something like window film per tilted81 on the INSIDE of the eye sockets and then fit pieces of precisely-trimmed sunglass material into each of the recessed areas on the outside of the helmet, that might achieve the effect of concealing the inner eyes when the game is off, but also result in an even more evil-looking pair of eyes when the game is turned on since the entire eye opening would light up not just the “pupils.”

I have to believe those LEDs are plenty bright enough to shine through two layers of material like that.

Hmmmm ...

I like where your going w/ that.. I hadn’t even considered how it looked while powered off. Perhaps w/ a tinted lens a reflector behind that led would be a better idea? Cut down a spotlight to cover the led with? That way it would spread the light, and perhaps brighten it a touch before the lens dulls it?

As said above you just have to kill all the monsters.

The strategy is to ignore everything other than killing monsters.
Ignore MBs, war, supers. Ignore your score.

Generally Only shoot to qualify or kill the monster or to prolong your ball.
During ball save shoot for the left ball save stand ups and for adding magnasave back on balls 2 &3.
If a premium or le play the upper pf to make your kill shots.

If you can mentally do this, getting to black castle gets easier.

Cheering myself up in these strange times, i'm having a go at creating a monty python holy grail speech quote update (using pinball browser) for bk sor ha ha ha

I've got about 25-30 quotes created so far !!

Stay tuned for a download

Will be for premium and le to start with as thats what i own

The problem with using a reflector is that there isn't much to reflect. IIRC (I'm not at home), the eyeball LEDs are the very focused kind, i.e., all the light is directed to the tip of the glass "bullet" - there's very little light coming off the sides. Diffusing that focused spot of light from just the tip is the trick.

Coincidentally enough, I have been working on virtually the exact same problem on a different game without much success since December. I've tried reflectors, window film, various papers and plastics yet none of them have worked well enough to use. But even more coincidentally I'm expecting a small package from FedEx tomorrow containing some different materials that may finally contain something that will work sufficiently. It'd be way cool if one of them solves both of these problems. I'll keep you posted!

Thanks to everyone on the information on how to get to "Black Castle." I applied the advise and got there twice since. Also, I got to "Black Knight 2,000" for the first time ever. This pin continues to amaze me, great machine.

do we have a video of beating BLACK CASTLE ?
didnt found nothing on the net...

Posted this video a while back

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/black-knight-swords-of-rage-club-honourable-knights-only/page/19#post-5120082

(missed it) tanx

Finally! The instruction card frames are done and I have pricing. They are $60 a pair, plus shipping/postage. Each piece is machined on a 3 axis mill. After that, I hand press each rivet into place. All you need to do is insert your instruction card, and then snap them into place.
I know these fit in the LE. If the premium apron is flat, like my Munsters and Ghostbusters are, these will fit as well. Not sure about the pro. I thought they have the recessed area for the cards.
I am going to manufacture 10 pairs this weekend. PM me if you want a pair. I will take them in order received. If there is enough of a response, I can make more in the very near future.
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Beat the Black Knight by yourself to discover it !