Black Rose: Skull and Bones (BR:SnB)
A Licensed “2.0” Upgrade Kit by Cardona Pinball Designs
Available SOON
MSRP $2199US

Includes everything you need to install Black Rose: Skull and Bones into a Black Rose Pinball machine.
• display panel with an industrial 15.6 inch monitor, and associated cabling.
• FAST Interface controller board (to be installed in the removed CPU location).
• CPU panel that includes CPU, FAST audio and accessory controller, and associated cabling (to be installed in the removed audio/video board location).
• Power Supply with fuse block and associated cabling.
• Translite.

Note: Interface controller offers the ability to add future expansion components such as shaker motors, RGB lighting kits, and the interactiveTopper .

About Black Rose: Skull and Bones:
Captain Maria Cortez is the captain of the most famous of all pirating ships to raid the seven seas, the Black Rose, and her first mate, Red Beard, is plotting to snatch it from her. If he can convince enough of the crew to his side there'll be mutiny in the offing.
Who's side are yer on, matey?

cardonapinball.com contains links to videos of game play, installation of a kit, pre-installation steps, troubleshooting, and a demo video as well as manuals, flyers, promo material, and other documents that can be downloaded.

Questions:
Does your kit include a new translite?
yes

Can your kit play the original game?
Yes. The upgrade kit will play the original game. Additionally, in future updates we plan to add functionality to the original game where appropriate.

About Cardona Pinball Designs:
Cardona Pinball Designs is licensed by Planetary Pinball Supply to create 2.0 game kits for Bally-Williams titles and has been working toward this end for approximately four years. Our main expertise is software and we subcontract or partner with professionals for other specialized work. For example, FAST is creating our hardware and we also use several artists and voice actors for content creation.

Our titles receive heavy public beta testing. Black Rose: Skull and Bones has been at the Delaware Pinball Collective in Wilmington, Delaware since 2022 ( https://www.delawarepinballcollective.com).

Black Rose: Skull and Bones has also been to several pinball shows such as:
• White Rose Gameroom Show ( http://www.theyorkshow.com)
• PinFest (http://www.pinfestival.com)
• Golden State Pinball Festival (https://www.goldenstatepinball.org)
• Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show (http://www.nwpinballshow.com)
• Pin-a-go-go (http://www.pin-a-go-go.org)
• Texas Pinball Festival (https://www.texaspinball.com )

promotional video

game play

installation video

troubleshooting videos

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Some background info on why I chose Black Rose.

Black Rose is a pinball machine made in 1992 by the Williams company. The game has a pirate theme, an atypical playfield layout with four ramps and a subway that leads to a below-playfield canon, three flippers, and a dot-matrix display.
The game was designed by a few folks who went on to design some of the most beloved pinball machines of all time, in my opinion, and in this machine you can see some of their early thought and several really cool design elements. With all that, you would think this was a great selling machine, but it was not-so-popular with route operators mainly due to the maintenance issues surrounding the canon mechanism and player’s criticisms of the code.

Black Rose Pinball Cons:
* Overly stop and go. Holds ball for too long during dots.
* Canon can be inaccurate or is usually broken if you find one on location and it is a big part of the scoring
* Scoring unbalanced, go for broadside repeatedly and it’s a one-shot game (same for the whirlpool ramp)
* A lot of the (major) shots are safe which makes the game too easy (zipper flippers could help)
* Backglass artwork I like except BR herself, which is really…
* Animation dots need work
* Music is good by 1992 pinball standards, but not for today’s
* Three video modes all of which are not so fun
* Canon is right between the flippers so if it is not leveled properly or worn, it can change the ball trajectory. Ugh!
* Some complain that the center broadside “ramp” obscures the view of the center of the playfield and maybe feels a bit distracting (doesn't bother me)
* Flashers placement makes them not bright at all (minor complaint, for sure)

Black Rose Pinball Pros:
* Excellent theme (who doesn't like pirates?)
* Relatively unique layout
* Three flippers (not a fan layout)
* Nine lighted targets for sniper shots
* Four ramps (five if you count broadside), two with more than one path
* Broadside shot is all the way on the other side of the playfield which makes it a very satisfying shot to make
* Besides the plastic parts of the canon, everything else is pretty solid as far as construction and wearability. Made in 1992 and this game is still around
* Williams parts a very available (plastic canon parts are now available as well)
* Since these weren’t routed much due to the canon issues, many have very little playfield wear (I guess mine is an exception, though)
* A non-licensed theme so fewer limitations on recode creativity
* The canon is the main issue, but if it is disabled the game could still have a lot of shots to go for and a lot of non-canon modes could be made that are super-fun (we are using the canon, but if yours is broke, no problem!)

The Cardona Pinball Designs Treatment:
* An actual story to go along with the artwork. Imagine that!
* New backglass artwork (translite, not glass)
* LCD display to replace the DMD
* All new animations
* All new music, voice work, callouts, and sound effects. All in hi-def
* Eliminate all video modes. (No video modes! This is pinball, baby!)
* Much less stop and go by ejecting the ball from the broadside saucer and pirates’ cove with less unnecessary delays. Only delays will be for mode starts. No more polly!
* Canon will only be used for 2 modes and if it is broken, player can still play the modes using other shots. Also, canon shots required in those modes will NOT just be the broadside shot but all over the playfield
* Balance the scoring by making multiple modes which cannot be replayed until all other modes completed. Mode choice is random
* Several mini-modes (Pirates' Booty, Walk The Plank, Typhoon, Sword Fight, Davy Jones Locker, etc. expect about 8 to 10 in all)
* Two wizard modes (Sink Ship and Mutiny)
* One super-mega-alpha-wolf wizard mode (Aaargh!)
* Make the game harder by stopping the repetitiveness of the shots such that certain shots must be done in a specific order instead of repeating the same shot over and over (a la whirlpool ramp)
* Give the strategists something to think about: do I build towards Sink Ship or Mutiny? Davy Jones Locker is easy to start but doesn’t score as much. Pirate’s Booty is hard to start but scores better. Yeah, like that.

the game now dual boots

How far along am I at this point?

The following are complete, playable, and fully functional:
Base game
pirates booty mode
davy jones locker mode
typhoon mode
sword fight mode
walk the plank mode

I have all the music, animations, light shows, game rules, and sound effects done for all of the above. I still need to record the voices. Any takers?

I have 6 other modes that are in various stages of development, including the wizards.

Need beta testers:

One of the reasons I wanted to start this thread before the code was complete was the lesson learned from NGG2.0. For that project, I obtained my beta testers too late in the development process. I say this because some of the testers did not like certain aspects of the work, particularly the bear animations, and for me to go back and change that would have been several hundred hours of work and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. This time I would like to get the betas involved earlier so if changes need to be made it won't be so painful.

So then, here is a beta-testers job description:
You would play Skull and Bones a bunch, maybe for hours at a time, and give me feedback, preferably written, preferably with concrete examples. Hopefully, other people would be also doing this. Once every couple of weeks or so, I would make changes to the code then send out update files. Then you’d play it a bunch more. Maybe more than you really want to. Rinse, repeat.

The team of testers for NGG2.0 met once every two weeks or so at one of the guy's homes and played NGG for about 3 or 4 hours straight (lots of beer involved, I suspect). Usually, 2 to 4 people so it was also a very social thing. They’ve been great at finding things that don’t necessarily show up on the first game. That’s the kind of thing I’m looking for, if possible.

Of course, you would need to install my kit in your machine. You could buy one from me and I would sell it at cost to a beta testers, or if you have a spare computer, monitor, and an audio amp then we could image the computer's hard drive and use that. Beside those components, the system uses a P-ROC and those cost about $400. Multimorphic sells them and I have no ties to that company.

some info about skill shot

Skillshot
At the start of each ball, several different skillshots are available at the plunge.

The first skill shot is a soft plunge to the three yellow targets. The center target awards a higher score than the two outside targets.

The second skill shot is the doubloon target. This skill shot is worth much more points than the yellow target skill shot.

Additionally, the skillshot allows you to add bonus scoring. Mr Chin points at which scoring bonus is available at that moment and if you hit one of the skillshots during that time, you will receive the award for the remainder of the game. If you miss or hit the skillshot when nothing is lit, you get’s nothing, matey.

Available bonuses are:
Start on 2X scoring multiplier instead of 1X for the rest of the game
Super-whirl pool bumper jets worth triple scoring for the rest of the game
Add three additional canons to your count (immediately)
Obviously, you can only acquire the first two listed above once, since they remain in force the remainder of the game. The third one, adding 3 additional canons can be acquired more than once.

Super Skillshot
If you make the skillshot, the broadside saucer will light for a super skillshot for a handful of seconds. Hit that for a bounty worthy of the foulest of ship-stealing scoundrels!

all new animations using a 15.7 inch LCD screen (computer monitor)

I am looking for someone to donate the voices for a few characters. If I do not find someone to donate then I will hire professionals but I am really trying to avoid that for this project. Pinside has a ton of people in a variety of different fields so I am thinking there are some audio professionals here that might want to jump in on this and have there names on the credits of a pinball machine.

Here is one that I am looking for:

Captain Maria
She is the main character and hero of the game. Being the captain of a pirate ship, she is obviously tough as nails, doesn’t take any backtalk, and will easily send traitors to walk the plank. Still, the crew is her family and she is not unnecessarily harsh.
She is tall, thin, pale, and has sandy blond hair. I envisioned here as being from northern spain, perhaps from the Spanish-french border region, maybe basque. She could have a relatively thick Spanish accent. Think Salma Hyak or Penelope Cruz. Maybe even throw in a single Spanish word occasionally.

example dialog:
i'm captain maria cortez colon de la mancha, Scourge of the 7 Seas
the rose is my ship. I stole her fair and square
the rose is my ship and there's not a soul alive that can take her from me

I have a spreadsheet with a hundred or so common phrases for the characters and a handful of specific phrases. When I did NGG2.0 I did all the voices for the two characters which ended up being about 600 or so phrases. It took me maybe 2 hours of recording to do all of that and get it to where I was happy with it.

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here is another:

Matilda
Don’t let her size fool you. She’s quick with a blade and will tear you apart. She’s young, mischievous, snarky, and funny. She’ll wink and smile before slicing your throat.

Example dialog:
maria saved my life, I'd be glad to give her mine
they call me matilda and I don't mind. None of these scallywags can pronounce my real name

matildaA2Bordered600_DOC (resized).png

one more:

Chin
A tough, no-nonsense pirate who does the work but doesn’t live the pirate lifestyle of booze and debauchery. We don’t know much about Chin except that he’s an honest man. At least as honest as a pirate could be. he could have an accent.

There are at least 9 characters in the game. I will post some others later. Send me back if you have other ideas.

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got a few folks volunteered to do voice work. We shall see how good all that comes out. For pinheads, it is super cool to see your name on the credits of a pinball machine so if there are others interested, drop me a line.

I must say that I cannot guarantee that I will use the recordings sent to me if they do not match the game, but for sure I hope they do!

send me a PM

Yes! Doing that

Mr. Chin's voices are done. Much thanks to Frank Gigliotti for taking the time to donate them. He is also the lead programmer for Riot Pinball's new "Legends Of Valhalla" pinball machine so he is a super busy guy. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/riot-pinball-new-wip

One of the common complaints about the original Black Rose's code is the video modes. It was a thing back in the 90's and a lot of games had them. Some were done well. Getaway comes to mind, for sure. Maybe Dr. Who. But even when done well, playing a video mode is not really pinball for a lot of people.

When I rewrote the code for Demolition Man I created 3 video modes for that game but made them all options in the menu so if you didn't like any or all of them you could turn them off. That was my first game and the longer I have been coding (recoding) pinball, I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to put video modes in my code anymore. (Maybe someone can convince me otherwise?) So when I did NGG2.0, there are no video mode.

Likewise, I have no plans to put a video mode in Skull and Bones. The three playfield lights that correspond to the three video modes are replaced by three pinball modes. "Rigging swing", "knife throw", and "walk the plank" are now all full-fledged pinball modes with their own goal, shots, objectives, animations, music, sounds, etc.

Additionally, "polly", which was just a quick animation and a random award, is a fully formed mode.

So all of the above described lights along with "instant multiball" and "treasure hunt" are on the mast that leads to the broadside saucer. These are all modes. When you complete the shots to qualify a mode, these lights will pulse. Shoot the broadside shot and a random one will be chosen from the list. If a mode is already played, it's light will be solid and you cannot play it until you have played all the others.

All player's modes will go in the same order so then, the game, by default, is ready for tournaments.

I just finished writing "Instant Multiball" this week. When that mode is started, a second ball is given and the player must plunge and a switch hit be made for the game to understand that a second ball is on the playfield. Then the ball held in the saucer is released and the mode begins.

For me, I really wish this game had an auto plunger, it would have made writing multiballs so much easier.

Instant multiball can be a super lucrative mode. For most modes, there are specific shots that need to be made and those shots have huge scoring and other shots do not. This is the typical "shoot the flashing lights" idea for modes that almost every game has.

For instant multiball, I decided to leave the base game rules in play, but ramp up the shot multiplier. as long as two balls remain in play. Not sure of where that shot multiplier increase is going to land in production code, by right now I have it set at 5x. So then, the shot multiplier can normally get as high as 5x, so if you have it there and you start instant multiball, you have a multiplier of what? 25x? No, you wish. It is additive, so 10x.

Still, that is pretty awesome. We'll see if that imbalances the game. I might tune that back down a little once it goes to beta.

okay so I know most of you hate reading text, so here's a little video:

This is what I sent Frank after he recorded the Chin voices for me. Still waiting on Garcia's voices so those are not there yet.

This is just a little demo of what the "knife throw" mode looks like on the screen. I recorded this on my laptop so this is not connected to a machine and was just done to demo the screen.

What I was going for was the look of the video game "street fighter" which was pretty huge in the late 1980s to early 1990s and since that was the era of the Black Rose pin, I figured that would be cool.

So this replaces the "knife throw" video mode, but it is a pinball mode. There are two different swords on the playfield. One points at the jackpot ramp and the other at the whirlpool ramp. If you shoot the left shot, the person on the left attacks and the person on the right's health meter goes down. Vice versa for the right shot. Also you can charge up an of the side for a mega-hit.

Like I said, this video is just an alpha-demo and this is still being worked for look and feel.

working on modeling the captain

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for the cut scenes, I will do high res renders. This one just started

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just don't get her upset

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round 3 of the test translites just arrived from Spooky Pinball. They come with a protective film which I haven't removed yet in these pictures.

Super excited to get these in my machine to see how they look!

It is such a pleasure working with Spooky. They use the same printers to print my translites that they use on all of their production machines so the quality is tops. The first vendor I hired couldn't print white ink and I didn't find that out until after I received the order so unfortunately that test print wasn't usable. I switched to Spooky and they have been great!

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So I am still mulling over a few options as far as the backbox.

With the other recodes that I did and am doing they were newer machines with a DMD/speaker panel so I was locked in to a max LCD screen size of 15.7 inches. That was fine since that is the same size used in TNA and they are available from pinball life --a no-brainer, I guess.

But for this black rose conversion, there isn't a DMD/speaker panel. I need to redo the translite and the lightboard in order to support the monitor so I can make the screen whatever size I want. I was thinking of going bigger than 15.7", maybe 17" or 19" but haven't yet found a good source of those screens that is reasonable priced.

If anyone has a source, I appreciate passing it along.

the backbox panel that holds the DMD and the lights needs to be replaced with this project. Well... I could actually cut the original but I didn't want to do that.
Just making my first cuts to a test piece. Since the college is closed for covid, I don't currently have access to the CNC so I have to use the trusty tablesaw for now.

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the test piece fit perfect, although it is a wee bit thick. I will have to use a thinner plywood for the next one. The lights are not final, of course. Just there for the mock up.

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looking at the translite clear area, it is amazing to me how much larger the LCD is compared to old DMD. The translite on the right still has protective film while the one on the left does not.

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enough for today. Time to play some beatles

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I am always trying to use my projects to push my own boundraries and learn new things. I did some light physics modeling for NGG2.0, particularly the golf balls, but wanted to push more in that direction.

I know most pinballers think the graphics on the display are secondary to what is happening on the playfield and I agree with that 100%. I think animations are really more for the bystanders than the players. Still, I wanted to learn so I have been spending some time on it and hopefully there is a payoff. If not, it is fun.

So I have been playing with getting the characters clothing to sway in the air as the character moves. It is a lot harder than you might think.

Check out the bottom of Captain Maria's jacket as she fires her guns. This is another test video so there is no background.

A little more dramatic in the second video.

Still learning this effect, but it is a lot of fun so far.

got one version of the backglass installed last night along with the monitor and the string lights to light up the picture. Clearly I need better lights but this was just a test for fit. You know, I measured the clear window on the translite to the dimensions of the monitor but I was curious how much offset I needed because of the parrallax of the player's eyes being above the screen.

Here is another video with a rudamentary attract mode playing just to give an idea:

Another thing I was curious about was if the translite and the plexiglass together were going to dim the screen noticably. It didn't. I need to do a few more experiments to determine the optimum brightness settings for the monitor. In that video, I set it at 60 or 70 which appears too bright, I think. The default setting is 50.

spent the last 3 weeks finishing off NGG2.0 so now it is time to refocus my meager programming time on this project. I have a timeline in my head but no way am I going to share it here. Because, you know, the Jinx is watching.

I had previously asked for volunteers who wanted to do voices with the only payment being that you would have your name on the attract mode of a pinball machine. I think that is cool and a lot of other people did as well. I got quite a few volunteers and there were only a few that gave me stuff I couldn't use.

Most of the people submitted voices for several characters so most of them had at least one character that they did really well. Having said that I still have a few more character voice spots if anyone is interested.

here are the descriptions for the 3 remaining characters that I need voices for. And, like I said previously, several people have already given me some of these voices but for some reason they just didn't hit it right as far as my ear so I just wanted to throw this back out there so that maybe someone has something better.

descriptions of characters for remaining voices

Nidale - female enemy character used in only one mode, sink ship. In the sink ship mode, the pirates are attacking a fleet of ships to sink them and plunder their booty. Each of the different fleets the pirates face are either pleading for their lives or fighting back viciously. In nidale’s case, they are pleading for their lives but she is doing it as a sort of subterfuge. The animation is not built yet, but the plan is to have nidale and a grown man with 5 o’clock shadow wearing a diaper. Nidale continues to cry out things like, “can’t you see there are children on board!” she plays this serious of course, and that is what makes it funny. After a couple of her boats are sunk, I was playing with the idea of her giving up that approach and calling for an attack. A few of those lines are there as well.

Tattoo – pacific islander male, enemy. He is rail-thin and has tattoos covering his body and face. He wields two curved swords. Don’t mess with him. His two modes are sink ship and walk the plank.

In Sink ship, the pirates are attacking and he is yelling taunts back so is aggressive and angry. This is war and lives are at stake.

In walk the plank, the idea is that he has been captured and is being made to walk the plank to his death. He is somber, pensive, and has given up. “my story has been written. My fate has been sealed. I wouldn’t change a thing.” But also there is a hint at anger, maybe. “let’s get this over with” and “you’ll see what happens next”.

Garica – male pirate crewmember. He is tall, bald and looks dirty. He has a snarly face and carries an axe instead of a sword. Of all the characters in the animations, he looks the toughest, for sure. He is in three modes, sword fight, sink ship, and the base game.

In sword fight, two random characters fight each other. The idea is that one is on red beard’s side and the other captain maria’s but that is not really spelled out so far. All we need to know is that two are fighting and they hack and slash and occasionally taunt each other. Every character has a few moves, for Garcia, he either does a double slash with his axe or kicks the opponent in the face. Some typical taunts: “my axe is sharp” and “you like the taste of boot heel?”

The base mode runs whenever a special mode is not running so the quotes there are informational for the player as they collect items and build up statuses and achievements in order to start one of the special modes. His quotes here, then, are just callouts of shots hit, such as “fire”, or “fire collected” or “cannonballs collected”, for example.

His sink ship callouts are similar to above, but he is not an enemy but on the side of the pirates, and then the player, so his callouts are aggressive in a positive way. “all hands on deck! We’re going to war!” “fire in the hole!” “bullseye!”

If you want you name on the credits of a machine and you can do a voice, send me a message.

here a list of the finished voices I have so far. Again, thanks to everyone who submitted voice work to me. I received some serious quality work from a lot fo people and it is very much appreciated.

Captain Maria: Lydia Cardona (mutiny, walk the plank)
Red Beard: Jim Cardona (mutiny, pirate’s booty, base, davy jones locker, walk the plank)
Giganticus: Jim Cardona (sword fight)
Chen: Frank Gigliotti (sword fight, base)
Old Dan: Frank Gigliotti (sword fight, base, walk the plank)
Matilda: Asia Cardona (sword fight, base)
Jax: Sean Sennstrom (sword fight, millions, walk the plank)
Valentino: Sean Sennstrom (sink ship)
Two Tooth: Bernie Sennstrom (sword fight, walk the plank)
Scot: Bernie Sennstrom (sink ship, walk the plank)
Brit: Bernie Sennstrom (sink ship)

correct. translite, not a backglass.

Anyone is free to make their own art. I can give you the dimensions of the cutout if you want it.

the artwork I have show so far is just for ideas. Not final. Here is a render I did the other day just to give me ideas for positioning of characters, lighting, etc. I have spent a lot of time out on the ocean and it gets like soup when the fog rolls in.

promo-capn-hazey2 (resized).png

the posted images are 1920x1080 so if you want to use it for a desktop background or print then go ahead. It is just for ideas for me right now.

I have a separate computer with a high end graphics card that I only use for renders. It is chugging out graphics almost 24 hours a day. When I am out of production work for it to spit out I play around with test renders for ideas.

Here is another concept render.

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This last one I like a lot less, but again it is not in the game. It is just for ideas and experimentation. I started the render then went to bed and this is what I got in the morning. Yeah, one image can take anywhere from 12 to 36 hours to produce.

I was really trying to make the light shine through the lattice windows and to get light rays to appear in space, but I needed more haze or dust to make the lighting volumetric. I will try again.

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I had a friend who had an amiga back in those days and, yeah, I played that title. It was a lot of fun. Graphics were great for its time as I remember.

we have several other content professionals who have joined the team to help produce sound, video, and static artwork assets for NGG2.0 as well as block rose 2.0 and other future titles that are currently in production. It is an exciting time right now!

Information concerning all of the pinball-related projects will be posted to my facebook page if you would like to follow there:
https://www.facebook.com/Cardona-Pinball-Designs-102869057961683

2nd black rose in the house

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new rule sheet card for black rose: skull and bones

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here's the latest pdf. any constructive comments appreciated!

BlackRose_betaTest_rulesheet_online.pdf

click on it to see page 2

in general, I only use white super bright LEDs but for the cannon I made an exception

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just received 4 more translites for the beta test machines. hopefully these will be out in the wild soon.

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the difference in the shine on these is tremendous. the one on the right has the protective coating removed and it really pops in person. looks great whether or not it is backlit

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currently have 3 beta testers but we are always looking for more. We had 5 for NGG2.0

friends please don't do this

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this was a reimport that someone hacked. once all the fixes in, will be putting this 2.0 machine on location.

came across an interesting situation and am looking for some players' opinions. I've noticed that when the ball rolls over the cannon cover that it sometimes pops up a little due to the weight of the ball. Just this morning while playing a multiball mode, that happened when two of the balls were there and oddly enough one of the balls popped open the flap and the other ball fell into the cannon from the top. So now the ball is in a place that the game logic thinks is not possible since the davy jones ramp was down.

Right now the logic would leave the ball there, which means the player only has to deal with a single ball during a multiball mode. When the player drains that ball the game would eventually go into ball search and eject the ball stuck in the cannon. no big deal.

But, I was thinking of adding a check to all the multiball modes that if a ball finds its way into the cannon then it will be auto-ejected but maybe that is overkill as seeing that is such a rare event. If a machine had dirty optos I could see where the cannon would constantly fire during multiball. Of course, games shouldn't have dirty optos either.

Anyway, looking for opinions. I could also add the check and then put a setting in the menu to enable or disable such a check as well. Maybe I am overthinking this.
opinions?

made some old-skool looking instruction cards for those who didn't like the qr code card

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this is an interesting concept - having it something people would intentially try to make happen for a huge reward. I had not thought of that!

hardware platform we are using is made by FAST. For those interested here is some info.
https://docs.fastpinball.com/retro/
I understand that this is the same hardware being used by Pedretti's funhouse: rudy's nightmare as well as the TOTAN 2.0 kits.
There are separate versions of the boards for wpc89 and wpc95.

quick teaser video on black rose: skull and bones

black rose: skull and bones is on location at the delaware pinball collective. this is in beta test so if you have feedback for us then we certainly appreciate your help in making the game better!

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47 plays on the machine at the delaware pinball collective and lots of constructive feedback. thanks to all who are putting in the time! I put in about 10 or so tweaks based on that feedback already. I will be recording more voice calls this week that will go in next weekend.

black rose: skull and bones is getting a lot of play at the delaware pinball collective and the result is lots and lots of feedback! I have been making changes and testing those on my home machine and installing the updates at the delaware pinball collective on tuesday nights. By the way, I will be at the delaware pinball collective every tuesday night if anyone wants to provide feedback verbally instead of sending me emails. Also, we can just talk pinball!

Black Rose: Skull and Bones has a very strategic skill shot and the way you play it can set the tone for your whole game. This is because the skill shot bonuses that are available on subsequent balls depend on which skill shot you made on the previous ball. Add to that, the choice of 3 different skill shot bonuses and you have a lot of variety and a lot of strategies to consider here.

For example, on ball one the avaialbe skill shot bonuses are:
enable adventure at the broadside
2X scoring
Add 3 cannons

I see a lot of people who just start playing the game and don't know the rules going for the 2X scoring and indeed this is not a bad choice. If you make the shot, ball 2's skill shot will be 3X scoring and if you make that one as well, then ball 3's shot will be 4X scoring. And that ain't bad.

However, a lot of people find enabling an adventure at the broadside to be difficult as you need to make 9 shots (on hard mode) to do this so that is another worthy choice.

The "add 3 cannons" might not seem like it is much, but if you make that shot then the ball 2 skill shot will be "add 6 cannons" and if you make that then ball 3's skill shot is "enable sink ship" which is a wizard mode and worth a ton of points. Obviously, you need to make all three of those though so if you are not super confident then you might not go this path. The reward is huge though so it is something to consider.

Black Rose is a manual plunger game only and then it makes for some interesting coding around multiballs. When Pedretti released Funhouse: Rudy's nightmare we saw that one of the major complaints was that there was nothing really forcing player's to launch the ball off the shooter lane so we made some code rules to handle that situation.

In Black Rose: Skull and Bones if a multiball mode is started, the ball hels in the saucer is not released until the player launches the ball off the shooter lane. Once that happens a ball can get back on the shooter lane through a ball save, if enabled, or if the wire gate is missing or malfunctioning so we wanted to handle that situation as well. So in Black Rose: Skull and Bones if a ball finds it way to the shooter lane during a multiball mode the player has 5 seconds to put it back in play. If the 5 seconds goes by and the ball is still there then all mode target lights go out and any available special shot for that particular mode is turned off. Additionally, any mode multipliers are reduced to their base values. So, in effect, you could keep playing that way but you won't be getting much for points so you certianly won't want to do that. We also added a voice callout reminder that comes on every 5 seconds or so to alert you to the fact that you need to launch.

In the future, we are hoping to develop an auto launcher that is compatible with this era of wpc games but for now the above works really well.

A lot of the Black Rose: Skull and Bones beta-testers are also people who play tournaments and then they are aware of exploits in a lot of games and that is something that we are trying to eliminate. In pinball, games that have exploits are not usually used in tournaments unless someone like Soren has created a modified "tournament rom" to eliminate the exploit. so yeah, we are looking at this and constantly trying to find exploits.
In the original Black Rose code from 1992 the obvious exploit ws to shoot the whirlpool ramp pretty much endlessly as the shot was relatively easy and very safe and it could chain up to a 1 million point shot as well as an extra ball depending on settings. Some people could hut this shot 50 times in a row and certainly would.
This leads to boring pinball so we elimanted this with Black Rose: Skull and Bones.

So in Black Rose: Skull and Bones, you are limited to 10 shots at the whirlpool ramp per ball. After 10 shots, the point value for the shot drops to 25k and no longer scales up with subsequent shots. What makes scoring well on this shot is that the timer is quite short so if you shoot the shot and miss the next one the point value will start dropping right away and then you just lost one of your point jumps as you will need to reshoot it.

What we are trying to do is make the game more fun, more challenging, and more rewarding and remove all of the repetitive boring elements to make better pinball.

I will be at the tournament on Saturday at the Delaware Pinball Collective. I see a lot of out of towners are on the list so if you are there and want to talk then hit me up!

I have been trying to keep people updated with the inner workings and what I have been going through in launching these kits but now that no good gofers: battle for the green is getting really close to a launch date, I am going to have to go dark on black rose for a bit as I will be putting all my time and focus into making the no good gofers kit a truly positive experience for everyone. Black Rose: skull and bones is still on beta so if you want to play it at our location then that is super cool, however, I will probably not have much time to post on this thread for a while.

we will soon be sending kits to our beta testers out west. right now we have 1 in nevada which is planetary pinball supply. They have been taking our no good gofers: battle for the green to the area shows this year and was at pin a go go most recently. I suspect that once they have the black rose: skull and bones that that would happen as well. We are pursuing a few other beta test locations and one is in the pacific northwest.

It is our goal to get these machines to as many shows as possible.

the instruction cards are included with the kits. We provide several cards so you can choose which ones you want to display

updated the information sheet.

Black Rose: Skull and Bones (BR:SnB)
A Licensed “2.0” Upgrade Kit by Cardona Pinball Designs
Available SOON
MSRP $2199US

Includes everything you need to install Black Rose: Skull and Bones into a Black Rose Pinball machine.
• display panel with an industrial 15.6 inch monitor, and associated cabling.
• FAST Interface controller board (to be installed in the removed CPU location).
• CPU panel that includes CPU, FAST audio and accessory controller, and associated cabling (to be installed in the removed audio/video board location).
• Power Supply with fuse block and associated cabling.
• Translite.

Note: Interface controller offers the ability to add future expansion components such as shaker motors, RGB lighting kits, and the interactiveTopper .

About Black Rose: Skull and Bones:
Captain Maria Cortez is the captain of the most famous of all pirating ships to raid the seven seas, the Black Rose, and her first mate, Red Beard, is plotting to snatch it from her. If he can convince enough of the crew to his side there'll be mutiny in the offing.
Who's side are yer on, matey?

cardonapinball.com contains links to videos of game play, installation of a kit, pre-installation steps, troubleshooting, and a demo video as well as manuals, flyers, promo material, and other documents that can be downloaded.
promotional video

game play

installation video

troubleshooting videos

Questions:
Does your kit include a new translite?
yes

Can your kit play the original game?
Yes. The upgrade kit will play the original game. Additionally, in future updates we plan to add functionality to the original game where appropriate.

About Cardona Pinball Designs:
Cardona Pinball Designs is licensed by Planetary Pinball Supply to create 2.0 game kits for Bally-Williams titles and has been working toward this end for approximately four years. Our main expertise is software and we subcontract or partner with professionals for other specialized work. For example, FAST is creating our hardware and we also use several artists and voice actors for content creation.

Our titles receive heavy public beta testing. Black Rose: Skull and Bones has been at the Delaware Pinball Collective in Wilmington, Delaware since 2022 ( https://www.delawarepinballcollective.com).

Black Rose: Skull and Bones has also been to several pinball shows such as:
• White Rose Gameroom Show ( http://www.theyorkshow.com)
• PinFest (http://www.pinfestival.com)
• Golden State Pinball Festival (https://www.goldenstatepinball.org)
• Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show (http://www.nwpinballshow.com)
• Pin-a-go-go (http://www.pin-a-go-go.org)
• Texas Pinball Festival (https://www.texaspinball.com )

we are also planning to attend Texas Pinball Festival this year. This will be my first time and anyone who wants to chat, find me at the Planetary Pinball booth and play some Black Rose: Skull and Bones!

https://www.texaspinball.com/

black rose: skull and bones at another beta test location.

Love the topper!

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we will be at PinFest (http://www.pinfestival.com) this year and we have a good booth planned. Come check us out!

black rose: skull and bones real popular at the texaspinball.com show so yeah, I'm smirking. thanks to Stephen for bringing his game!

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well, texaspinball.com is in the books for 2023. had a blast! meet a lot of really cool pinball people!

had at least 20 people at texaspinball.com tell me they are now looking to buy a black rose to install the skull and bones kit. hmmm, I guess that might drive prices a wee bit?

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we will be at allentown. hopefully we will be license approved by then.

looking to add international resellers soon!

sorry not making it to Canada this year. For those will to cross the border we should have machines at the Northwest show and we are trying to make pintastic as well

We are hoping to have approval from Williams to sell the BR kits soon. Goal is by end of May but maybe sooner? We'll see. USA sales will happen immediately after that. For international, you could by from USA and pay the import duty or you could wait for the international sellers which should be sometime after.

One key point is that this kit plugs into the service outlet so please make sure your BR has one. I understand that some of the international machines sold by Bally/Williams did not come with service outlets. All of the USA machines did, however. This is something that can absolutely be added but if you do not have the service outlet then you will need to add one.

Latest version of the manual can be found here:
https://cardonapinball.com/br-downloads

We clarified some of the installation instructions and added a guide to show you what your power driver connections should look like when you are done, all based on beta-tester feedback. Thanks all!

On the BR kit, all of the plugs that go to the display panel are removed as the kits supplies a new display panel. This leaves quite a few empty plugs (and less load on the power as well) so missing one when reconnecting all the ones you actually need to reconnect was a small problem in one case. With this guide you can quickly check to verify that everything is connected that needs to be connected.

we will be at pinfest in Allentown this weekend and will have both No Good Gofers: Battle for the Green as well as Black Rose: Skull and Bones in our booth. Our booth is number 91 which is at the end of the free play area towards the middle. Come check us out and give it a whirl.
If anyone wants to play the original game for themselves while we are at Allentown just ask and we can switch it up for you.

all set up at pinfest. come play black rose: skull and bones

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planetary pinball will be at the Golden State Pinball Festival in 6 days and will have both of Cardona Pinball Designs 2.0 games, Black Rose: Skull and Bones and No Good Gofers: Battle for the Green, in their booth for you to try out and play.
https://www.goldenstatepinball.org/

No Good Gofers: Battle for the Green kits will be for sale there as well so buy one at the show and save on shipping!

planetarypinball booth at the Golden state pinball festival. come check out all the 2.0 games

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Planetary pinball will be at the NorthWest Pinball and Arcade Show June 2nd through Jun 4th and will have both of Cardona Pinball Designs 2.0 games, Black Rose: Skull and Bones and No Good Gofers: Battle for the Green for you to try out and play.
https://www.nwpinballshow.com/

No Good Gofers: Battle for the Green kits will be for sale there as well so buy one at the show and save on shipping!

thanks to everyone who visited at northwest pinball show at the planetarypinball space.

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we are anxiously awaiting williams/pps approval as well. they are evaluating the product now and we expect approval any day now. keep checking back

I will post a original game play video sometime next week as I am visiting family at the moment

check out this quick video of Black Rose: Skull and Bones pinball playing the original game. Had several requests for this and finally got a minute to put a video together - a lot of people love the original game and I agree that that is something you should not have to give up when you install the new 2.0 kit.
The original game play you see here is not a port of pinmame but a 100% licensed copy and the chip emulation was written from scratch.

One of the benefits of doing this is it gives up the ability to add hooks in the original game so that we can trigger events based on the original games gameplay. So then with these hooks we can then add in triggers for accessories such as toppers and shaker motors and RGB LED lighting kits. These accessories will then work with not only the 2.0 game but the original game as well.

awesome share! Thank you so much!

Williams representatives not only are reviewing the game to make sure their IP is respected but also that the kit is fully functional and they play test it for a while for bugs. This actually was completed Friday so on Monday I have a call to see where they are at but I am optimistic.

I know I have taken a non-standard approach to my game releases by putting them on full public beta and having several different beta test machines in the hands of real pinball players and even having them in tournaments. Some in the industry have told me that I am killing sales by doing this because most of the buzz related sales happen early on when a game is first released. Since my games have been known and discussed for several months before people can buy them, they say I am being foolish.

Still, I am pretty proud of the fact that since NGG:B4G was released that we have had 0 trouble calls so far. I like to think that we were pretty thorough in finding out everything by having tons of different people with different playing styles play test the game.

thanks for the info! Great news!

Super pumped to announce that Black Rose: Skull and Bones has received final approval from Williams/PPS and now the kits are available for sale.

https://cardonapinball.com/products/ols/products/black-rose-skull-and-bones-20-pinball-kit

To reward the insiders who have been anxiously waiting and checking this thread, I am offering a FREE SHIPPING coupon for the first 10 orders. Use code BRLAUNCH on my web store.

These are available now!

Planetary Pinball and Cointaker will also be selling them once they receive a shippment.

If anyone has tried to purchase a kit from my website at:
https://cardonapinball.com/products
and been discouraged because the shipping showed up too high then please contact me directly. I have a fed ex discount but I have been having a hard time adding fed ex to the site so it only shows the USPS rate right now. If shipping comes out above 40$ then please get me back so I can discount the shipping rate.

Yes, definitely not getting the word out enough. You are going to love it. Makes it into a whole new game!