My eyes may be deceiving me from that pic but based on that bubble it looks like your game is leaning slightly to the right; the bubble is not quite centered left/right even though it looks good upper/lower. You might try raising the right side ever so slightly.

@taz: Love the shrine. For some reason I keep hearing the words “sudden death.”

Your wish is granted: you're wrong.

Although I wish you were right. Because if this release really was mostly a bug fix, then I can't wait to see what Tim will come up with when he finally gets around to seriously working on enhancements and new stuff.

But if they were able to reflect the damage progress in the images of the monsters themselves it would also present video game players (especially those who have not really looked at/played pinball before) with something extremely familiar to them. It just might entice a couple of them to give BKSOR a try and using the light side of the force for a change (which simultaneously means playing pinball instead of video games as well as perhaps playing a Star Wars pin next.)

Mine arrived today. When my Premium is finally built and delivered, there's going to be a lot of great enhancements for me to work on.

Another part of the reason I think the stormtrooper plunger is odd is because (at least to me) it looks upside down. If the BKSOR plunger was oriented that way and I couldn't convince Stern to do a run with them the way they actually made them, I would have passed on it. As a player (and especially as a player+owner), this stuff should look good from where I'm standing. Literally.

Do you have to install the entire new plunger assembly, or could you just switch the plunger rods? Don’t have my game yet, so I can’t check it myself.

I heard the first ones started shipping yesterday. My distributor told me to expect mine sometime this coming week, but will of course call when they know for sure.

I just stumbled across this on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R4TNBF8/

$19.00 shipped. Not a Stern-authorized BKSOR item, but you already knew that when I said it was $19.00 (just a little very friendly ribbing to my friends at Stern since I already bought the authorized plunger to go with my game. )

61f0xsR4A0L._SL1002_ (resized).jpg

Super ***WOW*** @pinupgirl1975!!! No offense to the artists at Stern, but I like the look of these a *LOT* better than the blades you get from the factory with the LE.

But now the MILLION DOLLAR question from me once again: are you folks going to do these as PowerBlades too?

Although I don't own a Munsters, I absolutely love the lightning effects you've created with the Power version of those. I can only imagine how even more incredible these would look on BKSOR if they had appropriate illumination effects too.

I think they would also "complete" the interior of the play field cabinet really well. Because now (since the fire already burns on the playfield back panel), the sides would have animated light effects too!. All three interior cabinet sides that the player sees would have light effects!!!

Please tell me this is going to happen. Fingers crossed!!!

OK pinupgirl1975 - PM sent. I am *IN* - and especially for 50 bucks off.

It's going to look SO FRICKIN' COOL when my Premium has animations happening on all THREE sides around the playfield (PowerBladez plus the factory fire.) You're also going to make a lot of LE buyers a bit envious with these PowerBladez too, pinupgirl1975 ... unless of course they're willing to cover up their special factory LE blades to get the same effect that us PowerBlade owners will have.

So who else is in?

Didn’t catch the live stream and can’t watch the video until much later tonight. Are they sending the post thing automatically to owners, or do we have to “order” it?

Myself and several people I've talked to got the Premium because in our humble opinions:

- We personally prefer the Premium backglass and cabinet art work over the Pro and the LE (despite the playfield toy, the game is called "Sword of Rage", not "Flail of Rage")
- The ability to stack Triple Knights Challenge and Catapult Multiball for 6-ball play is mega-awesome
- We are using the extra $1500 to pick and choose the updates/mods we want ... and we'll have likely spent a lot less than $1500 to make ourselves really happy once we're done
-Adding better speakers/subwoofer, speaker lights, real knocker, HD glass, Stern shooter rod, shaker motor, animated Pingraffix Powerbladez (if they get just a few more people to commit to ordering), have our side armor, legs and other such metal parts powdercoated to our individual tastes, etc.
- Will it be possible to get a replacement LE mirrored backglass if something were to happen to mine? Or would I have to go back to a translite in such an unfortunate event?
- Not sure why I'd want/need a certificate of authenticity. Is some evil manufacturing entity flooding the market with knockoff BKSORs? I'm pretty certain it will be quite obvious who made my game both today and years from now.

Even if all the improvements I opt for cost more than $1500, it's not likely to be much more. And having that extra $1500 is one heck of a head start.

Ditto. Mine is never going anywhere ... well ... except for wherever I go!

Sweet music to my ears is this news for the upcoming PowerBladez candy for my eyes!

And another surprise too? Looks like I'm officially on the hook that you'll soon be off of, Joe!

Awesome! I'm in.

Hope you'll be doing a BKSOR shooter plate too.
Yeah, there are a few out there already.
And that's precisely why I hope you'll be doing a BKSOR shooter plate too.

If your shooter plate for BKSOR would come out even half as nice as your one for Munsters looks, I for one wouldn’t give the plastic ones another look.

I'm sure that one will look fantastic too!

But right now I'm looking for a BKSOR shooter plate that I like to go with a BKSOR game, not a Wonka game to go with a Wonka shooter plate that I like.

One of the reasons I don't care for the existing BKSOR shooter plates currently out there all that much is that they don't (at least to my eyes) "match" the game/theme as well, especially in terms of color. This became even more true for me after Stern released the special BKSOR shooter knob and I bought one for my game. Particularly now that I have that on the game, I want a shooter plate that really looks great with this shooter knob that also really looks great.

Brief detour:

Just to give you an idea of what my pinball eyes make my pinball brain do, the first "mod" I did to my BKSOR Premium edition was to swap a blue start button in for the green one. (I'm also adding blue lighted flipper buttons in a few days too.) I totally understand that for games on location, high-contrast items help attract the eye and are thus desirable. This is another reason I think Stern uses the black-on-yellow scheme for its pricing and instruction card as well the photo-sensitive seizure warning information - not simply because that color combo is also considered the most readable. But for HUO, I don't need nor want such serious contrasts on my games. So to my eyes, the green one looked out of place. I'm doing a few riffs on other folk's pricing and instruction cards and will post those once I'm happier with them. I may do an overlay for the seizure warning too with the same words, still in easy-to-read colors, just not so jarring.

Back to the main road:

Perhaps I was influenced by seeing your Munsters shooter plate, but when I was putting the BKSOR shooter knob on my game the first thing I thought of was: "it looks like a door-knocker on the Black Knight's castle. So try using that thought as just one among many other inspirations I'm sure you already have for a BKSOR shooter plate. A BK helmet, a shield, are all possibilities. Not sure I'd want another fanged skull, however, since the special Stern knob has that element pretty well covered. But others keeping the standard knob (or going some other non-sculpted knob) might like to have a fanged skull option. Heck, you could even make it look like a castle drawbridge or a portcullis to complete the "door knocker" effect. -) -)

I put mine on yesterday.

I followed the instructions to where it said to remove the old plastic and discard it. So (naturally) I had to compare the old one with the new one. The two pieces were identical - and I mean EXACTLY identical. That perplexed me for a second. It took me a bit to realize that there's a fifth hole in the new one that was not present in my new plastic.

It was a minor nuisance I easily corrected with a Dremel and a drill bit, but still a nuisance.

As I finally get into my BKSOR Premium modding groove (upgraded speaker, speaker lights and bill acceptor also now installed; lighted flipper buttons and real knocker next on the list with more to come after that), I thought I'd post a pic of my current riffs on a custom instruction and pricing card. Not sure these will be the final version, but I just had to get rid of those yellow cards ASAP so this is what I've got so far.

On the pricing card, you'll see that I've dubbed my machine the "Ultra Premium Edition" in anticipation of what it will eventually look like once everything I want on it is installed. I've also moved the Black Knight image to the right to open a spot for one of my two BKSOR Pin-A-Go-Go coins that a fellow Pinsider was so kind enough to pick up for me. It's slightly crooked in the picture, but that is easily rectified the next time I open the game: I superglued a strong, thin magnet to the back of the coin, so it can be easily turned a bit. I really wanted the coin on the bottom arch so players could see it, but until I thought of sliding the Black Knight image to the right on the pricing card, I was at a loss to figure out a reasonably good place for it.

BKSOR Arch Cards and Coin (resized).jpg

Make it an adjustment so owners/operators can set it for their particular location.

I was talking to Tim/Stern, not you.

Quiet fan mod? Is there something that you did to silence the existing jet engine or did you just replace it with a quiet one?

Now that the ball can be kept on the upper playfield a lot longer because the bump-post is installed, make even more of a conscious effort to hit the catapult, the lock target and loops or at least partial loops. Several times this morning I found myself (pardon the term) flailing away up there but because I wasn't making any switch-hits for a bit, ball search started as it normally would and should. But I was far more pissed off at my flailing than the fact that a normal ball search started. In a way, it was like another way the game was taunting me. Actually, it might be cool to have the Black Knight say a line similar to one that's already in the game when a ball search happens: "When is any actual fighting going to resume?" or some such. Then it would sound like the Black Knight himself is looking for the "missing" ball and making all the solenoids pop (and it would work when a ball search is needed legitimately too.)

Thanks, Captainhook!!!

My spinner will spin just fine (it hasn't trapped a ball during any game on my Premium so far) but the issue I'm having is that my spinner quite frequently comes to rest in a horizontal position rather than returning to vertical. It's not binding up or suddenly stopping that way - I just get 50/50 horizontal vs. vertical stops when it slows down and stops normally. Personally I suspect the spinner is just jealous of the flail and trying too hard to imitate it, but if anyone is having a similar issue and knows how to correct such behavior in a spinner, I'm all ears. BKSOR is the first game I've ever actually owned that has a spinner, so I'm extremely light on spinner expertise. Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions in advance.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

I agree. It is pretty obvious that they don't take the whole game 100% seriously. And one need look no further than movies and TV for hundreds of examples of very evil villains who have stupid and/or funny minions. But why didn't they tease the humor, then? The story, the enemies, the Match sequence, etc. are not the Black Knight character himself.

I want my big boss battle to be against the Black Knight I saw in all the marketing - a Black Knight who is at his strongest and who will bring it relentlessly, not a Black Knight who keeps telling me that I'm making him more and more nervous about fighting me and who is suddenly having second thoughts about it. I want to defeat a VERY formidable villain, not one who's getting scared of me and who I've already half-beaten before the final battle begins. I want to earn and savor defeating the Black Knight at the top of his game - both in terms of playfield objectives necessary and persona conveyed.

In D&D terms, I consider the Black Knight, especially as portrayed in the first two games, to be a lawful evil character. He's not a clown. He's not chaotic. He's intelligent and calculating in addition to being arrogant and strong. And he forcefully but respectfully acknowledges your success in beating him (think "You are champion" in BK2K); he does not wimp out even in defeat.

Wonder why they waited until version 1.00 to activate these callouts then? Perhaps 1.00 is a trial to see how they go over.
Regardless, it's rather simple to make it an adjustment code-wise.

Last time I looked (about an hour ago) there were four copies for sale on eBay - but brace yourself for the prices.

Where did you see it, Carz?

It doesn’t seem to be on the Stern site yet unless I’m missing it.

They should have followed their own production model: LE buyers get (or minimally get first dibs on) a deluxe/exclusive limited release, then Pro/Premium owners can either get what's left over (first come first served) or only be able to purchase it on black vinyl and/or CD and/or digital download.

What baffles me is why (at least so far) they decided to only take in a whopping $2,000 gross on it. Given the following of Anthrax, Scott Ian, etc., I could see people who never heard of BKSOR and people not even interested in pinball wanting to buy this music. And I bet a few of them are happily paying the eBay prices right now along with some of our pinhead fanatics right here.

Speaking of music downloads, can anyone confirm whether or not you get access to a download of the album if you purchased (or subsequently purcha$$$$ed) the vinyl?

An upper playfield.

Just KIDDING!!! Both versions are adrenaline-pumping, just-one-more-game fun.

Mods I absolutely had to have were speaker upgrades and the Stern shooter knob (spring strength should not be an issue on the Pro as it has been for some folks on the Premium/LEs.) I also added speaker lights and lighted flipper buttons - each doing a "slow breathing" breathing effect. Went for the real knocker too.

If you really want great sound, be sure to get the top-of-the-line subwoofer offered by the speaker upgrade vendors above their regular upgraded subwoofer if not already included. Bonus: after installing that on a BKSOR you won't need a shaker motor.

Not if you have upgraded to a top-of-line subwoofer.

A quick check of Marco for Part #626-5057-01 (which the manual calls a Bumper Pad) yields this one: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/626-5057-01 which looks darker blue in the photo, but still blue nonetheless. There's plenty of different sizes and shapes at both Marco and Pinball Life, but they are all that sore-thumb sky blue.

The closest thing I found in black with a few minutes of poking around is https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/24290 but it's for sticking on the back of Gottlieb metal switches, not being used as a playfield bumper.

I'm still considering doing a little precision surgery with a Sharpie scalpel.

I'm thinking about it. But I'm also waiting to get a little more info on this imminent arrival from Pingraffix too: https://www.pingraffix.com/product-page/pre-order-bksor-translite

Official Stern or 3rd party?

Hmmm. I know the game is "Sword of Rage" but the cabinets of all three versions already have large swords prominently featured on their side artwork. I also fully admit in advance that I have no idea what could have been put on the side armor in lieu of a sword either.

I'm trying to mentally envision this armor installed on each of the 3 BKSOR models. In all 3 cases it will add another sword pointing in the opposite direction at what (to my eye) could be an odd angle on any of them.

On first glance, these also look pretty "thick" to me ("wide" is part of that look, but there's something else I can't quite put my finger on that's making me say "thick" for some reason.)

By contrast, I instantly liked the katana sword side armor for Deadpool the first time I saw it. There's no katana swords that I recall on the cabinet sides, so it brought a new element to the sides of the cabinet. It was also comparatively quite "thin" (in my personal view) thus complementing and enhancing the cabinet side art without competing with it or potentially dominating it; maybe that's where I'm getting my notion of "thick" from.

I'm going to wait until I see pics of them installed on a Pro and a Premium. As much I have some hesitancy on first look, they could just as easily end up conveying a very cool battle clash of "player's sword" versus "Black Knight's sword" when installed given their opposing orientations. So I'm going to wait and see how they ultimately look on a game before ordering them.

Yep. While I still want to see a pic (or to-scale rendering) of them mounted on a Pro and a Premium just in case they might look better than I’m envisioning), I’m not leaning toward purchasing these as they stand.

After thinking about it for a while, maybe they could do something with the “rivet motif” and/or the fanged gold skull. That would also complement the Stern custom shooter rod and the recently released skull-fire-and-rivets shooter plate from Tilt Graphics.

Maybe we can convince the Black Knight himself to challenge the team: “Side armor? Forge better!”

Thinking about it after sleeping on it overnight, here's a couple of ideas for BKSOR that could yield a sleeker/thinner side armor ala Deadpool and Munsters that will protect the area around the flipper buttons and complement the cabinet side art by bringing in an additional element(s) without covering up a broad stretch of it. Combine appropriately/tastefully:

- something with the rivet motif and/or gold fanged skull (as I mentioned before)
- something with fire/fireballs headed toward the player/flipper buttons
- something with castle bricks/gate/drawbridge
- something with lightning bolts like those on the flipper return lanes plastics
- something with the MagnaSave yellow and red ringed circle with the blue/white lightning (could ring the flipper buttons on both sides)
- something with the Black Knight's spiked gauntlet, perhaps poised above the flipper button as if he's about to clamp down on it (mirrored for left/right sides, of course)

Anyone else got some ideas?

The more and more I look at the "plain thick sword" side armor image first posted by @carz5811, the less and less I like it.
I've pretty much decided that I am not buying them if that's what Stern releases for the BKSOR side armor.

I agree. I doubt cutting off some of the black would leave an appealing shape too.

[Brief detour: why not make a plastic of the MagnaSave circle + lightning that could be used to actually ring the button on the lockdown bar - clearly creating and indicating a connection between the button and the same spot on the Playfield?]

Might also be able to incorporate the shield somehow.

Or - since it is side *ARMOR* after all - just do a combination of the gold images that appear on the Black Knight’s armor including rivets, lightning bolts, and the shoulder spikes on black metal? In other words: make the BKSOR side armor look like it was cut from the Black Knight’s armor!

DARK BLACK KNIGHT

Tonight - just to try it - I played BKSOR with all other lights and games in the room turned off. Noticed a couple of things:

1. It's an even bigger blast as the music, animations, call outs and light shows feel more intense, really amping up the adrenaline another notch
2. At several points during various light shows, the playfield very briefly goes almost completely (if not completely) dark
3. The Black Knight's beady little red eyes seem to be laser-aimed and focused directly into my eyeballs

#1 is from the effect of being otherwise surrounded by darkness. You're not really seeing things around you out of the corners of your eyes; it's just you and him (well, OK: the game)

#2 definitely adds an extra challenge to game play. During multiball, for example, losing sight of all the balls very briefly every now and then required even more rapid recalculation/adjustment once the lights came back on and you could see where the balls had gotten to from where they were split seconds ago.

#3 Didn't want to mess with it tonight, but does anyone know if the Black Knight's head is adjustable (like able to be tilted up and down) as a unit or if his LED eyes can be? Never really noticed it/paid much attention to it/felt affected by it when playing in a reasonably well-lit environment, but in the dark the Black Knight on my game seems to have his head/gaze raised up; he's looking at me up through the glass rather than straight ahead ("straight ahead" would technically be at an angle a little below parallel to the playfield since in theory he's watching the pinballs so he can block them with his shield and his flail.)

He sure turns into a plastic wuss awfully fast for wanting to kill it all.

And while I haven't made it there yet, I'm presuming he suddenly (re-)grows a pair and goes full confident arrogant evil in the final battle. Hard to tell if the effects of all that beer he's been chugging while he was wussing out are kicking in or wearing off by then.

Given that I never thought there would ever be another Black Knight pin after Williams got out of the pinball business, perhaps the King is working on a few successors to some of his other non-licensed themes like Flash, Firepower, High Speed, and F-14 Tomcat.

But if the licensing gods are with Steve, perhaps he could convince the powers that be to do a *real* Mortal Kombat pin - because these certainly do NOT count:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MortalKombat/comments/arp9v7/i_came_across_this_vintage_mortal_kombat_pinball/

Gotta say I dig Doug and his Speaker Light Kits! His standard set looks fantastic on my Premium. If I had an LE, this would be first on my list of mods to install. Once you see them in the videos on his website (let alone once you have them in your game) you’ll “forget” that they didn’t come pre-installed from the factory. Great product, great service, great guy.

I also recommend the BriteButtons lighted flipper buttons. I installed blue ones on my Premium. The latest version has an inline control that lets you select the brightness and some effects like blinking. I set mine to the slow pulse effect. To me it adds a nice visual element that is simultaneously beautiful and “intimidating” in that medieval magic sort of way.

Don't let the "complication" or number of steps worry you.
Doug is just VERY detailed in his instructions because he wants to ensure that you don't have any problems and that it works from the very first time you power the game on after installation.

I’ve gotten my ration of those same rejections. Nothing seems to be affecting the ball on my game. Checked the ramp and it all seems smooth. No alignment problems that I could see on the scoop end. Even played it with the sound turned way down to listen for any signs of the ball rattling or hitting something. Every time it happens to me, it at least seems to be because my shot ultimately didn’t have quite enough oomph to make it - like when I used to play miniature golf and the ball wouldn’t make it up a loop-de-loop and then would come zooming back to the tee mat.

I’ve also gotten at least as many flail ramp shots in which the ball “vanishes” for about 3-5 seconds and then slowly comes back into view up top and finally plops onto the upper playfield like a dead weight - as if I shot it at the precise minimum speed that would still get the ball up there. It always pleasantly catches me off guard as I prepare for the drain rocket that doesn’t happen.

I’ve concluded that it’s all a combination of intentionally “evil” game design (you know: the good kind of evil) coupled with the Black Knight using his magic powers. I used to think that it was just the Black Knight’s sword that had magic in it but then I realized that he has magic powers himself: it finally dawned on me that I’ve watched him conjure up extra balls out of thin air right in front of my eyes on many occasions but never connected the dots.

You're, welcome, @ezatnova. And I'm certainly not saying that you aren't having an issue with something causing so many of those rocket drains from the flail ramp. It's entirely possible that your issue is an extreme case of my barely-makes-it experience. I've had plenty of solid shots go through to the UP as one would expect and a tolerable amount of rocket drain rejections - but then there's those barely-makes-it shots I get - which I started wondering more about after reading your post.

In your case, something could very easily be in the way or mis-positioned in a way resulting in your rocket rejections. But perhaps the same obstruction on my game just happens to be wide enough to allow the ball through once the full weight of the ball rests on it and gravity works on it for a couple of seconds. Because when I have a barely-made-it ball plop onto the UP, it has no momentum at all.

I'll stay tuned because once you identify what is causing your rocket drains, I'll want to look at the same thing on my game. There's probably a good chance that I've overlooked the issue on my game since I could plausibly be causing it with my shots and because the pathway looks and acts "normal" every time I've sent a ball through it in gameplay or by hand.

I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing more code updates. There have been plenty of tweaks and suggestions here since 1.00 was released, Tim undoubtedly already had/has his own list of things he wants to address in the next code release, and I have a very good feeling that the game team as a whole is far from exhausting their creative talents in regard to surprising us with some new features as time goes on.

More minions and monsters would be great and I'm all in favor of it as an owner, but I also want to first and foremost recognize and acknowledge the heavy lift of the additional work it would create for the art team.

That said, it would be extremely interesting and add more depth if there was a second monster in each of the Black Knight's lands. The lands themselves are pretty much set in stone because they're on the lightning wheel. For example, in addition to the Lich Lords in the frozen wasteland (the name I made up for it right here on the spot; nothing "official"), there could be an "Abominable Ice Man" or something. And with two monsters in each land, you do the current set leading up to the first black castle and the others in the second set. Or, to make it a little more interesting, have the game randomly pick which monster you'll face when you enter that land - and have different shot objectives/completion requirements for monsters in the same land just to vary the game each time through - even leading up to your first black castle.

Otherwise, more minions and monsters sprinkled throughout the game either with specific features attached to them or just for more visual accents and effects in the display would be great too. One last suggestion in that regard: I'm surprised that there aren't more skeletons prominently appearing in the display. The end of game match sequence is excellent. The one with the flamethrower voiced by Ed Robinson is excellent too. It also sounds like at least one skeleton has some callouts (Ed again? Saying "I'm the leader of the boneheads!", "We must stop them from getting to our master", etc.), but they otherwise don't seem to play much of a foreground role given that Mr. Meanness has a whole army of them.

Had a particularly bloody battle against Mr. Meanness this evening using the HOOKED flipper toppers.

First test install; just experimenting ... easy enough to undo/redo.
My apologies for the bad shadows, reflections and jitters in the quickly-snapped pictures - they look much better in person.
Still, a work in progress.

Lower (resized).jpg

Upper (resized).jpg

Only "new thing" I recently spotted is that if you check out Pingame Journal's BKSOR Behind the Curtain video:

you'll hear Tim mention the topper - and get a glimpse of it in early development (scrub ahead to 16:25 and watch for it in a few seconds. But the entire video is really worth watching, so be sure you do!) Looks like more LED flames coming on both sides of what I presume will be an animated 3D Black Knight head per Steve's comments a good while ago. This one is definitely on my to-buy list if they continue along those lines.

Haven't heard much about the side armor in a while either. Then again, I hope that's because they're redesigning it. Those first pics looked like they were phoned in and were not appealing to me at all, thus they are definitely not on my to-buy list.

Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere here that I recall, so I'll just ask (and ask advance forgiveness if I missed it): does everyone's Knight raise and lower his shield three times at the new game start - just on Player 1, Ball 1 - regardless of how many credit were rung up/players will be playing? Mine does, but that's the only time it happens.

I never really thought much about it before but it's suddenly begun getting on my nerves ... to the point that I started wondering if it is NOT supposed to do that and I might have something wacky going on. If it is intentional, is it being done as an effect to make the Knight appear "threatening" or "ready to fight the player(s)" at game start and/or demonstrate to the potential first time player that the shield raises and lowers? Seems to be three unnecessary rapid wear-increasing firings of the shield up/down mechanism if it is being done on purpose.

Yes: only after power-on with the first press of the start button that starts a game - I wasn't very clear (headed) when I posted that last (k)night.

Glad to know it is intentional and there's nothing wrong with my game, but I personally think it's another candidate to add to the list of suggested adjustments so owners and operators can enable/disable it as they prefer.

Pro, Premium or LE?

If others see this, post your model too. It may provide some (hopefully and admittedly) small data we can analyze as to what, where and/when it is/was happening.

I agree.

That also made me think of a question about something that is, while obvious, not something I thought about before.

The BK on BKSOR has two devices in one toy that interacts with pinballs: his flail and his shield. I’m calling the BK *one* toy because it would not make much sense for a standalone flail and/or a standalone shield to exist on the game without someone wielding them, thus creating two toys. I’m also not counting the standup bash target as something that interacts with the ball as part of the BK toy because it is not a “device” made more or less exclusively for one particular game.

Also one “device” may actually do more than one game-affecting thing in and of itself, but it still counts as only one device. For example, the flail can spin in both directions as well as stop in open or closed positions. I’m still counting it as just one device. The shield can be bashed and used to slam the ball back at you when down, or raised to shoot behind it, but again it’s just one device. But both devices are part of the BK toy, so the BK toy has two devices in one toy.

Rudy on Funhouse is one toy with one device: his mouth is either closed so you can bash it or open so you can shoot into it. Yes, Rudy’s eyes open, close and follow the ball around the game, but they do not affect your gameplay (well, as long as that doesn’t creep you out so much that you can’t focus.) In other words, if Rudy’s eyes stopped working, no shots on the game would be affected.

With those definitions/parameters, what other games have “one toy” that has more than one device which directly affects gameplay? I’m not saying there aren’t any; rather I’m looking for help to think of others so I miss as few as possible.

Rudy is incredibly cool - no doubt about that. But I’ve never considered the hideout to be a part of Rudy since a head is not something that would realistically have a “hideout.” I’ve always considered the hideout to be a secret place that Rudy goes to when he feels he needs to, but for obvious reasons never actually happens during the game ... the player just stumbles upon it with a skill shot or slow rolling orbit shot. A flail and a shield OTOH are two things that would quite often be used together by a knight and thus it makes sense that a knight toy could, would and now does have both.

The closest thing that’s crossed my mind so far is the castle on Medieval Madness. I’m specifically thinking of the drawbridge and the gate/portcullis. On the one hand, you have to open both before you can destroy the next castle; if either or both are not working, you cannot shoot into the castle (I don’t own the game nor have I seen it happen, but I presume the game compensates when either or both are disabled.) OTOH, they both protect the same shot, so their effect on gameplay isn’t really different even though their opening and closing motions are different. I don’t count the collapsing towers as a device for discussion purposes here since again they don’t effect/alter the actual shots in the game.

Way too tired to think more about it now. Time to sleep on it.

And I think a big reason for that is that Rudy has a large mechanically expressive personality whereas the knight looks and speaks at the player with LEDs. I'm not knocking the knight for this - I think that choice was perfect given what the team was creating (imagine if instead of the flail and the shield we had a knight's big head on the playfield and you bashed his face piece to open it and shoot into his helmet = why? + ugh! + WTF?)

Rudy is a classic ventriloquist's figure. Rudy's head is a 100% faithful replication of how an actual ventriloquist's figure's head looks and how its jaw moves. Shooting a ball into his mouth to (at least temporarily) shut him up makes total sense. And given his personality, he makes you *want* to do that. Perfect. (This is also why I was not fond of Red and Ted in Roadshow - while it was great to see two physical "Rudy relatives" on a game, I had no desire to bash them with pinballs or shoot pinballs into their mouths to temporarily shut them up ... well, OK: not until after I played it a few times.)

But back to BKSOR:

- Eagerly awaiting more details and updates on the topper

- Anyone heard anything more about what's going on with the side armor? The photos of the ones that were posted a while back look like Stern phoned it in. While BKSOR themed, IMHO they didn't complement the game very well at all and they were something I would definitely NOT purchase if released like that. Hopefully they went back to the drawing board (literally) and are working something much more worthy of the game and our dollars.

That kinda goes without saying (so I didn't) as I think all ventriloquist's figures are incredibly creepy.
But Rudy most certainly tops them all.

I've called for it to be an adjustment ever since it was activated and released in the latest code. Some people like it, some people don't. Both are fine. In fact, as someone firmly in the latter camp, I'd love to be able to switch the setting every once in a while to make some of my more frequent player-guests do a double take ala "What did he just say?"

But IMHO and from the overall perspective of the game and the Black Knight character I grew to know and hate (love!), Mr. Ritchie making the Black Knight wimp out at any point in the game is like George Lucas making Greedo shoot first.

Like I said a couple of months ago: create a KNIGHT PERSONA adjustment and give us the option choices of HUMOROUS, TRADITIONAL EVIL, and SAMUEL L. JACKSON.
(I think Amazon read the latter suggestion and ran with it!)

I have the profanity ROM in my T2 - just one Ahnuld call-out that I know of and only in Free Play mode ("F-you, a-hole" in the database/mystery award and you get nothing.) I installed that ROM just a few months after I bought the game NIB back in 1991 (my very first ever NIB.)

That obviously pre-dates Pinball Browser. So does anyone know if this was a SR "approved" ROM, or did the programmers do it with his (initial) knowledge?

I was about to bolt my BKSOR to the floor when they activated these call outs in the code release.

If indeed he blesses the wussy Black Knight as the knight's permanent and only persona, then it's quite clear that Steve Ritchie has irrevocably gone full-George Lucas and created his pinball version of Greedo shoots first. Very sad. Because we all know that's just a gateway to him creating his pinball version of Jar Jar.

So how then? The only change I made to get it my game was to swap ROMs.

I didn't buy the game with humorous knight call outs. I bought the traditional evil knight as Stern advertised it and as they initially delivered.
But then - after letting us be thrilled with the evil knight that many of us came to know and love - they go and activate the surprise wuss knight whose callouts were already sitting dormant in the game and they do not give us the option to adjust it as a factory setting. You wouldn't be very happy if Christopher Nolan replaced Christian Bale's Batman with Adam West's Batman in The Dark Knight and proclaimed that this is his Batman now - anymore than most people where when Joel Schumacher actually did exactly that to Tim Burton's Batman.

I don't buy NIB games so I can use Pinball Browser to change them back to the game the way it was advertised and that I thought I bought. If the next day you jump into your Chevy Corvette and discovered that it now permanently had the horsepower of a Chevy Spark after your most recent oil change, I imagine you'd be just a little upset. Had you known your Corvette was going to do that, you never would have bought it. That totally applies here and that's how many of us feel. But you're clearly NOT able to comprehend our position as a valid one.

You're also still not able to understand that we are NOT advocating that the humor go away. We totally get that there are folks who love it. And that's fine. So make it an adjustment and everyone is happy.

Sorry that you think Greedo shoots first is the better canon. But gee: at least we have the option to watch whichever version each of us prefers now, don't we?

"Give me your money" is originally from Black Knight 2000.

Gary Stern personally pointed it out in his opening remarks at the beginning of the Pinball Expo Stern Factory Tour this morning. It was on top of the game in the Stern Arcade area where they have playable samples of their latest games. Gary said this was the FIRST one completed. I was also told that they are really trying to get it into production in time for folks to have one before Christmas. The Black Knight's head moves UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT!!!

Other good news: I also heard from another a very high-placed Stern source that an adjustment for the amount of cowering in the Black Knight's callouts is coming in the next code update. There will be two options you can choose from that basically make the BK cower quickly or not until much later. And oh yeah: there will be a third setting that keeps him totally evil throughout - no cowering at all. Everybody wins!!!

No, that's NOT part of it - That's ALL of it!!! If you don't want the BK turning into a wuss sooner or later but staying evil the entire time, you (we) will have exactly that option in this new adjustment.

I actually plan to let some of my regular guests (none of whom I have had over to play my game yet) get used to the totally evil knight but then after a few visits to play, I'll secretly switch him to wuss out ... and then watch them all do "What did he say?" double-takes while initially trying to convince them they're hearing things. Then I'll fess up when I can't up the ruse any longer!

That's because the only "complete" BKSOR topper that currently exists is the one on top of the Premium in the Stern Arcade at the factory. The art may or may not be finalized at this point, but I was told that the code is still growing; the BK will minimally react even more during gameplay by the time the topper is produced and orders are taken - and who knows what else these ingenious pin geniuses will get it to do by then?

Once more: they are hoping to have the toppers ready so folks can order, receive and install them by Christmas.

Side armor is live for ordering on Stern's website:

https://shop.sternpinball.com/products/black-knight-side-armor

I'd like to see a pic of it installed on all three models. But right now I'm not feeling it.

[Unrelated: the lit mosquito-in-amber shooter knob for JP is also live ... looks pretty neat.]

BlackKnightArmor-01_1070x1070_crop_center (resized).JPG

The shooter rod is indeed very badass - and even more so since it's facing the right way when a player looks at it; it's not upside down like the stormtrooper helmet or baby Groot shooters.

But Stern really needs to post pics of the armor installed on all three models. At the moment, they way I'm envisioning it will look on a game is not taking me anywhere close to purchasing it. I'm certainly keeping open the possibility that once I see it installed on a game I may change my mind - but that opening for changing my mind to a purchase is getting narrower with every passing day.

None that I have heard since Pinball Expo: Steve, Tim and team are working to have it available for purchase so folks will receive it by Xmas - exactly what you and I and I’m sure many more are hoping happens too. It will be released in tandem with the next code update.

IMHO I would have been happy if I could have bought the one I saw at Expo as is. But Steve and Tim had no intention of leaving it at that for us BKSOR owners; they’re recording more (new!) call outs and creating additional animation effects and synchronizations to ensure that the BKSOR topper is the topper of all toppers. I think Steve, Tim and the team intend to create a fourth level of awesome for Steve Ritchie games - i just don’t know what they’ll call the level that comes after “biggest.”

I think they look great too, but would they fit on a Premium/LE given the upper playfield?

IMHO, if you’re a player with good nudging skills and/or you don’t mind the game playing tougher on the upper playfield, then leave it off. Otherwise, swap it in.

But because it is such a simple thing, you can easily switch it either way whenever you want. So maybe you like it always playing tough upstairs, but when you have a pinball party at your place you want to make the game a smidge easier for players at a more modest skill level.

Exactly - it's all "right on top" of everything.

The big thing it does is bump the ball coming around the loop or from the VUK more toward the upper flipper than the game normally does without it. For me, that makes the game/upper playfield easier. Your mileage may vary.

Do you have the "bump" enhancement installed? And does it still drain directly with that enhancement in place?

You can do either and get it for free. Or pay $2.99 plus shipping and get it faster from Pinball Life (hopefully with the extra hole needed already drilled it by now that mine didn’t have several months ago.) Or if you want something even faster, look at the pictures of it online and just wedge a spare star post or something in there to create a similar bump in the same spot in the rubber ring.

Yep!

My personal rule for adding a shaker motor to my games is to ask if a shaker motor enhances the game's theme and further brings you into the game's world when you play. So games like Earthshaker (obviously), Twister, etc.: Is there anything in the theme that might cause the ground and/or the surrounding area to shake/quake/rattle/rumble/vibrate? So WWF Royal Rumble counts - not because of the word "rumble" in its name but because stomping, bodyslams, etc. cause a wrestling ring to shake. Games where car engines are regularly revving and bombs are frequently exploding are some more great examples. I would also put a shaker motor in any Jurassic Park game because of approaching T-Rex's steps, etc.

So all of that said, I haven't put a shaker in my BKSOR (and likely won't) because I'm still not seeing many (if any) places where a shaking effect would make $100 worth of sense to me. It makes no sense to me (again: in my personal opinion) for a game to just shake for no apparent, well-integrated reason. Plus I did the speaker+subwoofer upgrades because of the soundtrack, so I already have a well-integrated shaker motor! (When it comes to rock band/heavy metal games, get/add the top-of-line speaker and subwoofer upgrades. Trust me on this: you won't NEED a shaker motor after that upgrade.)

So for BKSOR, my $0.02 is to put the shaker dollars towards the sound system upgrades instead.

Also realize that there is a grand total of just 23 minutes of music on the album. *Not* 23 minutes per side - 23 minutes of music altogether.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m glad I have it. But if you were/are expecting a more traditional/full length album, you’ll be disappointed.

Do you have a track list and/or play times? Other than being orange instead of baby blue, I haven’t heard that there’s anything different between the two editions.

Cost of attending Comic-Con and subsequent eBay prices notwithstanding, price is another difference: the orange one costs $5.99 more than the original blue one did.

But speaking for myself since I’m only interested in the music, none of those makes a difference to me.

You really ought to open it - it comes with a code for a digital download of the music inside.

And it is the BLACK Knight, after all - not the Cyan Knight or the Pumpkin Knight.

It's not about advertising a product they’re selling that’s not been released to the mass public - it's about them setting expectations in the minds of their customers. Whether they realize they are/were doing it or not, something touted as a "Black Knight Friday" announcement/sale for the traditional Black Friday elevates expectations in their customers - particularly when those customers have been waiting for announcements of enhancements and additional products to go with what they have already purchased.

Exercise: Imagine if you've been waiting until the holidays to buy a new TV at WalMart. Then when you get to the store/website on Black Friday, you discover that instead of insanely good doorbuster prices on TVs, they opt to sell their TVs at the regular price, but throw in an exclusive limited edition R2D2 or Darth Vader (your choice!)-themed universal remote with every TV sold for free. How would you feel? But point taken: Star Wars collectors might very well buy two TVs from WalMart that day just to ensure they get one of each of the limited edition remotes.

And for that price, the Star Wars topper better do more than just have R2D2 twist his head, blip and bleep. Odd that Stern hasn't posted them on its website as of this writing. Official announcement days be damned - this is the run up to Xmas: get all the orders (and $$$) you can! Plus we'd all love to have our toppers BEFORE Xmas so we can have them up and running on our games FOR Xmas.

This looks to be the same kit from PinMonk. Well worth the price and effort. So see:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacing-stern-spike-noisy-ps-fans/page/7#post-5295307

And as I said over there:
=====
I have been very remiss in adding my big thanks and appreciation for PinMonk's kit as well which I installed many months ago.

I did the entire switch out on my BKSOR in 20 minutes - 10 minutes of which was just being extra careful clearing enough of the goo holding the original fan connector wire in place.

Don't let the instructions intimidate you at all - they are just very detailed, well-written and clear. Do one "panel" of the instructions at a time; it goes way faster than it reads.

After installing it, my Black Knight has never again sounded like he's periodically blow-drying his hair, vacuuming, and leaving on his private Boeing 747.
=====

Just from the new plastic. Try it and you’ll see how it works.

Is that $200 deposit refundable if you don’t like the final price?

That's what I would expect, @DS_Nadine, but it seems odd that a distributor would offer a pre-order and actually take a deposit without stating the final price up front. I've pre-ordered lots of things with a deposit, but I always knew the price before transmitting my deposit payment - including for my BKSOR Premium.