I ordered from LSOG in March. Radio silent, though I’m not too worried about it. Looking forward to getting it soon.

I ordered my topper at the end of February. Got it mid-april from Game Exchange. If not the best, one of the best Toppers ever produced!

JJ @ game exchange

I ordered mine from them on Feb 26th still nothing. Hopefully that day is getting closer.

Thanks for the replies fellas. BK ended up the surprise sleeper of my collection and I think this topper and integration will really put it over the top.

Can someone tell me what color spring they have for their black knight add on shooter rod ? I got mine from stern and they replaced the spring with a stronger one but it’s still too weak to get to upper play field

I'd check the alignment and make sure it is centered on the ball when it strikes. If it doesn't rest on it in the shooter lane you can shove it forward a bit and tell where it impacts.

(My BKSoR is at a closed location or I'd look at the color spring for you. Someone else will have to help with that but it shouldn't have that hard a time getting to the top.)

My BKSOR spring is orange - one step above standard.
Can't remember if that's from the factory or if I changed it.
But orange is working fine for me.

The spring on the standard Premium shooter is orange. The spring on the upgraded shooter rod is silver.

A thing to check with a replacement shooter: make sure you've tightened all three screws evenly (and tightly). When I installed mine, I inadvertently left one of the upper screws quite a bit looser than the rest; and that resulted in a launch that frequently rattled side to side as it went up the lane and failed to reach the top.

Ordered mine 16th of March, also no word from LSOG..

I ordered my topper back in late February,I was told I'd be on the wait list for when they get more toppers in. Then around the 2nd to last week of May,I was e-mailed that my topper came in and was ready to either be picked up or shipped (I chose picking up since it was only an hour away). So even on a wait list it took almost 3 months to get mine. The store I used is called Pinball Pirate and they were very nice people.

Any good tutorials on YouTube of the pro with a good high quality camera and angle? Thanks!

Hopefully PAPA will put one out.

Question for those familiar with both the LE/Premium and the Pro ... could you possibly play a Premium in "Pro mode" if the upper flipper was disabled? I don't know how they work around the physical catapult lock not being present on the Pro. I know this would require software changes. I was simply wondering if that was something we could bug Stern about ... maybe they'd listen ... the only reason I'd want this feature is to practice for tournaments (they typically use Pros) and maybe change things up here and there (not like I've mastered the game or anything ).

Anyone getting any word on more toppers? I sure would like to get one......

Basically Stern has started making toppers again and right now they're running the Black Knight. Slowly but surely they're trickling out to the dealers to fill back orders.

Unfortunately, the way they worked around the catapult lock not being there on the pro is they took catapult multiball away altogether...which kind of leaves a hole in the pro's code. I love the game, but it really needs that one more thing to do. They could have remapped that shot any number of ways, but unfortunately chose not to. I'm still hoping that is changed someday, but not really holding my breath. It's a bummer.

The code could use some work, definitely. If your goal is the wizard mode, there’s no real incentive to go for the spinner, pops, etc.

With Elvira/IMDN, there are modes that require spinner/pop/ramp switch hits. Even if I miss an intended shot with those games, at least I’m adding value to another mode.

If I rip the spinner with BKSOR, I just kind of shrug.

It's obviously worth hitting the spinner a few times to get that Orbit EB lit. Beyond that, the orbits are good for lighting Super, but the super features themselves could use a little more coding work -- despite their prominence on the playfield and the display, they don't really make much difference in scoring, and the fact that they're cleared from ball to ball means that they don't usually have a chance to get built up much. I'd like to see something that awards "Supers Held".

Couple questions for you guys.

1) Had a front post rubber (#9) ring go MIA the other day, can't find it anywhere. If you look at them, they are a little different than the same rubbers of that size, more decorative, possibly harder rubber. Anyone know where you can those those specific ones?

2) Anyone know if anyone makes sheet metal or stainless steel inside blades? Looking for just plain sheet metal, no art or imaging.

Thanks,
ace

A fine steel-wool or scouring-pad would remove the mirroring.
https://www.tiltgraphicsinc.com/product-page/stern-mirror-blades

Interesting idea, thanks

The other side of mirror blades isn’t polished. Just flip them and use the unpolished side.

Ew I found this. going to cut it to shape and try it out. I'll post pics.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-36-in-x-48-in-Galvanized-Steel-Flat-Sheet-GFS36X48/100175914

Has anyone had experience with replacing the flail assembly? Anyone notice that on your flail, next to each ball, it looks like a black plastic wire tie was installed? Curious as to why. Replacing the flail because one ball was loose and would lightly strike the ramp when spinning.

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9A192EEB-FCD0-4D79-AA9D-DD5FF1C694B3 (resized).jpeg

Finally - after being crushed by this game so many times since my Pro arrived - I've defeated the Black Knight.

It's (only) taken me 1435 games... Was starting to think I'd never do it.

Scoreline - Jesder (1) | Black Knight (1434). I'm on the board

Loved the ending and wizard mode.

Wow. Wonder how many people have ever done it. Has to be under 5. What was your score?

Sure would love a nice little code update from Tim while this COVID mess continues. Wonder if they let code guys keep working from home? I get it that the factory is impacted but you’d think those roles could continue.

really !? i dont feel that BK is a hard game to finish...
will tell you more when i get the luck to get one home

I doubt it's that low. I have done it, but only once in the ~year I have had it. RANSOM is nearly as difficult for me...I have only saw that twice. I'd love a few more ways to earn letters...mix it up like TWD earning multikills.

Getting to the castle to face BK is fairly achievable. I'm guessing I get there about 1 out of 10 games or so. Beating him is another story all together. You are forced to make so many deadly center shots that it honestly comes down to luck. There just isn't any real way to mitigate the risk of hitting the spinning flail or the center target....and there is no way around them during that battle. It's like being forced to do WAR hurry-ups over and over. You are just screwed, LOL!

Hmmm. It's surprising that manufacturers haven't created a generic fits-all Topper. Perhaps an over-sized company logo or video panel repeater showing the animations and scores.

In my brief time with the machine (about 190 plays so far), I've gotten to Black Castle twice. I choked pretty badly both times; I think the most I managed was seven shots.

RANSOM hasn't been as much of a problem; I've gotten there 11 times. I suspect that this is because I try to finish WAR more often than is really prudent. (The score earned from WAR doesn't really justify the risk of going after it during single-ball play; but it does spot a KNIGHT letter, which helps getting to RANSOM.)

My final score was 754million. Which was a bit frustrating as it's not my best (my GC is 774 million).

I screwed up two WAR hurry ups and the Knight mode netted me just 15 million But I picked up 129 million on the final wizard mode that helped compensate.

I was having a great ball collecting the letters towards Knight mode, but drained when collecting the final letter. On the next ball with only a couple of Supers active and no way to level them up (since it starts the mode), it made the mode pretty much point less. Which is one of my big gripes with the current state of the rules around this mode. The lit shots are of little value. Clearing all shots has little value and there doesn't appear to be any other rules running in that mode for scoring. From my experience, if you don't have the spinner and pops leveled up (and getting them activated is random), the mode isn't worth much. Which is a shame for an excellently themed mini wizard mode to be so flat and 1 dimensional. I get that it's "possible" to build up a big super here, but it relies too heavily on setup before getting into the mode that can be wiped out far too easily and leave you with no way to build it up again. Further to that, any super you build up then relies on you collecting via spending your magna save (why?) which is not reliable and having the ball hit the right inlane. Don't get me started on my other gripe - supers There's work to be done there too.

Luckily though, the game has (in my view) the best theme in a long time. Artwork, animations, sfx, call outs, music, lore and the greatest topper of all time. If Tim can lift the quality of the code, I believe this will be game that stands the test of time.

Without a doubt, coders would be working from home. It might be more challenging getting things tested and approved for release, but we've continued to see code updates for other games during this time. So it would be possible. For BK updates, it would depend on Tim having the desire to improve the game and also have the time allocated to work on it. He mentioned he wanted to see how the game is played in comp before another update (which concerns me), so we could well be waiting awhile for improvements

You're just showing off Or are you playing 5 ball? The game is unforgiving at the best of times

well, not sure what i can reply, i'm a tournament player with a good level, not more, not less

I've beaten the Black Knight twice in 100 games so far on my Prem. I feel all the shots are familiar but a little difficult, mostly the ricochets. I've even turned up the difficulty on all the monsters and the qualify to start a monster. This game is highly underrated, it a shooters game for sure, love it.

You have gotten to RANSOM 11 times, but only BC twice? I must be missing something in the rules, because that seems almost impossible to me. There are only 5 modes before Black Castle. You need what...four letters (I think 2 are spotted?) to get to Retro, then another six to get to Ransom. So 10 letters total to get there. If you are getting 5 or less from modes, that means you are getting at least 5 successful_ WAR completions! That's some crazy skill. WAR almost always means death to me. They just seems way to difficult requiring 4-6 shots (depending if the flail is spinning and/or the shield is down) at deadly shots that are nearly impossible to mitigate. I guess I need some serious practice...LOL!

I suspect that reaching RANSOM is much easier on Premiums than it is on Pros, because I can get two or sometimes three Catapult Multiballs per game in addition to one of two Triple Knights Challenges. During Multiballs I'm typically shoveling balls up the orbits whenever I can, to get them out of the way and to light Supers. That generates a lot of WAR opportunities, often while the MULTIBALL ball saver is still active (either at the start of the mode or after Add-A-Ball), so there's no risk. (In fact losing balls in Catapult Multiball's ball saver can be beneficial, because those balls get autoplunged back to the upper playfield to set up Super Jackpots.)

But you can also see the other way this goes; a Multiball-heavy strategy can slow down progress on modes (because you can't start modes while a Multiball is running, and if you start Catapult Multiball during Triple Knights Challenge or vice-versa to get six-ball play, that's a long stretch of Multiball play and potentially several WARs while only one mode is running.)

Well said. Of all the improvements and additions that the code needs now, fixing retro is way way up there. Sadly now I just play it because I want to hear the music and sounds sometimes. It’s a waste of time for points.

Ahhh! That makes much more sense then. I forgot about Catapult multi and that you can get WARs started during. Yeah, on my pro I usually only get one, MAYBE two Triple Knights Challenge multiballs going per game. I get Retro most games, but unfortunately no WAR progress during those. I still think Catapult multi could be added to the pro fairly easily, but I know that's just a pipe dream at this point. :/

This game is so close to awesomeness. I really hope Tim puts it over the finish line, but honestly I'm losing hope on that.

There's also the fact that once you get within two or three letters of RANSOM (which you're much likelier to do on a Premium, as we figured out), it's worth taking some WAR risk to get to it... after all, it gives a basically-automatic extra ball, so even if you lose a ball to a poorly-chosen WAR shot you wind up breaking even.

And yes, I love BKSOR but there's a several little touches that would put it over the edge... the Target Game Time adjustment from newer Stern pins, making Supers easier to build up and perhaps easier to hold onto, Catapult Multiball for the Pro, bringing the Catapult Multiball Premium scoring down a bit so it doesn't dominate the other modes, better on-screen prompts and/or a tutorial video to explain how the Sword/POWER system works, etc.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that there's an audit for cooperative games played, with no apparent way to actually play cooperatively?

I've started toying with the settings to shake up the game flow a bit -- in particular, turning on the "Mode start required for Catapult locks" setting, to make Catapult Multiball harder to get and encourage concentrating on modes.

I had one experience last night which made me laugh like crazy because it pretty much encapsulates the agony and the ecstasy of playing BKSOR. A missed left orbit shot rebounded off a post and headed straight for the drain. I swatted it away with the tip of the left flipper. The ball rebounded straight to the shield, and the shield bash sent it screaming straight back. Purely on reflex I saved it with the left flipper again. Straight back to the shield. And straight back again, but this time the shield bash sent the ball off the glass (the first time I've had an airball that fierce) and over the left flipper to end the game. The whole flipper-shield-flipper-shield-drain sequence took less than two seconds. Now that's pinball.

Very curious about this! Team up to beat the Black Knight would be amazing and take me from kind of looking to potentially buy, to ordering one immediately. My family would love that!

I imagine that the Cooperative audit is something that came with a new version of the OS, and would need separate modifications to the ruleset to actually become a thing.

This is a great idea, @john_i. Would you mind to share the STL file for this, as I'd like to print this and install on my machines. That metal apron edge is something that looks like it would really dig in on over time, and your solution looks to fit the bill perfectly.

Is there a good rule sheet I can see

I joined the club today, thanks to @jints56! LE, low play, HUO, like new. Zero dimpling so far. A few minute marks on the upper playfield, but since I assume that’s easy to eventually replace, I’m not worried. Any plastic protectors (not a full playfield one) I should buy to keep the lower PF mint?? Topper already on order!