Black Knight Pinball Restoration - From BK to BK-Extreme
Index
Rebuilding and Completion
I first began by mounting the lower cabinet assemblies including the tilt/ringer board as well as the flipper and magnasave buttons/switches. I then mounted all of the boards in
the head (backbox) including the CPU/Driver board assembly that my brother installed a brand new 40 pin interconnect between the boards (a common issue with this design) as well
as the sound board and power supply boards. Jeff, my brother, wanted me to check the boards before installing the playfield and display panel but I was confident with my wiring and
waited until almost everything was installed before powering up.
Playfield Installation
The next step was to install the double layer playfield and hook up all of the interconnects. I had some initial issues due to forgotton plugs left unplugged but the CPU was working great
and all of the lights were functioning, other than the GI (general illumination) lights which weren't connected yet. Jeff was surprised that everything worked so well. I had to adjust a few
switches here and there to get things working but it was a huge step and a success at that!
At this point there were a few switches that needed adjustment and none of the GI lighting had been hooked up. Although some of my added lighting effects relied on triggering the GI
off, I first wired everything up stock so that I could at least get it back to square one and then add my effects later. The wiring of the GI went fairly well even though there were a few
locations that were tough to get to. At this point the machine was pretty much back to stock form although I did add about a dozen extra GI lights primarily to cover the upper right section
of the playfield which was unlit in the original because of lack of power... since I replaced the backglass lighting with LEDs, I now have plenty of extra current for the extra bulbs. Also,
at this time I've only added one spot-lamp above the upper right flipper to help illuminate the upper playfield.
There is no audio system installed at this time, although there are line level RCA jacks to provide sound for the left channel (Voice) and the right channel (Game) sounds which I temporarily
connected to a 2 channel guitar amp. So at this point it is basically back to being a stock machine other than the nearly 300 LEDs in the backglass and the extra GI and spotlamp on the
playfield. Below are some pictures of the Black Knight at this stage...
BK Extreme Modifications
Now that I had the machine running fairly well with no extra effects or mods it was time to put the icing on the cake and add the rest of the bells and whistles. My first goal
was to get the audio system set up and running which was a fairly big task considering the number of speakers involved. Luckily most of my mixer settings were left untouched
and I had a few pictures for reference as to how to hook up the 6 channels of audio and 5x100 watt amplification.
BK Extreme Audio
I had given the Yamaha 5x100W receiver to my dad to use in his home theater system and ended up with his 7x100W Marantz receiver instead, although I'm still only using 5 channels
of amplification. I have a Behringer 16 channel mixer to filter and distrubute both the voice and game sounds to various speakers. I built at topper which houses dual 4" woofers
that convey the sound of the knight's voice, unprocessed. There is a single 2" midrange that produces most of the game sounds that is mounted below the head at the top of the
playfield. There is a pair of 6.5" Vifa coaxial car speakers used to produce both game and voice sounds using a stereo chorus effect. And finally there is a 12" DVC subwoofer
that helps produce the deeper game sounds like the horse galluping as well as the voice of the Black Knight produced at an octave lower using a Zoom guitar effects pedal for
a very ominous effect! The mixer is essential for balancing and distributing all of these effects to the right speakers.
BK Extreme Lighting
One part of my lighting enhancement modifications involves using CCT (Cold Cathode Tube) neon lamps that react to the sounds of the machine. I have one 20" Red CCT on the topper
which lights up while the Black Knight speaks through the nearby speakers. There is a 20" blue and 15" ultra bright CCT lighting attached to the rear and bottom of the machine
respectively which illuminate along with the game sounds of the machine. I added a set of 4 ultra bright LED flashers that go off when the bell rings (free game, extra ball, etc).
Regarding the playfield lighting I added a pair of spot lamps near each outlane to help light up the new playfield. I have a set of ultra bright white LEDs mounted to the apron which
provide multiple effects. They light when the GI lamps are turned off (multiball, ex). I also use the left and right sets as flashers for the respective slingshot (at the same time
a set of 4 GI lamps go off for the "flashing" effect). A set of green LEDs line the top of the playfield glass and light up when the pop bumper is hit. There are less effects than before
but they still add to the excitement of the game.
Final List of Upgrades
- New CPR Playfields
- New Cabinet Decals
- New Cabinet Rails
- New Repro Backglass
- Complete New Plastics Set
- New Blue/Red posts and black rubbers
- New Flipper Mechs and coils
- New Playfield Switches
- Various New Solenoids and Armatures
- New Black Legs and Leg Bolts
- New Playfield Glass
- 300+ LEDS
- 3 CCT lighting/audio
- 6 speaker system
- Mixer/Receiver 500W sound system
- Four New 6-digit displays
- New board and chip sockets
What Sets BK Extreme Apart
While gameplay, rules, etc. have not changed and the addition of a new playfield and other associated parts have help renovate the machine, it is the sound and visual effects that
set this machine apart. Game sounds are produced by basically a center channel speaker along with two surround speakers and a subwoofer while voice sounds are produced
from the topper speakers along with a suboctave copy sent to the subwoofer and bottom surround speakers. When the Black Knight speaks you can feel it and the suboctave voice/laugh
is very ominous. 500W total power through 6 speakers is pretty impressive.
Visually I've added the CCT Neon tubes to light the topper when the voice speaks and to light the floor and rear wall modulated to the game sounds. The apron mounted white LEDs offer
flash slingshots which also disable specific GI bulbs to enhance the effect. These LEDs also light when the GI is turned off by the CPU (during multiball intro and certain voice calls). A
strip of green LEDs are located at the top of the playfield and illuminate through the end of the playfield glass when the pop bumper is hit. Three spotlights were added to further
brighten the playfield as well as a dozen extra GI lamps added to the playfield (mostly upper playfield which went from 5 bulbs to 15). Finally a set of flash LEDs are attached to the topper
and they flash whenever the bell rings during play.
That's all for now. A free pinball machine that now has nearly $3000 worth of parts in it! It is pretty fun to play and worth the time and money.
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