#39 Black Knight - The Classic Pinball Podcast

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d agoOct 20, 202057 min listenBy George

From the creator

The boys are back in the basement with Black Knight. Bonus feature: GNFR and fighting for the quarter.

Highlights

Black Knight was released in November 1980
Steve Ritchie's voice is featured in Black Knight with software effects
Black Knight is one of four split-level (level shifter) games Williams made at that time
Sound effects in Black Knight come from video games Defender and Robotron
Williams Black Knight made 15,000 units
Early Black Knight production had cutouts for rebound switches behind drop targets that were never populated
Black Knight uses plasma displays at ~190 volts, similar to other Williams games of the era
The game has a bell instead of a knocker, which arcade operators often disconnect
Steve Ritchie insisted on jeweled inserts for the first time on a pinball game with Black Knight
Dave has owned this particular Black Knight for four months and recently restored it

“Steve Ritchie's voice is the voice that you hear in Black Knight. Probably with a little bit of software effects in there, but that is his voice.”

Dave

“These are level shifters. You go up to a level and then you're up at a different part of the play field. These aren't your classic ramp game.”

Dave

“I think it's funny how segmented... Dave, go ahead and plunge the ball.”

George

“That's from all those video games. Defender, and what's the other one there?”

Dave

“You don't have to be quick to it. You can kind of let it, even if you space it, you can kind of bring it back. And you can be... Rescue it?”

Dave and George

“What are you going to do, bleed on me? I'm invincible!”

George

“This is definitely if you want to own a solid state game from you know 80ish time frame this is a great game to own”

George

“Most games, for a week of play, the coin box would be almost full with quarters.”

George

“I put a lot of quarters in this game. And it was 50 cents back in the day, so.”

Dave

“That game was perfect. I mean, I thought it was a brand new game because I had been out of the pinball game for, you know, a number of years.”

George