Hello, neill,
Black Knight 2000 was regarded at the time as a hard case, a challenge for skilled players; casual players tended to find it too difficult. It seemed to be the norm at the time for each new Williams game to replace its predecessor at the top of an operators earning chart in the u.s. trade publication 'Replay', but B/K 2000 failed to dislodge the fast but fun Earthshaker. Possibly chastened by this, the designer Steve Ritchie may have rushed out his following machine, Rollergames.
Re. the 'hack' repairs made to the lighting circuit wiring; the General Illumination was often a problem. The insulation-piercing IDC connectors were marginal for the ac load of a large number of 6.5v bulbs in parallel. Poor contact in the connector housing led to heat build-up, a worsening connection, and finally broken circuits. The connector housing on the wire harness and often the pins on the circuit board would require replacement, with the wires shortened to find undamaged wire. And they were short enough to begin with. Many cases were corrected in a rudimentary manner, with the wires soldered direct to the pins, or even the traces on the circuit board if the pins had copped it too.
I wouldn't worry unduly about it on this example - the picture shows the ac power input (the yellow wires to the right), the four separate fuses, and the two output connectors for playfield/cabinet and backglass. The wiring fitted isn't as convenient as it once was; rather than foolproof keyed connectors, anyone detaching the wires would need to make notes first. But the wires seem detachable, suggesting that the pins and circuit board traces aren't that bad.
