Coverage: partial. The definition is machines/partial/williams/black-knight-2000-1989.json, regenerated by tools/curate_black_knight_2000.py. The physical authority is the Williams Black Knight 2000 operations manual (IPDB machine 311; the 102-page edition, with the April 1989 71-page edition for one page the later edition prints blank) and Steve Ritchie's "An Important Message To Operators". The runtime authority is the retained known-working Flupper 1.1 table, which binds bk2k_l4. Pinned PinMAME owns the controller contract.
ROM evidence settles what the documents leave open:
- LibPinMAME runs of the local
bk2k_* ROM sets from empty NVRAM, summarized in evidence/runtime/system-11/black-knight-2000-l4-service-and-mechanisms.json (the bk2k_l4 service tests, power-up probes, drop-target runs and motor-bank runs) and in one coil-test file per other loadable set (la2, lg3, pa5, pa7, pu1).
- The ROMs' own switch and coil name tables, decoded by
tools/bk2k_rom_name_tables.py and committed as the rom-name-tables excerpt.
- The 64 lamp names the ROM's Single Lamps test shows (the ROM has no lamp name table).
Two things keep the record partial:
- Unresolved conflict. The manual does not settle which cabinet flipper button fires the upper-playfield flipper (see "Flippers"). The definition keeps the disagreement as
conflict.upper-flipper-button.
- Spatial placement. Every coordinate comes from one community table, and only the switches and coils that the manual's own location drawings call out by number are
validated. The trough switches (11-13) have no table object and are not placed. Four of the eight flasher circuits (25, 26, 27 and 30) print two playfield bulbs where the table models one, and the manual prints no G.I. bulb count.
Identity and driver family
Black Knight 2000 is Williams game 563 (IPDB 311, April 28, 1989, 5,703 units, designed by Steve Ritchie, software by Ed Boon, mechanics by Joe Joos Jr.). Pinned PinMAME's eight bk2k_* drivers share one bk2kGameData and all run on this System 11B machine:
- Production: L-4 (the parent) and LA-2.
- German: LG-1 and LG-3.
- Prototypes: PU-1 (Europe), PF-1 (French), PA-5 and PA-7.
The ROM name tables of the six sets in the local corpus that load (l4, la2, lg3, pa5, pa7, pu1) agree for every switch and coil, apart from the German set's KNIGHT letters on 41-46, and each set's Coil Test pulses the same thirty addresses in the same order. No hardware difference between the sets is known. bk2k_pf1's archive is not in the local corpus. The local bk2k_lg1.zip holds bk2kgu26.lg1 and bk2kgu27.lg1, whose CRCs do not match the ROMs pinned s11games.c declares for that set, so it was not loaded; both declare the same game data.
Do not confuse this machine with the 1980 Williams Black Knight (System 6) or its descendants; they are separate machines and the 1980 manual is a different document.
Controller and public addresses
The machine uses controllers/pinmame/system-11.json. Its INITGAME line declares these settings:
- Generation and display:
GEN_S11B with two 16-character alphanumeric rows (s11_dispS11b2).
- Multiplexing: solenoid 12 is the A/C mux relay.
- Flippers:
FLIP_SWNO(58,57) with no CPU flipper drive.
- Switch 2:
S11_MUXSW2.
- Absent: no special-solenoid switch map, no sound overlay board, and no custom solenoids.
The public addresses break down as follows:
- Diagnostics: -7 Advance, -6 Auto-Up/Manual-Down, -5 CPU diagnostic, -4 sound diagnostic.
- Switches: matrix 1-64, sequential column-major (
(column - 1) * 8 + row).
- Column 1 carries the cabinet inputs: plumb bob 1, credit 3, coins 4-6, slam 7, high-score reset 8.
- Unused: 14, 15, 56, and 60-64. Matrix position 59 is the Magna Save button.
- Country jumper: DIP 0.
- Switched solenoids:
- 1-8 are the A side, pulsed while relay 12 is released.
- 25-32 are the same eight drivers routed to their C-side flashers while 12 is energized.
- 5A is not used; 29 (05C) is.
- Controlled solenoids: 9-16.
- 9, 10 and 11 are the G.I. relays for the insert board, the upper playfield and the lower playfield; 12 is the A/C relay.
- 13 is the left outlane kickback, 14 the knocker, 15 the Magna Save driver, 16 the drawbridge targets' motor relay.
- Special solenoids: 17-22, in Special #1-#6 order. These are three jet bumpers, two slingshots, and one unused circuit (22).
- Virtual solenoids: 23 is the ROM's game-on / special-solenoid enable, 45-48 are PinMAME's synthetic flipper states, and 24, 33-44, 49, and 50 are unused.
- Lamps: 1-64.
PinMAME inverts nothing on System 11: the switch read returns core_getSwCol directly, so public 1 is a closed matrix contact.
Flippers
The machine has three flippers: lower right (C-11626-R-3), lower left (C-11626-L-3) and an upper flipper on the right of the upper playfield (D-12702-R-1), all with FL-11630 coils. The flippers are not CPU-driven: the right button (Orn-Vio, 1P19-1) fires the lower right flipper and the left button (Orn-Gry, 1P19-2) the lower left. Each assembly has an end-of-stroke switch (03-7811) that opens the power winding and is not in the matrix. Public 45-48 are PinMAME fabrications from the buttons, which a consumer drives at 82 (right) and 84 (left).
Which button fires the upper flipper is open, and the record keeps it as conflict.upper-flipper-button:
- The Solenoid Table groups the Upper Right Flipper under the Right Flipper circuit, with coil connection
[2J10-4: 2J8-12], wire [Blk-Yel].
- The Cabinet Wiring drawing wires the contact that feeds 2J10 pin 4 as the "Upr Left Flipper Button", a second contact of the left flipper circuit, and labels the 2J8 pin 12 wire BLK-BLU.
- The Interconnect Board Interboard Signals table prints 2J8-12 and 2J10-4 as "No Connection".
- Only the Lower Right Flipper assembly (C-12898) lists a flipper switch SW-1A-183 and a Blue/Yellow wire; the lower left and upper assemblies mark those items Not Used. The Blue/Yellow colour is the +50 Vdc flipper supply, which suggests a switch inside the lower right assembly feeding the upper coil.
- The retained known-working script moves the upper flipper from the right-button callback, and secondary web reports describe the upper flipper as chained from the lower right flipper's stroke; both are leads, not authority.
Those facts are consistent with the upper flipper firing from the right button through a switch in the lower right assembly, but the manual's cabinet drawing and Solenoid Table connector column say otherwise, so no source here settles it.
The flipper-lane-change inputs 57 (right) and 58 (left) are optotransistors on the Backbox Interconnect board (switches list, footnote **1). FLIP_SWNO(58,57) without FLIP_SOL makes PinMAME's core_updateSw rewrite 57/58 from the flipper button bits on every update, so 1 means pressed and a host write to 57 or 58 is overwritten. A consumer presses the flippers through public 82 (right) and 84 (left). The retained script never writes 57/58; its flipper keys reach the VPinMAME S11.VBS library, whose vpmKeyDown/vpmKeyUp set swLRFlip = 82 and swLLFlip = 84 (excerpt vpm-script-library-flippers). The definition enumerates PinMAME's whole flipper column, 81-88: 82 and 84 are used, and 81, 83 and 85-88 are never read, because FLIP_SWNO(58,57) sets no FLIP_EOS or upper FLIP_SW bit and the System 11 ROM reads only matrix columns 1-8. This table does not call NoUpperLeftFlipper/NoUpperRightFlipper and defines no cSingleLFlip/cSingleRFlip, so the library writes 81/83 from the staged flipper keys; the machine ignores them.
The two playfields
The playfield is split-level. A lower playfield carries the flippers, the U-turn, the two three-bank drop-target banks and the right eject hole. An upper playfield deck above it, mounted on two hinge posts and raised for service (operator message, printed 9), carries the three jet bumpers (the manual lists them, and switches 17, 18 and 19, under its Upper Playfield pages, printed 71-72), the W-I-N and W-A-R lanes, the loop, the drawbridge targets and the three-ball lock. The long Skyway ramp on the left of the lower playfield brings the ball to the upper deck, where the upper flipper (right side) feeds it. The retained table models both decks in one x/y frame (954 x 2052), which is why upper-playfield devices appear among lower-playfield coordinates; the manual's matrix legend marks the upper-playfield lamps and switches "UPF".
Ball path
- Trough. A drained ball rests on the outhole (10). The Outhole Kicker (1) kicks it into a three-ball trough: 13 left, 12 middle, 11 right. The Ball Release / Shooter Lane Feeder (2) feeds the ball at 11 into the shooter lane (53).
- Lower playfield. Past the plunger the ball enters the playfield; the U-turn (49 lower left, 50 upper left, 51 upper right, 52 lower right) is the loop at the center. The left outlane (39) has the automatic kickback (coil 13); the right drain has the Magna Save (coil 15).
- Skyway. The Skyway ramp's exit (32) delivers the ball to the upper playfield.
- Ball popper. The ball popper (47, coil 6, Ball Popper Assembly D-11335-2) sits at the head of the skyway; the operator message says the ball lands in it from the lit SPIN lane, receives a Lightning Wheel award, and is popped to the upper playfield directed at the flipper.
- Right eject hole. The right eject hole (40, coil 8) is the right-side kick-out hole that a U-turn shot lights for 2-ball Double Knight's Challenge.
- Upper playfield. The W-I-N lanes (25-27, top) and W-A-R lanes (28-30, lower) are rollovers; the loop has two end switches (22 left, 23 right); the drawbridge targets (33-35) raise and lower with a motor; the Drawbridge ramp leads to the three-ball lock (31 entry; 36 lower, 37 middle, 38 upper lock switches), released by the lockup kickback (coil 7).
- Drop-target banks. The right bank (G-H-T, 41-43, reset by coil 4) and the left bank (K-N-I, 44-46, reset by coil 3) are lit as the word KNIGHT; completing them lights Magna Save and the left kickback and advances B-L-A-C-K.
Mechanisms
- Drawbridge moving targets. The Moving Target Assembly (C-12464) carries three targets, the upper (33), middle (34) and lower (35), that an 11 RPM motor (Motor Assembly B-12465) raises and lowers through the Motor Targets relay (solenoid 16). The UP (16) and DOWN (24) snap-action switches report the two ends of the travel. The operator message calls it a three-target version of the Pin-Bot five-target raising/lowering motor bank. The retained script's
cvpmMech runs 50 steps, closing 16 at position 0 and 24 at position 50, and drops the targets from position 49.
- Lightning Wheel. The sixteen bolt-circle lamps 49-64 are the "wheel of fortune" of the operator message, which lists the awards in exactly the order the lamps print them. It is a lamp animation: there is no motor, switch or coil for it.
- Magna Save. A larger 50 V coil (A-12831) driven by the High Current Driver (C-12493, solenoid 15), held by the player through the Magna Save button (59) on the right side of the cabinet forward of the flipper button. Lamps 19 (the Magna Save lamp on the lower playfield) and 51 (Magna Save in the bolt circle) are separate lamps in the ROM's own Single Lamps test. What the ROM does when button 59 is pressed during play was not run.
- Kickback. The left outlane kickback (B-11873-1, coil 13) fires automatically when lit.
Lamps and flashers
The lamp-matrix table (printed 68) and the lamps lists (printed 69 and 72) name every lamp. Lamps 1-4, 6 and 7 are the R-A-N-S-O-M letters in the speaker panel under the score displays. Lamp 5 is the center of the bolt circle, which carries lamps 49-64 around it.
Flashers (the Solenoid Table prints each circuit's bulbs as playfield "p" and insert-board "i"):
| Solenoid |
Flasher |
Bulbs (p, i) |
| 25 |
UPF Big Red Bolt |
2p, 2i |
| 26 |
UPF Big Blue Bolt |
2p, 2i |
| 27 |
Bolt Circle Center |
2p, 2i |
| 28 |
Flipper Lane |
2p, 2i |
| 29 |
Drop Target |
1p, 2i |
| 30 |
LPF Ramp |
2p, 2i |
| 31 |
Right Eject / Upper Flipper |
1p, 2i |
| 32 |
UPF Lockup Kickback |
1p, 2i |
The sixteen insert-board bulbs are the flash lamps behind the backglass that animate the Black Knight and the lightning bolt he holds (IPDB's notes); each pair flashes in sync with the matching playfield flasher. The retained script drives one light object per circuit (named RedBoltFlash, BlueBoltFlash, KnightHeadFlash, SkyWayFlash, LockFlash and, for 28, 29 and 31, lights named GI14/GI15, GI17 and GI24, which are not members of its G.I. collections). Pinned s11.c types 25-32 as #89 flashers while the manual prints #906/#89; the emulator's typing is a brightness model, not the fitted bulb.
General illumination
Three solenoid-driven relays switch G.I.: 9 (insert board), 10 (upper playfield) and 11 (lower playfield). G.I. is lit while its relay is released. Pinned s11.c types the three as reverse-acting #44 G.I.; the retained script turns its lightsGIupf (10) and lightsGIlpf (11) collections off while the callbacks are on. The relay boards are the C-11998-1 (solenoids 9 and 10) and the C-11902-1 (11 and 16), per the Solenoid Table's note 4 and the lists' footnotes. The manual prints no G.I. bulb count, so placements come from the retained table's collections: 23 upper and 10 lower bulbs.
What the ROM shows (LibPinMAME runs)
Every run starts in a new state directory that inherits only the NVRAM of one retained initialization run, because a fresh-NVRAM boot stops on FACTORY SETTING. The runs enter the service tests with the Manual-Down/Auto-Up switch (-6) and Advance (-7), and the host stimuli are static: the harness never moves a ball or a mechanism, so a repeated pulse is the ROM retrying against a host-held switch. Keep -6 at 1 in game and power-up probes: with the harness default of 0 the ROM restarted into FACTORY SETTING during play.
- Coil Test (05). Twenty-two numbered steps; steps 1-8 pulse an A side and then a C side (relay 12 energized), steps 9-22 pulse one circuit each. The order is public 1, 25, 2, 26, 3, 27, 4, 28, 5, 29, 6, 30, 7, 31, 8, 32 and then 9-22, repeating about every 30 s. Each of the 30 coil-table names pairs with the address pulsed in its step, identically in all six loadable sets. Steps 5 A and 22 are named UNUSED and are still pulsed for about 0.1 s; the manual prints both Not Used, so a pulse is ROM activity, not proof of a load. Public 23 comes on when test mode is entered and is not a coil-test step. Public 24, 33-44, 49 and 50 were never raised in any run; 45/46 and 47/48 follow the flipper buttons, rising together when 82 or 84 is written to 1 in the switch tests.
- Switch Levels (06) and Switch Edges (07). Seventy-one addresses were written one at a time (1 for 1.5 s, then 0), with a control switch in the same run. The ROM names every switch in its table (1, 3-13, 16-55 and 59) when the address is written to 1 and shows nothing at 0, so it treats public 1 as actuated.
bk2kGameData has no inverted-switch mask and core_getSwCol returns the matrix bits raw, so each of those matrix contacts is open at rest and closed when actuated; the definition records normally_closed: false for them. The manual prints no rest state for any matrix contact. Position 2 does nothing (the A/C relay overwrites it), 14, 15 and 56 show their number with no name, 60-64 draw nothing, and 57/58 react only when 82/84 are written (the flipper column overwrites 57/58).
- Lamps. The Single Lamps test (04) blinks lamps 1-64 one at a time in order, and each name it shows agrees with the label this record takes from the manual. The display draws the digit 0 as the letter O and 5 as S, so
CENTER SOOOO is CENTER 50000.
- Power-up. From an initialized state the ROM pulses 1, 7, 8 and 6 once each between 1.0 and 1.7 s and runs relay 16 (the drawbridge motor) for about 7.8 s. With a kicker's own switch held at 1 from start it repeats that kicker's pulse, nine pulses in all within about 12 s, and then stops although the switch stays held (10 for the outhole, 47 for the ball popper, 40 for the right eject, and 36-38 all held together for the lock kickback, the only combination run); with the trough full (11-13 at 1) it skips the sweep. Holding 16 or 24 keeps relay 16 on about 2 s longer; holding the plunger switch (53) changes nothing.
- Drop targets. The ROM reads public 1 as a dropped target. Nothing fires with every target at 0; with a bank's switches (or one of them) held at 1 the ROM fires that bank's reset coil (4 for 41-43, 3 for 44-46) three times, at about 0.15, 1.3 and 2.3 s after Start, and then gives up. After the third attempt it served no ball in any such run, and in four of six it later restarted for a reason the runs do not establish.
- Motor bank test (08). The ROM has a service test after Switch Edges that shows MOTOR BANK TEST. It energizes relay 16 and waits for switch 16 (UP) or 24 (DOWN), shows UP or DN, releases the relay about 0.05 s later, energizes it again about 1.4 s later and waits about 3.4 s for the other switch before showing MOTOR ERROR (about 6.8 s when no switch ever closes). The manual's test text (printed 31-32) goes from Switch Edges to a C-Side Test that it enters "from the Wheel Test"; the ROM has no C-side test text, and no page read for this record describes a Wheel Test, so whether test 08 is the manual's Wheel Test under another name is not established. The runs also do not establish which physical end each switch marks or whether the relay raises or lowers the targets.
Not run: Magna Save (59) in play, the left-outlane kickback, popper, eject, lock and outhole behaviour in play, which trough position the ball serve watches, the German set's Switch Edges names, and the physical construction of any switch beyond the ROM's public-level contract.
Variants and prototypes
The ROM name tables of the six local sets agree; the German LG-3 set prints the KNIGHT letters (G H T K N I) for 41-46. IPDB notes two plastic artwork versions of the upper playfield (a "futuristic" and a "stone castle" style); they do not change any device or address.