Black Knight 1980: Reimagining Gameplay

[lothian]

After a mere four weeks of ownership of my Black Knight 1980 (BK80) I've become accustomed to its gameplay such that some seemingly missed opportunities by its designer niggle at the engineer within me. Is this the early onset of boredom? So soon?

Nah. Not really.

As I play this game, I imagine areas for improvement--actual "mods" that complement gameplay rather than just its aesthetics. I fantasize gesturing at the playfield under the eye of Steve Richie (the game's designer) while pointing at different spots I think need attention and discussing the merits of each idea.

I discovered the websites 'pinmame.retrogames.com' and 'VPForums.org'. I read the blogs of those who've Borg'd their pinball machines with an Arduino. I've found a completely virtualized BK80 that operates within a purpose-designed pinball-playfield-building application. My mind reels.

Heartened by these--and other--online resources, I'm eager to investigate the viability of modifying gameplay of this forty-something-something year old game.

 

[AlanJ]

there is a whole bally operating system for arduino that supports all the early bally solid state machines. not sure if same exists for williams.

 

[VeeMonroe]

Is this a similar idea to Bride of Pinbot 2.0? https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/bride-of-pinbot-20

I’d love to have the ability to do that to a Black Knight 2000 because it feels like it’s crying out for it.

 

[AlanJ]

GitHub - BallySternOS/BallySternOS: Arduino-based Operating System for Stern MPU-100 and Bally AS-2518-17 pinball machines. This library should be unpacked into a folder for a particular machine's implementation (Example: Stars2020).

Arduino-based Operating System for Stern MPU-100 and Bally AS-2518-17 pinball machines. This library should be unpacked into a folder for a particular machine's implementation (Example: Stars20...

github.com

 

[AlanJ]

looks like someone done some williams stuff:

GitHub - BallySternOS/WOS: Arduino-based operating system for Williams System 3-7 pinball machines. These library files should be unpacked into a game folder. Example: StellarWars2021

Arduino-based operating system for Williams System 3-7 pinball machines. These library files should be unpacked into a game folder. Example: StellarWars2021 - GitHub - BallySternOS/WOS: Arduino-bas...

github.com

 

[Wizcat]

@lothian - are you a bot? You've posted identical messages to multiple forums now.

I'm not quite sure what the deal is.

 

[ronsplooter]

are you a bot?

A pin bot? I'll get my coat........

 

[Jay Walker]

I fantasize gesturing at the playfield under the eye of Steve Richie (the game's designer) while pointing at different spots I think need attention and discussing the merits of each idea.

And I picture Steve asking "Who the hell are you, that can't even get my name right?"

'bot?. If so, maybe it's hoping to return later and add actual links to the other sites mentioned.

and when did it become 'BK 80', anyway?