PavBall and I officially joined the club. We are still in the honeymoon phase, but wow does this game have a powerful one more game pull!

018C080D-087C-49DE-93D0-1F51E3A0078A (resized).jpeg

01C51928-CD2D-40CF-8012-2E48AA84F220 (resized).jpeg

20A95C3D-BA9F-4123-80CA-07CA64B3DE0E (resized).jpeg

8272BAB2-3D89-4177-8568-79ED12585327 (resized).jpeg

AA56A1D7-99D6-4F07-A3C2-2F5803C0545C (resized).jpeg

E52702AC-3FFC-4B8F-9B4B-0252391F6EC4 (resized).jpeg

I'm still having problems with the flail colliding with the ramp service. Tightening the screws on the ramp addresses the issue, but only for a few hours. Is the flail supposed to be off-center like this? https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aot6t7hrbQ2kkO46Y5TGRTX87rsqVA?e=xFfjhb

I saw a post about someone that had to replace plastic number 43, but what exactly was wrong with the plastic? I just got a prem with a build date of June 17th 2019, I haven't noticed any issues but just want to make sure.

The new replacement piece of plastic has a built in post that pushes the rubber outward a bit from behind. Without this, when the ball rolls down that rail it usually goes right to the lower playfield. With that post protruding the rubber slightly, there's more of a chance of the ball getting sent to the upper flipper more often when the ball rolls down that rail.

Sounds good, I've just been nudging it to keep it up there. Is Stern sending them out for free?

Oh man. Wish I could help but not sure what’s going on there. When you say off center do you mean the two pieces of the flail (spring and ball on each side) are not centered? Or the flail isn’t centered in the ramp lane left to right? Or the shaft of the flail isn’t centered when looking at the knight from the left side?

Has to be a hint that only one ball of the flail is hitting.

Stern distributors are sending them out for free to customers who purchased from them. If you're not the original owner, you can buy it from Pinball Life for $2:

https://www.pinballlife.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=511-1942-43

Today I SOLVED THE SHAKER MOTOR RATTLING!

Took a bit of investigating but then I saw that Stern stupidly uses the bottom of an upper playfield bolt as a support for the upper field by resting it directly on the bare metal on the top of the one way gate of the shooter lane/right loop!

I put a small thin dense adhesive backed rubber piece in between them. That solved 80% of the ratting.

I found the other 20% to be the gate/switch of the catapult rattling against the chute that dumps the balls that come up the center ramp.

For this, I put a long thin adhesive strip of felt along that part of the chute. It doesn’t impede the gate swinging to trigger the switch at all, and it mutes it from rattling when the shaker goes.

Thrilled to finally have a tight sounding machine when the shaker goes off.

Attaching images to help other Prem/LE owners with shakers.

81DDDBC0-86F6-4F2C-A694-8382725C34C2 (resized).jpeg

DD1A9808-A26E-467A-98FD-4FCFD9A67A65 (resized).jpeg

E1D6E4EB-444D-49CB-9618-401D535AB28C (resized).jpeg

Thanks for the quick response! I think I just fixed it.

The problem was that one of the flail's two sides was longer than the other -- to be exact, that the ball on one side extended farther from the axis of rotation than the ball on the other. When the ramp was tightened down to the point where the flail could spin effectively -- when the Problem Ball was just barely tapping the ramp's surface as it passed -- there was room to insert three business cards between the Non-Problem Ball and the ramp.

The problem -- which is probably par for the course for someone with their first at-home pin -- is that I was diagnosing by looking at the part itself rather than by looking at the parts reference. From looking at the flail itself, I had the misimpression that it was two balls mounted to a single double-ended rod passing through the rotational shaft. So since one end of the flail was colliding with the playfield, my mental model was that the hypothetical double-ended rod was off-center, and I would have to loosen and adjust it a bit so that the two ends would be centered. This, of course, was completely wrong.

Looking at drawing 5.19 in the parts reference made the real problem a lot more obvious. The flail mechanism is actually composed of two separate balls, each on its own spring, each attached to the central shaft by a small screw. And one of those two small screws was barely holding on for dear life, allowing the spring and thus the flail ball to dangle farther out than it should. So the solution was just tightening that screw up.

I may still order a replacement ball-and-spring assembly, because the spring on the problem side took a bit of a pounding and the ball got scuffed up a bit. But everything's spinning just swimmingly.

Anyone here have a decent amount of playing time on both versions?

I dig my BK pro. Bought it shortly after release. Opted for it over Prem because I was underwhelmed with the sparse upper pf, and seems like the ball is up there a lot. Also didn't like that it was a clear plastic pf, like Elvis & WPT, as opposed to wood w/artwork and inserts etc. Looked cheap. Anyway, that's what drove my initial purchase. That and the fact the Pro is really fun.

Is this one of those titles where you should definitely go Premium, like AC/DC, or is it not so clear, like Metallica? Seems like the latter, but I have very little time on the Prem/LE, so I'm really not sure.

I am open to upgrading if the playing experience is really that much better.

Totally personal preference. I have an LE and have played quite a bit on pro's in league and location play. I like both. I personally prefer the prem/le not because the upper pf is great, but because I really enjoy stacking the 3 ball catapult multiball with the 3 knights multiball, getting the add a ball and carrying a mode into it. It's a unique challenge within the game to get all of that stacked up properly and I enjoy it for that. The upper pf doesn't kill the flow of the game for me; everyone acts like they are just gonna keep flipping and it's gonna be so smooth and wonderful, but then they trap up anyways, as if that doesn't "kill the flow". It's just personal preference.

I had a great game today during my stream where I basically did everything if you want to see what a decent game on a BKSORLE looks like (compared to what you know on a pro). https://www.twitch.tv/videos/623945565?t=01h50m23s

I only played the Pro before buying a prem NIB. The ability to hit the target on the upper PF to advance against the monsters is a great option.

Forgot to mention that. I'm 50/50 on that because I feel like it makes it kind of easy to cheese through modes if you're consistent on your shots up there. I think from a code perspective that needs to scale up the same way that lighting locks works.

I like it, I upped all the monster difficulties to hard to compensate. I like that it gives a reason to shoot for the dangerous flail lane and get up there for a few easy shots.

I have yet to try that, but I think I'm going to give it a shot. I also feel like it will make my bad games feel EXTRA bad, so i'm hesitant lol.

My bad games are bad, but I've saved a couple with Last Chance MB. Does the pro have Last Chance?

Last Chance is one of my favorite modes in any pinball game. I’ve been able to turn a hopeless game into a decent game with that mode.

Nope. Tim has sadly left that out of the Pro model

Last Chance is hugely fun, but it has a huge problem too -- the game doesn't communicate the mode's nature to the player well at all. The first three players to encounter Last Chance on my machine all thought that something had gone wrong with the game. (Heck, I'm only half-embarrassed to say that I thought that too, and I've played the game before.) One of them walked away from the machine because he saw the lower flippers go dead and thought that he had tilted somehow.

My biggest pet peeve with modern pinball is that those big, gorgeous backbox screens often manage to communicate less information than earlier pins did with a small DMD.

First time I played Last Chance, it said what to do right on the screen, Lock Three Balls in Catapult and started counting down.

I tend to agree with this. TWD is a code masterpiece but utterly not intuitive for what you’re supposed to do.

BKSOR has simpler code, but the player is supposed to know what the colored inserts are supposed to do and in what order. The screen doesn’t help you out in the regard. EHOH, on the other hand, tells you the remaining shots and where to shoot.

For Last Chance, I didn’t know how you qualified it until I looked it up: you have to drain on ball 3 in the left outlane or the right outlane after using the magnasave *and* not played catapult multiball.

It’s a great feature, but a total mystery for new players.

There’s just so so much that Tim could add to that nice big screen. Tons of in-game info and then lots more instructional situational help. Hell, even add way more to the attraction splash screens.

the answer seems as an evidence :

if you're a (good) player, go for PRO
if you're a collector, go for PREM/LE

because the upper playfield is really easy, not to make the shots, but to just keep the ball there again & again (and again), and finally its killing the game
PRO didnt have this prob of course, and than much more speed & flow on it

my 2 cents

I think I fall into the good player category - I'd probably collect more if I had the room and budget.

I went Premium for basically one thing (as mentioned in earlier posts) - multiball. I like multiball....the more the better. With the upper playfield, you can stack Catapult multiball with Triple Knights Threat multiball and get 6 ball action at once. That's the bomb.....to me, anyway.

I'm both. Lol. But I get what you're saying. Maybe best I stick with my Pro. It's a good challenge. Lightning fast.

What am I doing g wrong. Can't get last chance mode to start (even with glass off). So, no starting catapult multi, drain out left with no ball save or down right after hitting magna save, right. But just goes to match screen for me? It is factory default in menu under adjustments. Any ideas? Reload code? Running 1.01 code.

Nevermind, figured it out. Previous owner set it on competition mode. That disables last chance, FYI to anyone else who may have this happen in the future.

Good troubleshooting! I set my BKSOR to Player Competition Mode (standard adjustment 54 if the manual is correct), so if I want to play on competition settings I can hold down the left flipper and hit Start.

Meanwhile, in the space of about two weeks I've graduated from "can't find the lockbar latches" to "open part surgery"; I installed PinMonk's quiet fan replacement on the power supply -- makes a world of difference in a home environment! I've got a second fan kit set aside for my next Stern pin.

Mine does the exact same thing. I haven't called Stern on it, but would love to know if this affects any more people?

Well...................the world might be slowly returning to normal? GOT MY TOPPER TODAY!!!!!!!!

It's pretty cool. Adds a whole new dimension to the machine. Had to install new code to 1.01 for the animatronics to function. This code added some new callouts too. I hope that the new changes agree with the game theme overall. I read some earlier posts regarding the "softening up" of the Black Knight's speech as you get closer to defeating him with the new code installed. May have to learn how to change that if it becomes an issue or is too corny for my taste.

Anyway...……...funny story......I was so excited to get the topper installed this morning that I opened the backbox with the coin door key. It actually worked to open it but the key got stuck in the lock. Had to remove the lock (with key still stuck in it) and disassemble the lock to get at the key pins to get the key out. Luckily I've caught a few lock picking lawyer videos and was able to figure that out. I did screw up the coin door key in the process so now only have one key for that. I'll hopefully never make that mistake again.

lifefloat i could be wrong but I think you can disable the “back peddling” the Black knight does. It’s just a setting and you can change how often he does it.

Awesome you got the topper in! Got mine in today as well but got it while I was headed to work so it’s killing me having to wait till the end of the day.

@watkinsd13...……………….stoked you got your topper today as well! (sorry you had to go to work and not play though...hopefully you have a fun job) I'll fiddle around with some of the "back peddling" possibly. Already kinda like WTF on the goofy upper PF callout's...…….

More importantly though is to find out where the little wisp of smoke came from as I just finished a game. No shit. Up at the topper. Put about maybe 8-10 games on and as I finished this last game looked up at the topper and saw smoke. Just a wee tiny wisp but I was like Awwwwghhhh!!!! and immediately hit the power button.

So...………..off comes the topper and investigative matters will proceed. I'll of course post my findings here.

You guys who got your toppers today; who did you order them from?

Well, after looking the topper through carefully without power I find no obvious defects that would cause smoke.

I did see a tiny bit of wire chafe at the stationary point where the Black Knight helmet attaches to the moving bit of the assembly. The wire there does a hard tight bend. A touch of something to help the chafe possibility would be easy there if that was in fact the issue. (I observed no exposed copper on the wiring at that point, just a touch of scratched up insulation that probably occurred during assembly)

anyway...………………

I powered back up and the wisp of smoke is real...……….it is coming internally from the motor that animates the BK helmet.

Super quick test...…….. powered back down and removed the topper.

I got mine from Jason at Classic Game Rooms. In Georgia. Super easy. Super cool.

The Star Wars toppers are infamous for wiring problems and having heat shrink that is not even shrunk. Most of that is in the LEDs though and SPIKE is smart enough not to be smoke if the LEDs are shorted. Im guessing yours has a short in the power circuit or a defective part, or bound motor?

I order mine through LSOG. The way Stern works they seem to seen a batch out to dealers one at a time. So I could get mine tomorrow or a week from next August depending on the order they are shipping.

Yeah…………...so...…..I observed smoke coming from the motor. Motor not locked as motor still rotates. Anyway...………….that's where the smoke is coming from.

My next step in the process of elimination and correction would be...………….?????

I had ordered mine through coin taker. Got it all hooked up and it is way cooler in person then the photos!

You know what they say about the magic smoke that everything electrical runs on? Once you let it out, the device is generally dead. Considering it is a new $450 component, my next move would be contacting Stern for advice, replacement or possibly to send you a new motor if you are handy with this sort of thing.

I’m considering adding this to my lineup what do those who own it think about how it’s gel in my collection

Audioenslaved I think it is very different theme wise so that would be cool. I would love to go from a brutal black knight game and step over to a magical journey like wizard of oz lol. BK:SOR is the game that has the most “ok, just one more. I know I can do better then that” in my collection.

I think it will slot in nicely, but I think I've already said so over on AA

Well...................the world might be slowly returning to normal? GOT MY TOPPER TODAY!!!!!!!!
It's pretty cool. Adds a whole new dimension to the machine. >/blockquote>

Awesome news on topper! What does the overall height of the topper appear to be?

Was watching the TMNT reveal and noticed something.

Is the song that starts at 1:50 minutes the same song as the triple knight challenge mode song on the alternate BKSOR soundtrack?

Has anyone else noticed any bugs (as opposed to "things we'd still like to see") in the 1.0.1 code? I can think of two:

* No "Player 1", "Player 2", etc. callouts on Ball 1 of multiplayer games. (Later balls have callouts as expected.)
* "Super features" bonus count displayed during end-of-ball bonus is always zero.

I am still waiting that my distributor gets the ordered topper. But after playing my Black Knight premium for a few hours this evening again. I still think it is the best game I own and had owned in the last years. I still say it is my all time favourite pinball machine. And I am now way over the honeymoon phase.

I contacted Stern and asked about the topper as well and they ignored my email. Asked my distributor if he’s heard anything and still nothing. Already paid for it upfront so I would hopefully get one of the earlier ones, but I struck out big time. Anybody else have a topper on order and waiting for delivery?

BTW.....have a premium and I love it! So glad I got it for my collection.

I just received my topper the other day.

Awesome. Who did you order it from if you don't mind me asking?

Ordered (and CC charged) 4/2 from LSOG, still waiting. I will probably call them today or Monday just to make sure I am still in the queue (no communication from them since the original order receipt email).

Love my prem too, but I have mostly avoided playing the game since ordering the topper just to try to maximize that "new again" feeling I'll have after a prolonged absence plus topper and new code!