Black Knight

Black Knight is a 1980 pinball machine designed by Steve Ritchie (who also provides the Knight's voice), and released by Williams Electronics.

Black Knight is a milestone in the evolution of pinball, introducing many new designs to pinball. The game introduced the patented "Magna-Save", in which a player-controlled magnet is used to prevent outlane drains; it was the first table with a two-level playing field, and faceted inserts in the playfield; it also introduced the "bonus ball" in multiplayer games, where the player at the end of a game with the highest score is awarded a multiball to play for an additional 30 seconds on factory settings. This machine was also the first to use PERC software in masked ROM's (created by Larry DeMar), natively supporting 7 digit scores with commas, and allowing for multitasking and the use of timers.

Roger Sharpe awarded the game 4+/4 in a review for Play Meter, calling it an "exceptional, dramatic breakthrough for pinball". In 1981, the game won Play Meter awards for best pinball, and for best technical innovation for the diagnostics on the front door of the machine. After its initial production run of over 10,000 machines, it was put back into production six months later to satisfy demand.

Ritchie designed two sequels: Black Knight 2000, released by Williams in 1989, and Black Knight: Sword of Rage, released by Stern Pinball in 2019.